R Richardson Sleeping in the Blood
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This is the first Scorpion Press book published in 1991. Robert Richardson is a keen follower of the Golden Age mystery and this is a contemporary equivalent with a likeable detective duo with a stage/writing background.
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Robert Rich
ardson possesses an in-depth knowledge of the classical Golden Age of crime fiction. He has been active in the Crime Writers’ Association and was twice its chairman. His first novel, The Latimer Mercy (1989) won the John Creasey Award and is a scarce and desirable crime first edition. The early Richardson novels are shrewd and witty puzzle books with amateur detective playwright Gus Maltravers and actress girlfriend Tess Davy. These are modern variants on classic Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane amateur detective combination.
Richardson adroitly used various settings – the artist colony, Cathedral Close, the theatre and showbiz worlds – for his mysteries, as noted by Robert Barnard in his appreciation: “In using this sort of setting Richardson provides a clever modern equivalent to the manor house and cosy village settings of the Golden Age writers: we are mingling with our betters, but they are not so much our betters as to make us feel uncomfortable about ourselves”. Later Richardson turned to psychological thrillers or what were called ‘why-dunnits’ such as Significant Others (1997). It is a pity that he has not added to these, for they are immensely readable and entertaining.
This was the very first Scorpion Press book, one of 75 signed copies with an appreciation by Christie devotee and prolific crime writer Robert Barnard.
Dick Francis, Second Wind
Reginald Hill, The Wood Beyond
Rating by Robert Barnard on May 25, 2012 :
Extract from the Appreciation by Robert Barnard
“Robert Richardson is one of the most engaging talents to break on the crime writing scene in recent years. Not young when he started, he had the advantage of being widely read in British crime fiction – he knew the terrain, and could confidently stake a claim to his own particular part of it. His series detective, Augustus Maltravers, is a playwright – although recently he has been going in for fiction and journalism, perhaps a case of the creation edging in the direction of the creator, as with Holmes giving up drugs and becoming chivalrous to women. The combination of Gus and his lover Tess Davy, an actress, opens up backgrounds and cast-lists that are artistic, literate, civilised, even when the characters are neurotic, jealous or consumed by their own failure. This mix works successfully in all the backgrounds he opens up for us: an artists’ colony long past its sell-by date; a Cathedral Close; or, as in this book, the fringes of London’s show-biz and PR worlds, containing the sort of people one might all too easily meet in the Groucho Club. In using this sort of setting Richardson provides a clever modern equivalent to the manor house and cosy village settings of the Golden Age writers: we are mingling with our betters, but they are not so much our betters as to make us feel uncomfortable about ourselves….