Bellairs: John vs. George

Thispost reminds us of something we did once many years ago: in a fit to find more JohnBellairs, we grabbed a few George Bellairs titles from the library in a misguided attempt to convince ourselves the two were related. George’s stuff wasn’t bad, as we recall, but, alas, nothing to do with John.

I am really fond of John Bellairs. (This is not news; he's been one of my favorite authors since I was six, and still never disappoints on rereading.) So I went looking for The Face in the Frost today, which is his only grownup-targeted book and makes for lovely comfort reading-- it is about two cranky old homebody wizards going on a Dangerous Quest and I recommend it highly, and also all his YA books. Now there was a man who knew how to temper his smart creepy plotting with humor and character.

My point is not about John Bellairs, though! Despite all appearances. My point is that The Face In The Frost, sadly, was checked out today; but I did discover a Golden Age mystery author exists, or existed, named George Bellairs. And the first book I grabbed by him was-- as you see above-- called The Case of the Demented Spiv, so really, how bad can it be? Wikipedia has very little on him-- and the library only has like half a dozen of his books, though apparently he wrote about 50-- so I am curious! Any of you read his books? Are they good?