#890: Minor Felonies – The Mystery of the Vanishing Magician (1958) by Bruce Campbell

March 29, 2022March 12, 2022 / JJ / 2 Comments

With magicians being renowned as practitioners of misdirection and Vanishing canonically one of the ten types of impossible crime, you’re damn right I picked up twelfth Ken Holt book The Mystery of the Vanishing Magician (1958) by husband-and-wife team Sam and Beryl Epstein expecting some impossible shenanigans.

Continue reading →

#832: Minor Felonies – The Mystery of the Grinning Tiger (1956) by Bruce Campbell

August 31, 2021August 31, 2021 / JJ / 3 Comments

I have read some dull books of late, but The Mystery of the Grinning Tiger (1956), the eleventh entry in Beryl and Sam Epstein’s series featuring teenage sleuths Ken Holt and Sandy Allen, might be the dullest yet.

Continue reading →

#736: Minor Felonies – The Mystery of the Iron Box (1952) by Bruce Campbell

December 15, 2020December 14, 2020 / JJ / 2 Comments

At the risk of appearing to stoke the thoroughly-raked embers of the “Is Die Hard (1988) a Christmas movie?” conversation — it’s not, by the way — how much Christmas should appear in your mystery in order for it to be considered a Christmas Mystery?

Continue reading →

#651: Minor Felonies – The Secret of Hangman’s Inn (1956) by Bruce Campbell

March 31, 2020March 30, 2020 / JJ / Leave a comment

I, doubtless in common with anyone who has persevered through the stronger and weaker works of any prolific author’s career, have been moved at times to reflect at what point a long-running series becomes good before it starts to tail off in quality through the challenges of sustaining such an output.

Continue reading →

#583: Minor Felonies – The Clue of the Coiled Cobra (1951) by Bruce Campbell

October 22, 2019October 23, 2019 / JJ / 13 Comments

There’s a comforting familiarity about the Ken Holt Mysteries for Boys written by Beryl and Sam Epstein under the nom de plume Bruce Campbell. This is only the third one I’ve read, but, perhaps because of the strict adherence to classic ingredients, I feel like I’m about 12 books deep in the series.

Continue reading →

#516: Minor Felonies – The Clue of the Marked Claw (1950) by Bruce Campbell

April 23, 2019April 19, 2019 / JJ / 10 Comments

Man, things were simpler in the 1950s. Back then, the fourth book in a series of juvenile detective adventures could centre around lobster fishing and the series could still run for a further 14 titles. Kids those days, eh?

Continue reading →

#407: The Wants – Five Authors I’d Love to See Completely Reprinted

July 3, 2018July 3, 2018 / JJ / 68 Comments

You’ll of course be aware that the birth stone for July is the ruby which — apologies for going over something we all know — signifies contentment. And so for Tuesdays in July I shall be putting forth a series of lists that, as a GAD fan, would go some way to enhancing my own content with the world.

Continue reading →

#362: Minor Felonies – The Clue of the Phantom Car (1953) by Bruce Campbell

March 20, 2018March 21, 2018 / JJ / 21 Comments

An orphaned young man who lives with his red-haired best friend’s family, all the while having adventures…yeah, okay, no, the Harry Potter similarities stop (and indeed, don’t even start — he’s not an orphan, his father’s just away a lot) there. But it’s interesting to reflect, as these YAGAD novels are making me do, on the format that adventures for younger readers take and how little the classic tropes have needed to change in the intervening decades.

Continue reading →