June Drummond (15 November 1923 ^[1] – 3 June 2011 ^[2]) was a South African writer of mysteries. Thirty of her crime novels, often set in Durban, South Africa, or London, England, were published between 1959 and 2011. ^[2]

Born in Durban, South Africa, Drummond attended Durban Girls' College, a boarding school where she was dux (the leading student). ^[2] After graduating from the University of Cape Town ( B.A. 1944), Drummond wrote for Woman's Weekly and for the Natal Mercury from 1946 through 1948. From 1948 through 1950, she worked as a secretary in London, England, and from then until 1953 as a secretary with the Durban Civic Orchestra in South Africa. Returning to London, she served as assistant secretary of the Church Adoption Society from 1954 through 1960, the year she became a full-time writer. In addition to writing, she served as chair of the Durban adoption committee of the Indian Child Welfare Society from 1963 through 1974. ^[1] She died in Durban in 2011. ^[2]

Drummond "is a skillful writer who handles prose well", says Carol Simpson Stern in St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery. Her novels, set in London, Durban, or imaginary places, range from Junta, a political novel about apartheid, to a series of novels such as The People in Glass House that seem descended from Gothic horror stories. They may involve "...half-mad women, mistaken identities, bitter rivalries among kin, men of raffish ways, and women moon-goddesses who destroy those near them...". Less pleasing to Stern in some of Drummond's work are what she regards as thinly developed characters, stock situations, and a tendency to moralize. ^[3]

Publishers Weekly says The Imposter, a Drummond novel set in 19th-century London, "has the razzle-dazzle plotting of a good mystery and the taut pacing of a good thriller". The reviewer likes Drummond's "crisp dialogue" and her eye for accurate historic detail and credits her with producing a "top-drawer romance, wholly engaging and perfectly entertaining." ^[4]

• The Black Unicorn (1959)
• Thursday's Child (1961)
• A Time to Speak (1962)
• A Cage of Humming-Birds (1964)
• Welcome, Proud Lady (1964)
• Cable Car (1965)
• The Saboteurs (1967)
• Murder on a Bad Trip (1968); published in England as The Gantry Episode (1968)
• The People in Glass House (1969)
• Farewell Party (1971)
• Bang! Bang! You're Dead (1973)
• The Boon Companions (1974); published in the United States as Drop Dead (1976)
• Slowly the Poison (1975)
• Funeral Urn (1976)
• The Patriots (1979)
• I Saw Him Die (1979)
• Such a Nice Family (1980)
• The Trojan Mule (1982)
• The Bluestocking (1985)
• Junta (1989)
• The Unsuitable Miss Pelham (1990)
• Burden of Guilt (1991)
• The Impostor (1992)
• Hidden Agenda (1993)
• Loose Cannon (2004)
• The Meddlers (2004)
• Old Bones Buried Under (2006)
• Countdown Murder (2008)
• Dead Shot (2011)