Death by Fire; The Mystery Lady; Beyond the Grave

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:

Hugh Pentecost: A pen name of Judson Philips, a man of many detectives. Under both names, Philips published over 100 books, most of which were in one of eight different series. The largest series featured Pierre Chambrun with 23 books. In spite of all these series, almost a quarter of his books were stand-alone novels. This is the sixth of seven novels in the Uncle George series.

Anna Clarke: South African born, Clarke was educated in Canada and the United Kingdom, settling in Brighton. She began he writing career in her 40s, and published 26 books between 1968 and 1996, including the nine volume Paula Glenning series. Clarke died in 2004. This is the third Paula Glenning novel.

Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini: Pronzini wrote about 130 novels, novellas and collections. under a number of pen names, while also compiling 90 anthologies of short stories. His most famous character is the Nameless Detective. A number of his books, like this one, were collaborations with his wife, also a mystery writer in her own right. This is the second of four Quincannon novels, and the only one in the series that Muller was involved in.