Books on the "to read" pile

Nightwebs: A Collection of Stories by Cornell Woolrich. Edited by Francis M. Nevins Jr. (1971)

Woolrich, who has been compared to Edgar Allen Poe, said he wrote "to keep alive". This is a collection of 16 stories in one really thick paperback (511p).

A Long Way to Shiloh by Lionel Davidson (1966)

The plot of this thriller doesn't sound overly interesting, but I enjoyed Davidson's "The Chelsea Murders", so I'll give this one a first chapter try at least.

The Woman in the Sea by Shelley Smith (1948)

A really nice old hardcover edition by Harper & Brothers; unfortunately no dust jacket. I've been searching for "The Party at No. 5" by Smith for months now, and I settled on this as a second-best option.

Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood (1981)

Not a mystery or even a crime novel, but Atwood's such a great writer that I'll make an exception.

The King and the Corpse by Max Murray (1949)

Another title in Murray's Corpse series. This one is set on the French Riviera and will hopefully be as good as "The Voice of the Corpse", reviewed here recently.

Memento Mori by Muriel Spark (1959)

In the words of Graham Greene: "This funny and macabre book has delighted me as much as any novel that I have read since the war". And Evelyn Waugh: "Brilliant and singularly gruesome achievement".

The Mammoth Book of Great Detective Stories edited by Herbert van Thal (1985)

A huge collection of 26 stories, condensed so the reader gets the gist of them without having to wade through an entire novel. Authors include Christianna Brand, Dulcie Gray, E. C. Bentley, Dorothy Sayers, Edgar Wallace, Agatha Christie, H.R.F. Keating, Wilkie Collins, Georges Simenon, Arnold Bennett and Baroness Orczy.

Legal Executions in Western Australia by Brian Purdue (1993)

This non-fiction work features a full list of all WA hangings, as well as dozens of stories of crimes and subsequent executions, starting with the first execution in 1840.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (1949)

By the author of "One Hundred and One Dalmatians". I always wanted to read this, but never did... and then I found a beautiful 1954 hardcover copy by Heinemann a couple of weeks ago.