#439: Nine – and Death Makes Ten, a.k.a. Murder in the Atlantic, a.k.a....
Yes, this was supposed to be The Spanish Cape Mystery (1935) by Ellery Queen in preparation for the forthcoming spoiler-filled look at Halfway House (1936). Yes, you all warned me that book was awful,...
View Article#444: The Criminous Alphabet – A is for…Alibi [Part 1 of 2]
Okay, let’s get into it: Or, if you prefer: Suppose these two, knowing of each other’s position, had conspired together to commit the crime which would relieve the necessities of both? In some way not...
View Article#450: The Criminous Alphabet – A is for…Anticlimax
Noah Stewart, one of the most knowledgable people currently blogging on the subject of GAD, once said that Romance and Detection are the two genres wherein the ending is never in doubt before you’ve...
View Article#453: The Criminous Alphabet – A is for…Audience
There’s a philosophical debate in Mathematics about whether mathematics itself pre-exists and is simply discovered as we progress into new areas or whether it is created as we go along and so each new...
View Article#481: The Seat of the Scornful, a.k.a. Death Turns the Tables (1941) by John...
It’s cold outside, it’s dark outside — yes, thank-you, The Southern Hemisphere, no-one likes a smartarse — Christmas is over; time to battle through with some beloved authors. First up, and most...
View Article#520: Seeing is Believing, a.k.a. Cross of Murder (1941) by Carter Dickson
Socialising is difficult, isn’t it? One minute you’re making polite dinner party conversation about jobs with someone you’ve only just met, the next a hypnotist performs a few mesmeric passes and goads...
View Article#527: Plotting the Perfect Crime – Potential and Pay-Off via The House of...
Slowly, slowly I work my way through the Otto Penzler-edited Woo Whatta Lotta Locked Room Mysteries (2014) — it’s not really a convenient size to dip into — and, since my chronological reading of...
View Article#533: “Magicians have an advantage; they never have to reveal the trick” – An...
Back in December 2015 I read and reviewed Matt Ingwalson’s first two self-published Owl and Raccoon novellas and, impressed with their quality, undertook what has since become my Adventures in...
View Article#546: The 10 Types of Impossible Crime – Categories and Titles from Our Talk...
After being on something of an enforced hiatus for a little while, The Men Who Explain Miracles, the occasional podcast run by Dan from The Reader is Warned and myself, returned yesterday for a live...
View Article#557: The Gilded Man (1942) by Carter Dickson
It had been my intention to review a book by a new-to-me author this week, but thankfully I was able to get to it a little ahead of time and watch disconsolately as, after a bright start, it fizzled...
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#578: She Died a Lady (1943) by Carter Dickson
Firstly, good heavens the excitement of posting a John Dickson Carr review without then tagging it OOP — Polygon Books have Hag’s Nook (1933), The Case of the Constant Suicides (1941), and She Died a...
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#579: Cover Stars – Abigail Salvesen on Hag’s Nook (1930) and She Died a Lady...
Book cover art is, for me, a source of huge excitement. Be it for reasons of apt evocation of a bygone era — the British Library Crime Classics, say, or the reams of Dean Street Press reissues — or...
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#605: Castle Skull (1931) by John Dickson Carr
I’m being a bit cheeky here, using what I believe will be the cover for the British Library Crime Classics reissue of this due out early next year when it’s not actually my copy — I’ll show that below...
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#649: The Curse of the Bronze Lamp, a.k.a. Lord of the Sorcerers (1945) by...
You may view the above rating of this book as too harsh, and you may be right. Honestly, I’ve struggled with how good The Curse of the Bronze Lamp, a.k.a. Lord of the Sorcerers (1945) may or may not...
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In GAD We Trust – Episode 5: GAD in the Time of COVID-19 [w’ Brad @...
As the COVID-19 pandemic rolls into its 348th week, Brad from AhSweetMysteryBlog is here with some salutary advice. See, back in March, Brad made a great case for the approaching crisis and enforced...
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In GAD We Trust – Episode 8: Uncovering Long-Forgotten Short Stories + Bodies...
Today was due to have been the sixth (sixth!) Bodies from the Library conference at the British Library but, for obvious reasons, it’s not. I can’t, alas, give you a whole day of GAD-based...
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#693: My Late Wives (1946) by Carter Dickson
As a reader, there’s a tension to be found at the heart of every writer’s work once it’s a closed set, especially when they’ve scaled the heights that John Dickson Carr did: with nothing else to be...
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In GAD We Trust – Episode 10: Genre and Detective Fiction [w’ Ryan O’Neill]
A final (for now) podcast episode before I head off on hiatus, this time discussing the idea of genre with author Ryan O’Neill. This was going to be the first episode of a loose series on the theme of...
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#702: Shedunnit x The Invisible Event – Locked Room Mysteries
You’re doubtless aware of the superbly wide-ranging Golden Age-focussed Shedunnit podcast run by Caroline Crampton, and I was delighted to be asked to contribute to an episode about locked room...
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#704: “That’s an interesting choice of phrase, young man…”– The Dead Sleep...
It’s fair to say that no-one has done more for the curation of John Dickson Carr’s work than Douglas G. Greene: collecting various obscure short pieces in the likes of The Door to Doom and Other...
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