Well, most of you will have guessed what I’ve been up to from some less than subtle hints over the past couple of months, but I can go ahead and announce this officially now – later this year (the 5th of October, so I gather) the next ten Anthony Bathurst books from the pen of Brian Flynn will be back in print and as ebooks, together with new introductions written by “crime fiction historian” me!
I’m so pleased to be able to help bring these back. As far as I am aware, four of them have never been reprinted, one of them has only been reprinted in German and none of them have been reissued since the second World War – so seventy-five years in the wilderness.
I’m still baffled why as almost all of the feedback I have received for the first ten books has been extremely positive, and if anything, this set of books is even stronger. Legal dramas, a serial killer, a truly unique set-up, a truly unique (I think) motive, a locked room, the death of the Home Secretary and there’s even a trip to Antwerp for Anthony. I think a sign of the strength of these is that with the first ten, if you asked me which one to try first, which book would convince you to read all of Bathurst’s exploits, I’d have given you a list of five books – this time, the list would be at least eight books long.
Many thanks to the estate for providing copies of a lot of the texts, to a fellow collector who provided The Edge Of Terror for us and for the second-hand bookseller who put The League of Matthias up for sale at just the right time (and the right price!).
Without further ado – I give you the covers of the next ten Anthony Bathurst mysteries. Drumroll, please….
Thanks to TomCat who pointed out that we’ve got the title wrong here! It’s actually The Padded Door, and it’ll be fixed for publication, honest!
If you can’t wait three months – and I can completely understand your impatience – and haven’t enjoyed all of the delights of the first ten, then they are available from all good booksellers, and quite a few bad ones too. And if you’ve read them all already… why not tell your friends about them?
If you want some spoiler-free detail on these books, then do take a look at my Brian Flynn page where there are links for all of his books that I’ve reviewed – no Purple Calf just yet, that’ll be along nearer publication date. The books should be up for pre-ordering sooner rather than later – I’ll give a shout when that happens.
In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel 
Congratulations, Steve
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Cheers, Tony. Very proud of helping to get these out. There are some really great books in this selection and one that I believe should be considered a classic of the genre…
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Very cool indeed PD. And DSP continues the good work with the covers. I especially like #11.
Someone should put together a Pinterest page of Flynn covers — good way to get noticed.
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Thanks for the tip! I just put up a board at Pinterest called Brian Flynn, Mystery Author. All 20 titles that I know about. Hope that helps.
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Many thanks. If you wanted to put more images onto it, I do have a cover gallery on my blog of original dust jackets.
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Tony, I found your blog yesterday and signed up for it as soon as I saw the magical name; Bryan Flynn. Like you, I recently discovered him and have now read The Billiard Room and The Case of the Black Twenty-Two. I intend to continue the series and am more than glad to see that more books are being published. I hope the popularity of this series continues to grow. Thank you.
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Cheers, glad to have you aboard. But it’s Steve, not Tony…
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Look at you, PD, saying “Steve” out loud!!! You MUST be excited! Congratulations on the imminent birth of your next ten!
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Ha! Well, it’s better than Tony. As the intros do give my full name, I figure I can respond to Steve here…
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Although pre order is still not allowed, but the date has been given by DSP in Amazon India. It’s 5th October 2020. Can’t wait. Congrats Steve.
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Ooh, that’s a bit earlier than I thought. Excellent news!
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Excellent news, Steve (or P.D. – as you prefer!). I look forward to reading more Flynn (AND your introductions). Which one is the locked room puzzle?
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The Spiked Lion has a locked room in it, but it’s not the primary focus. That’s about the “impossibility” of being savaged in a park by an invisible lion, and then dying from cyanide poisoning…
And you know what? I think I prefer P.D. too…
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The Spiked Lion falls, more or less, in the same category as Invisible Death: a pulp-style impossible crime novel that you would expect from John Russell Fearn or Gerald Verner. But it’s an entertaining example of Flynn’s versatility as a writer/plotter.
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I think you would prefer still more being called “the P.D.” ! 🙂
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Puzzle Doctor – thanks for your perseverance. Your hard work means I get many hours of pleasure reading in the future. I will order the next ten as soon as available. I loved Peacock and En Route from the first ten so look forward to what Flynn achieved with these next ones.
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Thanks for the kind words. I genuinely believe this ten are even stronger than the first ten – there are at least six of his very best titles in this batch. Which reminds me, I must do a top ten at some point…
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The Padded Room? Surely, that has to be a typo, because there’s a huge difference between a padded door and a padded room. Anyway, the covers look great, as always, and can’t wait to burn through them like the previous ten titles. Particularly The Padded Door, The Fortescue Candle and Tread Softly.
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Oh my god, can’t believe I missed that!
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It’s being fixed as we speak, thank you so much for spotting that – you won’t believe the number of people who missed that. As for the difference, one is a padded cell, the other is a quote from The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Wilde, which ties into the theme of a condemned man…
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