So I’m getting quite close to finishing the Abercrombie Lewker mysteries by Showell Styles aka Glyn Carr, so I thought I’d do a bibliography summarising the titles. There isn’t any real mystery/disagreements over the order of the titles, but nevertheless I thought it’d be useful to pull this together so everything is in one place.

In brief, Styles wrote a lot of books from 1949 to 2000. Most of them are – I think – adventure stories, some featuring ships and a lot featuring mountains – some feature both. There are a few children’s books and quite a lot of non-fiction books about mountaineering. And one about caravanning.

Most importantly, he wrote eighteen books featuring Abercrombie Lewker. Fifteen of these were under the pseudonym Glyn Carr, feature Lewker as the lead character and are out-and-out detective novels. Prior to this, Lewker features as a side-kick to Gideon “The Poet” Hazel in three post-war spy thrillers, published under Styles’ own name. Note that at least one resource lists a fourth such book, Dark Hazard, but I’ve looked at that book and he (and Hazel) are not in it.

I’m going to do these chronologically, so we’ll start with the three Showell Styles titles. All the titles, if they have a link, send you to my spoiler-free reviews.

Showell Styles

Traitor’s Mountain (1945)

Henry Todd was about to take the boat from Liverpool to the Middle East on a diplomatic incident, but after a series of incidents including finding a dead Nazi and getting thrown overboard, he finds himself wrapped up in the machinations of “Column Six”, an independent band of spies including Gideon “The Poet” Hazel and Abercrombie Lewker.

Lewker is a broader character here – his Shakespearean quotations are incessant, he has a sword fight and kills at least one bad-guy – but he’s very much a supporting character. Henry Todd is the main lead here, with Lewker very much in third place. It’s quite fun, but it’s not really a mystery bar an obvious whodunit, but a thriller from London to Egypt and then back to Snowdonia (yes, up a mountain).

Kidnap Castle (1947)

The war is over and Column Six has disbanded, just as another ex-operative, Georgie May, is kidnapped and threatened with death unless a war criminal is spared execution. As might be expected, Hazel and Lewker “go rogue” to save her, especially as Georgie is Lewker’s first love – his first Rosalind. So it’s off to Algiers and ending up in Kidnap Castle to save the day.

A bit less mountaineering in this one, but we do discover that Lewker always keeps a climbing rope wrapped around his waist in case of emergencies! More importantly, Lewker is promoted to co-lead and meets his future wife, who will be a recurring character in the mystery novels. But, alas, there’s absolutely no mystery here.

Hammer Island (1947)

Definitely the daftest of the three Styles books. Lewker isn’t in it for a good central chunk, with the main focus being Hazel trying to save the love of his life, the American spy Althea Vanritter. It starts well, with some nice twists and turns, but it gets very linear in the second half and the “surprise” about Hazel’s nemesis is probably the most unsurprising surprise you’ll ever read. Although this is the only book I’ve read that includes the insult “floppin’ weasel-gutted son of a Chinese slut!”.

Glyn Carr

Death on Milestone Buttress (1951)

A climbing party in Snowdownia is interrupted when one climber, tethered to another, is murdered when they go out of sight (but still attached to the others). It’s one of the more findable of the Rue Morgue reprints and a good introduction to the series. Lewker is a tad more loquacious than in some later appearances – he later mentions that he had been told to tone down his Shakespearean quotations – and it’s a good, classic-style mystery. Findable as a Rue Morgue reprint and as a Collins White Circle paperback – there are quite a few second hand copies of this one.

Murder on the Matterhorn (1951)

You won’t be surprised to find this one is set on the Matterhorn with a  bit of international intrigue. But when an expert climber falls to their death when climbing alone, it is rather confusing when the doctor claims that the victim was suffocated. I really like this one, but that might be because I solved it! There’s a real evocation of the Golden Age in the murderer’s plot – in the sense that there are far easier ways to murder someone… Also available as a Rue Morgue reprint.

The Youth Hostel Murders (1952)

The Lake District, this time, and when Lewker and his wife are on a walking holiday, they get involved with the hunt for a young woman missing from the Youth Hostel. Her body is found floating in a pool of water, but if she did tumble down the rocks above into the pool, why did she have a single head wound? This is the first Lewker mystery and clearly it hooked me from the start. Also available as a Rue Morgue reprint.

The Corpse in the Crevasse (1952)

It’s off to Austria on doctor’s orders for his nerves, joining up with some of his wife’s friends who were on a skiing holiday – slightly weirdly with Lewker’s doctor’s estranged wife. The doctor is found dead in a crevasse when travelling to the holiday from a neighbouring resort. But if it was an accident, why did he carve “MURD” in the ice before he died? The earliest title that has not been reprinted, as far as I can tell.

