The Casebook of Jonas P. Jonas and Other Mysteries

by E.X. Ferrars

E. X. Ferrars (1907-1995) was born Morna Doris MacTaggart and known as Elizabeth Ferrars in Great Britain. By whatever name, she was an elegant crime writer, specializing in the traditional, classic mystery. She remains,wrote one reviewer, one of the most adept and intelligent adherents of the whodunit form. Her characters were always distinctly drawn, usually (but not quite always) likable, and her settings vividly described. Like many of the Golden Age writers, she often set her mysteries in English villages, but her books could range as far as Cyprus, Greece, and Africa. The Casebook of Jonas P. Jonas contains seventeen previously uncollected stories, including the six cases of Jonas P. Jonas who retells his sleuthing exploits in the hope that his niece will write his memoirs. This is the thirty-fourth volume in Crippen & Landru's Lost Classics series uncollected detective and mystery stories by great writers of the past. The book is edited by the detective-fiction-expert John Cooper, who has also edited collections by Michael Gilbert, Michael Innes, and Julian Symons. The cover illustration is by Gail Cross, and the Lost Classics design is by Deborah Miller.

Genres: Mystery

Paperback

First published September 17, 2012

About the author

Aka Elizabeth Ferrars

Elizabeth Ferrars is a pseudonym of Morna Doris MacTaggart Brown. She was born in Rangoon, Burma.

Reviews

[Bob]

A little more like a workbook than a cohesive collection. I'd say really only for Ferrars completists or for ratiocination fiends with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. Or people who really enjoy the inclusion of cucumbers as plot points.

The "Jonas P. Jonas" cases that start the book are probably as thoroughly someone's jam as they aren't mine, but the character and the format and the endless deductive gotchas aren't why I read this author.

The works that follow the Jonas stories were more enjoyable as a whole, the best of them little thrillers that function as further evidence for me that Ferrars deserves the occasional Highsmith comparison just as much (if not more than) she does the Christie evocation.

Favorites for me were "Custody", "The Long Way Around" and "Stop Thief!".

[Kacper Nedza]

Ferrars was definitely a better novelist than a short story writers--none of these stories are brilliant, but they are entertaining and readable as ever.

[Anne]

Excellent stories

A compilation of well written short stories. Each one is interesting and different. I love this particular authore and tend to read 📚 any of her books I can find.

[Macel Dee]

Nice little collection of mysteries.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

The case of the two questions (aka When a young girl's eyes are crazy with worry)--2
The case of the blue bowl (aka No more milk for Mrs. Toomes)--3
The case of the auction catalogue (aka The collector who ran away from murder)--3
The case of the left hand (aka A lunch plate stopped Bardell's escape)--2
*Invitation to murder...on the party line --
A lipstick smear points to the killer --
Custody --
*The trap --
Stop thief! --3
*The long way round --
Fly, said the spy --3
Instrument of justice --3
*Suicide? (aka Suicide in a car with the lights on?)--
*Look for trouble (aka When a girl has a grudge, look for trouble)--
Justice in my own hands --3
The handbag --
*Sequence of events--
***
The forgotten murder --
The rose murders (aka Go, lovely rose) --2
Scatter his ashes --
A very small clue --2

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: seventeen stories, including the six cases of Jonas P. Jonas who retells his sleuthing exploits to his niece.