Challenge Complete: Follow the Clues

Brand new for 2017! My Reader's Block is proud to introduce the Follow the Clues Mystery Challenge. 

I started my new Follow the Clues Mystery Challenge looking for clues to support a Misdemeanor. I met that commitment back on March 14 and continued to hunt for evidence--working my way through a Felony charge and finally collecting enough evidence for a Capital Offense. I thought I might be able to string together even more connections (perhaps bringing down a whole gang), but I hit a bit of a dead end with Coffin's Dark Number by Gwendoline Butler. So--having met my initial commitment and then some, I'm going to declare this challenge fulfilled.

1. Death at Swaythling Court by J. J. Connington (1/4/17) [revolver on cover--which leads me to...]
2. Death of a Racehorse by John Creasey (1/7/17) [do those bullets on the cover match the gun in question? And my next clue...]
3. The 24th Horse by Hugh Pentecost (1/13/17) [Now horses seem to be theme. This takes place at a horse show in New York City. And this book leads me to...]
4. Death Takes a Bow by Frances & Richard Lockridge (2/5/17) [With more mysterious goings-on in New York City...with Mr. & Mrs. North.]
5. Deception Island by M. K. Lorens (2/13/17) [In the Lockridge book, the victim is a writer. Here, the amateur sleuth is a writer. Connection = writers]
6. Episode of the Wandering Knife by Mary Roberts Rinehart (2/17/17) [A man on the cover of Deception Island is holding a knife. A woman on the Rinehart book is holding a knife. Connection = knife]
7. The Body Missed the Boat by Jack Iams (3/6/17) [Rinehart book was a Dell mapback. That map led me to this book which is also a Dell mapback.]
8. Murder at Government House by Elspeth Huxley (3/14/17) [Iams book was set in Africa. This book is also set in Africa.]

Misdemeanor!

9. Dread & Water by Douglas Clark (3/15/17) [Two important scenes in the Huxley book involve mountainsides. All of the deaths in the Clark book occur while mountain-climbing]
10. Silence Observed by Michael Innes (3/28/17) [Both Clark & Innes have upper-level policemen investigating the crimes] 

Felony!

11. Nun Plussed by Monica Quill (3/30/17) [A rare/used book man is one of the victims in the Innes book; a rare/used book man is the initial suspect in the Quill book]
12. A Grave Case of Murder by Roger Bax (4/10/17) [A supposed marriage is involved in each book]

Capital Offense! 

13. Murder Comes First by Frances & Richard Lockridge (4/11/17) [Both books have very sympathetic detectives--in the Bax book, sympathy with the suspects, and in the Lockridge book sympathy with the amateur detectives.] 
14. Stroke of Death by Josephine Bell (4/12/17)  [Murder for Money]
15. Coffin's Dark Number by Gwendoline Butler (4/16/17) [Both are heavily psychological character studies--and very squalid, depressing character studies too]