Subscribe to this blog's feed

Subscribe to the Podcast

Twitter Updates

    follow me on Twitter

    About Comments

    • Comments are welcome...but...

      Please carry on all conversations without shouting, excessive ranting, or crudity. Profanity and personal attacks will not be tolerated. I am delighted to have you in my house - well, on my blog, anyway - and look forward to discussions. But please remember that we are all trying to carry on a civilized discussion. Your views are valuable. Please treat them that way. Thank you.

    Categories

    Archives

    More...

    About

    Mystery Publishers

    • Academy Chicago Publishers
      An imprint of the Chicago Review Press. Features 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.
    • Dean Street Press
      This small British publisher has a great many classic crime books in its much broader catalog. They are bringing back many Golden Age classics by authors who deserve another chance at a new audience.
    • 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.
    • Locked Room International
      A small press, specializing in very good English-language translations of (so far) mostly-French authors of locked room and impossible crime stories. They publish in Print-On-Demand and electronic editions.
    • 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.
    • MysteriousPress.com
      The brainchild of editor/anthologist/author/bookstore-owner Otto Penzler, the Mysterious Press has recently returned to life and now works with Open Road Media as an electronic book publisher. It is already republishing the work of a lot of classic authors, with more books on the way.
    • Oconee Spirit Press
      A small, independent publisher committed to publishing "lively fiction, and provocative non-fiction." Most of their list covers early works by established authors writing traditional mysteries, such as Carolyn Hart and Margaret Maron.
    • Oleander Press
      This small eclectic British publisher has begun publishing a series of classic British mystery novels, primarily from the Golden Age. The series is grouped into a section of their catalogue named "London Bound," as the books are set in London.
    • Ostara Publishing
      "Ostara Publishing re-issues titles that have unjustifiably become unavailable either through the ravages of time or the forces of publishing economics. We specialise in Crime and Thriller fiction titles and our range goes from the1920s through to the 21st century. We publish thematically and currently have six series available. All our titles are published in a 'trade paperback' format and printed to order."
    • 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.

    Search Classic Mysteries

    • Search This Site via Google Search
      Google

      WWW
      www.classicmysteries.net

    Amazon invitation

    • Link to Amazon
      Classic Mysteries is an Amazon.com Associate. If you're going to buy something from Amazon, please use this link to reach their site. I appreciate it!
    Blog powered by Typepad

    « The Winner Is... | Main | Looking Back: "The Three Coffins" »

    April 19, 2010

    "Banner Deadlines"

    This is not a political blog, nor will it become one. All the same, I find myself in the position of wanting to say something very good about a United States Senator. His name is Banner, Senator Brooks U. Banner, to be precise, and he appears to spend most of his time solving seemingly impossible crimes.

    He is, in other words, the hero of "Banner Deadlines: The Impossible Files of Senator Brooks U. Banner," by Joseph Commings, and he is the subject of today's review on our Classic Mysteries podcast, which you can listen to here.

    The book is a collection of short stories, all featuring Senator Banner and all involving impossible or locked room crimes. By reading them, you will see how Senator Banner figures out the solution to a murder which takes place during a seance where the participants were all straitjacketed and linked by touching feet. How about a murder in the middle of a lake, observed by witnesses onshore, where the murderer must have been invisible (and the gun disappeared)? Oh, there are plenty of them.

    I'm a huge locked-room fan and I love stories like these. It's another of publisher Crippen & Landru's "Lost Classics," collections of short stories by authors who shouldn't be forgotten - such as Joseph Commings. And Senator Banner most certainly will get my vote.

    Posted at 12:14 PM in Locked Rooms/Impossible Crimes, Short Stories |

    Tags: classic mysteries, impossible crimes, locked rooms, mysteries

    Comments

    Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

    Jennifer Lowe

    I have been working back through the old podcasts and recently listened to this episode. I wanted to let you know of another elected official in Washington DC who also solves crimes. R. B Dominic wrote a series of mysteries involving Congressman Benton Stafford. Dominic is actually the pseudonym of a pair of writers who also wrote under the name Emma Lathen. Written a little on the late side for classic mysteries, I have found the Emma Lathen mysteries quite enjoyable and assume the Dominic books are as well.

    Posted by: Jennifer Lowe | October 18, 2010 at 07:39 PM

    Les Blatt

    I have always enjoyed Emma Lathen's mysteries about John Putnam Thatcher, who appears to be as influential at solving crimes as he is in the world of banking. The main reason I haven't written about her (so far!) is because her books appear to be completely out of print; I may have to let my enjoyment of the books override my reluctance to write about books that are harder to find. I didn't know about the books written as R. B. Dominic - thanks for alerting me; I'll make an effort to find them.

    Posted by: Les Blatt | October 19, 2010 at 05:53 AM

    The comments to this entry are closed.

    Disclosure: Amazon Associates

    • As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
      That means that if you order anything from Amazon through a link from my site 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.

    The Backlist

    Bookmark This Page!

    Google Analytics