I’ll level with you: I have never understood the obsession Sherlockians have with the Giant Rat of Sumatra.
Continue reading#1292: No Police Like Holmes – The Giant Rat of Sumatra (1976) by Richard L. Boyer
Author: JJ
#1291: “Surely it must be a superstitious yarn spun out of something much simpler.” – The Wisdom of Father Brown [ss] (1914) by G.K. Chesterton
In my very first post on this blog I shared the belief that G.K. Chesterton’s writing is “too verbose”, and I’ll confess that I’ve found him hard to enjoy in the past. But reading some stories with Countdown John got me thinking that maybe I could suffer to give him another go, and so here, eventually, we are.
Continue reading#1290: Silence After Dinner (1953) by Clifford Witting
With an intriguing title taken from Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) (“Murder is always a mistake. One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner.”), Silence After Dinner (1953) is the eleventh Clifford Witting novel republished by Galileo Publishers. And since they were kind enough to send me a review copy, I can tell you about it fairly close to its release for a change. Opening with a startling, anonymous diary entry set in late-Communist Revolution China, we jump forward four years to the more bucolic South Downs where various people all seem to have spent time in that country and so might be the person responsible for the acts relayed in that opening. So, whodunnit?
#1289: No Police Like Holmes – Dust and Shadow (2009) by Lyndsay Faye
It is no doubt fitting that the last Sherlock Holmes pastiche I read saw our Great Detective tackling a copycat of the Jack the Ripper killings in 1942, given that the next one I would go on to read would see him tackle the actual Ripper killings in 1888.
Continue reading#1288: “I thought they only happened in books.” – The Body in the Library (1942) by Agatha Christie
When we talk about examples of the classic novel of detection being treated as a knowing parody of itself, titles oft-mentioned include The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929) or Jumping Jenny (1933) by Anthony Berkeley. But I’ve just read The Body in the Library (1942) by Agatha Christie for the first time in 25 years, and, like, her tongue is positively bulging through her cheek at times, no?
Continue reading#1287: A Certain Dr. Thorndyke (1927) by R. Austin Freeman
You have to buy the whole book of A Certain Dr. Thorndyke (1927), the tenth novel featuring R. Austin Freeman’s eponymous, esteemed medical jurist, but I’d advise only reading half of it. Rather like final Sherlock Holmes novel The Valley of Fear (1915) by Arthur Conan Doyle, the story here is split into two parts, one of criminous shenanigans and one of tedious backstory — though Freeman’s backstory comes first — and, even then, the crime and its investigation are only just about interesting to hold the attention. Mostly this smells of an idea Freeman couldn’t let go that should have been at best a novella, but which finds itself beefed up so that he could fulfil a clause in a contract. He does so enthusiastically, but it’s not a good read.
#1286: Little Fictions – ‘The Final Problem’ (1893) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#1285: “It’s a classic locked-room thing.” – The Weight of Evidence (1978) by Roger Ormerod
Having enjoyed-if-not-loved my first encounter with Roger Ormerod’s work, Time to Kill (1974), he’s hovered on the fringes of my awareness as someone I should get back to. So a timely recommendation for The Weight of Evidence (1978) sees us pick up again with David Mallin
Continue reading#1284: The Dead Man’s Knock (1958) by John Dickson Carr
As my grandfather used to say, “Good god, it’s tough being a John Dickson Carr fan — he wrote some of the genre’s best and most enduring masterpieces, and yet the decline in his later works like Behind the Crimson Blind (1952) and The Cavalier’s Cup (1953) means that when you get to that end of his career he can prove to be frustrating and unenjoyable to read. But try The Dead Man’s Knock (1958), which at least features Dr. Gideon Fell, a character I’m sure you’ll like when you encounter him.” And, over 40 years later, his prophecy has been borne out, with The Dead Man’s Knock arresting a recent slide in quality where my Carr reading is concerned.
#1283: Little Fictions – ‘The Naval Treaty’ (1893) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The key facet of most crime and detective fiction is that we, the reader, should find ourselves in sympathy with the person who is the victim — or, more rarely, the perpetrator — of, some crime. Sometimes, though, that’s simply not possible.
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The Invisible Event 