9/15/1939 Hello, Farewell

September 15, 1939.  On this date Raymond Chandler finished the first draft of Farewell, My Lovely, his second novel about L.A. private eye Phillip Marlowe. In my opinion, his masterpiece.

9/7/1976 Miss Marple's graceful exit

September 7, 1976.  This day saw the American publication of Sleeping Murder, which Agatha Christie wrote during the second World War and tucked away to be a posthumous curtain call for herself and Jane Marple, the beloved spinster from St Mary Mead.

A newlywed has an apparent deja-vu memory of a murder.  Is it ESP, or something more sinsiter.

Kirkus Review said: "This is Miss Marple at her noticing, unobtrusive, kindly best--a perfect envoi."

9/5/2017 George Smiley returns

September 5, 1971. The very first sentence of the very first book John Le Carré published tells us that George Smiley's wife has left him.  Here it is, fifty years later and we are still reading about George and the faithless Lady Ann, among others.

Le Carré has written more than 20 books and this is the ninth loosely described as a George Smiley novel.  The master spy with the guilty conscience and a will of iron is only the main character in four or five of them (depending on whether you think the main character of The Honourable Schoolboy is, uh, the honourable schoolboy.

The narrator and protagonist of A Legacy of Spies,  is Peter Guillam, Smiley's protegé, dragged out of retirement to explain some old cases to a post-Cold War generation of interrogators.  And that reminds me.  I got my filthy hands on a pre-publication copy and I am halfway through it, but I am still trying to figure out when it is set.  INternal evidence says it has to be later than 2000.  In our present day Peter would be mid-eighties and Smiley, if he is still alive (that is under debate in the part I am reading) would be a decade older.  Those would be mighty old spies. 

In any case it is a great read.

8/23/1991 Sleep of the Unjust

August 23, 1991.  This day saw the publication of E.X. Ferrars' Sleep of the Unjust.  Felix and Virginia Freers are invited to the wedding of the niece of their friends, but the unexpected arrival of a former love of the bride results in a mysterious death -- accompanied by several contradictory suicide notes.  Hmm...

8/17/1942 Marlowe looks out a high window

August 17, 1942.  This date saw the publication of The High Window, Raymond Chandler's third novel about L.A. private eye Philip Marlowe.   (Has anyone else pointed out that his novels arrange the same way chronologcally as alphabetically?  Just like Sue Grafton's sort of.)

And speaking of the alphabet, this story features characters named Marlowe,  Murdock (two of them), Magic, Merle, Morny, and Morningstar.  Why do authors do that sort of thing?  What's wrong with the other letters?

8/15/1929 Roman hat trick

August 15, 1929.  This date saw the beginning of one of the longest and most distinguished careers in mystery fiction.  It saw the publication of The Roman Hat Mystery, the first mystery written by Ellery Queen, featuring, of course, the detective Ellery Queen.

Cousins Manfred Lee and Frederic Dannay wrote the book for a contest and won, but the sponsoring organization promptly went out of business.  Fortunately Frederick Stokes published it and the Queen career was on its way.

8/14/198? Sleeping Dogs awake

August 14, 198?.  On August 14th in an unspecified year an American who calls himself Michael Shaeffer meets a beautiful aristocratic woman in London.  Schaeffer is actually the Butcher's Boy, the Mafia's favorite hit man until a mobster tried to cheat him  That made our hero cranky and that made the cheater dead.  

The Butcher's Boy gets spotted in London and he decides he needs to go back to the States to teach a refresher course to those thugs who think they need to kill him.  All he has to do is stay out of the way of the mob, the cops, the FBI, and the Justice Department.  Piece of cake...

Sleeping Dogs is the second of (so far) three novels by Thomas Perry about the terrifyingly efficient Butcher's Boy.  They are worth reading, and in order.

8/12/1992 Payday for sin

August 12, 1992.  On this date Andrew Greeley's novel Wages of Sin was published.  Greeley was the author of dozens of nonfiction books as well as many bestselling novels (for a while he was putting out two a year).  He was supposedly the bestselling priest in history, and made a lot of money, much of which he donated to the Catholic Church.

Wages of Sin features a commodities broker trying to solve murders that happened many years before.  Referring to the priest's controversial inclusion of sexual material Kirkus Reviews called the book "Safe sex for senior citizens."

8/11/2015 Publishing sees the last of Deborah Knott

August 11, 2015.  This was the publication date for Long Upon the Land, the last novel in Margaret Maron's award-winning series about North Carolina judge Deborah Knott.  "When I started writing," Maron said, that year, "all the southern books were southern gothics, and the pigs ate mama."

The adventures of Judge Knott (oh, that pun) were somewhat more elevated.  The first of them Bootlegger's Daughter,won the Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity Awards.  The MWA named Maron a Grand Master in 2013.

Publisher's Weekly that the series' final entry "combines strong plotting, a superb cast of recurring characters, and a rare sense of place that transports readers to rural North Carolina."

