Blog fun
#202: First Lines of First Impossible Crimes – The Answers!
If you still wish to pit your wits against my “From which novel is this the first line?” quiz of debut impossibilties, do not click to read more as the answers are below. But you probably figured that from the title of the post, eh? All the detective fiction is rubbing off on you…
Continue reading
#201: For Carr vs. Christie – Start Your Engines…

Okay, the results of the vote for your collective choice of the best individual novel by John Dickson Carr and Agatha Christie are in, and it’s now fixed which two need to be read for the head-to-head comparison that Brad and I have planned for April. So, after over 100 votes in each poll (though not a multiple of three in either case, despite having three votes per author…) counting down the top five, we have…
Continue reading
#184: Vintage Cover Bingo Scavenger Hunt 2016 Round-Up
Having participated in the Vintage Cover Scavenger Bingo run by Bev Hankin over at My Reader’s Block this year, I’m not delighted with the account I’ve given of myself, but it at least sets a bar to improve on in 2017 (and I did have two months off, after all…).
Since Christmas has played havoc with my reading, I’m not done with Rupert Penny’s Policeman in Armour yet (sorry about that) and since I’m therefore not going to review anything else in 2016 I can do my round-up of the 48 (out of 75) objects I found for the Bingo instead…
#180: 2017 Reader Challenges Sign-Up
Bev at My Reader’s Block — wrangler of and participant in enough annual book challenges to make my head spin — is again running several next year and, having enjoyed the Vintage Golden Age Cover Bingo this year, I’m signing up for two.
#177: Spoiler Warning – Coming in January: The Ten Teacups, a.k.a. The Peacock Feather Murders (1937) by Carter Dickson

Given that so much time spent discussing mystery fiction is devoted to edging carefully around the precise plot points on which such enterprises are founded, I thought I’d give you fair warning that Puzzle Doctor and I are going to be abandoning this approach next month in looking at the 1937 impossible crime novel The Ten Teacups/The Peacock Feather Murders by John Dickson Carr, published under his Carter Dickson secret identity.
Continue reading
#172: The Round-Up of #Carr110

And so, with John Dickson Carr’s 110th birthday coming to an end on this side of the Atlantic, let’s have a look at what those people who got involved had to say of the man and his work…
Continue reading
#170: Dark of the Mood – Atmosphere in the Work of John Dickson Carr
Half a lifetime ago, I put up this post looking at the consistency of language across the Sherlock Holmes canon, and for my first post today in celebration of John Dickson Carr’s 110th birthday — a second post will be going up later today, then a round-up of the posts I’m kinda just trusting that other people are doing will go up this evening — I thought I’d utilise a similar approach to analyse an aspect of Carr’s writing that is often much-discussed: his use of atmosphere.
Continue reading
#166: One Week Until #Carr110 – Some Links to Help You…



