Coming and Going

There are a couple of birthdays worth observing today. Elizabeth Foxwell notes that it was on this date, in 1905, that Mildred Wirt Benson--“the first female graduate of the University of Iowa’s School of Journalism,” who would go on to pen the initial seven Nancy Drew novels, as well as other entries in that fantastically successful series--was born in Ladora, Iowa. And it was also on July 10, but in 1875, that E.C. Bentley, the British wordsmith best known for writing the 1913 detective novel Trent’s Last Case, was born in London. While reminding us of this latter event, Euro Crime’s Karen Meek points out that “You can download an e-book of Trent’s Last Case at the Project Gutenberg website.” Well, maybe for later ...

On the subject of commemorations, we should also acknowledge that it was on this date back in 2002 that Mark McGarrity, a Massachusetts-born, Edgar-nominated novelist who--under the nom de plume “Bartholomew Gill”--wrote 17 novels featuring Irish Detective Superintendent Peter McGarr (from McGarr and the Politician’s Wife [1979] to Death in Dublin [2002])--died in a fall at his New Jersey home, reportedly while trying to climb into his apartment through a window because he’d forgotten his keys. Gill/McGarrity was only 58 years old. (Hat tip to Bill Peschel.)