‘IN LIKE FLYNN!’ In Celebration of Our Newest Author

Published on: 7th October 2019

This month, we admit to feeling a little bit chuffed here at Dean Street Press. Fans of detective fiction know only too well the frustration that comes with discovering a Golden Age Mystery author, and then the seeming impossibility of finding his or her books, the quest made all the more baffling if the writer was as prolific as Brian Flynn. The author of fifty-seven mystery novels, copies of Mr. Flynn’s books have been oddly difficult to come by, bloggers putting out virtual A.P.B.s for battered (and often very expensive) copies of The Triple Bite or The Five Red Fingers. I’d hardly say we are superheroes here at Dean Street Press, but it’s always nice to come to the rescue, and we’re delighted this month to release ten of Brian Flynn’s Golden Age Mysteries (with hopefully more to follow). A civil servant, teacher, and amateur actor, Mr. Flynn began writing in the late 1920s, an era when it seemed that anyone who owned a typewriter believed they could write a whodunnit. Considering most of the novels available ‘mediocre in the extreme’, Mr. Flynn threw his hat into the ring and introduced the world to Anthony Bathurst, a private detective as clever as Poirot and as suave as The Saint. Fifty-six novels would follow, each as intriguing as the next, Mr. Flynn’s plotting and denouements frequently compared to Dame Agatha’s. These are satisfying mysteries: once you pick them up, it’s hard to put them down, yet the biggest mystery is why Mr. Flynn has remained un-republished for so many years.

Now you understand why we are chuffed; Brian Flynn’s work is just too good to be forgotten, and Dean Street Press is proud to welcome this wonderful writer to our ever-growing roster of Golden Age Crime Fiction authors.