@aubreynhamilton.bsky.social
Former librarian, perpetual reader. Reviewer at Happiness Is a Book and Kevin's Corner. Occasional columnist at Mystery Readers Journal. "For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream." Vincent van Gogh
Arthur G. Crook is one of my favorite fictional detectives. In this wartime adventure he rescues a timid lady who unexpectedly inherits a fortune. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 #FFB happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Mouse Who Wouldn’t Play Ball by Anthony Gilbert
The 12th case of Arthur G. Crook is the intriguingly named The Mouse Who Wouldn’t Play Ball (Collins, 1943), a wartime story with some classic characters. The mouse in question is Miss Dorothea Cap…
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Harry Kemelman's debut novel won an Edgar for Best First Mystery in 1965. Anyone looking for a new series to binge should take a look at this one. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/friday-the-r...
Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman
Harry Kemelman (1908-1996) was a schoolteacher before World War II, worked in multiple government positions during the war and launched a freelance writing career afterwards. He began publishing in…
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Two Australian sisters wrote as Margot Neville, producing plays, short stories, and novels. They wrote 20+ books about Detective Inspector Grogan and Detective Sergeant Manning of the Sydney police force. Murder of a Nymph is their fourth case. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Murder of a Nymph by Margot Neville
The works of Australian sisters Margot Goyder (1896–1975) and Anne Neville Goyder Joske (1887–1966) have been on my reading list for awhile. Writing under the name Margot Neville, the pair wrote sh…
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I am reading a lot of political thrillers these days, I am not sure why they hit the reading spot just now. The works of Ross Thomas come up a lot in discussions of the genre and I decided I had been far too lax in learning more about his writing. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/the-mordida-...
The Mordida Man by Ross Thomas
I discovered Mike Lawson’s political thriller series about Congressional fixer Joe DeMarco a few years ago and have followed it ever since. His work is often compared to that of Ross Thomas (1926-1…
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Written by a U.S. academic whose specialty was Flaubert, this first mystery sends a crippled widower to France to investigate a manufacturing source problem as Europe prepares for war. Winner of a Dodd, Mead Red Badge Mystery Award. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: A Matter of Iodine by David Keith
Francis Steegmuller (1906–1994) was an American author of biographies, fiction, travel, and short articles for periodicals. He also translated a number of Gustave Flaubert’s writings, for which he …
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The Mark Treasure books by David Williams can be hard to find. I was pleased to discover this title about a cigar factory in the West Indies. Murder of course is prominent. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/treasure-up-...
Treasure Up in Smoke by David Williams
I am enamored of the Mark Treasure series by David Williams (1926-2003), 17 mysteries published between 1976 and 1993. Mark Treasure is Vice-Chairman of Grenwood Phipps & Co., merchant bankers …
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Christopher St John Sprigg was killed in action during the Spanish Civil War. He left an impressive literary output including 7 mysteries. The first is about a hotel full of eccentrics, murder, blackmail, and other unsavory activities. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 #FFB happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Crime in Kensington by Christopher St John Sprigg
Christopher St John Sprigg (1907-1937) was a versatile English writer of poetry, plays, short stories, detective novels, and aeronautics textbooks. In his mid-20s he became fascinated by Marxism an…
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The first book in a long writing career by Yorkshire cop Peter N. Walker. Based on the Great Train Robbery. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/carnaby-and-...
Carnaby and the Hijackers by Peter N. Walker
Peter Norman Walker (1936-2017) was a lifelong resident of North Yorkshire. He served as a police officer in the North Riding force for 30 years, upon which he based his crime fiction writing. In a…
happinessisabook.com
Call for articles, essays, & reviews! The next issue of Mystery Readers Journal will focus on Cross-Genre Mysteries, which don't fit neatly into one category. Think the In Death series by J. D. Robb or the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. Deadline 20 August. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 mysteryreaders.org
Mystery Readers International – Publisher of Mystery Readers Journal
mysteryreaders.org
In addition to her many other talents, Dorothy L. Sayers was a book reviewer. Her reviews were collected about 10 years ago with a thoughtful analysis of her approach by Martin Edwards. Essential reference work for any student of Golden Age crime. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/taking-detec...
