The first paragraph below is good news recently received from Bill Contento:

    The online edition of THE CRIME FIGHTERS, by W.O.G. Lofts and Derek Adley, has been updated, now listing fictional detectives “Abbott, Detective” through “Hyer, Henry ‘Hank’.”

   Say the authors Derek Adley (1927-1991) and Bill Lofts (1923-1997) in their introduction:

   The information was never published in the authors’ lifetime. Says Al Hubin as part of his editorial introduction, “The text appears to have been written mostly in the 1960s and so does not cover detectives introduced later.”

   The only version of The Crime Fighters still in existence is apparently the photocopy of the original manuscript in the hands of Al Hubin, who’s working with Bill, Steve Holland and others to put the data online.

   The latest batch of covers uploaded to Bill Deeck’s Murder at 3 Cents a Day website are those for the Mystery House. The page is still under construction, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to make an announcement like this, even premature as it is. The years 1940 to 1943 are done, with three covers so far to begin 1944.

   Here’s the introduction to the page containing the publisher’s line of mystery titles:

   From the August 31, 1940, issue of Publisher’s Weekly: “Arcadia House, Inc., has announced the establishment of two new imprints, one for the publication of detective fiction and one for religious books. Detective novels will be published under the imprint of Mystery House, with Sally Frances as editor in charge. The following titles inaugurate the series: Clue in Two Flats, by R.L.F. McCombs, August 26th; The Corpse with the Listening Ear, by Laurence Dwight Smith, September 20th; Death in the Wheelbarrow, by Jan Gordon, October 10th; Abandon Hope, by Isabel Garland, October 22nd; Homicide Johnny, by Stephen Gould, November 12th. Each book is priced at $2.00.”

   Things didn’t go as planned. Not all of the books came out as scheduled, as you will be able to see for yourself, and I hope you will. Follow the link above.

   Over the past six weeks or so I’ve been working with John Pugmire, a long-time “locked room” aficionado, and the English translator of Paul Halter, the French writer who specializes in the genre, on an article about guess what? Locked room mysteries, of course.

   To tell you the truth, John’s article has been done for most, if not all, of these same past six weeks. What’s been holding up the works has been me. The major part of the piece is a list of well over 100 locked room mysteries. What I’ve been doing in my spare time in the evening is adding cover images to something like 90% of them.

   For more on what this is all about and where the list of books and authors came from, here’s John:

   One small but perhaps not so incidental nugget of information that came from the research into the books is that Repos de Bacchus, by French author Pierre Boileau, was used as the basis for a book in English, The Sleeping Bacchus, as by Hilary St.George Saunders. (This was only book under Saunders’ own name. He may be more familiar to mystery fans as Francis Beeding, one of several pen names that he used.)

   Not all of the entries have covers to go with them, but John and I are proud to have come up with as many as we did. Here’s the link to the page:

          https://mysteryfile.com/Locked_Rooms/Library.html

   If you’re a fan of classical mystery fiction, harking back to the Golden Age of Detection, I think you’ll like what you see. In fact, I guarantee it.

   As part of Al Hubin’s ongoing Addenda to the Revised Crime Fiction IV, I uploaded Part 18 just a few minutes ago this morning. I’ve not had a chance to add any of my usual enhancements, links, covers and other annotations, but this latest installment is online and ready for you to take a look at now.

   There are no major corrections, discoveries or revisions this time around. Just a steady stream of newly learned data: birth and death dates, settings, movies based on books, and so on.

   This is what Al does. For an ongoing example of what I do, check out the main page, which consists of the data in Part 3. As of last night, I’ve worked my way down to:

WHITHAM, G(RACE) I(SABELLE?). 1874?- . Add tentative middle name & year of birth. Author of three titles included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV, one marginal.

   A few entries before her are the following:

WEBB, C. PACKHAM. Probably also wrote as T(homas) C(harles) Packham Webb, 1908-1973, q.v. Under this name, the author of one thriller novel included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV. See below.
       Special Assignment. Fiction House, UK, pb, 1947.

WEBB, T(HOMAS) C(HARLES) P(ACKHAM). 1908-1973. Add probable other byline: C. Packham Webb, q.v. Under his own name, the author of one thriller novel included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV, plus one Sexton Blake novel ghostwritten under author George Paul Mann’s “Arthur Maclean” byline. Other pseudonym: Tony Angelo.
       _The Man Who Killed Me. See Redhead for Danger.
       Midnight Intruder. Hamilton, UK, pb, 1950.
       Redhead for Danger [as by Arthur Maclean]. Amalgamated Press, UK, pb, 1958. SC: Sexton Blake. Revised by G. P. Mann and published as The Man Who Killed Me (Amalgamated Press, 1962).

   The latest batch of covers Bill Pronzini and I have uploaded to Bill Deeck’s Murder at 3 Cents a Day website are those for three of the smallest publishers of lending library mysteries.

