On 18th August 2025, The Invisible Event will have been running for ten years. And while I’m not a big one for introspection — I read books, I write about those books, some people read what I’ve written, rinse, repeat — a decade feels like a notable achievement and so some introspection is going to be had, for today at least.
As that first post linked above says, I knew there would be impossible crimes on this blog, but if you’d told me some of the other things that would go on to be fixtures of my writing and reading I’d have been a little surprised. And so, in chronological order, here are some “blog firsts” that went on to contribute significantly to my reading and blogging life.
1. First Sherlock Holmes Pastiche – 30th October 2015
Mycroft Holmes (2015) by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse
There was a time when only authors called Doyle and Carr commanded my attention in the world of Sherlock Holmes stories, but by picking up this volume co-written by NBA legend Abdul-Jabbar I opened the floodgates on all the possibilities, from the TV show Elementary (2012-19) to various attempts by authors to (mainly unsuccessfully…) capture the magic of Arthur Conan Doyle’s genius. It’s remained a quiet, unshowy thread on this blog — two further novels by Abdul-Jabbar and Waterhouse followed, as did rereads of Anthony Horowitz’s two books in the mien, needed to provide hope amidst the detritus — but one I’m committed to, alongside rereading the original canon just to keep it clear in my mind that the originals do (largely) warrant the attention foisted upon them. Expect this to run and run.
2. First Freeman Wills Crofts – 18th November 2015
The Hog’s Back Mystery (1933) by Freeman Wills Crofts
I have, it’s fair to say, evolved into one of the most voluble fans of the works of Freeman Wills Crofts over the years, frequently finding sheer delight in his patient and intelligent building of cases through good, old-fashioned ‘Humdrum’ detection. Having avoided him for years — well, he was also hard to find, unless you wanted to pay through the nose for those lovely House of Stratus editions from the early 2000s — given his reputation for dullness, I was pretty much swept away by the forensic detection, the humanity of Inspector Joseph French, and the sheer genius of construction on display. It’s been a blast, and I wouldn’t change this for the world.
3. First British Library Crime Classic – 18th November 2015
The Hog’s Back Mystery (1933) by Freeman Wills Crofts
As well as introducing me to the joys of FWC, The Hog’s Back Mystery was, apparently, the very first title I reviewed on here from the now world-famous British Library Crime Classics range. This wonderful series has gone from strength to strength, seeing the republication of the sorts of authors GAD fans had given up on ever seeing in bookshops — Anthony Berkeley, Christianna Brand, John Dickson Carr — as well as bringing some unheralded gems to light. Their choice of titles continues to be a distinct highlight of every year, and the whole enterprise remains surprising, exciting, and full of fun for so many people the world over. I’ve spent many a happy hour in their clutches, and long may that continue.
4. First Self-Published Work – 22nd December 2015
The Single Staircase (2012) and WDYG (2013) by Matt Inglwason
The quality of Matt Ingwalson’s prose, and the inventive ideas behind the impossible vanishings represented in these two novellas, really got me thinking about the quality work that might be being done with impossible crimes in the self-published world. I proceeded to review a bunch of stuff, even dedicating a page to it on the blog, and — admittedly at a lesser rate — chip away at works as they come to my attention to this day. Not only did this bring the wildly creative and brilliantly baffling mysteries of James Scott Byrnside to my attention, it made me brave enough to self-publish my own novel when I’d had time to sit down and write it. Kissed a lot of frogs in this endeavour, but it’s undeniably borne fruit.
5. First Modern Locked Room Mystery ‘For TomCat’ – 28th May 2017
Murder in the Oval Office (1989) by Elliott Roosevelt
The book itself is pretty forgettable, and, it turns out, not even written by Elliott Roosevelt, but Murder in the Oval Office (1989) ended up being the first in a now 28-strong undertaking which got me examining modern crime and detective fiction for, again, quality examples of the impossible crime. It’s not always been good, or fun, but it brought some interesting titles to light — not least The Real-Town Murders (2017) by Adam Roberts and Black Lake Manor (2022) by Guy Morpuss, both of which are great crossover mysteries, a subgenre I’d love to devote more time to. And I continue to scour modern novels for impossible crime stories, like some mythological wanderer in barren lands…
6. First Juvenile Mystery – 15th July 2017
First Class Murder (2015) by Robin Stevens
My second attempt at finding the impossible nevertheless logically achieved in modern fiction for ‘TomCat’s benefit’ saw me tackle the fourth book in Robin Stevens’s Murder Most Unladylike series, and it’s been a slippery slope since then, with the detective fiction of Enid Blyton, the Alfred Hitchcock-backed Three Investigators, the wonderfully diverse Adventures on Trains series, Stuart Gibbs’ ingeniously entertaining FunJungle series, and the wild, whimsical fancies of Alasdair Beckett-King among the many highlights that my Minor Felonies posts have covered. This is the stream of my reading I’m most surprised to have developed over the years, and it continues to be a real joy to dig into these books. Expect many, many more.
