Friday's Forgotten Books, April 1, 2016

                                       THE WHISPERING WALL, Patricia Carlon

Patricia Carlon's THE WHISPERING WALL tells the story of a wealthy, paralyzed, bed-ridden woman who, thanks to a vent in the wall, overhears murderous conversations. The Phippses plan to murder singer, Roderick Palmer.  A niece discovers  Sarah can blink in response to questions.  But the Phippses realize Sarah has overheard their plot and determine to kill her, too. With enormous effort, using letter games and Scrabble, Sarah attempts to warn Roderick in the only way she can.

Carlon proved herself to be a first class suspense writer with this novel. Carlon is Australian and wrote most of her books in the sixties. Occasionally I run across one, although less and less over time.Carlon was deaf from age 11 onward and kept out of the public eye her whole life. This may also explain why so many of her books used disabilities of some type as a feature.

Here is an interesting article about her. 

Sergio Angelini, LEAVE HER TO HELL, Fletcher Flora
Joe Barone, PIETR, THE LATVIAN, Georges Simenon
Les Blatt, CASE WITHOUT A CORPSE, Leo Bruce
Brian Busby, THE HOUSE IN BROOK STREET, Ronald Cocking
Bill Crider, HORRIBLE BEGINNINGS, Steven H. Silver and Martin Greenberg
Scott Cupp, AMAZON PLANET, Mack Reynolds
Martin Edwards, THE ORGAN SPEAKS, E.C.R. Lorac
Kurt Evans, HASTY PUDDING, Mignon Eberhart
Ed Gorman, THE CRIMES OF JORDAN WISE, Bill Pronzini
Rick Horton, Sanctuary in the Sky, by John Brunner/The Secret Martians, by Jack Sharkey
Jerry House, DEATH TAKES THE STAGE, Agatha Christie
Nick Jones, THE DASHELL HAMMETT OMNIBUS 
George Kelley, DOUBLE IN TROUBLE, Richard S. Prather, Stephen Marlowe
Margot Kinberg, THE HOT ROCK, Donald Westlake
B.V. Lawson, THIS'LL KILL YOU, Peter Chambers
Steve Lewis/Barry Gardner, VOODOO, LTD, Ross Thomas
Todd Mason, SHORT STORY INTERNATIONAL, February 1965 edited by Samuel Tankel; THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E MAGAZINE, February 1966 edited by Cylvia Kleinman
Neer, THE WORST WITCH. Jill Murphy
J.F. Norris, SKULDOGERY, Fletcher Flora
Mathew Paust, I'VE BEEN DEADER, Adam Sifre
James Reasoner, THE DEATH MISER, John Creasey
Richard Robinson, THE EXILES TRILOGY, Ben Bova
Gerard Saylor, FATE OF THE UNION, Max Allan Collins and Matthew Clemens
Kerrie Smith, STAGESTRUCK, Peter Lovesey
Kevin Tipple, TILT-A-WHIRL, Chris Grabenstein
TomCat, NOT TO BE TAKEN, Anthony Berkeley
TracyK, THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, John LeCarre