Pretty Sinister Books

THE STORY:   Sentence Deferred (1939) tells of how circumstantial evidence and coincidence can complicate a murder investigation. Two men, ...

Confession #87: I am not a fan of Julian Symons. Years ago when I was a teenager my treasured copy of Murder Ink introduced me to hundreds...

This is the year I’ve been reading books by several writers who I’ve known about for a long time and have been dancing around the periphery ...

Something Special!  The exclamation mark in a circle on the bottom of the front flap of The Magic Grandfather 's hardcover 1st edition d...

The first novel Will Oursler wrote was also his first detective novel.  The Trial of Vincent Doon (1941) is presented as if it were an actua...

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...

THE STORY: Viola Ross is awaiting the verdict from the jury who are deliberating on her fate in the trial of her husband's murder. No...

THE STORY: Robert Teal has been very busy in London. He's been digging around courtroom archives, reading newspapers, spending the da...

Sheer serendipity today! In researching the life and works of Jean Toussaint-Samat, a new to me author whose book The Dead Man at the Wi...

"Aged plagues! -- and yet you can't go to the length of sheer brutality in repelling them; and what is worse, one is driven to ac...

If The Case of The Rolling Bones (1939) is any indication of how Gardner moved away from the rough and tough Perry Mason in the very fir...