8/10/1992 Jimmy Buffett, meet Joe Merchant

August 10, 1992.  On this date Jimmy Buffett's first novel was published.  Where is Joe Merchant? is about a rock star, missing and possibly dead in the Caribbean, and the seaplane-flying Vietnam vet who goes looking for him.  Buffett is, of course, a pop star in his own right, and the king of Carib tourist music.  Kirkus Reviews called it "a relaxed and rambling novel... The unitiiated may be baffled; his fans will be enchanted."

8/6/2013 Sandrine's Case Published

August 6, 2013.  Thomas H. Cook's novel Sandrine's Case was published on this day.  When Sam Madison's wife Sandrine dies in an apparent suicide he realizes he did not know her as well as he thought.  With the authorities convinced he killed her, Sam tries to figure out what really happened.  Publisher's Weekly called the book a "slow-burning, intricate thriller....one of his best, [which] burns to an unforeseen, but earned climax."  It was nominated for both the Edgar and Barry Awards.

8/1/1991 The Song Dog arrives

August 1, 1991. This date saw the publication of The Song Dog, both the first and last novel in James McClure's series about South African cops Trompie Kramer and Mickey Zondi. These books are set in the era of apartheid and the white and black cops have to play at being hostile when they are actually best friends.

"First and last" suggests a pretty short series but that's not it.  The Song Dog is a prequel to the series, showing us the first time the heroes met and worked together.  And at the end there is a grim prediction of how their story will end.

7/27/188? Australian mystery fiction begins

July 27, 188?.  Fergus Hume's The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, published in 1886, is usually considered the first Australian mystery novel.  It begins on a smoky night in Melbourne, July 27, when a dead body is discovered in a hansom cab.  Hume self-published the book and sold 25,000 copies of the first edition.  Over a million copies were sold in Britain and the United States combined.  Not a bad start.

7/22/1993 The Software Bomb goes off

July 22, 1993.  Today saw the publication of The Software Bomb.  It was Steve Womack's third and last novel about New Orleans PR consultant Jack Lynch. Yes, it's about malware and ransomware, back when computers were bigger, slower, and more expensive.

Publishers Weekly said that Womack "once again delivers an effective work, never too complex and not quite overburdened with woes for the ever-resilient Lynch."

7/19/1993 Morons and Madmen arrive

July 19, 1993.  This date saw the publication of Morons and Madmen, Earl Emerson's third novel about small town police chief Mac Fontana.  He is asked to investigate a deadly fire in Seattle.  A female firefighter is being blamed for the death of her co-workers.  There is sexism, racism, and affirmative action involved.  And, of course, someone tries to kill Mac.

One of the highlights of Fontana books are the chapter titles.  For example, from this one
* Where you wake up in a puddle of cold sweat and your heart is pumping like a nuclear reactor with broken spokes.
* Survivors will be prosecuted
* Firefighters hiding in closets
* What to do when your head is screwed on backwards

  

7/17/2015 Greenfellas break in

July 17, 2015.  Today was the official publication date for Greenfellas, a novel by Robert Lopresti.  And here is the first review:

**** Robert Lopresti, GREENFELLAS, Oak Tree Press, $17.95. If Carl Hiassen and Al Gore had collaborated on RESERVOIR DOGS, it might have come out something like GREENFELLAS. Then again, it probably wouldn't. Robert Lopresti, whose stories have appeared in EQMM, AHMM, and THE STRAND, among others, has penned a comic crime novel in which a New Jersey mobster with a bad comb-over decides to use his resources to save the environment for future generations. The dialogue is crisp and the situations darkly funny. - Steve Steinbock, "The Jury Box," ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, August, 2015.

Kings River Life Magazine named it one of the best mysteries of the year.

7/16/2013 Countdown City

7/16/2013. Countdown City was published on this date.  It is the second volume of Ben Winters' brilliant Last Policeman trilogy, which asks the question: how do you deliver justice when an asteroid is about to destroy the world?

7/11/2017 Death on Delos discovered

July 11, 2017.  On this date,which happens to be today, Death on Delos is being published.  It is the seventh novel in Gary Corby's series about the people of classical Athens.

Kirkus Weekly says: "In his brisk seventh mystery set in the world of ancient Greece (The Singer from Memphis, 2016, etc.), Corby highlights the crackling chemistry between the two leads and provides another helpful, amusing list of characters that includes a description of and a quotation from each of them."

7/3/2012 Stacy McLaughlin goes organic

July 3, 2012. This was the publication date for Stacy McLaughlin's Going Organic Can Kill You. It's the first book in a series of cozy mysteries set in Blossom Valley, California.  Dana Lewis,m junk food junkie, has just returned to her home town to be the marketing director for an organic farm and spa.  What could go wrong?  Besides murder.  And tofu...

6/24/2014 Murder on the Mediterranean

June 24, 2014.  This date saw the publication of Murder on the Mediterranean, the fifth novel in Alexander Campion's series about detective Capucine Le Tellier and her husband, Alexandre, a reataurant critic.  There's murder on a sailboat and Publishers' Weekly called it a "zesty stew of a mystery."