Cover artist: Edward Gorey.

DELL. Paperback reprint: July 2001. Hardcover First Edition: Delacorte Press, July 2000. [The same artwork was used on both.] Published posthumously.

      From the back cover:

Julia Larwood’s Aunt Regina needs help. She and two friends pooled their modest resources and invested in equities. Now the tax man demands his due, but they’ve already spent the money. How can they dig themselves out of the tax hole? Even more to the point: Can the sin of capital gains trigger corporeal loss?

That’s one for the sibyl, psychic counselor Isabella del Comino, who has offended Aunt Regina and her friends by moving into the rectory, plowed under a cherished garden, and establishing an aviary of ravens. When Isabella is found dead, all clues point to death by financial misadventure.

So Julia calls in an old friend and Oxford fellow, Professor Hilary Tamar, to follow a money trail that connects Aunt Regina and her friends to what appears to be capital fraud — and capital crime. The two women couldn’t have a better champion than the erudite Hilary, as once again Sarah Caudwell sweeps us into the scene of the crime, leaving us to ponder the greatest mystery of them all: Hilary, him — or her — self.

   No cover artist this time, as you can see. If the object of a paperback cover is to attract potential buyers, this one should have. The strategy may not have worked, though. There are only 12 copies offered for sale on ABE, suggesting not many were sold in the first place. (Or perhaps anyone who has a copy is keeping it.)

PINNACLE paperback original; 1st printing, April 1976.

      From the front cover:

A gold artifact from the sixth century, a treasure of the Czars. Many had died for it, and the killing continues …

      From the back cover:

    “Like so many of the Scythian tombs; it had already been robbed, perhaps centuries before. But then a secret compartment was discovered. In it was a single artifact, a sold gold stag nearly two feet long and twelve inches high. It was resting on an iron shield which covered the bones of one of the chieftains. The stag was in a prone position with its forepaws folded under and a long golden mane flowing back from its antlers to its tail. Its design and concept are so close to the abstract forms of today that one can hardly believe it was created twenty-five hundred years ago. In terms of value, there is no way to put a price tag on it. Except for a few precious gems, it is probably the most valuable piece of its kind in the world today…”

    Devlin looked at Irina, drank in her exquisitely beautiful face, a figure that put his blood on fire, and wondered why she was so eager to tell him this Russian fairy tale. Especially now, after he was suspected of killing a French diplomat. Even that unfortunate event could be traced to his first meeting with Irina. A most innocent meeting.

    Now it would be different. Their eyes spoke a language that was anything but innocent. The strong, heady aroma of cognac — and Irina — decided it all.

    Tomorrow he would see about that finding that goddamn stag…

[COMMENTS] In case you were wondering, and are old enough to wonder, yes, Basil Heatter is the son of Gabriel Heatter, the well-known radio commentator for the Mutual Broadcasting System during World War II, and on through the 1950s.

   And Tim Devlin, the primary protagonist of The Golden Stag, is a series character. He also appeared in Devlin’s Triangle, Pinnacle, 1976. He’s the head of Devlin Underwriters, a “small but highly respected marine insurance firm.”

   The first winter storm of the season, here in the Northeast, and our first power outage, from 7:15 this morning to about 1:30 this afternoon. I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come. Wisely planning ahead, I made the big push this weekend, and Judy’s car was in her half of the garage when the ice and freezing rain hit. (Of course some of the boxes of books that came from there are now in the living room, but you have to remember: one step at a time!)

   But the reminder of how much we depend on electricity is a sobering one, not to mention access to one’s computer. I’m still working on Saturday’s New York Times crossword puzzle, for example, and without Google the Southwest corner is proving to be impenetrable.

   Al Hubin also sent me Part 21 of his online Addenda to the Revised Crime Fiction IV early this morning, and here it is, almost 4:30 in the afternoon, and I’ve only now gotten it uploaded.

