I had a great time focusing on reading my collection of British Library Crime Classics. I was genuinely surprised by the breadth and depth of the types of stories represented within the scope of British Golden Age mysteries.
I think the stereotype of this genre is one of country house murders, but in reality, a lot is going on- blackmail, murder-for-hire plots, counterfeiting scams, and a lot of people who will murder their relative if it means an easier life for themselves.
Most of the books I read this month were in the range of merely good to exceptional. I will admit that most of my four-star books are closer to 4.8s than straight 4s, so there’s a lot of hair-splitting, and the fives are just my personal favorites for the month.
5 Star Reviews: 2
Death of an Author- Goodreads synopsis:
‘I hate murders and I hate murderers, but I must admit that the discovery of a bearded corpse would give a fillip to my jaded mind.’Vivian Lestrange – celebrated author of the popular mystery novel The Charterhouse Case and total recluse – has apparently dropped off the face of the Earth. Reported missing by his secretary Eleanor, whom Inspector Bond suspects to be the author herself, it appears that crime and murder is afoot when Lestrange’s housekeeper is also found to have disappeared.Bond and Warner of Scotland Yard set to work to investigate a murder with no body and a potentially fictional victim, as E C R Lorac spins a twisting tale full of wry humour and red herrings, poking some fun at her contemporary reviewers who long suspected the Lorac pseudonym to belong to a man (since a woman could apparently not have written mysteries the way that she did).Incredibly rare today, this mystery returns to print for the first time since 1935.
Inspector French and the Box Office Murders- Goodreads synopsis:
The suicide of a sales clerk at the box office of a London cinema leaves another girl in fear for her life. Persuaded to seek help from Scotland Yard, Miss Darke confides in Inspector Joseph French about a gambling scam by a mysterious trio of crooks and that she believes her friend was murdered. When the girl fails to turn up the next day, and the police later find her body, French’s inquiries reveal that similar girls have also been murdered, all linked by their jobs and by a sinister stranger with a purple scar . . .
4 Star Reviews: 7
Weekend at Thrackley- Goodreads Synopsis:
Jim Henderson is one of six guests summoned by the mysterious Edwin Carson, a collector of precious stones, to a weekend party at his country house, Thrackley.
The house is gloomy and forbidding but the party is warm and hospitable – except for the presence of Jacobson, the sinister butler. The other guests are wealthy people draped in jewels; Jim cannot imagine why he belongs in such company.
After a weekend of adventure – with attempted robbery and a vanishing guest – secrets come to light and Jim unravels a mystery from his past.
Crook o’ Lune- Goodreads synopsis:
Renowned for its authentic characters and settings based partly on the author’s own experiences of life in the Lune Valley, E. C. R. Lorac’s classic rural mystery returns to print for the first time since 1953. This edition includes an introduction by award-winning author Martin Edwards. “I’m minded of the way a fire spreads in dry bracken when we burn it off the tongues of flame this way and that―tis human tongues and words that’s creeping like flames in brushwood.” It all began up at High Gimmerdale with the sheep-stealing, a hateful act in the shepherding fells above the bend in the Lune River―the Crook o’ Lune. Then came the fire at Aikengill house and with the leaping of the flames, death, disorder, and dangerous gossip came to the quiet moorlands. Visiting his friends, the Hoggetts, while searching for some farmland to buy up ahead of his retirement, Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald’s trip becomes a busman’s holiday when he is drawn to investigate the deadly blaze and the deep-rooted motives behind the rising spate of crimes.
Death Has Deep Roots- Goodreads synopsis:
An eager London crowd awaits the trial of Victoria Lamartine, hotel worker, ex-French Resistance fighter, and the only logical suspect for the murder of her supposed lover, Major Eric Thoseby. Lamartine—who once escaped from the clutches of the Gestapo—is set to meet her end at the gallows.
One final opportunity remains: the defendant calls on solicitor Nap Rumbold to replace the defence counsel,and grants an eight-day reprieve from the proceedings. Without any time to spare, Rumbold boards a ferry across the Channel, tracing the roots of the brutal murder back into the war-torn past.
Expertly combining authentic courtroom drama at the Old Bailey with a perilous quest for evidence across France, Death Has Deep Roots is an unorthodox marvel of the mystery genre.
