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

Hag’s Nook (1933) – John Dickson Carr

Old, decrepit, and disused, Chatterham Prison still stoops out of the damp earth of the Lincolnshire fens, its crumbling stones held together by ivy and tradition. One tradition is written out in legal documents drafted by Anthony Starberth, the first Governor of the prison: on his twenty-fifth birthday, the Starberth heir must unlock the door to the Governor's old office, unlock the safe, then read what's inside. The other tradition is written in no documents, but still holds true: the Starberths die of broken…

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9 November, 2024

Authors / Book Reviews / Novels / P. D. James / Post-Golden Age

An Unsuitable Job For A Woman (1972) – P. D. James

Young Cordelia Gray finds herself the sole owner of a private detective agency after the suicide of her partner Bernie. Fortunately for the business, wealthy scientist Sr Ronald Callendar soon hires her to investigate the death of his son. Not that there was anything suspicious about it. It's just that Mark Callendar committed suicide, and Sir Ronald wants to know why. Cordelia travels to Cambridge to investigate, and inserts herself into Mark's social circle. After spending time at the cottage where he stayed in…

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19 October, 2024

Authors / Book Reviews / E. C. R. Lorac / Golden Age / Novels

These Names Make Clues (1937) – E. C. R. Lorac

A chance encounter with publisher Graham Coombe leads to Chief Inspector Macdonald getting an invite to his "Treasure Hunt"; a party where attendees must solve cryptic clues in order to find treasure. With all the guests apparently unknown to each other and going under literary pseudonyms, the evening gets off to a good start - until the lights go out, and a body is found in the telephone room. The dead man is Andrew Gardien, mystery writer, and something of a mystery himself. Further…

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12 October, 2024

Authors / Book Reviews / Georgette Heyer / Golden Age / Novels

Behold, Here’s Poison (1936) – Georgette Heyer

The objectionable patriarch truly is the most dangerous role in detective fiction. Gregory Matthews pops his clogs via poison at a time when almost every member of his family has reason to wish him ill. Might the culprit be his thrift-obsessed sister, Harriet? The dramatic Zoe, wife of his late brother, who goes out of her way to perform virtue; or maybe her children, Stella and Guy, who both have reasons to fear being severed from the inheritance. And who could leave out the…

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5 October, 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…

2 Comments

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

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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 / 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…

5 Comments

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…

2 Comments

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…

5 Comments

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,…

7 Comments

28 January, 2024

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