McKinley: Death Sails the Nile

If you fancy yourself an armchair sleuth, tackle Death Sails the Nile, in which F. Burks McKinley makes her bow as a mystery story writer. You’ll find clues aplenty, a logical plot, but some queer turns that will surprise you. The story takes place aboard a ‘dahabeah’ sailing into the heart of Africa. Celia Lawton dies. Why? Before that question is answered, the reader has been taken on a terrifying journey with an unknown murderer whose identity is solved by Mona Case, a newspaperwoman. Miss McKinley has indeed made an auspicious start. (Minneapolis Star, 1933)

Available

First published in 1933.

Author Note

Burks McKinley was the pseudonym of Mary Frances Burks (1907-1970). Born in Dyer County, Tennessee, Burks attended high school in Nashville and graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1929, receiving a prestigious Founder's Medal, and on the same day she wed academic scholar Silas Bent McKinley. In 1933, she dedicated Death Sails the Nile, which drew on experiences from her honeymoon, to Professor McKinley, although the couple divorced in 1935. Burks, who reclaimed her family name, never remarried nor published another detective novel, despite the wide praise Death Sails the Nile received.