Yet another local novel of the Potteries, found. Where do they hide? The Spoilt Kill is a ‘police procedural’ crime mystery novel published in 1961 and set in what’s said to be a vividly evoked Potteries of the late 1950s. The obscure title refers to the name for the failed firing of a ceramics kiln.

The novel has recently been republished. By the British Library’s shovelware division, which has nice covers but doesn’t have a very high reputation for textual care. Yet at least the book is available again.

Formerly a mass-market crime mystery in the Penguin Crime paperbacks series. One can currently be had on eBay and the text there will be free of OCR errors.

There’s also an audiobook version.