Detective Fiction Blog

Cyril Hare ~ A Brief Biography

Rod — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:12:55 +0000

A short potted history of the author Cyril Hare

Cyril Hare is the pseudonym of Judge Gordon Clark, who was born at Mickleham near Dorking in 1900. He was educated at Rugby, and New College, Oxford, where he took a ‘First’ in History.
(more…)

John Dickson Carr Autobiography ~ Information

Rod — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:08:07 +0000

John Dickson Carr ~ Some Information in the Authors Own Words

John Dickson Carr says: ‘Of Scottish descent, I was born in America in 1906. They sent me to school and university with the idea of turning me into a barrister like my father. But I wanted to write detective stories. I don’t mean that I wanted to write great novels, or any nonsense like that! I mean that I simply damn well wanted to write detective stories, And still do.
(more…)

Christianna Brand Biography - Information About the Author

Rod — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:29:25 +0000

Christianna Brand was born and brought up in Malaya. She came home to England to be educated in a convent and at the age of seventeen, her father having lost all his money, started to earn her own living.
(more…)

Freeman Wills Crofts Information

Rod — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:06:17 +0000

A small publishers biography of the Golden Age crime and mystery author Freeman Wills Crofts

Freeman Wills Crofts
was born in Dublin in 1879 and educated at Campbell College, Belfast. He was trained in Civil Engineering and began his working life on a railway in Northern Ireland. His knowledge of railway working has been put to good use in his books.
(more…)

John Ferguson Books - Biography

Rod — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:44:56 +0000

John Ferguson was of Scottish descent and lived in various places before moving South to Lymington.
He was born in 1873 and the author’s middle name was Alexander. He wrote 11 mystery novels and also some plays we believe including at least one of note, Campbell of Kilmohr.
(more…)

Laurence Meynell Books A Sample and Some for Sale

Rod — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:11:52 +0000

Laurence Meynell is an author well-regarded by both book collectors and readers of mystery fiction.
(more…)

The Twenty Third Man by Gladys Mitchell Synopsis

Rod — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:09:30 +0000

A brief synopsis and review of The Twenty Third Man by Gladys Mitchell

There they sat round a table in a cave near the top of a mountain on the island of Hombres Muerios - the twenty-three dead kings, masked, embalmed, and clad in their robes of state.
(more…)

Ellery Queen - Information About the Authors behind the name

Rod — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:27:20 +0000

Besides being the gentleman detective whose apartment on West 87th Street, New York, is as well known as Sherlock Holmes’ flat in Baker Street, London, and whose father is Inspector Richard Queen of the New York Police Department, Ellery Queen is a writer composed of two individuals, Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee.
(more…)

GDH and M Cole Biography - A Brief History

Rod — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:04:13 +0000

Some background information on G.D.H. Cole and Margaret Cole

G. D. H. Cole, (he only son of a surveyor and estate agent, took 10 books and writing from his schooldays at St. Paul’s. After his Oxford days he taught philosophy at Durham University, and then, first, economies and later, politics at Oxford, where he is now Professor of Social and Political Theory, Fellow of All Souls and Nuffield Colleges, and Hon.
(more…)

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie First Edition Book

Rod — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 09:14:09 +0000

One of the best known Miss Marple mysteries and very collectable - a synopsis, sample and information on how to identify a first edition of Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
(more…)