Fallen Into the Pit; Saratoga Backtalk; You Who Know

The Detective Book Club produced volumes of three crime novels from 1942 to 1999. Originally monthly, near the end they dwindled down to just a few per year. Many famous detective and crime novelists had their early works featured in DBC editions. Often, books were published in DBC editions before, or at the same time as they were published in mass market form. A little about our authors:

Ellis Peters: Peters is a pen name used by Edith Pargeter when writing mystery and crime novels. Most of those were in two series, the Borther Cadfael Mysteries (21 books) and the George Felse mysteries (15 books). Pargeter used three other pen names, as well as publishing under her own name, in a variety of genres. Altogether, Pargeter published over 85 books. She died in 1995. This is the first George Felse mystery.

Stephen Dobyns: Dobyns has written eleven mysteries featuring Charlie Bradshaw, all of which begin with the word "Saratoga". He has also published 12 stand-alone novels, two books of non-fiction and 16 collections of poetry. This is the eighth Bradshaw novel.

Nicolas Freeling: Freeling began writing his first book (Love in Amsterdam) while serving a three week jail sentence for stealing food. This would be the first of the 13 volume Van Der Valk series. Freeling also created the 16 volume Henri Castang series, as well as publishing eight other novels and four works of non-fiction. Freeling died in 2003. This is the fourteenth Castang novel.