Numbering among the least prolific of the "golden age" mystery writers must be Josephine Tey whose first novel The Man in the Queue was published in 1Numbering among the least prolific of the "golden age" mystery writers must be Josephine Tey whose first novel The Man in the Queue was published in 1929 and stars her London Police Inspector Alan Grant; of the remaining eight novels published in her lifetime, four more were centred around Grant. Born in Scotland, at age 30 she gave up her teaching career to return to Inverness to care for her invalid father. With time on her hands, her career as writer was born. Her 1932 play "Richard of Bordeaux" launched the career of John Gielgud; her last published novel, The Daughter of Time (1951) was selected by the UK Crime Writer's Association as "the greatest mystery novel of all time".
London's theatre goers are lined up for blocks for tickets to "Didn't You Know?", hoping for the opportunity to take in the final performances before its beloved star heads to America. No one expected a murder in the queue: yet a few people back from the front of the line, a man slumps over, dead: he's been stabbed. More remarkable still: there is no identification on the body and even the tailor's labels have been removed from his clothes. In his pocket: a loaded, unfired service revolver but the fingerprints on do not belong to the victim. No one, apparently, was a witness to the murder. Inspector Alan Grant takes on the case, unravelling facts and following hunches, as slowly he uncovers the man's identify and his killer. The trail leads across London, a neighbouring town and even the highlands of Scotland.
Deliciously written, with evocative descriptions of people and places, this is an early police procedural at time before DNA forensics, the Internet and cell phones: set in the late 1920s it was also the era before the Great Depression, though post-WWI; class and cultural attitudes are occasionally jarringly different than today. There's a keen sense of inevitability to the unravelling which pulls the reader along as more and more clues fall into place. The book is about the journey, more than the destination, and in that it has lots in common with Agatha Christie. Happily, Josephine Tey's work is public domain in Canada and an excellent edition of this title is available as an ePub at MobileRead. ...more
First novels are often a special treat and, in this case, Death at the President's Lodging, published in 1936 by the scholar J.I.M. Stewart under his First novels are often a special treat and, in this case, Death at the President's Lodging, published in 1936 by the scholar J.I.M. Stewart under his pseudonym Michael Innes, turns out to be a cracking good puzzle set in a fictional college not unlike the author's own experience … except, of course, the president in his day wasn't snuffed out. His lead character, Inspector Appleby, would turn up in 30-odd novels with his last outing published at the end of Stewart's life in the 1980s.
St Anthony's President Umpleby is dispatched in the opening pages of what turns out to be a variation on the classic locked room: except in this case, it is the inner College courtyard which locks in the President, four college Fellows and the porter, as well as possibly involving a few others who may have had a gate key. Though the keys had all been changed that morning, by nightfall the president had met his end, shot quite dead, apparently in his rooms. Through many twists and turns, seven suspects come to light, several with motive, opportunity and each relating their version of the fatal night ... who is lying? and who’s recriminations are true? When Inspector Appleby comes down from Scotland Yard to assist the local Constable Dodd, it's not long before Appleby himself has been knocked on the noggin. Who knew academia was this dangerous!
More intense than some of the later tales, with more dense prose and a truly thorny puzzle to unknot, Innes' way of getting to the interior voices of the characters is winning. As the truth slowly dawns on Appleby, so also does the reader get a glimmer, here and there, of the cracks in the case and a solution fully worthy of Agatha Christie. The confident mastery of the writing belies this being the author's first novel and its immediate success reshaped his career. Well recommended and surprisingly contemporary (especially for those of us raised on period pieces from Masterpiece Theatre!).
This ebook edition, produced by House of Stratus on behalf of the Stewart estate, is first rate in presentation and formatting. Happily, the entire series has been reissued by this firm....more
The Ohio-born novelist and playright, Earl Derr Biggers, following a stint of writing for Broadway after graduating from Harvard in 1907, headed to CaThe Ohio-born novelist and playright, Earl Derr Biggers, following a stint of writing for Broadway after graduating from Harvard in 1907, headed to California to enjoy seeing his early writing turned into silent films. By the early 1920, his health was in decline and spent some time convalescing from stress in the US territory of Hawaii; here he had an opportunity to meet Chang Apana of the Honolulu Police Department. Apana is the model for Charlie Chan, who made his first appearance in The House Without a Key, published in 1925.
John Quincy Winterslip, a youth from the Boston upper crust, has been sent to Hawaii to persuade his rebellious aunt to return to home. She shares a home with Uncle Dan Winterslip who settled in Hawaii decades earlier and whose past life was colourful or down-right shady. Just before John Quincy lands, Dan is murdered. Over the coming days, John Quincy gets to know his aunt, something of his uncle's past, and becomes involved in more than one attractive young woman ... all while assisting the local police in solving Dan's murder. How fortunate that Inspector Charlie Chan is on the case!
