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.

Gifts

Goodreads Blurb:

On a fine autumn weekend, Lord Aveling hosts a hunting party at his country house, Bragley Court. Among the guests are an actress, a journalist, an artist, and a mystery novelist. The unlucky thirteenth is John Foss, injured at the local train station and brought to the house to recuperate – but John is nursing a secret of his own.

Soon events take a sinister turn when a painting is mutilated, a dog stabbed, and a man strangled. Death strikes more than one of the house guests, and the police are called. Detective Inspector Kendall’s skills are tested to the utmost as he tries to uncover the hidden past of everyone at Bragley Court.

This country-house mystery is a forgotten classic of 1930s crime fiction by one of the most undeservedly neglected of golden age detective novelists.

Thirteen Guests

Series: Inspector Kendall (#1)

First published January 1, 1936. This edition was published September 1, 2015 by Poisoned Pen Press.

256 pages, Paperback.

Goodreads Blurb:

Samuel Whitehead, landlord of the Rose and Crown, is a stranger in the lonely East Anglian village of High Eldersham. When the newcomer is stabbed to death in his pub, and Scotland Yard are called to the scene, it seems that the veil dividing High Eldersham from the outside world is about to be lifted.

Detective-Inspector Young forms a theory about the case so utterly impossible that merely entertaining the suspicion makes him doubt his own sanity. Surrounded by sinister forces beyond his understanding, and feeling the need of rational assistance, he calls on a brilliant amateur and ‘living encyclopedia’, Desmond Merrion. Soon Merrion falls for the charms of a young woman in the village, Mavis Owerton. But does Mavis know more about the secrets of the village than she is willing to admit?

Burton’s best novels are fast-paced and crisply told, and The Secret of High Eldersham—which uncovers ancient secrets in sleepy rural England—is among the most entertaining of all his crime stories.

The Secret of High Eldersham

Series: Desmond Merrion (#1)

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1930. June 7, 2016 by Poisoned Pen Press.

Goodreads Blurb:

An American spy heads to Tokyo to meet a Soviet defector, but things go very wrong in this tale of espionage, mystery, and murder . . .

Fred Wilkinson waits in a Tokyo alley, wishing he were James Bond. Paunchy, in his 50s, and oh-so-tired, Wilkinson has nothing in common with that world-famous man of mystery–except that they are both spies. He’s already near the end of his career when he goes to Japan to meet with the Soviet defector Krylov, and some of his colleagues back in Washington think he’s getting soft. They’re right. Wilkinson never sees the killer coming. Three quick jabs to the kidneys, and the American spy is done for good.

There to pick up the pieces is Peter Brook, a rising star in American intelligence. Brook doesn’t give a damn how his martinis are prepared, but he’s an expert at the fine art of staying alive. It’s up to him to bring in the defector–unless the defector comes after him.

Guess Who’s Coming to Kill You

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published January 1, 1968 by Lancer Books

Goodreads Blurb:

Bingo and Handsome are trying to make money with their photography business: they photograph people in Central Park, then hand over their business cards and offer to sell the photographs to the subjects themselves. Thanks to Handsome’s photographic memory, they realize that they have a picture of a man who has been missing for almost seven years and is about to be declared dead. The missing man, S.S. Pigeon, leaves behind an insurance policy that is worth $500,000 to his former business partner, Harkness Penneyth. Bingo and Handsome cook up a plan to kidnap Mr. Pigeon just long enough for his death to be declared, hoping that the heir will kindly split his wealth with them. Before long, things go wrong. First of all, they decide that they like their kidnap victim. This is not too big a problem, because Mr. Pigeon is willing to be held, and Bingo and Handsome don’t think that they are committing a serious crime by holding him. However, when other players in the game start turning up dead all around them, Bingo and Handsome have to solve the crime in order to save themselves and Mr. Pigeon from the same fate. Beautiful women, gangsters, a missing butler and a dramatic Latin American revolutionary poet all enter the story.

The Sunday Pigeon Murders

Series: Bingo Riggs and Handsome Kusak (#1)

244 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1947 by Pocket Books.