I have to tell you that, health-wise, for me February has been a bust. There was no glamor to it: this wasn’t COVID or the flu or la grippe. This bug was out to prove that you can feel just as rotten with a generic cold as with one of those celebrity illnesses floating about. It skipped … Continue reading WEDDING BELLE BLUES: The Bride Wore Black
Author: Brad
A PERRY MASON MENAGERIE: Cinematic Addendum
One of the perks of being a fan of Erle Stanley Gardner’s defense attorney-hero Perry Mason is that nearly all of the books have been adapted for television. Among the 271 episodes of Perry Mason that aired between 1957 and 1966, one can find the titles of most of the eighty-two novels and four novellas that featured the world’s … Continue reading A PERRY MASON MENAGERIE: Cinematic Addendum
THE POIROT PROJECT #5: Three-Act Tragedy
Three-Act Tragedy is the first of nine Poirot novels to appear back-to-back in the latter half of the 1930’s. (Between 1931 -38, there were twelve in total.) It was an extraordinary decade for the Belgian detective: he traveled across Europe on the Orient Express and on a steamer down the Nile, with side trips to Mesopotamia … Continue reading THE POIROT PROJECT #5: Three-Act Tragedy
NEW CASE GIVES MASON PAWS: The Case of the Caretaker’s Cat
“’I’ve got a cat for a client,’ Mason said grimly. “’Can a cat contest a will?’ Mason’s face showed the determination of a born fighter. ‘Damned if I know,’ he said.” Our next stop in the Mason Menagerie is Perry’s seventh adventure and also perhaps the most consequential and emotionally satisfying of his career (okay, … Continue reading NEW CASE GIVES MASON PAWS: The Case of the Caretaker’s Cat
REVISITING JOAN HICKSON’S MISS MARPLE (Part 2)
Last week, I explained how circumstances led me to revisit Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, the series that starred Joan Hickson and which aired on the BBC from 1986 to 1992. I shared my thoughts about the first six adaptations, and today we’ll cover the rest of the series. Miss Marple and Inspector Davy discover things are too … Continue reading REVISITING JOAN HICKSON’S MISS MARPLE (Part 2)
CHARLIE CHAN AT FOX: The Complete Rankings
While the Fox Charlie Chan films are fresh in everyone’s minds – okay, maybe that’s wishful thinking on my part! – I thought I would take one step beyond the Top Thirteen list that Sergio, Nick, and I drafted over the weekend and share with you my complete ranking of all twenty-three of the Fox … Continue reading CHARLIE CHAN AT FOX: The Complete Rankings
THE FOX CHARLIE CHAN DRAFT
You can’t help but wonder if Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan, created in 1925 by popular author Earl Derr Biggers, would have left as lasting and, well, complicated an impression on our culture had he never made it to film. After all, there were only six novels published in a space of seven years. They were … Continue reading THE FOX CHARLIE CHAN DRAFT
REVISITING JOAN HICKSON’S MISS MARPLE, Part I
A week or so ago, I was texting back and forth with my friends (and fellow Christie fanatics) Jeff and Chris. It was just after the dinner hour, and Jeff informed us that he was settling down to watch The Body in the Library – not the crazy one with the mad lesbian killers, but the good … Continue reading REVISITING JOAN HICKSON’S MISS MARPLE, Part I
FINDING A LITTLE SOMETHING ON THE SHELF: The Great Black Kanba
Last week, I decided to reorganize my mystery book collection, numbering around a thousand volumes. Originally, as you might expect, everything was in alphabetical order – with certain exceptions. There is, of course, the Altar to Christie. Plus, all the honkaku mysteries, the Dell mapbacks, and the children’s and YA mysteries have their own places of honor.. … Continue reading FINDING A LITTLE SOMETHING ON THE SHELF: The Great Black Kanba
THE REDOUBTABLE LILY WU! The Chinese Chop
One of this writer’s joys in exploring the world of classic detective fiction over the past ten years has been the discovery of some marvelous authors whose long-forgotten status has nothing to do with the quality of their work but, perhaps, their all-too-small output. Why did Harriet Rutland only write three books? Or Lange Lewis … Continue reading THE REDOUBTABLE LILY WU! The Chinese Chop
Ah Sweet Mystery! 