A Bookish Christmas 2016

It was another bookish Christmas at the Reader's Block house this year (anybody out there surprised?). Between them, my own set of personal Santas (hubby, parents and two bookish Secret santas) managed--through the wonders of internet shopping and my husband's inability to pass up an Ebay auction--to add 52 new-to-me books to my vintage reading family.

First up, from Brad:

Two hardback Frances & Richard Lockridge books with dust jackets~Quest of the Bogeyman (1st edition) and Payoff for the Banker (1st Grosset & Dunlap printing); Murder Out of Turn by the Lockridges, The Murderer Is a Fox by Ellery Queen; The Left Leg by Alice Tilton (Dell Mapback!); The Case of the Lame Canary; and a better copy of The Case of the Rolling Bones by Erle Stanley Gardner.

Also from Brad:

A Matter of Conviction by Evan Hunter; The Case of the Caretaker's Cat and The Case of the Counterfeit Eye by Erle Stanley Gardner; The Toff in New York by John Creasey; The Saint Overboard by Leslie Charteris; and Island in the Sky by Ernest K. Gann

From my parents:

The Case of the Perjured Parrot, The Case of the Daring Divorcee, The D. A. Calls a Turn, The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde, and The Case of the Buried Clock by Erle Stanley Gardner; Cut Thin to Win by A. A. Fair (aka Erle Stanley Gardner); and Mr. Smith's Hat and The Canvas Dagger by Helen Reilly.

And Then There Were Three by Geoffrey Homes; Curtain for a Jester by Frances & Richard Lockridge; Murder Enters the Picture by Willetta Ann Barber & R. F. Schabelitz; Murdock's Acid Test by George Harmon Coxe; The Fate of the Immodest Blonde (aka Puzzle for Pilgrims) by Patrick Quentin; and The Living End by Frank Kane.

The Town Cried Murder, Trial by Ambush, Siren in the Night, and Murder with Southern Hospitality by Leslie Ford; Yesterday's Love byJames T. Farrell; and Fit to Kill by Hans C. Owen.

The Saint on TV by Leslie Charteris; The Toff & the Runaway Bride and Death in Cold Print by John Creasey; Wings of Mystery by Dale M. Titler; The Murder Trial of Judge Peel by Jim Bishop; and The Figure in the Dusk by John Creasey.

Death Is in the Garden by Melba Marlett; The Murder Sonata by Frances Fletcher; Gideon's Lot by J. J. Marric; A Dandy in Aspic by Derek Marlowe; Is Skin Deep, Is Fatal by H. R. F. Keating; and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Shadowers and The Removers by Donald Hamilton; Who Says a Corpse Has to be Dull by Don Von Elsner; and Death Has Three Lives by Brett Halliday.

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I also signed up for two bookish Secret Santas this year--one through Facebook with Michell Stockard Miller at The True Book Addict (who organizes an amazing amount of book bloggers for this festive event). My Secret Santa was Deb Nance from Readerbuzz who got me two books from my Amazon wish list (The Penny Detective and The Italian Affair by John Tallon Jones), a jingly Christmas tree pen, and a cute little beaver figurine to add to my collection.

And last--but certainly not least--is my Secret Santa gift from a mysterious friend from our Golden Age Detective group of bloggers. I have a group of suspects: Kate from Cross Examining Crime; Brad from Ah Sweet Mystery Blog; Steve from In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel; JJ at The Invisible Event; Rich from Past Offences, and Moira from Clothes in Books. A nice closed group to choose from--just like one of our classic country house murders. My present arrived via Amazon--with no clue to my Santa's identity other than a note that said they couldn't provide a vintage academic mystery (my weakness!), but that they'd come up with the next best thing:
a reprint of Audition for Murder (1985), the first in the Maggie Ryan series by P. M. Carlson, which features Maggie as a student at an upstate New York College who gets herself involved in a mystery.

Steve is well aware of my weakness for academic mysteries (even beyond my announcing it in our Secret Santa info exchange) and is an academic sort himself. But then, the Maggie Ryan book has a theatrical connection and we all know Brad's connections to the theatrical world.  Rich went out of his way to announce that he'd posted his when I announced to the group that I'd gotten mine (perhaps as a bluff--surely you won't think the gift is from me, if I tell you I've mailed mine) and then JJ chimed in to say that he was posting his tomorrow (perhaps as a red herring--I actually sent mine, and it's in fact yours, Bev, but I'm pretending it's not...). Kate and Steve both implied that it wasn't from them either with anticipated recipient dates following; Brad coyly said he'd "taken care of business"; and Moira flatly refused to say whether hers had been mailed or not. My detective skills aren't up to figuring this one out. I hope my Secret Santa will take pity on me and confess....