Canapes for the Kitties; The Clark Gable and Carole Lombard Murder Case; Black Diamond

The Detective Book Club produced volumes of three crime novels from 1942 to 1999. Originally monthly, near the end they dwindled down to just a few per year. Many famous detective and crime novelists had their early works featured in DBC editions. Often, books were published in DBC editions before, or at the same time as they were published in mass market form. A little about our authors:

Marian Babson: Babson had a writing career that ran from 1971 to 2012. She passed away in 2017. She wrote three short detective series, the longest being the seven edition Trixie and Evangeline series, but Babson also wrote 32 stand alone detective novels. Altogether Babson published 45 novels. This novel was also published as Miss Petunia's Last Case.

George Baxt: A playwright, scriptwriter and novelist, Baxt's first novel introduced the genre's first Black and gay detective, Pharoah Love, who appeared in five novels. He also wrote thirteen novels featuring sleuth Jacob Singer, each involving Hollywood celebrities as characters. Baxt died in 2003. This is the final Singer novel.

Susan Holtzer: One of the more challenging authors to gather information about. My usual source had nothing, and it took a bit of digging to get just a little more. She has no web page, seems to shun the limelight and hasn't published since 2002. Between 1994 and 2001, Holtzer published seven Anneke Haagen mysteries, all set at the University of Michigan. Her only other books are two non-fiction releases, one on the history of the U of M student newspaper, and the other a collection of anecdotes from workers on San Francisco cable cars. The latter was published in 2002 and seems to coincide with a move from Michigan to California. Born in 1940, I suppose she's retired now. This is the fourth Haagen novel.