Blog fun
#148: So, Like, What Is an Impossible Crime or a Locked Room Mystery?
Recent experiences of reading Darkness at Pemberley by T.H. White and What a Body! by Alan Green — oh my days, I’ve only just noticed that they’re both named after colours… — have made me wonder on the above question. See, both are listed here, on a compendium of the best ever locked room mysteries voted on by an international collection of people who know about this stuff, and both are listed here, on a rundown of the favourite locked room mysteries by resident blogosphere expert TomCat…yet personally, in the face of public opinion from such well-informed and respected sources, I’m reluctant to consider either of them as locked room mysteries. Even taking my famously contrary nature out of the equation…what the hell?
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#145: Some Reflections on Editing ‘The Mystery of the Locked Room’ (1905) by Tom Gallon
Believe it or believe it not — though in all likelihood you’ve actually forgotten about it — Ye Olde Book of Locked Room Conundrums is nearly ready. Version 1.0, containing 13 of the intended original 15 stories, should be available by the end of the month, missing two stories because the process of wrangling them into shape when it’s just me, TomCat, and our spare time is proving rather more long-winded than previously thought. A v1.1 may be available at a later date once I’ve got these two remaining stories edited into readable form, but I figure most of something is better than all of nothing.
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#142: John Dickson Carr is Going to be 110 – Call for Submissions!
Wednesday 30th November 2016 will mark the 110th birthday of a certain Mr. John Dickson Carr, a detective novelist of some note of whom I am quite the fan. Thus, in the grand tradition of Paul Halter Day earlier this year, I am putting out a two-month notice of intent: you are cordially invited to join me in posting something Carr-related on that day in celebration of him and his contribution to the genre. It’s no secret that I think he’s the finest practitioner of detective fiction who ever lived, and it’s a bloody scandal that so much of his work is unavailable, so here’s a chance to co-ordinate some love for the man and his efforts. It is no less than he is due.
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#141: Vintage Cover Scavenger Hunt Update
So, the halfway point of the year saw me in possession of a paltry 16 out of 75 on the Vintage Mystery Cover Scavenger Hunt set by Bev over at My Reader’s Block. So where does the three-quarter point of the year find me? If I don’t get enough of these then I’ll never be allowed into the Crime Fiction Consigliere Club, that peculiarly merciless cabal of bloodthirsty maniacs…but, well, I’ve already said too much, so they’re unlikely to let me in now anyway.
Moving on, deep breath, here goes…
#133: Everything is Rather Frightening in The Black Rustle (1943) by Constance and Gwenyth Little
Over at the excellent and superbly-titled Exploring the History of Women in Mystery blog, wrangler “Unpredictable Notes” recently put up this brief summary of the EIRF school as outlined in Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor’s A Catalogue of Crime (1971). EIRF is a step on from HIBK (Had I But Known) and stands for Everything is Rather Frightening:
In fact, since the modern psychological novel has devoted itself to exploring the abnormal and oddly alarming, no great originality was needed to raise the emotional pitch of the murder another notch and made HIBK into EIRF – Everything is Rather Frightening.
This is a new one on me but, by the same serendipity that seems to manifest itself throughout my blogging, I was reading The Black Rustle — one of the middle period novels from the Little sisters — when I encountered this lexicon, and it struck me how perfectly all the Littles’ books fall into this categorisation.
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#129: Some Reflections on Editing A. Demain Grange’s ‘The Round Room Horror’ (1911)
As Ye Olde Book of Locked Room Conundrums edges ever closer — 11 of the 15 stories are now typed and ready, and TomCat is beavering away editing a twelfth — I thought I’d share my thoughts on certain aspects from the preparation, because it’s been an interesting insight into some things I’ve previously had no experience with. My apologies in advance if this seems self-aggrandising, I just think some of this will be of legitimate interest to you and have no desire to make it all “hey look how much work I’m doing”. No-one is making me do this, after all, and it’s honestly a huge amount of fun. Yes, my notion of fun is not like that of other people.
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#128: Classic Crime Authors and Their Secret Identities – A Quiz! The Answers!
Okay, if you haven’t checked out the quiz from earlier this week then here’s your last chance before the answers spoil everything for everyone. God, just for once can’t we have a relaxing Christmas?
Er, sorry, not sure what happened there. So, on with the de-masking…
#126: Classic Crime Authors and Their Secret Identities – A Quiz!
Art by Danny Haas
The Invisible Event 