7. First Podcast – 29th July 2017
Rim of the Pit (1944) by Hake Talbot
My Spoiler Warning posts, in which I would discuss a book with someone, going into details and plot-spoiling specifics having warned readers ahead of time, sort of dried up, but this third venture into that endeavour saw me pair up with Dan of the now-defunct The Reader is Warned blog and start a podcast about impossible crimes, which then blossomed into my own podcast about GAD more generally, which in turns gave rise to spoiler warning podcasts about Agatha Christie. I’ll still produce some (very occasional) In GAD We Trust episodes going forward, but when it was a regular thing in 2020 it really drove a lot of what I was doing on this blog. Expect developments.
8. First James Ronald – 12th July 2018
Six Were to Die (1932) by James Ronald
This was prompted by the well-known list of 100 recommended impossible crime novels, albeit this title was on the supplementary list because it wasn’t available in French. The pulpy thrills of Six Were to Die (1932) got me thinking that Ronald might be worth checking out further, so They Can’t Hang Me (1938) from the list followed and, well, it was love. Alas, the man proved hard to track down, but I persevered, and then Moonstone Press and Chris Verner came on the scene, and it’s been a delight to pick through the volumes of his reprinted work ever since. Maybe not a profound influence on the blog, but it’s made me believe that anyone can be reprinted, and gives me hope for the future of this sort of thing.
9. First R. Austin Freeman – 23rd January 2020
Mr. Pottermack’s Oversight (1930) by R. Austin Freeman
Maybe I just have a weakness for people with ‘Freeman’ in their name, but, having expected dry and dolorous discourse on the scientific principles of detection, I was blown away by the humanity and compassion that sat so effortlessly alongside brilliant reasoning in Mr. Pottermack’s Oversight (1930). RAF has gone on to become a real favourite of mine — crazy to think it’s only about 5-and-a-half years that I’ve been reading him, so much do I love Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke, and each new entry in this series can be relied on for some magnificently clever and subtle ideas, even if the plots do, very occasionally, maunder a little. Some of the best detection I’ve ever read has been in RAF’s books, and I can think of no higher praise.
10. First Commitment to Victorian Crime Stories – 17th June 2023
The Penguin Book of Gaslight Crime (2009) ed. Michael Sims
I don’t think anyone interested in GAD is completely disinterested in what came before it; at the very least there’s Edgar Allan Poe and the Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. But this collection was the point where I committed — after the odd story here and there in British Library collections and others, some Raffles, some Carnacki — to examining the Victorian crime story in a little more depth. Thus far there has been just another anthology edited by Sims and some Robert Barr, but plans are afoot to get a lot more pre-1920s material on the blog in the years to come. Actually, maybe this fascination really started with Ye Olde Book of Locked Room Conundrums [ss] (2016), what?
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So, there we have it: the books that made The Invisible Event. Fun to reflect on the series of accidental decisions that lead to some of these, or to following them up so that what they represent became features on the blog, but then I’ve never been a big one for planning ahead and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the process of shaping this undertaking over the last decade.
Next week, something else about the blog. No, I don’t know what yet. Any ideas…?
The Invisible Event 
The opening of every new attraction has kept the I.E. theme park ever vital and ever engaging. Your engaging such a variety of material so honestly and with such articulate energy is, for me, a big part of what got me back into the GAD fold.
One first I would like to see you expand on is how Stanley Ellin’s appearance in the Orion Crime Masterworks opened you up to the specific things that good short stories can do that novels can’t–and beyond that, what you’ve changed your mind about, going up or down, in these ten years.
But mainly, I look forward to ten more years of seeing familiar friends while still not knowing what’s around the next corner.
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Haha, thanks, Gordon, I really appreciate you saying that. It’s been lovely to be free to experiment with various things on the blog and to have a slowly-growing readership find something worth sticking with in my writings.
