George Bellairs was the nom de plume of Harold Blundell (1902-1982), a crime writer and bank manager born in Heywood, near Rochdale, Lancashire. He began working for Martins Bank at the age of 15, and stayed there in escalating roles of seniority until his retirement. He then settled in the Isle of Man. He wrote more than 50 books, most featuring the detective Inspector Thomas Littlejohn, and all with the same publisher. His first novel, Littlejohn on Leave, was published in 1941and his last one, An Old Man Dies, was published close to his death in 1982. He also wrote four novels under the alternative pseudonym Hilary Landon. Harold Blundell served on the boards of United Manchester Hospitals and Manchester Royal Infirmary. He married Gwladys Mabel Roberts in 1930. (Source: Wikipedia)
Read more at George Bellairs website here.
With the methodical habits of a good bank manager, he [Blundell] kept detailed records of his work as a writer, including correspondence, contracts, and press cutting. Happily for researchers into the genre, Gwladys presented his archive to the John Rylands Library, a neo-Gothic architectural masterpiece in Deansgate, Manchester, which now forms part of the University of Manchester Library. The material in the archive gives a fascinating insight into the career of a “mid-list” writer of the mid-twentieth century, an author who was never a bestseller, but who for half a lifetime worked hard to entertain his readers. (Martin Edwards)
As Curtis Evans remind us, Blundell, like Elizabeth Ferrars and Christianna Brand, ‘is not quite officially Golden Age–but he’s close enough! His early novels from the 1940s were published in the United States by Macmillan (they also published, among British mystery writers, E. R. Punshon and Christopher Bush) and he was well received there, getting some favorable notices from, for example, crime fiction reviewer Anthony Boucher.’
Bibliography: Detective Inspector Littlejohn series: Littlejohn on Leave (1941); The Four Unfaithful Servants (1942); Death of a Busybody (1942); The Dead Shall Be Raised (1942) aka Murder Will Speak; The Murder of a Quack (1943); The Case Of The Seven Whistlers (1944); Calamity At Harwood (1945); Death in the Night Watches (1945); The Case of the Scared Rabbits (1946); The Crime At Halfpenny Bridge (1946); Death On the Last Train (1948); Outrage On Gallows Hill (1948); The Case of the Demented Spiv (1949); The Case of the Famished Parson (1949); The Case of the Headless Jesuit (1950) aka Death Brings in the New Year; Crime in Lepers’ Hollow (1950); Dead March for Penelope Blow (1951) aka Dead March for Penelope; Death in Dark Glasses (1952); Half-Mast for the Deemster (1953); A Knife for Harry Dodd (1953); The Cursing Stones Murder (1954); Death In Room Five (1955); Death Drops the Pilot (1956); Death Treads Softly (1956); Death in High Provence (1957); Death Sends for the Doctor (1957); Corpse at the Carnival (1958); Murder Makes Mistakes (1958); Bones in the Wilderness (1959); Toll the Bell for Murder (1959); Corpses in Enderby (1960); Death in the Fearful Night (1960); The Body in the Dumb River (1961) aka Murder Masquerade; Death of a Tin God (1961); Death Before Breakfast (1962); The Tormentors (1962); Death in the Wasteland (1964); Death of a Shadow (1964); Surfeit of Suspects (1964); Death Spins the Wheel (1965); Intruder in the Dark (1966); Strangers Among the Dead (1966); Death in Desolation (1967); Single Ticket to Death (1967); Fatal Alibi (1968); Murder Gone Mad (1968); The Night They Killed Joss Varran (1970); Tycoon’s Death-bed (1970); Pomeroy, Deceased (1971); Murder Adrift (1972); Devious Murder (1973); Fear Round About (1975); Close All Roads to Sospel (1976) aka All Roads to Sospel; The Downhill Ride of Leeman Popple (1978); and An Old Man Dies (1980).
Other novels: Turmoil in Zion aka Death Stops the Frolic (1943); Murder at Morning Prayers (1947) (as Hilary Landon); Circle Round A Corpse (1948) (as Hilary Landon); Choose Your Own Verdict (1949) (as Hilary Landon); and Exit Sir Toby Belch (1950) (as Hilary Landon).
Laurie Kelley at Bedford Bookshelf has reviewed several books by George Bellairs.
Rekha Rao at The Book Decoder has reviewed several books by George Bellairs.
(Facsimile Dust Jacket, John Gifford Limited (UK), 1942)
The Dead Shall Be Raised was reissued as part of the British Library Crime Classics range in a double-bill omnibus edition with The Murder of a Quack with an Introduction by Martin Edwards. Two classic cases featuring Detective Inspector Littlejohn. The Dead Shall Be Raised , which is also sometimes called Murder Will Speak, first appeared in 1942. Synopsis: ‘In the winter of 1940, the Home Guard unearth a skeleton on the moor above the busy town of Hatterworth. Twenty-three years earlier, the body of a young textile worker was found in the same spot, and the prime suspect was never found—but the second body is now identified as his. Soon it becomes clear that the true murderer is still at large… ‘. The second novel in this book The Murder of a Quack, was published the following year. Synopsis: ‘Nathaniel Wall, the local quack doctor, is found hanging in his consulting room in the Norfolk village of Stalden—but this was not a suicide. Against the backdrop of a close-knit country village, an intriguing story of ambition, blackmail, fraud, false alibis and botanical trickery unravels.’
The Dead Shall Be Raised aka Murder Will Speak (1942) has been reviewed, among others, by Curtis Evans at The Passing Tramp, Aidan at Mysteries Ahoy!, Rekha Rao at The Book Decoder, and John Cleal at UK Crime Review.
A Crime is Afoot 