Gideon's Force; The Hidden Man; Death Under the Lilacs

The Detective Book Club produced volumes of three crime novels from 1942 to 1999. Originally monthly, near the end they dwindled down to just a few per year. Many famous detective and crime novelists had their early works featured in DBC editions. Often, books were published in DBC editions before, or at the same time as they were published in mass market form. A little about our authors:

William Vivian Butler: After John Creasy died in 1973, Butler took up the J. J. Marric pen name to continue the George Gideon series. He managed to add five more novels to the Gideon world before he, too, died, in 1987. This is Butler's first Gideon noel and the 22nd in the series.

Michael Underwood: Michael Underwood was the pen name of British writer John Michael Evelyn, who passed away in 1992. He penned 48 novels, of which eight were stand-alone novels and the rest featured one of five recurring investigators. The largest series featured Rose Epton as the sleuth (16). This is the seventh Rose Epton mystery.

Richard Forrest: Under his own name plus three pen names, Forrest published at least 19 novels. I say at least because I cannot find conclusive evidence of books under two of the pen names. Along with six stand alone novels and the ten novel Lyon and Bea Wentworth Mysteries, Forrest contributed with two other authors in the Thumbprint Mystery series, each penning three novels. Forrest died in 2005. This is the sixth Wentworth novel.