1920s Archives - Playing Detective

Mr. Fortune, Please (1927) – H.C. Bailey

I've previously come across H.C. Bailey's Reggie Fortune short stories via their appearances in the British Library Crime Classics anthologies, and I often count them as my favourites when they appear. Reggie Fortune is a medical doctor who becomes a consultant for the police. He often acts childishly, though he has a ruthless streak, and has an odd, elliptical way of speaking. He can seem omniscient at times, which is lucky, as he seems happy to cause justice to occur outside the limits of…

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21 September, 2024

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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

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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

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Authors / John Dickson Carr / Short Stories

The Beginning of Bencolin – John Dickson Carr’s short stories in The Haverfordian

After finishing The Lost Gallows I wanted to go back to the short stories that featured Henri Bencolin and Sir John Landervorne. I've also been pretty busy, so I thought a review of the four stories would be a nice quick way to get back into posting. Things did not work out that way… These stories were among Carr's first detective stories, and they were published in Carr's college magazine The Haverfordian between 1926 and 1928, when Carr was in his early twenties. By…

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13 August, 2023

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Authors / Book Reviews / Dorothy L. Sayers / Golden Age / Short Stories

Lord Peter Views the Body (1928) – Dorothy L. Sayers

This first collection of Dorothy L. Sayers' short stories was published in 1928, after a few Lord Peter Wimsey novels had already been published. The stories range from tales of detection, through tales of puzzle-solving, and into tales of adventure. Aside from all sharing the trait of ridiculously long titles, quite a few of them are what I'll call "hobby-themed"; they turn on a particular interest. Generally this is a high-culture or high-class interest. Lord Peter resolves the plot through his specialist knowledge of…

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22 May, 2023