Lawrence G. Blochman's Books

Bengal Fire

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

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An impending wedding and two fiancées lead to murder on the Indian subcontinent in this Golden Age mystery featuring British CID Insp. Leonidas Prike. Unsavory press agent Harrison J. Hoyt gets word that his American fiancée is arriving in Calcutta—just in time for his wedding to someone else. To diffuse the situation, he turns to gold broker Lee Marvin. After all, Marvin owes him his life; it’s the least he could do. But as Marvin delivers the bad news, he finds himself enchanted by the resilient blonde . . . Though Hoyt’s bachelor dinner goes off without a hitch, he soon disappears after slipping Marvin a mysterious package. And when he shows up at his wedding the next day, it’s as a corpse. The police surgeon suspects natural causes, but Inspector Prike and Marvin, who is convinced that Hoyt’s dirty dealings have finally brought the man down, think otherwise. But what Marvin took possession of the night before—a nine-jewel talisman—ensnares him in the same web of duplicity. Hot on the case, Inspector Prike must untangle threads of blackmail, betrayal, and deception among Calcutta’s upper crust, including Marvin, both jilted fiancées, a Maharajah, a big-game hunter, a disreputable journalist, and a Hawaiian purveyor of cheap cotton goods. What started out as a love triangle reveals the cold-hearted treachery of a very clever killer . . . “An exceptionally well-written novel.” —The Glasgow Herald

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Page Count

246

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1504085752

ISBN 13

9781504085755

Wives to Burn

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

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Wives to Burn

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

Desire and deceit bring an American detective to colonial India, where the sweltering heat gives way to cold-hearted murder in this Golden Age mystery. William Shakespeare Gabriel once thought he would try and fulfill his middle name’s potential, but he was whisked from journalism to the pursuit of crime. Now, the private detective is in India on the eve of World War II. He’s been hired to find Fred Oaks, the black sheep son of an American sugar and molasses tycoon who was disinherited by his recently deceased father. Gabriel finds Oaks in the crime-ridden port city of Shakkarpur, where the soldier of fortune is sowing political unrest and—quite unwittingly—passion among the women. When Gabriel’s female client is murdered, Oaks is the obvious suspect, and Gabriel is out of a job. But that doesn’t stop the intrepid PI from seeking the truth among the city’s British citizens, uncovering secrets that have wound their way around the world, only to come home to roost.

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Page Count

215

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1504085795

ISBN 13

9781504085793

Rather Cool for Mayhem

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

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Rather Cool for Mayhem

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

On his return home from Europe, a World War II veteran gets an invitation to a murder in this Golden Age mystery from the Edgar Award–winning author. Once a crack reporter/photographer team, a quarrel—and the Second World War—have kept journalists Jim Lawrence and Grace Boyd apart. Making up for lost time, the old friends head up to Grace’s Ramapo Mountain cabin after Jim returns to New York City. But their solitary weekend at Blindman’s Lake is immediately crashed by carloads of friends who have been invited for cocktails by telegrams that Grace didn’t send. Among the unexpected guests is a dead body. The murder victim is none other than Dr. Norman, one of two men Grace considered marrying. In her circle of friends there is no shortage of suspects, for the departed doctor was known for a cruel streak a mile wide. As the party attendees are sequestered and questioned by the police at a nearby inn, Jim dusts off his journalism skills to catch a killer. The trails at Blindman’s Lake may lead straight to a murderer, but Jim must find out where they started in order to save himself and Grace from a life behind bars . . .

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Page Count

175

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

150408571X

ISBN 13

9781504085717

Bombay Mail

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

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Bombay Mail

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

“Death and fast action take place on the crack Trans-Indian Express . . . Inspector Prike . . . encounters rubies, secretaries, cobras, priests, spies.” —Time The assassination of the Governor of Bengal propels a Golden Age mystery that introduces readers to shrewd British CID Insp. Leonidas Prike. Set on a train from Calcutta to Bombay, Lawrence G. Blochman’s debut novel races through the Indian landscape, giving Inspector Prike twenty-seven hours to pin down a killer from a colorful mix of suspects, including a drunken news photographer, an intrepid American miner, a woman with dual identities, an Italian acrobat, a Maharajah, and a plumbing fixtures salesman, among other passengers . . . After the governor, Sir Anthony Daniels, goes missing from his private car, Inspector Prike hops on the train at the next stop, bringing his calm efficiency and photographic mind to the case. He soon finds the governor in someone else’s compartment—dead from cyanide poisoning. The suspects include everyone in the adjoining cars, all traveling with secrets ranging from hidden gems to clandestine love affairs and radical political agendas. Danger rides the rails as someone with nothing left to lose sits trapped among the innocent, until Prike follows a trail of clues to the end of the line . . . “A break-neck narrative . . . a non-stop thriller.” —Spectator

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Page Count

222

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1504085760

ISBN 13

9781504085762

Blow-Down

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

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Blow-Down

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

“Death, destruction, and international intrigue on a Caribbean banana plantation. First-rate plot, pace, and background” from the Golden Age mystery author (Time). It doesn’t take long for a man of Walter Lane’s skills to find a job at a Latin American banana port. But little do his new employers know that Walter has another agenda: discovering who murdered the former State Department secret agent previously stationed there. The accepted cause of death is blackwater fever, but Walter knows that arsenic poisoning is to blame. Before long, Walter finds himself in the middle of a feud between American banana growers and German coffee men—one that escalates when someone takes a pot-shot at Walter and the company’s influential representative is assassinated. And Walter has yet to determine if the beguiling secretary Muriel Monroe is a dependable ally or cunning foe. With many suspects afoot, Walter must peel away the layers of deception to find a killer, before he finds himself rotting in jail—or six feet under . . . “Written in a rapid-fire, wise-cracking style that is a joy to read.” —The Irish Times

