As you get older, one of the more interesting and, perhaps, melancholy aspects of life is watching things you identified as cultural icons slip into the darkness of lost memory. Mary Tyler Moore, who died recently, starred in two of my favorite sitcoms of all time and represented a certain type of woman who combined … Continue reading . . . A PLACE WHERE DREAMS ARE BORN: Finding Neverland
Author: Brad
TAKING A NEW CARR ROUND THE BLOCK: The Ten Teacups
I’m envious whenever I read another mystery fan describe how much they love the ten Agatha Christie novels they’ve read . . . or the fifteen, or the three, and so on. The lucky devils! What pleasures they still have in store. I often wish that someone would unearth previously unpublished titles by my favorite … Continue reading TAKING A NEW CARR ROUND THE BLOCK: The Ten Teacups
MY FIRST DETECTIVE
January turned out to be a month of reminiscence and personal "shtuff" for The Tuesday Night Bloggers, all because of our month’s topic of “firsts.” Oh sure, sometimes we focused on the first appearance of a certain detective or a certain trope of sub-genre of mystery fiction. But as often as not, my fellow bloggers … Continue reading MY FIRST DETECTIVE
WHO’S ON FIRST? A Man, a Mug, and a Da Vinci, That’s Who!
All this month, the Tuesday Night Bloggers are talking about "firsts," famous and otherwise. After writing about the first detectives in literature and the first Christie, it suddenly occurred to me that, if you're going to take a purely historical approach to a theme, you had better know a damn sight more about mystery history than … Continue reading WHO’S ON FIRST? A Man, a Mug, and a Da Vinci, That’s Who!
THE FIRST POIROT
Here is how Agatha Christie remembers it: She and Madge were discussing one of the newly published mystery novels they had both read and enjoyed. Christie believes it was Gaston LeRoux’ The Mystery of the Yellow Room, which would place this event around 1908. At this time, the two sisters occasionally dabbled in writing; Madge … Continue reading THE FIRST POIROT
IT TAKES A WOMAN: My Favorite Females in Christie
Well, it’s Sunday. And it’s been raining heavily for twenty-four hours. And I have to go back to work tomorrow after a two-week vacation. And Moira over at Clothes in Books posted a lovely report about one of my favorite Christie females, Dr. Sarah King from Appointment with Death, which inspired me to run over … Continue reading IT TAKES A WOMAN: My Favorite Females in Christie
THE RIGHT DIRECTION: Hitchcock’s North by Northwest
When Rich at Past Offenses chooses a particularly challenging year for his monthly “Crimes of the Century” invitational – where bloggers from all over send in posts of great mysteries of the time – I am grateful that he includes films as well as books. This is particularly true when we’re dealing with the late … Continue reading THE RIGHT DIRECTION: Hitchcock’s North by Northwest
APING AGATHA, or The Insincerest Form of Flattery
I will never lay claim that Agatha Christie, my favorite mystery author, is the best mystery author of all time, but she certainly is the most successful one. I offer three pieces of evidence, to wit: Her sales numbers. Selling between two to four billion copies of her books has landed her in the Guinness … Continue reading APING AGATHA, or The Insincerest Form of Flattery
THE FIRST DETECTIVES
Sensitive as we are to the thematic possibilities of each month, The Tuesday Night Bloggers are beginning what I hope will be a much better year than 2017 with a discussion of “firsts.” The suggestion came from Kate at Cross-Examining Crime, and she said we could make this about anything we like. So I thought … Continue reading THE FIRST DETECTIVES
MY READINGS (AND REVISITINGS) OF 2016
Happy New Year, everyone! As a new blogger, I have only just become aware of the tradition in this community for those who blog about books to reflect on the past year in reading. Yes, let’s focus on the reading because in most other respects, for me at least, 2016 was not a keeper! So … Continue reading MY READINGS (AND REVISITINGS) OF 2016
Ah Sweet Mystery! 