Back in 2020, as part of my occasional Adventures in Self-Publishing undertaking, I read two stories by Jamie Probin — the novel The Thirteenth Apostle (2020) and the much shorter ‘The Adventure of the Nine Monets’ (2020) — and followed this up a few years later with two of Probin’s further short stories, ‘The Heir Affair’ (2022) and ‘Body of Matter’ (2022).
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When Adelaide Barnett is found strangled to death in her fourth-floor flat in Monmouth Mansions, Platt Street — that’s a clue to the sort of time you’re in for here — author and amateur sleuth Roger Sheringham, trying to take Inspector Moresby out to lunch, is invited along to the scene of the crime. “I don’t think you’d find it much to interest you,” he’s told. “Just an ordinary case of burglary and murder. No fancy fandangos like you get in storybooks”. And yet for all the sensible detection and astute policing on display — for pure Humdrummery it’s an absolute delight — Sheringham becomes convinced that more is going on than meets the eye.
Twenty-Twenty-Six has been a big year for me finally tracking down long-sought stories of murder. First there was Into Thin Air (1928) by Horatio Winslow and Leslie Quirk, then The Tube (1958) by Boileau-Narcejac, and now I’ve finally run a copy of ‘Death Buys a Ticket’, a.k.a. ‘Nine Hours Late on the Opening Run’ (1941) by Herbert Brean to ground. Very soon there will be nothing left to read.
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Never Trust a Partner [ss] (2021), another collection from Crippen & Landru, is composed of two complete series by Robert Edward Eckels: 12 stories revolving around art forgery with Lang and Lovell, and five tales of “the world’s greatest adjutant”, Major Henry T. McDonlevy (ret’d).
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Newly-married and living in England, young American Sally Bowen receives a letter from a friend in the U.S. expressing concern for surprising recent developments: “It must be dreadful to be so far away from home and have your aunt confess that she poisoned her husband“. The only problem is, the letter fails to mention which of Sally’s seven aunts is the poisoner — and with no news agencies open until the following day, Sally doesn’t know who to contact for details…suppose, after all, she asks the poisoner themself? So her husband Peter convinces her to tell him to story of the family, suggesting that he will be able to truffle out the solution and put his wife’s mind at ease.
Fourteen alternative takes on the Great Detective — editor Sebastian Wolfe is unable to distinguish “parodies, pastiches and burlesques” from each other — fill out The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes [ss] (1989). No, not the Ellery Queen one. This is different.
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As Northern Hemisphere summers get increasingly sweltering — I wrote this post during the heatwave that the U.K. underwent in late June 2026 — let’s enjoy 18 tales of people murdering, cheating, lying to, and generally mistreating each other, selected for our enjoyment once more by the fabulously knowledgeable Martin Edwards.
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When the mayor of Oldhaven apparently leaves the local pier one evening without gathering in his fishing paraphernalia, initially it seems like he may have just been forgetful: his daughter was due to give birth, after all, so he had other things on his mind. Then his body is discovered the following day “sprawl[ed] hideously across the beach…a bloated and gruesome sight” and it looks like something might be afoot. He was, after all, visited by six different people while fishing, so could one of them have had motive to push him into the water? Luckily crime-solving History teacher Carolus Deene is in town, and is prepared to investigate…
I thoroughly enjoyed the very readable set of stories collected in Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot [ss] (2018), which gave a variety of almost crossover mystery interpretations to the Sherlock Holmes/Dr. Watson pastiche. So I’m back for the original volume in this brace to see what other twists have been put on that classic and enduring setup.
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The private eye of fiction is positively assailed on all sides by the classic Simple Case That Turns Out to Lead to Something Much Bigger. So I guess it’s not surprising that the Three Investigators aren’t immune.
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The Invisible Event 