Five and a half years ago I tracked down and read an obscure novelette by long-forgotten British pulp writer James Ronald, which set me on the trail of his far-from-readily-available other works. This week, Moonstone Press published the first two in a series of reprints that will see Ronald’s entire criminous catalogue made available, and series editor Chris Verner is here to tell us all about it.
Chris has spent the last year and a half trawling through Ronald’s works both in this genre and otherwise in order to ensure that we’re getting as much of his criminal imaginings as possible, and the one thing that comes across here is the sheer amount of work that has gone into tracking down stories by an author whose output is, at best, slightly unknown. A phenomenal effort, and incredible to think of this going on behind the scenes for so long.
And, thankfully, such immersion has not dimmed Chris’ enthusiasm for Ronald’s output — there’s much to enjoy in the man’s writing, and we get to discussing the appeal and quality of his prose along the way as well. If this doesn’t whet your appetite, you are, frankly, beyond hope.
You can listen to the podcast on iTunes here, on Spotify here, or by using the player below.
Thanks to Chris for throwing so much light upon proceedings and for all the work he’s done on behalf of our little community of classic era crime fiction nerds, to Jonny Berliner for my theme music, and to you at home for listening and — I’m anticipating a bit here — going out to support these books as they become available.
More podcast next year; see you then!
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The James Ronald Stories of Crime and Detection, published by Moonstone Press:
- The Dr. Britling Stories (1929-31)
- Murder in the Family (1936)
- This Way Out (1939)
- They Can’t Hang Me (1938)
- The Dark Angel (1930)
- Cross Marks the Spot (1933)
- Death Croons the Blues (1934)
- Hard-Boiled (1937)
- Murder for Cash (1938)
- Counsel for the Defence (1932)
- The Sealed Room Murder (1934)
- She Got What She Asked For (1941)
The Invisible Event 
I am one of those who eagerly anticipate these volumes and will purchase them as they’re issued. I have ordered the first and will get the others as paperback copies become available. Thanks go to Chris Verner for his dedication, perseverance and effort. It cannot have been easy.
You’re right that Murder in the Family is brilliant with amongst the most poignant/unique motives in GAD. Aunt Octavia is up there with GAD’s most odious victims/villains including Mrs. Boynton in Christie’s Appointment with Death, Battery Sergeant-Major Yule in Witting’s Subject: Murder, Mrs. Farcourt in Hugh Austin’s Murder of a Matriarch, etc.
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Thank heavens someone out there agrees about Murder in the Family — as the only person I know who’s read it, I’m half terrified that I’ve made it all up in my mind and everyone’s going to read it and wonder what the hell I saw in it 😄😄
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Great episode – the podcast is a great story of investigation in itself! Looking forward to reading the reprints. I may need to get another bookshelf at this rate.
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The sheer amount of figurative shoe leather worn out by the investigations into Ronald’s writing is amazing, isn’t it? Aren’t we lucky, that people are willing and able to go to such lengths on our behalfs?
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Very interesting interview. I can’t help but fantasize about the research that went into creating this collection; similar to the Tony Medawar interviews. I also enjoyed the bit where you talk about putting together the Theodore Roscoe books, and now I need to go through your history and see if you ever did a post about that.
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The third episode of The Men Who Explain Miracles was about the republishing of Murder on the Way! — you can find it towards the bottom of this page. Alas, it was early days for me and podcasting, so I now question the quality of insight it contains… 🙂
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