There are many reasons to visit the Cotswolds, and if you find yourself in Burford be sure to visit the exquisite Madhatter Bookshop, the back room of which resembles the study of my dreams: a beautifully comfortable sofa surrounded by crowded bookshelves. It was in this very room that I stumbled upon Rose/House (2023) by Arkady Martin and was intrigued by its impossible crime-sounding premise.
Continue reading
A storm strands nine guests on a small Greek island — “[l]ike in some Agatha Christie novel” — and everyone is shocked when one of the group is found dead in a hut on the beach. Thankfully, one of those present is the actor Ormond ‘Hopalong’ Basil, now an ageing and fading presence, but best known for what is seen as the representation of Sherlock Holmes on the screen in 15 films. With the police unable to reach the island until the storm dies down, might Basil be convinced to investigate the crime? Given “the powerful force that fiction can exert on the human psyche”, it would certainly make everyone feel a bit happier to know that something is being done…
Sherlock Holmes is back, baby, back! And I bet the first proper case following his return is an absolute belter.
Continue reading
Comprising fifteen stories of murder and malfeasance linked to that most Golden Age of associations — the romance of travel as provided by the early 20th century train — Blood on the Tracks [ss] (2018) is an early example of the British library Crime Classics anthology, brought together for your delectation by President of the Detection Club Martin Edwards.
Continue reading
What is happening to me? For years now I’ve been prioritising plot and detection over character and setting almost to the point of unhelpfulness. And yet — now twice in only a few weeks, following Murder in the House of Omari (2021) by Taku Ashibe — I’ve found myself positively relishing a family saga which is slow-moving, clearly lacking in obscure clues and exciting reversals, and almost entirely devoid of detection. The culprit this time around is Death on Herons’ Mere (1941) by Mary Fitt, who came to my attention via Guilty Creatures [ss] (2021) and proves just as delightful in long form. I should not like this book, and yet it completely charmed me. Am I maturing? Am I…cheese?
I’ve looked at this before, but I took life much more seriously back then. Let’s all just relax, shall we?
Continue reading
‘Hey,’ readers this blog aren’t saying ‘it’s been a while since Jim wrote about Monk, in which Tony Shalhoub plays an OCD-afflicted ex-police detective in San Francisco.’ Yeah, well I have them all on DVD — look, I scanned in the cover above and everything — but what I don’t have is a DVD player.
Continue reading
Having had an unexpectedly delightful time with one of Ramble House’s loons in The Claws of the Cougar (1957) by Norman Berrow last week, I headed with similarly low expectations into another author from their stable, the equally-variable Walter S. Masterman. The Hunted Man (1938) is, incredibly, my fifteenth read by Masterman, and I still don’t really feel that I know him as an author, especially as this dramatically reverses the downward trend of the last couple of his I read. With about six of his books remaining to me, I’d be amazed if I didn’t read all his works, but there’s as good a chance of them all being superb as there is of every single one driving me to distraction. For god’s sake, Walter, pick a lane; please.
We started this month of Minor Felonies Tuesdays with one Sherlock Holmes pastiche, so let’s wrap it up with another before next month takes us back into Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories. Thus, Black Ice (2011), the third entry in Andrew Lane’s series charting the development of a teenage Holmes into the resident of 221B Baker Street we all know and love.
Continue reading
A second collection of the detective short stories of William Brittain from Crippen & Landru, The Man Who Solved Mysteries [ss] (2022) follows The Man Who Read Mysteries [ss] (2018), this time with all 24 stories featuring high school science teacher Leonard Strang.
Continue reading
