INCOMING

Six good mysteries this week:

• Christianna Brand.  Tour De Force.  Inspector Cockrill solves another one.  Need I say more?
• The Medieval Murderers.  The Lost Prophecies.  From 574 A.D. to the year 2135, these six interlocked mysteries by "The Medieval Murderers" (Philip Gooden, Susanna Gregory, Michael Jecks, Bernard Knight, Ian Morson, and C. J. Sansom) concern a book of prophecies written by an obscure Irish monk.
• Arthur W. Upfield.  Murder Down Under, Sinister Stones, and The Widows of Broome. Three mysteries featuring Australian half-cast Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte.  Years ago, for a mystery group I was part of, I suggested Upfield and his Bony mysteries; to a person, everyone else hated them.  I still can't understand why.  I know some were upset by the pre-P.C. tone of some of the books, but Bony still stands out as one of the great detectives.  Anthony Boucher called Bony his "favorite fictional detective of the past twenty years.'  I side with Boucher:  the novels are full of great Australian detail and are well constructed and engaging.
• Patricia Wentworth.  Through the Wall.  One of Miss Silver's later adventures, and very well regarded.