Five Tuesdays in April should allow me to finish off the last five stories in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894). Right?
Continue reading#1274: Little Fictions – ‘The Crooked Man’ (1893) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#1273: “Who’s responsible for these deaths?” – Clue (1986) by Michael McDowell
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#1272: Yesterday’s Murder, a.k.a. Telefair (1942) by Craig Rice
As my grandfather used to say, “When you fall off the horse, get back on the horse”. And that’s why he lost his job as a stuntman in Western movies. 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 — 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 Rice again now, because why not? That’s what the horse is here. It was a literary horse all along.
#1271: Minor Felonies – Running Girl (2014) by Simon Mason
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.
Continue reading#1270: “I flatter myself it is impossible to tell how my stories will end until the last chapter.” – The Clue of the Twisted Candle (1918) by Edgar Wallace
There’s been a some confusing talk of horses here lately, so let’s abandon that metaphor for now and turn to an author who is often entertaining without any weighty expectations of being good: cue Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace and The Clue of the Twisted Candle (1918).
Continue reading#1269: The Brandon Case, a.k.a. The Ha-Ha Case (1934) by J.J. Connington
As my grandfather used to say, “When you fall off the horse, get back on the horse”. And that’s why he lost his job and the Health and Safety Officer at that horse riding school. 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 — 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 Connington again now, because why not? That’s what the horse is here. It was a metaphorical horse all along.
#1268: Minor Felonies – Murder at Hockey Camp (1997) by Roy MacGregor
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.
Continue reading#1267: “Simple, isn’t it? Simple enough to hang a man.” – Fen Country [ss] (1979) by Edmund Crispin
A posthumous collection occasionally wrong billed as “Twenty-six stories featuring Gervase Fen” (there should really be, at least, a comma after ‘stories’, since series detective Fen isn’t in all of them), Fen Country (1979) was, I believe, the first collection of Edmund Crispin’s short fiction I read. And now I’m back, to get some thoughts on record.
Continue reading#1266: Constable, Guard Thyself! (1934) by Henry Wade
I was one of many Golden Age fans who was quite excited when Orion’s now-defunct Murder Room acquired the rights to the novels of Henry Wade. And I was one of many Golden Age fans who signally failed to buy any of those titles and read and review them, which in part resulted in the aforementioned defunctness. But when titles began to vanish from availability, I snapped a couple up, including Constable, Guard Thyself! (1934) on the understanding that it presented an example of my favourite subgenre, the impossible crime. So, now that you can’t buy it for yourself, I’m here to say that, yeah, it’s fine, and that Wade, like J.J. Connington, presents enough of interest in his procedural approach to warrant further reading.
#1265: Minor Felonies – The Nine Night Mystery (2024) by Sharna Jackson
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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The Invisible Event 