Golden Age of Detective Fiction

Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews and Reading Reality, all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, whether physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical stores or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, eBooks, and audiobooks.

eBook Purchases

Goodreads Blurb:

Are you craving Christie? Yearning for a plot? Whimpering softly into your teacup about the days when one could count on a nice civilized, mannerly sort of murder, with a sleuth who was reasonably free of neuroses and substance addictions? Patricia Moyes to the rescue! In Dead Men Don’t Ski she introduces Inspector Henry Tibbett, a blissfully ordinary English copper with a pleasantly plump wife and a nose for the bad guys. Sadly for Henry (but happily for us) that nose has a knack of ruining his vacations. In Dead Men, he and Emmy are headed for the Italian Dolomites, ready for a spot of skiing and some first-class people-watching, all those athletic youngsters in their swanky late-1950s ski outfits. It’s all very “Mad Men” until one dead body turns up, and then another, and it becomes clear that Murder has come to the mountain.  

Dead Men Don’t Ski

Series: Inspector Henry Tibbett Mystery (#1)

322 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1959. Published January 1, 2018, by Felony & Mayhem Press

Goodreads Blurb:

In a villa on the California coast, a murderer stalks a young heiress
Laila Breen is a strangely naïve girl. Her father Jonas is an adventurer, a robber baron who made his fortune traveling exotic climes. Laila speaks French and knows how to order fine food, but she cannot read a newspaper and can barely write her own name. Jonas settles in California, planning to get this strange eighteen-year-old tutored in the ways of practical life. He dies soon after, leaving his daughter rich, clueless, and alone. Her only friend is Dee Allison, a cousin who tries to help Laila even after the orphan catches the eye of Dee’s fiancé. Standing in Dee’s way is a gang of relatives who care more about Laila’s fortune than her future. When a housekeeper falls victim to poisoning, Dee fears for Laila. For a young girl with money, nothing is more dangerous than family.

Catch-As-Catch-Can

223 pages, Kindle Edition

First published on January 1, 1953. Published February 21, 2012 by MysteriousPress.com/Open Road

Goodreads Blurb:

Eighteen succulent mysteries from the Queen of Crime, guaranteed to baffle the most ingenious of armchair detectives – and even, at times, the imperturbable Albert Campion himself.

Enjoy Margery Allingham at her witty best as she spins delicious tales of high risk heists and domestic deceptions in this exquisite short story collection.

• CONTENTS :
• Tall Story
• Three is a Lucky Number
• The Villa Marie Celeste
• The Psychologist
• Little Miss Know-All
• One Morning They’ll Hang Him
• The Lieabout
• Face Value
• Evidence in Camera
• Joke Over
• The Lying-in-State
• The Pro and the Con
• Is There a Doctor in the House?
• The Border-Line Case
• They Never Get Caught
• The Mind’s Eye Mystery
• Mum Knows Best
• The Snapdragon and the C. I. D.

Print Books

Goodreads Blurb:

On the set of a Sherlock Holmes film, a group of experts on the Great Detective gets drawn into a puzzling murder plot For the die-hard Sherlock Holmes fans that comprise the Baker Street Irregulars ― some of them famous authors and widely-respected critics ― there’s something particularly infuriating about unfaithful adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s immortal works. So when they get word that a Hollywood studio has plans to produce a tough, hard-boiled interpretation of the Great Detective, written by an author who has expressed disdain not only the group and its members, but for the source material as well, they immediately express their concern, threatening the picture with a campaign of boycotts and smears. Recognizing the influence wielded by the group, the studio invites a selection of members to visit the set, hoping to placate their complaints. But as soon as they arrive, things start to get strange, first with a series of ominous warnings, each one referencing one of Holmes’s famous cases, and soon thereafter, with murder.  A complex yet humorous whodunnit with fairly played clues, which provides the reader with all the information needed to solve the crime, The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars is sure to please Sherlock Holmes fans of all stripes, and anyone who appreciates a challenging puzzle.

The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars

Series: Fergus O’Breen Mysteries (#2)

312 pages, Hardcover

First published on January 1, 1940. Published October 6, 2020, by American Mystery Classics