Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise hosts a quarterly round-up of favourite new authors. I haven’t contributed there for a while, but here goes…
Putting aside the many new-to-me authors contained within the pages of Michael Sims’ The Dead Witness (although I’d like to bring the creator of Uncle Abner, Melville Davisson Post, to your attention), I see I have only encountered two this month:
Gladys Edson Locke, author of the amusing but honestly fairly inconsequential The House on the Downs.
Len Deighton, author of the spy trilogy Berlin Game, Mexico Set, and London Match. These are excellent spy novels, written with a sense of humour, a keen appreciation of office politics, and a magnificent mix of domestic troubles and espionage. Deighton would probably have remained unknown to me forever because I find the covers of his books uninspiring (see knives and apple, above), but I’d urge you to get past those and read these titles as soon as you can.
Past Offences: Classic crime, thrillers and mystery book reviews 
I just discovered Len Deighton in 2012 and he has become 2nd to Rex Stout in my pantheon of favorite authors. I like those covers (I read the same ones) and the office politics was my favorite part.
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Where would you start with Stout?
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That’s hard. I love all of them and there is no need to read in order. There are only a few that would benefit from that, and those still don’t really matter. To start out with, I would recommend any of the first three: Fer-De-Lance, The League of Frightened Men or The Rubber Band. Other favorites from the earlier years are Some Buried Caesar and The Silent Speaker. (For the 1939 challenge I am reading a non-Wolfe novel titled Double for Death. The non-Wolfe novels are not as good, but it has been a long time since I read them.)
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I bought Len Deighton’s books based on your reviews. I can’t wait to read them.
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Hope you enjoy them Keishon. Judging by the comments, most people do.
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Deighton is a name I seem always to have known but never considered reading. However, I’ve been thinking I should read more spy fiction over the summer so I’ll put him on what is an ever growing list.
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