Philip MacDonald

Author Information
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  • Bibliography:
    12 Books
  • First Book:
    January 1979
  • Latest Book:
    November 2017
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About the Author

Philip Macdonald, who also wrote as Oliver Fleming, Anthony Lawless and Martin Porlock, was born in 1899 in England. Macdonald served with the cavalry regiment in Mesopotamia during World War 1 and later trained horses for the army. Writing was in the blood. His gandfather was George Macdonald, and his first two books (written as Oliver Fleming) were co-written with his father, Ronald Macdonald. Ambrotox and Limping Dick (1920) and The Spandau Quid were more thriller than detective fiction.

He wrote some very important and influential books, though, and his third book The Link was ingeniously plotted and remains even today a key book, not least for being one of the first books published in the Collins Crime Club. Murder Gone Mad also merits particular attention, if not only for the stunning dust jacket by Bip Pares. It is again a Golden Age classic and was selected by John Dickson Carr as one of the 'Ten Greatest Detective Novels'. In 1953 and 1956, Macdonald was recognised by the Mystery Writers of America, who awarded him the Edgar Allan Poe award for his short stories.

Philip Macdonald passed away in 1981, but remains very much appreciated today and is one of detective fiction's more important authors.

Book List in Order: 12 titles

  • The Rasp

    British ex-secret service agent Colonel Anthony Gethryn -- attractive, witty, urbane Oxford scholar. In his first private case, Gethryn is faced with the eminent body in the study when he is enlisted by an old friend to solve the mystery of the savag...

  • The List of Adrian Messenger

    Adrian Messenger gives a list to a friend in Scotland Yard and asks him to check if each individual is still living at the same place. Messenger dies in an apparent plane sabotage and the search is on for the rest of the men on the list....

  • The Polferry Riddle

  • Warrant for X

  • Murder Gone Mad

  • Mystery of the Dead Police

  • The Choice

  • Forbidden Planet

    The Novelization of the Classic 1956 Sci-Fi Movie!Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc., 1956FORBIDDEN PLANETby Philip MacDonaldas W. J. StuartPOWER-MAD DR. MORBIUS MUST BE STOPPED BEFORE HE ENSLAVES THE WORLD!Commander Adams and the crew of Spaceship C-57-D...

  • Patrol

    The novel that inspired John Ford’s The Lost Patrol: A band of World War I soldiers fights to survive in the desert after their leader is shot and killed.There had been, here, eleven men. Now ten rode away. . . . In the Mesopotamian ...



  • The Noose

    Gentleman detective Anthony Gethryn is in a race against time to save an innocent man from the hangman’s noose.Colonel Anthony Gethryn is recalled from a holiday in Spain to solve a murder in the November fogs of London. He finds that his wife is s...

  • The Maze

  • The Rynox Mystery

    A classic Golden Age crime novel, and the first time Philip MacDonald wrote a crime novel without a detective.''Rynox'' is at that point where one injudicious move, one failure of judgement, one coincidental piece of bad luck will wreck it. So why wo...

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Philip MacDonald has published 12 books.

Philip MacDonald does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, The Rynox Mystery, was published in November 2017.

The first book by Philip MacDonald, The Rasp, was published in January 1979.

No. Philip MacDonald does not write books in series.
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