   This new data is strong on newly discovered birth and death dates for authors, along with added info on series characters and settings. But also in this installment are lengthy entries for romantic suspense writers Kylie Brant and Glenna Finley, among others; historical fiction author Nigel Tranter, whose books often contained elements of crime-related activities; western writer Tim Champlin, for whose books the same can be said; Ian Rankin, whose books have been the basis for a number of recent TV films; and science fiction writer Walter Jon Williams, whose stories of galactic gentleman burglar-thief Drake Majistral are now included.

   It’s too early for me to have start adding cover images and so on, along with whatever additional commentary I will begin to add as soon as I can get to it, but I will, as soon as I can get to it!

   Tom Taylor is a Herbert Adams collector as well as the author of The Golf Murders (Golf Mystery Press, 1997), a bibliography of golfing mysteries, and yesterday he sent me the cover image below. It’s for Death of a Viewer (Macdonald, 1958), a book that Mary Reed reviewed back in August. I couldn’t come up with a copy on my own, so he sent me one. (The cover image, not the book.) Tom also says that he’s working on an Adams bibliography and has a complete collection except one title, Black Death (Collins, 1938).

   A partially illustrated checklist of Adams’s Roger Bennion novels, of which this is one, appeared along with Mary’s review. Follow the link above.

   I was working in Part 9 for a short while again this evening. The following are consecutive entries in the M’s. Not the most interesting group of authors, perhaps, but they’re all grist for the mill. (And who is to say, without reading them?)

MILLAR, FLORENCE N(ORAH). 1920-2000? Add tentative year of death. Author of two detective novels and one work marginally criminous, all three included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV. Chief Inspector Douglas Grant (DG) is the series detective in two of them. See below.
      Fishing Is Dangerous. Gifford, UK, hc, 1946. DG
      Grant’s Overture. Gifford, UK, hc, 1956. DG
      -The Lone Kiwi. Dawson, UK, hc, 1948. Setting: Italy, World War II.

MILLAR, J(OHN) HALKET. 1899-1978. Born in New Zealand. Add as a new author entry.
      Death Round the Bend. R. W. Stiles & Co., New Zealand, hc, 1954. [A novel about the bushranging Burgess gang that terrorized the New Zealand goldfields in 1866.]

MILLAR, PETER. British journalist and author of one thriller novel included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV. See below. Bleak Midwinter (Bloomsbury, 2002) is about an outbreak of bubonic plague set in modern Oxford.
      Stealing Thunder. London & NYC: Bloomsbury, hc, 1999. Add setting: 1945. [Alternative history thriller involving Klaus Fuchs, the German born Los Alamos physicist who passed on critical pieces of information about the atomic bomb.]

MILLER, RON(ALD) JAY. 1943- . Add full first name and year of birth.
      The Medallion. Salt Lake City: Northwest, pb, 1992. Setting: Wyoming. “This tale of courage and triumph follows Calvin Taft as he battles to regain his past with the help of a special medallion.”

MILLS, JOHN FITZMAURICE. 1917-1991. Add year of death. Lived in Wales; art critic for Irish Times for 10 years. Besides one novel included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV (see below) the author of such reference books as Collecting and Looking after Antiques and How to Detect Fake Antiques.
      Top Knocker. Dublin, Ireland: Wolfhound, pb, 1990. Wolfhound, US, pb, 1990. Setting: Dublin. [Novel about intrigue in the antiques trade, by an insider.]

MILLS, MAX. 1910?-2001? Add both dates, both tentative. Author of one novel included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV. See below.
      Bedtime at Eleven. Quality Press, UK, hc, 1949.

   Cover by Jim Manos, about whom Google turns up nothing, but a James Manos, Jr., is a writer-producer for movies & TV, including The Sopranos, The Shield, and Dexter.

Pinnacle, paperback; 1st printing, Sept 1983. UK hardcover: Collins (Crime Club), 1980; US hardcover edition: Doubleday & Co., 1980.

