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FFB: The Spook Lights Affair - Marcia Muller & Bill Pronzini
THE STORY: Sabina Carpenter's latest gig is more suited for a professional chaperone than a private detective. She's one half of the team of Carpenter and Quincannon and she's got loads of experience...
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FFB: Vicious Circle - Manning Long
THE STORY: Gordon Parrott receives an urgent message from his Aunt Hester in upstate New York. She demands he come for a family gathering at Christmas, not just as her nephew but in "his official...
View ArticleIt Wouldn't Be a Party If It Didn't Have You
MerryChristmas, HappyHolidays, BlessedSolstice ...and all that jazz!And speaking of jazz-- Here's some swingin' holiday cheer. Jane Lynch and pals singing in perfect harmony just for you.Make the most...
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FFB: Sing Me a Murder - Helen Nielsen
THE STORY: Shortly after his wife perishes in a house fire struggling playwright Ty Leander stages a fake suicide in the room of a murdered waitress to generate publicity. Then he announces he feels...
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FFB: A Corpse for Christmas - Henry Kane
THE STORY: Peter Chambers is hired by Genie Tiny, a fellow private eye, to find Sheldon Talbot and Ok a deal she and her employer Barney Bernandino set up with Talbot. Chambers knows Talbot is a...
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FFB: Within the Maze - Ellen Wood
When the discussion of domestic suspense comes up no one ever thinks of Ellen Wood, or Mrs. Henry Wood as she was known back in her heyday as one of the most prolific and perhaps the leading Victorian...
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FFB: Miss Bones - Joan Fleming
THE STORY: Thomas Melsonby accepts a job at Walpurgis, a curio shop specializing in antique paintings, where he will be their art restorer and picture framer. But he has the feeling that something...
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Harry Stephen Keeler Remembered
Harry Stephen Keeler in his youth.On January 22, 1967 the world lost one of its premiere imagineers. Harry Stephen Keeler shuffled off this mortal coil to join his beloved Hazel on that date and the...
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Q Patrick Rarity Unearthed
This morning when I checked my email I got an alert than one of my "want list" books was available for purchase. This happens all too rarely. Last year I got one of these email alerts and I wrote about...
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FFB: The Greenstone Griffins - Gladys Mitchell
THE STORY: A pair of antique candle holders in the form of griffins become an obsession for Jessica Denefield, a young teacher living in rural Longwater Sedge. The Greenstone Griffins (1983), as they...
View ArticleBring Back Emperor Norton!
On September 17, 1859 in San Francisco, Joshua A. Norton proclaimed himself "Emperor of the United States and Protectorate of Mexico". Looking back over his various decrees and proclamations I came...
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FFB: The Screaming Portrait - Ferrin Fraser
Continuing my salute to Alternative Facts Week I offer this pan of a mystery loaded with them. It belongs to the dubious pantheon of Alternative Mysteries. I'll warn you all right now that this post is...
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FFB: Danger Next Door - Q. Patrick
THE STORY: Clark Rodman is fascinated with the apartment across the alley. He watches with curious intensity the occupants and in particular the young woman who lives there. He captivates her. She...
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FFB: The Secret Keeper - Shirley Eskapa
"If you keep a secret properly, so that nobody but you knows about it, then it hasn't happened..."THE STORY: Peter Pritchett-Ward has a diary into which his mother instructs him to write down all his...
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FFB: The D.A.'s Daughter - Herman Petersen
Narrated by Hank Wilbur, a college age man earning extra money to pay for school by selling insurance, The D.A.'s Daughter (1943) is reminiscent of a more adult Nancy Drew mystery. He pairs up with the...
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NEW STUFF: Cat Out of Hell - Lynn Truss
While browsing in a Barnes & Noble bookstore (one of three left in the entire city of Chicago) I came across Cat Out of Hell (2014) by Lynn Truss. The blurb on the book was enticing enough for me...
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The Hex Murder has been reprinted!
Back in October 2016 I wrote an enthusiastic review on an obscure mystery novel about the Amish and powwow men. It's called The Hex Murder by Forrester Hazard who in reality was Alexander Williams, Jr....
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FFB: Requiem at Rogano - Stephen Knight
THE STORY: Having just retired from the police force Inspector Reginald Brough is not finding a life of leisure to his liking. Fortuitously, he receives a letter from his nephew Nicholas who invites...
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FFB: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? - Henry Farrell
On March 5 the first episode of Feud aired on the FX cable network. This mini-series features Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis and Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford and over the course of the next eight...
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FFB: Garnett Weston, Screenplay Writer & Mystery Novelist
Before the perverse fascination of stories about psychopathic serial killers all but ruined crime fiction, mystery writers liked to indulge in stories about crazed multiple murderers. Free from...
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