Authors / Book Reviews / John Finnemore / Modern

A Puzzle in Postcards – The Researcher’s First Murder

I received a mysterious package in the post last week. It appeared to be a book, but was really a box containing 100 curious postcards, which told the story of many murders. OK, so it was only mysterious because I'd forgot that I backed The Researcher's First Murder on Unbound several months ago and the "book" only just released. I'll call it a book for lack of a better term. This project is the brainchild of John Finnemore - noted British comedy writer. Those…

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7 September, 2024

Authors / Book Reviews / Golden Age / Novels / Rex Stout

The League of Frightened Men (1935) – Rex Stout

Twenty-five years ago, a group of Harvard students pulled a "prank" on underclassman Paul Chapin that went wrong and permanently damaged his leg. Some students became friends with Paul, and the more guilt-stricken ones formed a "League of Atonement". Now, Paul is a successful novelist who writes stories that may be violent revenge fantasies. Or are they just fantasies? Two members of the League have died recently, and an anonymous writer has sent threats to the remainder of the League. When league member Andrew…

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24 August, 2024

Authors / Book Reviews / Golden Age / John Dickson Carr / Novels

Poison In Jest (1932) – John Dickson Carr

When Jeff Marle returns home to Pennsylvania for the first time in years, he visits his old friends the Quayles. But the respectable family isn't as he remembered them - he's shocked by the tattered state of both the house and the Quayles' nerves. Patriarch Judge Quayle is poisoned right in front of Jeff and nearly dies, and this near-tragedy is followed by another poisoning, and then a more brutal attack. Without the help of his friend Bencolin, will Jeff manage to find the…

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17 August, 2024

Authors / Book Reviews / Christopher Bush / Golden Age / Novels

The Case of the Missing Minutes (1937) – Christopher Bush

The house of Highways, just outside the resort village of Seabreak, is home to Quentin Trowte and his granddaughter Jeanne. The servants live in a bungalow close by. Fearful of losing their positions, they ignore the screaming they hear every night, until at last they call in Ludovic Travers - via his sister Helen - to investigate.But on Travers' first night-time visit to the house, he finds Quentin dying of a stab wound.While Travers begins to uncover the truth about Highways, young Jeanne goes…

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10 August, 2024

Authors / Book Reviews / Novels / Seicho Matsumoto

Tokyo Express – Seichō Matsumoto (1958 trans. Jesse Kirkwood 2022)

Two bodies are found lying together on a windswept beach in southern Japan. Toki was a waitress at a Tokyo restaurant, and Sayama worked in a government department under investigation for corruption. The police believe the two must have committed suicide together. All except local inspector Jūtarō Torigai, who begins to have doubts. When dynamic Inspector Mihara of Tokyo's anti-corruption police hears about this, he picks up the investigation with a vengeance. He becomes suspicious of a successful businessman with friends in high places…

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3 August, 2024

Authors / Book Reviews / Clayton Rawson / Golden Age / Novels

Death From a Top Hat (1938) – Clayton Rawson

Freelance journalist Ross Harte finds a story right on his doorstep when his creepy neighbour Cesare Sabbat is murdered in his locked apartment - seemingly after summoning a demon. The problem seems impossible, and with the suspects full of magicians and psychics and showmen of every kind, knowing whose story can be believed is even more impossible. Enter The Great Merlini, whose magical mind is the only hope for finding the killer - but not before a few more impossible happenings are added to…

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27 July, 2024

Authors / John Dickson Carr

The Corpse in the Waxworks (1932) – John Dickson Carr

If Paris's Augustin Waxworks are known at all, it's for their frighteningly realistic Chamber of Horrors. So when a woman disappears there, and a ghost appears, naturally Henri Bencolin is interested. But a night-time investigation brings more than he bargained for, as a fresh corpse has been added to the roster of horrors. The trail soon leads to the manipulative Etienne Galant, and a secret club for high-class Parisians. It's been a long time since I've written about Carr. I'd been anticipating The Corpse…

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13 July, 2024

Authors / Joel Townsley Rogers

The Red Right Hand (1945) – Joel Townsley Rogers

Dr Harry Riddle and Elinor Darrie are sheltering in a remote Connecticut holiday home. Outside lurks a crazed killer. The police are out searching for him. His next target is Elinor, who lies asleep on the couch. Dr Riddle, desperate, trawls back through the nightmarish events of that day in search of answers. Dr Riddle has seen nothing - and yet, the madman's joyride must have driven right through him. Dr Riddle searches his memories for the killer, and finds only echoes… In looking…

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29 June, 2024

Authors / Book Reviews / Golden Age / Nicholas Blake / Novels

The Beast Must Die (1938) – Nicholas Blake

"I am going to kill a man. I don't know his name, I don't know where he lives, I have no idea what he looks like. But I am going to find him and kill him…" - so begins mystery writer Frank Cairnes' diary. Already a widower, after his son dies in a hit-and-run accident, he devotes himself to the goal of murdering the man responsible. A chance discovery sets him on the right path, and he soon inveigles his way into his would-be…

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18 June, 2024

Authors / Book Reviews / Carol Carnac / Novels / Post-Golden Age

Crossed Skis (1952) – Carol Carnac

Stifled by grey post-WW2 London, Bridget Manners and a group of her friends (and friends of friends) escape to the beautiful ski slopes of Lech in Austria. Their bliss is only slightly disrupted by a few odd incidents.Meanwhile, back in London, Mrs Stein's house has burned down - and sadly, one of her tenants seems to have perished from the blaze. A chance observation - the print of a ski pole - links the case to a daring bank robbery from a few months…

