lyzard's list: Wrapped in the mists of obscurity in 2023 - Part 4

The sunset frog is a unique Australian species. Though only discovered in the early 90s, and fully described in 1997, it is considered one of the oldest frog species in the world. Females reach about 35 mm in size, males are somewhat smaller. The species is remarkable for its colouration, a mixture of black, grey, orange and yellow, often with spectacular blue patches on the underside. It can release a toxin from the parotoid glands situated behind its eyes in order to deter predation.

The sunset frog is considered vulnerable due to its extremely restricted distribution, confined to permanently moist peat swamps on the south-west tip of Western Australia. The Perth Zoo has instigated a captive breeding program in order to increase frog numbers and also to expand the species' range, with specimens being released into appropriate areas of privately owned land.


  

My thread title this year is adapted from a quote from Virginia Woolf: she was talking about the artist rather than the art, but it works for me:

"While fame impedes and constricts, obscurity wraps about a man like a mist; obscurity is dark, ample, and free; obscurity lets the mind take its way unimpeded..."

****

Currently reading:



The Devil's Steps by Arthur Upfield (1946)

2023 reading:

January:

1. The Belton Estate by Anthony Trollope (1865)
2. The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Hanns Heinz Ewers (1910)
3. Old Saint Paul's: A Tale Of The Plague And The Fire by William Harrison Ainsworth (1841)
4. Where's Emily? by Carolyn Wells (1927)
5. The Garden Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine (1935)
6. Man Missing by Mignon G. Eberhart (1954)
7. Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout (1938)
8. The Secret Of The Crooked Cat by William Arden (1970)
9. The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub (1984)
10. Captain Nemesis by Francis van Wyck Mason (1931)
11. Re-Enter Dr Fu Manchu - Sax Rohmer (1957)
12. Sayings And Doings; or, Sketches From Life (First Series) by Theodore Hook (1824)

February:

13. Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol (1835 / 1842)
14. Horizon by Robert Carse (1927)
15. The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo (1831)
16. The Clan Of The Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel (1980)
17. The Mystery Of Swordfish Reef by Arthur Upfield (1939)
18. The Shadow Of The Goat by John Dickson Carr (1926)
19. The Fourth Suspect by John Dickson Carr (1927)
20. The Ends Of Justice by John Dickson Carr (1927)
21. Grand Guignol by John Dickson Carr (1929)

March:

22. Ten Thousand A Year by Samuel Warren (1840)
23. The Valley Of Horses by Jean M. Auel (1982)
24. Alraune by Hanns Heinz Ewers (1911)
25. The Amityville Curse by Hans Holzer (1981)
26. Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout (1940)
27. The Mystery Of The Coughing Dragon by Nick West (1970)
28. The Phantom Carriage by Selma Lagerlöf (1912)
29. The Old Stone House And Other Stories by Anna Katharine Green (1891)

2023 reading:

April:

30. Phoebe, Junior by Margaret Oliphant (1876)
31. The Story Of Gösta Berling by Selma Lagerlöf (1891)
32. The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (1968)
33. The Kidnap Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine (1936)
34. The Case Of The Late Pig by Margery Allingham (1937)
35. A Dozen Black Roses by Nancy A. Collins (1996)
36. The Crime In The Crypt by Carolyn Wells (1928)
37. The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel (1985)

May:

38. It by Stephen King (1986)
39. Cut Throat by Christopher Bush (1932)
40. World's End by Upton Sinclair (1940)
41. The Secret Of Amityville by Hans Holzer (1985)
42. The Mystery Of The Flaming Footprints by M. V. Carey (1971)

June:

43. The Black Hope Horror: The True Story Of A Haunting by Ben Williams, Jean Williams and John Bruce Shoemaker (1991)
44. The White Line by John Alexander Ferguson (1929)
45. Death Of Mr Dodsley by John Alexander Ferguson (1937)
46. The Richest Widow by Hulbert Footner (1935)
47. The Kidnapping Of Madame Storey by Hulbert Footner (1936)
48. The Gracie Allen Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine (1938)
49. The Mystery Of The Ashes by Anthony Wynne (1927)
50. The Tommyknockers by Stephen King (1987)
51. Bushranger Of The Skies by Arthur Upfield (1940)
52. Dancers In Mourning by Margery Allingham (1937)

2023 reading:

July:

53. The Claverings by Anthony Trollope (1867)
54. The Hunt For Red October by Tom Clancy (1984)
55. Nigger Heaven by Carl van Vechten (1926)
56. Gains And Losses: Novels Of Faith And Doubt In Victorian England by Robert Lee Wolff (1977)
57. Where There's A Will by Rex Stout (1940)
58. Cynthia Wakeham's Money by Anna Katharine Green (1892)
59. The Film Mystery by Arthur B. Reeve (1921)
60. The Wedding March Murder by Monte Barrett (1933)

August:

61. Death At Low Tide by Miles Burton (1938)
62. Secret Judges by Francis D. Grierson (1925)
63. The Secret Of Sarek by Maurice Leblanc (1919)
64. Why Shoot A Butler? by Georgette Heyer (1933)
65. The India-Rubber Men by Edgar Wallace (1929)
66. The Winter Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine (1939)
67. The Nameless Man by Natalie Sumner Lincoln (1917)
68. Detective Ben by J. Jefferson Farjeon (1936)
69. The Fashion In Shrouds by Margery Allingham (1938)
70. The Mystery Of The Nervous Lion by Nick West (1971)
71. The Hunterstone Outrage by Seldon Truss (1931)
72. Patriot Games by Tom Clancy (1987)
73. The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré (1977)

September:

74. Jew Süss by Lion Feuchtwanger (1925)
75. The Children Of The World by Paul Heyse (1875)
76. The Cardinal Of The Kremlin by Tom Clancy (1988)
77. Death Of A Swagman by Arthur Upfield (1945)
78. Inspector Frost In Crevenna Cove by Herbert Maynard Smith (1933)

2023 reading:

October:

79. Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon by Charles James Lever (1841)
80. Clear And Present Danger by Tom Clancy (1989)
81. Curious, If True by Elizabeth Gaskell (1861 / 1995)
82. Mr Campion And Others by Margery Allingham (1939)
83. Black Orchids by Rex Stout (1942)

November:

84. The Lifted Veil by George Eliot (1859)
85. Caravans by James A. Michener (1963)
86. Atlantis by Gerhart Hauptmann (1912)
87. The Meriwether Mystery by Kay Cleaver Strahan (1932)
88. White Face by Edgar Wallace (1930)
89. Brother Jacob by George Eliot (1864)
90. Murder In The French Room by Helen Joan Hultman (1931)
91. Ben On The Job by J. Jefferson Farjeon (1952)
92. Cordially Invited To Meet Death by Rex Stout (1942)
93. The Plains Of Passage by Jean M. Auel (1990)

Books in transit:

To borrow:
Nina Balatka by Anthonhy Trollope {Fisher Library}

On interlibrary loan / branch transfer / storage / stack / Rare Book request:

Possible requests:
Emperor Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer {JFR}
Sudden Death by Freeman Wills Crofts {ILL / read in-library}

On loan:

*The Hunt For Red October by Tom Clancy (13/12/2023)
*Nigger Heaven by Carl van Vecht (13/12/2023)
*Caravans by James A. Michener (29/12/2023)
*Jew Süss by Lion Feuchtwanger (31/12/2023)
*Gains And Losses by Robert Lee Wolff (31/12/2023)
*Charles O'Malley by Charles Lever (31/12/2023)
The Plains Of Passage by Jean M. Auel (31/12/2023)
The Devil's Steps by Arthur Upfield (31/12/2023)
Traitor's Purse by Margery Allingham (31/12/2023)
The Last Of The Barons by Edward Bulwer Lytton (31/12/2023)

Ongoing reading projects:

Blog reads:
Chronobibliography: The Penitent Hermit by "A Lady" / The Post-Boy Rob'd Of His Mail by Charles Gildon
Authors In Depth:
- Adelaide; or, The Countercharm by Catherine Cuthbertson
- Shannondale (aka "The Three Beauties; or, Shannondale: A Novel") by E.D.E.N. Southworth
- Lady Audley's Secret / The White Phantom by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
- Anecdotes Of The Altamont Family by "Gabrielli"
- The Cottage by Margaret Minifie
- The Abbess by Frances Trollope
Reading Roulette: Pique by Frances Notley / Our Mr Wrenn by Sinclair Lewis
Australian fiction: Narrative of the capture, sufferings, and miraculous escape of Mrs. Eliza Fraser by Eliza Fraser
Gothic novel timeline: Anecdotes Of A Convent by Anonymous
Early crime fiction: The Mysteries Of London by G. W. M. Reynolds
Silver-fork novels: Tremaine; or, The Man Of Refinement by Robert Plumer Ward
Related reading: Gains And Losses by Robert Lee Wollf / The Man Of Feeling by Henry Mackenzie / Le Loup Blanc by Paul Féval / Theresa Marchmont; or, The Maid Of Honour by Catherine Gore

Group reads:

COMPLETED: The Belton Estate by Anthony Trollope (thread here)
COMPLETED: Phoebe Junior by Margaret Oliphant (thread here)
COMPLETED: The Claverings by Anthony Trollope (thread here)
COMPLETED: Curious, If True by Elizabeth Gaskell / The Lifted Veil by George Eliot (thread here)

NEXT: Nina Balatka by Anthony Trollope

General reading challenges:

Virago chronological reading project:
Next up: The Heir Of Redclyffe / The Daisy Chain by Charlotte Yonge

America's best-selling novels (1895 - ????):
Next up: The Plains Of Passage by Jean M. Auel (1990)

Nobel Prize / fiction challenge:
Next up: Atlantis by Gerhart Hauptmann (1912 winner)

The C.K. Shorter List of the Best 100 Novels:
Next up: The Last Of The Barons by Edward Bulwer Lytton (1843)

A Century Of Reading:
Next up: 1825 - Tremaine; or, The Man Of Refinement by Robert Plumer Ward

Mystery League publications:
Next up: Murder In The French Room by Helen Joan Hultman

Banned In Boston!: (here)
Next up: Twilight by Edouard von Keyserling {unavailable?}

Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe series (shared reads):
Next up: Black Orchids / Cordially Invited To Meet Death (#9)

Arthur Upfield - Bony series (shared reads):
Next up: The Devil's Steps #10

Margery Allingham - Albert Campion series (shared reads):
Next up: Traitor's Purse (#12)

"The Three Investigators" (shared reads):
Next up: The Mystery Of The Singing Serpent by M. V. Carey (#17)

The evolution of detective fiction:
Next up: Clement Lorimer by Angus B. Reach

Random reading 1940 - 1969:
Next up: The Snake Pit by Mary Jane Ward

Potential decommission / re-shelving:
Next up: ????

Completed challenges:
- Georgette Heyer historical romances in chronological order
- Agatha Christie mysteries in chronological order
- Agatha Christie uncollected short stories
- Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver series
- Georgette Heyer historical fiction

Possible future reading projects:
- Daily Telegraph's 100 Best Novels, 1899
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize
- Berkeley "Books Of The Century"
- Collins White Circle Crime Club / Green Penguins
- Dell paperbacks
- "El Mundo" 100 best novels of the twentieth century
- 100 Best Books by American Women During the Past 100 Years, 1833-1933
- 50 Classics of Crime Fiction 1900–1950 (Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor)
- The Guardian's 100 Best Novels
- Life Magazine "The 100 Outstanding Books of 1924 - 1944" (Henry Seidel Canby)
- "40 Trashy Novels You Must Read Before You Die" (Flavorwire)
- best-novel lists in Wikipedia article on The Grapes Of Wrath
- Pandora 'Mothers Of The Novel'
- Newark Library list (here)
- "The Story Of Classic Crime In 100 Books" (here)
- Dean's Classics series
- "Fifty Best Australian Novels" (here)
- "The Top 100 Crime Novels Of All Time" (here)
- Haycraft Queen Cornerstones (here)
- Cyril Connolly's 100 Key Modern Books (here)

TBR notes:

Rare Books:
Dead Men At The Folly by John Rhode (Dr Priestley #13)
Thieves' Nights by Harry Stephen Keeler
The Rum Row Murders by Charles Reed Jones
The Torch Murder by Charles Reed Jones (Leighton Swift #2)
The Crooked Lip by Herbert Adams (Jimmie Haswell #2)
Death By Appointment by Francis Bonnamy (Peter Utley Shane #1)
The Inconsistent Villains by N. A. Temple-Ellis {Montrose Arbuthnot #1)
The Unexpected Legacy by E. R. Punshon (Carter and Bell #1)
Rope To Spare by Philip MacDonald (Anthony Gethryn #9)

State Library NSW, held:
The White-Faced Man (aka "The Praying Monkey") by Gavin Holt (Luther Bastion #2)
Pitiful Dust by Vernon Knowles
The Brink (aka "The Swaying Rock") by Arthur J. Rees
The Black Joss by John Gordon Brandon
This Way To Happiness (aka "Janice") by Maysie Greig
The Top Step by Nelle Scanlan

Interlibrary loan:
The Solange Stories by F. Tennyson Jesse {JFR}
The Vagrant Heart by Deirdre O'Brien {JFR}
Jinks by Oliver Sandys {JFR}
Storms And Tea-Cups by Cecily Wilhelmine Sidgwick (Mrs Alfred Sidgwick) {JFR}
Pawns & Kings (aka "Pawns And Kings") by Seamark (Austin J. Small) {JFR}
The Agent Outside by Patrick Wynnton {JFR}

Online:
The Whisperer by J. M. Walsh {online; possibly abridged? / Mitchell Library}
About The Murder Of A Night Club Lady by Anthony Abbot {serialised}

CARM / National Library / academic loan:
The Black Death by Moray Dalton {CARM}
Storm by Charles Rodda {National Library}
The Trail Of The Lotto by Anthony Armstrong {CARM}

Series back-reading:
The Tannahill Tangle by Carolyn Wells {Rare Books}
The Click Of The Gate by Alice Campbell {Kindle}
The Creeping Jenny Mystery by Brian Flynn {Kindle}
The Net Around Joan Ingilby by A. Fielding {Rare Books}
Corpse In Canonicals (aka "The Corpse In The Constable's Garden") by George and Margaret Cole {Rare Books}
Alias Dr Ely by Lee Thayer {Rare Books}
McLean Investigates By George Goodchild {Internet Archive}
Murder On The Bus by Cecil Freeman Gregg {Rare Books / Kindle}
The Case Of The Marsden Rubies by Leonard Gribble {Rare Books}
The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen {Rare Books / ILL / Internet Archive / ZLibrary}
A Family That Was by Ernest Raymond {State Library NSW, JFR}
The Cancelled Score Mystery by Gret Lane {Kindle}
Jalna by Mazo de la Roche {State Library NSW, JFR / ILL}

Completist reading:
Thieves' Nights by Harry Stephen Keeler (#5) {Rare Books}
Marked "Personal" by Anna Katharine Green (#14) {Project Gutenberg}
Dangerous Days by Mary Roberts Rinehart (#10) {Project Gutenberg}
The White Cockatoo by Mignon Eberhart {Rare Books / Internet Archive}

A Century (And A Bit) Of Reading:

At least one book a year from 1800 - 1900!

