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FFB: Thirteen Women - Tiffany Thayer
I really don't know what to make of Thirteen Women (1932) by the eccentric stylist Tiffany Thayer. Is it a thriller? Is it a character study? Is it some kind of allegory on Fate? What I do know is it's...
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NEGLECTED DETECTIVES: Superintendent Cobham
Superintendent Cobham is on the case in Between Twelve and One (1929) by prolific (but sadly overlooked) Golden Age detective novelist Vernon Loder. Cobham is a likable detective who does an early form...
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LEFT INSIDE: The Pepsi Generation
We have, in addition to my insanely large collection of vintage crime, adventure & supernatural fiction, a modest collection of vintage cookbooks thanks to Joe's interest in regional American...
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FFB: Too Many Bones - Ruth Sawtell Wallis
Long before Kathy Reichs was writing forensic anthropology mysteries there was the long forgotten academic and physical anthropologist Ruth Sawtell Wallis who perhaps unknowingly created the first...
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IN BRIEF: Death Comes to Cambers - E.R. Punshon
Death Comes to Cambers (1935) was my second venture into the work of E. R. Punshon. I was slightly disappointed. The book is epic length for story essentially about one strangling murder and theft of...
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Drawing on the Past #11: Edwin & Harold Betts
Work: Prince Izon by James Paul Kelly (A. C. McClurg, 1910)Listed in 333, a bibliography of lost race, fantasy, super-natural and science fiction works. Artists: Harold H. Betts & Edwin Betts, Jr....
View ArticleAnimation Noir - "The Mystery of You" by Spencer Day
Spencer Day, an original young jazz vocalist, released a new album back in March. Here's the animated video that accompanies the title track "The Mystery of You." It's a film noir in miniature with a...
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FFB: When I Grow Rich - Joan Fleming
The Turkey described in Joan Fleming's award winning When I Grow Rich (1962) is not meant to be a temptation to tourists. This is not picture postcard pretty Istanbul. It's dirty, fetid, and decrepit...
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The Case of the Frightened Fish - William DuBois
The murder of a lawyer found in a studio apartment in Greenwich Village is tied to the death of a marine biologist in the Bahamas in the unusual and action-oriented sophomore effort The Case of the...
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FFB: Murder in a Nunnery - Eric Shepherd
Jacques Barzun is quick to point out in his brief Catalog of Crime entry for this humanistic detective novel that the setting is not a nunnery but a convent school. True the primary setting is a...
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COOL FLICKS: A Life at Stake (1954)
Crime and noir film devotees know the insurance policy plot is as old as Double Indemnity. Probably even older. A Life at Stake is yet another spin on the hapless mark duped into taking out a life...
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Cobweb House - Elizabeth Hughes Holloway
A decrepit house on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, an oppressive household overseen by the hawk-like Captain Jasper Yancy, a cook who practices voodoo, and a mysterious death should make up the...
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FFB: According to the Evidence - Henry Cecil
"Mr Duffield," interrupted the judge, "I am always loath to intervene when counsel is addressing the jury, but there is a limit you know. You are not entitled to tempt the jury to acquit the accused...
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LEFT INSIDE: Book of the Month Club Advert, 1929.
This was found inside one of the many copies of The Omnibus of Crime I have purchased over the years. The Omnibus of Crime was the Book of the Month Club selection for August 1929. Inside the copy I...
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FFB: Forty Lashes Less One - Elmore Leonard
I wanted a western for today's tribute to Grand Master Elmore Leonard so I chose Forty Lashes Less One (1972) And here were my reasons: very odd title sure to have some unusual meaning, the very cool...
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FLASH FICTION: The Terrible Thing at the Edge of the Lake
Yvette who blogs at "In so many words..." offered up a Flash Fiction Challenge for today. Participants were to write a brief story about what's going on in the painting by Mario Cooper shown at the...
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FFB: Subject--Murder - Clifford Witting
Fans of Foyle's War, the British television series about a policeman who during World War 2 finds himself solving crimes involving military personnel, might be interested in Subject-Murder (1945) a...
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LEFT INSIDE: Ox Yoke Inn post card, circa 1950s
We were in the Des Moines/Ames, Iowa area for Fourth of July weekend. At one of the many rest stops where Joe likes to gather brochures and flyers on intriguing restaurants that serve up regional...
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The Obeah Murders - Hulbert Footner
It takes a while for The Obeah Murders (1937) to live up to its alluring title hinting at black magic practices in the Caribbean. The novel starts off with Phil Nevitt, employee with an American liquor...
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FFB: Dreadful Hollow - Irina Karlova
This Gothic supernatural novel with detective novel elements wavers between genuinely creepy and outrageous self-parody. At the time I was reading it I wondered if Karlova is a pseudonym for some...
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