Quote:
Originally Posted by SensualPoet
It's not clear to me why other talented writers – contemporaries Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh and others – are still so widely celebrated yet Mitchell is not. One hopes a mini revival is taking place and more of these delightful stories will return to circulation.
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How popular was Mitchell back then?
I'm a casual mystery fan, with a preference of offbeat police procedurals. I was aware of Christie, Sayers, Allingham, Marsh, and others because they had remained in print. Mitchell apparently did not. It sounds like her publisher just didn't feel there was a market once she was no longer actively writing. (There are certainly
many authors in all genres who sold well enough to be published while alive, but
not well enough to
remain in print after.)
Another series I'm a bit surprised hasn't stayed in print are the John Putnam Thatcher mysteries by
Emma Lathen. Thatcher is Senior Vice President of the Trust Department at the Sloan Guaranty Trust bank in NYC, the third largest bank in Lathen's world. He finds himself involved in murders motivated by money, and solves the crimes by figuring out who stood to make (or avoid
losing) a bundle because of the murder. Each book was set in a different industry (The first, _Accounting for Murder_ was in defense contracting), and fans would write to two women writing as Lathen asking when she would set a book in
their industry.
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Dennis