As some of you may remember, I'm doing a book on British paperback crime and mystery novels. I'm calling the book Pulpografia Britannica. I don't know when it will come out, as it doesn't have a publisher as yet, but here's hoping...
The British scene hasn't been as well documented as the American one, so there are hazards. Quite recently I read Harsh Evidence by one Pamela Fry, thinking she was a British writer. The book, however, was situated in Canada and it didn't remind me of any British thriller of the fifties I've read. It resembled more books by Charlotte Armstrong or Ursula Curtiss, the so-called lady noir writers of the fourties and fifties - they usually have a normal, middle-class, maybe middle-aged, quite intelligent and independent woman getting into a trouble she doesn't want to get into. I got to digging and from scraps of information I was able to confirm 90% sure that Pamela Fry was Canadian. (Even though there were claims that the book was first published in Australia!)
So, some two or three days reading wasted. I wrote the entry for her anyway and put it into a file which might someday become the sequel of my original Pulpografia.
However, the Finnish cover is a treat. It actually gives away something, but never mind. The title translates back as The Dead Don't Talk. After that treatment, they sure won't!
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