When it comes to the high seas, I prefer my voyages to be vicarious. I have been known to get seasick on a slow ferry. My antipathy toward those flashy floating malls they call “luxury liners” is balanced by my fascination with all those YouTube videos of people taking and rating one cruise after another … Continue reading “No denying she’s a funny girl, that Belle . . . ” Loose Lips by Kemper Donovan
Modern Crime Novels
EVE OF POSSIBILITIES: Looking Back on ’24 and Forward to ’25
It’s New Year’s Eve, the final day of a most, er, dramatic year, and this is my 79th and final post of 2024. It's also the time when some of my fellow bloggers review their accomplishments, perhaps name a “Book of the Year,” and make prognostications about what’s coming up in 2025 that are hopefully vague … Continue reading EVE OF POSSIBILITIES: Looking Back on ’24 and Forward to ’25
ATTICUS REDUX: Moonflower Murders
Few modern authors have such a firm and delightful grasp on the conventions and stylings of classic detective fiction that Anthony Horowitz has. This has proven especially true in his television writing: Poirot and Midsomer Murders displayed a deft hand at adaptation, but it was Foyle’s War that really proved Horowitz’ mettle. If you haven’t watched that series, what are you … Continue reading ATTICUS REDUX: Moonflower Murders
THE TRACKS OF MY TERRORS: Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect
Poor Ernest Cunningham! Saddled with a dysfunctional family, each of whom have been responsible for somebody else’s death, the “how-to-write-a-mystery” author risks arrest and death at the reunion from hell in a snowbound Australian ski resort when the Cunningham clan is targeted by an insane serial killer! Oh, but lucky Ernest! He survives, unmasks the … Continue reading THE TRACKS OF MY TERRORS: Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect
BOOK CLUB STICKS TO PROCEDUR-AL: Exit Lines by Reginald Hill
When it comes to procedural mysteries, I’d rather watch ‘em than read ‘em, although there was a time when I read quite a few of them. I had a good long run with Ed McBain more years ago than I can remember, and I think that around the same time I read one or two of … Continue reading BOOK CLUB STICKS TO PROCEDUR-AL: Exit Lines by Reginald Hill
CHRISTIE ADJACENT: The Busy Body by Kemper Donovan
It is a truth universally acknowledged that an Agatha Christie uber-fan who decides to write his own mystery will be influenced by the Queen of Crime. Kemper Donovan, host of the Christie-centered podcast All About Agatha, has himself acknowledged this regarding The Busy Body, his second novel but first full-fledged whodunnit. Indeed, I could share some of … Continue reading CHRISTIE ADJACENT: The Busy Body by Kemper Donovan
THE MASTER OF MANIPULATION: Tom Mead’s The Murder Wheel
“There’s far too much strangeness in the everyday to bother with making things up. Take the Ferris wheel for instance. If I sound dubious about it, it’s because it was a very literal-minded crime. That means one weapon, one victim, and one suspect. And the crime scene is what you might describe as ‘hermetically sealed.’ … Continue reading THE MASTER OF MANIPULATION: Tom Mead’s The Murder Wheel
DATELINE MEETS “THE OMEN”: The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels
The laudatory editorial comments that appear on the front and back covers and fill four pages of Janice Hallett’s latest novel do her no favors. “Agatha Christie has found her heir . . . “ “The Queen of tricksy crime . . . “ “Agatha Christie for the 21st century . . . “ “A new Agatha Christie … Continue reading DATELINE MEETS “THE OMEN”: The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels
AIM (NOT SO) STRAIGHT AND TRUE: My Resolutions for 2023
A few weeks ago, my pal (and Book Club Arch Nemesis!) the Puzzle Doctor reached his 2000th post on In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel. Not bad for a man who’s only been blogging since 1954. I hit my 500th post last August (it was a dreary review of a dreary book, Dorothy L. Sayers’ The Documents in … Continue reading AIM (NOT SO) STRAIGHT AND TRUE: My Resolutions for 2023
FINAL READ OF THE YEAR!
“’So you’re a lawyer now?’ “’I guess so.’ “’Don’t you have, like, ten steps for solving crime or whatever? Just do – ‘ she wriggled her hands in the air like she was performing a magic trick - ‘a bit of all that.’ “’They’re rules, not steps. And they’re not mine.’” Monseignor Ronald Knox, circa 1930 … Continue reading FINAL READ OF THE YEAR!
Ah Sweet Mystery! 