Black Friday Special: The Strand Magazine’s Issue 61 PLUS a One Year subscription (5 Issues), Great author post/notecards and the greatest mystery novels of all time bookmark

Strand Magazine: Unpublished Raymond Chandler and the first US appearance of Christmas Adventure by Agatha Christie, also fiction by John Floyd, David Marcum, Rob Witherspoon and an exclusive interview with James Lee Burke.

We’re proud to present an unpublished Raymond Chandler in the latest issue of the Strand. Professor Sarah Trott provides an introduction which looks at the biographical context of this gem. Before achieving fame as an author, Chandler was a career oil executive who worked for the Dabney Oil Syndicate for about a decade until he was fired at the age of forty-four. “Advice to an Employer” shows a different side to Raymond Chandler. The wry humor is there, but the piece also reveals a silly, fun side to an author long associated with novels about the seamy side of LA.

We are also pleased to share a story featuring a certain little Belgian detective with a waxed moustache and egg-shaped head, who finds himself far away from the comforts of his usual London life, celebrating an old-fashioned family Christmas in the English countryside. Agatha Christie’s “Christmas Adventure,” originally published in the UK in 1923, was decades later expanded into the much longer short story many readers are familiar with. This is the first time Christie’s shorter version has appeared in publication in the US. The original version is just as fun as the expanded one, complete with sprawling mansion, house-party of young people, and an unlikely trinket in the pudding. This fall, HarperCollins will release “Christmas Adventure” in Midwinter Murder an anthology of Christie’s short stories featuring Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

Our humorous theme continues with John Floyd’s “The Ironwood File,” in which a sleazy boss gets the tables turned on him from an unlikely source. Meanwhile, Rob Witherspoon’s “Le Morte d’Author” shows that even the personification of death has a witty side. We round off the fiction this issue with the Great Detective and his loyal sidekick solving a medical mystery involving one of Watson’s patients in David Marcum’s “The Triangle of Death.”

We have an interview with the incomparable James Lee Burke, creator of the equally incomparable Dave Robicheaux. Burke himself is every bit as interesting as his creation and spoke about his favorite Western films, the creative process behind his works and the state of the world we live in.

Also in this issue, we have the scoop on the nominees for The Strand Critics Awards. The nominees for Best Debut and Best Novel are a varied bunch, chosen by critics from CNN, NPR, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Publishers Weekly, LA Times, and USA Today. This year’s Strand Magazine Lifetime Achievement Awards go to the trailblazing Tess Gerritsen and the always innovative Walter Mosley. And as usual our skilled staff of book reviewers spotlights the latest mystery and thriller novels.