Flash forward to March-April 2026. I emailed Gavin again asking if he still wanted to go ahead with the reprint and I had an intro I could offer based on the blog post I wrote. We emailed back and forth with interesting ideas about how to assemble and present the book. And now two and a half months later the finished product is available for sale! You can purchase the book either by visiting the Ramble House site or accessing their small list of titles at Lulu.com (the book printer for this POD reprint). There may be a slight discount if you buy a copy via Ramble House and use the special email address on the page for Author in Distress.
Next week --around Wednesday or Thursday-- I'll choose one of the comments at random to receive the book. You'll have to send me your physical mailing address in order to get the book. But please! DO NOT leave your address in the comments. The sinister webcrawlers regularly haunt this blog and I'm afraid they will swallow up your personal information and slam you with unwanted spam and who knows what else. We can arrange a private email exchange to get the necessary info. This giveaway is open to everyone across the globe. I will pay either Media Mail rate for within the US or First Class International shipping rate to anywhere outside the USA. Good luck!
Great news about the new reprint of the Cecil Wills book. This author's work is so hard to find. My suggestion for a reprint would be any of Max Long's three detective works. Let's say the first one - "Murder Between Dark and Dark". It has never been reprinted, has an unusual method of death, and I would think it is out of copyright. More people should have access to Max Long's works.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see this book being reprinted. I wouldn't mind seeing a reprint of Death Is My Shadow by James Corbett. Just finished reading a 1st edition copy I acquired recently and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is actually the fourth James Corbett novel I read in the past year, and although the writer doesn't have a great reputation, the novels I read were quite enjoyable and pleasant to read.
ReplyDeleteReally curious about this book. As for books I want to see reprinted, there are several locked room/ impossible crime novels that were hard to find now, such as: John Sladek's Black Aura and Invisible Green, Allen Green's What A Body, Hilary St. George Saunders's The Sleeping Bacchus, and Joseph Commings' works. Norma Schier's The Anagram Detectives & Robert L. Fish's Schlock Homes pastiche would also be interesting.
ReplyDeleteThanks for these suggestions, Miles. I thought I’d let you know that The Anagram Detectives is, in fact, very easy to find. There are fourteen copies offered on eBay right now and one is selling for only $5. When 10 or more copies of any book appear for sale on eBay it’s usually an indication that the book is fairly common and that it’s not really in demand. I found a total of 53 copies (which includes some but not all of those eBay listings) of The Anagram Detectives using an online bookselling aggregator that pulls listings from 215 online bookselling sites all across the globe. Also, both Schlock Holmes books are very easy to find in the online bookselling site listings. Nearly 150 copies of both titles’ listings combined turn up worldwide. Many copies priced at $15 or less are of the 1st edition hardcovers and all of them come with the DJ. With so many used copies still out there a new reprint edition is not really worth the effort to a small indie operation like Ramble House. They like to specialize in extremely hard to find books.
DeleteInvitation to Kill by Gardner Low deserves a reprint. The best use of hypnotism that I've encountered in a golden age mystery. The discussions on hara-kiri are interesting as well.
ReplyDeleteHave you discussed the Robert Hare books with RH? I've been wanting to read those ever since I heard you talk about them on the Invisible Event's Podcast 5 or 6 years ago.
Thanks for your suggestion about Gardner Low. I did a bit of research and found out he was Australian. So I followed up and bought a copy of this work. Sounds interesting! Louise
DeleteI've read most of Cecil Wills early books. The 4th/5th/7th/8th books deserve reaching a wider audience. They are: Death Treads/Then Came the Police/Defeat of a Detective/On the Night in Question.
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