Pretty Sinister Books

The Dead Takes No Bows (1941) gives us the origin of Quinny Hite, a former cop turned opportunistic private eye, two splendid plans – one o...

THE STORY: Wes Beattie, chronic liar and hapless young banker, is on trial in Toronto for a capital crime. No one seems to believe his ferv...

Harry Stephen Keeler in his youth. On January 22, 1967 the world lost one of its premiere imagineers. Harry Stephen Keeler shuffled off ...

Each new Bryant & May crime novel brings with it the anticipatory thrill of discovering more arcana of London that Christopher Fowler lo...

 U.S. edition with a title change (Henry Holt & Co., 1933) Reverend Ebenezer Buckle solves his second case in this detective nov...

I was astonished at how this book undergoes a subtle and winning transformation from broad comedy to moving drama. Here we have the overwo...

There is no one quite like Fred Vargas in crime fiction today. You have to go back to the "webwork" novels of Harry Stephen Keeler...

I get linked a lot these days -- mostly from other reading blogs pointing out a great review of an overlooked book. I enjoy when that happen...

I have a special fondness for this book by madcap Harry S. Keeler for a variety of reasons.  It was the first of his books I ever found in a...