“The Galton Case,” by Ross Macdonald: A dirty, dirty job for Lew Archer

An extremely rich woman wants Lew Archer to find her long-lost son, in hopes she can make amends before she dies.It sounds like the coldest of cold cases, but things heat up soon enough. Macdonald's hard-boiled tale is one of those in which each mystery solved reveals another mystery behind it. Lies, murder, despair abound. …

“One True Sentence,” by Craig McDonald: Murder and sex in the City of Lights

Looking for a riveting stew of murder, sex, history and literature? "One True Sentence," by Craig McDonald, offers that and a lot more. The novel, part of a series featuring writer Hector Lassiter, is set in Paris during the 1920s. Lassiter, who writes stories for crime magazine Black Mask while pondering more literary ambitions, is …

“Captain Cut-throat,” a tale of spying during the Napoleonic Wars

 "Captain Cut-throat." The title might lead you to believe this is a pirate adventure, but it's not. The author, John Dickson Carr, might lead you to expect a murder mystery, but it is not quite that, either. Carr wrote many good old-fashioned detective stories, many of the locked-room variety, but there really is not much …