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Mavis Doriel Hay Books In Order

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Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Murder Underground (1934)Description / Buy at Amazon
Death on the Cherwell (1935)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Santa Klaus Murder (1936)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of British Library Crime Classics Books

The Notting Hill Mystery (By: Charles Warren Adams) (1862)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Poisoned Chocolates Case (By: Anthony Berkeley) (1929)Description / Buy at Amazon
It Walks by Night (By: John Dickson Carr) (1930)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Secret of High Eldersham / The Mystery of High Eldersham (By: Miles Burton) (1930)Description / Buy at Amazon
Castle Skull (By: John Dickson Carr) (1931)Description / Buy at Amazon
Mystery in the Channel (By: Freeman Crofts) (1931)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Incredible Crime (By: Lois Austen-Leigh) (1931)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder of a Lady (By: Anthony Wynne) (1931)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Lost Gallows (By: John Dickson Carr) (1931)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Z Murders (By: J. Jefferson Farjeon) (1931)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Corpse in the Waxworks / The Waxworks Murder (By: John Dickson Carr) (1932)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Division Bell Mystery (By: Ellen Wilkinson) (1932)Description / Buy at Amazon
Portrait of a Murderer (By: Anne Meredith) (1933)Description / Buy at Amazon
Death in Fancy Dress (By: Anthony Gilbert) (1933)Description / Buy at Amazon
Family Matters (By: Anthony Rolls) (1933)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Hog's Back Mystery (By: Freeman Crofts) (1933)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder Underground (1934)Description / Buy at Amazon
Scarweather (By: Anthony Rolls) (1934)Description / Buy at Amazon
Death of an Airman (By: Christopher St. John Sprigg) (1934)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Spy Paramount (By: E. Phillips Oppenheim) (1934)Description / Buy at Amazon
The 12.30 from Croydon (By: Freeman Crofts) (1934)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Chianti Flask (By: Marie Belloc Lowndes) (1934)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Lake District Murder (By: John Bude) (1935)Description / Buy at Amazon
Death on the Cherwell (1935)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Cornish Coast Murder (By: John Bude) (1935)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Traitor (By: Sydney Horler) (1936)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Santa Klaus Murder (1936)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Sussex Downs Murder (By: John Bude) (1936)Description / Buy at Amazon
Death in the Tunnel / Dark in the Tunnel (By: Miles Burton) (1936)Description / Buy at Amazon
Mystery in White (By: J. Jefferson Farjeon) (1937)Description / Buy at Amazon
Bats in the Belfry (By: E.C.R. Lorac) (1937)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Cheltenham Square Murder (By: John Bude) (1937)Description / Buy at Amazon
Excellent Intentions (By: Richard Hull) (1938)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder in the Museum (By: John Rowland) (1938)Description / Buy at Amazon
Antidote to Venom (By: Freeman Crofts) (1938)Description / Buy at Amazon
Thirteen Guests (By: J. Jefferson Farjeon) (1938)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Port of London Murders (By: Josephine Bell) (1938)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (By: Leonard R. Gribble) (1939)Description / Buy at Amazon
Seven Dead (By: J. Jefferson Farjeon) (1939)Description / Buy at Amazon
Verdict of Twelve (By: Raymond Postgate) (1940)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Scream in Soho (By: John G. Brandon) (1940)Description / Buy at Amazon
Death of a Busybody (By: George Bellairs) (1942)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Dead Shall be Raised & Murder of a Quack (By: George Bellairs) (1942)Description / Buy at Amazon
