Soon I will be reviewing a Patrick Quentin, My Son, the Murderer (1954), written after Hugh Wheeler had taken over the series from the infirm Webb. It's the sort of 1950s crime novel that would be labeled "domestic suspense" had it been written by a woman crime writer, I suspect.
Also I have still to get my review of Craig Rice's Having Wonderful Crime done (it was promised last week!), so look ahead to a double-barreled post this weekend. I am about to get the index for Mysteries Unlocked all wound up and will finally have some more free time for the blog (there's an essay in Mysteries Unlocked by Mauro Boncompagni on Patrick Quentin, by the way).
For now, what do you think of the Hoffman-illustrated book jacket? I must admit that I found the yellow-lettered title a bit pushy; however the yellow does match the boards. The illustration itself is great, I think.
I seriously cannot believe the way our reading habits constantly overlap. I went on a Patrick Quentin buying binge in the past two weeks, and was going to review Death in the Dovcot (aka Murder at the Women's City Club) for today's Friday Forgotten book until I realized I had two overdue reviews from other books I finished in April and May. So I am putting off my review of that very scarce book - the second of Webb's collaborative mysteries with Martha Kelley -- for a few days. I'm also planning on reviewing the final three Wheeler-Quentin books later this summer. Soon there will be a barrage of Q Patrick/Patrick Quentin blog posts.
ReplyDeleteWhy the last three? "He" is an interesting author, doesn't seem to have written a bad book.
ReplyDeleteI'm most interested in Wheeler's solo novels in his post The Crippled Muse days. That was a defining novel for him, I think. (Still working with Curtis Brown to get that reprinted. BTW). Also, it will be interesting to see how Timothy Trant has changed from Death and the Maiden to Family Skeletons, whether or not Wheeler ages him, changes him from how he and Webb first created him. Through sheer chance I managed to find the last three Quentin books at all at once at dirt cheap prices so I bought them all. Very eager to dig into them.
DeleteMauro thinks the last one one, which appeared after Wheeler had launched his stage career, is the weakest in the post-Webb series, but that it is of great interest as a whole.
DeleteDoug Greene has tried to get the collected short stories published, but has had no success.
Wish you could have done something for Mysteries Unlocked! Geoff Bradley mentioned to me you might be doing something for CADS, however.
Look forward to the review. I've enjoyed reading John's pieces at Pretty Sinister, and I'm sure you'll do justice too.
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