Grey Mask (1929) by Patricia Wentworth – another review

Review by Mary Grover (containing spoilers): Reading my first Patricia Wentworth, heralded as a writer from ‘the Golden Age of British Crime Fiction’ my expectations were overturned. Her first novel, Grey Mask 1928 lacks most of the features associated with the kind of titles recently republished by the British Library. Where are the closed communities, … Continue reading →

Grey Mask (1929) by Patricia Wentworth

Book Review by George S: Charles Moray comes back from four years abroad, and is surprised to find that his empty house is being used as the meeting-place of a criminal gang, led by a terrifying man in a grey mask. He is even more concerned to find that his ex-fiancée, Margaret, seems to be … Continue reading →

Chain of Witnesses: The Cases of Miss Phipps (2014) – Phyllis Bentley

Review by George S: As well as her historical novels set in Yorkshire, Phyllis Bentley had a less well-known sideline writing detective stories. This is a collection of her short stories featuring novelist-detective Miss Phipps. The book was published in 2014; previously, the stories had only appeared in magazines. The earliest were published in British … Continue reading →

Death Goes on Skis by Nancy Spain (1949)

The writer, journalist and broadcaster, Nancy Spain, published several comic detective stories between 1945 and 1952, of which this is the fourth. It features her two recurring, (extremely) amateur detectives, Natasha Nevkorina, a Russian ex-ballet dancer, and Miriam Birdseye, a revue artist soon to star in a show called Absolutely the End.  Natasha is lovely … Continue reading →

A Deed without a Name by Dorothy Bowers (1940)

I’m not sure if Dorothy Bowers quite counts as a Queen of Crime (our topic for this month), though I would like to think so. Her novels were highly thought of at the time, but she didn’t remain popular in the way that Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham did. A reviewer in the … Continue reading →