The Death Film - P. R. Shore

"Wonder of wonders! Miracle of miracles!"This seems to be the year during which half of the books on my want list have turned up for sale. And of course I pounced upon all of them. Of the final six books on a want list I have on various bookselling websites three turned up this year and I managed to buy two of them. One of those books is The Death Film (1932), the astonishingly elusive second novel by "P. R. Shore", pseudonym of Helen Madeline Leys. I forked over the most money I've ever paid for a single book but didn't think twice about it. Was it worth the hefty price tag? Read on, my friends.Readers of this blog may recall back in 2011, the very first year I entered the world of vintage mystery and supernatural fiction reviewing, I wrote up a brief piece on The Bolt (1929) by P. R. Shore. This was Leys' first attempt at a detective novel and it was one of the best I've read of its decade. Seemingly formulaic being set in a quaint English village and focussing on the summer fete…