Mary Kelly (no relation) is best known for her Inspector Brett Nightingale and Hedley Nicholson series of mysteries. But as Martin Edwards points out in his informative Introduction, Mary Kelly was a dynamic writer for decades. She won the Golden Dagger Award for The Spoilt Kill in 1961.
Due to a Death (1962) features a blood-covered narrator named Agnes who is trapped in a loveless marriage, flashbacks that influence the investigation of the murder of a young girl, and a mysterious stranger new to the quaint English village where a murderer lurks.
Classic British Library Crime Classics deserves praise for reprinting this innovative and suspenseful mystery novel. GRADE: B+
Not familiar with Mary Kelly at all.
Patti, that’s why I love the BRITISH CRIME CLASSICS series with Martin Edwards. You learn about so many great British mystery writers that have been forgotten. You would enjoy DUE TO A DEATH.
Thanks for sending the copy of the Kelly book, George.
Patti, I had a few of her books in my book hunting days in England, some in paperback.
Jeff, Martin Edwards writes that the BRITISH CRIME LIBRARY will be publishing more of Mary Kelly’s mysteries. Hope you enjoy the book I sent you as much as I did!
I was wondering if perhaps Kelly (spelled incorrectly, clearly) was a big deal in Britain and just never got much of a push/chance in the US. Though it also sounds in your description that this one was perhaps too naturalistic for most cozy readers (even in the ’60s when some of these things were less rigidly policed) and maybe not Rough enough for those leaning hardboiled (and it’s by a woman, pah, for too many).
Todd, I suspect you’re right about Mary Kelly. The female narrator in DUE TO A DEATH would be jarring for most readers in the Sixties.
I thought so. Just checked, and her DEAD CORSE (not THE DEAD CORSE, as Wikipedia would have it) was published in the Avon Classic Crime Collection. I used to have that entire series, but got rid of them all, other than the two SImenons – MAIGRET IN VICHY and MAIGRET AND THE HEADLESS CORPSE.
Jeff, you amaze me with your encyclopedic knowledge of mystery paperbacks!