Novels Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Playing Detective

The Lost Gallows (1931) – John Dickson Carr

A limousine joyrides through the fogbound streets of London with a corpse at the wheel. The shadow of a gallows is seen on an unknown street. Nezam al Moulk receives threatening packages delivered directly to his room even though no one could have entered.Ten years ago a duel was fought in Paris - and now the mysterious hangman Jack Ketch wants revenge. Will he drag his victims to Ruination Street, or can Henri Bencolin stop him before it's too late? Henri Bencolin and Jeff…

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18 July, 2023

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Authors / Book Reviews / Golden Age / Ngaio Marsh / Novels

Death at the Bar (1940) – Ngaio Marsh

Ngaio Marsh has long been considered one of the "Queens of Crime", a leading author in the fair-play detective tradition of the inter-war years. You just have to look at the laudatory comments covering my reprint edition to see her reputation - "She writes better than Christie", "Among the Queens of Crime she stands out as an Empress", and so on. Reactions I've seen on classic crime fiction blogs have been… less positive. However, this is my first time reading a Marsh book, so…

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10 July, 2023

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

It Walks By Night (1930) – John Dickson Carr

John Dickson Carr is a pretty special author to me. He was the first Classic Crime author I really got into after the obvious Agatha Christie, and discovering the joys of a good Carr or Carter Dickson is what made me want to explore more to see what else was out there. I've already read a lot of his books, but I want to share my enjoyment of them by re-reading them and writing reviews. I've decided to start at the beginning for now,…

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12 June, 2023

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Authors / Book Reviews / Dashiell Hammett / Novels / Other Classic

The Thin Man (1934) – Dashiell Hammett

Ex- private detective Nick Charles returns to New York with his wife Nora (and dog Asta) for what he thinks will be a brief Christmas holiday, and a chance to catch up with old friends. When he bumps into Dorothy Wynant, daughter of Nick's old client Clyde Wynant, she asks him to track down her father, the titular Thin Man. Nick does his best to avoid getting pulled back into detecting. But the murder of Clyde Wynant's secretary Julia Wolf drags Nick further and…

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15 May, 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

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Authors / Book Reviews / E. C. Bentley / Novels / Pre-Golden Age

Trent’s Last Case (1913) – E. C. Bentley

Published in 1913, Edmund Clerihew Bentley's first detective novel, Trent's Last Case, is sometimes cited as an early beginning for the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, the inter-war (with change) period when clues, twists, and the intellectual challenge were at the height of their popularity in crime fiction. So what better book to kick off the blog? The titular Last Case concerns the shooting of Sigsbee Manderson, the Napoleon of Finance. His body is found just next to his shed, with a bullet wound…

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1 May, 2023