Books published by Dean Street Press

';How would you like to die for your country?' asked Benbow Smith languidly.Now that Marian has broken their engagement, Lindsay Trevor finds danger welcome, even though it means dyeing his hair red and impersonating his cousin Froth as Restow's secretary.Who is this Restow, huge, good-natured is he fabulously rich or desperately poor? Is he the mysterious Vulture, that master of deceit and manipulation? And there is Restow's wife, the big, tempestuous snake-charmer Gloria; Dalton, the lean, black, spider-like librarian, and Elsie Manning, Froth's friend, who is afraid of what? When Marian comes back into his life most unexpectedly, Lindsay enters a desperate struggle against the Vulture, with Marian's life at stake.Danger Calling was originally published in 1931, and was the second novel to feature the series character of Benbow Smith. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.';When I pick up a book by Patricia Wentworth I think, now to enjoy myself and I always do.' Mary Dell, Daily Mirror

';You mustn't go to Meade House. I've heard'Ambrose Minstrel, the inventor, is undoubtedly eccentric. But even his oddities cannot account for the strange events at Meade House. Young Hugo Ross, Minstrel's new secretary, feels that all the dark happenings centre somehow on himself cryptic remarks and veiled glances between Minstrel and his assistant, stealthy footsteps in the dead of night, the offer of a small fortune for the worthless field glasses. And then there is the unknown girl who had called from the dark, the rest of her statement swallowed by the night? But in spite of all his caution, Hugo Ross is drawn into a despicable plot involving government intrigue and espionage. With his own life on the line, how much is he willing to risk for his country?Fool Errant was originally published in 1929, and introduced the eccentric, elderly series character of Benbow Smith. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.';When I pick up a book by Patricia Wentworth I think, now to enjoy myself and I always do.' Mary Dell, Daily Mirror

';Everything thats happening to usyes, everythingis to be regarded as a lark. See? This is my last word. This. Is. Going. To. Be. A. Lark.'It's 1919, and Jane Quested and her cousin Lucilla are pulled suddenly from school by their guardian, who sets them up in a cottage on the fringes of London and informs them (by letter, since he's already fled) that he's gambled away their inheritance but is leaving them the house and to carry on with. Lucilla is disheartened, but Jane is certain it will be a lark.With the help of a handsome man, a classic example of a ';capable woman', and a war veteran with a green thumb, the two unflappable young women set up a market garden, which develops into a guest house, which develops intowell, you'll have to read and see. It's true they have some difficulties as businesswomen, not to mention with housekeeping, but this is ultimately a tale fully living up to its title.Forgotten for decades, despite Nesbit's fame as a children's author, her final novel for adults, first published in 1922, is a delight that's ripe for rediscovery. This new edition includes an introduction by Charlotte Moore.';An economy of phrase, and an unparalleled talent for evoking hot summer days in the English countryside.'--Noel Coward

';My last secretary was thirty-five,' old M. said gloomily, ';and no more sense than a child of ten. Or else she wasn't all there. You all there?' he asked suddenly, giving Maud a searching look. ';No banging your head on the table? No throwing the china at me? Hey?'Young Maud has made her escape from an overbearing stepmother and come to stay with her cousin Alice and Alice's companion Miss Conway in the countryside. Alice and ';Con' have arranged a job for her as secretary to Mr Feniston, an eccentric and intimidating neighbor who seems to have driven his previous secretary to a nervous breakdown.In between cataloguing Mr Feniston's library, dodging his temper, and encounters, awkward and intriguing in turn, with his son and an alienated nephew, Maud finds herself involved with local eccentricities and dramas, including a ';secret' romance which has everyone talking. She may never be the same after this winter away!Furrowed Middlebrow is delighted to make available, for the first time in over half a century, all six of Elizabeth Fair's irresistible comedies of domestic life. These new editions all feature an introduction by Elizabeth Crawford.';Miss Fair's understanding is deeper than Mrs. Thirkell's and her humour is untouched by snobbishness; she is much nearer to Trollope, grand master in these matters.'--Stevie Smith';Miss Fair makes writing look very easy, and that is the measure of her creative ability.'--Compton Mackenzie

