I do not intend to comment about every book published by Rue Morgue, because I have just recently discovered this publisher and have so far ordered only a handful of the books. Also, I am not so compulsive or rich enough as to order them all for the sake of completeness when many of them by their description would be of no interest to me (especially the romantic ones or the cozies that are too cozy as touted). Of course, no book in the inventory is reviewed that I don't have, or haven't read. There is a large selection, of which this web page only covers a few. The proprietors of this publishing company (who also run a second-hand bookstore specializing in mysteries) are Tom and Enid Schantz; they write most of the introductory material for the books they publish -- good, informative essays.
Expect this web page to be expanded considerably in the next few months. |
American Mysteries
- ** Clyde B. Clason (1903-1987): The Man from Tibet (1938) -- This author only published ten detective stories starring his amateur detective, the elderly historian Professor Theocritus Lucius Westborough, then for some reason stopped in 1941. The story involves a death in a museum of Tibetan Buddhism located in Chicago; the museum was locked from the inside, hence no murder could have been committed -- but of course it was. The solution is actually very plausible and ingenious (it is one that was skirted, of course, by the master John Dickson Carr in one of the Merrivales). Westborough is a pleasant and interesting detective who bears comparison with Philo Vance, if only for his being a Renaissance man of the same sort without the obnoxious snobbery Vance exhibits; compare this book with The Scarab Murder Case, with its hokey Egyptology, and you will find this one far superior. The Tibetan motif is interesting and well researched. There is the usual dumb and boorish cop, but that is par for the course in mysteries of this era.
- * Clyde B. Clason: Murder Gone Minoan (1939) -- In some ways reminiscent of Fleming's Dr No or Queen's The King Is Dead (both later), involving a millionaire recluse on his private island enclave (in California), but oddly enough the rich eccentric is neither the villain nor the victim.... In this case, the erudition (again well researched) involves ancient Crete and King Minos, Theseus, the minotaur and that lot. The mystery is interesting, if not insoluble or particularly memorable as an 'impossible' crime. The culprit can be guessed by elimination, but the exposure and motive is very well done. A common poison is used for an uncommon purpose, and there is a 'secret' passage (but this is not really giving anything away).
- James Norman (Schmidt) (1912-1983): Murder, Chop Chop (1942) -- Set in northwest China just before World War II, during the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, a marvellously described milieu if somewhat Buchanesque in presentation. One can see Bogart and Greenstreet and Mary Astor in this one. It is, however, basically a thriller rather than a mystery. The solution is a surprise, yet it does not really make much sense given the plot of the story involving corruption and greed. The description of China and the Chinese character is fascinating and obviously written from the author's experience. In spite of the silly title, this is not a book about Yellow Peril or idiotic Number One sons, and the subtlety of the Mandarin insult far surpasses the expected 'Confucius say...'.
British Mysteries
(many of which were never published in the US)
- * Glyn Carr (Showell Styles): Death on Milestone Buttress (1951) -- The first of several mysteries starring Abercrombie 'Filthy' Lewker as the amateur detective, an ex-secret service agent. The author is a 'professional' amateur mountain climber, which explains the focus of all his mysteries, set in many mountainous areas of the world but especially in Wales. The publisher stresses that this is an impossible crime or 'locked-room' murder that occurs on a hillside rather than a drawing room, but that is exaggerating a bit -- it is more along the lines of elaborate alibis and timetables. What is charming about the book is its setting in a remote valley in Wales and its really interesting characters. The climbing business is both descriptive and intriguing, even for an acrophobiac like me.
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| These paperbacks are excellent quality, with good paper and binding. The cover art is generally good though sometimes crude. The prefaces and other material such as bibliographies are first class. My one complaint is that the proofreading is somewhat erratic (as it tends to be these days, even with computerized spell-checks, context editors, etc.); nothing earthshaking, but an occasional 'than' that should be 'then', or a missing start-quote, for example. "...gazing in front of them at the distant peaks that towered above
the green hillsides and the climbing toad." (Milestone Buttress p. 98) -- ha, ha!
The books are all very reasonably priced and the postage and handling is 'cheap' compared with the ripoff distributors such as Amazon or ABE charge.
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