The Tuesday Night Bloggers

#669: Adventures in Self-Publishing – Murder in a Watched Room (2019) by A.G. Barnett

/ JJ / 11 Comments

Murder in a Watched Room

My previous encounter with A.G. Barnett’s self-published impossible crime fiction was An Invitation to Murder (2019), which saw an interesting-if-cozy impossible battering in a locked room lose points for drawing attention to the one detail it then failed to explain.  But, everyone gets two books, and so we’re back, this time with a different series and a stabbing in a locked and watched room.

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#666: Adventures in Self-Publishing – The Thirteenth Apostle (2020) + ‘The Episode of the Nine Monets’ (2020) by Jamie Probin

/ JJ / 6 Comments

Thirteenth Apostle, The

There’s a quote attributed to Michaelangelo essentially stating that a statue already exists inside a block of stone and it’s merely the sculptor’s job to chip away the stone that isn’t part of the resulting artwork.  This came to mind a lot whilst reading The Thirteenth Apostle (2020) by Jamie Probin, because if you remove the excess of nervous repetition and tedious tone setting there’s probably a great book in here somewhere.

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#663: Minor Felonies – The Mystery of the Hidden House (1948) by Enid Blyton

/ JJ / 6 Comments

Mystery of the Hidden House

I was recently moved to suggest that The Secret of Hangman’s Inn (1956), the sixth title in the Ken Holt series by husband-and-wife team Bruce Campbell, was the point at which that series found its feet and jumped to life.  Today I’m going to promulgate that The Mystery of the Hidden House (1948), the sixth title in the Five Find-Outers series by one-woman publishing sensation Enid Blyton, is the point where this series finds its feet and jumps to life.  Coincidence?  Yes, undoubtedly.

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#648: Minor Felonies – Emil and the Detectives (1929) by Erich Kästner [trans. Eileen Hall 1959]

/ JJ / 20 Comments

Emil and the Detectives

How Emil and the Detectives (1929) by Erich Kästner came to my attention is something I’ve long forgotten.  I don’t remember anyone ever mentioning it, yet it seems to have constantly been in print while also being made into a movie and adapted for the stage.  And I didn’t even know if it qualified as a detective novel for younger readers.  So the only thing to do was to read it myself.

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