Here’s what it feels like to grow old: A few years ago, I had to acknowledge the fact that I had not owned a record player for a decade and that the hundreds of albums I owned had caused the top shelf of my upstairs closet to buckle and that I had replaced all that … Continue reading FROM PAGE TO (SOUND)STAGE: Classic Mysteries on the Radio
The Golden Age of Detection
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE: Agatha Christie’s Military Men
Happy Veteran’s Day, everyone! Since the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, when Our Side struck an armistice with the Germans at the end of World War I, we have honored the men and women who served their countries around the world. (Armistice Day had an official name change in 1954 at … Continue reading THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE: Agatha Christie’s Military Men
RE-BRANDING #5/BOOK REPORT #WHATEVAH: Death of Jezebel
For the second lovely time, my Book Club has chosen Christianna Brand, and the timing couldn’t be better. For one thing, Death of Jezebel (1948), her fifth mystery, happens to be next on my list for the glorious wallow that is the Re-Branding Project. For another, it happens to have been, for many a year, the most … Continue reading RE-BRANDING #5/BOOK REPORT #WHATEVAH: Death of Jezebel
LETTERS TO BOOK CLUB: The Documents in the Case
Fans of the GAD blogosphere, you are about to be inundated with Dorothy L. Sayers. Now, Sayers has her fans, of which I am not one. But even I will not make the mistake of underestimating her importance to the genre. Despite only writing a dozen mysteries, Sayers had a profound influence on the evolution … Continue reading LETTERS TO BOOK CLUB: The Documents in the Case
ABRA-CADAVER: Death and the Conjuror
Let’s face it: life these days has not been just a bowl of cherries. You might wonder, then, why I seem to only read books about violent death. The answer, for any fan of classic crime stories at least, is obvious: we read mysteries for the same reason that millions of souls gobbled them up between 1920 … Continue reading ABRA-CADAVER: Death and the Conjuror
Re-Branding #3: The Gold Standard – Green for Danger
A few years ago, I had the good fortune to discuss Green for Danger with two other bloggers: John Norris of Pretty Sinister Books and Ben Randall of The Green Capsule. Here is that conversation, where you’ll discover that the idea I had to revisit all of Christianna Brand’s mysteries is a lot older than even I remembered. It … Continue reading Re-Branding #3: The Gold Standard – Green for Danger
ACDC PART TEN: In Which The Reader Is Warned . . . about The Reader Is Warned
After a notable pause, we return to my Carter Dickson celebration with The Reader Is Warned (1939), the tenth book John Dickson Carr wrote under this pseudonym and the ninth Sir Henry Merrivale mystery. Frankly, this is a difficult one for me to write about because, for the first 168 pages, it is so wonderful that it … Continue reading ACDC PART TEN: In Which The Reader Is Warned . . . about The Reader Is Warned
BOOK CLUB ON THE DEFENSE: The Case of the Shoplifter’s Shoe
Oh, to be in England! This week marks the eve of Bodies from the Library ’22, the long-awaited return to celebrating face-to-face all things related to the Golden Age of Detection. Most of my friends will be there, but here I am, stuck in the provinces. My Facebook feed alternates between the results of friends’ daily … Continue reading BOOK CLUB ON THE DEFENSE: The Case of the Shoplifter’s Shoe
THE CASE FOR THE PROSECUTION: The D.A. Calls It Murder
“The devil of it is, this isn’t like one of those detective stories, which you can solve by merely pointing the finger of suspicion at the guilty person. This is a real life, flesh and blood murder case, where we’ve got to produce actual evidence which can stand up in a court of justice. I’ve … Continue reading THE CASE FOR THE PROSECUTION: The D.A. Calls It Murder
THROWING DOWN THE GAUNTLET: The Best Weapon
Our little circle of folks who enjoy Golden Age mysteries have found untold pleasures finding each other on the Internet. While Agatha Christie may be the most frequently published author of all time, I have become convinced that I may be the only person west of the Mississippi who – well, not reads her, but deep dive-reads her. … Continue reading THROWING DOWN THE GAUNTLET: The Best Weapon
Ah Sweet Mystery! 