Today’s post is not so much tinged with irony as soaked in it. Many months ago, Kate Jackson invited me to be part of a sort of “contest” designed to cast a light on some of the marvelous re-issues of classic mysteries that have occurred this year. We were asked to name our poison, so … Continue reading REPRINT OF THE YEAR : Les Crimes Impossibles, à la Française
HOLIDAYS WITH IRA
This year marks the first in a very long time that I did not show Rosemary’s Baby to my film class on Halloween. If you know the film you probably consider this a good idea: what is the man thinking to show a bunch of 14-year-olds a movie about a young wife who gets raped by Satan … Continue reading HOLIDAYS WITH IRA
REPRINT OF THE YEAR: The Stuff That (Bad) Dreams Are Made Of
In case you weren’t paying attention last weekend, Kate Jackson of Cross Examining Crime has assembled an illustrious group of bloggers to highlight some of the great vintage mysteries that have been republished in 2018. I jumped at the chance to be included in this because it gave me a chance to spread the most … Continue reading REPRINT OF THE YEAR: The Stuff That (Bad) Dreams Are Made Of
NOAH
Today, the intimate coterie of online Golden Age Detection fans, the women and men who argue, discuss, bolster each other and in all ways thrive together – today, we lost a dear friend. Noah Stewart traded in bookselling for many years. He knew a lot. He had a delightful sense of humor. His blog site … Continue reading NOAH
THE MAN WHO READ THE MAN WHO READ MYSTERIES
Throughout high school and well into college, I subscribed to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Although the Golden Age of mystery "ended" around 1940 and the Silver Age . . . well, did Vietnam end the Silver Age of just about everything? At any rate, let's say the Silver Age faded through the 1960's (and someone … Continue reading THE MAN WHO READ THE MAN WHO READ MYSTERIES
A.C.D.B. – An Announcement!
I know my London friends will wake up, open this and mutter, “Dude’s a day late!” However, it is still November 30thin these parts, and so it is still John Dickson Carr’s birthday! Since the man has given me cause to celebrate multiple times since I was about 13, I figure I owe him at least … Continue reading A.C.D.B. – An Announcement!
OH, THE PRESUMPTION OF THE MAN! (Listing the Best Women in Christie)
Today, my buddy Kate at Cross Examining Crime posted a review of Agatha Christie’s The Man in the Brown Suit. It wasn’t her first reading of the book, but she still didn’t love it, and I have to say – good for you, Kate! This is supposed to be one of Christie’s finest thrillers, featuring … Continue reading OH, THE PRESUMPTION OF THE MAN! (Listing the Best Women in Christie)
KOYAANISQATSI: A Life Out of Balance
October 28. That’s the last time I posted on this site. But don’t think I haven’t been busy since then. Why, I’ve read the first chapter or two of nearly a dozen books, including the following: The Shop Window Murders, by Vernon Loder So Pretty a Problem, by Francis Duncan Charlie Chan Carries On, by … Continue reading KOYAANISQATSI: A Life Out of Balance
“I HOPE TO HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN BY NOON”*: Fredric Brown’s The Far Cry
“He sat and thought and drank. He looked at his watch and it was a few minutes after eleven. And after a long while he looked at his watch again . . . and it was still the same time. So he’d forgotten to wind his watch that morning, and now he didn’t know what … Continue reading “I HOPE TO HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN BY NOON”*: Fredric Brown’s The Far Cry
THE TRAGEDY OF Zzzzzzzzzz
One could write an amusing post about authorial pseudonyms and the reasons for them. How many writers donned a literary disguise out of a sense of shame that they were dabbling in an “inferior” genre? Surely a poet of great stature in the United Kingdom like Cecil Day-Lewis could not write thrillers under his own … Continue reading THE TRAGEDY OF Zzzzzzzzzz
Ah Sweet Mystery! 