crossexaminingcrime

I first came across this author and his series when last reading another chunk of A Catalogue of Crime by Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor. They reviewed two of Catalan’s mysteries, Catalan being the penname for Henri Dupuy-Mazuel (1885–1962). Today’s read is part of Catalan’s Soeur Angèle series, featuring a crime solving nun. There appears to be 12 books in the series...

Today sees my 26th review for Elizabeth Ferrars, yet this is still only about a third of her output, so I won’t be running out of her books anytime soon. One thing I have noticed in certain corners of 1970s and 80s crime fiction is a preoccupation with mysteries centring on a character offering home help. This is a key part of today’s read, but it is also present in Trial by Fur...

Earlier this year I began taking a look at the crime fiction reviews of Barzun and Taylor, as collected in A Catalogue of Crime. So far, I have looked at authors beginning with A, B, and C. Continuing alphabetically, today’s post is going to explore authors beginning with D, E, and F.

This week I am reviewing a wild card read, as I was not quite sure what to expect. Antony Carr (1916-1995) wrote five mystery novels during the 1950s. Online information is limited but two of his other mysteries appear to be A Comedy of Terrors (1955) and The Man in Room 3 (1958). The title for Candles of the Night is derived from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

There seems to have been a bumper crop of classic crime reprints in July, so let’s get cracking and take a look at them…