Taking Detective Stories Seriously: The Collected Crime Reviews of Dorothy L. Sayers
Among her many talents Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) was a crime fiction critic, reading and evaluating books weekly for the Sunday Times from 1933 into 1935. Seeking to make Sayers’ insights and o…
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A geopolitical thriller from a completely unexpected source. Bernard Cornwell is a fabulous storyteller. Here, he turned his attention to the IRA, Middle East terrorists, Irish supporters in Boston, and $5 million in gold. I couldn't put it down. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/scoundrel-by...
Scoundrel by Bernard Cornwell
Bernard Cornwell is familiar to me as a fine writer of historical adventure. I have read nearly all of his Saxon Chronicles set from 866 A.D. to 937 A. D. His stories about the Napoleonic Wars are …
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Professional thief Bernard Bruin has escaped prison, vowing vengeance on Inspector Higgins who put him behind bars. Higgins is determined to follow Bruin to find his cache of plunder while staying out of Bruin's lethal reach. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Body Behind the Bar by Cecil Freeman Gregg
British author Cecil Freeman Gregg (1898-1960) was a chartered secretary and accountant like fellow Golden Age author and contemporary Richard Henry Sampson (1896-1973) who wrote under the name Ric…
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The Spoils of Time by June Thomson is the 15th Inspector Jack Finch and Sergeant Tom Boyce book. It has a completely unexpected plot twist near the end of a puzzling case. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/the-spoils-o...
The Spoils of Time by June Thomson
June Thomson (1930-2022) was an English author who wrote 20 traditional detective mysteries about Inspector Jack Finch and Sergeant Tom Boyce, then focused on writing Sherlock Holmes adventures, pr…
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What do you do when the heir to your comfortable home returns after a long absence & plans to change everything about it? The denizens at Templedean Place had ample opportunity to consider that question in Accident by Design by ECR Lorac. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 #FFB happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Accident by Design by E. C. R. Lorac
Accident by Design (Collins, 1950) by E. C. R. Lorac is the 34th appearance of Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald. Even with more than 45 books to her credit by this time, Lorac (real n…
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Pauline Glen Winslow's mysteries feature Merle Capricorn, born into a family of vaudeville artists and raised to be a magician like his famous father. Somewhere along the way he left the fold and joined the London police but his family ties remain. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/copper-gold-...
Copper Gold by Pauline Glen Winslow
The backs of dust jackets on older books are often filled with blurbs about the book in hand or the author’s earlier works but sometimes, especially the dust jackets of first editions or debut work…
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Dominic Mary Paul McGuire was an Australian author and diplomat. During the 1930s he wrote more than a dozen mysteries. Reviewers in UK newspapers of the time praised his books; I was entertained to see that one reviewer loved the element I disliked. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Threepence to Marble Arch by Paul McGuire
Dominic Mary Paul McGuire (1903–1978) was an Australian author, Catholic activist, and diplomat, writing mostly poetry and nonfiction and for a few years crime fiction. His 16 mysteries were all pu…
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Peter Turnbull's social worker experience shines in this title from his Division P series set in a rundown part of Glasgow. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/and-did-murd...
And Did Murder Him by Peter Turnbull
Peter Turnbull used his certificate in social work in Glasgow for years before returning to Yorkshire, where he was born, to take up full-time writing. His crime fiction series includes one set in …
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A surprisingly modern serial killer story from 1933. Someone is murdering London's constables & Scotland Yard can't stop him. Nicholas Revel, a polished man-about-town, is taking a suspicious interest in the attempts to find the killer. A good read! #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: X v. REX by Philip Macdonald
Philip Macdonald (1900-1980) was a British writer of more than 30 novels, dozens of short stories, and radio, television, and film scripts, nearly all of them in the crime fiction genre. He wrote u…
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Donald Harstad wrote 6 police procedurals with Sheriff's Deputy Carl Houseman in rural Iowa, where criminals often took advantage of the isolation and lack of oversight. The Big Thaw might be my favorite of the series. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/the-big-thaw...
The Big Thaw by Donald Harstad
Someone was looking for an older series to binge and I started listing my favorites. This one surfaced the second time I dredged my memory. These rural police procedurals are excellent and I do not…
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This week's forgotten book is another reprint from American Mystery Classics. Written by the prolific Mignon G. Eberhart, an isolated house, creaking floors, fog, and murder: this one is for the gothic fans. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: While the Patient Slept by Mignon G. Eberhart
Mignon G. Eberhart (1899-1996) was a creative author of mysteries and romantic suspense. Her long career began in 1929 with a mystery featuring Sarah/Sally Keate, a nurse in New York, who was Eberh…
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The first book by espionage author Palma Harcourt and her husband under the name John Penn is about a retired Army major who is startled to see an announcement of his impending death in the newspaper. Inspector David Taylor of Scotland Yard is on the case. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/notice-of-de...
