Cardula and the Locked Rooms

In the dispatch box of Crippen & Landru, we keep a list of lost classics and cozy mysteries our readers would like to see.

We’ve had many requests for the works of Jack Ritchie, a mystery writer from the last century, who wowed people with his imagination and prose. While many of his stories were available in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, readers would have to find and read nine different issues to enjoy all of the exploits of Cardula. Crippen & Landru made that pleasure easier.

Cardula is perhaps the most popular of Ritchie’s series characters. If you can solve an anagram, you have a hint on the type of person Cardula is. Ritchie never spells out the character’s background explicitly, though many hints are thrown in the reader’s way. We’ve also rounded out the book with some long-lost locked room stories by Ritchie. Our editor and introducer for this collection is Brian Skupin, who is a fan who worked with International Locked Room publications.

So, sit down, grab some garlic, a mirror, and a hefty stake, not the delicious kind! And enjoy the first collection of all of Cardula’s stories.

Jack Ritchie (given name: John George Reitci) was born and lived for most of his life in Milwaukee. Born in 1922, he was able to serve during World War II and returned to Milwaukee after the war. He ended up working in his father’s tailor shop, but Jack did not wish to continue in that profession. His mother wrote and sold short stories, a job far more interesting to her son. She introduced Jack to an agent who began selling his stories.

During his years of writing, many of his stories appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine including works featuring Cardula or Detective Henry Turnbuckle. He won an Edgar in 1982 with “Absence of Emily.” He died in 1983, just after he finished his only novel.