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Page Count

237

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1504085787

ISBN 13

9781504085786

Red Snow at Darjeeling

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

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Red Snow at Darjeeling

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

Corporate hijinks mar the breathtaking scenery of the Himalayas—and set the stage for murder—in this Golden Age mystery from the author of Bengal Fire. A construction overseer for Blenn Engineering Works, Paul Woodring, thinks he’s below the notice of Calcutta business mogul Alexander Blenn, but his singular skills are needed for a delicate mission: renewing a twenty-year-old concession that gives Blenn exclusive rights to develop mechanical transportation and resources in an Indian state near Darjeeling. But before Woodring steps on the train to the mountain city, Blenn goes missing and his general manager is murdered. Enter Insp. Leonidas Prike of the British CID . . . Aboard the train climbing its way to Darjeeling is Prike and a raft of suspects including Woodring, Blenn’s niece and sole heir, a German botanist and Nazi party defector, an inveterate drunk, a Russian count, an engineering superintendent, and a mysterious dark-eyed woman. It will take all of Prike’s deductive skills to discover a motive and means for murder at the top of the world . . .

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Page Count

167

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1504085744

ISBN 13

9781504085748

Rather Cool for Mayhem

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

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Rather Cool for Mayhem

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

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175

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Open Road Media

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ISBN 10

150408571X

ISBN 13

9781504085717

Blow-Down

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

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Blow-Down

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

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237

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Open Road Media

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ISBN 10

1504085787

ISBN 13

9781504085786

Recipe for Homicide

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

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Recipe for Homicide

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

A public relations man finds himself in hot water when murder is added to the mix at the soup company where he works. Luckily, Dr. Coffee is on the case. After crowning a Carrot Queen—the fastest carrot peeler at the factory—the Barzac Soup Company is on a public relations roll under director Robert Gilmore. It plans to raise its profile—and stock price—even higher by introducing field rations for the US Army. But when an employee drops dead hours after tasting the field rations, Gilmore has a PR nightmare on his hands . . . With his job on the line, Gilmore seeks the help of pathologist Dr. Daniel Webster Coffee, a man who enjoys good food as much as the unassailable practice of good medicine. But what he discovers raises the stakes: The victim died of arsenic poisoning. The rations could have been deliberately sabotaged as an act of war. As tensions reach a boiling point, Gilmore finds his past, his heart, and his life on the line . . . “Blochman fans generally tend to think of him as more intellectual than the average pulp author, and based on one book, we can’t disagree. Recipe is scientific detection, and plenty detailed enough for readers who like that sort of thing . . . for 1954, this is nuanced stuff.” —Pulp International

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Page Count

230

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1504085728

ISBN 13

9781504085724

Midnight Sailing

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

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Midnight Sailing

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

On a Japan-bound freighter carrying a wealthy silk heiress, a tide of murder threatens everyone on board—and a world careening toward a second world war. When a millionaire silk merchant dies from an apparent suicide after being called a Japanese agent during a Senate investigation, his daughter disappears. Trying to avoid the press, Dorothy Bonner sails to Japan on the Kumo-maru. And now, so is foreign correspondent Glen Larkin, hoping to get an exclusive with the woman the whole world is looking for. What Larkin gets is a journey awash with intrigue, thanks to the lovely Dorothy. Traveling with a low profile in second class is a mining engineer, who just happens to be Dorothy’s fiancé. A stowaway—Dorothy’s morphine-addicted brother—is murdered. Also aboard are stolen US Navy anti-aircraft gun blueprints that could implicate Dorothy on conspiracy charges, if anyone can find them. With a passenger list full of suspects and someone taking violent objection to Larkin’s professional curiosity, he must match wits with an insurance detective to discover the killer, as the Kumo-maru heads across the ocean to a continent aflame with war . . . “Excellent . . . For the Somerset Maugham trade.” —Time “The climax is terrific and Blochman knows how to handle this.” —Manchester Evening News “A good solid mystery with just a whiff of espionage.” —My Reader’s Block

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Page Count

226

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1504085779

ISBN 13

9781504085779

Clues for Dr. Coffee

A Second Casebook

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

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Clues for Dr. Coffee

A Second Casebook

By: Lawrence G. Blochman

“Ten stories prove the superiority of Forensic pathology over coroner’s findings . . . Science and murder in a firm partnership.” —Kirkus Reviews Nothing much gets past Midwest pathologist Dr. Daniel Webster Coffee, whose whip-smart mind provides logical solutions to what seem like unsolvable cases. While detectives search for motives, Dr. Coffee provides the means, searching for microscopic clues on bodies and evidence with an unbeatable combination of imagination and intelligence. In ten Golden Age mystery stories, Lawrence G. Blochman pits Dr. Coffee, his able assistant Dr. Motilal Mookerji, and police lieutenant Max Ritter against criminals who, in an earlier era, might have just gotten away with murder. The former sweetheart of a married man dies after meeting him in a hotel room. Was the cause of death a faulty gas heater, the man himself, or his jealous wife? Dr. Coffee delivers the shocking results in “Old Flame.” “Stacked Deck” proves that even the fingerprints of a convicted killer don’t point to murder, when Dr. Coffee reveals the deadly consequences of poetic justice. Hang around for “Calendar Girl” and find out how a printer’s death from heart failure turns into an authentic homicide during Dr. Coffee’s investigation. These stories, and seven more, immerse you in a world of justice where forensics foil foul play every time.

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