P. J. PARRISH – An Unquiet Grave. Nominated for Best Private Eye Paperback Original of the Year, 2007.

Pinnacle, paperback, February 2006.

   Book description:

In a remote corner of the Michigan woods, behind rusted iron gates and crumbling walls, lies a notorious sanitarium and its forgotten cemetery. The ruin is empty now, and the bulldozers have come to raze it. But as they do, a secret emerges. The coffin of Claudia DeFoe, the youthful love of Louis’s foster father Phillip, is empty.

When Louis tries to find the remains, he crosses paths with a reporter searching out rumors that a former patient, assumed dead, is alive and killing again. In Hidden Lake hospital, where the walls are stained with secrets and the air thick with the history of lingering screams, Louis is on his darkest journey yet – into the mind of a deranged killer and into the locked rooms of his own psyche.

   About the Authors:

P. J. Parrish (sisters Kelly Nichols and Kris Montee) is author of the critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling Louis Kincaid series. Their books have been Edgar, Shamus, Thriller and Anthony award finalists. Both sisters, born in Detroit, Mich., were writers as kids, albeit with different styles: Kelly’s first attempt at fiction was at age 11 titled “The Kill.” Kristy’s at 13 was “The Cat Who Understood.”

Not much has changed: Kelly now tends to handle the gory stuff and Kristy the character development. But the collaboration is a smooth one, thanks to lots of ego suppression, good wine, and America Online.

   Review excerpts:

Publishers Weekly: “Bestseller Parrish’s gripping and atmospheric new Louis Kincaid novel (after A Killing Rain) is a quality read that will remind many of Dennis Lehane. […] Parrish manages to make what could be a formulaic plot fresh, both through her gift at creating sympathetic main and secondary characters and through her skill at creating suspense and sustaining a mood. The author’s ability to raise goose bumps puts her in the front rank of thriller writers.”

Chicago Sun-Times: “An Unquiet Grave is a standout thriller. It is an intriguing and atmospheric story set largely on the grounds of an abandoned insane asylum, a haunting location that contains many dark and barbarous secrets. With fresh characters and plot, An Unquiet Grave is a suspense novel of the highest order.”

   Previous Louis Kincaid books:

Dark of the Moon. Pinnacle, paperback, January 2000.

Dead of Winter. Pinnacle, paperback, January 2001.

Paint It Black. Pinnacle, paperback, January 2002.

Thicker Than Water. Pinnacle, paperback, January 2003.

Island of Bones. Pinnacle, paperback, January 2004.

A Killing Rain. Pinnacle, paperback, February 2005.

   Newly released:

A Thousand Bones. Pocket, paperback, June 2007. [Kincaid takes a minor role in this case for his lover Joe Frye, the lone female homicide detective in the Miami-Dade Police Department.]

PETE HAUTMAN – The Prop.  Nominated for Best Private Eye Paperback Original of the Year, 2007.

Simon & Schuster, trade paperback, March 2006.

   Book description:

National Book Award winner Pete Hautman delivers a fast-paced mystery set in the torrid, unforgiving Southwestern desert, where the stakes are sky high and all bets are off.

Peeky Kane is a prop player at an Arizona casino owned by the Santa Cruz tribe. Her job is to play poker. She makes a handsome living off the suckers who populate the card room. Life is sweet.

But something’s not right at Casino Santa Cruz. When Peeky inadvertently finds herself in a fixed game and comes away a couple thousand dollars richer, she finds herself drawn unwittingly toward the dark side of professional poker. Peeky has always thought of herself as a straight shooter, but now things aren’t so clear. And they’re about to get a lot murkier.

When a band of clown-masked robbers makes off with millions of the casino’s dollars and leaves behind four corpses, Peeky recognizes one of the robbers as a casino employee, and fears that one of her closest loved ones might also be involved. That same day, Peeky’s son-in-law turns up to tell her that Jaymie, her beloved daughter, has been stealing money from Peeky for years to feed a crack habit.

Numb from these revelations, Peeky is compelled to action by an unlikely source when the most powerful member of the Santa Cruz tribe calls upon her to help him save his troubled casino. Peeky must draw on her years of reading poker faces and playing the odds to save the casino, her daughter, and herself.