   These three are: Alliance Press (one mystery, 1935); Alliance Book Corporation (four mysteries, 1941-1942); and Jonathan Swift Publishers (also four mysteries, 1941-1942).

   The books they published were intended almost solely for the lending library market, and copies with dust jackets are quite scarce today. Of the nine mysteries these three companies published between them, we’re pleased to be able to show you six of them. Of these, perhaps the most noteworthy is Hell on Friday by William Bogart, and unless you’re a long-time collector of the detective pulps, maybe not even he’s an author you’ll recognize. The rest are even less known, but in my opinion, at least, the covers still worth a peek.

   The latest batch of covers uploaded to Bill Deeck’s Murder at 3 Cents a Day website are those for the William Godwin, Inc., 1933-1936.

   Here’s Bill Pronzini’s introduction to the page containing the publisher’s line of mystery fiction:

   William Godwin, Inc. was best known for the softcore sex novels they published from 1931-38, by such well-known practitioners as Jack Woodford and Fan Nichols; these had provocative cover art and were considered pretty steamy for their time, though they are tame today.

   The first mystery to carry the Godwin imprint was Wesley Price’s Death Is a Stowaway (1933), a title inadvertently left out of the Godwin listing in Murder at 3c a Day. The three Timothy Trent (Carl Malmberg) titles are excellent hardboiled tales, as is Alan Williams’ Cainesque Room Service.

   In 1935 Godwin published several British mysteries on a cooperative deal with the king of the U.K. lending library publishers, Wright & Brown; these all used the original W&B dust jacket art, most of it by Micklewright. The Godwin editions had very poor sales, as evidenced by the fact that copies are extremely difficult to find today, and the arrangement with W&B was abandoned after only a single year.

   As part of Al Hubin’s ongoing Addenda to the Revised Crime Fiction IV, I uploaded Part 17 yesterday morning. I’ve not had a chance to add many of my usual enhancements, links, covers and other annotations, but this latest installment is online and ready for viewing.

   Of perhaps of major interest are (a) the discovery of a hitherto unknown book by Philip MacDonald, under an equally hitherto unknown pen name, and (b) the true identity of thriller writer Wyndham Martyn, whose life was as much a mystery as his books.

   Lots of other information, too!

   The latest batch of covers uploaded to Bill Deeck’s Murder at 3 Cents a Day website are those for the Dodge Publishing Company, 1935-1938, some of which were designated as “Blue Streak Mysteries.”

   Here’s Bill Pronzini’s introduction to the page containing the publisher’s line of detective fiction:

   Besides the one shown, other authors and titles in the short-lived series include Theodore Roscoe with two books, one of which is I’ll Grind Their Bones; Joseph T. Shaw’s Blood on the Curb; George Bruce’s Claim of the Fleshless Corpse; and a small handful of others.

   In case you were wondering, Geoffrey Coffin was the joint byline of Van Wyck Mason and Helen Brawner, whose series character Inspector Scott Stuart of the US Department of Justice made his first appearance (of two) in Murder in the Senate.

   The latest batch of covers uploaded to Bill Deeck’s Murder at 3 Cents a Day website are those for The William Caslon Company, which in 1936 managed to publish only three mysteries.

   All three of these novels would be of special interest to pulp fans, though, as one is a collection of four Red Lacey novelettes by George Bruce originally published in Popular Detective, while the other two are “Dan Fowler” G-Men novels which first appeared in that magazine. A connection with Leo Margulies’ Standard Magazines group of pulp titles seems highly likely.

   Even more interesting is the existence of a catalog of forthcoming books from Caslon in 1938, books that were never published, but the titles of which may make you wish they had. These include:

● THE DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND, A G-Man Detective Novel, by John Benton.

● THE CLAIM OF THE LITTLE RED BUGS, A Dr. Lawson Detective Novel, by George Bruce.

● THE MURDER OF A GOOD MAN, A Professor Briarly Detective Novel, by Will Levinrew.

● DEATH WALKS ALONE, by G. Wayman Jones.

   And others, including a few westerns, among which are:

● PANHANDLE BANDITS, A Texas Rangers Novel, by Tom Curry.

● JUSTICE RIDES ALONE, by Jackson Cole.

   Follow the link above for the complete list.

   The latest batch of covers uploaded to Bill Deeck’s Murder at 3 Cents a Day website are those for Gateway Books, 1939-1942.

   Here’s Bill Pronzini’s introduction to the page where you’ll find them:

   Authors include Norman Daniels, once under his own name and twice as William Dale; John L. Benton (Tom Curry) with two titles; Will F. Jenkins, aka Murray Leinster; G. T. Fleming-Roberts, as Frank Rawlings, with The Lisping Man, a novel featuring magician George Chance, aka The Ghost.