Clik here to view.
Best Vintage Mystery Reprint 2022, part two
The nomination process continues across the vintage mystery blogosphere this weekend. Others have theirs posted. I was away the entire day yesterday, up in Milwaukee to see their version of A...
View ArticleIt's Christmas/ Why Can't We All Just Get Along?
Here's some swinging holiday flavored jazz from the past and the present. First, the great Ella Fitzgerald swings on an old standard accompanied by a birds-eye view (reindeer's eye view?) animated...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Empty Bed - Herbert Adams
I read three books that were set around or on Christmas Day during December and have managed to finish only one in time for the end of 2022. One I stopped because it was so dull in its 33 pages of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Psst... Over Here!
Hello, there! Remember me? I think eight month’s hiatus is a little too long to have taken for what I thought was going to be “a little break”. What have I been up to? Oh, this and that…I came to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nice People Don’t Kill – F. W. Bronson
First mystery novels can be fascinating. What does the writer want to try out as an entry point into the world of the whodunit? Will it be a locked room murder? A noirish private eye novel? An inverted...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Night's Candles - Anne Hocking
I must give credit where credit is due. One of my frequent readers who also often buys books from me (yes, I still do that on the side. Feel free to email me!) got me interested in the work of Anne...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Let X Be the Murderer - Clifford Witting
Lookee here-- It's a book that was recently reprinted and one that you can actually purchase without having to take out a second mortgage! I did promise a few books that were much easier (and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Celia Dale -- Mistress of Menace
Readers of this blog know the term domestic suspense as a subgenre that encompasses crime novels usually set in sinister suburbs populated with secretive close knit families and dozens of housewives...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Murder without Clues - Joseph L Bonney
A dead body in a locked room, a house surrounded by undisturbed snow, all suspects have an alibi but one and yet it seems that one person could not have committed the crime. Another ingenious John...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Glass Heart - Marty Holland
Down on his luck Curt Blair is waiting out a rainstorm in a “ritzy hash joint” just outside of Hollywood, USA when he steals a fancy camel hair overcoat then flees intending to sell the coat. It’s how...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Year in Review (part 1)
Sometimes a sudden change in one's life is all one needs to reevaluate what gives life purpose, meaning and most importantly joy.I am now retired. It was planned for this year, but came six months...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Year in Review (part 2)
Here is the continuation of my 2024 reading summation. In looking over my reading log I see a predominance of newly translated Japanese detective novels, a small pile of contemporary ghost and horror...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Books for Sale!
I'm slowly but surely adding books to my primary website: eBay. The first eleven books are now available.As the days pass I'll add more. By the end of this month there ought to be close to 200 books...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Let the Man Die - S. H. Courtier
Supt. Ambrose Mahon comes to Corelia Bush Nursing Hospital to prevent a murder. An anonymous note implies someone will die on night of May 11-12, the anniversary of a hatchet murder that took place 22...
View ArticleClik here to view.
NEGLECTED DETECTIVES: Rosalie LeGrange, medium turned sleuth for hire
THE STORY: Dr. Walter Blake meets Annette Markham on a train and falls in love with her. She tells him she is not meant for men according to her aunt and guardian, Paula Markham, a student of Eastern...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Murder Up the Glen - Colin Campbell
THE STORY: Lorin Weir is on a walking tour of the West Highlands. He is warned to stay away from his intended hiking paths because of the dangerous poorly maintained trails that proved deadly to a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Opera Murders - Kirby Williams
THE STORY: The Illinois Grand Opera Federation is being plagued by gruesome deaths. The opera company's small group of divas are turning up dead. All of the methods employed mimic the deaths of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
IN BRIEF: Exit with Intent - Philip Loraine
Theater Royal in Grafton is in trouble. Just before opening night of Here Comes Harry, a variety revue starring Happy Harry Hemple, the comedian headliner star, disappears along with Vera Silverini,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
NEGLECTED DETECTIVES: Amy Brewster, Larger than Life Lawyer/Detective
The first words Amy Brewster utters in her debut mystery novel are: "Of course he didn't you quibbling corporation jackanapes!" All 300 pounds of her barges into the room chomping on a Havana cigar...
View ArticleClik here to view.
FIRST BOOKS: The Eames-Erskine Case - A. Fielding
THE STORY: Augustus Beale is relatively calm when he reports that he has found a dead body in his wardrobe in Room 11 of the Enterprise Hotel. In Chief Inspector Pointer turns up on the scene to rule...
View ArticleClik here to view.
FIRST BOOKS: Murder in Make-Up - Charles Ashton
THE STORY: During the filming of Tempest, a crime movie about a gentleman thief, the actor playing the thief is found stabbed behind a bit of scenery. The movie crew insists that the police remove the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dragon's Cave - Clyde B Clason
THE STORY: Jonas Wright, owner of an engraving business in Chicago, is found stabbed in a locked room where he housed his collection of medieval and historical weaponry. One of those weapons in his...
View ArticleClik here to view.
NEW STUFF: Strange Pictures - Uketsu
I guess I have a problem with the "new honkaku" writers coming out of Japan. I've always enjoyed the traditional Japanese mystery writers like Shoji Shimada when quite by chance decades ago I stumbled...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Bus Ran Late - G. M . Wilson
Several years ago I wrote a piece on the use of supernatural in the early detective novels of G. M. Wilson. I've continued to read her books as I own all but two titles, but have been disappointed with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Death Greets a Guest - Charles Ashton
THE STORY: At a meeting of an archeological society a sudden torrential downpour sends all of the members, who were outside smoking and chatting, ducking for cover. Most made it back indoors some only...
View Article