Murder in E Minor- Goodreads synopsis:
Iconic sleuth Nero Wolfe returns to track down the murderer of a New York Symphony Orchestra conductor in this Nero Award–winning mystery. Ever since disgraced associate Orrie Cather’s suicide, armchair detective Nero Wolfe has relished retirement in his Manhattan brownstone on West Thirty-Fifth Street. Two years after Cather’s death, only a visit from Maria Radovich—and the urging of Wolfe’s prize assistant, Archie Goodwin—could draw the eccentric and reclusive genius back into business. Maria’s uncle, New York Symphony Orchestra conductor Milan Stevens, formerly known as Milos Stefanovic, spent his youth alongside Wolfe as a fellow freedom fighter in the mountains of Montenegro. And now that the maestro has been receiving death threats, Wolfe can’t turn his back on the compatriot who once saved his life. Though her uncle has dismissed the menacing letters, Maria fears they’re more than the work of a harmless crank. But before Wolfe can attack the case, Stevens is murdered. The accused is the orchestra’s lead violinist, whose intimate relationship with Maria hit more than a few sour notes in her uncle’s professional circle. But Wolfe knows that when it comes to murder, nothing is so simple—especially when there are so many suspects, from newspaper critics and ex-lovers to an assortment of shady musicians. Now, in this award-winning novel that carries on the great tradition of Rex Stout, the irascible and immovable Nero Wolfe is back in the game, listening for clues and ready to go to war to find a killer. Murder in E Minor is the 48th book in the Nero Wolfe Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
Out of the Past- Goodreads synopsis:
James and Carmona Hardwick are spending the summer playing host to numerous friends and relatives in an old Hardwick family residence by the sea. The arrival of Alan Field, a devastatingly handsome though shady figure from Carmona’s past, destroys the holiday atmosphere in the old house and replaces it with a mounting tension, culminating in murder. Fortunately, Miss Silver is present to unravel the complex mystery and seek out the murderer amongst them.
The Case of the Late Pig- Goodreads synopsis:
Private detective Albert Campion is summoned to the village of Kepesake to investigate a particularly distasteful death. The body turns out to be that of Pig Peters, freshly killed five months after his own funeral. Soon other corpses start to turn up, just as Peter’s body goes missing. It takes all Campion’s coolly incisive powers of detection to unravel the crime.
The Case of the Late Pig is, uniquely, narrated by Campion himself. In Allingham’s inimitable style, high drama sits neatly beside pitch perfect black comedy. A heady mix of murder, romance, and the urbane detective’s own unglamorous past make this an unmissable Allingham mystery.
The Case of the Dangerous Dowager- Goodreads synopsis:
When Matilda Benson solicits the help of Perry Mason, her request seems simple enough: cruise to a gambling ship moored just beyond the twelve-mile limit and buy back the IOUs signed by Miss Benson’s niece. But after Mason reaches the floating casino, he discovers problems aplenty — most notably the ship’s owner with a bullet hole through his head. Strangely enough, Matilda and her niece are also on board that night . . . when someone tosses a gun over the railing. Does Perry Mason’s client have something to hide?
The Green Mill Murder- Goodreads synopsis:
In a jazzy 1920s Melbourne, the Green Mill is the hottest dancehall in town. But the glamorous Miss Phryne Fisher finds there are hidden perils in dancing the night away – like murder, blackmail and young men who vanish.
3 Star Reviews: 6
The Applegreen Cat- Goodreads synopsis:
The room was black and the light switch didn’t work. I moved towards the table. I could feel theeyes boring into me. Where was Pat? Or was I too late? Then I saw the dark shape between me and the door. I was trapped. I lost my head and ran. Suddenly there was a flash of light the roar of a gun .’ Jean and Pat Abbott, famous detective team, were weekend guests at Stephen Heywards’ country house – a house seething with menace and intrigue. Chief troublemaker was Lorna Erickson, whose stunning beauty and feline malice made her unanimaously feared and hated. Then murder struck at a harmless servant girl, and Jean Abbott, who had by chance oveerheard a strange conversation, became the next target of a desperate killer.
The Chianti Flask- Goodreads synopsis:
An enigmatic young woman named Laura Dousland stands on trial for murder, accused of poisoning her elderly husband Fordish. It seems clear that the poison was delivered in a flask of Chianti with supper, but according to the couple’s servant in the witness-box, the flask disappeared the night Fordish died and all attempts to trace it have come to nothing. The jury delivers its verdict, but this is just the end of the beginning of Marie Belloc Lowndes’ gripping story. First published in 1934, this exquisitely crafted novel blends the tenets of a traditional mystery with an exploration of the psychological impact of death, accusation, guilt and justice in the aftermath of murder.
