Humdrum Summer Surprise

Two days ago I received my copy of Masters of the "Humdrum" Mystery by fellow blogger and vintage mystery scholar Curt Evans.  It's an in-depth study of three unjustly denigrated Golden Age detective novelists - Cecil Street (who wrote under the pseudonyms John Rhode and Miles Burton), Alfred W. Stewart (who wrote as J.J. Connington ) and Freeman Wills Crofts.  It's a true labor of love for Curt who spent the last ten years of his life researching, writing and trying to sell the book to a daring publisher.  Finally it paid off.

The "humdrums" is a derogatory term created by mystery writer and critic Julian Symons in his 1972 study of crime fiction Mortal Consequences (published in the UK as  Bloody Murder). He lumped together several "dull" and "unimaginative" writers of detective novels mostly from the late 1920s - 1930s and derided them for boring characters, flat writing and tepid plots.  As Curt (and many of us vintage mystery bloggers) will tell you -- nothing could be further from the truth.

A close reading of these three men's books will reveal exactly the opposite. Rhode was ingenious in coming up with bizarre murder methods and, when he put his mind to it, concocted ingenious plots with fine examples of logical and scientific detective work. Similarly, Connington was good with tricky plots and in his early books at least displayed an offbeat sense of humor.  Crofts was the genius of the alibi and the timetable and he loved to write detective stories about trains, boats and ships at sea.  In Masters of the "Humdrum" Mystery Curt discusses in detail the best books by these writers and proves Symons to be biased and snobbish in his dismissal of them as "dull" writers.

And now you can own a copy!  It's published by McFarland & Company, a publisher of mostly academic non-fiction books, and can be purchased directly at their website.  They offer an oversized paperback edition or an eBook version. Or you can try amazon. Since it comes from an independent academic press the price is a bit steep at $49.95. Unfortunately, the book is not offered at any discount prices online. But for those who are truly interested in learning more about these three writers and their fertile imaginations I say it's worth every penny.

Locked Room Fans Take Note

Martin Edwards just alerted me of a new reference book on the locked room subgenre that I and so many other vintage mystery bloggers enjoy. It's called Narratives of Enclosure in Detective Fiction by Michael Cook and it tends to have a historical and academic flavor.

Martin writes:

...the book is not quite what I expected, for a number of reasons. The author’s starting point is interesting. He suggests that Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” set a pattern for detective fiction with an emphasis on “enclosures, death and references to sequestered lives”. So although there is quite a bit of focus on Golden Age fiction, when – most people would accept, I think – the locked room mystery was in its hey-day, the book includes extensive discussion of some stories that one wouldn’t really associate with the locked room sub-genre. A key example is that splendid Charles Dickens story, “The Signalman”.

Unfortunately, like all academic tomes it's a pricey book and will run you well over $50 (plus shipping depending on where you find it). To purchase a copy of the book try the usual bookselling sites. I found it listed at amazon.com and bookdepository.com (free shipping always!).  It may be at other sites as well.

For more on the book see Martin's post Narratives of Enclosure at his blog.

FFB: Crime Club Compendium - Ellen Nehr

I may be cheating a bit here, but this is my kind of coffee table book.  I'm tempted to do this write up as a riff on the old Saturday Night Live spoof commercial for Shimmer ("It's a floor wax. No, it's a dessert topping.")  And so here goes:

It's a history book!  It's a bibliography!  It's a picture book!
Whoa, whoa, gang.  The Doubleday Crime Club Compendium is a history book and a bibliography and a picture book all in one!

(Wow!  Tastes great. And just look at that shine!)

Detailing the publishing history of the Crime Club series of detective novels from the very first book in April 1, 1928 (Happy would-be 83rd Birthday Crime Club) to its final days in 1991 this book is a love letter to both the publishing industry and the mystery novel.  Ellen Nehr, well known to many of the regular contributors to Friday's Forgotten Books, did a remarkable job culling tidbits of info about the authors and books published over the eight decades the Crime Club lasted.

The 1st "Crime Club" book published April 1, 1928

I still peruse this book's pages regularly and find all sorts of nifty nuggets of crime fiction trivia and discover more forgotten authors I'd like to read one day.  The oversized book has 700+ pages that include a plot summary for every single book published from 1928 to 1991; a gossipy nine page introduction about Isabelle Taylor, the woman who started it all at Doubleday; a chronological listing of the books and a separate listing by author; and 24 pages of full color plates with over ninety photos of the extraordinary art work featured on the dust jackets.

It's a dangerous book to have for a biblioholic like myself.  Just looking at the photos all over again makes me want to go off searching the internet for several of the books and spend hundreds of dollars so I can add them to my own collection. And I have a closetful of Crime Club books already. I know, I know -- everything in moderation.  Believe me, I'm learning.

You'll find more gorgeous photos and artwork in a variety of coffee table books from the usual suspects in the list of Friday's Forgotten Books posted here.