MARLPIT PRESSIndependent PublisherMarlpit Press mystery editions focus on books that did something interesting with the machinery of crime fiction. Anthony Berkeley’s The Second Shot tries to turn the classic clue puzzle into a “puzzle of character.” Philip MacDonald’s The White Crow pushes a fair-play office murder toward kidnapping, conspiracy, and violent thriller territory.
Both novels belong to the Golden Age, but neither is a routine country-house puzzle. The research notes below place them inside the careers of two writers who kept testing what a detective novel could contain.
Research notes
All notesAnthony Berkeley and the “Puzzle of Character”
Why Anthony Berkeley called The Second Shot an experiment in the puzzle of character and how it points from the Golden Age whodunit toward Francis Iles.
Read research noteThe White Crow in 1928: Philip MacDonald Between Puzzle and Thriller
The publication, reception, and later disappearance of Philip MacDonald's 1928 Anthony Gethryn mystery The White Crow.
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