Murder with a Past

urder with a Past (April 1963)

Who killed Cox, the robber? Was it Ruth Tully, who visited Crandall Cox on the night of his death, and who might have decided to quench a torrid past with a spray of bullets? What about Sandra Jean, the knock-'em-dead beauty, who knew more than she was telling about the sudden demise of blackmailer Cox? Or had some past scandal driven lawyer Ollie Hurst and his wife, Norma, to claim the blackmailer's life? Dave Tully didn't know who the killer was, but if he didn't find out fast, the price of failure could be death...! (cover)

Your wife's a little late, isn't she Dave?"
She usually goes on these business trips with you, Dave. Why didn't she go this time? "You'd better stop making like a detective, Julian, and tell me what this is about. In words of one syllable. Julian Smith reached into a pocket and brought out something wrapped in a white cloth. "This is your gun, Dave."
"For God's sake, Julian. How did you get hold of my gun? And what's it got to do with this man Cox, whoever he is? What are you trying to tell me?"
"That it killed him," Smith said...."I'm sorry, Dave. We've got a pickup on your wife."

Murder with a Past - cover pocket book edition, Pocket Book N° 4700, April 1963.

Murder with a Past - cover pocket book edition, Signet 451-Q5608, 1973

Murder with a Past/Kill as Directed - cover pocket book edition, Signet Double Mystery, Signet 451-E8025, April 1978.

The Egyptian Cross Mystery/Murder with a Past - cover pocket book edition, Signet Double Mystery, 1983

Murder with a Past - cover Large Print edition, Chivers, June 2003

Murder with a Past - cover audiobook Blackstone Audio, Inc., read by Mark Peckham, March 24, 2015

Murder With A Past - cover MysteriousPress.com/Open Road (September 22 2015)

Cast of characters included. Written by Talmage Powell. "The deals were set by the Scott Meredith agency and then offered, on the assumption I would accept. It was a difficult situation."

Writing as Ellery Queen, Powell actually did what Deming claimed to have done: minimally acceptable hackwork far below his best books under his own name. Murder with a Past is a short, slow, dully competent little exercise in small-town intrigue and homicide, with the motel-room murder of a sex blackmailer leading builder Dave Tully to some uneasy suspicions about the former life of the vanished chief suspect: his own wife. One or two halfway decent clues are the only oases in this desert of flat writing, people and plot. (Nevins)

Above: Murder with a Past was first published (12 pages) in Star Weekly on Februari 16. 1963 (Illustrated by C. Merriam) *

Murder with a past Translations:
Dutch/Flemish: Moord met een verleden
German: Dame mit dunklen Punkten
(aka Der Schuss auf Cranny Cox)
Greek: ENA ΣKOTEINO ΠAPEΛΘON
aka Δολοφονία με παρελθόν
Hebrew: רצח הסחטן
Indonesian: Pembunuhan dengan latarbelakang
Italian: Movente per un omicidio

Other articles on this book
(1) My Reader's Block Bev Hankins (April 27. 2012)

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