To put it quite simply, Evans’s book is a bravura performance. He takes a look at three major mystery authors from the Golden Age: John Rhode/Miles Burton, Freeman Wills Crofts, and J. J. Connginton. All three men have been condemned to out-of-print hell, and when brought up by academics at all, their books tend to be largely dismissed as “mere puzzles.” But Evans remains unconvinced, and through his analyses he proves that these books have far more merit to them than the hostile critics' derisive…

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