The British Library has just issued its catalogue for the first half of next year, and it's full of good things. Including, naturally, half a dozen Crime Classics that will offer a wide variety of delights for fans of good mystery fiction. For many people, I suspect the stand-out title will be The Woman in the Wardrobe by Peter Shaffer. This splendid impossible crime story was the work of a major writer in the making. Shaffer wrote it in his early twenties and I've been trying to get it back in print for years. This has not been easy to achieve, but I'm glad that a new generation of readers will have a chance to enjoy it at last.
John Dickson Carr returns, with another Henri Bencolin story, the splendidly atmospheric Castle Skull, set in the Rhineland. We're also back in continental Europe with Crossed Skis, by Carol Carnac. Carnac was a pen-name of Carol Rivett, better known as E.C.R. Lorac, and this is a very enjoyable Alpine mystery indeed - even if, like me, you wouldn't want to be caught dead on a pair of skis.
I'm delighted that Mary Kelly's The Spoilt Kill is included in the list. This is the book that won her the CWA Gold Dagger when she was still in her early thirties - perhaps there have been younger winners since then, but not many, that's for sure. I read the novel many years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it when rereading it prior to writing my intro for this edition. I've also benefited from the insights of the author's husband, Denis, who has been enormously helpful.
By popular demand, there's another John Bude book - in fact, a volume which contains two rare Bude novels, Death in White Pyjamas and an impossible crime story, Death Knows No Calendar. And finally there is another anthology which I've put together. Settling Scores is a collection of sporting mysteries; each story is by a different author, and each features a different sport.
Bude's Death Knows No Calendar! Shaffer's The Woman in the Wardrobe!! As the resident locked room fanboy, I couldn't be more happy if you told there was a second BL impossible crime anthology in the works!!! ;)
ReplyDeleteGlad to see the Mary Kelly on the list. I've read Dead Man's Riddle from her earlier Brett Nightingale series. Will look forward to trying another by her.
ReplyDeleteVery exciting to read that after decades of wishing for a reprint of The Woman in the Wardrobe it will finally see the light of day. Patience pays off sometimes. Any plans to reprint the other "Peter Antony" books? Withered Murder is a brilliant book and definitely deserves a reissue. And diehard fans would like to see How Doth the Little Crocodile? as well though I wasn't such a fan of that one.
ReplyDeleteHello TomCat, very glad you're happy! It's an exciting list and as for a second locked room antho, well it won't be in the next twelve months because of other priorities, but after that - you never know!
ReplyDeleteHi John. I'd love the other two books to reappear. The snag is that we'd be dealing with two family estates, one of them complex, and I suspect it will take a considerable time before it's clear whether it's do-able. But of course, it's long been on my wishlist.
ReplyDeleteHi Bev, glad you're another Mary Kelly fan. The Christmas Egg is out fairly soon, as well. An unorthodox Christmas mystery and Nightingale's final appearance.
ReplyDeleteExcellent titles, Martin, especially the Shaffer. I really enjoyed the Mr Verity included in Bodies from the Library so I’m looking forward to this
ReplyDeleteAs a new JDC fan I’m really looking forward to Castle Skull. Any other Carr/Carter books in the pipeline? Also very excited about The Spoilt Kill...Kelly’s books are so hard to come by. Oh...and the anthology...I always find new authors through reading them.
ReplyDeleteThis looks fabulous. Thanks for the heads up, Martin!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update, Martin. I’m especially excited about the Shaffer reprint. I managed to secure a copy of “Crocodile”, and was disappointed to hear it’s meant to be one of Shaffer’s lesser mysteries. And so I’m looking forward to “Wardrobe”! And more Carr is always good - even though I already owe copies of “It Walks by Night” and “Castle Skull”.
ReplyDeleteALWAYS glad to see Carr back in print! The Bencolins are such fun.
ReplyDelete-Jeff Matthews
I'll definitely be buying the Carnac title - thankfully it's one I don't already have - and the Carr (which I read years ago, soon after it was belatedly published in this country), as well as the Shaffer. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteLaurie, thanks for commenting. I am hopeful that there will be more Carr titles fairly soon. To some extent, it may depend on sales, but I am optimistic that there will be a very good response to the two Bencolin books. Yes, Mary Kelly has long been out of sight, which is sobering when you remember that she won a Gold Dagger!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jonathan. Although it's a long time since I read Crocodile, I recall enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jeff. Fingers crossed that there will be more...
ReplyDeleteJonathan O, I was impressed with Crossed Skis. She managed to make it interesting even for someone who has no interest at all in ski-ing.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you could do a "compare and contrast" with Dead Men Don't Ski by Patricia Moyes.
ReplyDeleteGreat news! "The Woman in the Wardrobe" intrigues me, but also the Mary Kelly's book. I've already ordered "The Christmas Egg" along with "It Walks by Night"; I love Bencolin, and I hope there will be other Carr's books. I've just read (and review) "The Lost Gallows": it's stunning.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jonathan 0. A good idea, and I do have Dead Men Don't Ski. The only snag is that I haven't read it yet!
ReplyDeleteI should add, Jonathan, that there's another book in that vein, a singleton by Hetty Ritchie (who was, I believe, an accomplished skier), Death Runs on Skis. I have read that one. It's quite a likeable thriller, not a whodunit.
ReplyDeleteRaymond, The Spoilt Kill is a very good one. The Christmas Egg is unusual, not like other Christmas mysteries. (The same was true in a different way of Portrait of a Murderer). I share your hope that more Carr books will be reprinted.
ReplyDeleteTo come back to a potential future locked room anthology, I compiled a list on my blog with short stories that have been either inexplicably overlooked in past anthologies or deserve to be in a future one. I thought you might find it interesting.
ReplyDeletehttps://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-locked-room-reader-xi-locked-out.html
Thanks, TomCat, I do indeed find it interesting. An anthology containing some of those forgotten stories would be fantastic. As far as I can see very few of them are by British writers, so it's unlikely to be a British Library Crime Classic, but the revival of interest in locked rooms makes it more likely that some other kind of anthology would be viable.
ReplyDelete"As far as I can see very few of them are by British writers, so it's unlikely to be a British Library Crime Classic..."
ReplyDeleteYes, they're mostly by American writers, but I think an anthology titled Bloody Colonials would make a fine addition to the British Library catalog. ;)
Excellent! And of course the series does include Foreign Bodies, classic mysteries in translation...
ReplyDelete