His Burial Too
By Catherine Aird

The first sign anyone had that something was wrong in the tiny Calleshire village of Cleete was when Fenella Tindall woke up to find her father missing. Nobody at his office had seen him that day either, and when the body of a man is found crushed to death under the fragments of a massive marble statue in the local church tower, Inspector C.D. Sloan’s suspicions that the victim may be Richard Tindall are soon confirmed. This doesn’t make his superior officer, Superintendent Leeyes, at all happy, nor does a second murder, this time of a prominent industrialist. Once again Sloan is assigned his least favorite partner, the inept Detective Constable Crosby (generally known as the "Defective Constable").

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The Fifth Man
By Manning Coles

Five English prisoners of war are recruited by the Nazis to be trained as spies and returned to England to work for Germany. One is killed, three land on an English beach and are more than happy to be captured by the police, and another remains at large—until a mysterious figure claiming to be Major Aylwin Brampton, the nephew of a prominent English Nazi sympathizer and the fifth man to be chosen by the Nazis, turns up asking to speak to British Intelligence. It falls to our old friend Tommy Hambledon to interview Brampton and he is treated to an enthralling story of stolen identities, hair-raising escapes from almost certain discovery and death, and a final forced placement in London as part of a German spy ring. First published in 1946 but taking place early in World War II, it introduces a character who’s very nearly as resourceful and quick-witted and sardonic as Tommy himself. Sixth in the series.

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Thou Shell of Death
By Nicholas Blake

Nigel Strangeways is off to a Christmas houseparty hosted by Fergus O’Brien, a legendary World War I flying ace now retired from private life, who has received a series of mocking letters predicting that he will be murdered on Boxing Day. His guest list includes everyone who could even remotely be suspected of making the threats, including several people who stand to profit from O’Brien’s death, as well as Nigel, who is invited in his capacity as a criminal investigator. Despite Nigel’s presence, the murder takes place as predicted, and he’s left to aid the local police in interviewing the suspects. Originally published in 1936, it’s the second mystery by Blake (really C. Day-Lewis, the late Poet Laureate of England) and without a doubt one of his best, with its dazzlingly complex plot, arresting characters, and shocking but inevitable solution.

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Smallbone Deceased
By Michael Gilbert

Generally considered to be one of Michael Gilbert's best books, this tale of murder and chicanery at a respected law firm in postwar London has continued to delight readers since it was first published in 1950. When the body of Marcus Smallbone, an important client at the firm of Horniman, Birley and Craine, is found stuffed into a hermetically sealed deed box, only solicitor Henry Bohun is above suspicion because he is so newly arrived at the firm. It's at first assumed that the firm's recently deceased founder, Abel Horniman, had committed the crime, but when another murder follows it becomes apparent that the killer is still very much at large. The mundane but telling details of the firm's daily operations are incorporated into a tightly plotted and wryly humorous narrative, in which suspects abound and clues are fairly planted. H.R.F. Keating hailed it as "a classic of the genre," including it in his list of the 100 best crime novels of all time.

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The Longer Bodies
By Gladys Mitchell

Old Mrs. Puddequet thought it would be great fun to determine which of her five grandnephews would inherit her fortune by devising an athletics competition for them to take part in. To that end she turns the grounds of her estate into an Olympics field and sets the cousins to training in various field events, including the discus, the long jump, and the shot put. All prove singularly inept at their events, to the vexation of their trainer, Kost, who has been hired to coach them. When the body of a loutish villager is found in a lake on the estate, Inspector Bloxham is called in to investigate. Then another murder follows, and Mrs. Beatrice Bradley, the noted psychoanalyst who is visiting at a neighboring estate, steps in to lend the hapless Bloxham a hand. You'll never be able to guess the killer's motives, but you'll have loads of fun watching Mrs. Bradley unravel the mystery.

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A Late Phoenix
By Catherine Aird

Young Dr. Latimer has no sooner opened his surgery on Lamb Lane in Berebury than he is called upon to examine a dead body. Actually a skeleton, it was discovered during the excavation of the bomb site across the street, now in the process of redevelopment, and it belonged to a young woman who was apparently trapped in a cellar during the June 1941 bombing which leveled the houses on the site. But when Detective Inspector C.D. Sloan arrives on the scene, he discovers that a bullet was the actual cause of death and that the young woman was several months pregnant at the time. First published in 1970, it's the author's fifth book and the fourth to feature her durable Inspector Sloan.

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