Friday, March 02, 2018

Friday's Forgotten Books, March 2, 2018


Sophie Hannah is a UK writer who writes award-winning, bestselling psychological thrillers. Sophie is also a poet and short story writer. (from the archives)

I'm going to be greedy and choose not one book but an entire series of books: Jill McGown's Lloyd and Hill mystery series, that contains such gems as The Murders of Mrs Austin and Mrs Beale, A Shred of Evidence and Plots and Errors. McGown is a crime writer of unparalleled brilliance, and it totally baffles me that she is not better known and more widely read. Anyone who likes Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse books or Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford novels would love McGown's work. Her series characters, Lloyd and Hill, are police officers who work together. They are also a couple. They are brilliantly drawn, flawed but likeable and entirely plausible. I really looked forward to meeting them again in each book, but, even so, they are not the best thing about McGown's books. Her supreme talent was (for, sadly, she died recently) for creating supremely intricate, brilliant plots that would, frankly, make the work of the best Swiss watch-makers look slapdash. Her plotting has an almost mathematical neatness about it and the way the loose ends are surprisingly yet perfectly tied up at the end of each novel is a wonder to behold. McGown is the rightful heir to Agatha Christie's throne, and ought to be more widely recognised as such.

Yvette Banek, Hoods in Hats
Elgin Bleecker, THE THEFTS OF NICK VELVET, Edward D. Hoch
Brian Busby, LUST PLANET, W.E.D. Ross
Martin Edwards, LOVE LIES BLEEDING, Edmund Crispin
Curt Evans, THE MAN WHO LIKED TO LOOK AT HIMSELF, K.C. Constantine
Cross Examining Crime, THE WESTMINSTER MYSTERY, Elaine Hamilton
Richard Horton, THE THIRTY-FIRST OF JUNE, J.B. Priestley
Jerry House, THE HUGO WINNERS
George Kelly, THE COMPLETE PSYCHOTECHNIC LEAGUE, VOl 2, Poul Anderson 
Margot Kinberg, THE ANDERSON TAPES, Lawrence Sanders
Rob Kitchin, THE SENTINEL, Rob Oldfield
Kate Laity, THE DRIVER'S SEAT, Muriel Spark
B.V. Lawson, THE MYSTERY OF THE HIDDEN ROOM, Marion Harvey
Evan Lewis: A CELEBRATION OF LIFE, Allen Billy Crider
Steve Lewis, SWEET NARCISSUS, M.K. Rollins
Todd Mason, THE 1965 ANNALS OF FICTION AND DRAMA
J.F. Norris, WITHERED MURDER,  Anthony Peter
Matt Paust, DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS, Walter Mosley
James Reasoner, HAZARD: THE COMPLETE SERIES, Frederick P. Davis
Gerard Saylor, MISSISSIPPI HOMEGROWN, Jesse James Kennedy
Kevin Tipple. BLOOD BOUND, Wayne. C. Dundee
TomCat, IN THE FIRST DEGREE, Roger Scarlett
TracyK, THE QUILLER MEMORADUM, Adam Hall

7 comments:

K. A. Laity said...

I actually did one today: https://kalaity.com/2018/03/02/ffb-the-drivers-seat-muriel-spark/

Yvette said...

My post is up, Patti. Thanks.

Kate said...

Here is a link to my post:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress.com/2018/03/02/fridays-forgotten-book-the-westminster-mystery-1930-by-elaine-hamilton/

Jeff Meyerson said...

I agree on Jill McGown's Lloyd and Hill series. She's another who died way too young.

TracyK said...

Jill McGown is one of my favorite authors, and PLOTS AND ERRORS is my favorite book in that series (I think). I have reread that one and want to re-read them all.

Yvette said...

Got the wrong listing for me, Patti. I've got Hoods in Hats.

Yvette said...

https://yvettecandraw.blogspot.com/2018/03/friday-forgotten-or-overlooked-books.html