1800: Juliania; or, The Affectionate Sisters by Elizabeth Sandham
1801: Belinda by Maria Edgeworth
1802: The Infidel Father by Jane West
1803: Thaddeus Of Warsaw by Jane Porter
1804: The Lake Of Killarney by Anna Maria Porter
1805: The Impenetrable Secret, Find It Out! by Francis Lathom
1806: The Wild Irish Girl by Sydney Owenson
1807: Corinne; ou, l'Italie by Madame de Staël
1808: The Marquise Of O. by Heinrich Von Kleist
1809: The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter
1810: Forest Of Montalbano by Catherine Cuthbertson / Zastrozzi by Percy Bysshe Shelley / St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian by Percy Bysshe Shelley
1811: Self-Control by Mary Brunton
1812: The Absentee by Maria Edgeworth
1813: The Heroine; or, Adventures Of A Fair Romance Reader by Eaton Stannard Barrett
1814: The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties by Frances Burney
1815: Headlong Hall by Thomas Love Peacock
1816: Glenarvon by Lady Caroline Lamb
1817: Harrington by Maria Edgeworth
1818: Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock
1819: The Vampyre by John William Polidori
1820: The Sketch Book Of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. by Washington Irving
1821: The Ayrshire Legatees; or, The Pringle Family by John Galt / Valerius: A Roman Story by J. G. Lockhart / Kenilworth by Walter Scott
1822: Bracebridge Hall; or, The Humorists by Washington Irving
1823: The Two Broken Hearts by Catherine Gore
1824: The Adventures Of Hajji Baba Of Ispahan by James Justinian Morier
1826: Lichtenstein by Wilhelm Hauff / The Last Of The Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
1827: The Epicurean by Thomas Moore / The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
1828: The Life Of Mansie Wauch, Tailor In Dalkeith by David Moir
1829: Wilhelm Meister's Travels by Johann Goethe / The Collegians by Gerald Griffin / Louisa Egerton; or, Castle Herbert by Mary Leman Grimstone / Richelieu: A Tale Of France by G. P. R. James
1830: Alfred Dudley; or, The Australian Settlers by Sarah Porter
1831: The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
1832: The Refugee In America by Frances Trollope
1833: Tom Cringle's Log by Michael Scott
1836: Mr Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marrat / The Tree And Its Fruits; or, Narratives From Real Life by Phoebe Hinsdale Brown
1837: Rory O'More by Samuel Lover / Jack Brag by Theodore Hook
1839: Fardorougha The Miser; or, The Convicts Of Lisnamona by William Carleton
1840: The Life And Adventures Of Valentine Vox, The Ventriloquist by Henry Cockton / Ten Thousand A Year by Samuel Warren
1841: Old Saint Paul's by William Harrison Ainsworth
1842: Taras Bulba (revised edition) by Nikolai Gogol
1845: Zoe: The History Of Two Lives by Geraldine Jewsbury / The Mysteries Of London (Volume I) by G. W. M. Reynolds
1846: The Mysteries Of London (Volume II) by G. W. M. Reynolds
1847: Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë / The Macdermots Of Ballycloran by Anthony Trollope / The Mysteries Of London: Volume III by G. W. M. Reynolds
1848: The Kellys And The O'Kellys by Anthony Trollope / The Mysteries Of London: Volume IV by G. W. M. Reynolds
1850: Pique by Frances Notley
1851: The Mother-In-Law; or, The Isle Of Rays by E.D.E.N. Southworth
1856: Recollections Of A Detective Police-Officer by "Waters"
1857: The Three Clerks by Anthony Trollope / Synnøve Solbakken by Bjornstjerne Bjornson
1859: The Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden / The Bertrams by Anthony Trollope
1860: The Semi-Attached Couple by Emily Eden / Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope
1861: The Executor by Margaret Oliphant / The Rector by Margaret Oliphant
1862: Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope / The Struggles Of Brown, Jones, And Robinson by Anthony Trollope
1863: The Doctor's Family by Margaret Oliphant / Marian Grey; or, The Heiress Of Redstone Hall by Mary Jane Holmes / Salem Chapel by Margaret Oliphant
1865: Miss Mackenzie by Anthony Trollope / The Belton Estate by Anthony Trollope
1869: He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
1873: Had You Been In His Place by Lizzie Bates
1874: Chaste As Ice, Pure As Snow by Charlotte Despard
1876: Phoebe, Junior by Margaret Oliphant
1877: Elsie's Children by Martha Finley
1880: The Duke's Children: First Complete Edition by Anthony Trollope / Elsie's Widowhood by Martha Finley
1881: Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen / The Beautiful Wretch by William Black / The Autobiography Of Mark Rutherford by William Hale White
1882: Grandmother Elsie by Martha Finley
1883: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson / Elsie's New Relations by Martha Finley / X Y Z: A Detective Story by Anna Katharine Green
1884: Elsie At Nantucket by Martha Finley
1885: The Two Elsies by Martha Finley / Two Broken Hearts by Robert R. Hoes
1886: The Mill Mystery by Anna Katharine Green / Elsie's Kith And Kin by Martha Finley
1887: Elsie's Friends At Woodburn by Martha Finley
1888: Christmas With Grandma Elsie by Martha Finley
1889: Under False Pretences by Adeline Sergeant / Elsie And The Raymonds by Martha Finley
1890: Elsie Yachting With The Raymonds by Martha Finley
1891: Elsie's Vacation And After Events by Martha Finley / The Old Stone House And Other Stories by Anna Katharine Green / The Story Of Gösta Berling by Selma Lagerlöf
1892: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman / Elsie At Viamede by Martha Finley / Blood Royal by Grant Allen / Cynthia Wakeham's Money by Anna Katharine Green
1893: Elsie At Ion by Martha Finley
1894: Martin Hewitt, Investigator by Arthur Morrison / The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen / Elsie At The World's Fair by Martha Finley
1895: Chronicles Of Martin Hewitt by Arthur Morrison / Elsie's Journey On Inland Waters by Martha Finley
1896: The Island Of Dr Moreau by H. G. Wells / Adventures Of Martin Hewitt by Arthur Morrison
1897: Penelope's Progress by Kate Douglas Wiggin
1898: A Man From The North by Arnold Bennett / The Lust Of Hate by Guy Newell Boothby / Elsie On The Hudson And Elsewhere by Martha Finley
1899: Agatha Webb by Anna Katharine Green / Dr Nikola's Experiment by Guy Newell Boothby / Elsie In The South by Martha Finley
1900: The Circular Study by Anna Katharine Green / Elsie's Young Folks In Peace And War by Martha Finley

Timeline of detective fiction:

An examination of the roots of modern crime and mystery fiction:

Pre-history:
Things As They Are; or, The Adventures Of Caleb Williams by William Godwin (1794)
Mademoiselle de Scudéri by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1819); Tales Of Hoffmann (1982)
Richmond: Scenes In The Life Of A Bow Street Officer by Anonymous (1827)
Memoirs Of Vidocq by Eugene Francois Vidocq (1828)
Le Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac (1835)
Passages In The Secret History Of An Irish Countess by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1838); The Purcell Papers (1880)
The Murders In The Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales by Edgar Allan Poe (1841, 1842, 1845)

Serials:
The Mysteries Of Paris by Eugene Sue (1842 - 1843)
The Mysteries Of London by Paul Feval (1844)
The Mysteries Of London by George Reynolds (1844 - 1848)
- The Mysteries Of London: Volume I
- The Mysteries Of London: Volume II
- The Mysteries Of London: Volume III
- The Mysteries Of London: Volume IV
The Mysteries Of The Court Of London by George Reynolds (1848 - 1856)
John Devil by Paul Feval (1861)

Early detective novels:
Recollections Of A Detective Police-Officer by "Waters" (William Russell) (1856)
The Widow Lerouge by Emile Gaboriau (1866)
Under Lock And Key by T. W. Speight (1869)
Checkmate by J. Sheridan LeFanu (1871)
Is He The Man? by William Clark Russell (1876)
Devlin The Barber by B. J. Farjeon (1888)
Mr Meeson's Will by H. Rider Haggard (1888)
The Mystery Of A Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume (1889)
The Queen Anne's Gate Mystery by Richard Arkwright (1889)
The Ivory Queen by Norman Hurst (1889) (Check Julius H. Hurst 1899)
The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill (1892)

Female detectives:
The Diary Of Anne Rodway by Wilkie Collins (1856)
Ruth The Betrayer; or, The Female Spy by Edward Ellis (1862-1863)
The Female Detective by Andrew Forrester (1864)
Revelations Of A Lady Detective by William Stephens Hayward (1864)
The Law And The Lady by Wilkie Collins (1875)
Madeline Payne; or, The Detective's Daughter by Lawrence L. Lynch (Emma Murdoch Van Deventer) (1884)
Mr Bazalgette's Agent by Leonard Merrick (1888)
Moina; or, Against The Mighty by Lawrence L. Lynch (Emma Murdoch Van Deventer) (sequel to Madeline Payne?) (1891)
The Experiences Of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective by Catherine Louisa Pirkis (1893)
When The Sea Gives Up Its Dead by Elizaberth Burgoyne Corbett (Mrs George Corbett)
Dorcas Dene, Detective by George Sims (1897)
- Amelia Butterworth series by Anna Katharine Grant (1897 - 1900)
Hagar Of The Pawn-Shop by Fergus Hume (1898)
The Adventures Of A Lady Pearl-Broker by Beatrice Heron-Maxwell (1899)
Miss Cayley's Adventures by Grant Allan (1899)
Hilda Wade by Grant Allan (1900)
Dora Myrl, The Lady Detective by M. McDonnel Bodkin (1900)
The Investigators by J. S. Fletcher (1902)
Hagar's Daughter by Pauline Hopkins (1902)
Lady Molly Of Scotland Yard by Baroness Orczy (1910)
Constance Dunlap, Woman Detective by Arthur B. Reeve (1913)
Miss Madelyn Mack, Detective by Hugh C. Weir (1914)

Related mainstream works:
Adventures Of Susan Hopley by Catherine Crowe (1841)
Men And Women; or, Manorial Rights by Catherine Crowe (1843)
Hargrave by Frances Trollope (1843)
Clement Lorimer by Angus Reach (1849)
Clara Vaughan by R. D. Blackmore (1864)

True crime:
Clues: or, Leaves from a Chief Constable's Note Book by Sir William Henderson (1889)
Dreadful Deeds And Awful Murders by Joan Lock

Series and sequels, 1866 - 1919:

(1866 - 1876) **Emile Gaboriau - Monsieur Lecoq - The Widow Lerouge (1/6) {ManyBooks}
(1878 - 1917) **Anna Katharine Green - Ebenezer Gryce - The Mystery Of The Hasty Arrow (13/13)
(1896 - 1909) **Melville Davisson Post - Randolph Mason - The Corrector Of Destinies (3/3)
(1894 - 1903) **Arthur Morrison - Martin Hewitt - The Red Triangle (4/4)
(1895 - 1901) **Guy Newell Boothby - Dr Nikola - Farewell, Nikola (5/5)
(1897 - 1900) **Anna Katharine Green - Amelia Butterworth - The Circular Study (3/3)
(1899 - 1917) **Anna Katharine Green - Caleb Sweetwater - The Mystery Of The Hasty Arrow (7/7)
(1899 - 1909) **E. W. Hornung - Raffles - Mr Justice Raffles (4/4)
(1900 - 1974) Ernest Bramah - Kai Lung - Kai Lung: Six / Kai Lung Raises His Voice (7/7)
(1903 - 1904) **Louis Tracy - Reginald Brett - The Albert Gate Mystery (2/2)
(1905 - 1925) **Baroness Orczy - The Old Man In The Corner - Unravelled Knots (3/3)}
(1905 - 1928) **Edgar Wallace - The Just Men - Again The Three Just Men (6/6)
(1907 - 1942) R. Austin Freeman - Dr John Thorndyke - The Jacob Street Mystery (26/26)
(1907 - 1941) *Maurice Leblanc - Arsene Lupin - The Eight Strokes Of The Clock (10/25) {Project Gutenberg}
(1909 - 1942) *Carolyn Wells - Fleming Stone - The Tannahill Tangle (25/49) {Rare Books}
(1909 - 1929) *J. S. Fletcher - Inspector Skarratt - Marchester Royal (1/3) {Kindle}
(1910 - 1936) *Arthur B. Reeve - Craig Kennedy - Craig Kennedy Listens In (15/24) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(1910 - 1946) A. E. W. Mason - Inspector Hanaud - The House In Lordship Lane (7/7)
(1910 - 1917) Edgar Wallace - Inspector Smith - Kate Plus Ten (3/3)
(1910 - 1930) **Edgar Wallace - Sergeant / Inspector Elk - White Face (6/6)
^^^^^(1910 - 1932) *Thomas, Mary and Hazel Hanshew - Cleek - The Amber Junk (aka Riddle Of The Amber Ship (9/12) {rare, expensive}
(1910 - 1918) **John McIntyre - Ashton-Kirk - Ashton-Kirk: Criminologist (4/4)
^^^(1910 - 1928) **Louis Tracy - Winter and Furneaux - The Black Cat (8/9) {Rare Books}

(1911 - 1935) G. K. Chesterton - Father Brown - The Scandal Of Father Brown (5/5)
^^^(1911 - 1940) Bertram Atkey - Smiler Bunn - Arsenic And Gold (10/11) {Rare Books}
(1912 - 1919) **Gordon Holmes (Louis Tracy) - Steingall and Clancy - The Bartlett Mystery (3/3)
(1913 - 1973) Sax Rohmer - Fu Manchu - Emperor Fu Manchu (13/14) {Rare Books / JFR / ILL / Kindle}
(1913 - 1952) Jeffery Farnol - Jasper Shrig - Heritage Perilous (7/9) {owned}
(1914 - 1950) Mary Roberts Rinehart - Hilda Adams - Episode Of The Wandering Knife (5/5)
(1914 - 1934) Ernest Bramah - Max Carrados - The Bravo Of London (5/5)
(1915 - 1936) *John Buchan - Richard Hannay - The Thirty-Nine Steps (1/5) {Fisher Library / Project Gutenberg / branch transfer / Kindle}
(1916 - 1917) **Carolyn Wells - Alan Ford - Faulkner's Folly (2/2) {owned}
^^^(1916 - 1927) **Natalie Sumner Lincoln - Inspector Mitchell - The Moving Finger (3/10) {Project Gutenberg}
^^^^^(1916 - 1917) **Nevil Monroe Hopkins - Mason Brant - The Strange Cases Of Mason Brant (1/2) {expensive}
(1918 - 1923) **Carolyn Wells - Pennington Wise - Wheels Within Wheels (8/8)
(1918 - 1939) Valentine Williams - The Okewood Brothers - The Fox Prowls (5/5)
(1918 - 1944) Valentine Williams - Clubfoot - Courier To Marrakesh (7/7)
(1918 - 1950) *Wyndham Martyn - Anthony Trent - The Mysterious Mr Garland (3/26) {Rare Books / CARM}
(1919 - 1966) *Lee Thayer - Peter Clancy - Alias Dr Ely (8/60) {Rare Books}
(1919 - 1922) **Octavus Roy Cohen - David Carroll - Midnight (4/4)

^^^^^ Remainder of series unavailable
^^^ Incompletely available series
** Series complete pre-1931
* Present status pre-1931

Series and sequels, 1920 - 1927:

(1920 - 1948) H. C. Bailey - Reggie Fortune - Black Land, White Land (12/23) {Rare Books}
(1920 - 1975) Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot - Curtain (38/38)
(1920 - 1921) **Natalie Sumner Lincoln - Ferguson - The Unseen Ear (2/2)
(1920 - 1937) *"Sapper" (H. C. McNeile) - Bulldog Drummond - The Third Round (3/10 - series continued) {Roy Glashan's Library}

(1921 - 1929) **Charles J. Dutton - John Bartley - Streaked With Crimson (9/9)
(1921 - 1925) **Herman Landon - The Gray Phantom - Gray Magic (5/5)

(1922 - 1973) Agatha Christie - Tommy and Tuppence - Postern Of Fate (5/5)
^^^^^(1922 - 1927) *Alice MacGowan and Perry Newberry - Jerry Boyne - The Seventh Passenger (4/5) {Amazon}
(1922 - 1931) Valentine Williams - Inspector Manderton - Death Answers The Bell (4/4)
(1922 - ????) *Armstrong Livingston - Jimmy Traynor - The Doublecross (aka "The Double-Cross") (2/?) {AbeBooks}

(1923 - 1937) Dorothy L. Sayers - Lord Peter Wimsey - In The Teeth Of The Evidence (14/14)
(1923 - 1924) **Carolyn Wells - Lorimer Lane - The Fourteenth Key (2/2)
(1923 - 1927) Annie Haynes - Inspector Furnival - The Crow's Inn Tragedy (3/3)

(1924 - 1959) Philip MacDonald - Colonel Anthony Gethryn - Rope To Spare (8/24) {Rare Books}
(1924 - 1957) Freeman Wills Crofts - Inspector French - Sudden Death (8/30) {Rare Books / ILL}
^^^(1924 - 1935) *Francis D. Grierson - Inspector Sims and Professor Wells - The Yellow Rat (aka "Murder At The Wedding") (9/13) {Rare Books}
(1924 - 1940) *Lynn Brock - Colonel Gore - The Mendip Mystery (aka "Murder At The Inn") (5/12) {Kindle}
(1924 - 1933) *Herbert Adams - Jimmie Haswell - The Crooked Lip (2/9) {Rare Books}
(1924 - 1944) *A. Fielding - Inspector Pointer - The Net Around Joan Ingilby (5/23) {Rare Books}
(1924 - 1936) *Hulbert Footner - Madame Storey - The Kidnapping Of Madame Storey (11/11)
^^^^^(1924 - 1931) R. Francis Foster - Anthony Ravenhill - The Missing Gates (1/7) {unavailable}

