“Twelve mystery masterpieces by the maestro” promises the back cover of Tales of the Black Widowers (1974), the first collection featuring Isaac Asimov’s puzzle-solving dining club, and given that Asimov says in the introduction that his “detective ideal is Hercule Poirot and his little gray cells” it seems like it might not be an empty promise…
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#938: Minor Felonies – The Scent of Blood (2010) and Certain Death (2010) by Tanya Landman
It’s been nearly four years since I last read one of Tanya Landman’s bullet-fast murder mysteries featuring junior sleuths Poppy Fields and her friend Graham, so here are the next two in the series.
Continue reading →#923: Little Fictions – ‘Code Zed’ (1944), ‘The Ghost with the Gun’ (1945), and ‘The Catalyst’ (1945) by Anthony Boucher
Three more non-series tales from Exeunt Murderers: The Best Mystery Stories of Anthony Boucher [ss] (1983).
Continue reading →#865: There Is Nothing Either Good or Bad, But Thinking Makes It So – Examining the Haycraft-Queen Cornerstones List
If you’ve met me, firstly I apologise, and secondly it’ll come as no surprise that I have a tendency to ruminate on that which many others pass over without so much as a backward glance. Previously this resulted in me writing something in the region of 25,000 words on the Knox Decalogue, and today I’m going to turn my eye upon the Haycraft-Queen Cornerstones list. Prepare thyself…
Continue reading →#805: Minor Felonies/Little Fiction – ‘The Adventure of the Single Footprint’ (1948) and ‘The Mystery of the Three Blind Mice’ (1963) by Robert Arthur
The final Tuesday of June brings us the final two stories from Mystery and More Mystery (1966) by Robert Arthur. And with one of them comes some excitement…
Continue reading →In GAD We Trust – Episode 11: The Tropes of Detective Fiction [w’ James Scott Byrnside]

The time has come again for some nerdy Golden Age Detection podcasting, and James Scott Byrnside is here to oblige with a discussion about some of the tropes we know and love from GAD fiction
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