Death Under Snowdon (1954)

A third trip to Snowdonia, obviously. With Lewker about to be knighted, he and some fellow proto-knights meet up for a climbing holiday. One of them is getting death threats but when an explosion claims a life, things take a turn for the worse. Lewker has never met a killer like this before… Available as a Rue Morgue reprint and it also had an earlier paperback release, the only title that achieved this, as far as I can tell.

A Corpse at Camp Two (1955)

Lewker is rueing his advancing age and the fact that he never had the chance to climb Everest. Well, guess where this one is set. He takes advantage of joining a party for one last chance to climb the highest mountain in the world, but, not to the reader’s surprise, there’s a murderer in the party. It does struggle with the fact that the climbers are constantly moving so the murder comes quite late. But there is the possibility of the Abominable Snowman being involved.

Murder of an Owl (1956)

The Second Orton Scout Troop are in Snowdonia to earn their climbing badges, with guest speaker, yes, Sir Abercrombie Lewker, regaling the boys with stories of his recent trip up Mount Everest. Soon a body is found wearing an Owl Patrol (the junior scout) uniform – but no one is missing from the troop. I really like this one, despite featuring the murder of a teenager. There’s a good range of suspects, a particularly strong backstory for one of the characters and a clever overall plot.

The Ice Axe Murders (1958)

Mont Blanc this time. Lewker is recruited to help a film crew who are desperate to film the final scenes of its latest movie halfway up Mont Blanc – but it’s not just the mountain to be concerned about. Another story about a linear climb, so, like A Corpse At Camp Two, the murder has to occur quite late in the narrative. It’s not the best in the series, but if this is as weak as it gets, then it’s a sign of the series’ strength. Oh, and a French woman is described as “sitting in her cloud of garlic”. So that’s nice…

Swing Away, Climber (1959)

Off to Snowdownia again, this time for Lewker to see the next big thing in mountain climbing, the “tension technique”. When one of the party is found hanged from a ledge halfway up Dinas Cromlech, the problem is simple – how did his killer know the victim would be there and why not simply push him off the mountain? There’s a really nice answer to one of these questions, at least. By the way, the slightly odd title comes from a song that Lewker claims that he wrote…

Holiday With Murder (1960)

“No mummers, no murderers and no mountains!” That was Lady Lewker’s edict for their holiday to Majorca and needless to say, by the end of the book, all three rules have been well and truly broken. One of the funniest of the books – Lewker is constantly wrestling with a “no quoting Shakespeare” rule for the holiday, so quotes everyone else under the sun – and while the killer gets a bit inevitable a bit early, it’s a really enjoyable read, guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Death Finds a Foothold (1961)

Snowdonia again, and a reunion of the survivors of a climb of the Matterhorn in 1934. Four men went up and only three came back. When blackmail letters start appearing, implying there was foul play in the past, followed by a present day murder, Lewker finds himself hunting for a murderer once again. The last of the Rue Morgue reprints – no idea why the fifth one was such a late title, and it’s not that easy to find a copy of this reprint. It’s a very entertaining read with a clever trick at its heart.

Lewker in Norway (1963)

Lewker heads to, you guessed it, Norway to arrange a tour of his troupe, but is persuaded to track down the missing Trevor Bowling. No sooner has he agreed when he finds obstacles falling in his way to try and prevent him making it to Scandinavia. And when that doesn’t work, his enemies try more direct ways to put him out of the picture. Something of a throwback to the Styles titles, rather than a traditional murder mystery, but Carr is having a lot of fun with this one.

Death of a Weirdy (1965)

The Weirdies are a community of artists who have set up home in the Cwm Conan valley in Snowdonia. One in particular seems to have annoyed everyone he met and soon ends up dead. But nobody had the opportunity to do it. This is Carr trying to do the Sixties and while that part isn’t desperately successful, it is rather funny. The mystery works well, and even at book thirteen, Carr had some tricks up his sleeve.

Lewker in Tirol (1967)

Not read this one yet.

Fat Man’s Agony (1969)

The final outing for Sir Abercrombie Lewker and in some ways it’s good that Styles ends the series on a high. One final visit to Snowdownia beckons as Lewker answers an invite from a distant acquaintance. Two mysterious deaths follow, including one killed in Fat Man’s Agony, the name given to a narrow natural chimney in the rock. While there is a slightly predictable use of a central idea in the mystery, there’s a nice idea about one of the deaths that shows how to effectively use the mountain location…

I’ll update the gaps when I read them. There’s no sign of a reprint of these at the moment, but they really should be at the top of someone’s reprint list. If I get any news, I’ll let you know.