(1925 - 1961) ***John Rhode - Dr Priestley - Dead Men At The Folly (13/72) {Rare Books}
(1925 - 1953) *G. D. H. Cole / M. Cole - Superintendent Wilson - Corpse In Canonicals (aka "Corpse In The Constable's Garden") (8/?) {Rare Books}
(1925 - 1932) Earl Derr Biggers - Charlie Chan - Keeper Of The Keys (6/6)
(1925 - 1944) Agatha Christie - Superintendent Battle - Towards Zero (5/5)
(1925 - 1934) *Anthony Berkeley - Roger Sheringham - The Second Shot (6/10) {academic loan / Rare Books / Internet Archive}
(1925 - 1950) *Anthony Wynne (Robert McNair Wilson) - Dr Eustace Hailey - Sinners Go Secretly (4/27) {CARM}
^^^(1925 - 1939) *Charles Barry (Charles Bryson) - Inspector Lawrence Gilmartin - The Detective's Holiday (2/15) {Rare Books / GooglePlay}
(1925 - 1929) **Will Scott - Will Disher - Disher--Detective (aka "The Black Stamp") (1/5) {HathiTrust}
(1925 - 1927) **Francis Beeding - Professor Kreutzemark - The Hidden Kingdom (2/2)
(1925 - ????) *Livingston Armstrong - Peter Creighton - On The Right Wrists (1/?) {AbeBooks}

(1926 - 1968) Christopher Bush - Ludovic Travers - The Case Of The Unfortunate Village (8/63) {Kindle / State Library NSW, JFR}
(1926 - 1939) S. S. Van Dine - Philo Vance - The Winter Murder Case (12/12)
(1926 - 1952) J. Jefferson Farjeon - Ben the Tramp - Number Nineteen (8/8) {ILL / Kindle / Internet Archive}
(1926 - ????) *G. D. H. Cole / M. Cole - Everard Blatchington - Burglars In Bucks (aka "The Berkshire Mystery") (2/6) {Fisher Library}
(1926 - ????) *Arthur Gask - Gilbert Larose - The Lonely House (3/27) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(1926 - 1931) *Aidan de Brune - Dr Night - The Green Pearl (2/3) {Roy Glashan's Library}

^^^(1927 - 1933) *Herman Landon - The Picaroon - The Picaroon: Knight Errant (7/8) {State Library NSW, JFR}
(1927 - 1932) *Anthony Armstrong - Jimmie Rezaire - The Trail Of The Lotto (3/5) {CARM / AbeBooks}
(1927 - 1937) *Ronald Knox - Miles Bredon - The Body In The Silo (3/5) {Kindle / Rare Books}
(1927 - 1958) *Brian Flynn - Anthony Bathurst - The Creeping Jenny Mystery (7/54) {Kindle / ZLibrary}
(1927 - 1947) J. J. Connington - Sir Clinton Driffield - The Boathouse Riddle (6/17) {Kindle / mobilereads / Internet Archive}
(1927 - 1935) *Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Malleson) - Scott Egerton - Mystery Of The Open Window (4/10) {Rare Books}
^^^^^(1927 - 1932) *William Morton (aka William Blair Morton Ferguson) - Kirker Cameron and Daniel "Biff" Corrigan - Masquerade (1/4) {expensive}
^^^^^(1927 - 1929) **George Dilnot - Inspector Strickland - The Crooks' Game (1/2) {AbeBooks / Amazon}
(1927 - 1949) **Dornford Yates - Richard Chandos - Blood Royal (3/8) {State Library, JFR / Kindle / Internet Archive}

^^^^^ Remainder of series unavailable
^^^ Incompletely available series
** Series complete pre-1931
* Present status pre-1931

Series and sequels, 1928 - 1930:

(1928 - 1961) Patricia Wentworth - Miss Silver - The Girl In The Cellar (32/32)
(1928 - 1936) *Gavin Holt - Luther Bastion - The White-Faced Man (aka "The Praying Monkey") (2/17) {academic loan / State Library NSW, held}
(1928 - 1936) Kay Cleaver Strahan - Lynn MacDonald - The Hobgoblin Murder (6/7) {Kindle}
(1928 - 1937) John Alexander Ferguson - Francis McNab - Death Of Mr Dodsley (6/6)
^^^(1928 - 1960) *Cecil Freeman Gregg - Inspector Higgins - Murder On The Bus (3/35) {Rare Books / Kindle}
(1928 - 1959) *John Gordon Brandon - Inspector Patrick Aloysius McCarthy - The Black Joss (2/53) {State Library NSW, held / JFR}
^^^^^(1928 - 1935) *Roland Daniel - Wu Fang / Inspector Saville - The Society Of The Spiders (1/6)
(1928 - 1946) *Francis Beeding - Alistair Granby - Pretty Sinister (2/18) {academic loan}
(1928 - 1930) **Annie Haynes - Inspector Stoddart - The Crystal Beads Murder (4/4)
(1928 - 1930) **Elsa Barker - Dexter Drake and Paul Howard - The Cobra Candlestick (aka "The Cobra Shaped Candlestick") (1/3) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
^^^(1928 - ????) Adam Broome - Denzil Grigson - The Queen's Hall Murder (4/10) {Trove}
(1928 - 1931) **John Stephen Strange (Dorothy Stockbridge Tillet) - Van Dusen Ormsberry - The Clue Of The Second Murder (2/3) {GooglePlay / Rare Books}

(1929 - 1947) Margery Allingham - Albert Campion - Traitor's Purse (12/35) {Fisher Library / SMSA / fadedpage.com}
(1929 - 1984) Gladys Mitchell - Mrs Bradley - The Devil At Saxon Wall (6/67) {interlibrary loan / Kindle}
(1929 - 1937) Patricia Wentworth - Benbow Smith - Down Under (4/4)
^^^(1929 - 1954) Mignon Eberhart - Nurse Sarah Keate - Man Missing (7/7)
^^^(1929 - ????) Moray Dalton - Inspector Collier - The Belgrave Manor Crime (5/14) {Kindle}
^^^(1929 - 1930) * / ***Charles Reed Jones - Leighton Swift - The Torch Murder (1/3) {Rare Books}
(1929 - 1931) Carolyn Wells - Kenneth Carlisle - The Skeleton At The Feast (3/3) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1967) *George Goodchild - Inspector McLean - McLean Investigates (2/65) {State Library NSW, JFR / Internet Archive}
(1929 - 1979) *Leonard Gribble - Anthony Slade - The Case Of The Marsden Rubies (1/33) {AbeBooks / Rare Books / re-check Kindle}
(1929 - 1932) *E. R. Punshon - Carter and Bell - The Unexpected Legacy (1/5) {Rare Books}
(1929 - 1971) *Ellery Queen - Ellery Queen - The Roman Hat Mystery (1/40) {interlibrary loan / Internet Archive}
(1929 - 1966) *Arthur Upfield - Bony - The Devil's Steps (10/29) {SMSA / Fisher Library}
(1929 - 1937) *Anthony Berkeley - Ambrose Chitterwick - The Piccadilly Murder (2/3) {interlibrary loan / Internet Archive}
^^^^^(1929 - 1940) *Jean Lilly - DA Bruce Perkins - The Seven Sisters (1/3) {rare, expensive}
(1929 - 1935) *N. A. Temple-Ellis (Nevile Holdaway) - Montrose Arbuthnot - The Inconsistent Villains (1/4) {Rare Books}
(1929 - 1943) *Gret Lane - Kate Clare Marsh and Inspector Barrin - The Cancelled Score Mystery (1/9) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1961) Henry Holt - Inspector Silver - The Necklace Of Death (3/16) {Rare Books}
(1929 - 1930) **J. J. Connington - Superintendent Ross - The Two Tickets Puzzle (2/2)
(1929 - 1941) H. Maynard Smith - Inspector Frost - Inspector Frost And The Whitbourne Murder (6/7) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1932) Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson - Sir John Saumarez - Re-Enter Sir John (3/3)
(1929 - 1940) *Rufus King - Lieutenant Valcour - Murder By The Clock (1/11) {Rare Books / Kindle / ZLibrary}
(1929 - 1933) *Will Levinrew (Will Levine) - Professor Brierly - For Sale - Murder (4/5) {AbeBooks}
(1929 - 1932) *Nancy Barr Mavity - Peter Piper - The Body On The Floor (1/5) {AbeBooks / Rare Books / State Library NSW, JFR}
(1929 - 1934) *Charles J. Dutton - Professor Harley Manners - The Circle Of Death (4/6) {newspapers.com}
(1929 - 1932) Thomas Cobb - Inspector Bedison - Who Closed The Casement? (4/4)
(1929 - ????) * J. C. Lenehan - Inspector Kilby - The Silecroft Case (2/?) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1936) *Robin Forsythe - Anthony "Algernon" Vereker - The Polo Ground Mystery (2/5) {Kindle}
^^^^^(1929 - 1931) */***David Frome (Zenith Jones Brown) - Major Gregory Lewis - The Murder Of An Old Man (1/3) {rare, expensive}

(1930 - ????) Moray Dalton - Hermann Glide - The Strange Case Of Harriet Hall (4/?) {Kindle}
^^^(1930 - 1960) Miles Burton - Desmond Merrion - The Platinum Cat (17/57) {Rare Books}
^^^(1930 - 1960) Miles Burton - Inspector Arnold - The Platinum Cat (17/57) {Rare Books}
(1930 - 1933) Roger Scarlett - Inspector Kane - Murder Among The Angells (4/5) {expensive}
(1930 - 1941) Harriette Ashbrook - Philip "Spike" Tracy - Murder Comes Back (6/7) {Kindle}
(1930 - 1943) Anthony Abbot - Thatcher Colt - About The Murder Of The Night Club Lady (3/8) {AbeBooks / serialised}
^^^^^(1930 - ????) ***David Sharp - Professor Fielding - I, The Criminal (4/?) {unavailable?}
(1930 - 1950) *H. C. Bailey - Josiah Clunk - Garstons (aka The Garston Murder Case) (1/11) {HathiTrust}
(1930 - 1968) *Francis Van Wyck Mason - Hugh North - The Vesper Service Murders (2/41) {Kindle}
(1930 - 1976) Agatha Christie - Miss Jane Marple - Miss Marple's Final Cases (14/14)
(1930 - 1939) Anne Austin - James "Bonnie" Dundee - Murdered But Not Dead (5/5)
(1930 - 1950) *Leslie Ford (as David Frome) - Mr Pinkerton and Inspector Bull - The Hammersmith Murders (1/11) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
^^^^^(1930 - 1935) *"Diplomat" (John Franklin Carter) - Dennis Tyler - Murder In The State Department (1/7) {Amazon / Abebooks}
(1930 - 1962) *Helen Reilly - Inspector Christopher McKee - The Diamond Feather (1/31) {Rare Books}
(1930 - 1933) *Mary Plum - John Smith - The Killing Of Judge MacFarlane (1/4) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
(1930 - 1945) *Hulbert Footner - Amos Lee Mappin - The Nation's Missing Guest (3/10) {fadedpage.com}
^^^(1930 - 1933) Monte Barrett - Peter Cardigan - The Wedding March Murder (3/3)
(1930 - 1931) Vernon Loder - Inspector Brews - Death Of An Editor (2/2)
^^^^^(1930 - 1931) *Roland Daniel - John Hopkins - The Rosario Murder Case (1/2) {unavailable?}
^^^(1930 - 1961) *Mark Cross ("Valentine", aka Archibald Thomas Pechey) - Daphne Wrayne and her Four Adjusters - The Grip Of The Four (1/53) {Rare Books}
^^^(1930 - 1937) Elaine Hamilton - Inspector Reynolds - Peril At Midnight (6/9) {Kindle}
(1930 - 1932) *J. S. Fletcher - Sergeant Charlesworth - The Borgia Cabinet (1/2) {fadedpage.com / Kindle}
(1930 - ????) *Carolyn Keene - Nancy Drew - The Bungalow Mystery (3/?) {original text unavailable}
(1930 - 1937) John Dickson Carr - Henri Bencolin - The Four False Weapons (5/5)

^^^^^ Remainder of series unavailable
^^^ Incompletely available series
** Series complete pre-1931
* Present status pre-1931

Series and sequels, 1931 - 1932:

^^^(1931 - 1940) Bruce Graeme - Superintendent Stevens and Pierre Allain - Not Proven (5/8) {Trove}
(1931 - 1951) Phoebe Atwood Taylor - Asey Mayo - The Tinkling Symbol (6/24) {Rare Books / academic loan}
(1931 - 1955) Stuart Palmer - Hildegarde Withers - The Puzzle Of The Silver Persian (5/18) {Kindle / ILL / ZLibrary}
(1931 - 1933) Sydney Fowler - Inspector Cleveland - Arresting Delia (4/4)
(1931 - 1934) J. H. Wallis - Inspector Wilton Jacks - The Capital City Mystery (2/6) {Rare Books}
(1931 - ????) Paul McGuire - Inspector Cummings - Daylight Murder (aka "Murder At High Noon") (3/5) {academic loan / State Library NSW, held}
(1931 - 1936) Carlton Dawe - Leathermouth - Leathermouth's Luck (5/6) {Trove / State Library NSW, held}
(1931 - 1947) R. L. Goldman - Asaph Clume and Rufus Reed - Death Plays Solitaire (3/6) {Kindle}
^^^(1931 - 1959) E. C. R. Lorac (Edith Caroline Rivett) - Inspector Robert Macdonald - The Affair On Thor's Head (2/46) {State Library NSW, JFR}
(1931 - 1935) Clifton Robbins - Clay Harrison - Methylated Murder (5/5)
(1931 - 1972) Georges Simenon - Inspector Maigret - Le Fou de Bergerac (16/75) {ILL / Internet Archive}
^^^(1931 - 1942) R. A. J. Walling - Garstang - Murder At Midnight (2/3) {Rare Books}
(1931 - ????) Francis Bonnamy (Audrey Boyers Walz) - Peter Utley Shane - Death By Appointment (1/8) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
(1931 - 1937) J. S. Fletcher - Ronald Camberwell - Murder In The Squire's Pew (3/11) {Kindle / State Library NSW, held}
(1931 - 1933) Edwin Dial Torgerson - Sergeant Pierre Montigny - The Murderer Returns (1/2) {Rare Books)
(1931 - 1933) Molly Thynne - Dr Constantine and Inspector Arkwright - He Dies And Makes No Sign (3/3)
(1931 - 1935) Valentine Williams - Sergeant Trevor Dene - The Clue Of The Rising Moon (4/4)
(1931 - 1942) Patricia Wentworth - Frank Garrett - Pursuit Of A Parcel (5/5)
(1931 - 1931) Frances Shelley Wees - Michael Forrester and Tuck Torrie - The Mystery Of The Creeping Man (2/2)
(1931 - 1948) Alice Campbell - Tommy Rostetter - The Click Of The Gate (1/?) {CARM}
^^^(1931 - 1939) Roland Daniel - Inspector Walk - The Stool Pigeon (4/8) {Rare Books}

(1932 - 1954) Sydney Fowler - Inspector Cambridge and Mr Jellipot - The Bell Street Murders (1/11) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
^^^^^(1932 - 1935) Murray Thomas - Inspector Wilkins - Buzzards Pick The Bones (1/3) {AbeBooks, expensive}
(1932 - ????) R. A. J. Walling - Philip Tolefree - Mr Tolefree's Reluctant Witnesses (aka "The Corpse In The Coppice") (7/22) {Kindle}
(1932 - 1962) T. Arthur Plummer - Detective-Inspector Andrew Frampton - Frampton Of The Yard! (3/50) {Rare Books}
(1932 - 1946) David Hume - Mick Cardby - Bullets Bite Deep (1/29) {Rare Books}
(1932 - 1936) John Victor Turner (David Hume) - Amos Petrie - Amos Petrie's Puzzle (3/7) {Kindle}
(1932 - 1944) Nicholas Brady (David Hume) - Ebenezer Buckle - The House Of Strange Guests (1/4) {Kindle}
(1932 - 1933) Barnaby Ross (aka Ellery Queen) - Drury Lane - Drury Lane's Last Case (4/4)
^^^(1932 - ????) Richard Essex (Richard Harry Starr) - Jack Slade - Slade Scores Again (2/?) {Rare Books}
(1932 - 1933) Gerard Fairlie - Mr Malcolm - Mr Malcolm Presents (2/3) (unavailable?}
(1932 - 1934) Paul McGuire - Superintendent Fillinger - Murder By The Law (2/5) {State Library, held}
^^^^^(1932 - 1946) Roland Daniel - Inspector Pearson - The Crackswoman (1/6) {unavailable}
(1932 - 1951) Sydney Horler - Tiger Standish - Tiger Standish (1/11) {Rare Books}

