Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Surely You've Heard of Bernard Capes

Bernard Capes's writing career spanned both the Victorian and Edwardian eras:
Capes was a prolific Victorian author, publishing more than forty volumes—romances, mysteries [including ghost stories], poetry, history—together with many articles for the magazines of the day. . . .He finally committed to writing novels full-time, taking around four months for each novel. On several occasions he had two or three novels published in the same year—and even four in 1910. — Wikipedia
It's obvious he never fully committed to writing detective fiction; the following titles, however, appear (note that) to be of the mystery/ghost story variety:

~ THE LAKE OF WINE (1898). Reviewed HERE: "This is a prince among jewel mysteries . . ."

~ THE GREAT SKENE MYSTERY (1907). Online HERE.

~ PLOTS (1902). Online HERE. Reviewed HERE: "The book, it must be confessed—or vaunted—is prolific in horrors; but they are ingenious horrors . . . ."

~ WHY DID HE DO IT? (1910). Reviewed HERE [page 56, left middle]: "Stories of fantastic plot and whimsical manner are by no means rare, but in this instance both machinery and personnel give an effect of originality hardly, perhaps, to be borne out by chill analysis."

~ GILEAD BALM (1911). Reviewed HERE: "For the series of mysterious quests, the quest of the Wax Hand, the quest of the Rose-Ring, and so on, which make up this entertaining novel, Mr. Capes has tapped in a wholesale manner that source of endless romance—the agony column of a daily newspaper."

~ THE SKELETON KEY (1920). Online HERE. Reviewed HERE [page 29, middle]: ". . . has a decidedly original denouement which will puzzle even practical mystery solvers."

Category: Detective fiction

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