by Dell Shannon
66 In an interview quoted in “Elizabeth Linington,” in Encyclopedia of Mystery & Detection, edited by Chris Steinbrunner and Otto Penzler (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1976), 247, Linington recalled, “It was on the national patriotism theme, but the leftist liberal publishers wouldn’t buy it, so I swore I wouldn’t write another historical until they published that.”
67 Margaret J. King, “An Interview with Elizabeth Linington,” Armchair Detective 13, no. 4 (Fall 1980): 300, 301.
68 Frankie Y. Bailey, “Elizabeth Linington,” in Whodunit: A Who’s Who in Crime & Mystery Writing, edited by Rosemary Herbert (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 119.
69 King, 302.
The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope
An award-winning mystery from C. W. Grafton—father of prolific mystery writer Sue Grafton—that will keep readers guessing until its thrilling conclusion.
Short, chubby, and awkward with members of the opposite sex, Gil Henry is the youngest partner in a small law firm, not a hard-boiled sleuth. So when an attractive young woman named Ruth McClure walks into his office and asks him to investigate the value of the stock she inherited from her father, he thinks nothing of it—until someone makes an attempt on his life.
“First published in 1943, this outstanding hard-boiled whodunit from Grafton (1909–1982), the father of MWA Grand Master Sue Grafton, introduces Kentucky attorney Gil Henry.… Series editor Les Klinger’s annotations enhance the text. The superior prose and logical but surprising plot twists amply justify this volume’s reissue as a Library of Congress Crime Classic.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
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