This may seem a bit self-serving, but my forgotten book selection for this week is my 20,000 word booklet, Was Corinne's Murder Clued? The Detection Club and Fair Play, published in 2011 as a CADS (Crime and Detective Stories) Supplement. It detailed the debates among Detection Club members about the standards for admitting new members over a near quarter-century period, from 1930 to 1953. There is quite a bit about the personalities of the members, especially during the Second World War, when the conflict menaced the Club's existence. There were nice reviews of it at the time by Jon L. Breen, Martin Edwards and Patrick Ohl.
The booklet was printed in the UK and I believe did not reach many people outside that country, so I am pleased to announce that it will be the lead piece in a collection of my essays and reviews to be published this Spring, Was Corinne's Murder Clued and Other Mysteries: Essays on Crime and Detective Fiction. It will include CADS articles and Coachwhip introductions as well as additional pieces I have written over the last four years, covering classic English crime, classic American crime, thrillers and pulp fiction, Victoriana and genre historiography. It is structured to provide a pretty broad overview of American and British crime and detective fiction published over about 150 years.
Additionally I have another book project with McFarland for 2016 that has been shaping up nicely, about which more soon shall be forthcoming. Also, my book on Henry Wade and GDH and Margaret Cole should be out soon and I hope to finish a genre survey this year (about 200 pages have been written). There will also be some more mystery reprint introductions, some, but not all, for Coachwhip.
On another, sadder note the news is that Ruth Rendell, a great favorite at The Passing Tramp, has suffered a serious stroke, as reported here at the Guardian. I know you will join with me in wishing her the best. I had recently completed Rendell's 1999 Wexford novel Harm Done, and you can expect a full review soon. This month I also reviewed one of her collections of short fiction, Blood Lines.
The Passing Tramp: Wandering through the mystery genre, book by book.
I enjoyed the CADS supplement and look forward to this one!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Richard! I'm glad to have Corinne more permanently preserved and accessible to more fans of older mystery.
ReplyDeleteI missed Corinne the first time around, but have enjoyed your blog since I found you and started following. I will look forward to this new release. Thanks for all the work it takes to write these informative, interesting posts about the mysteries near and dear to my heart.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Stepheny. It's great to write about all these things, but it does take time, that's for certain. So am always glad to hear there's interest.
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