Last year my book club picked our favourite 1930s mysteries, and earlier this year we moved on a decade and each selected a top 10 for the 1940s. So, well, here’s mine.
Continue reading
Norman Berrow’s literary output presents very much like the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead: when he’s good he’s The Three Tiers of Fantasy (1947) and The Footprints of Satan (1950), but when he’s bad he’s Words Have Wings (1946) or The Singing Room (1948). And after a few reading experiences so tedious that I didn’t finish them, never mind review them on the blog, a break was needed. Three years without reading a word by the man, then, we return with The Lady’s in Danger (1955), which lacks for detection but is nevertheless a very enjoyable little thriller, and a fun time thanks to its author’s familiarity with so many of the tropes he deploys.
The original antepenultimate case for the world’s first consulting detective; the perfect time to introduce some new lore, what?
Continue reading
The first of (so far…) two volumes of William Brittain’s short fiction from Crippen & Landru, The Man Who Read Mysteries (2018) contains the eleven stories written under the non-series ‘The X Who Read [Author Name]’ titles and seven selections from editor Josh Pachter of the tales featuring crime-solving high school science teacher Leonard Strang.
Continue reading
Even before the sad death of John Pugmire, who brought us much in the way of foreign language impossible crime novels through Locked Room International, Pushkin Vertigo had started some heavy lifting in supplying us with ingenious puzzle plots from the other side of the language barrier. They’re not all bangers, of course, but the commitment Pushkin have shown, and continue to show if the raft of upcoming titles on their slate is anything to go by, is heartening for those of us who love a complex problem rigorously exploited. And The Labyrinth House Murders (1988) by Yukito Ayatsuji, recently translated by the talented Ho-Ling Wong, is certainly that.
I’ve read books in a single day before — hell, I still do — but it’s been a long time since I read a book in one sitting: take a seat, open the book, finish reading it, stand up. Welcome, then, to The Mystery of the Dead Man’s Riddle (1974), the twenty-second book in the Three Investigators series and the sixth to be written by Dennis Lynds under the name William Arden.
Continue reading
As my grandfather used to say, “When you fall off the horse, get back on the horse”. And that’s why he made such a controversial judge at gymnastic competitions. But the fact remains that lately I’ve had some disheartening reading experiences with favoured authors — John Dickson Carr, J.J. Connington, Freeman Wills Crofts, A.A. Fair, Craig Rice, Cornell Woolrich J.J. Connington again, maybe Rice a second time — and so the tempting thing is to leave them alone for a while, wait for that memory to fade, and then return. But, no, I’m not doing that, I’m reading Fair again now, because why not? That’s what the horse is here. It was a pommel horse all along.
Five Tuesdays in April should allow me to finish off the last five stories in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894). Right?
Continue reading
Having recently rewatched and reviewed the movie Clue (1985), a comment in the, er, comments sent me in search of the novelisation of the film that I’d previously had no idea existed…and, well, here we are.
Continue reading
The Invisible Event 