   Review excerpts:

Publishers Weekly: “Hautman’s Godless (2005) won a National Book Award for Young People’s Fiction, but his impressive, sharply written new crime thriller is definitely for adults — especially those who would rather play poker than do anything else. […] Peeky’s life takes a few sharp turns after some crooked dealers find a new way to steal money and make her an unwilling accomplice. As this short but action-packed novel shows, Hautman is the kind of cool, expert player who keeps the cards coming.”

Booklist: “A cop’s widow who was briefly on the force herself, Peeky is cruising into middle age when she notices a couple of dealers scamming jackpots. […] Signs point to an inside job, and Peeky finds herself both under suspicion and roped into investigating the crime — even as she must track down her troubled daughter with a potentially violent son-in-law. There’s a lot of muss and a little fuss, but Peeky maintains her wry, letting-it-all-hang-out vibe come hell or bad boyfriends. As an addition to the mystery game, she’s as welcome as pocket aces.”

   An earlier series of books by Pete Hautman featured Joe Crow, Sam O’Gara, Axel Speeter, and Tommy Fabian, a group of small-town gamblers in Minnesota. (In some books they have only very minor roles):

Drawing Dead. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, Oct 1993. Pocket, paperback, October 1997.

Short Money. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, May 1995. Pocket, paperback, July 1997.

The Mortal Nuts. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, June 1996. Pocket, paperback, September, 1997.

Ring Game. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, October 1997. Pocket, paperback, October 1998.

Mrs. Million. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, March 1999. Pocket, paperback, March 2000.

    Most, if not all, of the author’s other recent fictional work has been intended for the Young Adult market. For more information, this link will lead to his web page. This book appears to have been Peeky Kane�s first and only appearance, so far.

JOHN R. L. ANDERSON – Death in the Channel

Stein & Day, hardcover, 1976. Reprint paperback: Stein & Day 88112, 1985. Detective Book Club [3-in-1 edition], hardcover, Jan-Feb, 1977. First published in England as Redundancy Pay,by J. R. L. Anderson: Victor Gollancz, hardcover,1976.

   A young London accountant loses his job in a takeover by a larger firm, loses his wife to the joys and pleasures that only wealth can bring, and sick and tired of the continual chase for paper money, he heads back to his boyhood home to see whether or not livings can still be made from the sea.

   In Finmouth he gets a job with lobster pots, is suspected for a while of stealing a priceless chalice left unguarded in a church vestry, but then discovers the connection between the crime and some divers searching for sunken treasure out in the English Channel.

   It doesn’t take a mathematician to put together the correct equations and solve them, but it is exactly that sort of old-fashioned story that’s put together in just so precise a manner. The pacing bothered me a little, and there is a surprisingly large flaw in the logic at one point, but overall Anderson will strike you, I’m sure, as a writer who is reliably competent and solid. And decent.    (C plus)

[UPDATE] 07-20-07. I’ve not been able to come up with a cover image for either US edition of this book. According to my records, I may no longer even own a copy. If I do, it’s nowhere it can be easily located. Thanks to British bookseller Jamie Sturgeon, though, what you see is the cover of Gollancz edition. Not as interesting as it might have been, but it’s still good to have.

   In Crime Fiction IV, Allen Hubin indicates that Major Peter Blair, one of Anderson’s two major series characters is in this book, but Jamie has reassured me that he does not. Until I received an email from Jamie this afternoon, I was surprised to think that Blair was in the book and somehow I hadn’t managed to mention it in the review.

    I don’t remember ever reading one of Major Blair’s exploits, but I could be wrong. For the sake of completeness, Anderson’s other detective character was Inspector Piet Deventer, one of whose cases I remember not caring for as much as I did Death in the Channel, but which one it was, I can no longer recall.

   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.

SAMUEL HOPKINS ADAMS – Average Jones.

Bobbs-Merrill, hardcover, 1911. Story collection.

   As an assiduous reader of personal advertisements — and if you won’t admit to doing the same, I think you’ll agree they are important plot points in a number of detective novels – I warmed instantly to Adrian Van Reypen Egerton Jones, nicknamed Average Jones for obvious reasons.

   A highly intelligent, very rich, and terribly bored young man, as the first yarn opens he is wondering what to do with himself. His friend Mr Waldemar, owner of The Universal, an important New York City paper, suggests Jones set up as a kind of one man consumer protection wallah, giving advice, as Jones’s business card will later declare, “upon all matters connected with Advertising.” As a bonus, Jones will pass on discoveries about various swindles perpetrated through ads to Waldemar, thus keeping the paper’s lengthy advertising columns “clean.”