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25 May, 2024

Authors / Book Reviews / Golden Age / Mavis Doriel Hay / Novels

Death on the Cherwell (1935) – Mavis Doriel Hay

Four undergraduates of the female-only Persephone College, Oxford University, meet on the roof of the boathouse one cold January day to form the Lode League. Its purpose of cursing the hated Bursar of their college, Miss Denning, becomes a bit awkward when the League spot her drowned body drifting downstream in her canoe. The League decides to protect their friends from any accusations by investigating. Death on the Cherwell was another of my holiday reads. I hadn't intended to get it, but Blackwell's Bookshop…

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12 May, 2024

Authors / Book Reviews / Edmund Crispin / Golden Age / Novels

The Moving Toyshop (1946) – Edmund Crispin

Poet Richard Cadogan is having a bit of a mid-life crisis, and decides that the best remedy is a trip to Oxford, where he studied at University. He gets the adventure he seeks and more after finding a dead body in an abandoned toyshop and being knocked out. On waking up to find the body missing, he then manages to lose the toyshop as well. Luckily, he knows who to turn to in a bizzare criminal situation: Gervase Fen, the eccentric Oxford don whose…

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28 April, 2024

Authors / Book Reviews / Golden Age / Nap Lombard / Novels

Murder’s a Swine (1943) – Nap Lombard

One night early in the Second World War, Agnes Kinghof finds a body outside her block of flats, and her neighbour is disturbed by the appearance of a pig's head at her top-floor window. A mysterious person calling themself the "Pig-sticker" claims credit for both, and what's worse, the killer appears to be living within the block of flats. Agnes and her husband Andrew decide it would be a lot of fun to investigate, and they have to face down a prank war, cursed…

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13 April, 2024

A.A. Milne / Authors / Book Reviews / Golden Age / Novels

The Red House Mystery (1922) – A.A. Milne

Anthony Gillingham is the ultimate dilettante. He uses his considerable allowance as a safety net while exploring all aspects of life in London, taking on many jobs in the quest for new experiences. When he decides to drop in on a friend staying at The Red House, he arrives just in time to find the corpse of the owner's wastrel brother from Australia, Robert. The owner, Mark Ablett, has also vanished from the scene, with his cousin Matthew Cayley left to manage the house…

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24 March, 2024

Authors / Book Reviews / James Scott Byrnside / Modern / Novels

Goodnight Irene (2018) – James Scott Byrnside

It's 1927, and Chicago private detective Rowan Manory is struggling both financially and emotionally after a routine case goes horribly wrong. So when he recieves a request from former Chicago gangster and bootlegger Robert Lasciva, the offer is too good to pass up… plus Manory has some more personal reasons for taking the case. But when Manory and his assistant Walter Williams travel to the moonshiner's Mississipi mansion, they find it atop an isolated ridge as a near-biblical flood rages around it. The guests…

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11 March, 2024

Authors / Book Reviews / Christianna Brand / Golden Age / Novels

Suddenly at His Residence (1946) – Christianna Brand

Sir Richard March "invites" his grandchildren back to his mansion Swanswater, where he lives with his second wife, Bella. At this time every year the family must gather to perform a memorial ritual on the anniversary of his first wife Serafita's death. But this year, with bombs falling in London and Kent, and an affair in the offing between cousins, Sir Richard retreats to the lodge house for the night threatening to cut his grandchildren out of the will. The next morning, he is…

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24 February, 2024

Authors / Book Reviews / Golden Age / Josephine Tey / Novels

Miss Pym Disposes (1946) – Josephine Tey

The unexpected success of her pop-psychology book has made former French teacher Lucy Pym London's latest literary celebrity. When she receives a lecture invitation from her old friend Henrietta - now headmistress of Leys Physical Training College - Miss Pym eagerly accepts. She expects to stay for just a single night - but after the students win her over, she extends her stay - for just a few days… then a few weeks.At first, life in the college seems idyllic (especially for Lucy Pym,…

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28 January, 2024

Agatha Christie / Authors / Book Reviews / Golden Age / Short Stories

Christie For Christmas! The Thirteen Problems

It's Christmas! Well, it was Christmas. Reviews are like Christmas cards - better late than never. I hope that all of you have a great New Year.I thought it was high time to cover an Agatha Christie on this blog - and given I love short stories, this was the first thing I turned to. I should mention that, between Poirot and Miss Marple, my favourite is the spinster sleuth of St. Mary Mead. These thirteen stories mark the debut of Miss Marple, before…

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30 December, 2023

Authors / Book Reviews / Golden Age / John Bude / Novels

Death on the Riviera – John Bude (1952)

Detective-Inspector Meredith and Sergeant Strang are heading to the French Riviera to assist in breaking up a currency counterfeiting ring, and bring at least one of its members back to England with them. Along with their French colleagues Blampignon and Gibaud, they quickly pick up a trail that leads to the Villa Paloma, where rich widow Nesta Hedderwick lives with her niece Dilys, her companion Miss Pillgrew, the gigolo-esque Tony, his friend Kitty, and the artist Paul Latour. They're soon joined by Bill Dillon,…

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4 December, 2023

Authors / Book Reviews / Dorothy Bowers / Golden Age / Novels

Fear For Miss Betony – Dorothy Bowers (1941)

Former governess Emma Betony is interrupted in her attempt to join a retirement community for gentlewomen by a letter from one of her former charges, Grace Aram. Miss Betony used to regale Grace with exotic tales of her aunt, Mary Shagreen, which provided a bright spot in her childhood. Grace now runs a small school which has been evacuated to a former nursing home in the countryside - though two of the patients still live on the site. Grace begs Miss Betony for help;…

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19 November, 2023