Somebody at the Door (By: Raymond Postgate) (1943)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder's a Swine: A Second World War Mystery (By: Nap Lombard) (1943)Description / Buy at Amazon
Checkmate to Murder (By: E.C.R. Lorac) (1944)Description / Buy at Amazon
Fell Murder (By: E.C.R. Lorac) (1944)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder by Matchlight (By: E.C.R. Lorac) (1945)Description / Buy at Amazon
Trouble on the Thames (By: Victor Bridges) (1945)Description / Buy at Amazon
Fire in the Thatch (By: E.C.R. Lorac) (1946)Description / Buy at Amazon
Death Makes a Prophet (By: John Bude) (1947)Description / Buy at Amazon
Smallbone Deceased (By: Michael Gilbert) (1950)Description / Buy at Amazon
Calamity in Kent (By: John Rowland) (1950)Description / Buy at Amazon
Death Has Deep Roots (By: Michael Gilbert) (1951)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Danger Within / Death in Captivity (By: Michael Gilbert) (1952)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder in the Mill-Race (By: E.C.R. Lorac) (1952)Description / Buy at Amazon
Crossed Skis (By: Carol Carnac) (1952)Description / Buy at Amazon
Death on the Riviera (By: John Bude) (1952)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Colour Of Murder (By: Julian Symons) (1957)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Christmas Egg (By: Mary Kelly) (1958)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Progress of a Crime (By: Julian Symons) (1960)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Spoilt Kill (By: Mary Kelly) (1961)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Body in the Dumb River (By: George Bellairs) (1961)Description / Buy at Amazon
Due to a Death (By: Mary Kelly) (1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
Surfeit of Suspects (By: George Bellairs) (1964)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Belting Inheritance (By: Julian Symons) (1965)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Last Best Friend (By: George Sims) (1967)Description / Buy at Amazon
The End of the Web (By: George Sims) (1976)Description / Buy at Amazon
Capital Crimes: London Mysteries (By: Martin Edwards,Richard Marsh) (2015)Description / Buy at Amazon
Resorting to Murder (By: Martin Edwards) (2015)Description / Buy at Amazon
Silent Nights (By: Martin Edwards) (2015)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder at the Manor (By: Martin Edwards) (2016)Description / Buy at Amazon
Serpents in Eden (By: Martin Edwards) (2016)Description / Buy at Amazon
Crimson Snow (By: Martin Edwards,Fergus Hume) (2016)Description / Buy at Amazon
Foreign Bodies (By: Martin Edwards,Palle Rosenkrantz) (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Long Arm of the Law (By: Martin Edwards) (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon
Miraculous Mysteries (By: Martin Edwards) (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon
Continental Crimes (By: Martin Edwards) (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon
Blood on the Tracks (By: Martin Edwards) (2018)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories (By: Martin Edwards) (2018)Description / Buy at Amazon
Golden Age of Detection Puzzle Book (By: Kate Jackson) (2018)Description / Buy at Amazon
Deep Waters: Murder on the Waves (By: Martin Edwards) (2019)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Measure of Malice (By: Martin Edwards) (2019)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Pocket Detective 2: 100+ More Puzzles, Brainteasers and Conundrums (By: Kate Jackson) (2019)Description / Buy at Amazon
Settling Scores: Sporting Mysteries (By: Martin Edwards) (2020)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Surprise for Christmas and Other Seasonal Mysteries (By: Martin Edwards) (2020)Description / Buy at Amazon
Two-Way Murder (By: E.C.R. Lorac) (2021)Description / Buy at Amazon
Guilty Creatures: A Menagerie of Mysteries (By: Martin Edwards) (2021)Description / Buy at Amazon
Death of an Author (By: E.C.R. Lorac) (2024)Description / Buy at Amazon