   Jones gives it a whirl and soon becomes engrossed in the work to the extent of setting up an agency to handle the more humdrum requests for advice while he looks into ads that grab his attention, particularly those hinting at criminal activity. Average Jones relates the cases he investigates.

    “The B-Flat Trombone” is a locked room mystery. By what method was mayoral candidate William Linder blown up in a locked room on the third floor of his mansion on Kennard Street in Brooklyn?

    After three unsuccessful attempts on his life, Malcolm Dorr keeps two guard dogs. Both are killed yet neither were shot or poisoned. Then there is a rash of canine deaths in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Is there any connection between these events and the mysterious “Red Dot”?

    Where is young rakehell Roderick Hoff? His father engages Jones to find him. Jones follows an “Open Trail” to do so and then outfoxes Hoff’s swindling father when he tries to wiggle out of paying the reward money.

    “Mercy Sign” is a dark story rooted in a real historical tragedy. Jones and his friend Robert Bertram look into a strange affair involving a missing academic assistant, a wrecked houseboat, and a dead foreign dignitary.

    Jewels nicknamed the “Blue Fires” form a beautiful necklace, a gift from Mr Kirby to his fiancee Edna Hale. Their disappearance means their wedding is postponed. What do a torn curtain and broken-off bed knob have to do with the matter?

    Anonymous letters of a particularly nasty sort are written out in “Pin-Pricks” on junk advertising mail sent to William Robinson. What is the purpose of these communications and who could be responsible?

    Bailey, the son of rural minister Rev’d Peter Prentice, is missing after a meteor lands on a New England barn and sets it alight. An ad appears revealing he is alive but not where, but a certain bit of “Big Print” aids Jones in tracing the lost boy.

    Enderby Livius is “The Man Who Spoke Latin,” claiming he cannot speak English. Livius is up to no good in bibliophile Colonel Ridgway Graeme’s chaotic library, and to find out what it is Jones poses as a mute classical scholar.

    “The One Best Bet” begins with a man committing suicide because he arrives too late to amend his personal ad, having had second thoughts about its content – as well he might, since it reveals a plot to murder the governor. Can the crime be prevented?

    “The Million-Dollar Dog” involves one of those odd wills beloved by the rich in detective fiction. Judge Hawley Ackroyd’s advertisement seeking l0,000 black beetles puts Jones on the trail of an attempt to gain a fortune by underhanded means.

    My verdict: What an inventive way to introduce a detective to cases in all levels of society! I enjoyed this collection a great deal and recommend it to readers who like slightly offbeat and very clever stories. Now I’m off to read the personal ads in today’s papers….

Etext: www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/vrjns10.txt

    Besides being a novelist with several works of mystery and detective fiction to his credit, Samuel Hopkins Adams was also a well-known “muckraker” and investigative reporter. For more information on his life and career, a good place to start looking would be his Wikipedia entry.

   From Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin:

ADAMS, SAMUEL HOPKINS (1871-1958); see pseudonym Warner Fabian.
    * Average Jones (Bobbs, 1911, hc) [Average Jones] Palmer, 1911.
    * The Flying Death (McClure, 1908, hc) [Long Island, NY]
    * _The Mystery (with Stewart Edward White) See entry under Stewart Edward White.
    * _The President’s Mystery Story [as by Franklin D. Roosevelt] See entry under Franklin D. Roosevelt
    * The Secret of Lonesome Cove (Bobbs, 1912, hc) [New England] Hodder, 1913.

FABIAN, WARNER; pseudonym of Samuel Hopkins Adams.
    * -The Men in Her Life (Sears, 1930, hc) Film: Columbia, 1931 (scw: Robert Riskin, Dorothy Howell; dir: William Beaudine).

WHITE, STEWART EDWARD
    * The Mystery (with Samuel Hopkins Adams) (McClure, 1907, hc) [Percy Darrow; Ship] Hodder, 1907.

