#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: 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: 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 …

Crammed together: Nine Books

My to-be-reviewed pile for 2022 is long and toppling over. Before I forget all about the books, here are just a couple of lines about nine of them. So in no particular order: Death of a Hollow Man (1987): I had enjoyed Caroline Graham's The Killings at Badger's Drift, the first in her Inspector Barnaby's …

Last Read of 2022: The Twisted Tree by Frank Baker (1935)

Oh, my dear Lord! thought Tansy. What are we all here for at all, if it's nothing but a long walk from cradle to grave? I had wanted to read more of British author Frank Baker since the time I read his intriguing Miss Hargreaves. Finally, I was able to get a copy of his …

Friday’s Forgotten Book: Evil Intent by John Wainwright (1966)

British author John Wainwright (1921-1995) was a rear-gunner during the second world war. Subsequent to that he joined the police constabulary. In 1965, he published his first crime novel. In all, he published around eighty novels, all of which unfortunately seem to have fallen through the crevices of time. The novel begins with a police …

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 …