Monday, October 20, 2025

Murder Every Monday: Where There's Smoke....


Kate at Cross Examining Crime hosts a fun mystery cover game on Instagram called Murder Every Monday. Our assignment, should we choose to accept it, is to display book covers and/or titles  from books we own that match the prompts she posts in advance (see link).

This week's prompt is crime fiction with a cover that depicts smoking. Some of the pipes/cigarettes may be a little difficult to see (kind of a "Where's Waldo" in smoking). I could have done a whole post of just Sherlock Holmes books and Holmes pastiches. But--given the size of my collection and the fact that in vintage mysteries it seems that everyone smokes--we really don't seem to want to depict smoking on the covers of my editions. And especially not women--not even the "bad girls."

The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes ~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Two Bronze Pennies ~Chris Nickson
Treasure Up in Smoke ~David Williams (this week's winner for most bizarre cover)

Death in the Quadrangle ~Eilis Dillon
Holy Disorders ~Edmund Crispin
The Scottish Decision ~Alan Hunter

Blotto, Twinks & the Rodents of the Riviera ~Simon Brett
Case for Sergeant Beef ~Leo Bruce
Twice Dead ~John Buxton Hilton

Murder on Delivery ~Spencer Dean
Strong Poison ~Dorothy L. Sayers


Death at the Bar ~Ngaio Marsh
The Amazing Adventures of Father Brown ~G. K. Chesterton
The Velvet Fleece ~Lois Eby & John C. Fleming

A Three-Pipe Problem ~Julian Symons
More Holmes for the Holidays ~Greenberg, Lellenberg & Waugh (eds)
Watson's Choice ~Gladys Mitchell

Why Kill Arthur Potter ~Ray Harrison
A Bullet in the Ballet ~Caryl Brahms & S. J. Simon
The Murder League ~Robert L. Fish

Puzzle for Fools ~Patrick Quentin
Innocent Blood ~P. D. James
The Dead Man's Knock ~John Dickson Carr

What's in the Dark? ~Ellery Queen
The Case of the Untidy Murder (Untidy Murder) ~Frances & Richard Lockridge


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