   From the back cover:

Famed for his extravagant houseparties and his nasty jokes, the Maharajah of Bhopore had asembled as odd assortment of guests for his annual April Fool’s Day fun. With consummate charm, he plies them with luxuries — and then, he tortured them with his tricks.

But mirth turned to murder with the crack of the Maharajah’s backfiring rifle. Obviously someone in the palace had a deadly sense of humor … and Detective Superintendent of Police Howard was just the man to find out who the joker was.

   I was working in Part 4 last week. These are consecutive entries in the S’s.

SHEPPARD, STEPHEN. 1945- . Ref: CA. Born in England. Actor & painter; author of three novels included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV, including the one cited below.
      Monte Carlo. TV movie: CBS, 1986 (scw: Peter Lefcourt; dir: Anthony Page)

SMITH, CRAIG (BRIAN). 1947- . Note: Separate this entry from the one following; they are two different authors. Besides the title below, his only entry in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV, this Craig Smith was the screenwriter for three crime films made between 1996 and 2002.
      Ladystinger. Crown, US, hc, 1992. Setting: New Orleans, Jamaica. (Add the latter.) TV movie: Showtime, 1993, as Scam (scw: Craig Smith; dir: John Flynn). Nominated for an Edgar in 1993 as Best First Novel. [A mistress of the scam may get herself double-looped by her own chicanery.]

SMITH, CRAIG (S.) 1950- . Ref: CA. Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Southern Illinois; lives in Switzerland. Note: Separate this entry from the one preceding; they are two different authors.
      Silent She Sleeps. Heinemann, UK, hc, 1997. US title: The Whisper of Leaves. Setting: Illinois; academia. [Innocent man is framed by corrupt cop.]
      _The Whisper of Leaves. Southern Illinois University Press, pb, 2002. US title of Silent She Sleeps.

SMITH, WILBUR (ADDISON)
      Wild Justice. TV movie: Syndicated, 1993. Also released as Covert Assassin and as Dial. (scw: J. H. Carrington; dir: Tony Wharmby)

SOHMER, STEVE
      Favorite Son. TV movie [mini-series]: NBC, 1988 (scw: Steve Sohmer; dir: Jeff Bleckner)

SPECHT, ROBERT. 1928-1997. Ref: CA. Editor; free-lance TV writer and story editor. Of two novels written, one is included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV. See below. This constitutes the author’s complete entry.
      The Soul of Betty Fairchild. St. Martin’s, hc, 1991. Setting: South Carolina. Add TV movie: NBC, 1997, as NightScream (scw: Eugenia Bostwick-Singer, Raymond Singer, Gary Tieche; dir: Noel Nosseck). [Twenty-four years after Betty Fairchild is murdered, a young woman shows up who is identical to her in appearance and behavior, and seems to suffer from multiple personalities.]

SPEIGHT, RICHARD (DOBBS). 1940- . Trial lawyer living in Nashville, TN. His son, Richard Speight Jr., is an actor currently [2007] in a recurring role on the TV show Jericho. Author of two books listed in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV, one of which is cited below.
      Desperate Justice. TV movie: ABC, 1993, as A Mother’s Revenge; also released as Desperate Justice (scw: John Robert Bensink; dir: Armand Mastroianni)

SPROUL, KATHLEEN. 1903?-1977? Author of five detective novels included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV. Series sleuth Dick Wilson appears in the four published by Dutton between 1932 and 1935; covers for one of these is shown below. Her fifth and final mystery is listed immediately thereafter.

      Death Listened In. Phoenix Press, hc, 1946. Add setting: Midwest. Said Anthony Boucher in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Passable enough up to the ending, which hinges upon a device of such monstrous improbability that it makes Buck Rogers look strictly scientific.”

   The cover artist is Roger Roth, who is perhaps best known for his detailed illustrations for children’s books — but that’s not all he’s done:

IPL. Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hc, 1930. Doubleday Doran (Crime Club), US, hc, 1931. Also published as: The Saint Closes the Case, Sun Dial Press, hc, 1941; paperback reprint: Fiction K103, 1967 [TV series tie-in with Roger Moore cover]. And as: The Saint and the Last Hero, Avon #544, pb, 1953. Other paperback reprints, under original title: Ace Charter, February 1982; International Polygonics, November 1988.

