Paint, Gold and Blood' A Haiku for Hanae; Death on the Mississippi

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:

Michael Gilbert: Gilbert published 34 novels, 18 of which were stand alone novels. The remaining 16 involved one of four recurring detectives, Inspector Hazelrigg, Patrick Petrella, Inspector Mercer and Luke Pagan. Gilbert, once named a Mystery Writers Grand Master, passed away in 2006.

James Melville: Melville, a member of the RAF during WWII, went on to become a diplomat, spending much of his career in Japan. There he began to write about the country and its people, creating a crime novel series involving an inspector called Otani. This series had 13 volumes. Melville wrote four other novels as well as three cozy mysteries under the name Hampton Charles. This is the eleventh Otani Mystery.

Richard Forrest: Under his own name plus three pen names, Forrest published at least 19 novels. I say at least because I cannot find conclusive evidence of books under two of the pen names. Along with six stand alone novels and the ten novel Lyon and Bea Wentworth Mysteries (of which this is number seven), Forrest contributed with two other authors in the Thumbprint Mystery series, each penning three novels. Forrest died in 2005.