I’m heading to New York City (Broadway!) this weekend, so Sandie Herron is filling in with a few Have You Heard? posts.

“The Puzzles of Peter Duluth , by Patrick Quentin (Crippen & Landru). As one learns from Curtis Evans’s excellent introduction, Patrick Quentin was the pen name used by Richard Webb and Hugh Wheeler for nine mysteries written between 1932 and 1952, most notably the 1938 classic, ‘Puzzle for Players’ . . . .   After 1952 Wheeler produced seven additional Quentin novels on his own, but then, successfully, switched careers: He soon won a trio of Tonys for scripting the musicals ‘A Little Night Music,’ ‘Candide’ and ‘Sweeney Todd’” All four stories here feature producer Peter Duluth and his actress wife, Iris. In the almost zany ‘Puzzle for Poppy’ the couple solve the attempted murder of a St. Bernard. This story and ‘Death and the Rising Star’ exhibit a distinctly 1940s breeziness, somewhat reminiscent of the ‘Thin Man’ movies, but the two novellas, ‘Death Rides the Ski-Tow’ and ‘Murder With Flowers,’ are, as Evans notes, more reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock thrillers.”

We shall be making an announcement soon about our forthcoming “Lost Classic,” Frederick Irving Anderson’s The Purple Flame and Other Detective Stories, but you can see the cover design — based on a 1935 photo of a New York street scene — on our website www.crippenlandru.com

Best wishes,

Doug
Crippen & Landru