Modern Archives - Playing Detective

The Book Forger (2024) – Joseph Hone

I first discovered the story of Thomas Wise and the 19th Century Pamphlets via two reviews - one from Dorothy L. Sayers and one from Anthony Boucher. They were reviewing two different books, but seemed to find the real life case they both centred on to be a fascinating example of a real-life detective story. Faced with these endorsements, I had to look up the Enquiry Into the Nature of Certain Nineteenth Century Pamphlets - and I quickly became obsessed. Since reading that book…

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27 October, 2024

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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

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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

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Authors / Book Reviews / Elly Griffiths / Modern / Novels

The Postscript Murders (2020) – Elly Griffiths

As a Golden Age of Detection fanatic, me reviewing a modern crime novel is a bit like a velociraptor reviewing an iPhone. But Elly Griffiths' The Postscript Murders has a stronger than usual connection to the Golden Age.The story starts with the death of Peggy Smith, ninety-year-old resident of the Seaview Apartments in Shoreham on Sea. Her carer, Natalka, thinks she was murdered, and through force of personality manages to convince DS Harbinder Kaur, Peggy's neighbour Edwin, and the owner of a local cafe,…

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18 September, 2023

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Authors / Book Reviews / China Miéville / Modern / Novels / Sci-Fi

The City & The City (2009) – China Miéville

Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Bezsel Extreme Crimes Unit is assigned to investigate the case of an unknown woman whose body has been found discarded in a dilapidated urban area. Leads are few, until he gets an extra-legal tipoff, and begins to uncover a conspiracy that reaches wider than he thinks… This celebrated science-fiction novel is in fact also a detective novel, and a pretty good one too. The strange location and themes of the sci-fi intertwine with the position and investigative procedure of…

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1 May, 2023