#FridayReads The Color of Murder, a 1957 chiller by Julian Symons, a great scholar of the genre & a terrific crime writer. This one is narrated largely through use of a statement that the suspect of the murder ostensibly makes to a court-mandated psychiatrist in his case. Symons (1912-94) was the younger brother of biographer A.J.A. Symons, author of The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography, an intoxicating book on the mysterious and eccentric Frederick Rolfe (the self-styled Baron Corvo who in the world of the book becomes the first English Pope). The younger Symons also wrote Mortal Consequences, an excellent critical study of the mystery genre. I always pick up his books when I see them second-hand, as I did with this pulpy old edition I found on a table in Greenwich Village earlier this week. It’s in good shape, a very pleasing pick up.