';Is Florence looking after the house all right? I thought it was rather touching of her to say she would like to stay and be bombed with you. Mind you put her underneath when you're lying down flat in an air-raid.'Caroline Cameron is charming and witty, no doubtbut also superficial, and a bit immoral. When we first meet her, at the beginning of Ursula Orange's delightful novel of the early days of World War II, married Caroline is contemplating an affair with an actor. But then war intervenes, and Caroline and her young daughter evacuate to the quiet village of Chesterford to stay with school-friend Constance Smith.The two women couldn't be more different. Warm-hearted, generous Constance surprises the local billeting officer with her delight at welcoming evacuees into her home. But she has also made a catastrophic marriage to salesman Alfred. As they weather the storm of blackouts, shelters, and village drama, it's ultimately the women's differences that allow them to bring out the best in each other and let peace (of a sort) reign again.Tom Tiddler's Ground is a rollicking, irresistible tale of troubles on the Home Front. This new edition features an introduction by Stacy Marking.';Miss Orange's very considerable gifts have all been requisitioned to make this a book not only of first-rate entertainment, but of literary excellence in its special light comedy genre.' New York Times';The whole story is a sparkling piece of fun.' Daily Telegraph

Four years. That's how long it took Californian playboy Michael Vickers to regain his memory and come home. Four years. That's how long Vickers spent battered, bruised and south of the border, following the attack which sought to end his life - all because he'd mistaken a mortal enemy for a friend. Or a lover. And now Vickers is looking for four years' worth of payback from the devil responsible for his near-demise. But within days of Vickers' return, a murder attempt is made on one of his suspects - and this time it succeeds. Enter a very shrewd detective, whose eyes are on everyone. Especially Vickers. In Stranger at Home, the second George Sanders mystery novel, we are taken to a world removed from the backstage comic mystery of Crime on My Hands, but nonetheless a milieu very familiar to the actor - Southern California in the 1940's. A world of stars and millionaires, but also vice, organized crime and shattered dreams. And Michael Vickers himself is a hero very much after the mould of Sanders' irresistibly attractive screen persona - gilded and charming, languid and pleasure-seeking... but with a steely, remorseless core.

The rubbish in the once-lovely garden, the broken toys, the bicycles against the toppling fence, the neglected, trampled flower-beds – all were highlighted by the merciless midday sun. The house itself, with paint peeling, tiles missing from the roof, its pretentious pillars pitted with gunfire, looked forlorn and neglected. But nothing could detract from the beauty of the acacia trees whose proud flowering dominated the scene and apologized for everything.Having made her publishing debut with The Dancing Bear, a superb memoir of life in Berlin immediately after World War II, Frances Faviell applied first-hand knowledge to fiction, telling the riveting, harrowing tale of one large, troubled family in Germany nearly a decade after the war’s end.In a town near Cologne, rebuilding is proceeding at a frantic pace, factory work is plentiful and well-paid, and the dark days of near-starvation have ended. But Joseph, a former Allied prisoner of war, and his enormous brood—his wife having received a medal under the Nazis for bearing more than 10 children—face new problems ranging from the mother’s infidelity, the oldest child’s involvement with a brutal youth gang leader, and a beloved adopted daughter’s plans to marry an American soldier.Vividly portraying the love and conflict of a large family and the dramatic, sometimes tragic social change of Germany’s postwar recovery, A House on the Rhine is a powerful, heartbreaking tale from the author of the London Blitz memoir A Chelsea Concerto. This new edition includes an afterword by Frances Faviell’s son, John Parker, and other supplementary material.‘Heartrending but irresistible.’ Rosaleen Whateley, Liverpool Daily Post‘Extremely fast paced and expertly told … her characters are alive and disturbingly real.’ San Francisco Chronicle‘She writes with a sharpness of outline which would not shame Simenon.’ J.W. Lambert, Sunday Times

‘You are a virgin?’‘Yes.’‘How dull! What’s the use of being a woman if you’re a virgin?’‘One has to begin sometime,’ I agreed.Recovering from an illness, Rachel, an 18-year-old art student at the Slade in London, is advised to spend a year in a warm climate. She agrees to go to France to act as companion to Cynthia, a delicate, temperamental woman whose husband is in India, and her two children, troubled 15-year-old Thalia and spoiled young Claude. Thalia quickly becomes devoted to Rachel, but their friendship is strained by Rachel’s romance with the son of a well-to-do Breton family.Though it’s the awkward, emotional Thalia who lends the novel its title, it’s Rachel on whom the novel centers, poignantly telling the tale of her sad first love, her dawning awareness of the vagaries and dishonesties of social life, and the tragedy she is powerless to prevent.Set in Brittany in the mid-1930s, with an excursion to the cafés and artists’ studios of Montparnasse, Thalia is a dramatic and poignant tale by the author of A Chelsea Concerto. It includes an afterword by the author’s son, John Parker, and other supplementary material.‘Mrs. Faviell … writes with grace and sensibility; this young, new world of first experiences is brought back and set down with a fresh touch, and, while shadowed by tragedy, it is eminently pleasant to follow.’ Kirkus Reviews‘She writes with a sharpness of outline which would not shame Simenon.’ J.W. Lambert, Sunday Times

