Ten by Gladys (and We Don't Mean Mitchell)

After Rich Westwood recently posted his review of Gladys Edson Locke's 1925 novel The House on the Downs (see below), we looked for more by this very obscure thriller writer; what follows, we freely admit, is all that we could find on the Internet (given time limitations), but there certainly must be much more we haven't stumbled across. Nearly all that we know about Locke, who like John Dickson Carr was an American stricken with a severe case of Anglophilia, is in Ronald Smyth's entry on the GAD Wiki HERE. The Dorchester Atheneum (go HERE) assures us that "Most of her books were top selling novels."

THAT AFFAIR AT PORTSTEAD MANOR.
By Gladys Edson Locke (1887- ?).
Sherman, French & Co.
1914. 266 pages.
Online HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

[Excerpts] Three detectives are enlisted in the effort to solve the mystery of a stolen and mysteriously restored diamond necklace, or rather the more engrossing mystery of the murder of the master of Portstead, which temporarily eclipses the interest in the initial problem.  . . . with the woman detective, Mercedes Quero, alias Mary Grey, on their [the culprit's] trail, clue is added to clue, until, with a mass of information in her hand, a confession is forced. Who makes that confession only a very skilful reader of detective stories will be likely to guess. — "Current Fiction," THE NATION (August 13, 1914; go to page 194, left bottom)

THE RED CAVALIER: OR THE TWIN TURRETS MYSTERY.
By Glady Edson Locke (1887- ?).
The Page Company.
1922. 372 pages.
Online HERE and HERE.

The Red Cavalier was pronounced by the critics in 1923 as the “best mystery novel of the year.” One critic wrote, “It begins as a typical English week-end house party in a haunted castle with twin turrets in Yorkshire. Miss Locke is able to weave a weird and absorbing tale of a modern detective romance.”

Termed “A Mystery Story That is Different” The Red Cavalier portrays a vision of India common in England in the 1920s, an India exhibiting subtlety and strangeness, poison and daggers, impassive faces and fierce heats of Prince Bardai and his priestly advisor contrasted with a typical English weekend house party at Twin Turrets, in Yorkshire, inevitably the setting of a mystery.

And the Plot! Who is the mysterious Red Cavalier? Is he the ghost of the ancestral portrait in the library? Is he responsible for Prince Kassim’s murder? Or is it only coincidence that one of the guests at the masked ball happened to wear the costume of the Red Cavalier? — THE DORCHESTER ATHENEUM ("Gladys Edson Locke")

THE SCARLET MACAW.
By Gladys Edson Locke (1887- ?).
L. C. Page & Co.
1923. 315 pages.
Online HERE and HERE.

THE PURPLE MIST.
By Gladys Edson Locke (1887- ?).
L. C. Page Inc.
1924. 363 pages.

THE HOUSE ON THE DOWNS.
By Gladys Edson Locke (1887- ?).
L. C. Page & Co.
1925. 305 pages.

[Excerpt] . . . The mystery aspect of the book is thin. There’s an entirely needless secret passage. The Scotland Yard detective’s activity is restricted to waiting outside Rotherdene Grange and following anyone who sneaks out at night. Which is almost everyone. And ultimately the identity of the murderer is so obvious that I thought it was a ham-handed red herring.  . . . — Rich Westwood, PAST OFFENCES (June 24, 2014)

THE GREY GABLES.
By Gladys Edson Locke (1887- ?).
1927. 287 pages.

THE GOLDEN LOTUS.
By Gladys Edson Locke (1887- ?).
L. C. Page & Co.
1927. 328 pages.

THE REDMAYNES.
By Gladys Edson Locke (1887- ?).
L. C. Page.
1928. 327 pages.

THE FENWOOD MURDERS.
By Gladys Edson Locke (1887- ?).
John Long.
1931. 288 pages.

THE RAVENSDALE MYSTERY.
By Gladys Edson Locke (1887- ?).
L. C. Page.
1935. 403 pages.

Category: Detective fiction