Well this is a lousy piece of news to hit us at the beginning of a new year: mystery author Donald Westlake died last night. Westlake wrote more than a hundred books, and five screenplays as well, and he won three Edgars and a variety of other honors, including a Grand Master award from the Mystery Writers of America. He'll be missed. The New York Times has a good obit.
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Mystery Publishers
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A number of interesting authors, most long out of print, plus some other odds and ends, including some horror stories by Conan Doyle. - Crippen & Landru
Crippen & Landru publish mystery short story collections. Of particular interest is what they call "Lost Classics," a series of anthologies of mostly uncollected stories by authors who might be enjoyed by a new generation of readers. - Felony & Mayhem
This publisher specializes in classic mysteries, broadly defined, including newer mysteries that adhere to classic standards. They have just overhauled their website to make it much more informative and user-friendly. - Langtail Press
A fairly new Print On Demand publisher specializing mostly in classic mysteries. The managing director, James Prichard is the great-grandson of Agatha Christie, and his lineage shows. Authors include John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen, Anthony Berkeley, and Freeman Wills Crofts, among others. Many are also published as ebooks for the Amazon Kindle. - Merion Press
The Merion Press is an independent publisher of out-of-print works that were originally published over 75 years ago, but are enduring even today. - Mysterious Press
The brainchild of editor/anthologist/author/bookstore-owner Otto Penzler, the Mysterious Press has recently returned to life as an electronic book publisher. It is already republishing the work of a lot of classic authors, with more books on the way. - Mystery Guild
This book club mostly publishes current thrillers, spy and horror stories, etc., but has a few "lost classics" by the likes of Ellery Queen and John Dickson Carr. As such, it may be worth your attention. Be warned though that it's a "negative option" club - if you join, you have to reply to each offer every few weeks to keep them from being sent to you. - Poisoned Pen Press
Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Poisoned Pen Press publishes a fairly wide variety of mysteries. Some are reprints; many are new, by newer authors. Their website has a great deal of information about their books and authors. - Rue Morgue Press
"Rue Morgue Press is the old-mystery lover's best friend, reprinting high quality books from the 1930s and '40s." —Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
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- I am an Amazon AssociateThat means that if you order anything from Amazon through a link from my site or the search box on my page, I get a small commission. As a result, I'd consider it a favor if you would consider making your purchases through my links. As always, though, if you have a local mystery book store, I encourage you to use them as your first choice. For anything else... Thank you.
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January 01, 2009
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Amazon invitation
- Buying something from Amazon?If you're looking for a mystery, I hope you'll go first to your local independent bookstore - you'll find them eager to help you. For anything else, you would be doing me a great favor if you would use this search box to find any other product - you want to buy from Amazon. I get a remarkably small percentage. Thank you!
The Backlist
- Click here to see a complete list of available podcast reviews
An alphabetical (by author) list with links to more than 160 reviews of classic mysteries for your listening and reading pleasure.
Links to the Most Recent Podcasts
- "The Mysterious Affair at Styles," by Agatha Christie
- "The Secret House," by Edgar Wallace
- "The Man in Lower Ten," by Mary Roberts Rinehart
- "A Study in Scarlet," by Arthur Conan Doyle
- "The Dead Witness," edited by Michael Sims
- "The Duel of Shadows," by Vincent Cornier
- "The Hotel Majestic," by Georges Simenon
- "A Rumpole Christmas," by John Mortimer
- "And Four to Go," by Rex Stout
- "Friday the Rabbi Slept Late," by Harry Kemelman
- "Give a Corpse a Bad Name," by E. X. Ferrars
- "Dead Men's Morris," by Gladys Mitchell
- "Murder on the Blackboard," by Stuart Palmer
- "A Smell of Smoke," by Miles Burton
- "Hopjoy Was Here," by Colin Watson
- "Hag's Nook," by John Dickson Carr
- "More Things Impossible," by Edward D. Hoch
- "The Perfect Murder," by H. R. F. Keating
- "The Clocks," by Agatha Christie
- "The Man Who Was Thursday," by G. K. Chesterton
- "Night of the Jabberwock," by Fredric Brown
- "The Exploits of the Patent Leather Kid," by Erle Stanley Gardner
- "Charlie Chan Carries On," by Earl Derr Biggers
- "A Night of Errors," by Michael Innes
- "Death with Blue Ribbon," by Leo Bruce
- "Death in the Fifth Position," by "Edgar Box" (Gore Vidal)
- "A Late Phoenix," by Catherine Aird
- "At the Villa Rose," by A. E. W. Mason
- "The Plague Court Murders," by John Dickson Carr
- "If Death Ever Slept," by Rex Stout
- "The First Detective: The Life and Revolutionary Times of Vidocq," by James Morton
- "When Last I Died," by Gladys Mitchell
- "The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime, edited by Michael Sims"
- "Hildegarde Withers: Uncollected Riddles," by Stuart Palmer
- "The Man in the Brown Suit," by Agatha Christie
- "Dragon's Cave," by Clyde B. Clason
- "More Work for the Undertaker," by Margery Allingham
- "Three Witnesses," by Rex Stout
- "Rim of the Pit," by Hake Talbot
- "Murder on the Matterhorn," by Glyn Carr
- "The Pink Umbrella," by Frances Crane
- "Sudden Vengeance," by Edmund Crispin
- "Fear and Miss Betony," by Dorothy Bowers
- "Riddle of the Sands," by Erskine Childers
- "Arrow Pointing Nowhere," by Elizabeth Daly
- "The Circular Staircase," by Mary Roberts Rinehart
- "Death in the Stocks," by Georgette Heyer
- "All-Time Favorite Detective Stories," ed. by Rochelle Kronzek
- "Case with Four Clowns," by Leo Bruce
- "The Case of the Constant Suicides," by John Dickson Carr
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