ROOSEVELT, FRANKLIN
    * The President’s Mystery Story [by Anthony Abbot, Samuel Hopkins Adams, John Erskine, Rupert Hughes, S. S. Van Dine & Rita Weiman] (Farrar, 1935, hc) Lane, 1936. Revised edition: Prentice-Hall, 1967, as The President’s Murder Plot. A mystery novel suggested by Roosevelt and written, a chapter each, by seven mystery writers. Film: Republic, 1936, as The President’s Mystery; also released as One for All (scw: Lester Cole, Nathaniel West; dir: Phil Rosen).

LORI G. ARMSTRONG – Hallowed Ground.  Nominated for Best Private Eye Paperback Original of the Year, 2007.

Medallion Press, paperback, November 2006.

   Book Description:

Grisly murders are rocking the small county of Bear Butte where Julie Collins has spent the last few months learning the PI biz without the guidance of her best friend and business partner, Kevin Wells. Enter dangerous, charismatic entrepreneur Tony Martinez, who convinces Julie to take a case involving a missing five-year-old Native American girl, the innocent pawn in her parents child custody dispute.

Although skeptical about Martinez’s motives in hiring her, and confused by her strange attraction to him, Julie nevertheless sees the opportunity to hone her investigative skills outside her office. But something about the case doesn’t ring true. The girl’s father is foreman on the controversial new Indian casino under construction at the base of the sacred Mato Paha, and the girl’s mother is secretly working for a rival casino rumored to have ties to an east coast crime family.

Local ranchers, including her father, a Lakota Holy group, and casino owners from nearby Deadwood are determined to stop the gaming facility from opening. With the body count rising, the odds are stacked against Julie to discover the truth behind these hidden agendas before the murderer buries it forever. And when Julie unwittingly attracts the attention of the killer, she realizes no place is safe – not even hallowed ground.

   About the Author:

Lori G. Armstrong left the firearms industry in 2000 to pursue her dream of writing crime fiction. She lives in Rapid City, South Dakota.

   Review Excerpt:

Stephanie Padilla, New Mystery Reader:   “Rapid City P.I. Julie Collins is still rather new at the business when she’s hired by bad boy motorcycle leader Tony Martinez to help find his friend’s five year old missing niece. […] If you’re looking for one of those heroines who refrains from any and all vices and who shrieks at the sound of gunfire, you may want to pass on this one. But if you prefer your heroine to be a little on the dark side, especially one who likes to smoke, drink, engage in the occasional sexcapade, and knows how to kick some ass with little fear, this highly engaging and fearless PI fits the bill.”

   The first Julie Collins novel:

Blood Ties, Medallion Press, May 2005.

   [Coming soon:]

Shallow Grave, Medallion Press, November 2007.

NICOLAS FREELING – Sabine.

Harper & Row, hardcover, 1976. Paperback reprint: Vintage V-553, 1980. First published in England as Lake Isle, William Heinemann Ltd., hardcover, 1976; Penguin, paperback, 1980.

   The sights and sounds of small-town France are put on display as provincial policeman Henri Castang investigates the untimely death of an elderly poetess who had earlier come to him with some uneasy feelings concerning her adopted son and only heir. An intellectual affair, in fine Gallic tradition, as we’re shown how political and judicial pressures influence everyday policework, and not at all for the action-minded among us. (C)

      – From The MYSTERY FANcier, Vol. 3, No. 2, Mar-Apr 1979. This review also appeared earlier in the Hartford Courant.

[UPDATE] 07-18-07. When I was writing for the Courant, I was usually working under severe space restrictions, so some of my reviews were a whole lot shorter than they are today. I don’t believe I’ve ever read another book by Freeling, I regret to say, neither the Castang books nor the cases given to Inspector Van Der Valk to solve.

   Thanks to Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, here’s a list of all of the Henry Castang books. I do have many of these in paperback editions, and just in case you were wondering, I do plan to read them. I don’t keep anything I don’t intend to read.

KRIS NELSCOTT – Days of Rage. Nominated for Best Private Eye Hardcover Novel of the Year, 2007.

St. Martin’s, hardcover, March 2006.

   Book Description:

As racial tensions mount during the 1969 celebrity trial of the Chicago Eight, African American PI Smokey Dalton is keeping a low profile with his son, Jimmy, who knows a dark secret about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. When Smokey finds a group of skeletons hidden in the wall of a building hes inspecting for investor Lara Hathaway, his investigation leads him into Chicago’s racist past and implicates some of the nation’s most powerful people in a deadly 1919 riot.

