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British Library Crime Classics Series

  • BOOK REVIEW: The Dead Shall Be Raised by George Bellairs

    George Bellairs was the nom de plume of Harold Blundell (1902–1982), a crime writer and bank manager born in Lancashire. This is the first of his works that I have read. The Dead Shall be Raised was first published in 1942. It begins with London-based Inspector Thomas Littlejohn going to spend a quiet Christmas holiday in the small town of Hatterworth where his Read more

  • BOOK REVIEW: The Corpse in the Waxworks by John Dickson Carr

    I recently reviewed the John Dickson Carr novel Castle Skull here at ClimbingSky, which I liked very much. When I went online to my local library to find another book in the British Library Crime Classics Series to read this Carr novel, The Corpse in the Waxworks, immediately caught my eye. In The Corpse in Read more

  • BOOK REVIEW: Murder by the Book, ed. by Martin Edwards

    The Bibliomystery is a sub-genre of Mysteries that I greatly enjoy. Bibliomysteries, as their name implies, are mysteries deeply intertwined with books and the literary world. These stories might involve the theft of a rare edition, the murder of a bookseller, or shady dealings within a publishing house. The defining characteristic is a substantial connection Read more

  • SHORT STORY REVIEW: “Malice Domestic” by Philip MacDonald

    Writer Philip MacDonald was born in Britain but immigrated to California where he became a screenwriter for Hitchcock among others. I found his excellent short story “Malice Domestic” in Murder by the Book, another wonderful volume in the British Library Crime Classics Series. “Malice Domestic” in the story of Carl Borden, “a writer of some Read more

  • BOOK REVIEW: Castle Skull by John Dickson Carr

    John Dickson Carr was born in Greenville, South Carolina, but lived for a long time in England. Since his work features English and Continental locales and detectives he is generally classified as a British Golden Age Mystery writer. Certainly the British Library considers him as such since they include a number of his works in Read more