^^^^^ Remainder of series unavailable
^^^ Incompletely available series

Series and sequels, 1933 onwards:

(1933 - 1959) John Gordon Brandon - Arthur Stukeley Pennington - West End! (1/?) {AbeBooks / State Library, held}
(1933 - 1940) Lilian Garis - Carol Duncan - The Ghost Of Melody Lane (1/9) {fadedpage.com / Internet Archive}
^^^^^(1933 - 1934) Peter Hunt (George Worthing Yates and Charles Hunt Marshall) - Allan Miller - Murders At Scandal House (1/3) {AbeBooks / Amazon}
(1933 - 1968) John Dickson Carr - Gideon Fell - Hag's Nook (1/23) {Better World Books / State Library NSW, interlibrary loan}
^^^^^(1933 - 1939) Gregory Dean (Jacob D. Posner) - Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Simon - The Case Of Marie Corwin (1/3) {AbeBooks / Amazon}
(1933 - 1956) E. R. Punshon - Detective-Sergeant Bobby Owen - Information Received (1/35) {academic loan / State Library NSW, held / Rare Books}
(1933 - 1934) Jackson Gregory - Paul Savoy - A Case For Mr Paul Savoy (1/3) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
(1933 - 1957) John Creasey - Department Z - The Death Miser (1/28) {State Library NSW, held}
^^^^^(1933 - 1940) Bruce Graeme - Superintendent Stevens - Body Unknown (2/2) {expensive}
(1933 - 1952) Wyndham Martyn - Christopher Bond - The Denmede Mystery (3/8) {State Library NSW, JFR}

^^^^^(1934 - 1949) Richard Goyne - Paul Templeton - Strange Motives (1/13) {unavailable?}
^^^^^(1934 - 1941) N. A. Temple-Ellis (Nevile Holdaway) - Inspector Wren - Three Went In (1/3) {unavailable?}
(1934 - 1953) Carter Dickson (John Dickson Carr) - Sir Henry Merivale - The Plague Court Murders (1/22) {Fisher Library}
(1934 - 1953) Leslie Ford (Zenith Jones Brown) - Colonel Primrose - The Strangled Witness (1/17) {Rare Books}
(1934 - 1975) Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe - Black Orchids (9/?) {ILL / SMSA}
(1934 - 1935) Vernon Loder - Inspector Chace - Murder From Three Angles (1/2) {Kindle / ????}

(1935 - 1939) Francis Beeding - Inspector George Martin - The Norwich Victims (1/3) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(1935 - 1976) Nigel Morland - Palmyra Pym - The Moon Murders (1/28) {State Library NSW, held}
(1935 - 1941) Clyde Clason - Professor Theocritus Lucius Westborough - The Fifth Tumbler (1/10) {HathiTrust}
(1935 - ????) G. D. H. Cole / M. Cole - Dr Tancred - Dr Tancred Begins (1/?) (AbeBooks, expensive / State Library NSW, held / Rare Books}
(1935 - ????) George Harmon Coxe - Kent Murdock - Murder With Pictures (1/22) {ebook? / AbeBooks}
^^^(1935 - 1959) Kathleen Moore Knight - Elisha Macomber - The Tainted Token (6/16) {Rare Books}

(1936 - 1974) Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Malleson) - Arthur Crook - Murder By Experts (1/51) {Kindle / interlibrary loan}
(1936 - 1940) George Bell Dyer - The Catalyst Club - The Catalyst Club (1/3) {Rare Books}
^^^(1936 - 1956) Theodora Du Bois - Anne and Jeffrey McNeil - Death Dines Out (4/19) {Rare Books}
(1936 - 1945) Charles Kingston - Chief Inspector Wake - Murder In Piccadilly (1/7) {Kindle}
(1937 - 1953) Leslie Ford (Zenith Jones Brown) - Grace Latham - Ill Met By Moonlight (1/16) {Kindle / Internet Archive}
(1938 - 1944) Zelda Popkin - Mary Carner - Time Off For Murder (2/6) {Kindle}
^^^^^(1938 - 1939) D. B. Olsen (Dolores Hitchens) - Lt. Stephen Mayhew - The Clue In The Clay (1/2) {expensive}
(1939 - 1953) Patricia Wentworth - Inspector Lamb - Vanishing Point (11/11)
^^^(1939 - 1940) Clifton Robbins - George Staveley - Death Forms Threes (2/2) {Rare Books}
(1939 - 1956) D. B. Olsen (Dolores Hitchens) - Rachel Murdock (check Stephen Mayhew) - The Cat Saw Murder (1/12) {Kindle / ZLibrary}

^^^(1940 - 1943) Bruce Graeme - Pierre Allain - The Corporal Died In Bed (1/3) {CARM}
(1941 - 1951) Bruce Graeme - Theodore I. Terhune - Seven Clues In Search Of A Crime (1/7) {Kindle / GooglePlay}
(1943 - 1961) Enid Blyton - Five Find-Outers - The Mystery Of The Disappearing Cat (2/15) {fadedpage}
(1945 - 1952) D. B. Olsen (Dolores Hitchens) - Professor Pennyfeather - Bring The Bride A Shroud (aka "A Shroud For The Bride") (1/6) {Rare Books / National Library}
(1947 - 1953) Michael Gilbert - Inspector Hazelrigg - They Never Looked Inside (2/6) {State Library NSW, JFR / ZLibrary}
(1950 - 1956) Sax Rohmer - Sumuru - The Sins Of Sumuru (1/5) {Rare Books / CARM / US KIndle}
(1955 - 1991) Patricia Highsmith - Tom Ripley - Ripley's Game (3/5) {SMSA}
(1957 - 1993) Chester B. Himes - The Harlem Cycle - The Big Gold Dream (4/9) {Fisher Library}
(1957 - 1971) G. G. Fickling (Gloria and Forest Fickling) - Honey West - This Girl For Hire (1/11) {Kindle}
(1961 - 2017) - John le Carré - George Smiley - Smiley's People (7/9) {Sutherland Library / Fisher Library / SMSA}
(1964 - 1987) Robert Arthur / William Arden / Nick West / M. V. Carey - The Three Investigators - The Mystery Of The Singing Serpent (17/43) {freebooklover / Internet Archive}
(1965 - 1975) Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö - Martin Beck - The Fire Engine That Disappeared (5/10) {SMSA}
(1972 - 1998) Lillian O'Donnell - Norah Mulcahaney - The Phone Calls (1/17) {ILL}
(1982 - 2016) Warren Adler - Fiona Fitzgerald - American Quartet (1/9) {AbeBooks}
(1991 - 2011) Lynda La Plante - Jane Tennison - Prime Suspect (1/3) {SMSA}
(1992 - 2000) Barbara Neely - Blanche White - Blanche Passes Go (4/4)
^^^^^(2001 - 2012) Esmahan Aykol - Kati Hirschel - Divorce Turkish Style (3/4)

^^^^^ Remainder of series unavailable
^^^ Incompletely available series

Non-crime series and sequels:

(1861 - 1876) **Margaret Oliphant - Carlingford - Phoebe Junior (7/7)
(1867 - 1905) **Martha Finley - Elsie Dinsmore - Elsie And Her Namesakes (28/28)
(1867 - 1872) **George MacDonald - The Seaboard Parish - Annals Of A Quiet Neighbourhood (1/3) {ManyBooks}
(1893 - 1915) **Kate Douglas Wiggins - Penelope - Penelope's Postscripts (4/4)
(1894 - 1898) **Anthony Hope - Ruritania - Rupert Of Hentzau (3/3)
(1898 - 1918) **Arnold Bennett - Five Towns - Tales Of The Five Towns (3/11) {Fisher storage / Project Gutenberg / Internet Archive}

(1901 - 1919) **Carolyn Wells - Patty Fairfield - Patty And Azalea (17/17)
(1901 - 1927) **George Barr McCutcheon - Graustark - Beverly Of Graustark (2/6) {Project Gutenberg}
(1906 - 1933) John Galsworthy - The Forsyte Saga - Over The River (12/12)
(1907 - 1912) **Carolyn Wells - Marjorie - Marjorie's Vacation (1/6) {ManyBooks}
(1908 - 1924) **Margaret Penrose - Dorothy Dale - Dorothy Dale: A Girl Of Today (1/13) {ManyBooks}
(1909 - 1912) **Emerson Hough - Western Trilogy - 54-40 Or Fight (1/3) {Project Gutenberg}
(1910 - 1931) Grace S. Richmond - Red Pepper Burns - Red Pepper Returns (6/6)
(1910 - 1933) Jeffery Farnol - The Vibarts - The Way Beyond (3/3) {Fisher Library storage / fadedpage.com}
(1910 - 1921) **Hanns Heinz Ewers - Frank Braun - Vampire (3/3) {Kindle / Zlibrary}

(1911 - 1937) Mary Roberts Rinehart - Letitia Carberry - Tish Marches On (5/5)
^^^(1911 - 1919) **Alfred Bishop Mason - Tom Strong - Tom Strong, Lincoln's Scout (5/5)
(1913 - 1934) *Alice B. Emerson - Ruth Fielding - Ruth Fielding In The Far North (20/30) {expensive}
(1916 - 1941) John Buchan - Edward Leithen - Sick Heart River (5/5)
(1915 - 1923) **Booth Tarkington - Growth - The Magnificent Ambersons (2/3) {Project Gutenberg / Fisher Library / Kindle}
(1917 - 1929) **Henry Handel Richardson - Dr Richard Mahony - Australia Felix (1/3) {Fisher Library / Kindle}

(1920 - 1939) E. F. Benson - Mapp And Lucia - Trouble For Lucia (6/6)
(1920 - 1952) William McFee - Spenlove - The Adopted - (7/7)
(1920 - 1932) *Alice B. Emerson - Betty Gordon - Betty Gordon At Bramble Farm (1/15) {ManyBooks}
^^^(1923 - 1931) *Agnes Miller - The Linger-Nots - The Linger-Nots And The Secret Maze (5/5)
(1924 - 1928) **Ford Madox Ford - Parade's End - Last Post (4/4)
(1926 - 1936) *Margery Lawrence - The Round Table - Nights Of The Round Table (1/2) {Kindle}
(1927 - 1960) **Mazo de la Roche - Jalna - Jalna (1/16) {State Library NSW, JFR / fadedpage.com}

(1928 - ????) Trygve Lund - Weston of the Royal North-West Mounted Police - The Vanished Prospector (6/9) {AbeBooks}
(1929 - 1931) *Ernest Raymond - Once In England - A Family That Was (1/3) {State Library NSW, JFR}

(1930 - 1932) Hugh Walpole - The Herries Chronicles - Vanessa (4/4)
(1930 - 1932) Faith Baldwin - The Girls Of Divine Corners - Myra: A Story Of Divine Corners (4/4)
(1930 - 1940) E. M. Delafield - The Provincial Lady - The Provincial Lady In Wartime (4/4)
(1930 - 1937) *Nina Murdoch - Miss Emily - Miss Emily In Black Lace (1/3) {State Library, held}

(1931 - 1951) Olive Higgins Prouty - The Vale Novels - Fabia (5/5)
(1931 - 1934) T. S. Stribling - The Vaiden Trilogy - The Store (2/3) {Internet Archive / academic loan / State Library, held}
(1931 - 1935) Pearl S. Buck - The House Of Earth - A House Divided (3/3)
(1932 - 1932) Lizette M. Edholm - The Merriweather Girls - The Merriweather Girls At Good Old Rockhill (4/4)
(1932 - 1952) D. E. Stevenson - Mrs Tim - Mrs Tim Flies Home (5/5) {interlibrary loan}

(1933 - 1970) Dennis Wheatley - Duke de Richlieu - The Forbidden Territory (1/11) {Fisher Library}
(1934 - 1936) Storm Jameson - The Mirror In Darkness - Company Parade (1/3) {Fisher Library}
(1934 - 1968) Dennis Wheatley - Gregory Sallust - Black August (1/11) {interlibrary loan / omnibus}
(1936 - 1952) Helen Dore Boylston - Sue Barton - Sue Barton, Student Nurse (1/7) {interlibrary loan}

(1940 - 1953) Upton Sinclair - Lanny Budd - Between Two Worlds (2/11) {Fisher Library}
(1947 - 1974) Dennis Wheatley - Roger Brook - The Launching Of Roger Brook (1/12) {Fisher Library storage}
(1948 - 1971) E. V. Timms - The Gubbys - Forever To Remain (1/12) {Fisher Library / interlibrary loan}
(1953 - 1960) Dennis Wheatley - Molly Fountain and Colonel Verney - To The Devil A Daughter (1/2) {Fisher Library storage}
(1955 - 1956) D. E. Stevenson - The Ayrton Family - Summerhills (2/2) {interlibrary loan}
(1980 - 2011) Jean M. Auel - Earth's Children - The Plains Of Passage (4/6) {Penrith Library}
(1984 - 2013) Tom Clancy (continued by others) - Jack Ryan - Patriot Games (2/16) {Blacktown Library}
(1989 - ????) Nancy A. Collins - Sonja Blue - Darkest Heart (5/7) {AbeBooks}

*** Incompletely available series
** Series complete pre-1931
* Present status pre-1931

Unavailable series works (Part 1: series partially available):

Mignon Eberhart - Sarah Keate
Dead Yesterday And Other Stories (multiple Eberhart characters) {expensive / limited edition}

Esmahan Aykol - Kati Hirschel
Istanbul Tango (#4) {untranslated}

John Rhode - Dr Priestley
The Hanging Woman (#11) {rare, expensive}

Miles Burton - Desmond Merrion / Inspector Arnold
The Three Crimes (#2 Merrion / #1 Arnold) {rare, expensive}
The Menace On The Downs (#2 Arnold) {rare, expensive}
Fate At The Fair (#4 Merrion / #4 Arnold) {unavailable}
Tragedy At The Thirteenth Hole (#5 Merrion / #5 Arnold) {unavailable}
Death At The Cross-Roads (#6 Merrion / #6 Arnold) {unavailable}
The Charabanc Mystery (#7 Merrion / #7 Arnold) {unavailable}
To Catch A Thief (#8 Merrion / #8 Arnold) {unavailable}
The Devereux Court Mystery (#9 Merrion / #9 Arnold) {unavailable}
Murder Of A Chemist (#11 Merrion / #11 Arnold) {unavailable}
Where Is Barbara Prentice? (aka "The Clue Of The Silver Cellar") (#13 Merrion / #13 Arnold) {rare, expensive}
Death At The Club (aka "The Clue Of The Fourteen Keys") (#14 Merrion/ #14 Arnold) {unavailable}
Murder In Crown Passage (aka "The Man With The Tattoed Face") (#15 Merrion / #15 Arnold) {unavailable}

Louis Tracy - Winter and Furneaux
The Park Lane Mystery (#6) {unavailable}

Moray Dalton - Inspector Collier
The Harvest Of Tares (#4) {unavailable}

E. C. R. Lorac - Inspector Robert MacDonald
The Murder On The Burrows (#1) {unavailable}
The Greenwell Mystery (#3) {unavailable}

R. A. J. Walling - Garstang
Stroke Of One (#1) {unavailable}

T. Arthur Plummer - Inspector Frampton
Shadowed By The C.I.D. (#1) {unavailable}
Shot At Night (#2) {unavailable}

Bruce Graeme - Superintendent Stevens
Body Unknown (#?) {unavailable}

Charles Barry (real name: Charles Bryson) - Inspector Gilmartin
The Smaller Penny (#1) {expensive}

Francis D. Grierson - Inspector Sims and Professor Wells
The Double Thumb (#3) {unavailable}
The Smiling Death (#6) {expensive}
The White Camellia (#7) {expensive}
The Blue Bucket Mystery (#8) {unavailable}