   About the Author:

Kris Nelscott [pseudonym of Kristine Kathryn Rusch] lives on the Oregon coast. The first Smokey Dalton novel, A Dangerous Road, won the Herodotus Award for Best Historical Mystery and was shortlisted for the Edgar Award for Best Novel; the second, Smoke-Filled Rooms, was a PNBA Book Award Finalist; the third, Thin Walls, was one of the Chicago Tribune’s best mysteries of the year; the fourth, Stone Cribs, was honored by the Wisconsin Library Association as one of the best books of 2005, and it and the fifth, War at Home, were both shortlisted for the Oregon Book Award. Visit her Web site at www.kristinekathrynrusch.com.

   Review Excerpts:

Publishers Weekly: “Set in 1969 during the trial of the Chicago Eight, Edgar-finalist Nelscott’s sixth Smoky Dalton novel (after 2005’s War at Home) deftly interweaves the issue of race with politics, societal questions and personal relationships, like Smokey’s on-again, off-again romance with Laura Hathaway, a white businesswoman. […] Laura and Smokey bring in Wayne LeDoux, a persnickety criminologist, to do forensic work at the house, and Tim Minton, an expert from a local funeral home, joins him. The two men form a special bond, and like the bond between Smokey and his adopted son, make a suspenseful mystery into something much richer.”

Booklist: “In her compelling Smokey Dalton series, Nelscott continues to probe the human drama and complex emotion beneath the headlines of the racially tense 1960s. […] Nelscott builds suspense effectively while making the reader feel the historical burden of racial hatred. After five novels all set between spring 1968 and fall 1969, this series was beginning to seem almost frozen in its historical moment, but this time, Nelscott, by widening the time frame, allows us to see the events of the ’60s – and their devastating effects on individual human lives – from a wider (if hardly comforting) perspective.”

   Previous Smoky Dalton novels:

A Dangerous Road. St. Martin’s, hardcover, July 2000. Paperback: June 2001.

Smoke-Filled Rooms. St. Martin’s, hardcover, August 2001. Paperback: June 2002.

Thin Walls. St. Martin’s, hardcover, September 2002. Trade paperback: February 2004.

Stone Cribs. St. Martin’s, hardcover, February 2004. Trade paperback: January 2005.

War at Home. St. Martin’s, hardcover, February 2005. Trade paperback: December 2005.

MARCIA MULLER – Vanishing Point. Nominated for Best Private Eye Hardcover Novel of the Year, 2007.

Mysterious Press, hardcover, July 2006. Paperback reprint: July 2007.

   Book description:

In the latest installment in this critically acclaimed series, McCone is hired to investigate one of San Luis Obispo County’s most puzzling cold cases. A generation ago, Laurel Greenwood, a housewife and artist, inexplicably vanished, leaving her young daughter alone. Now, new evidence suggests that the missing woman may have led a strange double life. But before McCone can penetrate the tangled mystery, she must first solve a second disappearance: that of her client, the now grown daughter of Laurel Greenwood. The case, which forces Sharon to explore the darker sides of two marriages, comes uncomfortably close on the heels of her own marriage to Hy Ripinsky, and she begins to doubt the wisdom of her impulsive trip to the Reno wedding chapel.

   About the Author:

Marcia Muller, a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, is the critically-acclaimed author of more than twenty novels. She has been awarded the Private Eye Writers of America Life Achievement Award, her books have been nominated for Best Crime Novel at the Edgar Awards, and she has won the Anthony Boucher Award. She lives in California with Bill Pronzini.

   Review Excerpts:

Publishers Weekly: “MWA Grand Master Muller’s richly layered 24th mystery to feature San Francisco PI Sharon McCone (after 2004’s The Dangerous Hour) reminds us how much McCone has grown since she started as the lone investigator at a poverty law center in her first outing, Edwin of the Iron Shoes (1977). […] The story takes readers on a charming tour through the fishing villages of the California coast, while the tight, crisp plot surges relentlessly forward. The tension between light and dark, between surface happiness and hidden truths, raises this novel well above the common run of whodunits.”

   Booklist: “As usual in Muller’s mysteries, dialogue-driven narrative makes the story a quick read, and this time there’s some underlying commentary about marriage, which dovetails nicely with Sharon’s continuing anxieties about her future with new husband Hy.”

   Previous Sharon McCone novels: (hardcover editions only)

Edwin of the Iron Shoes. McKay, 1977.

