Philby, Greene, and Our Man in Havana.

Ad for Our Man in Havana
(dir. Carol Reed, 1959)

Over at Lapham's Quarterly, Lawrence Osborne discusses the genesis of Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana, including Greene's time in MI6 and his relationship with Kim Philby of the Cambridge spy ring. There's a reference to Greene traveling with "an equally youthful Claud Cockburn"—that's the lefty father of mystery author Sarah Caudwell.

ABA Journal: Ten trials that changed the world.

Clarence Darrow, 1915
Library of Congress,
Prints & Photos Div.

The November issue of the ABA Journal discusses "10 trials that changed the world," including the Nuremberg trials, Parliament's trial of King Charles I, the trial of Susan B. Anthony for voting, and the trial of defense attorney Clarence Darrow (known later for the Scopes "monkey" trial and his defense of Leopold and Loeb) on the charge that he bribed jurors. See also the October letters to the editor on the journal's "25 Greatest Law Novels" list from the August issue, with additional suggestions of works by authors such as Sarah Caudwell, Michael Connelly, and Michael Gilbert.

Five female mystery authors who left us too soon.

• Dorothy Bowers. This Oxford graduate and Detection Club member penned four mystery novels featuring Chief Inspector Dan Pardoe (Postscript to Poison, Shadows Before, Deed without a Name,  and Fear and Miss Betony [called the best mystery of 1941 by the Times]. In 1948, Bowers died of tuberculosis at age 46.

• Sarah Caudwell. When she died of cancer in 2000 at age 60, this former barrister and Anthony winner left behind a slim but witty oeuvre for fans devoted to the legal cohorts of the gender-neutral professor Hilary Tamar (Thus Was Adonis Murdered, The Shortest Way to Hades, The Sirens Sang of Murder, The Sibyl in Her Grave, "Malice Among Friends" in Malice Domestic 6). Steven Heyman of Chicago-Kent Law School related in Mystery Scene how he used Caudwell's work in his law courses. She was a member of a colorfully leftist family (her father was Evelyn Waugh cousin Claud Cockburn, and her nieces include actress Olivia Wilde and journalist Laura Flanders).

• Kate Ross. This lawyer by day, author by night published four novels and two short stories with Regency-era dandy Julian Kestrel (Cut to the Quick, A Broken Vessel, Whom the Gods Love, the Agatha-winning Devil in Music, "The Lullaby Cheat" in Crime through Time, and "The Unkindest Cut" in Past Poisons). Judges complained about Ross's legal briefs because of her skill as a writer—they were "too interesting." Ross died of cancer in 1998 at age 41.

• Rebecca Rothenberg. This Agatha and Anthony nominee for The Bulrush Murders was a musician and epidemiologist, in addition to writing her series featuring microbiologist Claire Sharples (other books in the series include The Dandelion Murders, The Shy Tulip Murders, and The Tumbleweed Murders—the latter finished by Taffy Cannon). Rothenberg died in 1998 of a brain tumor at age 50.

• Barbara Burnett Smith. This Agatha nominee for Writers of the Purple Sage and Sisters in Crime past president followed her first novel with aspiring writer Jolie Wyatt with four others: Dust Devils of the Purple Sage, Celebration in Purple Sage, Mistletoe in Purple Sage, and Skeletons in Purple Sage. She also wrote the standalone Mauve & Murder and Bead on Trouble, which featured a sleuthing jewelry designer. She died in 2005 after she was hit by a car in San Antonio; she was 57.

Sarah Booth Conroy, 1927–2009.

I was saddened to read the news of the death of longtime Washington Post reporter Sarah Booth Conroy at the age of 81 due to Alzheimer's disease. Sarah Booth was a die-hard mystery fan (her husband Richard wrote some mystery novels plus two humorous memoirs on his foreign service career, Our Man in Belize and Our Man in Vienna); was a familiar, warm presence at Malice Domestic in her one-of-a-kind jewelry designed by Richard; and often interviewed mystery writers for the Post. It was her Chronicles column on Sarah Caudwell that revealed that Caudwell's ancester, Admiral George Cockburn, burned the White House during the War of 1812.

As Sarah Booth had known Alice Roosevelt Longworth during her journalistic career, I took the opportunity to run my impressions of Alice by her before I wrote two short stories that featured TR's eldest daughter; I was relieved to learn that I was on target.

Sarah Booth's one novel, Refinements of Love, was an interesting treatment of the Five of Hearts group: Henry Adams, Clover Adams, John Hay, Clara Hay, and Clarence King. For a tribute to her from a Post colleague, go here; for a look at some of the wonderful things that were in the Conroy home, go here.