As announced last month A Case for Solomon, the third of Bruce Graeme’s Theodore Terhune series of detective novels and reprinted by Moonstone Press, has been released. I received my box of books a few days ago and I’m offering two copies in a giveaway. That's right -- two copies! One copy each to two lucky people.
Terhune reviews a courtroom transcript of a 20 year old murder trial over the course of the novel and uses the transcript as if it were a literary work, gleaning clues as to the personalities of those testifying based solely on their speech and language as recorded in the court documents. To enter this giveaway, just leave a comment below and mention your favorite courtroom detective novel. If it’s been out of print for decades you might want to mention that and I’ll see what we can do to get it back in print. I’ve been rather successful on the front lately.
This contest is open to readers in USA, Canada and UK. I’m afraid all other parts of the world are affected by significant mail restrictions or delays that are too worrisome for me to risk mailing anything from the US. I’ve read all the warnings from the USPS website and as of August 26 airmail delivery, especially to Australia and New Zealand, is too unpredictable. If you live in either country I apologize that you miss out again.
Anonymous comments will not be eligible. Please make sure that you leave your name or some sort of ID when you leave your comment. If you win you will be responsible for emailing me your name and mailing address. Runners-up will be selected if I do not hear from winners within three days.
CONTEST CLOSED
Tricky decision narrowing it down to one. I remember enjoying Raymond Postgate's Verdict of Twelve and Michael Underwood's Murder on Trial. But in the end I decided to go for Carter Dickson's The Judas Window. I thought Merrivale worked well in the courtroom setting and the murder method used is very ingenious.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite that comes to mind would probably still be DEATH QUALIFIED by Kate Wilhelm.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite courtroom novel is Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh.
ReplyDeleteKaptan Mastan (USA)
I've always had a soft spot Perry Mason, who can resist titles like The Case of the Drowning Duck. Being a horror reader I've enjoyed the ghost stores of EF Benson and was delighted to find he did an early court room crime novel, The Blotting Book. In the end I'm going for To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, bit of a cheat I know.
ReplyDeleteWayne.
First off, love your blog, I've never commented before and I'm embarrassed that prospect of winning a prize finally motivated me to do so since I should have commented long ago just to say thanks for all the great write-ups of obscure books! As for a "favorite courtroom mystery," well I don't know about favorite exactly but one I very much enjoyed reading recently was The Amazing Web, a "web-work" mystery by the master of such, Harry Stephen Keeler. The courtroom scenes that make up much of the book are unlike any others in fiction (or reality), that's for sure! Dramatic, gripping stuff, especially for Keeler. Cheers! - Allan Horrocks, overmanmool [at] gmail
ReplyDeleteSounds not unlike one of my favourite courtroom mysteries, The Maze by Philip MacDonald. I also thoroughly enjoyed The Bellamy Trial by Frances Noyes Hart, even if it was a very different kind of book to how I feel the recent AMC reprint presented it -- intricate, yes, but also weirdly (and fascinatingly) pedestrian.
ReplyDeleteThe Bellamy Trial by Frances Noyes Hart.
ReplyDeleteI have very much enjoyed the two TIT novels and your Introductions so I am looking forward to this latest reissue.
You have said there are eight in the series but only seven are being republished. I have found it difficult to access a complete list of the titles. Could you help?
The full list is on my review for Seven Clues in Search of a Crime. There are eight books and the final book Dead Pigs at Hungry Farm has an unfortunately narrow minded and bigoted depiction of some characters that the publisher thought too offensive for modern readers. For that reason it will not be reprinted. The book is extremely hard to find and I’ve not read it myself so I can’t tell you anything specific about that aspect of the book.
DeleteThank you for this most interesting information. I found your review and list for which many thanks.
ReplyDelete