Crime – Penguin Crime 4

I might as well polish off the last of the Penguin Crime novels in my collection in this post.

To start, the detective novels of Julian Symons, who wrote over thirty crime novels over a period of 51 years. I have only a small collection of his books, and even though it is many years since I’ve stuck my nose in them, I remember them as superior crime fiction.

Josephine Tey was the nom de plume of Elizabeth Mackintosh, who also wrote plays under the pseudonym of Gordon Daviot. Her detective novels still stand up today. The most famous of them is The Daughter of Time, an investigation into the guilt or otherwise of the much maligned King Richard III. Below is my ancient (1964) Penguin edition of the book.

 

The Franchise Affair is based on the true story of Elizabeth Canning who falsely accused two innocent women of kidnap and abuse.  Bratt Farrar concerns false identity and like all Tey’s mystery novels is well worth reading.

Robert van Gulik is famous for his Judge Dee mysteries set in ancient China. I have quite a few of the Judge Dee novels in other editions, so The Emperor’s Pearl is my sole Green Penguin edition. It was published in 1966.

The Hazell crime novels were written as an off shoot from the Television series of the same name.  Published under the name P. B. Yuill, the books were a collaboration between Gordon Williams and Terry Venables. The following editions were published in Penguin in the late 1970s.

And finally for Penguin Crime a collection edited by Michele B Slung, Crime On Her Mind featuring female sleuths.  It was published in 1977.

Coming next is the rest of my collection of detective novels in various editions.