I learn so much from our readers! Yesterday, for example, a woman came in and was looking for Dorothy Dunnett’s mysteries. It was a mystery to me that Dorothy Dunnett had ever written mysteries, although I’ve heard many people rave about her historical fiction series the Lymond Chronicles and The House of Niccolo. According to Sequels: an annotated guide to novels in series:

“As a change of pace from her historical novels, Dunnett also writes a series of suspense yarns united by the presence of Johnson Johnson, playboy painter and master counterspy, and his yacht Dolly. Johnson usually stays in the background, as the heroine (’bird") of each novel occupies center stage and narrates the adventures. This series of humorous thrillers is published in the United Kingdom under the author’s maiden name, Dorothy Halliday.”

What makes this more confusing is most of these novels have been published under more than one title. Thus The Photogenic Soprano was originally called Dolly and the Singing Bird. Murder in the Round was originally called Dolly and the Cookie Bird. Match for a Murderer was originally called Dolly and the Doctor Bird. Murder in Focus was originally called Dolly and the Starry Bird. Split Code was also know as Dolly and the Nanny Bird. Tropical Issue also know as Dolly and the BIrd of Paradise. and Morrocan Traffic also know as Send a Fax to the Kasbah. So looking for these books can be pretty tricky.

Of all these titles the only two that are held in the CLAMS catalog are Match for a Murderer and Send a Fax to the Kasbah, which is pretty amazing considering how popular her historical novels are. Of course, that’s the beauty of what is know as the Virtual Catalog ... another place to find books to read. So if you want to start at the beginning of the series, you’ll have to give the Virtual Catalog a try. Never heard of the Virtual Catalog? Stop by and see us and we’ll walk you through the process. You’ll find a tab to the Virtual Catalog right on the top of the CLAMS catalog page.

By the way, the same patron who told me about the Dorothy Dunnett mysteries, also told me some time ago that Georgette Heyer had written mysteries! Detecting Women 2 describes her mysteries:

“Georgette Heyer is perhaps best known as an English historical writer and undisputed queen of the Regency novel (she wrote more than 40). She is also the author of twelve mysteries, including two four-book police series. Supt. Hannasyde is introduced in Death in the Stocks (`1935) and his one-time assistant, Inspector Hemingway, returns in 1939 to start a series of his own, beginning with No Wind of Blame. Heyer, who lived in East Africa and Yugoslavia from 1925 to 1929, also wrote as Stella Martin.”

You can find a complete list of Georgette Heyer’s mysteries along with short plot descriptions in A Reader’s Guide to the Classic British Mystery by Susan Oleksiw, which is one of my favorite mystery reference books.