The Invisible Event

Classic detective fiction and impossible crimes

Skip to content

Home
Adventures in Self-Publishing
Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators
In GAD We Trust Podcast
About Me

Search

Search for:

Ken Holt

#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 / 1 Comment

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 / 9 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 / 8 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 →

Reviews every Thursday; next up:

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address:

Why Didn’t They Ask, Evans?

Search for:

Follow The Invisible Event on WordPress.com

Posts I Like

Categories

Categories

Tags

Adam Roberts Agatha Christie Alfred Walter Stewart Alice Arisugawa Amateur Detective American Mystery Classics Anthony Berkeley Anthony Boucher Anthony Horowitz Armchair detective Arthur Conan Doyle Arthur Porges Beryl Epstein Bold Venture Press Brian Skupin British Library Crime Classics Bruce Campbell Carter Dickson Christianna Brand Clayton Rawson Coachwhip Publications Constance and Gwenyth Little Cornell Woolrich Crime-solving couples Crippen & Landru Crossover Mysteries Dashiell Hammett Dean Street Press Derek Smith Dolores Gordon-Smith Dorothy L. Sayers Douglas G. Greene E.C. Bentley E.C.R. Lorac Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Wallace Edith Caroline Rivett Edmund Crispin Edward D. Hoch Ellery Queen Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Enid Blyton Epistolary Novel EQMM Erle Stanley Gardner Freeman Wills Crofts G.K. Chesterton Gaston Leroux Genius Amateur Genius detective Gladys Mitchell Hake Talbot Harper Collins Helen McCloy Henry Wade Herbert Brean Historical Mystery Ho-Ling Wong Honkaku House of Stratus Impossible Crimes Inverted Mystery Israel Zangwill J.J. Connington Jacques Futrelle James M. Cain James Ronald James Scott Byrnside Jim Thompson John Dickson Carr John Pugmire John Rhode John Sladek Jonathan Creek Josephine Tey Juvenile Mysteries Keikichi Osaka Kelley Roos Ken Holt Kings of Crime Leo Bruce Locked Room International Mansion Mysteries Margery Allingham Martin Edwards Max Afford Miles Burton Movies Mysterious Press Ngaio Marsh Nicholas Blake Noel Vindry Norman Berrow Novella OOP Orion Pastiche Paul Halter Penzler Publishers Philip MacDonald Podcast Pushkin Vertigo Quiz R. Austin Freeman Radio mysteries Ramble House Raymond Chandler Rex Stout Robert Adey Robert Arthur Robert Innes Robin Stevens Roger Scarlett Ronald Knox Rue Morgue Press Rupert Penny S.S. van Dine Sam Epstein Seishi Yokomizo Self-Publishing Sherlock Holmes Shin Honkaku Short stories Soji Shimada Spinster Detective Spoilers! Stanley Ellin Stuart Palmer Szu-Yen Lin The Five Find-Outers The Knox Decalogue The Murder Room Theodore Roscoe The Three Investigators Tony Medawar Travelogue Mysteries TV Walter S. Masterman Ye Olde Book of Locked Room Conundrums You're doing it wrong

Blogroll

The Invisible Event by Jim Noy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Blog at WordPress.com.

Follow Following
- The Invisible Event
- Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.

Loading Comments...

Write a Comment...

Email (Required)

Name (Required)

Website