Notice of Death by John Penn
John Penn is a joint pseudonym of Palma Harcourt (1917 – 1999) when she wrote with husband Jack H. Trotman. Harcourt wrote espionage thrillers under her own name. Under the Pen…
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A pivotal book in the Perry Mason series, released as the country moved out of economic depression and into war. It's the last appearance of a 1930s style cop, who was replaced by someone more modern. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Case of the Baited Hook by Erle Stanley Gardner
The Case of the Baited Hook (Morrow, 1940) is the last appearance of Sergeant Holcomb in the Perry Mason series by Erle Stanley Gardner (1889–1970). Holcomb is the typical bullying cop of the …
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I loved this story of corporate espionage by Michael Gilbert. It was short-listed for the Gold Dagger in 1968. Set in post-war London it follows an Army veteran into an unexpected corporate career. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/the-dust-and...
The Dust and the Heat by Michael Gilbert
The Dust and the Heat is one of Michael Gilbert’s stand-alone novels published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1967 and published by Harper in 1968 as Overdrive in the U.S. It was shortlisted for the …
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The latest in one of my favorite series is published this week. Dez Limerick is an excellent addition to the thriller pantheon. Far from a loner, he collects friends like a dog collects fleas. Strong writing, entertaining plots. Recommended! 📚⚡️ 📚💙 kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2026/05/aubr...
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Storm Warning: A Dez Limerick Thriller by James Byrne
kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com
The debut of Inspector Pointer involves a murder victim with no identity papers, a shifty hotel manager, and a killer that almost escapes detection. The first of 2 dozen books is a complicated story with a surprise ending. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Eames-Erskine Case by A. Fielding / Dorothy Fielding
Some two dozen mysteries were published under the name Archibald Fielding or A. Fielding or A. E. Fielding between 1924 and 1944. They are attributed to Dorothy Feilding (sic) about whom little is …
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One of the later Inspector Littlejohn titles. This time Bellairs takes his crime-solving hero to France, where a small rural village has big secrets. This series has become one of my fallbacks when I need something good to read. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/murder-in-hi...
Murder in High Provence by George Bellairs
Murder in High Provence (John Giffords, 1957) by George Bellairs, the 27th case of Inspector Thomas Littlejohn, opens with a visit to the Littlejohn home by the Minister of Commerce, Spencer Lovell…
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This late Sir Henry Merrivale case combines golf, theatre, and serial killers in a convoluted but entertaining story. Isaac Anderson of The New York Times called it one of the best mysteries of 1946. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: My Late Wives by Carter Dickson
One of the later Sir Henry Merrivale mysteries by Carter Dickson, My Late Wives (Morrow Mystery, 1946; Heinemann, 1947) starts in 1934 when a serial killer known under various names meets and marri…
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An unexpectedly creepy story about a rural hospital, the night nursing supervisor, and the staff she terrorized. It was just a matter of time before someone did something about her. Dedicated to Patricia Highsmith, whom I suspect would approve. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/angel-withou...
Angel Without Mercy by Anthea Cohen
Anthea Cohen was the pseudonym of Doris Simpson (1913-2006), a UK author who worked for twenty-five years as a nurse in hospitals and as a private nurse. She has written about medicine and hospital…
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In this week's forgotten book Detective Tommy Rankin of the Philadelphia Homicide Department has what seemed to be a simple murder case on his hands but turned out to be anything but. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: One Murdered, Two Dead by Milton Propper
Milton Morris Propper (1906-1962) was an American writer of early police procedurals, publishing 14 novels between 1929 and 1943, all with the same series character Tommy Rankin, a detective i…
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A Mother's Day mystery from the Gregor Demarkian series. Full of quirky characters and convoluted plots. Father Tibor is among my favorite fictional people. happinessisabook.com/murder-super... 📚⚡️ 📚💙
Murder Superior by Jane Haddam
Jane Haddam was the pen name for Orania Papazoglou (1951-2019), a college professor, magazine editor, and full-time author. Her first mystery about Patience Campbell McKenna, a romance novelist who…
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