#509: Fair-Play/Cipher – The Baffle Book (1930) by Lassiter Wren and Randle McKay [ed. F. Tennyson Jesse] Problems 1 to 7

April 6, 2019March 20, 2021 / JJ / 11 Comments

You like puzzles, you like detective fiction, so you’d love a puzzle book about detective fiction. Lo, I give you The Baffle Book — originally running to at least three volumes from what I can ascertain, and here boasting two authors and an editor for reasons that will soon become clear.

Continue reading →

#504: Little Fictions – ‘The Helm of Hades’ (2019) by Paul Halter [trans. John Pugmire 2019] + Ranking the Translated Short Stories

February 26, 2019June 8, 2021 / JJ / 15 Comments

Who doesn’t love a list? No-one who matters, that’s who. And since I’ve now read all twenty of the translated short stories of Paul Halter it seems inevitable that I should have my own preferences laid out for everyone to disagree with.

Continue reading →

#501: Little Fictions – The Uncollected Paul Halter: ‘The Wolf of Fenrir’ (2014) and ‘The Scarecrow’s Revenge’ (2015) [trans. John Pugmire 2015/2016]

February 19, 2019June 8, 2021 / JJ / 11 Comments

Right, here we go: the final two Paul Halter stories from Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine previously unreviewed on this blog. Oh, hang on a minute, what am I going to do next Tuesday…?

Continue reading →

#498: Little Fictions – The Uncollected Paul Halter: ‘The Gong of Doom’ (2010) and ‘The Man With the Face of Clay’ (2011) [trans. John Pugmire 2010/2012]

February 12, 2019June 8, 2021 / JJ / 4 Comments

With Paul Halter’s debut novel The Fourth Door (1987) being the subject of my 500th post this coming weekend, it’s time to dive into two more of his short stories from the pages of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

Continue reading →

#495: Little Fictions – The Uncollected Paul Halter: ‘Nausicaa’s Ball’ (2004) and ‘The Robber’s Grave’ (2007) [trans. John Pugmire & Robert Adey 2008/2007]

February 5, 2019June 8, 2021 / JJ / 19 Comments

My five-hundredth post approacheth — a reread and re-evaluation of The Fourth Door (1987), the debut novel of M. Paul Halter, of whom I am quite the fan — and so Tuesdays in February will focus on the six translated Halter stories featured in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine that have yet to be collected into a second English-language anthology.

Continue reading →

#492: Adventures in Self-Publishing – Where’s the Beef? (2014) by Deb Pines

January 29, 2019January 29, 2019 / JJ / 14 Comments

I thought it would be nice to mix things up in these Adventures in Self-Publishing with a gentle disappearance story. Little did I anticipate the red hot Scrabble action we’d get along the way.

Continue reading →

#479: The Men Who Explain Miracles – Episode 8.2: The Impossible Crimes of Paul Halter

December 29, 2018December 29, 2018 / JJ / 26 Comments

Last week we gave you an overview of the (translated) works of Paul Halter, this week I’ll be talking you through five novels you could pick up if you’re still not sure where to start.

Continue reading →

#478: All But Impossible – The Impossible Files of Dr. Sam Hawthorne [ss] (2017) by Edward D. Hoch

December 27, 2018December 27, 2018 / JJ / 28 Comments

I’m probably starting in the wrong place with this chronologically fourth collection of the Dr. Sam Hawthorne impossibilities by short story specialist Edward D. Hoch. However, it contains the very first Hoch story I ever read and so seemed as good a place as any to start. I’ve read maybe three Hawthornes in other collections and figured it would be good to end 2018 with a long-awaited perusal of them in greater concentration, and…well, I’m a little underwhelmed. Hoch has a talent for capturing ambience very piquantly, and the best of these stories are very good, but far too few of them have anything like the rigour or intelligence I’d expected given how highly-regarded this series seems to be.

Continue reading →

#472: The Pit-Prop Syndicate (1922) by Freeman Wills Crofts

December 13, 2018October 22, 2021 / JJ / 50 Comments

Back in 2015, before I’d ever opened any of Freeman Wills Crofts’ works, Puzzle Doctor reviewed The Pit-Prop Syndicate (1922) at his place and ended by saying “I could go on, but I’ll just keep writing euphemisms for BORING BOOK over and over again. Absolutely, 100%, NOT RECOMMENDED. I’d go so far as Actively Avoid”. Shortly after reading that I broke my first bread with Crofts and, almost exactly three years later, I’ve read and loved seven Crofts novels and — in a move some might consider hasty — have tracked down all but four of his oeuvre. Still, I picked this one up with the Doc’s warning echoing in the back of my skull. Gulp.

Continue reading →

#465: Little Fictions – Curiosities from Adey: ‘The High House’ (1948) by Hake Talbot

November 27, 2018August 28, 2023 / JJ / 12 Comments

Under the nom de plume Hake Talbot, the magician and author Henning Nelms published two novels and two short stories. Of the novels, The Hangman’s Handyman (1942) is generally overshadowed by the admittedly superior Rim of the Pit (1944); of the short stories, we tend to hear very little.

Continue reading →