The Morgue the Merrier

I reported on Friday about a new bounty of novels from some of my favorite small presses. Now comes a rich package of Golden Age delights from Colorado-based Rue Morgue Press.

First out of the box: The Religious Body (1966), by Catherine Aird, which won a rave (“a most ingenious writer”) from The New Yorker when it first appeared. It sends Inspector Christopher Dennis Sloan, aka “Seedy,” into a nunnery to great effect.

And Manning Coles’ two Tommy Hambledon stories set in mid-1930s Germany and London--Drink to Yesterday and A Toast to Tomorrow (UK title: Pray Silence), both published in 1940--caused American critic Anthony Boucher (the man who invented us all) to call them “a single long and magnificent novel of drama, intrigue and humor.” Coles, of course, was actually a pair of neighbors--Cyril Henry Coles, a British Army Intelligence officer, and Adelaide Oke Manning, who together wrote more than two dozen stories featuring Hambledon.

All great reads from the Morgue.