Maybe it’s because of the company I keep: JJ over at The Invisible Event, Tomcat over at Beneath the Stains of Time, and Ben at The Green Capsule all focus much of their energies on impossible crimes and the work of the Master of that sub-genre, John Dickson Carr. (Heck, The Green Capsule is entirely … Continue reading STEP BY (FOOT)STEP: Carter Dickson’s She Died a Lady
CALLING DR. DEATH: The Wonderful World of The Inner Sanctum
“This is the Inner Sanctum - a strange, fantastic world controlled by a mass of living, pulsating flesh – the mind. It destroys, distorts, creates monsters . . . commits murder. Yes, even you, without knowing, can commit murder!” Every month over at Past Offenses, Rich Westwood picks a different year to celebrate for the … Continue reading CALLING DR. DEATH: The Wonderful World of The Inner Sanctum
IT’S ALL RELATIVE: Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt
Over at Past Offenses this month, Rich Westwood is hosting a celebration of the best mysteries of 1943. Anybody who wants to can select a book or film from that year and put something together. I’m grateful to Rich for providing a forum for folks to share their views and opinions, and I’m especially glad … Continue reading IT’S ALL RELATIVE: Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt
IT’S COMPLICATED: Agatha Christie’s Best Triangles
Happy Valentine’s Day, everybody! All month, the Tuesday Night Bloggers are appropriately celebrating the theme of Love (and Murder) in Bloom. Here is a link to last week’s posts: Week 1 And here is the latest batch: Kate at Cross Examining Crime discusses some of her favorite movie mystery romances and comes up with some … Continue reading IT’S COMPLICATED: Agatha Christie’s Best Triangles
WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT: Agatha Christie’s Best Couples
Despite being our shortest month, February carries a lot of responsibility on its shoulders. It’s the month when two of America’s most important presidents were born, when the Chinese celebrate the lunar New Year, when winter’s length relies on a bashful groundhog, when Catholics mark their foreheads with ashes, and when the jazz and booze … Continue reading WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT: Agatha Christie’s Best Couples
. . . A PLACE WHERE DREAMS ARE BORN: Finding Neverland
As you get older, one of the more interesting and, perhaps, melancholy aspects of life is watching things you identified as cultural icons slip into the darkness of lost memory. Mary Tyler Moore, who died recently, starred in two of my favorite sitcoms of all time and represented a certain type of woman who combined … Continue reading . . . A PLACE WHERE DREAMS ARE BORN: Finding Neverland
TAKING A NEW CARR ROUND THE BLOCK: The Ten Teacups
I’m envious whenever I read another mystery fan describe how much they love the ten Agatha Christie novels they’ve read . . . or the fifteen, or the three, and so on. The lucky devils! What pleasures they still have in store. I often wish that someone would unearth previously unpublished titles by my favorite … Continue reading TAKING A NEW CARR ROUND THE BLOCK: The Ten Teacups
MY FIRST DETECTIVE
January turned out to be a month of reminiscence and personal "shtuff" for The Tuesday Night Bloggers, all because of our month’s topic of “firsts.” Oh sure, sometimes we focused on the first appearance of a certain detective or a certain trope of sub-genre of mystery fiction. But as often as not, my fellow bloggers … Continue reading MY FIRST DETECTIVE
WHO’S ON FIRST? A Man, a Mug, and a Da Vinci, That’s Who!
All this month, the Tuesday Night Bloggers are talking about "firsts," famous and otherwise. After writing about the first detectives in literature and the first Christie, it suddenly occurred to me that, if you're going to take a purely historical approach to a theme, you had better know a damn sight more about mystery history than … Continue reading WHO’S ON FIRST? A Man, a Mug, and a Da Vinci, That’s Who!
THE FIRST POIROT
Here is how Agatha Christie remembers it: She and Madge were discussing one of the newly published mystery novels they had both read and enjoyed. Christie believes it was Gaston LeRoux’ The Mystery of the Yellow Room, which would place this event around 1908. At this time, the two sisters occasionally dabbled in writing; Madge … Continue reading THE FIRST POIROT
Ah Sweet Mystery! 