“After an early dinner at which they drank Aunt Jane’s health, they all went off to His Majesty’s theater . . . The lights went down, and the play began. It was superbly acted, and Gwenda enjoyed it very much. She had not seen very many first-rate theatrical productions. The play drew to a close, … Continue reading ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE: Theatricality in Agatha Christie’s Novels and Stories – Chapter 2: “A face full of secrets”
BRAD SOLVES A MURDER!! Cryptic Killers: Murder at Merivale Manor
Last month, I had a lot of fun reading Antony Johnson’s Can You Solve This Murder? (I didn’t), and I looked forward to having more opportunities of playing armchair detective. One of my readers, Macon Leary, suggested I look into a game called Cryptic Killers. For twenty bucks, you can receive a case file containing all the … Continue reading BRAD SOLVES A MURDER!! Cryptic Killers: Murder at Merivale Manor
THE “MMM GOOD TRIFECTA”: Meta and Murder in the Movies
The latest class I’m taking at Stanford University is chock full of the stuff I love. In “Hollywood Looks at Itself,” we’re exploring films that turn a mirror on the art of filmmaking. Don’t let the fact that we started with Singin’ in the Rain fool you: most of the twenty films on this list are dark … Continue reading THE “MMM GOOD TRIFECTA”: Meta and Murder in the Movies
FUF-U-NUN-SQUARED-YUM: Home Sweet Homicide
An upcoming project for my Book Club has meant moving around my TBR pile. (I had to rent a forklift!) This is actually good news, for it means I finally get to tackle Home Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice. My buddy JJ has been singing Rice’s praises for a long time over at The Invisible Event. After he … Continue reading FUF-U-NUN-SQUARED-YUM: Home Sweet Homicide
A CALL FOR HELP FROM MY READERS!!!
Take a look at this: For over ten years, this wonderful cartoon has been the standard-bearer for Ah Sweet Mystery. The eleven figures here (from left to right, Lord Peter Wimsey, Miss Jane Marple, Dr. Gideon Fell, Father Brown, Inspector Maigret, Edgar Allan Poe – a mere mortal granted status here as the father of the … Continue reading A CALL FOR HELP FROM MY READERS!!!
THE ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT: Death on the Pier
It’s England, 1933, and Bertie Carroll is one of the most successful playwrights on the West End, with stage hits like Witness for the Defense, The Hollow Mousetrap, and And Now They Were Zero. Okay, I made those titles up, but you get the point: Bertie writes mystery plays, and he’s a hot ticket – just like what … Continue reading THE ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT: Death on the Pier
BOOK CLUB READS AN EALING COMEDY: The Wooden Overcoat
Today would have been my dad’s ninety-seventh birthday. In the Jewish faith, we believe that those who have passed never leave us – everything we ever loved about them stays in our hearts. I know my father is nearby, nudging me remember to water the plants. He was a brilliant gardener, something I could never … Continue reading BOOK CLUB READS AN EALING COMEDY: The Wooden Overcoat
NAUGHTY BUT NICE: The Case of the Sulky Girl
If the opening chapters of 1933’s The Case of the Sulky Girl emit for me a faint “been-there-read-that” whiff, I must remind myself that this was only Erle Stanley Gardner’s second Perry Mason adventure. That’s what comes of trying to read 80+ cases out of order. Fran Celane resembles half the female clients who will walk into Mason’s hallowed office … Continue reading NAUGHTY BUT NICE: The Case of the Sulky Girl
NETFLIX CLOCKS IN: Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials
You probably won’t ever find me sitting on a panel extolling the superiority of Agatha Christie’s thrillers. Oh, there’s fun to be had, but there’s also a good deal of silliness: Christie veered toward ideological conspiracies and hidden master criminals a lot. Still, even in the absence of Marple or Poirot, she could be clever … Continue reading NETFLIX CLOCKS IN: Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials
IT ONLY LOOKS LIKE A BOOK: Can You Solve The Murder?
I mentioned last year that John Curran’s latest book, The Murder Game, had revived those ancient armchair detective instincts that turned me into a serious mystery reader in the first place. Folks, I used to take notes when reading Agatha Christie!! Every generation has something to use as “training wheels” for exercising the little grey cells. For me, … Continue reading IT ONLY LOOKS LIKE A BOOK: Can You Solve The Murder?
Ah Sweet Mystery! 