#488: A Murder is Announced – Case for Eight Detectives in The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (2018) by Stuart Turton

January 19, 2019January 18, 2019 / JJ / 27 Comments

For once, I, on my blog typically concerned with titles from some 60 to 80 years ago, am allowing external factors to influence me here. Not just in looking at a book published during my own lifetime (that happens not infrequently) but one that’s been in the news of late, too.

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#483: Adventures in Self-Publishing – The Locked Room Murder (2016) by Nancy McGovern

January 8, 2019June 10, 2025 / JJ / 14 Comments

If last week’s self-published impossible murder didn’t work for you then, well, firstly have a quiet word with yourself, but also perhaps this week will make you more comfortable. Perhaps even…cozy.

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#474: Minor Felonies – The Last Chance Hotel (2018) by Nicki Thornton

December 18, 2018December 16, 2018 / JJ / 4 Comments

Welcome to the Last Chance Hotel, standing alone in seemingly endless woodland, where a coterie of oddballs are about to descend and usher in an impossible murder over dinner.

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#464: The Wrong Stuff – Patience and the Detective Story via Station (2008) by Johanna Stokes and Leno Carvalho

November 24, 2018November 23, 2018 / JJ / 10 Comments

I was lured into Station by its format as much as its premise: a graphic novel telling a tale of murder on the International Space Station.

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#455: With Reiterated Crimes He Might Heap on Himself Damnation – Failure (Holy) Writ Large in The Sinister Student (2016) by Kel Richards

November 3, 2018November 2, 2018 / JJ / 22 Comments

Had I gotten round to this sooner, it may have qualified as a Modern Locked Room Mystery for TomCat attempt, but TomCat has already read this one and so really all that remained was to see if I was equally underwhelmed by it.

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#443: A Little Help for My Friends – Finding a Modern Locked Room Mystery for TomCat Attempt #9: By the Pricking of Her Thumb (2018) by Adam Roberts

October 6, 2018November 28, 2025 / JJ / 2 Comments

The last two Saturdays on here have seen me dive into modern hardback novels, so I thought I would continue that trend and pretend once more that I’m doing this purely for TomCat’s benefit.

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#425: Minor Felonies – Space Case (2014) by Stuart Gibbs

August 14, 2018March 10, 2020 / JJ / 3 Comments

At 12 years old, Dash Gibson is so famous that in a hundred years people will still be learning about him in school — no mere flash in the pan fame for him and his family, their names will go down in human history. Because they are among the first human beings ever to live on the moon.

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#322: A Little Help for My Friends – Finding a Modern Locked Room Mystery for TomCat Attempt #5: The Real-Town Murders (2017) by Adam Roberts

December 9, 2017June 12, 2021 / JJ / 6 Comments

My previous attempt at finding a modern locked room mystery for TomCat ended in frank disaster when it turned out TomCat had, of course, already read the book chosen. Well I’m back, baby, and this time I’ve done my homework. Hours of research went into choosing this title, including an algorithmic analysis of TomCat’s reading habits over the past five years. I in no way just happened to see it at my local library, no sir. Why would you even suggest that?

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#309: For Movember – Clinical Depression and Me: A GAD Analogy

November 4, 2017November 24, 2017 / JJ / 36 Comments

You are no doubt aware that in recent years the month of November has been co-opted into a fundraising event known as Movember, in which men grow facial hair to raise money for a variety of causes, including mental health charities. For reasons that will be made plain if you click to read more, this is something I’d like to discuss today; if that doesn’t sound like your kind of thing, feel free to pass this post over and I’ll see you on Tuesday for more of the usual.

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#256: Catastrophic Protagonist Failure in Too Many Ghosts (1959) and The Hand of Mary Constable (1964) by Paul Gallico

June 27, 2017June 27, 2017 / JJ / 14 Comments

A little while ago, while secondhand bookshop haunting as is my wont, I stumbled upon a copy of Paul Gallico’s The Hand of Mary Constable (1964) — a book I have recommended here before for the brilliant way it shows up the tricks of the séance through a combination of perspicuous writing and trusting its readers’ intelligence. My copy was a rat-eared, much-abused paperback and this was a lovely hardcover for a very reasonable price…and yet I vacillated for some time (like, a few weeks) before buying it.

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