Obscure in the Moor

One of the fascinations of being a fairly bookish person is the discovery of obscure books by obscure writers. The fascination doesn't disappear with digital books such as Kindle. For example I recently came across Thomas Kindon's detective novel Murder in the Moor published in 1929. 

From the introduction - 


Thomas Kindon’s life is as mysterious as the plot of his one and only work of detective fiction – Murder in the Moor. We know precisely nothing about the author apart from the fact that he entered his manuscript into London book publisher Methuen’s ‘Prize Competition for Detective Novels’ in about 1927. The competition was judged by three well-known mystery authors, A.A. Milne, H.S. Bailey and Father Knox. Kindon’s book was one of the runners-up.


The story takes place in Dukesmoor, an obvious fictional name for Dartmoor with lots of atmospheric remoteness, mists, bogs and mystery. Competently written and plotted, so much so that it was not likely to have been a purely amateur effort and Thomas Kindon may not be the author's real name. 

He was clearly familiar with Dartmoor and the novel includes enough technical and military detail to suggest that he knew something of the military and its activity on Dartmoor, so there are clues to the man behind the name. Assuming of course that he was a man, but that's it for Thomas Kindon, a few clues.

Any keen reader with a taste for serendipity will have come across lots of obscure books by obscure writers, but they don't come much more obscure than Thomas Kindon.