Detecting Great Crime Fiction
When I reviewed The Murder at the Vicarage earlier this month, I did so with a couple of reasons in mind. One was to continue my efforts to even up my coverage of Christie's two major sleuths. The other was to make sure I had reread it before this full-cast Audible production dropped yesterday. While this production is largely faithful to the text, it does make a very significant structural change…
Having seen less than a dozen episodes, I would hardly count myself a devoted fan of The Golden Girls. In spite of that, I had a surprisingly good time with Rachel Ekstrom Courage s Murder by Cheesecake, the first book in this series, last year. This second installment offers more of the same, though the focus [ ]
How do you take a character built for a series of short stories and turn them into the protagonist of a novel? That is the challenge Agatha Christie gave herself with The Murder at the Vicarage. Miss Marple would, of course, go on to become a character who rivals her other major detective, Hercule Poirot, in appeal. That she did is a reflection of the clever choices and design found in this, her…
When it comes to historical mysteries, my preference is to look for an interesting and unique setting. Steve Goble s Spider John mysteries certainly deliver in that regard, taking place during the final years of the Golden Age of Piracy. A Bottle of Rum serves up much the same mix of elements that its predecessors did, [ ]
This week s podcast episode is coming to you after a few unintended delays. The weather here has been really stormy the past few days, making finding time to record tricky. Though perhaps the thunder crashing and heavy rain would have given this an appropriately moody feel. Fortunately we were given a brief respite from the [ ]
In the past I've written about works that fall outside of the mystery genre that I've chosen to look at through that lens. Today's book presents a mirror to that situation. While My Grandfather, the Master Detective is styled and structured as a work of mystery fiction, it is just as interested in issues of aging and living with dementia...
Author Mary Stewart was one of the leading writers of the romantic suspense subgenre of mystery fiction. This is a type of story in which, usually, an everyday heroine finds herself wrapped up in a thrilling adventure, often encountering (or accompanied by) a handsome protector who she will work with to solve a mystery.
It is hardly an original observation but Sherlock Holmes is better suited to short stories than novel-length adventures. The problem is a simple one: Holmes' appeal lies in his sharp observational and logical skills. His ability to quickly unpick a seemingly impossible problem.
Antiques and mysteries go hand in hand. Famous objects, often of great value, are a natural fit for the mystery genre, particularly if they are used to murder someone or vanish into thin air. Both of which the objects at the heart of this mystery do...
Something I find myself reflecting on often in recent years is whether notable equates to worth reading. H. F. Heard's A Taste for Honey is certainly a notable work by multiple metrics. Much praised, by a diverse collection of readers including Chandler and Nabokov, it is unusual in being reprinted fairly frequently over the decades since its publication. While it is not without faults, A Taste…