Three Black Mysteries: Black Corridors (1940), Black Thumb (1942), and Black Curl (1953)

Australian sisters, Constance and Gwenyth (or Conyth, as they were collectively called) are on the list of my favourite authors and it is always wonderful to come across their books. Earlier, this year, I read The Black Dream and here are three more of their mysteries that I read this year (in the order I …

Murder in a Castle: Stately Homicide by George Milner (1953)

The Matriarch of the castle who eats glass; the diffident son who was physically unfit to take part in the war and is under the thumb of his wife; the wife who is cheating on her husband; the virile, energetic other son who is a war-hero; the daughter-in-law who is capable and smart and plays …

Friday’s Forgotten Book: A Policeman at the Door by Carol Carnac (1953)

Edith Caroline Rivett is better known by her pseudonym of E.C.R. Lorac. However, Rivett also wrote under other names. Today's Friday Forgotten book is the one she wrote under the pseudonym of Carol Carnac and features two of her three series characters: Chief Inspector Rivers and Inspector Lancing. Solicitor William Thorpe, married to his, job …

Friday’s Forgotten Book: Footsteps Behind Me by Anthony Gilbert (1953)

By https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31018054941′, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69792289 Edward Lane - once almost awarded the Military Cross, for his valour during the first world war - has fallen so low in the aftermath of the second one, that he now blackmails people and both consumes and peddles drugs. When the novel opens, Ted is thinking of blackmailing four …

Friday’s Forgotten Book: School for Murder by Harry Carmichael (1953)

John Piper, is attending the wedding of Adele Vincent, the daughter of a business client, Stuart Vincent, to Kenneth Bradley, when he becomes aware of an undercurrent of tension in the room as the bride and the groom prepare to depart for their honeymoon. Adele who had gone to her room to change her dress …

Fizzyatry: The Black Dream by Conyth Little (1953)

Agatha Bunson is a woman troubled. A cleanliness freak (or suffering from OCD as the new stuff of fizzyatry would diagnose it), she just can't stand her sloppy, dirty cook, Em. The only thing is that she can't throw Em or the general handyman Fred out as her father's will stipulates that she has to …

Tale within a Tale: An Afternoon to Kill by Shelley Smith (1953)

Almost a decade back, I read about this book at John's Pretty Sinister Books and it immediately went on my wishlist but it is only now, so many years later, that I finally read it. Lancelot Jones is a young, rather serious young English man on his way to the Indian state of Bandrapore in …

Five Vintage Mysteries

With time at a premium - just where did this year DISAPPEAR? - I am writing short reviews of golden age mysteries read this year.THE HOLE IN THE WALL (1902)Arthur Morrison (1863-1945) was an English novelist and journalist. The Hole in the Wall is an interesting crime novel, narrated in part by a child Stephen …

Forgotten Book: The Schirmer Inheritance by Eric Ambler (1953)

The Schirmer Inheritance was the second novel written by Eric Ambler after the second world war and it reflects the tragedies and triumphs of its times.During the Russo-Prussian-Napoleonic Wars, a Sergeant in the Dragoons of Ansbach, Franz Schirmer, deserts his unit, and eventually marries, becomes a prosperous business man, and raises a large family. The …

Forgotten Books: Natural Causes and According to the Evidence by Henry Cecil

"What man said what to you yesterday?" asked the judge, in a somewhat stern voice."It was all perfectly friendly, my Lord. I hope I haven't said anything I shouldn't."'What man said what to you yesterday?' repeated the judge."I was in the garden having a nap, my Lord, as a matter of fact,' said the colonel."I …