The Purloined Letter- Goodreads synopsis:
“The Purloined Letter” is a story by American author Edgar Allan Poe. It is the third of his three detective stories featuring the fictional C. Auguste Dupin, the other two being “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt”. These stories are considered to be important early forerunners of the modern detective story. The narrator is discussing with the famous Parisian amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin some of his most celebrated cases when they are joined by the Prefect of the Police, a man known as G—. The Prefect has a case he would like to discuss with Dupin. A letter has been stolen from the boudoir of an unnamed woman by the unscrupulous Minister D—. It is said to contain compromising information. D— was in the room, saw the letter, and switched it for a letter of no importance. He has been blackmailing his victim.
Doris Force at Locked Gates- Goodreads synopsis:
The Misses Azalea and Iris Gates, the white-haired twins who lived shut away from the world, summon Doris to help them out of an unusual circumstance. How Doris hears of strange unknown relatives and saves a mysterious fortune is told in a story full of action and humor.
The Widow of Bath- Goodreads synopsis:
Hugh Everton was intent on nothing more than quietly drinking in the second-rate hotel he found himself in on England’s south coast – and then in walked his old flame Lucy and her new husband and ex-Judge, Gregory Bath. Entreated by Lucy to join her party for an evening back at the Bath residence, Hugh is powerless to resist, but when the night ends with the judge’s inexplicable murder he is pitched back into a world of chaos and crime – a world he had tried to escape for good.
First published in 1952, The Widow of Bath offers intricate puzzles, international intrigue and a richly evoked portrait of post-war Britain, all delivered with Bennett’s signature brand of witty and elegant prose.
The Case of the Lame Canary- Goodreads synopsis:
When a murdered man is found in the home of shady insurance adjustor Walter Prescott, a simple divorce case turns into a courtroom puzzler, as Perry Mason follows the clues to catch a killer.
2 Star Reviews: 1
Murder in Piccadilly- Goodreads synopsis:
‘Scores of men and women died daily in London, but on this day of days one of them had died in the very midst of a crowd and the cause of his death was a dagger piercing his heart. Death had become something very real.’
When Bobbie Cheldon falls in love with a pretty young dancer at the Frozen Fang night club in Soho, he has every hope of an idyllic marriage. But Nancy has more worldly ideas about her future: she is attracted not so much to Bobbie as to the fortune he expects to inherit.
Bobbie’s miserly uncle Massy stands between him and happiness: he will not relinquish the ten thousand a year on which Nancy’s hopes rest. When Bobbie falls under the sway of the roguish Nosey Ruslin, the stage is set for murder in the heart of Piccadilly – and for Nancy’s dreams to be realised. When Chief Inspector Wake of Scotland Yard enters the scene, he uncovers a tangled web of love affairs, a cynical Soho underworld, and a motive for murder.
The good-natured vintage mystery novel is now republished for the first time since the 1930s, with an introduction by the award-winning crime writer Martin Edwards, the leading expert on inter-war detective fiction.
1 Star Reviews: 0
April was a good month for reading, with many three-, four-, and five-star reviews. I enjoyed reading British Library Crime Classics for my monthly TBR because the caliber of mystery is superb. Despite taking two weeks off due to a stomach infection, I still got 16 book reviews out.
April 2024 TBR:
This month, I focused on reading books in the British Library Crime Classics series, and I was fairly successful, reading five out of six books.
- Weekend At Thrackley– Read
- The Widow of Bath– Read
- Murder in Piccadilly– Read
- Death Has Deep Roots- Read
- The Chianti Flask- Read
- Death of Jezebel- Read, but not yet posted.
- The Murder of My Aunt– Didn’t even crack it open, lol.
Death Has Deep Roots was a surprise stand out for me since I tend not to enjoy court room dramas or mysteries set during WWII. However, Death Has Deep Roots was so good that I’m looking forward to reading more of Michael Gilbert’s books.
Spring 2024 TBR:
I have eight books on my Spring TBR which I am hoping to finish before June 1, 2024 when I start the #20booksofsummer tag.
So far I’ve read and posted:
- The Green Mill Murder
- The Applegreen Cat
- Behind the Green Door
I still need to read:
The Green Ace, The Greene Murder Case, The Case of the Green-Eyed Sister, Death Wish Green, and Green For Danger may be a tall order given how busy May is shaping up to be.
I’m pleased with how the month went, but am really behind in my reading and posting. Hopefully I can churn out reviews in May.
Golden Age of Detective Fiction 
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