Maps add interest and information to many detective novels, and this is an example of a book with a map decorating its endpapers – a feature of murder mysteries that was more common during the Golden Age than it is today. This book, What Beckoning Ghost?, was the personal copy of the author, Douglas G. Browne, as can be seen from the signature and address. Browne was a capable crime writer who also co-wrote a biography of the forensic pathologist Bernard Spilsbury. Browne was an artist before he turned to crime, and this elaborate mystery, published in 1947, was debated by members of the Detection Club as they considered whether his work had sufficient quality to justify election to the Club’s ranks. Happily for Browne, he got the nod.