Cecil Freeman Gregg - Inspector Higgins
The Murdered Manservant (aka "The Body In The Safe") (#1) {HathiTrust/not accessible}
The Three Daggers (#2) {HathiTrust/not accessible}

Charles J. Dutton - Harley Manners
The Shadow Of Evil (#2) {rare, expensive}

Elaine Hamilton - Inspector Reynolds
Murder In The Fog (#2) {unavailable}
The Chelsea Mystery (#3) {unavailable}
The Green Death (Reynolds #4?) {unavailable}
The Silent Bell (Reynolds #5?) {unavailable}

Herman Landon - The Picaroon
The Picaroon Does Justice (#2) {CARM}
Buy My Silence! (#3) {rare, expensive}
The Picaroon Resumes Practice (#5) {unavailable}
The Picaroon In Pursuit (#6) {CARM}

Bertram Atkey - Smiler Bunn
The Smiler Bunn Brigade (#2) {rare, expensive}
Smiler Bunn, Man-Hunter (#3) {unavailable}
Smiler Bunn, Gentleman Crook (#4) {unavailable}
The Man With Yellow Eyes (#5) {unavailable}
Smiler Bunn: Byewayman (#6) {unavailable}
Smiler Bunn, Gentleman-Adventurer (#7) {unavailable}
Smiler Bunn, Crook (#8) {unavailable}
The House Of Clystevill (#11) {unavailable}

Charles Reed Jones - Leighton Swift
The King Murder (#1) {unavailable}
The Van Norton Murders (#3) {Complete Detective Novel Magazine}

Monte Barrett - Peter Cardigan
Murder Off Stage (aka "Knotted Silk") (#2) {expensive shipping}

Roland Daniel - Inspector John Walk
Dead Man's Vengeance (#1) {unavailable}
Ann Turns Detective (#2) {unavailable}
Ruby Of A Thousand Dreams (#3) {Ramble House} (NB: Wu Fang)

George Dilnot - Inspector Strickland
Crooks' Game (#1) {expensive}
The Black Ace (#2) {expensive}

Richard Essex (aka ) - Jack Slade
Slade Of The Yard (#1) {expensive}

Mark Cross aka Archibald Thomas Pechey aka Valentine - Daphne Wrayne and the Four Adjusters
The Shadow Of The Four (#1) {rare, expensive}

Bruce Graeme - Stevens and Allain
Satan's Mistress (#4) {unavailable}

Wyndham Martyn - Christopher Bond
Christopher Bond, Adventurer (#1) {unavailable}
Spies Of Peace (#2) {unavailable}

Clifton Robbins - George Staveley
Six Sign-Post Murder (#1) {expensive}

Agnes Miller - The Linger-Nots
The Linger-Nots And The Secret Maze (#5) {unavailable}

Unavailable series works (Part 2: series effectively unavailable):

R. Francis Foster - Anthony Ravenhill
The Missing Gates (#1) {unavailable}
Anthony Ravenhill, Crime Merchant (#2) {expensive}
The Music Gallery Murder (#3) {unavailable}
The Moat House Mystery (#4) {unavailable}
The Dark Night (#5) {unavailable}

David Sharp - Professor Fielding
When No Man Pursueth (#1) {unavailable}
I, The Criminal (#4) {rare, expensive}
The Inconvenient Corpse (#5 rare, expensive}
Marriage And Murder (#6) {unavailable}

Adam Broome - Denzil Grigson
Crowner's Quest (#2) {rare, expensive}
The Island Of Death (#3) {rare, expensive}
The Crocodile Club (#5) {unavailable}
The Black Mamba (#6) {rare, expensive}
Snakes And Ladders (#7) {unavailable}
The Red Queen Club (#8) {unavailable}
Flame Of The Forest (#9) {rare, expensive}

Roger Scarlett - Inspector Kane
Murder Among The Angells (#4) {expensive}
In The First Degree (#5) {expensive}

Alice MacGowan and Perry Newberry - Jerry Boyne
The Seventh Passenger (#4) {expensive}
Who Is This Man? (#5) {available, expensive shipping}

Roland Daniel - Wu Fang
The Society Of The Spiders (#1) {Ramble House}
Wu Fang (#2) {unavailable}
Ruby Of A Thousand Dreams (#3) {Ramble House}
Wu Fang's Revenge (#4) {unavailable}
The Son Of Wu Fang (#5) {Ramble House}
The Return Of Wu Fang (#6) {Ramble House}

The Hanshews - Cleek
The Amber Junk (aka "Riddle Of The Amber Ship") (#9) {rare, expensive}
The House Of Seven Keys (#10) {rare, expensive}
The Riddle Of The Winged Death (#11) {unavailable}
Murder In The Hotel (#12) {unavailable}

William Morton (aka William Blair Morton Ferguson) - Daniel "Biff" Corrigan / Police Commissioner Kirker Cameron
Masquerade (#1) {expensive}
The Mystery Of The Human Bookcase (#2) {expensive}
The Murderer (aka "The Pilditch Puzzle") (#3) {expensive}
The Case Of Casper Gault ????

Jean Lilly - DA Bruce Perkins
The Seven Sisters (#1) {rare, expensive}
False Face (#2) {rare, expensive}
Death In B-Minor (#3) {rare, expensive}
Death Thumbs A Ride (#4) {rare, expensive}

David Frome (Zenith Jones Brown) - Major Gregory Lewis
Murder Of An Old Man (#1) {rare, expensive}
In At The Death (#2) {rare, expensive}
The Strange Death Of Martin Green (#3) {rare, expensive}

John Franklin Carter (aka "Diplomat") - Dennis Tyler
Murder In The State Department (#1) {unavailable}
Murder In The Embassy (#2) {unavailable}
Scandal In The Chancery (#3) {unavailable}
The Corpse On The White House Lawn (#4) {unavailable}
Death In The Senate (#5) {unavailable}
Slow Death At Geneva (#6) {unavailable}
Brain Trust Murder (#7) {unavailable}

Murray Thomas - Inspector Wilkins
Buzzards Pick The Bones (#1) {unavailable}
Inspector Wilkins Sees Red (#2) {rare, expensive}
Inspector Wilkins Reads The Proofs (#3) {unavailable}

Roland Daniel - John Hopkins
The Rosario Murder Case (#1) {unavailable}
The Shooting Of Sergius Leroy (#2) {unavailable}

Roland Daniel - Inspector Pearson
The Crackswoman (#1) {unavailable}
The Green Jade God (#2) {unavailable}
White Eagle (#3) {unavailable}
The Crimson Shadow (#4) {expensive}
The Gangster's Last Shot (#5) {unavailable}
Murder At Little Malling (#6) {CARM}

Kathleen Moore Knight - Elisha Macomber
Death Blew Out The Match (#1) {expensive}
The Clue Of The Poor Man's Shilling (aka "The Poor Man's Shilling") (#2) {CARM / expensive}
The Wheel That Turned (#3) {expensive}
Seven Were Veiled (#4) {expensive}
Acts Of Black Night (#5) {expensive}

Peter Hunt (aka George Worthing Yates and Charles Hunt Marshall) - Alan Miller
Murders At Scandal House (#1) {expensive}
Murder For Breakfast (#2) {expensive}
Murder Among The Nudists (#3) {expensive}

Gregory Dean (aka Jacob D. Posner) - Benjamin Simon
The Case Of Marie Corwin (#1) {unavailable}
The Case Of The Fifth Key (#2) {unavailable}
Murder On Stilts (#3) {unavailable}

N. A. Temple-Ellis (aka Nevile Holdaway) - Inspector Wren
Three Went In (#1) {unavailable}
Dead In No Time (aka "Murder In The Ruins") (#2) {expensive}
Death Of A Decent Fellow (#3) {unavailable}

Richard Goyne - Paul Templeton
Strange Motives (#1) {unavailable}
Murder At The Inn (#2) {unavailable}
Produce The Body (#3) {unavailable}
Death By Desire (#4) {expensive}
Hanged I'll Be! (#5) {CARM}
Death In Harbour (#6) {unavailable}
Seven Were Suspect (#7) {unavailable}
The Merrylees Mystery (#8) {unavailable}
Who Killed My Wife? (#9) {unavailable}
Fear Haunts The Fells (#10) {unavailable}
Five Roads Inn (#11) {unavailable}
Murder Made Easy (#12) {unavailable}
Murderer's Moon (#13) {expensive}

Theodora du Bois - Anne and Jeffrey McNeill
Armed With A New Terror (#1) {unavailable}
Death Wears A White Coat (#2) {unavailable}
Death Tears A Comic Strip (#3) {expensive}

D. B. Olsen (aka Dolores Hichens) - Stephen Mayhew (overlaps with Rachel Murdock)
The Clue In The Clay (#1) {expensive}
Death Cuts A Silhouette (#2) {expensive}

Alfred Bishop Mason - Tom Strong
Tom Strong, Boy-Captain (#2) {unavailable}
Tom Strong, Junior (#3) {unavailable}
Tom Strong, Third (#4) {unavailable}

Books currently on loan:

      

  

        

Reading projects:

Blog:

        

        

Other projects:

        

        

Group read news:

For our next group read, we will be returning to our Virago project and tackling two works: Elizabeth Gaskell's Curious, If True, a collection of five short stories, and George Eliot's novella, The Lifted Veil.

This will be in October, however the plan is to extend the read into November in order to address each of the stories separately and give each due consideration.

I will post more detailed information around the end of September.

Enough!

Welcome, all: please come in and say hi. :)

Happy new thread, Liz.

>1 lyzard: The lower of the two photos of the sunset frog make it look like an overcooked chicken!

Happy new thread, Liz!

Happy new thread, Liz!

>1 lyzard: I love how you expand my knowledge about rare frogs. This one has beautiful colors.

>24 PaulCranswick:

Hi, Paul! That's a bit cruel. :D

>25 swynn:

Thanks, Steve!

>26 FAMeulstee:

Hi, Anita - glad you enjoy them. :)

Anyway.

Finished The Honourable Schoolboy for TIOLI #3, in under the wire for August; and also ended up listing The Winter Murder Case for TIOLI #13.

Now reading Jew Süss by Lion Feuchtwanger.

I'm here, started The Cardinal of the Kremlin last night. No rush, it will probably take me at least a week to read it, possibly longer.

Hoping the new thread works its magic.
Looks like I'll be listening to Traitor's Purse in October (how can we be discussing October already?!)

>29 fuzzi:

I'm wading through a lengthy work of historical fiction at the moment, so I'm not sure when I'll be starting it but I will keep you posted.

>30 Helenliz:

Me too! :D

As I was saying at your thread, I actually think we have Mr Campion And Others up next. Someone has removed it from the core listing on LT because it's a book of short stories, but as far as I can tell it was the next series entry (at least in Britain).

I know, yikes!!

>31 lyzard: OK, happy to go ahead with that one next. There's a copy in the library system and I have it on reserve.

I'll say this for Australian fauna: Their notorious toxicity is matched only by their spectacular appearance across all manner of species! (Shorter version: That frog's quite the looker, and *of course* it's poisonous.) I hope the captive breeding program is successful in boosting its numbers; it would be shame to see such a specimen relegated to history.

>33 rosalita:

Well you're just a demon for backhanded compliments, aren't you?? :D

At least there's something being done but, my goodness, wouldn't it be nice if for once it wasn't necessary?

Finished Jew Süss for TIOLI #2.

(...not quite crushed by, but almost...)

And since I seem to have my German on---

Now reading The Children Of The World by Paul Heyse.

Speaking of German, I can only imagine that there was a rush of German translations in the US in the mid-1920s; anyway, there was certainly a rush of banning German translations in the late 1920s, as our next banned book also fits this category:

Twilight by Edouard von Keyserling.

Unfortunately this is looking like another one I'll have to skip, as I can find no access to it here nor any hint of an ebook. I will keep looking, but this might be another one that lands on Steve.

Best-selling books in the United States for 1986:

1. It by Stephen King
2. Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy and Larry Bond
3. Whirlwind by James Clavell
4. The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum
5. Hollywood Husbands by Jackie Collins
6. Wanderlust by Danielle Steel
7. I'll Take Manhattan by Judith Krantz
8. Last of the Breed by Louis L'Amour
9. The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
10. A Perfect Spy by John le Carré

Trash is still prominent in 1986, though political thrillers dominate.

Hollywood Husbands is an indirect sequel to Jackie Collins' Hollywood Wives (#9 on the 1983 list), with the same formula of secrets, scandal and sex in Tinsel Town. Judith Krantz's I'll Take Manhattan is about the rise of a publishing magnate and the men she burns through on her way to the top. Set in the 1930s, Danielle Steel's Wanderlust is about an adventurer and photographer who becomes drawn into the decade's growing international upheaval.

The final entry in his series about the Struan family, James Clavell's Whirlwind is set against the Iranian Revolution and deals with westerners trapped in the chaos. Louis L'Amour's Last of the Breed is about a Native American air-force pilot who escapes after being captured by the Soviets and must cross Siberia to reach freedom.

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Supremacy, the sequel to The Bourne Identity (#2 in 1980), deals with abduction of Bourne's wife as part of a plot to force him into pursuit of a false "Jason Bourne". Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising, written with his game-designer collaborator, Larry Bond, is a "futurewar" novel depicting WWIII between NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries. John le Carré's A Perfect Spy is about the crumbling life of a British intelligence officer / double agent.

Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides deals with a man's attempts to confront the trauma that has torn his family apart and his growing relationship with his therapist.

However, the best-selling book of 1986 was Stephen King's massive horror tome, It.

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland ME in 1947. After his father left when he was only two, King and his older brother experienced a peripatetic childhood as their mother was forced to move from place to place in order to support them. The three finally settled back in Maine when King was eleven. Always a voracious reader, he began writing in high school and won a Scholastic Art & Writing Award. He attended the University of Maine where, in a writer's workshop, he met his future wife, Tabitha Spruce; the two married in 1971 after the birth of their daughter, Naomi.

King qualified as a teacher and would eventually find a job teaching high school English. However, he had begun selling short stories while still at university, and continued to do so while first working. He began work on his first novel in 1973 and though he had little faith in it, finished and submitted it with the encouragement and input of his wife. To his astonishment, Carrie sold to Doubleday and went on to become both a critical and a commercial success, before becoming the basis of the film by Brian de Palma.

Not trusting his luck, King continued to teach. However, a class on Dracula led to a modernisation of the vampire myth, and when Salem's Lot, too, became a best-seller, he gave up his teaching post; though he would later teach creative writing at the University of Maine.

Over the succeeding years, King would experience steady success as a novelist, with his books regularly selling for screen adaptation. He made the Top Ten best-seller lists regularly starting in 1979 with The Dead Zone, shared the #1 spot with Peter Straub in 1984 with their fantasy novel, The Talisman (reviewed here), and in 1986 topped the chart for the first time solo with It.

Though increasingly criticised for the length and ill-discipline of his work (and even his fecundity), King continued to find popular success as he began to experiment with genre and embarked on a secondary career under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. He has also written non-fiction, with two series studies of the horror genre and horror writing, Danse Macabre, and the more general On Writing. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award for his genre writing, but also the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation and the National Medal of Arts from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts for his contributions to literature, among many others.

In 1999 Stephen King was seriously injured when struck by a car while out walking and almost lost a leg. His recovery was slow but he has since resumed his career and other activities. Meanwhile, King's wife, Tabitha, and their two sons, Owen and Joe, are also successful authors.