Mavis Hay
Mavis Hay was born in 1894 in Potters Bar, Middlesex, and in early life lived in north London, having been born into a middle class family. She was a novelist that fleetingly lit up the golden age of British crime fiction.

All three of her detective novels were well received upon publication. Dorothy Sayers praised “Murder Underground” in a review for the Sunday Times.

She went to St. Hilda’s, Oxford from 1913 to 1916, right about the same period as Dorothy L Sayers went to Somerville.

Besides her three detective novels, she was also an expert on rural handicraft and quilting, and wrote many books on both of these subjects, which includes “Rural Industries of England and Wales” with co-author Helen Elizabeth Fitzrandolph. This book was part of a series of works that Helen and Mavis collaborated on, which were sponsored by the Agricultural Economics Research Institute of Oxford University, which had them surveying all the rural industries in Wales and England.

In the year 1929, she married Archibald Menzies Fitzrandolph, her co-author’s brother and a member of an influential and wealthy family of loyalist Canadians.

Archibald joined the RAF but got killed during a flying accident in 1943, and was just one of a number of tragedies that struck Mavis. One of her brothers got killed at the age of nineteen when his ship was sunk during the Battle of Jutland in the year 1916, and her youngest sibling was killed when his Tiger Moth crashed in a Malayan jungle in 1939. In 1940 a third brother lost his life while he worked on the notorious Thailand-Burma railway after he got captured by the Japanese.

Once she set aside writing her mystery novels, she started working as a researcher for the Rural Industries Bureau, which was founded to encourage craft industries in more deprived areas.

It is said that Mavis was so well-connected that she was able to set up exhibitions in the homes of the aristocracy. These are connections that had probably come about from one of Archibald’s cousins marrying Sir John Dashwood as well as the fact that the cousin later became a lady-in-waiting at the court of King George V.

Her last book, called “Quilting”, was released in the year 1972, a mere seven years before her death on August 26, 1979 at the age of 85, which occurred in the village of Box in Gloucestershire.

“Murder Underground” is the first stand alone novel and was released in the year 1934. If you were to be discovered murdered all of a sudden, would your friends have any theories about who did the deed?

Well, when Miss Pongleton, an unpleasant and wealthy woman, meets her demise on the stairs of Belsize Park underground station in “Murder Underground”, her housemates, even though they are not especially grieved, have plenty of their own guesses at the true identity of her murderer.

As they are just airing their theories, events pop up that enable many of them unexpectedly, including Tuppy the terrier, to put them to the test.

This is a very well plotted and written mystery novel, and even if you spot the culprit early on, it’s still a delight to watch all of the clues get put together so seamlessly. Readers found this to be an amusing and lively Golden Age mystery, and it’s interesting to read a mystery from the people that are partly suspects, partly attempting to figure out who the killer is themselves or attempting to hide something.

“Death On the Cherwell” is the second stand alone novel and was released in the year 1935. For Miss Cordell, the principal of Persephone College, there are exactly two major evils to be feared: bad publicity for the college, and unladylike behavior among any of her students. So her cozy and prim world gets turned right upside down when the secret society of undergraduate students meets down by a river on some gloomy afternoon in January, just to discover the drowned body of the college bursar is floating in her canoe.

The cops assume that it was a student prank that got out of hand, however the resourceful Persephone girls start suspecting foul play, and take this investigation into their own hands. Pretty quick, they reveal the tangled up secrets that led to the bursar’s death, and the clues which point to it being a fellow student.

This is a fun and compelling classic mystery novel and is one that has stood the test of time quite well. It is for those that like their crime novels to be well plotted with dashes of humor mixed in. It’s also interesting to see the detective piece it all together and gather his clues and enough evidence in order to arrest his suspect.

“The Santa Klaus Murder” is the third stand alone novel and was released in the year 1936. Aunt Mildred declared that no good could ever come from the Melbury family Christmas gatherings. So when the family patriarch, Sir Osmond Melbury, is discovered (by some guest that is dressed like Santa Klaus) with a bullet in his skull on Christmas Day, well let’s just say it plunges down into chaos.

Almost everyone stands to reap a benefit of some kind from his death, except for the Santa Klaus, the one person who appears to have had every chance to fire the shot. Different members of the family have their own private suspicions about the killer, and the Chief Constable of Haulmshire wishes before too long that he understood them much better.

In the midst of all this mistrust, hatred, and suspicion it is revealed that there was not just a single Santa Klaus, but actually two.

Mavis Hay delivers a perfect example of the locked room mystery novel, with a cleverly performed murder, and it takes quite a bit of thought to figure out who the killer is. Mavis conjures up quite the interesting group of characters here in this one. Readers loved the descriptions of the imposing country home, and the festive atmosphere which only gets darker as things play out.

Book Series In Order » Authors » Mavis Doriel Hay

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