      From the back cover:

   How Simon Templar makes the acquaintance of arch-villain Dr. Rayt Marius, destroys a dangerous death ray, and thereby saves the world from catastrophe and a second Great War.

   Business as usual — for the Saint.

      From inside the front cover:

   ‘My name is Templar — Simon Templar.’

SIMON TEMPLAR: a/k/a The Saint, the Happy Highwayman, the Brighter Buccaneer, the Robin Hood of Modern Crime.

DESCRIPTION: Age 31. Height 6 ft., 2 in. Weight 175 lbs. Hair black, brushed straight back. Complexion tanned. Bullet scar through upper left shoulder; 8 in. scar on right forearm.

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS: Always immaculately dressed. Luxurious tastes. Lives in most expensive hotels and is connoisseur of food and wine. Carries firearms and is expert knife thrower. Licensed air pilot. Speaks several languages fluently. Known as “The Saint” from habit of leaving drawing of skeleton figure with halo at scenes of crimes.

   Cover art credited to John Jinks, the overall design to Barbara Buck.

MYSTERIOUS PRESS. Hardcover edition, November 1988. Paperback reprint, November 1989. The same cover art was used on both editions.

      From the back cover:

   Andy Flanagan is an angry man. A one-armed veteran of the Vietnam war, he lives on a leaky boat at L.A.’s Old Fleet Marina. Now the marina is to be sold, and Flanagan — along with a hundred others — is to be ousted, with no place to go.

   His protests ignored, he phones the marina’s wealthy owner, an importer named Le Van Minh, and arranges a meeting. But Le never shows — until Flanagan stumbles over his corpse on the dock and is arrested fro murder.

   Public Defender Tracy Davis thinks Flanagan is innocent, and hires Dave Brandstetter to find the real killer. Brandstetter soon finds himself on the unseen border where American and Asian cultures meet and clash. Other wealthy Vietnamese have met violent ends recently. What role does the gang lord Don Pham play? What did a black street runner see that he shouldn’t? What angry secret do the young people of Le’s family share between them?

   Obedience is a story of ancient verities trashed by 20th-century greed and corruption. Never before has Dave Brandstetter ventured into so alien a world, and rarely has his dogged search for the truth put his life in such danger.

    “Excellent.”       —  Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine

    “Fast paced … Hansen readers should delight in it.”       —  Publishers Weekly

   I’ve been working with Part 9 yesterday and today, this time more or less in the A’s, but things quickly branched out from there:

ADAMS, FRANK R(AMSEY). 1883-1963. Chicago reporter; writer of songs and screen plays. Also the author of eight mystery and adventure novels included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV, two marginally. One of these was reprinted in paperback by Dell in 1950 as western fiction; see below. One other book by Adams was purely a western: Gunsight Ranch (Doubleday Doran, hc, 1939).
      Arizona Feud. Doubleday Doran, US, hc, 1941. Harrap, UK, 1944. “The homecoming of a young Arizonian revives a blood feud three generations old.”

ANDREAE, PERCY. 1858-1924. Confirm birth date and add date of death. Influential anti-prohibitionist in the US in the 1900s. Between 1894 and 1902, the author of five novels included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV, including the two below. Two of the other titles are indicated as being only marginally crime-related.
      Stanhope of Chester. Smith Elder, UK, hc, 1894. Rand McNally, US, pb, 1896. The Bookman (Vol. III, No. 1, March 1896): “The most notable ghost story that has appeared for many years.”
      The Vanished Emperor. Ward Lock, UK, hc, 1896. Rand McNally, US, 1896. Alternate history novel set in Europe. “Sir John Templeton solves the case of the missing German emperor.”