2023 #38
Publication date: 1986
Genre: Horror
Read for: Best-seller challenge

It - In Derry, Maine, in 1958, a small boy called George Denborough is grotesquely killed while the town suffers through a destructive flood. It is not the first such incident in Derry; nor will it be the last... Withdrawn in the wake of the tragedy and afflicted by an increasingly debilitating stutter, eleven-year-old Bill Denborough nevertheless finds himself becoming the nucleus and heart of a group of friends, all in some way outsiders like himself. As their friendship deepens, the seven discover that they have something in common: each has become aware of the dark force that lurks beneath Derry---and that feeds upon it: an entity so unimaginable they think of it simply as "It". As the death toll in the town escalates, "The Losers" band together and take the fight to their enemy... Later, exhausted and terrified, uncertain of their victory, the children swear a solemn oath that if in future the horror starts again, they will reunite and finish the job... Published in 1986 and Stephen King's first standalone best-seller, It is effectively a compendium of King's strengths and weaknesses as a novelist. Massively overlong, self-indulgent, repetitious and over-stuffed with obscenities, catchphrases and pop-cultural references, the novel is nevertheless simultaneously a powerful work of horror fiction, one working over a broad and detailed palette and capturing both the real and imaginary terrors of childhood. It is perhaps an unavoidable weakness in It that the adult characters are less engaging than their childhood counterparts; that said, the gallantry, imagination and reckless courage of the seven young protagonists, consoling themselves with rock and roll and monster movies as the prepare for a battle beyond the comprehension - and outside the vision - of the adults around them, carries the reader through. As with the best of horror, the power of the story is in the human connection and the question of what is at stake. And while I criticise It for being repetitious, which it certainly is, at the same time I am both amused and admiring of Stephen's King's success in crafting a plot in which repetition is the point: the horrors in Derry are cyclic, occurring approximately every quarter-century, with each cycle ending with some sort of "blood sacrifice", a hugely violent and deadly event. Meanwhile, one of the most discomforting touches in this book is the way in which (presumably under the influence of whatever counterforce in Derry "recruited" them in the first place) as adults, the friends exist in a sort of holding-pattern, their lives perversely echoing their childhood circumstances. More immediately, It is a novel replete with body horror and grotesqueries of all kinds---in addition to some downright ick (including one scene in particular that got King into plenty of trouble at the time, and which hasn't gotten any less disturbing over time). However, overlying all of this is an unforgettable figure that has understandably entered the general pop-cultural lexicon, with the shape-shifting force beneath Derry manifesting most frequently as Pennywise the Clown...and if we weren't all frightened of clowns before (disclosure: I was), we sure are now. As the seven children - Bill Denborough, Richie Tozier, Ben Hanscomb, Beverley Marsh, Eddie Kaspbrak, Stan Uris and Mike Hanlon - share both their day-to-day lives and the terrifying experiences that have made them aware of It, their interlocking personalities and their vivid imaginations meld them into a weapon that the entity feeding on Derry has never before confronted---because if the children believe in werewolves, they believe in silver bullets, too... In their first encounter with the monster, the friends go agonisingly close to destroying it---and twenty-seven years later the phone-calls come, alerting them that the horror has indeed begun again. However, not all of them will make it back to Derry---while those that do must somehow find again the faith and courage of their childhoods...

    Stan cuts his other hand. There is pain, but not much... Bill looks at his hands, both of them bleeding now, and then around him. The others are there - Eddie with his aspirator clutched tightly in one hand; Ben with big body pushing palely out through the tattered remains of his shirt; Richie, his face oddly naked without his glasses; Mike, silent and solemn, his normally full lips compressed in a thin line. And Beverley, her head up, her eyes wide and clear, her hair still somehow lovely in spite of the dirt that mats it.
    All of us. All of us are here.
    And he sees them, really sees them, for the last time, because in some way he understands that they will never all be together again, the seven of them---not this way. No one talks. Beverley holds out her hands, and after a moment Richie and Ben hold out theirs. Mike and Eddie do the same. Stan cuts them one by one as the sun begins to dip behind the horizon, cooling that red furnace-glow to a dusky rose pink. The whippoorwill cries again, Bill can see the first faint swirls of mist on the water, and he feels as if he has become a part of everything---this is a brief ecstasy which he will no more talk about than Beverley will later talk about the brief reflection she sees of two dead men who were, as boys, her friends...
    Beverley closes her eyes and holds her hands out to either side. Bill takes her left; Ben her right. Bill can feel the warmth of her blood mixing with his own. The others join in and they stand in a circle, all of their hands now sealed in that peculiarly intimate way. Stan is looking at Bill with a kind of urgency; a kind of fear.
    "Swuh-Swear to muh-me that you'll c-c-come buh-back," Bill says. "Swear to me that if Ih-Ih-It isn't d-d-dead, you'll cuh-home back."
    "Swear," Ben said.
    "Swear." Richie.
    "Yes---I swear." Bev.
    "Swear it," Mike Hanlon mutters.
    "Yeah. Swear." Eddie, his voice a thin and reedy whisper.
    "I swear too," Stan whispers, but his voice falters and he looks down as he speaks.
    "I-I swuh-swuh-swear."
    That was it; that was all. But they stand there for awhile longer, feeling the power that is in their circle, the closed body that they make...

>36 lyzard: I do have access to Twilight, but a dilemma in how to attack it. I'm inclined to read it in German, but it's actually a collection of the different works that were never published together in German. One, "Abendliche Häuser", was published alone but the other two, "Harmonie" and "Kersta", are only in anthologies and of course not the same one. So, the English volume? Or three in German? There's a limited number of people who would see this as a serious problem I suppose, but I expect you get it.

>40 swynn:

Oh hell yes. :D

Glad that you have access, though sorry to stick you with this again. My research didn't go so far as discovering these publication details. I did see Twilight referred to somewhere as "a short novel"---meaning that "Abendliche Häuser" was translated on its own?

If you have access to all three in German, I say go for it. Of course. :)

(I'm going to be sick of Stephanie Meyer before we get through this phase...)

Ugh.

So after interrupted site access earlier in the week, now I have an erratic wifi signal that keeps dropping out.

Ugh, ugh, ugh.

...and this morning I've woken up with my neck and shoulder seized. Oh joy.

>37 lyzard: I read two of those, the Clancy and the L'Amour. I liked both but the former was a bit dated when I finally read it (reviewed here on LT), but the L'Amour is really good (also reviewed)

>37 lyzard: Good luck. There are some books I can;t ever see myself reading, that might be one of them.

Hope the connections firms up and the neck & shoulder loosen up.

Hope you are feeling better, Liz.

Hi Liz,
Had you any thoughts on where to put this month's Campion read. Happy to follow your lead. It can fit in my challenge, if you'd not got plans already. From Mr Campion and others to Mrs Campion and others.

Well. This has been horrifying.

First things first:

Finished The Children Of The World by Paul Heyse for TIOLI #15.

Finished The Cardinal Of The Kremlin by Tom Clancy for TIOLI #4.

Finished Death Of A Swagman by Arthur Upfield for TIOLI #8.

Now reading Inspector Frost In Crevenna Cove by Herbert Maynard Smith.

Second things second:

With apologies for the very late reminder, there will be a group read next month incorporating two works:

- Curious, If True by Elizabeth Gaskell
- The Lifted Veil by George Eliot

The Gaskell is a collection of five short stories, and the Eliot is a novella. Consequently, the plan is to extend the group read into November, essentially doing one story per week so as to give each of them their proper due.

I will be setting up the thread over the weekend and will post around when it is up.

The group read will be conducted through the Virago group, but all welcome.

Now---

>44 fuzzi:

Yes, you have to keep contemporary politics firmly in mind when tackling these. The L'Amour did sound interesting, and I wasn't aware that he wrote that sort of fiction.

>37 lyzard:

As usual it's a blending of the off-putting and the really clever.

>37 lyzard:, 46

Thanks for checking in. The crappy signal stuck around and so did the muscle freeze. On top of that I've had a family situation sucking the life out of me. :(

Anyway...hopefully we're not through all that, though now I have even more catching up to do, sigh...

>47 Helenliz:

I'm happy to go with that if no other slot opens up.

Yes. So.

It feels like I only just did my 'what's coming up in September' post (and didn't get to all of that, short as the list was), but here we go with October (!!):

Curious, If True by Elizabeth Gaskell / The Lifted Veil by George Eliot {Virago Chronological Read project / group read}
Clear And Present Danger by Tom Clancy {best-seller challenge}
Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon by Charles James Lever {C. K. Shorter challenge}
Black Orchids by Rex Stout {shared read}
Mr Campion And Others by Margery Allingham {shared read}
Caravans by James A. Michener {random reading}

Whether I get to the last remains to be seen, and the Lever is a tiny-fonted chunkster, so ditto.

The rest have other people involved to keep me on the straight and narrow. :)

Though September is shaping as my equal worst-ever reading month, number-wise, tying with last May (which I still haven't finished writing up!), it did see me hit #75 for the year.

This puts me well behind my usual figures, though still on-track for 100 in the year, so I won't complain too much.

Too much. :)

In another piece of better news, my brother and sister-in-law are getting a new puppy, who will be coming home next Tuesday.

I hope this photo makes up for some of my moaning (and a lack of other content, ulp!)---

Adorable puppy!

I hope you’re starting to feel better and that the family mess gets sorted soon.

>55 lyzard: Oh, that's an adorable puppy! Name, breed, favorite color? :-)

Hope that things are "settling" as best as they can. Sounds like a stressful few weeks, but glad to see you back in full spirit.

Re: Curious, If True. Do you know which 5 stories are contained in the Virago edition? I have a Penguin edition called Gothic Tales by Gaskell that has 9 stories, and I'm wondering if it includes the 5 in the VMC edition. The Penguin does have "Curious, If True."

I bought this Penguin edition (new) in 2017, so it might be more accessible than the VMC.

>56 Matke:

Hi, Gail - thanks!

>57 rosalita:

Currently "Hudson" but whether that sticks might depends on whether he answers to it already or not. Cavoodle. We haven't been introduced yet so can't say. :)

>58 kac522:

Thanks, Kathy.

Variant editions!? - nooooooooooo!!!! :D

The Virago edition includes the following:

The Old Nurse's Story
The Poor Clare
Lois The Witch
The Grey Woman
Curious, If True

This is also the Project Gutenberg edition so there shouldn't be too much difficulty getting access even if the Virago version isn't available.

>60 lyzard: Great! All of these are included in the Penguin Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell, so I'll be reading from the copy I own.

>55 lyzard: So adorable and cute!

Sorry September was a bit pants.
Lovely looking little pup.

I have my copy of Mr Campion and others from the library, so I'm ready to go if you are.

>59 lyzard: A cavoodle named Hudson! That's quality work there. Will you get to meet him soon after he arrives at your brother's house?

And most importantly, have you told Chester and Spike about their new cousin?

>61 kac522:

Excellent!

>62 FAMeulstee:

Disgustingly so, yes. :)

>63 Helenliz:

Thanks. You'd think I'd be used to it by now. :D

Indeed he is.

Sounds good!

>64 rosalita:

His siblings were Barbie and Ken; they got adopted together. :)

There's some distance involved so I'll have to figure that one out.

Given how Spike reacts whenever the neighbours' dog comes wandering by, I think not. :D

Finished Inspector Frost In Crevenna Cove for TIOLI #6---

A rare instance of being tempted to go with the generic ebook cover, rather than the real first edition images: what the heck was going on here?

(Apart from anything else, incompetence, real or alleged, has no part in the narrative. The locals don't care for Frost's attitude and methods, but that's hardly the same thing.)


  

Anyway---

Now reading Curious, If True by Elizabeth Gaskell.

I'm still deciding whether I'll read this right through or pace it out with a second book, which might be a more appropriate approach...

ETA: Now also reading Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon by Charles James Lever.

The thread is now up for the group read of Eizabeth Gaskell's Curious, If True and George Eliot's The Lifted Veil:

Here

All welcome!

Finished Mr Campion and Others. I think it works quite well in the short story format.

Two sleepless nights out of the last three, WHAT fun.

I swear, if anything were to go right these days the shock of it would probably kill me...

>69 Helenliz:

Sorry to be unresponsive, Helen, but I did manage to bring Mr Campion And Others in under the wire. It was longer than I expected though, so it nearly caught me out!

OTOH Black Orchids was shorter than I expected so miraculously enough I have managed to meet this month's commitments...at least for reading...

Were you still planning on adding MCaO to your own challenge?

Another shitstorm of a month, another equal-worst-reading-numbers month (trust me to schedule a group read!).

But anyway---I have:

- finished Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon by Charles James Lever, for TIOLI #7

---and really must pause to do this:





- finished Clear And Present Danger by Tom Clancy, for TIOLI #11
- finished Curious, If True by Elizabeth Gaskell, for TIOLI #6
- finished Mr Campion And Others by Margery Allingham (not placed yet), for TIOLI #7.
- finished Black Orchids by Rex Stout, for TIOLI #4

---the latter between 2.30am and 4.30am this morning, while enduring a windstorm that felt like it was going to uproot a tree any moment (thankfully I was spared, many others not so lucky).

Sorry you've had a shit month. Hope November perks up.
I've popped it in there if you don't have a strong feeling either way. Have added an entry for you as well. >;-)

>73 Helenliz:

Fine with that, thanks! :)

I was hoping your absence was because you'd jetted off on a luxury trip to somewhere fabulous but alas. I'm sorry things continue to be suboptimal but glad to see you poking your head above the parapet here.

And hooray for polishing off Black Orchids. Two short stories read much faster than a novel of the same length, weirdly.

>75 rosalita:

The triumph of optimism over experience. :D

Listen, though, I've only read Black Orchids itself: the copy I found had a different second work. I'm having some trouble locating Cordially Invited To Meet Death and may have to read it in-library, but if we're treating those two stories as one work, I'll do that this month to catch up again.

Alas, I haven't given a proper thought yet to The Devil's Steps but I will nail that down too.

I'm very behind on your thread, of course---where are you up to with The Three Investigators? The Mystery Of The Singing Serpent fits TIOLI so I'll probably get to it (pretty sure that's the one with a g-i-r-l in it).

>76 lyzard: Well, that's annoying to have a different second story in the Black Orchids book! I had assumed we'd treat it as a single entry but I'm certainly open to splitting them if that works better for you.

I am appallingly far behind with Jupe & Co so will prioritize trying to catch up this month. I am only up to The Mystery of the Coughing Dragon!

I am at least caught up with Bony, so whenever you slot it in will work for me.

>77 rosalita:

Yeah, we got this here:



The original pair of novellas is only available in Rare Books so it looks like I'll have to take a trip in to my academic library this month. I've got a couple of other things I'll need to pick up anyway so that's not a problem.

You needn't worry about treating / listing them separately though. And at least I'll know where to find The Silent Speaker when we need it. :)

We'll try to keep Bony ticking over on schedule and just fit it the boys if/when we can.

So having finally looked into it, November is shaping as follows:

- The Lifted Veil by George Eliot {group read}
- The Plains Of Passage by Jean M. Auel {best-seller challenge}
- Cordially Invited To Meet Death by Rex Stout {shared read}
- The Devil's Steps by Arthur Upfield {shared read}
- The Mystery Of The Singing Serpent by M. V. Carey {shared read}
- Atlantis by Gerhart Hauptmann {Novel Prize challenge}

I have already finished The Lifted Veil for TIOLI #15; and perversely enough---

Now reading Caravans by James A Michener.

>78 lyzard: What's particularly weird about that combo is that The Silent Speaker is a full-length novel!

Also, good luck to people trying to read the corpus in order — they will have skipped another pair of novellas in between. This is the kind of thing that drives you crazy when you're trying to read your more obscure series, I know.

>80 rosalita:

I know! Maybe there was a copyright problem or maybe they just wanted to fill out a certain number of pages.

Yes. Yes, it does. :D

Hey Liz, hope your reading is getting another chance here in November. I was wondering what is the next Trollope group read you're planning? Is it Linda Tressel? If so I am at just the right spot in my Trollope marathon!

>82 NinieB:

Hi, Ninie! The reading is going better but the prospect of catching up reviews is pretty terrifying. :D

Our next Trollope is actually Nina Balatka; I think you said you'd read it recently? I hope you will lurk anyway. :)

Finished Caravans for TIOLI #13.

Now reading Atlantis by Gerhart Hauptmann.

>83 lyzard: We will enjoy your reviews whenever you get them to us!

That's right, how could I get those confused? Yes, I will be there, I still remember Nina Balatka pretty well.

>85 NinieB:

Thank you, Ninie. :)

Oh, good! We still have to nail down a date, of course; we'll tackle that once we're through The Lifted Veil.

In the unlikely event that anyone cares, I have finally gotten around to plugging the gaps up-thread with a Stephen King bio and a review of It.

Which means---

Sigh...

