Murder Round the Clock; Pearlhanger; Death Swap

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:

Hugh Pentecost: A pen name of Judson Philips, a man of many detectives. Under both names, Philips published over 100 books, most of which were in one of eight different series. The largest series featured Pierre Chambrun with 23 books. In spite of all these series, almost a quarter of his books were stand-alone novels. Murder round the Clock is a collection of thirteen short stories involving Pierre Chambrun.

Jonathan Gash: Gash, a doctor of tropical medicine, also wrote under the names John Grant and Graham Gaunt. He had two detective series, one consisting of five books featuring Dr. Clare Burtonall and 24 featuring a sleuth known as Lovejoy. He also has five stand alone novels. Pearlhanger is the ninth Lovejoy mystery.

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.