WARNING: If you have not read the following titles, certain facts are laid before you in the discussion below that give away all or part of the solutions: The Sittaford Mystery, Lord Edgware Dies, Dumb Witness, Death Comes As the End, They Do It With Mirrors. Don’t be a fool – turn back and read … Continue reading THE BIG FIVE, or, Brad’s Smartass Quintet
Agatha Christie
LET’S FACE THE MUSIC AND RANK: My Top Ten Christies
WARNING: What you see before you is very long, closing in on 10,000 words. I toyed with making it a two-parter, but honestly I want to be done with it! Let it go out into the blogosphere and be read by three people. Consider it this blogger’s Hooded Gunman, my coffee table book of a … Continue reading LET’S FACE THE MUSIC AND RANK: My Top Ten Christies
COMME SI, COMME CA: Loreth Anne White’s In the Dark
Two damaged souls meet cute while on the job in a two-bit village in the remotest part of British Columbia. Mason Deniaud is a homicide cop, a city boy who has arrived in disgrace - and with a tragic secret – to take over the tiny RCMP force in the town of Kluhane. Callie Sutton … Continue reading COMME SI, COMME CA: Loreth Anne White’s In the Dark
“I’VE GOT A LITTLE LIST”
Inspiration strikes a blogger in all sorts of ways. You read or watch or hear something, and it makes you want to take pen to paper and . . . oh, hell! Does anyone take pen to paper anymore? Nowadays inspiration makes your fingers itch to strike the keyboard and let the insight pour forth! … Continue reading “I’VE GOT A LITTLE LIST”
ON THE CLEVERNESS OF CONSTANCE CULMINGTON: Eighty Years of And Then There Were None
This is an analysis/reflection of a classic piece of mystery literature. Be warned that the identity of the murderer and other details salient to the plot will be revealed and discussed. Do not read this post if you have not already read the book. I wonder. I wonder if Collins Crime Club sensed when it … Continue reading ON THE CLEVERNESS OF CONSTANCE CULMINGTON: Eighty Years of And Then There Were None
RICH MAN/POOR MAN/BEGGAR MAN/THIEF: Only One Can Crack the Closed Circle
The butler did it. A few years ago, in what turned out to be a hopeless attempt to keep up with Curtis Evan’s rapid-fire re-introduction of forgotten GAD crime authors to modern audiences, I downloaded works by several of these august personages. My method of choosing was non-scientific: either the title or the blurb caught … Continue reading RICH MAN/POOR MAN/BEGGAR MAN/THIEF: Only One Can Crack the Closed Circle
THE SQUARE PEG/ROUND HOLE CONUNDRUM, or Putting Poirot in His Place
The other day, my buddy Kate at Cross Examining Crime tried to get my goat! This is rich, coming from the woman who raises goats herself! But Kate is also a writer, writers get metaphorical, and knowing what a champion of Agatha Christie I am, Kate saw fit to warn me that not all folks … Continue reading THE SQUARE PEG/ROUND HOLE CONUNDRUM, or Putting Poirot in His Place
THE MEN WHO TOOK A BREAK FROM EXPLAINING MIRACLES (The Second Conversation)
On the last day of June this year, I had the great good fortune to spend hours and hours in the company of two learned friends talking about Agatha Christie. If you turned into last week's episode of The Men Who Explained Miracles, JJ and Dan's blog about impossible crimes, JJ and I discussed the impossible … Continue reading THE MEN WHO TOOK A BREAK FROM EXPLAINING MIRACLES (The Second Conversation)
THE MAN WHO MET THE MEN WHO EXPLAINED MIRACLES: Part I
You all know I went to London and met a lot of people and saw a lot of presentations and had a lot of fun and bought two books that sort of stank . . . a lot. But the absolute highpoint of my trip was a Monday night at the end of June, in … Continue reading THE MAN WHO MET THE MEN WHO EXPLAINED MIRACLES: Part I
“ALL BIOGRAPHY IS STORY-TELLING” – Agatha Christie, A Mysterious Life
“And so the story endures, infinitely fascinating; and those who would lay it to rest, who would destroy its beauty by ‘solving’ it, are defeated at every turn.” This key statement comes at the center of Agatha Christie, A Mysterious Life, Laura Thompson’s remarkable biography of the author, which was published last year and which … Continue reading “ALL BIOGRAPHY IS STORY-TELLING” – Agatha Christie, A Mysterious Life
Ah Sweet Mystery! 