Anthony Berkeley

Berkeley - photo.jpg

Pseudonym of Anthony Berkeley Cox

  • Born: 5 July 1893, Watford, UK
  • Died: 9 March 1971, London

Overview

Anthony Berkeley Cox was one of the most innovative writers of the Golden Age.  As Anthony Berkeley, he wrote dazzlingly ingenious, witty detective stories featuring beer-drinking, fallible Roger Sheringham, a popular novelist with a taste for criminology. John Dickson Carr considered Berkeley “the cleverest of us all”.

Many critics, though, rate the psychological crime novels he wrote as Francis Iles more highly.  I’m not one of them.

 

Best works

  • The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929)
  • The Piccadilly Murder (1929)
  • Top Storey Murder (1931)
  • Malice Aforethought (1931)
  • Jumping Jenny (1933)
  • Trial and Error (1937)
  • Malcolm J. Turnbull, Elusion Aforethought: The Life & Writing of Anthony Berkeley Cox (1996)

Works

  1. The Layton Court Mystery (1925) ***
  2. The Wychford Poisoning Case (1926) *
  3. Roger Sheringham and the Vane Mystery (1927; published in the US as The Mystery at Lovers’ Cave) ***
  4. Cicely Disappears (1927; published under the pseudonym of A. Monmouth Platts; also published as The Wintringham Mystery)
  5. Mr. Priestley’s Problem (1927; published as Anthony Berkeley Cox; published in the US as The Amateur Crime) ***
  6. The Silk Stocking Murders (1928) ****
  7. The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929) *****
  8. The Piccadilly Murder (1929) *****
  9. The Second Shot (1930) ***
  10. Top Storey Murder (1931) ****
  11. Malice Aforethought (1931; published under the pseudonym of Francis Iles) ****
  12. Murder in the Basement (1932) *
  13. Before the Fact (1932; published under the pseudonym of Francis Iles)
  14. Jumping Jenny (1933; published in the US as Dead Mrs. Stratton) *****
  15. Panic Party (1934; published in the US as Mr. Pidgeon’s Island) ***
  16. Trial and Error (1937) *****
  17. Not to be Taken (1938) ****
  18. Death in the House (1939) ****
  19. As for the Woman (1939; published under the pseudonym of Francis Iles)
  20. The Avenging Chance and Other Stories (2004; short stories)