Friday’s Forgotten Book: Steffan Green by Richmal Crompton (1940)

For long, I knew of Richmal Crompton as the author of those delightful William books. This week, however, I came across a few of her other novels and picked up this book. Lettice Helston is a troubled woman. When the novel opens, the divorce from her husband has just been finalized. Unable to accept the …

#1940 Club: He Looked for a City by A.S.M. Hutchinson

My last read for the #1940 club is of a once popular author, now fallen into obscurity. A.S.M. Hutchinson. Born in india in 1879, and later editor of the illustrated London newspaper, The Daily Graphic, Hutchinson was also a novelist of repute who wrote such best-sellers as If Winter Comes and This Freedom. The novel …

#1940 Club: The Great Mistake by Mary Roberts Rinehart & The Hangman’s Whip by Mignon G. Eberhart

As we approach the end of the #1940 Club, here are two American mysteries that I read for the event both of which have for their protagonist, a Miss Abbott. Pat Abbott who has seen her family fortunes plummet down and the death of her parents is happy when she is chosen as secretary by …

#1940 Club: The Disappearance of General Jason by P. C. Wren

Antoinette Jason is at her wit's end. Her husband, General Reginald Jason, once pitted to become the c-in-c of the armed forces in India before filial duty made him resign from his commission and return to England has not been heard of a year and more. Before his leaving England for an adventure of his …

#1940 Club: Jean Villemeur (Troubled Waters) by Roger Vercel

Captain Villemeur is a troubled man. He and his wife, Helene, have tried to give their son, Jean, a college education because they want him to become a gentleman and hold a good office job rather than piloting a deep-sea trawler as the captain does. However, the eighteen year old Jean is now insisting that …

#1940 Club: Wilson and Some Others by G.D.H. and Margaret Cole

Wilson and Some Others is a short story collection by the husband-wife duo of G.D.H and Margaret Cole. The crime club title, erroneously referred to as a novel, consists of 13 stories, of which seven belong to the Coles' series character, Inspector Wilson. In Death in the Tankard, a man is poisoned in a crowded, …

#1940 Club: The Norths Meet Murder by Frances and Richard Lockridge and The So Blue Marble by Dorothy B. Hughes

It is the second day of the #1940 Club and time to look at two debuts. The Norths husband-wife detective duo had long been on my wishlist and when I saw that their career in detection began in 1940, I immediately decided to read it for the club. Mr. North comes home one day, tired …

#1940 Club: Death on the Boat Train and Murder at Lilac Cottage by John Rhode

According to Wikipedia, in 1940, Major Cecil John Street, published five novels, 3 under his pseudonym of Miles Burton (one of which Mr. Westerby Missing has been reviewed earlier on the blog) and two under the name of John Rhode. For the #1940 Club, I read those two. Death on the Boat Train finds the …

#1940 Club: At a House Called Hassocks by Marigold Watney

I am starting my journey of the #1940 club - jointly hosted @ Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings & Stuck in a Book - with a forgotten book: At a House Called Hassocks written by Marigold Watney. Annabel Lee, daughter of the famous painter, Llewhellen Lee, realises upon her father's sudden death that she has been left …

Books Read: 1940

In about a week and a half, Reading Club #1940, hosted by Kaggsy and Simon, will start. I am looking forward to participating and have already started accumulating books for it. Also thought it would be fun to look back and find out books of 1940, reviewed on the blog. I found quite a variety. …