May stats:

Works read: 5
TIOLI: 5, in 4 different challenges, with 1 shared read

Horror: 2
Historical drama: 1
Mystery / thriller: 1
Young adult: 1

Series works: 3
Re-reads: 2
Blog reads: 0
1932: 1
1931: 0
Virago / Persephone: 0
Potential decommission: 0

Owned: 2
Library: 1
Ebooks: 2

Male authors : female authors: 4 : 1

Oldest work: Cut Throat by Christopher Bush (1932)
Newest work: It by Stephen King (1986)

******

YTD stats:

Works read: 42
TIOLI: 42, in 37 different challenges, with 6 shared reads

Mystery / thriller: 16
Classic: 8
Horror: 7
Historical drama: 4
Young adult: 3
Contemporary drama: 1
Historical romance: 1
Short stories: 1
Fantasy: 1

Series works: 27
Re-reads: 4
Blog reads: 1
1932: 1
1931: 1
Virago / Persephone: 0
Potential decommission: 0

Owned: 4
Library: 17
Ebooks: 21

Male authors : female authors: 30 : 14

Oldest work: Sayings And Doings; or, Sketches From Life (First Series) by Theodore Hook (1824)
Newest work: It by Stephen King (1986)

I feel like a very small and unobtrusive sloth is in order...

>89 lyzard: SLOTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

or, more accurately

WEE SLOTH IN A BLANKIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

>90 rosalita:

I may offer nothing else, but I do offer that.

2023 #43
Publication date: 1991
Genre: Non-fiction
Read for: TIOLI (all title words of different lengths)

The Black Hope Horror: The True Story of a Haunting - I came across the telemovie of this account of a haunting before learning that it was based upon a supposedly true story, and was sufficiently interested to track down the book. The Black Hope Horror recounts the experiences of Jean and Ben Williams, who in 1980 built a house in a rural development outside of Houston, and after moving in began to experience increasingly strange and threatening phenomena. In time, an excavation for a pool by the Williams' neighbours revealed that the housing development had been built over an old graveyard, one used for the burials of local slaves and their descendants. Since the cemetery was "unofficial", no formal records were kept---giving everyone involved in the development plausible deniability. Through this revelation, the Williams' learned that the three households surrounding theirs had been subject to the same strange phenomena as their own: all four properties having their power, water and sewage lines running directly through the cemetery... While belief or otherwise will be an individual thing, what struck me most about The Black Hope Horror was its mix of the paranormal and the pragmatic, with the Williams' account of their apparently supernatural persecution mixed into the story of the afflicted households' unavailing fight for recognition and recompense from the powerful development company. It is also notable that two of the other three families involved were willing to go on the record about their own experiences, under their real names (the fourth was given pseudonyms). Other parts of the story are also checkable in real-world terms, such as the alleged rapidity with which people moved in and out of the development over the following years. The most confronting aspect of the story, however, is the Williams' contention that their house was the source of the devastating health issues that ran riot through their extended family after they moved in, beginning with their adult daughter, Tina, who collapsed during her first visit there and was subsequently diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. The toll taken makes it seem churlish to cavil, though conversely we can understand why people so afflicted might grasp at any sort of explanation for their seeming persecution.

    "Just as God works in many ways, so does the Devil," Jean continues. "I think it takes extraordinary circumstances for diabolical power to assert itself this dramatically, to cause obvious supernatural phenomena, to induce sickness, insanity and death, to make people see, hear, feel things that aren't supposed to exist. But what in hell, and I do mean hell, could be more extraordinary than a desecrated graveyard, especially one that contains the bodies of the poor and the oppressed, people who were used as chattel or worse..."
    "There was anger, frustration, rage all around us," Ben adds. "No matter what the developer might claim, we talked to lots of old black folks. They were angry. Just more oppression. They said that as early as the power lines had been put in there, dug into the ground where the dead had been buried, they told the workers, people hired by the developer, about the Black Hope Graveyard."
    "Frustration and rage," Jean cuts in, "and it was coming from both the living and the dead. But like Sam and Judith Haney, Ben and I could never quite believe it was those dead souls themselves who were doing all this. Certainly they would be angry, but we felt something far more evil using that anger, stirring it up. I call it the Devil. You can call it what you will."

2023 #44
Publication date: 1929
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Francis McNab #2
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (next in a series)

The White Line - Originally published in 1929 as a standalone short story and revived in 2023, the second entry in John Alexander Ferguson's series featuring crime analyst Francis McNab is set on an ocean liner, with McNab drawn into a case featuring a love triangle and a diamond necklace. During their crossing, the passengers amuse themselves by betting on whether it will be the self-assured Jefferson Melhuish or the more reserved Hilary Harben who prevails in his courtship of heiress Sally Silver. The matter takes a far darker turn, however, when Sally's necklace is reported missing the morning after McNab, doing laps of the deck in the dark, sees someone coming out of her cabin. He cannot identify the man in question: he only knows he walked with a limp...

    People stood about in little groups. There were noddings and whisperings. Mrs Westmacott, observing him, came across and took a place beside him.
    "Well," she said, "you've heard what they're saying?"
    "No. What is it?"
    "They say the thief is a man with a limp. He was seen coming out of her state-room."
    McNab almost bounded out of his chair. "What?" he cried. "What's that you say?"
    "Ah, you know what that means. There aren't many lame men aboard, are there?"
    "I've seen only one."
    "Well, that seems to fasten the thing on him all right. Do you think he did it?"
    McNab regained his self-control. He looked at her fixedly.
    "I did," he said, "till you told me others are saying he did it."

2023 #45
Publication date: 1937
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Francis McNab #6
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (a republished book)

Death Of Mr Dodsley - After an exasperating encounter with a drunken and almost incoherent young man, a police constable is moved to inspect a bookstore in Charing Cross Road where he discovers that the proprietor, Richard Dodsley, has been shot dead. News of the murder hits hard in the household of MP David Grafton, whose estranged daughter, Margery, is involved with Dodsley's nephew, much to the dismay of her disapproving father and step-mother. During the investigation, Inspector Mallet discovers that the dead man had been consulting private investigator, Francis McNab, who reveals to him that Dodsley hired him to look into the steady disappearance from his shop of some if his more valuable holdings: a crime that necessarily implicates one or more of his assistants, or his nephew... The final entry in John Alexander Ferguson's series featuring Francis McNab - officially promoted, at the last, from newspaper crime analyst to professional private investigator - is a strangely plotted mystery set deep in the world of rare books and featuring much unkind humour predicated upon police ignorance of such matters (and, for that matter, books generally). Further meta-humour is offered involving detective stories generally, and in particular that one written by Margery Grafton---a novel subject to scathing newspaper reviews on the grounds of the improbability of its plot, which strangely enough prefigures almost exactly the circumstances of Richard Dodsley's murder...and which leads in turn to the suggestion that Margery was trying to re-enact her own murder plot to prove it could be done, in spite of what the critics say... But while there is a tone of humour throughout Death Of Mr Dodsley, the mystery is by and large serious enough, with Inspector Malley, his subordinate Sergeant Crabb and Francis McNab all trying to determine whether they are investigating one crime or two - whether the thefts and the murder are connected or not - with the initial evidence pointing at a man and a woman working together. McNab is off-stage for a significant stretch of the novel as Scotland Yard interrogates those closest to Dodsley, a trail that leads them finally to the Grafton household, and to the question of alibis - or not - for Margery Grafton and Dick Dodsley. The private investigator re-enters the story when, in fear of the police, and believing despite appearances in the innocence of Dick and Margery, Grafton's secretary, Owen Brewster, turns to him for help. Brewster's first contribution, however, does his friends no good: though Dick seems to have an unassailable alibi, in that he is lying in a cottage hospital after crashing his motorcycle the night before, Brewster must confess that he saw him in London, hale and hearty, earlier that night...

    Miss Grafton was soon acquainted with PC Roberts' encounter with the young man who was suspected of some connection with the crime. "Ridiculous," she cried, "when Dick was lying unconscious on the roadside at the time. And as against that all they had to go on was the fact that he is engaged to me!"
    To Brewster's lifted inquiring eyebrows McNab replied by a surreptitious shake of the head. It would be as well if Margery did not know yet the accident must have occurred not on the way to but on the return from London.
    "Shows how hard put they are," he remarked. "I've a notion they first suspected that young man to be George."
    She wheeled quickly. "Because he's my brother. Don't you see what that means? I was right: they think I'm in it too."
    McNab tried a natural explanation. "They are working on the assumption that a man and a woman were in it."
    This brought to light the detective story-writer in Margery Grafton.
    "Yes," she flashed at him, "and you observe, the woman suspected remains the same, though the man varies, though he must always be someone connected with her." She laughed harshly, turning to Brewster. "Wait, Owen, you'll see! When they drop Dick, they'll be on either you or father!"

2023 #46
Publication date: 1935
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Madame Storey #10
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (next in a series)

The Richest Widow - While sailing home from Paris, Madame Rosika Storey falls into the clutches of Mrs Hibbert Lacy, notoriously America's richest widow. Accepting a dinner invitation for herself and her secretary, Bella Brickley, Madame Storey finds Mrs Lacy travelling in a group consisting of her own secretary, Sigismonda Van Vliet, her nephews, cousins Wesley and Harold Lacy, and a handsome though not very talented young English actor, Ronald Mackworth. Over dinner, Mrs Lacy astonishes her guests by announcing her marriage to Mackworth, who is some thirty years her junior. The others are aghast, the Lacys because they expected to benefit under the now-invalidated will, and Miss Van Vliet because she is herself in love with Mackworth. The morning after this dramatic dinner-party, the captain of the Baratoria learns that both Mr and Mrs Mackworth have disappeared... Coincidentally, after The White Line (above), this is another short series entry built around crime playing out within the luxurious confines of an ocean liner. Madame Storey is asked by Captain Coulson to look into the matter, and she is soon satisfied, from the design of the suite of rooms, that if a crime has been committed, it must have been an inside job. She observes that neither bed in the state-room has been slept in; that Mrs Mackworth's jewels are intact; and that though Ronnie Mackworth seems to have changed into his night clothes, his wife did not. To this Madame Storey can add that she and Bella met Mackworth during the evening, apparently searching for his wife. A close inspection of the scene reveals that several hand-towels are missing; there is also a damp spot on the floor of Mrs Mackworth's bathroom, where something has been cleared up. Madame Storey's next move is to inspect the cabin's port-holes...

    Madame Storey pointed to a slight smear of blood on one of the brass rims. "They always overlook something," she remarked. She stuck her head out of the porthole, and when she drew it in, invited us to take a look. On the black-painted side of the vessel some feet below the porthole was a tell-tale reddish swipe.
    "First the woman was lowered while her husband was up on deck," murmured Captain Coulson. "Then the man after he had returned below."
    "So it appears," said Madame Storey.
    "But how could he get one and another without any outcry being raised?"
    "The man may have been asleep," I suggested.
    "Maybe. But the woman wasn't asleep. And if she was sitting there in front of her mirror, she could see anybody who might try to steal up behind her."
    "But we're satisfied, aren't we, that it was somebody in the suite, that is to say, somebody she knew?" suggested Madame Storey.

2023 #47
Publication date: 1936
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Madame Storey #11
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (fits the 2023 Seattle Public Library Summer Book Bingo)

The Kidnapping Of Madame Storey - The final entry in Hulbert Footner's series featuring private investigator Madame Rosika Storey consists of five previously uncollected "novelettes", as Footner called them, culled from Argosy magazine, and which as a theme find their protagonist and her constantly dismayed but stubbornly loyal secretary (and narrator) generally out of their New York comfort zone. In Madame Storey's Gigolo, an attempted holiday in Monte Carlo reveals that an organised gang of gigolos is robbing their female targets, who are invariably too humiliated to press charges. In her effort to discover the mastermind behind the crimes, Madame Storey makes contact with one young man who wants out; but when this leads to his murder, she undertakes a dangerous undercover operation... In The Scent Of Almonds, Madame Storey travels to a resort island off Georgia, where Win Bucknall has been lured away from the reserved but passionate Elsie Southam by Laila Deane, a selfish and dangerously manipulative woman. When Laila dies of prussic acid poisoning, the entire Southam family - and Win himself - are suspect... In Pink-Eye, Clifford Durdan is burned to death in what appears to be a horrible accident; but subsequently his older brother, bank president Elmer Durdan, becomes convinced that he was murdered by a man with his eye on Clifford's wealthy widow. Called in six weeks after the event, Madame Storey faces the daunting task of proving murder---or otherwise... In The Kidnapping Of Madame Storey, a wave of kidnappings for ransom climaxes when the detective herself falls into the hands of the head of one of the criminal gangs responsible, who has a proposition for her: help him rub out his competition... In The Murders In The Hotel Cathay, harassing publicity drives Madame Storey to the drastic step of planning a trip to China, but once there she finds herself enmeshed in a case of fraud, art forgery and murder...

    Durdan leaned towards her in his eagerness. His breath was coming fast, and the knuckles that gripped his chair were white. "A hundred thousand dollars if you can hang the murder on Ewan Santley!"
    Madame Storey looked at him as from far off. "I do not accept commissions of that sort," she said coldly. "I do not set out to hang anything on anybody. If you want the truth wherever it may lead us, that's another matter."
    He saw that he had made a bad break, and made haste to cover it. "Surely! Surely!" he blustered. "The truth. What else am I paying for?"
    Just the same from that moment his enthusiasm for Madame Storey as an investigator visibly waned. I am sure he would have called the thing off then and there, if he had not been too much afraid of losing face.
    "I shall have to question Santley about his movements on the night of your brother's death," said Madame Storey. "He will know by that that an investigation has been started, and if he's guilty he may run for it."
    "Let him run!" said Durdan with an ugly grin. "It will be a proof of his guilt, and that's all I want." He leaned forward in his eagerness. "Give it to him straight! He knows who you are. It will put the fear of God into him to find that you are on his trail!"
    "Well, let's leave God out of it," said Madame Storey dryly.

2023 #48
Publication date: 1938
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Philo Vance #11
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (a spelled out odd number on the first page)

The Gracie Allen Murder Case (reissue title: The Scent Of Murder) - The penultimate entry in the Philo Vance series by "S. S. Van Dine" (Willard Huntington Wright) is a strange and uncomfortable work in which, to the usual annoyances associated with Vance himself, we have the addition of the contemporary comedy duo of Gracie Allen and George Burns---not in their own personas, but as different versions of themselves, as it were. The case starts seriously enough with the escape from prison of a dangerous criminal who, upon his conviction, threatened to "get" District Attorney John Markham. Markham himself dismisses the possible danger, but his subordinate Sergeant Heath refuses to take the matter lightly, and arranges surveillance for the criminal's old hideout. Meanwhile, enjoying an afternoon in the wilderness on the Palisades, Vance encounters a young woman on the same errand with a young man---though her artless chatter reveals her interest in quite a different young man, a certain Mr Burns, who works as a chemist for a perfumery and has signaled his own intentions by designing for her a new scent. Falling in with her badinage, Vance draws upon his own, more serious conversation with Markham the night before, and invents a story wherein he has taken summery revenge on a man who threatened a friend of his. Their paths cross again at a nightclub where Miss Allen is escorted by Mr Puttle, under the glowering gaze of Mr Burns, where Miss Allen's brother Philip works---and where the evening culminates in murder... The overall tone of The Gracie Allen Murder Case is desperation on its author's part, revealed in the ever-increasing pile-up of adjectives used in the narration (see quote below) to try and convince the reader that something both worthwhile and entertaining is unfolding. This approach likewise applies to the presence of the faux-Gracie, as we are asked to believe that not just Vance but his law-enforcement collaborators stop dead and smile and chuckle indulgently every time she opens her mouth. Of course there is supposed to be much wisdom in her nonsense, with her endless ramblings putting Vance on the track of the truth. Buried somewhere under the verbiage is a mystery involving murder committed in the office of a shady character called Mirche, who among other things owns the Domdaniel nightclub. The victim is at first thought to be Philip Allen, but at length is identified as "Benny the Buzzard", the escaped convict---who Vance has, in effect, already confessed to murdering. On the other hand, found upon the body is George Burns' cigarette-case; plus Benny died of some strange form of poison, such as might be used by a chemist...

    Philo Vance, curiously enough, always liked the Gracie Allen murder case more than any of the others in which he participated.
    The case was, perhaps, not as serious as some of the others---although, on second thought, I am not so sure that this is strictly true. Indeed, it was fraught with many ominous potentialities; and its basic elements (as I look back now) were, in fact, intensely dramatic and sinister, despite its almost constant leaven of humor.
    I have often asked Vance why he felt so keen a fondness for this case, and he has always airily retorted with a brief explanation that it constituted his one patent failure as an investigator of the many crimes presented to him by District Attorney John F.-X. Markham.
    “No---oh, no, Van; it was not my case at all, don’t y’ know,” Vance drawled, as we sat before his grate fire one wintry evening, long after the events. “Really, y’ know, I deserve none of the credit. I would have been utterly baffled and helpless had it not been for the charming Gracie Allen who always popped up at just the crucial moment to save me from disaster... If ever you should embalm the case in print, please place the credit where it rightfully belongs... My word, what an astonishing girl! The goddesses of Zeus’ Olympian ménage never harassed old Priam and Agamemnon with the éclat exhibited by Gracie Allen in harassing the recidivists of that highly scented affair. Amazin’!...”

