Fifty classics of crime fiction, 1900-1950 :

Radcliffe Emerson, the irascible husband of fellow archaeologist and Egyptologist Amelia Peabody, has earned the nickname "Father of Curses" -- and at Mazghunah he demonstrates why. Denied permission to dig at the pyramids of Dahshoor, he and Amelia are resigned to excavating mounds of rubble in the middle of nowhere. And there is nothing in this barren area worthy of their interest -- until an antiquities dealer is murdered in his own shop. A second sighting of a sinister stranger from the crime scene, a mysterious scrap of papyrus, and a missing mummy case have all whetted Amelia's curiosity. But when the Emersons start digging for answers in an ancient tomb, events take a darker and deadlier turn -- and there may be no surviving the very modern terrors their efforts reveal.

James Flint has a book from the library and finds a photograph stuffed inside which seems to show a recent murder. He's intrigued.

It is 1940 and Mrs Mudge, the cleaning lady, is busy tidying the Little Theatre in Lulverton, which is run by the local amateur dramatics' society. But she is in for a surprise when she finds a corpse in the ticket office, stabbed with a dagger - a prop from the society's latest play, Measure for Measure. The novel is in two sections. In the first, the narrator, Vaughn Tudor, describes the formation of the small amateur theatre group, in a sleepy village on the South Coast in the period leading up to the Second World War. But then in the second half, after the revelation of the identity of the victim and the calling in of Witting's series detective Inspector Charlton to investigate, the reader finds out that there were rather a lot of people who had cause to visit that little theatre on the night of the murder... But can the police disentangle the complicated relationships to discover the real killer? First published in 1941, it was the fifth of Witting's novels.

>A girl employed in the box office of a London cinema falls into the power of a mysterious trio of crooks. A solicitor, learning of her predicament, sends her to the Yard. There she tells French the story of the man with a scar like a purple sickle. That night she disappears, and next day her body is found floating in Southampton Water. Inquiries reveal the fact that other similar murders have taken place, and the further French goes into the affair the more girls he finds involved. Finally, after almost superhuman efforts, he learns the secret of the trio and runs them to earth. (review).

Paul Madriani agrees to represent Dr. David Crone, a respected geneticist accused of murdering a young colleague. An incriminating note left behind by a dead key witness seems to confirm Crone's innocence. But when Madriani hits upon a scandal from Crone's past, an ethical nightmare threatens: the possibility of defending a guilty client.

Was It Murder? deals with the phenomenon of coincidence by posing the question of how likely it is that two brothers attending the same boarding school meet with two separate accidental deaths — and curious ones at that — within the same school year. In the manner typical of the Golden Age whodunnit, the solution is only presented in the final pages of the novel. Throughout the book, an amateur sleuth and a Scotland Yard detective vie with each other to solve the riddle, with only one of them successful in the end.

At a meeting of Quenborough Borough Council, the Mayor, Sir John Assington, is accused by Alderman Trant of wasting money and turning a blind eye to speculators on the make.Then Trant is stabbed with his own knife, and while dying, manages to scratch the initials 'MA' on a piece of paper. Local Chief Constable Race is on the case. He is new to the force, so Superintendent Vorley comes to his aid. With the help of Scotland Yard, in the shape of Inspector Lott, they each bring a different approach to the investigation.For the truth is rarely straightforward . . .

"Samuel Whitehead, landlord of the Rose and Crown, is a stranger in the lonely East Anglian village of High Eldersham. When the newcomer is stabbed to death in his pub, and Scotland Yard are called to the scene, it seems that the veil dividing High Eldersham from the outside world is about to be lifted. Detective-Inspector Young forms a theory about the case so utterly impossible that merely entertaining the suspicion makes him doubt his own sanity. Surrounded by sinister forces beyond his understanding, and feeling the need of rational assistance, he calls on a brilliant amateur and living encyclopedia, Desmond Merrion. Soon Merrion falls for the charms of a young woman in the village, Mavis Owerton. But does Mavis know more about the secrets of the village than she is willing to admit?"--Publisher.

Meet Mr Reggie Fortune, a doctor by profession, a detective by accident. Mr Fortune is not an ordinary gum-shoe sleuth, yet he has long since established himself as one of the brightest stars in the galaxy of crime detectives. Attached in a loose way to the Home Office and Scotland Yard, he is utterly fearless, and with a cold astuteness belied by his cherubic appearance. His speciality is medicine, although he does not practice. But for his expert opinion on such matters as recently deceased bodies, the more difficult poisons and the like, the Yard would be hard pressed to investigate without him. Reggie Fortune starred in twenty-two novels and short story collections. Much praised for his puzzles and characterisation, the Mr Fortune stories have echoes of Lord Peter Wimsey but are much darker, tackling subjects not touched upon by other major writers, including police corruption and murderous obsession. Contains the short stories: The Ascot Tragedy The Unknown Murderer The Long Barrow The Hermit Crab The Greek Play The Angel's Eye The Long Dinner The Dead Leaves

The fifth and last book by the author, it starts literally with a bang and ends with one of the most chilling lines in the history of the genre. Gasoline is in short supply as World War II rages on in Europe and the Far East. Ultimate victory requires a reliable source of gasoline. Nick Matheny's oil company just might have the answer in nicoline, a cheap synthetic fuel. The Nazis would love to get their hands on it while rival oil companies fear it could destroy their industry and bankrupt their companies. On the eve of his flight to Washington with the secret formula, Matheny is attacked, suffering a severe brain injury that leaves him with partial memory loss. When he comes to in a sanitarium where his wife has committed him, he has only a vague idea of who he is and how he got there. As his memory returns in spurts, Matheny relives the events of that night and realizes that he must defy his doctor and escape from the hospital in order to catch both a killer and a saboteur and possibly help win the war.

“Archer wasn't going anywhere with the case. The women in it were getting to him. The one who had married for money was out to show him how little it now mattered. The one who was being blackmailed didn't care how Archer saved her mockery of a marriage. The young girl was the worst; too innocent to be involved in this sordid tangle. Three beautiful women. They had a way of distracting Archer—even from murder.” 2nd in the Lew Archer series.

Pick Your Victim (1946),tells the story of a small group of American soldiers in an isolated Arctic base who are desperate for reading material and diversion. They find a torn scrap of newspaper which has arrived as the cushioning for a parcel. The torn scrap tells part of the story of a man who has been convicted of a murder, and who is known personally by one of the GIs—the murderer is identified, but the name of the victim has been torn away. The GIs form a betting pool and pump their informant for every bit of information about any potential victim to enable them to better place their bets, and the story told by the informant is the body of the novel. At the end, the name of the victim is revealed. (From article on Wikipedia about Patricia McGerr)