ANDREWS, CAROLYN. Pseudonym of Carolyn Hanlon, 1940- , q.v. Add real name and year of birth. Under this pen name, a writer of romance fiction, with one title included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV. See below. [Other pen name: Cara Summers; not used for criminous fiction before the year 2000.]
      The Marriage Curse. Harlequin, pb, 1996. [A lovely innkeeper determined to solve the mystery surrounding her resident ghost clashes with her overly solicitous landlord.]

ARCHER, MARGARET. Author of six crime novels listed in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV, including the two below. Published in the UK between 1945 and 1953, none appeared in the US.
       Gull Yard. Jarrolds, UK, hc, 1947. [Nellie Greene, the new governess to the Rev. Arthur Cagg’s household, arrives in London’s Gull Yard during early Victorian times.]

       The Silent Sisters. Jarrolds, UK, hc, 1950. Add setting: England.

ARMSTRONG, RAYMOND. Pseudonym of Norman (Harold) Lee, 1898-1964, q.v. Under this pen name, the author of 13 mystery novels included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV, all published only in the UK between 1947. The series characters who appeared in these books include J. Rockingham Stone, Inspector Dick Mason, and Laura Scudamore, sometimes individually and on occasion, all three in the same books. It must be Laura Scudamore who is known as “The Sinister Widow,” as the phrase is part of the title in all seven books in which she appears.

ARNOLD, JUDITH. Pseudonym of Barbara J. Keiler, 1953- , q. v. Add real name and year of birth. Lives in a small town near Boston. Under this pen name, a writer of romance fiction with two titles in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV, one marginally. See below. [Other pen names: Ariel Berk, Thea Frederick; neither was used for criminous fiction through the year 2000.]
      -Legacy of Secrets. Harlequin, pb, 1998. Setting: Louisiana. [Book 11 in the Delta Justice series.]

      A Stranger’s Baby. Harlequin, pb, 1996. Setting: Maryland.

CORRIGAN, MARK. Pseudonym of Norman (Harold) Lee, 1898-1964, q.v. Under this pen name, described online as the author of “30 mystery/detective novels with series character Mark Corrigan of US Intelligence who, with sidekick Tucker Maclean, has first-person romantic adventure thriller experiences in exotic locations.” Two of these are shown below.
         

HANLON, CAROLYN. 1940- . Pseudonym: Carolyn Andrews, q.v. Add this entry with the author’s real name and year of birth. [Other pen name: Cara Summers; not used for any criminous fiction before the year 2000.]

HOBART, ROBERTSON. Pseudonym of Norman (Harold) Lee, 1898-1964, q.v. Under this pen name, the author of four mystery novels included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV. Series character Inspector Grant Vickary appears in two of them; the setting for each is Australia. One of these is shown below:

KEILER, BARBARA J. 1953- . Pseudonym: Judith Arnold, q.v. Add this entry with the author’s real name and year of birth. [Other pen names: Ariel Berk, Thea Frederick; neither was used for criminous fiction through the year 2000.]

LEE, NORMAN (HAROLD). 1898-1964. Correction of dates & addition of middle name. Add as pseudonyms: Raymond Armstrong, Mark Corrigan, Robertson Hobart, qq.v. Also add the titles indicated with a (*) below. The following is now the complete entry in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV for the author under his own name. (Others novels appear to be adventure or sea stories only.)
      -Deputy Wife. Mitre, UK, pb, 1946.
      The “Four Winds” Mystery. Mitre, UK, pb, 1946.
      Peril at Journey’s End. Foster, UK, pb, 1947.
      (*) Ship of Adventure. Skilton, UK, 1948. Setting: Ship.
      (*) The Terrified Village. Lutterworth, UK, hc, 1947. Setting: England, 1800s. Subtitle: A Tale of the Kent and Sussex Smugglers. [Historical tale based on the exploits of the Zack o’Lantern gang, in which the son of a London lawyer falls in with smugglers.]

LEE, NORMAN. 1905-1962. Delete this entry. This eliminates an apparent second Norman Lee whose presumed pseudonyms are now correctly attributed in the entry above.