Now available: Dorothy L. Sayers Companion.

Now available is Dorothy L. Sayers: A Companion to Mystery Fiction by Eric Sandberg (City University of Hong Kong), vol. 11 in the McFarland Companions to Mystery Fiction series that I edit. It's a comprehensive guide to the mystery work of the creator of Lord Peter Wimsey and also includes info on some of Sayers's religious-related works. 

Available for preorder: Dorothy L. Sayers companion.

The next volume in the McFarland Companions to Mystery Fiction series that I edit is now available for preorder. Dorothy L. Sayers: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Eric Sandberg (no. 11 in the series) looks at the life and work of the creator of sleuths Lord Peter Wimsey and Montague Egg.

The series has garnered Edgar nominations (Ellroy companion, Rankin companion), an Agatha nomination (Paretsky companion), and a Macavity Award (Paretsky companion).

Jill Paton Walsh on Lord Peter Wimsey.

Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter
Wimsey in "Clouds of Witness"

On the BBC Radio 4 program Open Book, Jill Paton Walsh—who completed Dorothy L. Sayers's Thrones, Dominations—discusses why readers remain devoted to Sayers's sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. Walsh considers Wimsey an early feminist.

Happy birthday, Jill Paton Walsh.

British mystery and children's author Jill Paton Walsh turns 71 today. Creator of nurse sleuth Imogen Quy, Paton Walsh may be best known for taking on the daunting task of completing Dorothy L. Sayers's last Lord Peter Wimsey novel Thrones, Dominations (1998) and following up with A Presumption of Death (2002).

Where's the Beef?

"I was just thinking," [Sergeant Beef] continued. "How useful it is to be the kind of detective I am. Ex-policeman. Ordinary sort of chap. None of your ritzy types with titles and private incomes." (Murder in Miniature 40)

Over the years, Academy Chicago Publishers has showcased gems of mystery literature in inexpensive editions (e.g., Celia Fremlin's Edgar-winning The Hours Before Dawn). That's certainly the case with Leo Bruce's Murder in Miniature and Other Stories, introduced by Margery Allingham Society chairman B. A. Pike. Bruce, aka Rupert Croft-Cooke, created the stalwart Sergeant Beef as the deliberate antithesis of aristocratic sleuths such as Lord Peter Wimsey. This collection of tales—which largely appeared in the Evening Standard in the early 1950s—feature him, the equally shrewd Sergeant Grebe, or others in delightful puzzle mysteries. In "Murder in Miniature," the title story, Beef confronts the body of a dwarf that literally tumbles into his lap on a train. I particularly enjoyed "On the Spot," in which a detective inspector believes he can commit the perfect crime.

Sergeant Beef also can be seen in Academy Chicago's The Case for Three Detectives, where he is pitted against parodies of Wimsey, Poirot, and Father Brown.

In addition to producing his substantial fiction and nonfiction work, Croft-Cooke served as book critic for The Sketch. His play Banquo's Chair was adapted for Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1959).