Carson's Conspiracy (1984), by Michael Innes, plus a bit on Evans' Endeavor

For my Friday Forgotten Book, I wanted to take a look at something by Michael Innes, an erudite British crime I writer I very much enjoy but have not written about here at the blog.

A full review of Carson's Conspiracy, Innes' penultimate crime novel, is coming, but for now I wanted to mention a bit about my forthcoming book, The Spectrum of English Murder: The Detective Fiction of Henry Lancelot-Aubrey-Fletcher and G. D. H. and Margaret Cole. (You may perhaps notice a trend here: "The Simple Art of Murder," Raymond Chandler; A Very British Murder/The Art of the English Murder, Lucy Worsley; The Golden Age of Murder, Martin Edwards.)

My book deals with ideology and aesthetics in the detective fiction of two major British Golden Age mystery authors, Henry Lancelot Aubrey-Fletcher, a baronet who wrote under the pseudonym Henry Wade, and G. D. H. and Margaret Cole, socialist intellectuals who actually composed their novels independently, though they took joint credit for all but one of them when published. (Aubrey-Fletcher would be happy with the Conservative performance in the British election results this morning, incidentally, but not so the Coles!)

Currently of all the works by these authors only one novel is in print, Henry Wade's wonderful Lonely Magdalen, but I have hopes this situation will change soon.  I also hope soon to be able to post the cover of my new book, which should be out next month.  There will be more detail about just what's in the book as well!

Here are links to previous pieces at The Passing Tramp on books by Henry Wade and the Coles.

The Coles: The Man from the River (1928), Death of a Star (1932), Toper's End (1942)
Henry Wade: The Hanging Captain (1932)