The ever-increasing availability of Japanese honkaku and shin honkaku mystery stories translated into English is one of the greatest perks of the classic mystery revival. I used to talk about each review as “this year’s book,” but now I can’t keep up with the new titles. I’ve got books on my shelf that I haven’t read yet, another Kosuke … Continue reading BOOK CLUB TACKLES ITS INNER DEMONS: The Noh Mask Murder
shin honkaku
A MINI-SHIN HONKAKU REVIEW: “The Tragedy of Black Swan Lodge”
I haven’t subscribed to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine for years and years, mainly because the short mystery has undergone the same transformation as the modern novel: puzzles and problems have been replaced with anger and ennui. But the local library has a large, comfortable magazine room, and every two months, I pick up the newest copy of EQMM on … Continue reading A MINI-SHIN HONKAKU REVIEW: “The Tragedy of Black Swan Lodge”
WAR IS HELL: The Devil’s Flute Murders
I’ll start by giving away my surprise ending: In May of next year, The Little Sparrow Murders will be the sixth Seishi Yokomizo mystery to be released in English by Pushkin Vertigo. If the publisher continues in this vein with all seventy-eight of Yokomizo’s books, the chances of my being around long enough to read titles like Pimple … Continue reading WAR IS HELL: The Devil’s Flute Murders
MANSION W/7BD, 6B, 4CORPSES, & VIEW: The Mill House Murders
We are only a couple weeks shy of the seventh anniversary of the first time I posted about shin honkaku on this site. Since then, those of us who are extremely grateful for the Japanese obsession with the Golden Age of Detection have reveled in one release after another of both classic honkaku novels from the likes of Soji … Continue reading MANSION W/7BD, 6B, 4CORPSES, & VIEW: The Mill House Murders
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
CRIME SOLVING WITH CANAPES: The Adventures of the Puzzle Club
If you have had the good fortune to dive into honkaku and shin honkaku mysteries, you will be thrilled to learn that, in Japan, high schools and universities have murder societies, whose members are all devotees of the Golden Age of Detection. They meet regularly to wallow in every aspect of classic crime, and then some of them grow … Continue reading CRIME SOLVING WITH CANAPES: The Adventures of the Puzzle Club
読書クラブ DOES HONKAKU: Death on Gokumon Island
Westerners’ love for Japanese mysteries is gaining a lot of momentum, shown by the increasing release of new honkaku and shin honkaku titles. In terms of shin honkaku, I’m most excited to learn that The Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji will be coming out next spring. The publication by Locked Room International of Ayatsuji’s The Decagon House Murders is what got me started on … Continue reading 読書クラブ DOES HONKAKU: Death on Gokumon Island
BOOK CLUB FROM HELL!!! The Five False Suicides
I hate to start the new year with a sad fact, but reading, and the enjoyment thereof, has become a rare commodity. When I taught high school, I was disheartened by how few of my students carried around a book for pleasure. Maybe it’s the solitary nature of reading, or the lack of bells-and-whistles flummery … Continue reading BOOK CLUB FROM HELL!!! The Five False Suicides
BITING OFF MORE . . . (My 2022 Resolutions)
Here it comes – the moment when all the bloggers you visit try and entice you to keep coming back with our promises of things to come. Some of my plans are rather amorphous: I hope to do some spiffing up of the site itself so that Ah Sweet Mystery will be better organized, sport … Continue reading BITING OFF MORE . . . (My 2022 Resolutions)
BRAD’S BEST READS OF 2021
As book bloggers go, in sheer number of reads I’m a dismal failure. Don’t even try and compare me, say, to my friend Kate over at Cross Examining Crime who, even in a bad month (May, when she had to tend to the birth of five baby goats), reviewed thirteen books, ten more than my monthly average … Continue reading BRAD’S BEST READS OF 2021
Ah Sweet Mystery! 