Elisabeth Sanxay Holding


Elisabeth Sanxay Holding was an American novelist and short story writer. She primarily authored fiction in the hardboiled subgenre of detective novels.

Life and career

Born June 18, 1889, in Brooklyn, New York, Sanxay attended Miss Whitcombe's and other schools for young ladies before marrying British diplomat George E. Holding in 1913. The couple had two daughters, Skeffington and the enamelist and novelist Antonia Holding Schwed, and traveled widely in South America and the Caribbean before living in Bermuda for a number of years, where Mr. Holding was a government official. After Mr. Holding's retirement, the couple lived in the Bronx section of New York City, where Elisabeth Sanxay Holding died on February 7, 1955.
Elisabeth Sanxay Holding wrote romantic novels during the 1920s, but, after the stock market crash in 1929, she turned to the more lucrative genre of the detective novel. From 1929 through 1954, she wrote eighteen detective novels, which sold well and earned her praise for her style and character development. Her series character for these novels was Lieutenant Levy.
Holding also authored many short stories.
Her novel The Blank Wall was popular enough to inspire the film adaptation The Reckless Moment in 1949. It was adapted again into the 2001 The Deep End. It was republished by Persephone Books in 2003 and again in 2009. It appeared in 2015 as part of the Library of America's omnibus Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1940s. A number of Holding's crime novels have been more recently reprinted by Stark House Press and other publishers and made available to new readers.

Critical reputation

Holding was much admired during her day. Raymond Chandler, one of the top writers of detective fiction during its golden age of 1920–1940, said of Holding that she was "the top suspense writer of them all."
Literary critic and editor Anthony Boucher wrote that "For subtlety, realistic conviction, incredible economy, she's in a class by herself." Boucher also praised Holding's Miss Kelly, about a cat who learns to speak with humans, as "one of those too-rare juvenile fantasies with delightful appeal to the adult connoisseur." It also received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews.

Adult

Romances

Invincible Minnie Angelica Rosaleen Among the Artists
  • ''The Unlit Lamp ''

Thrillers

Miasma Dark Power The Death Wish The Unfinished Crime The Strange Crime in Bermuda The Obstinate Murderer The Girl Who Had To Die Who's Afraid? Speak of the Devil Kill Joy Lady Killer The Old Battle Ax Net of Cobwebs The Innocent Mrs. Duff The Blank Wall Too Many Bottles The Virgin Huntress
  • ''Widow's Mite''

Stories

  • "Patrick on the Mountain"
  • "The Problem that Perplexed Nicholson"
  • "Marie's View of It"
  • "Mollie: The Ideal Nurse"
  • "Angelica"
  • "The Married Man"
  • "The Foreign Woman"
  • "Hanging's Too Good for Him"
  • "Like a Leopard"
  • "Lost Luck"
  • "The Girl He Picked Up at Coney"
  • "The Aforementioned Infant"
  • "It Seemed Reasonable"
  • "Old Dog Tray"
  • "The Matador"
  • "A Hesitating Cinderella"
  • "The Postponed Wedding"
  • "With Unbowed Head"
  • "This is Life"
  • "The Marquis of Carabas"
  • "Out of the Woods"
  • "Benedicta"
  • "Nickie and Pem"
  • "His Remarkable Future"
  • "His Own People"
  • "Who Is This Impossible Person?"
  • "Ye Gods and Little Fishes"
  • "Mr. Martin Swallows the Anchor"
  • "Too French"
  • "The Good Little Pal"
  • "Flowers for Miss Riordan"
  • "Sometimes Things Do Happen"
  • "Miss What's-Her-Name"
  • "The Long Night"
  • "The Wonderful Little Woman"
  • "As Patrick Henry Said"
  • "The Worst Joke in the World"
  • "As Is"
  • "That's Not Love"
  • "Rosalie Gets Out of the Cage"
  • "The Thing Beyond Reason"
  • "Dogs Always Know"
  • "Highfalutin'"
  • "Bonnie Wee Thing"
  • "Vanity"
  • "The Compromising Letter"
  • "Miss Cigale"
  • "Blotted Out"
  • "Human Nature Unmasked"
  • "Home Fires"
  • "The Grateful Lunella"
  • "The Old Ways"
  • "By the Light of Day"
  • "For Granted"
  • "Incompatibility"
  • "One Misty Night,"
  • "Derelict"
  • "Half an Hour Late"
  • "This Road Is Closed"
  • "Inches and Ells"
  • "It Is a Two-Edged Sword"
  • "Too Late"
  • "Outside the Door"
  • "Hard as Nails"
  • "Important Things"
  • "A Dinner Date"
  • "Vera's Superior Smile"
  • "Saving Up"
  • "Flow and Ebb"
  • "Without Benefit of Police"
  • "The Sin of Angels"
  • "Dare-Devil"
  • "Little Deeds of Kindness"
  • "Broken Faith"
  • "Carline"
  • "Rose-Leaves"
  • "The Chain of Death"
  • "The Girl in Armor"
  • "It's All Right for Men"
  • "Brides of Crime"
  • "The Preposterous Mrs. Manders"
  • "Hound's Bay"
  • "If It Hadn't Been for Laurel"
  • "A Man Can Take It"
  • "The Green Bathtub"
  • "The Last Night"
  • "All She Could Get"
  • ""I Could Brighten Your Life!""
  • "The Bride Comes Home"
  • "The Root of Evil"
  • "Nobody Would Listen"
  • "Somebody's Cynthia"
  • "You Never Can Tell"
  • "Unscathed"
  • "Lost"
  • "Cross Purposes"
  • "Can Do!"
  • "Scandal"
  • "Night Life"
  • "Third Act"
  • "Drifting"
  • "Wedding Day"
  • "The Nicest Little Lunch"
  • "Echo of a Careless Voice"
  • "Illusion"
  • "They Take It So Lightly!"
  • "Two Passes for the Show"
  • "So Sort of Proud"
  • "Money Can't Buy It"
  • "Open That Door"
  • "Blonde on a Boat"
  • "Late Date"
  • "Proposal"
  • "On Yonder Lea"
  • "Tropical Secretary"
  • "Tomorrow's Not Soon Enough"
  • "What It Takes"
  • "Loved I Not Honor More"
  • "The Fearful Night"
  • "Another Baby"
  • "Not Goodbye But Au Revoir"
  • "The Kiskadee Bird"
  • "The Old Battle-Ax"
  • "Bait for a Killer"
  • "The Unbelievable Baroness"
  • "The Net of Cobwebs"
  • "Funny Kind of Love"
  • "Farewell to a Corpse"
  • ""Be Careful, Mrs. Williams""
  • "The Stranger in the Car"
  • "People Do Fall Downstairs"
  • "Friday, the Nineteenth"
  • "Farewell, Big Sister"
  • "The Death Wish"
  • "Most Audacious Crime"
  • "Shadow of Wings"
  • "Glitter of Diamonds"
  • "The Strange Children"
  • "Very, Very Dark Mink"
  • "The Darling Doctor"
  • "Game for Four Players"
  • "The Blank Wall"

Children's

  • ''Miss Kelly''