Ask the Cards a Question. St. Martin’s, 1982.

The Cheshire Cat’s Eye. St. Martin’s, 1983.

Games to Keep the Dark Away. St. Martin’s, 1984.

Leave a Message for Willie. St. Martin’s, 1984.

Double. St. Martin’s, 1984. [with Bill Pronzini’s Nameless PI]

There’s Nothing to Be Afraid Of. St. Martin’s, 1985.

Eye of the Storm. Mysterious Press, 1988.

There’s Something in a Sunday. Mysterious Press, 1989.

The Shape of Dread. Mysterious Press, 1989.

Trophies and Dead Things. Mysterious Press, 1990.

Where Echoes Live. Mysterious Press, 1991.

Pennies on a Dead Woman’s Eyes. Mysterious Press, 1992.

Wolf in the Shadows. Mysterious Press, 1993.

Till the Butchers Cut Him Down. Mysterious Press, 1994.

The McCone Files. Crippen & Landru, 1995 [short story collection]

A Wild and Lonely Place. Mysterious Press, 1995.

The Broken Promise Land. Mysterious Press, 1996.

Both Ends of the Night. Mysterious Press, 1997.

While Other People Sleep. Mysterious Press, 1998.

A Walk Through Fire. Mysterious Press, 1999.

Listen to the Silence. Mysterious Press, 2000.

McCone and Friends. Crippen & Landru, 2000. [short story collection]

Dead Midnight. Mysterious Press, 2002.

The Dangerous Hour. Mysterious Press, 2004.

   [Newly Published:]

The Ever-Running Man. Grand Central Publishing, July 2007.

BRIAN BALL – Death of a Low-Handicap Man.

Arthur Barker Ltd., UK, hardcover, 1974. Walker & Co., hardcover, US, 1978. Paperback reprint: Walker 3063, 1984. Trade paperback: Wildside Press, 2003.

   When a golfer that not everyone’s overly fond of is found whacked to death near the clubhouse, the only question the bartender asks is: “How many strokes?” On the other hand, the investigation that follows is painfully and stolidly slow, hampered in part by an unspoken procedural conflict between the village bobby and the superintendent from the C.I.D. Nor is it quite a “locked room” mystery either, but it is difficult to explain how nothing suspicious was noticed, even though the thicket in which the dead man was found had been under close observation throughout the match, and from all sides. Although it’s not really necessary, a love of the silly game of golf will help tremendously in the enjoyment you’ll get from this one. (C)

      – From The MYSTERY FANcier, Vol. 3, No. 2, Mar-Apr 1979. This review also appeared earlier in the Hartford Courant.

[UPDATE] 07-18-07. Brian Ball has six books listed in CFIV, as follows:

      Death of a Low-Handicap Man (n.) Barker 1974; Walker, 1978.
      Montenegrin Gold (n.) Barker 1974; Walker, 1978.
      Keegan: The No-Option Contract (n.) Barker, 1975.

      Keegan: The One-Way Deal (n.) Barker, 1976.
      Witchfinder: The Evil at Monteine (n.) Mayflower, pb, 1977.
      The Baker Street Boys (co.) BBC, 1983. Series character: Arnold Wiggins. [Two novelettes based on the BBC television series.]

   He’s probably much better known, however, as science fiction writer Brian N. Ball. For a list of all of his books, this website seems to be the place to look.

   Keegan appears to have been a reluctant spy for British Intelligence. The book based on “The Baker Street Boys”sounds intriguing, as does the TV series itself. The link will lead to the IMDB entry for it. There was one other book in the “Witchfinder” series:

      Witchfinder: The Mark of the Beast. (n.) Mayflower, pb, 1976.

   While this may be a book wrongly omitted from CFIV, it may be a straight horror novel with no criminous aspects to it.

   As for the mystery novel reviewed above, I seem to have neglected to include the name of either of the two sleuths involved, not that either apparently made another appearance. Nevertheless, I’d still like to know who they might have been. If you happen to have a copy handy, would check it out and pass the word along to me?

   The “locked room” aspect doesn’t seem to have been strong enough for the book to be included in Bob Adey’s Locked Room Murders, but once again, my bringing it up at all makes me wish I’d taken better notes at the time. Even though I gave this one a letter grade of only a “C”, if I come across it again any time soon, I think that a re-reading might very well be in order.