Only a week or so ago, I admittedly got a little gossipy insinuating how Agatha Christie’s first marriage to Captain Archie Christie may have informed her work. (Read it here.) Just think: if Christie had honored her previous engagement to Reggie Lucy and married that faithful old duffer, perhaps her output would have contained fewer adulterous cads … Continue reading AN AUTHOR ABROAD: Agatha Christie’s Foreign Mysteries
Author: Brad
DRACULA IT AIN’T: Paul Halter’s The Vampire Tree
After reading all of Agatha Christie’s novels and stories – most of them multiple times – I feel I can talk about her with, if not authority, then great confidence. After reading nine novels by Paul Halter, an author I have admittedly had trouble appreciating, I cannot admit any authority or confidence, but I feel … Continue reading DRACULA IT AIN’T: Paul Halter’s The Vampire Tree
THE ENGLISH VILLAGE, IN TRANSLATION
It’s a new month and, therefore, time for a new subject for the Tuesday Night Bloggers! All through December, we will explore different aspects of – let’s call it, “the foreign mystery.” This can encompass writers who embark on an excursion to other climes with their books or just a discussion of mysteries we have … Continue reading THE ENGLISH VILLAGE, IN TRANSLATION
PSYCHO (1960): The Finest Cut of All
This month, over at Past Offenses, Rich is gathering bloggers together to celebrate the mystery fiction and cinema of 1960. It’s not a year particularly suited to my tastes, and as I trolled the lists to find something, the only title that called out to me was the Alfred Hitchcock film, Psycho. I wrote briefly about … Continue reading PSYCHO (1960): The Finest Cut of All
OH YOU CAN GET A MAN WITH A GUN: Christie and the Cad
Ninety years ago today, Archibald Christie argued with his wife and walked out of the house, revealing to her that he was leaving her for another woman. This sort of domestic tragedy happens all the time, but when it happens to the world’s most successful mystery writer, the repercussions are bound to affect the work … Continue reading OH YOU CAN GET A MAN WITH A GUN: Christie and the Cad
GIVE ‘EM A RIGHT HOOK: Carr vs. Christie on Roping In the Readers
Only yesterday my buddy JJ, on his insightful blog site, InsultingAgathaChri-, oops, I mean, The Invisible Event, celebrated the 110th birthday of his favorite author, John Dickson Carr - an author, I might add, whom I also count among my favorites. Among his many moments of praise for the Locked Room Master, JJ asserted the … Continue reading GIVE ‘EM A RIGHT HOOK: Carr vs. Christie on Roping In the Readers
A CELEBRATORY HODGEPODGE HONORING JOHN DICKSON CARR
Happy 110th birthday, John Dickson Carr. Two months ago, JJ at The Invisible Event invited everybody to share a post on this day of days for his favorite author, the Master of the Locked Room Mystery. We could write anything we wanted: a review, a poem, a celebration of the author. I had great intentions, … Continue reading A CELEBRATORY HODGEPODGE HONORING JOHN DICKSON CARR
MAGPIE MURDERS: The Silver Age and the Modern Era Collide
“It’s one thing reading about detectives, quite another trying to be one.” This brand new novel by Anthony Horowitz is making the rounds amongst the mystery blogging community. Already my buddies Kate at Cross Examining Crime and JJ at The Invisible Event have written about it. It hasn’t even hit America yet, so thank you, … Continue reading MAGPIE MURDERS: The Silver Age and the Modern Era Collide
COMING HOME: Two Examples From Agatha Christie’s Post-War England
Critics of classic mysteries complain that these tales lack any grounding in reality. People die horrible deaths - sometimes a great many people during the same country weekend - but nobody seems particularly put out, unless you count the irritation one feels about having to put off one’s golf game in order to be interrogated … Continue reading COMING HOME: Two Examples From Agatha Christie’s Post-War England
ELEGY FOR BEAU
“Someone who holds you too close/Someone who hurts you too deep/Someone who sits in your chair and ruins your sleep/And makes you aware of being alive . . . “ Animal lovers are unabashedly unapologetic about it. Too bad for you if you don't get it, we say. People measure their lives in significant chunks. … Continue reading ELEGY FOR BEAU
Ah Sweet Mystery! 