Death Croons the Blues

‘When a person becomes news, his business is my business.’

Stories of Crime & Detection Volume Seven contains a novel, a novelette and two short stories.

Death Croons the Blues  Burglar Bill Cuffy breaks into blues singer Adele Valée’s apartment to steal her jewellery and cash, assuming she is at a night club performing. He stumbles across her dead body in the bathroom and is shocked to discover she has been brutally murdered. He flees the scene and ends up at reporter Julian Mendoza’s home. Cuffy is one of several murder suspects that materialise as Mendoza sets out to uncover the truth about Adele Valée’s life and discover her murderer.

Angel Face  Bookmaker Harry Kemp had received a terrific beating and the police knew angelic gangster Benny Cosmano was responsible, but there was no evidence proving his guilt. Julian Mendoza swears to seek justice for the victims of the race gangs and their protection rackets.

The Other Mr. Marquis  A character study of paranoia

The Joke  Twin brothers Simon and Jasper are more alike than even they realise.

JAMES JACK RONALD (1905-1972) was a prolific writer of pulp fiction, mystery stories and dramatic novels. Raised in Glasgow, Ronald moved to Chicago aged seventeen to ‘earn his fortune’, later returning to the UK to pursue a writing career. His early works were serializations and short stories syndicated in newspapers and magazines around the world. Ronald wrote under a number of pseudonyms, including Michael Crombie, Kirk Wales, Peter Gale, Mark Ellison and Kenneth Streeter among others. Several books were adapted into films, including Murder in the Family (1938), The Witness Vanishes (1939), and The Suspect (1944).