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.
Continue readingThe original antepenultimate case for the world’s first consulting detective; the perfect time to introduce some new lore, what?
Continue readingFive Tuesdays in April should allow me to finish off the last five stories in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894). Right?
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A little while ago, I asked for recommendations of Sherlock Holmes pastiches. Shortly thereafter, I stumbled into Running Girl (20014) by Simon Mason, which is Teenage Sherlock in all but name.
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It’s happened to us all: you’re minding your own business in a second-hand bookshop, and suddenly you stumble over 17 volumes of a juvenile mystery series you’ve never heard off…and a Three Investigators-adjacent-sounding juvenile mystery series, at that.
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Sometimes I feel like a curmudgeon for not liking a book — books do many things, and one book can be something entirely different to so many people, that it feels rather lousy when something just passes you by entirely.
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An aristocratic family, a big house in which an aged relative resides, everyone converging for a party, said elderly relative being the victim of a crime, a precocious young girl keen to investigate, rumours of a family treasure hidden in the grounds…lordy, I hope I’m not reading The Swifts (2023) again.
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A second mystery for Roger, Diana, Snubby, Loony, Barney, and Miranda — and one with a hint of the impossible, about it, to boot.
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I had hoped to diversify these Minor Felonies posts this month, and to bring in some new authors who might produce well-structured juvenile detective fiction. But, well, that didn’t work out, and so instead I guess I’ll just have to return to Stuart Gibbs’ FunJungle, perhaps the best series of detective novels for 8 to 12 year-olds currently on the market.
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The Invisible Event 