‘I can’t go back. I’d rather die—I’d rather be dead.’Neil Collins is going AWOL from his National Service – for the third time. Twice he has served time for previous desertions and been sent back, despite being hopelessly unsuited to military life. This time, terrorized by a bullying fellow soldier determined to escape himself, Neil intends to make his escape a permanent one. He heads to London, to the dreary, claustrophobic rooms where his twin sister, Nonie, and their dying grandmother live, periodically invaded by prying neighbours, a little girl who has befriended Mrs Collins, a curious social worker, and other uninvited visitors.The Fledgeling (1958) traces the single day following Neil’s desertion, and its impacts on Neil, Nonie, the tough-as-nails Mrs Collins, and others. Each of the characters comes vividly alive in Faviell’s sensitive and observant prose. At times containing all the tension of a thriller, at others a profound drama of familial turmoil, Faviell’s third and final novel is dramatic, compelling, and emotionally wrenching. This new edition features an afterword by Frances Faviell’s son, John Parker, and additional supplementary material.‘A writer of unusual skill and delicacy in suggesting nuances of feeling and of character’ Orville Prescott‘She writes with a sharpness of outline which would not shame Simenon.’ J.W. Lambert, Sunday Times

‘You don’t want to mind about any of this,’ said the driver, waving a hand at the grey ruins and the greyer dust. ‘In a few days you’ll be so used to it that you’ll like them. Berlin’s a grand place! I’d rather be here than anywhere else in the world, and that’s a fact.’‘No more perceptive portrait of Germany in defeat has been etched in word than Frances Faviell’s first book, The Dancing Bear, which made so powerful an impact upon me that I read it in a single sitting.’ Guy Ramsey, Daily Telegraph‘Berlin during the decisive years from 1946 to 1949. … The prostitution which paid so handsomely; the black market which brought in rich rewards, although it meant that the Berliners had to part with treasured possessions; the night clubs which catered for still baser tastes; the impoverished intellectuals and the starving professors and the poor who had only their wits with which to eke out a bare sustenance—all this and much else the author describes with insight, incisiveness, and realism.’ Times Literary Supplement‘There is great charity in this book; there is the sharp, limpid eye of the artist; there is sound realism; and there is an unswerving, passionate desire to tell the truth.” John Connell, Evening News‘They were hard and terrible times, and brilliantly does Frances Faviell describe them for us. We meet the Altmann family and follow their joys and troubles. … The book is a brilliant pen-picture of the post-war years. We have British, French, American and Russian characters, but the background is always Berlin, and the strange tunes to which its bear danced.’ Liverpool Daily PostThis new edition includes an afterword by Frances Faviell’s son, John Parker, and additional supplementary material.

';You told me a lot of things,' said James grimly. ';Most of them weren't true.'James Elliott, lost in a fog, comes upon a lonely house in the English countryside. The house shows no lights but the front door is ajar. He enters in search of a telephone but instead finds a girl whose white face, eyes wide in a stare of horror and mouth open as if to scream. But instead of screaming, she yells ';run!' At that moment there is the sound of a shot and James feels the wind of a bullet as it goes past. Though he rescues the girl, she cannot or will not tell him quite where the danger liesIs the girl's name Aspidistra Aspinall, as she originally claims? Or perhaps it's Sally West, as she later styles herself, when revealing that bestselling author Ambrose Sylvester may have passed off a dead man's work as his own. The girl's fear is real enough, and for good reason someone is playing for high stakes, and another corpse has been left to prove it. But will James himself turn out to be the intended victim?Run! was originally published in 1938. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.';When I pick up a book by Patricia Wentworth I think, now to enjoy myself and I always do.' Mary Dell, Daily Mirror

Ice is still. Death is still. But no living flesh should be as still as thisAgent Stephen Enderby, known in Russia as Red Stefan, meets Elizabeth Radin, the lovely widow of a Soviet inventor, just at the moment she is about to throw herself into a river in despair. The Communists have been persecuting her in order to obtain the vital formula her husband devised just before his execution. Stephen prevents her from committing suicide, takes her away with him and tries to escort her out of the country, posing as his wife. But Elizabeth has not told Stephen her deadly secretRed Stefan was originally published in 1935. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.';When I pick up a book by Patricia Wentworth I think, now to enjoy myself and I always do.' Mary Dell, Daily Mirror