Let’s start with the mistake I made last week. I said the contest would end on Friday. My giveaways NEVER end on Fridays. And, in order to get the books in the mail, it had to end last night. So, my mistake. Congratulations to the winners of the last contest. Killer, Come Back to Me goes to Jana B. from Vancouver, WA. Bruce H. from Scotch Plains, NJ won the copy of The Parasite and Other Tales of Terror. The books are going out in the mail today.

This week, I’m giving away two very different titles set in London. I have two copies of John Dickson Carr’s The Lost Gallows, one of the books in the British Library Crime Classics series. As always, the introduction by Martin Edwards is excellent. This is an early crime novel by Carr. At London’s notorious Brimstone Club, Inspector Bercolin and his friend Jeff Marle hear a bizarre story. A member of the club has been sent a model of a tiny gallows, and word is that the folkoric hangman Jack Ketch has been stalking the streets for victims, his gibbet in tow.

Or you could win the unusual crime debut, People of Abandoned Character by Clare Whitfield. In London, 1888, a nurse marries a surgeon she hasn’t known for a long time. She finds out he has some unusual interests on their honeymoon. After they return to his house, and she meets his frightening housekeeper, she feels like a prisoner in the house. When he’s out late on the nights that Jack the Ripper attacks his victims, she begins to worry that her husband might be a killer.

Which book would you like to win? You can enter to win both, but I need separate entries. Email me at Lesa.Holstine@gmail.com. Your subject line should read either “Win The Lost Gallows” or “Win People of Abandoned Character.” Please include your name and mailing address. This time, I’ll get the closing date right. The contest ends on Thursday, June 10 at 5 PM CT. Entries from the U.S. only, please.