Many people call the ’30s and ’40s the “golden age of detective fiction” — and they’re not wrong.  But where many are misguided is in thinking only of the trinity of British greats:  Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh and Dorothy L. Sayers.

An American woman of the era, Phoebe Atwood Taylor, wrote 24 novels featuring the Sherlock Holmes of Cape Cod, Asey Mayo.  Many are out of print, but The Countryman Press of Woodstock, Vt., is reprinting a few.  The latest to be re-released is The Perennial Boarder (304 pages, The Countryman Press, $10.95), in which Asey and crew solve the case of the missing schoolmarm. 

Taylor’s mysteries are lots of fun, her characters are realistically drawn and her details about Cape Cod are fascinating.  If you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air, quaint little villages here and there . . . well, you get the picture.  Now get the books.

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