2023 #49
Publication date: 1927
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Dr Eustace Hailey #3
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (rolling challenge: mystery)

The Mystery Of The Ashes - When Bruce Netherby breaks his engagement to the erratic, passionate Patricia Deane, she reacts with an attempt at murder-suicide. Both survive, but Patricia is left horribly disfigured. The matter is hushed up and the two do not meet again for four years, when Bruce visits Patricia at her Northumbria home, "The Ashes"---and Patricia has not been seen since... Psychologist Dr Eustace Hailey travels north with his friend and colleague, Inspector Biles of Scotland Yard. When they arrive at the scene, the local police are dragging the waters beneath the cliffs upon which The Ashes stands. A body is found---but it is that of a man, Major Pykemaster, whose illicit involvement with Patricia led to the broken engagement. There is the gash of a knife in his neck but, in Dr Hailey's opinion, it was inflicted after death. Also found is the thick veil with which Patricia invariably concealed her face... After the disappointing The Double-Thirteen Mystery, a rather tiresome thriller, in The Mystery Of The Ashes Anthony Wynne has his medical detective, Dr Eustace Hailey, back in the realm of a complex murder mystery based upon aberrant psychology. The first Hailey novel, The Mystery Of The Evil Eye, was one of the first Golden Age mysteries to deal with a serial killer, albeit obliquely; while the psychological aspects of The Mystery Of The Ashes culminate in a genuinely startling twist, one that I have not come across before in a novel of this vintage. The narrative offers other surprises, such as the ruthless killing off of a sympathetic character who seems set up to be Hailey's sidekick for the duration; while its central mystery is so complicated, it is difficult to keep your head around all the details. In other ways, The Mystery Of The Ashes treads more familiar ground---with the exasperatingly bull-headed Inspector Biles making up his mind at the outset about Bruce Netherby's guilt and arresting him for murder, so forcing the unconvinced Dr Hailey to pursue his own investigation. Further complications immediately ensue, including the disappearance of Bruce's fiancée, Joan Pollard, and murder committed almost under Dr Hailey's nose. The investigation of the latter reveals a secret passageway leading from what was Patricia Keane's bedroom at The Ashes down to the face of the cliffs. Inside are three sets of footprints, one identified as Bruce Netherby's, one as Patricia's---and those stop abruptly... Having found, as it seems, definitive proof of Patricia's murder and the involvement, at least, of Netherby, the investigation is thrown into chaos with word of a heavily veiled woman claiming to be Patricia Keane, who hired both a car and a plane on the night of the second murder. Inspector Biles suspects that the woman was Joan Pollard, trying to create doubt of Patricia's death. Dr Hailey's suspicions run in different direction: that the "woman" was actually a man---an odd friend of Bruce Netherby's called Pely catching his professional eye---but what motive could there be...?

    Hailey went downstairs, meaning to telephone to Scotland Yard. But before he did that, he tried once again to set the facts of the mystery of The Ashes before him. There were three distinct and separate murders, or, at any rate, attempts at murder: that of Major Pykemaster, who had apparently died of shock when face to face with his assassin; that of Patricia Keane; and that of Mabel Netherby. By what thread of circumstance or emotion were these strange and apparently unconnected events united? Further, what was their relationship to the attempts, the most determined attempts, which Pely had made on his own life, and to the disappearance of the girl Joan Pollard?
    He paced the room as these questions arose in his mind. One thing at least seemed to be beyond doubt---Pely's insanity. If his experience as a mental specialist possessed any value at all, then this youth was definitely a homicidal maniac---that is to say, the emotional side of his nature had become focused in a single obsession, the lust to shed blood. What normal men give to the love of women this man had given to the frightful act of slaughter...

>98 lyzard: I thought this was going to be about cricket.

>99 rosalita:

Oh, well played! :D

>100 lyzard: :-D

If I'd been thinking more clearly, I would have added, "which is certainly a mystery to me".

>101 rosalita:

I was rather expecting something along those lines. :D

2023 #51
Publication date: 1940
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte #8
Read for: Shared read

Bushranger Of The Skies - Camping in a rare shade patch high on a ridge on the edge of Central Australia, Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte is a distant witness of a strange and deadly incident, when a car is struck and destroyed by a small bomb dropped from a circling aircraft. When the plane has retreated, Bony ventures out of shelter to inspect the wreckage where he discovers two dead men and, burned but intact, a small leather case. The next moment he finds himself at spear-point... Having explained himself to Writjitandil, also known as Burning Water, Chief of the Wantella Nation, the two men head for the remote property of Donald McPherson, Bony's original destination; though they must first survive an attack by men of the Illprinka Nation, who Bony sees clearly are in league with the unknown pilot. Upon arrival at McPherson's Station, Bony faces still more hostility from the autocratic owner of the property, who is accustomed to wielding total power and resents the detective's presence. Undaunted, Bony explains that his orders are to investigate the murders of two stockmen and the increasing tensions between the two local tribes; while to this, he may now add the murders of Police Sergeant Errey and his native driver... The eighth entry in Arthur Upfield's series featuring Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte, Bushranger Of The Skies is a somewhat anomalous work, from its dramatic, in medias res opening, to its shift from a mystery to a thriller, to the way in which it brings front-and-centre the racial issues which unavoidably impact the life and work of its mixed-race protagonist, and which more usually lurk at the fringes of Upfield's narratives. There is emphasis upon the bushcraft and the more mysterious powers of the indigenous peoples, and Writjitandil is a fully realised character of intelligence and personal magnetism, whose role in the story's denouement is even more critical than Bony's own. Meanwhile, the more familiar aspects of this novel include the detailed geography of the remore area in which its action unfolds, and its focus upon aviation, playing a dual role as both a source of rescue and aide, in the person of the local flying doctor, Harry Whyte, and as the means of, literally, death from the skies. It is quickly evident to Bony that Donald McPherson knows very well who is behind the increasingly violent attacks upon McPherson's station. Partly through deduction and partly through persuasion, the detective learns the history of McPherson's son, Rex. Though the relationship between McPherson and Tarlalin, the sister of Writjitandil, was clearly serious, it was never - of course - formalised as marriage; and Rex McPherson's anger and resentment at his anomalous position is something that no-one understands better than Bony himself. In fact, while his crimes are shocking and must be stopped, Bushranger Of The Skies allows itself to express a surprising degree of tacit sympathy for Rex, who in revenge against his father intends to acquire not only McPherson's Station but also Flora, McPherson's niece---and extraordinarily enough, given this novel's vintage, Rex's demand to know why what was considered fit for his (black) mother isn't also fit for his (white) cousin is allowed to stand---with the issue being, rather, Flora's lack of consent. Realising early that Flora is part of Rex's end-game, Bony tries to persuade her to leave McPherson's Station, but is unable to convince her it wouldn't be "running away". His worst fears are fulfilled when the girl is abducted and carried away to Rex's desert fortress, where the Illprinka men serve him as a private army, forcing Bony and Writjitandil to risk their lives on a desperate rescue mission...

    The leaders of the human pack were silent. So was the pack itself. Nevin's pale blue eyes were squinting into the sunlight. Hatless, Dr Whyte rode with the sun striking full on his ashen face. Burning Water's face was calm, like the face of a sphinx, but his eyes were large black opals. Hoof thuds, creaking leather, the occasional snort of a horse were the only sounds to the rear of Bonaparte. Ahead lay sunlit silence. Ahead lay that fearful shadow in which lurked flame like a spider deep in its webbed tunnel.
    Now the tracks led them out of the scrub to the ribbed slopes of the high land, led them downward to the lower and level country of the plain already beginning to be painted with growing sunset colours. Here the feet of the land shoulders were wearing shoes of green buckbush ending in curving edges of the claypan comprising the verge. The scene was not unlike that of a rocky coast. The buckbush might be imagined as the shingle beach, the claypans as the sand flas left dry by the receding tide, which in turn could be the herbal rubbish, capped by old-man saltbush. Ahead of Bony and his followers a great cape jutted far out on to the tideless, motionless land sea.
    Abruptly Bonaparte reined back his horse and shouted for a halt. His mount circled like a sitting dog biting for a flea whilst he leaned out and downward from the saddle reading this open page of The Book Of The Bush. Presently he beckoned his lieutenants to him.
    "Here Miss McPherson refused to accompany any farther the blackfeller she had been walking with from the house. Her suspicions were aroused, and here she realised the trap she had fallen into. She turned to run back, then stopped and faced the aborigine. She fought him and, it seems, he knocked her senseless. From here his tracks go on alone. He carried the girl..."

2023 #52
Publication date: 1937
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Albert Campion #9
Read for: Shared read

Dancers In Mourning - Musical stage-star James Sutane finds himself the target of a campaign of malicious pranks which, though each is trivial in itself, is beginning to play upon his nerves, and which is accompanied by a series of critical newspaper paragraphs that is beginning to impact his popularity---and hence the financial success of his shows. Alerted to the situation, Albert Campion agrees to be a houseguest at the Sutanes' country house outside London: a new arrangement that is also creating a certain amount of tension with the surrounding, "county" neighbours. Another mystery is why Sutane has made a place in his show for the superannuated Chloe Pyne: another houseguest, and one intent on exploiting her position no matter how much discomfort it causes. Amongst the erratic gathering of dancers and musicians and their various hangers-on, Campion finds himself drawn to Sutane's quiet, gentle wife, Linda; and increasingly, it is the effect of all the turmoil upon her that concerns him. But mere annoyance soon escalates into tragedy, when Chloe Pyne is found dead under curious circumstances that implicate Sutane... Margery Allingham's Dancers In Mourning carries amateur detective Albert Campion out of his usual comfort zone of either very high or very low society, and into the more Bohemian world of the stage---though as he is swift to realise, though the lifestyle of the artiste and its associated problems might differ, people are the same all over. This is, however, quite a "crowded" novel, and the necessity of keeping straight the various members of the extended Sutane household, their histories and their relationships to one another makes some significant demands upon the reader---not least since, as is soon evident, these background details are critical in the elucidation of this novel's various mysteries. Another anomaly here is Campion's sudden plunge into infatuation, to put it no more strongly, with respect to Linda Sutane who, devoted to her troubled husband, obliviously turns to him for help - help for James - a situation which causes Campion great distress as he comes increasingly to suspect that the various escalating pressures may have driven James Sutane to murder... There is a surprisingly nasty edge to Dancers In Mourning. The campaign against Sutane, each blow petty in itself, perhaps, amounts to serious persecution when considered in total; and, more than just a matter of individual spite, is likely to have serious financial consequences upon Sutane and all those whose lives and careers are tied to his, if it can affect the success of the new show in which he has so much invested. Meanwhile, the curious circumstances of Chloe Pyne's death - was it murder, suicide, or a grotesque accident? - have justified Campion in remaining quiet and cautious, whatever his suspicions; but when unmistakable murder is committed in the the form of a planted bomb that kills three bystanders as well as the intended victim, Campion is in full agreement with the police that the killer must be apprehended at once---no matter who it is, and no matter who gets hurt...

    "You're very hard," Linda said. "I didn't realise that, incredibly hard."
    "Solid rock," Campion agreed. "Granite. Beneath the superstratum of mud you come to stone. The ghastly monotony is relieved here and there by occasional fossilised fish."
    "Oh, well, it's been very---very interesting," she said and climbed out of the chair. She smiled at him, her brown eyes shining.
    He did not echo it. His face was pinched and grey.
    "Did you come by car, or may I take you to the station?"
    She moved close to him and looked up at him, her face working. "I'm frightened," she said. "That's really why I came. I don't know what's going to happen next. I'm alone down there with them all and I'm physically frightened. Don't you see?"
    Mr Campion stood staring down at her with his arms hanging limply at his sides. Presently he lifted his chin and looked over her head. His expression was blank and introspective.
    "All right," he said with sudden brisk decision. "We'll go now. This is my full responsibility, remember. It's nothing to do with you at all. Both your husband and the police have asked me to make an investigation and I'll try to do it. That's all. But I'm afraid..."
    He broke off and she prompted him. "What?"
    "Afraid the time might come when you will think I'm a pretty low-down sort of tick, Linda my sweet," said Mr Campion gravely.

Finished Atlantis for TIOLI #11.

Now reading The Meriwether Mystery by Kay Cleaver Strahan; also pondering a bath book.

ETA: Now also reading White Face by Edgar Wallace.

>103 lyzard: This was definitely a departure from the usual for this series, Liz. I liked it a lot, but it was weird how it devolved into an action thriller, complete with the remote lair of the villain. I can appreciate how Upfield was stretching himself and his main character into situations that maybe weren't what you'd expect a policeman to get himself into.

>106 rosalita:

It's interesting that this was the book before the war-break---as if Upfield was just starting to experiment with his formula when he had to stop altogether. We'll find out, I guess, if he picked that up again: not quite in the same way, but I did think there were a couple of different aspects to Death Of A Swagman...which I'm sure I'll get around to saying one of these days. :D

>107 lyzard: Yes, I'm looking forward to discussing that one with you — assuming I still remember reading it by then! :-P

Finished The Meriwether Mystery for TIOLI #8.

Still reading White Face by Edgar Wallace.

Finished White Face for TIOLI #3...and FINISHED A SERIES!!

Sort of.

While the novels of Edgar Wallace featuring Sergeant Elk of Scotland Yard, who does - eventually - rise to the rank of Inspector are usually treated as a series, Elk himself is invariably only a supporting character in the narrative---an important one, whose knowledge of London and its criminal world is vital in cracking the case, but never the focus of the story nor the lead detective. He is usually one of the best things in these books, so we can go along with his accepted ranking of "series character".

Still...I think this warrants only a small marmoset...

Now reading Brother Jacob by George Eliot.

>110 lyzard: What IS that wee marmoset sitting on, a pile of kiwi fruits?

Also, I have begun (finally) The Mystery of the Coughing Dragon and note that Alfred Hitchcock has been transformed back into a famous film director and not a detective. What a relief!

>112 rosalita:

Don't think it's that but yeah??

Yes, I'm much more careful in picking my editions these days!

Finished Brother Jacob for TIOLI #15.

Now reading Murder In The French Room by Helen Joan Hultman.

>113 lyzard: Also, I just realized my ebook doesn't have the standard introduction by Alfred Hitchcock, whether movie director or detective. I assume it's just a bad conversion from the hard copy, unless they publisher dispensed with the introductions once the series was well-established?

>115 rosalita:

Yeah, might be either. I haven't come across one without the intro yet but I'm hunting out the earlier editions, so I can't be sure.

The 17th marks the 5th anniversary of Gotcha Day for these two...who I guess are pretty adorable, when they're not being destructive, disobedient little @#$%s:


  

Such handsome delightful kitties

>117 lyzard: Now just look at those faces, Liz — butter wouldn't melt in their mouths! Clearly you must have a poltergeist in your home who is doing mischief and blaming these precious boys.

>118 Matke:

I'll pass that on, Gail. :)

>119 rosalita:

Yeah, you're right---it's a poltergeist that claws the post beside my front door and jumps off the forbidden countertop with a THUMP every time it hears me coming. :D

Happy gotcha day to Liz & her fur boys. >:-)

>121 Helenliz:

Thank you, Helen! :)

Finished Murder In The French Room for TIOLI #9.

Now reading Ben On The Job by J. Jefferson Farjeon.

Finished Ben On The Job for TIOLI #2.

Also took a run in to Rare Books, and finished Cordially Invited To Meet Death by Rex Stout, for TIOLI #15.

And now reading...

...sigh...

...The Plains Of Passage by Jean M. Auel.

Finished The Plains Of Passage for TIOLI #5.





Now gratefully reading The Devil's Steps by Arthur Upfield.

>125 lyzard: How many more of those Auel doorstoppers do you have to read, Liz?! Asking for concerned friends ...

>126 rosalita:

:D

There's two more in the series but whether I (and Steve) HAVE to read them remains to be seen.

{*Quaking in her boots as she realises she has't yet checked December's best-seller*}