British Golden Age Mysteries on Sale + Anthony Gilbert Trivia

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The Hallmarked Man is sure to be one of the biggest British crime releases this autumn, but the name on the cover is not entirely accurate - because “Robert Galbraith” is actually a pen name for famed children’s author and philanthropist JK Rowling. When she first began the Cormoran Strike series, she wanted to conceal her identity so she could get authentic feedback and publish without wild expectations about her work - and considering some of the adult topics that occasionally come up in her books, it’s probably a good thing underage Harry Potter fans aren’t mistakenly buying her crime fiction..

For as long as women have been writing books, they’ve been using pen names - sometimes for privacy, other times because they needed to hide their sex or use a name better suited to their genre. After all, you don’t see many romance novels written by authors like “Logan Steel” or “Rex Hunter”, just as you’d be hard-pressed to find a western or military thriller written by a “Clarissa Honeysuckle” or “Arabella di Rosa”. Characters with those names, sure - but not authors.

Even today, in Western countries where it’s often assumed men and women have achieved equality, data shows that men, as a group, are reluctant to read female authors. Authors writing in a genre enjoyed by both men and women would be putting themselves at a meaningful disadvantage by using a noticeably female name on the cover (cont. after sponsor below).

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As I was compiling the list of Golden Age mysteries on sale today (more on this below), I was reminded of Anthony Gilbert - aka Lucy Beatrice Malleson - a crime-writing workhorse who left behind dozens of books until a wide variety of pen names.

In her memoir Three-a-Penny (with a lovely intro by Sophie Hannah), Malleson talked about her choice to use male pen names and hide her identity as a woman:

She talks on about how she even assembled fake hobbies for Mr. Gilbert - breeding Scotch terriers and photographing ancient churches - but coming up with a fake publicity photo involved donning a wig and fake beard. It worked, too. Her first real success was The Tragedy at Freyne, submitted under the name Anthony Gilbert.

If you enjoy autobiographies, it’s well worth a read.

2 Big British Book Sales: August 23rd

As always, a short disclaimer on the sale listings - the overwhelming majority of our readers are US-based, so sale availability may vary outside of the US (it’s up to the publisher/author if they wish to coordinate sales internationally). Deals can disappear at any time.

Barnes & Noble Hardcover Sale

• The House on Tollard Ridge by John Rhode

• The Devouring Fire by Lord Gorell

• In the Night by Lord Gorell

• Between Twelve & One by Vernon Loder

• The Robbery at Rudwick House by Victor L. Whitechurch

• The Unexpected Legacy by ER Punshon 

• Murder at the Keyhole by RAJ Walling

• The Bleston Mystery by Robert Wilward Kennedy

• Death at Four Corners by Anthony Gilbert

• Murder at Bratton Grange by John Rhode

• The Death of Laurence Vining by Alan Thomas

• Shot on the Downs by Victor L. Whitechurch

• The Murder of Mrs. Davenport by Anthony Gilbert

• Underground by J. Jefferson Farjeon

• The Ponson Case by Freeman Wills Crofts

• Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie

• Murder in the Moor by Thomas Kindon

• Trent’s Last Case by EC Bentley

• The Tragedy at Freyne by Anthony Gilbert

• ABC Solves Five by CE Bechhofer Roberts

• Enter Sir John by Clemence Dane & Helen Simpson

• Mr. Priestley’s Problem by Anthony Berkeley 

• The Case With Three Threads by Anthony Lang

• The Crime at Diana’s Pool by Victor L Whiterchurch

• The Crime by Anthony Lang

• The Master Criminal by J Jefferson Farjeon

• The Templeton Case by Victor L Whitechurch

• The Man Who Was London by Anthony Gilbert

• The Rasp by Philip MacDonald

• The Red Scar by Anthony Wynne

• The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

• The Footsteps at the Lock by Ronald Knox

• The Horseman of Death by Anthony Wynne

• The House of Disappearance by J Jefferson Farjeon

• The Tragedy at the Unicorn by John Rhode

• The Bittermeads Mystery by ER Punshon

• The Layton Court Mystery by Anthony Berkeley

• The Murders in Praed Street by John Rhode

• Inspector French & the Sea Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts

• The Ellerby Case by John Rhode

• The Verdict of You All by Henry Wade

• Death in the Dusk by Virgil Markham

• Roger Sheringham & the Vane Mystery by Anthony Berkeley

• Fly Country by Anthony Lang

• Call Mr. Fortune by HC Bailey

• The Ocean Sleuth by Maurice Drake

• Dr. Thorndyke’s Case-Book by R Austin Freeman

• The Voice in the Night by William Hope Hodgson (not quite mystery, but certainly mysterious)

• Thrilling Stories of the Railway by Victor L Whitechurch

• The Mystery of the Hidden Room by Marion Harvey

• The Gramercy Park Mystery by Marion Harvey

• The Lyttleton Case by RAV Morris

• The Cask by Freeman Wills Crofts

• The Charteris Mystery by A Fielding

• The Pit Prop Syndicate by Freeman Wills Crofts

• Mr. Fortune’s Trials by HC Bailey

• The Ha-Ha Case by JJ Connington

• Freeman Wills Crofts Omnibus

• The House by the River by Sir Alan Herbert

• The Woman in Black by EC Bentley

• Payment Deferred by CS Forester

• Mr. Fortune’s Practice by HC Bailey

• The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

• An Agatha Christie Omnibus

• Blackkerchief Dick by Margery Allingham

• The Mazaroff Murder by JS Fletcher

“You know you’re no earthly use at getting yourself out of trouble, however brilliant you are at falling into it.”

-Anthony Gilbert, The Man Who Was London

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