I’ve had plans to reread that Ellin collection for a few years, and I could maybe write about it as part of, but the longer I leave it the more scared I become that won’t get nearly as much out of it second time. I imagine I will have to pick it up at some point, however, so watch this space…
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Wow, 10 years! Congratulations on reaching this huge milestone. You’ve experienced so many changes here in the past decade and you’ve navigated them all with grace and skill. Thank you for your invaluable contributions to the blog’s success. You are an inspiration! Looking forward for additional discoveries….
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Many thanks! Delighted to have stuck it out this long, and for well-read and knowledgeable people to have found me and to think there’s something worthwhile in what I do and say on here.
And, yes, here’s to another ten years of discoveries 🙂
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wow, fabulous idea of post, and happy blogiversary!
My 15th is coming soon, on September 29, I need to think of something original!
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Fifteen years is a wonderful achievement — congrats in advance! Look forward to however you decide to celebrate it.
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Ah, yes, I remember it like yesterday when you walked into this community to disagree with me. A tradition that stands to this day! Congratulations on your tenth anniversary. Don’t forget, you’re here forever.
“Any ideas…?”
Whatever you decide to do, you should put “ads” in your post for The Red Death Murders and Ye Olde Book of Locked Room Conundrums.
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Hahaha, c’mon, life is so much more exciting when people disagree. And if I’d agreed with everything you said, I would never have needed to start a blog of my own.
“Don’t forget, you’re here forever.”
Yes, it’s starting to feel like that, isn’t it? Assuming we don’t regressed to some sort of Medieval siege society in the next decade or so…
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Congratulations on your tenth anniversary. I stumbled upon the blog seven or eight years ago, bookmarked it, and have been reading ever since. You’ll be pleased to know that it’s thanks to your reviews that I’ve tried Croft and Freeman.
It’s nice to think we can all look forward to a twentieth anniversary.
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Thanks, Tim, I’m delighted that you’ve felt it worth sticking around — and I’m especially delighted to have convinced at least one person to pick up my two favourite Freemen.
Ten years from now who knows how things will stand? I might eve have done another podcast episode by then…
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Congratulations my friend. I reckon your novel should be in the 10, surely? All so impressive 👍
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The novel was — if I may say so myself — a lovely achievement, but hopefully it hasn’t impacted on the blog beyond me going on about it all the time 🙂
As one of the people who got me into this, thanks for all your years on TMF; you’re a huge part of what got me blogging and it’s wonderful to have some podcast stuff from you again,
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Happy blogiversary- I’m new on here but have really benefited from having a considerable backlog of your posts to fall back on as I create reading lists! As I read your blog and others’, it’s both so fun to see the great conversations and interconnections you guys all had/have and how much it contributed to discourse around golden age mysteries, but it also makes me wish I’d been aware of and around for it back in the day… I’m always a bit sad I missed the golden age of blogging lol.
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The Golden Age of Blogging was a wonderful time, but having new people come to old (and new!) posts with joy and enthusiasm is really what makes this worthwhile as a long-term endeavour.
I benefitted hugely from the blogs that were around before I started writing myself, so it’s lovely to be able to pass that on.
Here’s to many more years!
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Congratulations on the anniversary!! My memory’s pretty fuzzy at this point, but I’m pretty sure it’s all your fault I got into John Dickson Carr and classic crime fiction in the first place somehow… so, thank you!
Keeping the blog fresh year-on-year is also admirable. I hope the sense of discovery that was there at the start is still to be found in places. We can discover new things even re-reading the same books, after all (as your most recent post proves!).
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I’m glad the blog feels fresh; I’m lucky enough to do it because I enjoy it, so hopefully that helps. The second the joy goes out of it, believe me, everyone will know 🙂
And I owe you many thanks for getting me into S.S. van Dine, which is part of what helps with said freshness: finding an author who is an unexpected delight always helps bolster one’s enthusiasm for this sort of thing, and I definitely would not have tired The Benson Murder Case but for our conversation about it that time. See, it’s all one big circle!
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A very belated happy anniversary! I am catching up with your reviews from 2025 and enjoying the insight and humour in each. I am even going to try reading Perry Mason (some vague memory of the later Raymond Burr TV adaptations showing on afternoon telly has always put me off for some reason). Thanks for all the recommendations for new reads.
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Many thanks for the wishes, and I hope you find something in Perry Mason that works for you. And, hey, if you don’t…there is no shortage of books out there!
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