Although rooted in social sensibilities 90 years old, the plotting and romance stand up well, with Biggers telling a fast moving tale and building out some substance in the core characters. Though Chan is not the central figure, the public fell in love instantly and Biggers produced five more novel before his early death in 1933 at age 48. Atmospheric in a travelogue way, it’s a quick and entertaining read with more substance than other pulp fiction of its age. ...more
Scottish mystery writer Michael Innes, the nom de plume of J.I.M. Stewart, crafted 35 Sir John Appleby novels of which Appleby and Honeybath was the 3Scottish mystery writer Michael Innes, the nom de plume of J.I.M. Stewart, crafted 35 Sir John Appleby novels of which Appleby and Honeybath was the 33rd, published in 1983. Born in 1906, the first Appleby, Death at the President's Lodging, appeared when the author was 30; Innes passed away in 1994. Innes wrote other mysteries, including a series featuring an amateur detective, Charles Honeybath, whose full-time job is Royal Academy portrait painter; in the present volume, Innes puts the two detectives into one tale for the first and last time. (J.I.M. Stewart also wrote a number of books under his real name and was, in real life, an Oxford Don.)
Terrence Grinton, lord of the manor, has a hallowed family history but his only real interest is fox hunting ... and figuring out how to pay taxes on the ancestral manor. He's invited a clutch of guests for the weekend, including his daughter, son-in-law and kids; his wife's friend Judith Appleby and her husband Sir John, retired from Scotland Yard; Charles Honeybath who is to prep for painting his portrait to hang alongside those of his ancestors; and three other seemingly eccentric men and women of various academic backgrounds. The family library, which holds little interest for Terrence, becomes a focal point for one and all when a body is found in it (and as quickly lost). Burrows, the long suffering butler, whose family has butlered at the manor for some generations itself, knows more than he is saying; and Inspector Denver, and his local constabulary, are brought in to search for the missing corpse. Are there treasures to be found in the library, behind secret panels, in the misty past and present of family and guests ... and will the corpse, when found, be found to be murdered at all?
Tongue in cheek, and certainly with mischievous wit, this relatively brief tale unfolds in the course of little more than 24 hours with fingers squarely pointed at one person, then another, then several at once. The writing is superb and quite British; I found myself looking up several words along the way, and "worked out" several others. In places, it reads a bit like a summer stock farce -- there are certainly enough doors and exits and comings and goings! -- though it’s a much richer experience than that and succeeds admirably as a deliciously frothy entertainment....more
There are few writers as prolific as Rex Stout, and fewer still who dedicated so many novels to the same character. In this case, The League of FrightThere are few writers as prolific as Rex Stout, and fewer still who dedicated so many novels to the same character. In this case, The League of Frightened Men, originally published as a magazine serial over six weeks in the Saturday Evening Post in 1935, Nero Wolfe appears as the star of the second novel in the series along with Archie Goodwin (his right hand man), Fritz Brenner (his live-in chef) and Theodore Horstmann (his orchid man). Other regulars, like Saul Panzer and Fred Durkin, Wolfe's men on the street, and Inspector Cramer of the New York City Police Homicide Division, make critical appearances. There is something especially thrilling encountering beloved characters in these early moments of birth and definition.
Paul Chapin is a successful novelist and playwright who, twenty years earlier, was the victim of a hazing incident at Harvard which left him partially crippled. Several of the men involved in the "prank" tried over the years to make amends and informally referred to themselves as the "League of Atonement". Now, one of the pranksters has died and a note, in the form of a poem, has been sent to the members predicting doom for the others. When a second death occurs, the "League of Frightened Men" are persuaded to engage Wolfe to stop Chapin who is suspected of stalking them. But is Chapin guilty? He is certainly bitter and refuses to help though he denies he is involved. And then another death occurs ....
It's very hard not to be thoroughly charmed by the plotting, the characters and Stout's natural style at flippant, wry dialogue. The stories are told from Goodwin's perspective, a very loyal employee of Wolfe, but his own man, too, and with interests in the fairer sex piqued but never side-tracking his mission. You may want to keep your highlighter handy to share the marvelously unexpected turns of phrase that emerge from Goodwin and, especially, Wolfe. First rate read for mystery buffs and lovers on 1930s American fiction....more
In 1923, Dorothy L Sayers decided to try her hand at writing detective fiction, inspired by Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and the early stories of AgaIn 1923, Dorothy L Sayers decided to try her hand at writing detective fiction, inspired by Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and the early stories of Agatha Christie. She created one of detective fiction's most memorable characters, Lord Peter Wimsey who, in the early 1920s is almost a man of another age. Flush with cash and prestige, he is the consummate dilettante amateur detective, butting into police investigations, lending them hand with his keen sense of observation and his family's access to the upper crust. In Whose Body?, the body's in the bathtub, not the library.
When a naked middle-aged man's body is found in the bath of an architect -- sporting only a golden pair of pince-nez -- Lord Peter Wimsey's mother, the Dowager Duchess of Denver, alerts her son; the architect Thipps, who has been doing some work for the Duchess, is all in a tizzy. Scotland Yard Inspector Suggs is on the case and soon arrests Thipps and his housekeeper, leaving Thipps aging, deaf mother, alone in the flat. A quick survey of the scene convinces Wimsey there is more to the story than Suggs will ever bother to uncover and so ... the game's afoot! Before long, a second body goes missing, and some shady trading of Peruvian oil shares slips into the mix, as does surgeon Sir Julian Freke, who just happens to live next door, with a teaching hospital beside them. With Bunter, Wimsey's manservant to assist, and working alongside the very competent Inspector Parker who is on another case that might be related, it's not long before the pieces begin to fall into place. So whose body was it in the bath?
Happily, this work is in the public domain and, in Canada and other countries following the "author's death + 50 year" rule, so are all of Sayer's books, as she passed away in 1957 at just 64 years old. While Wimsey is a likeable character, the class privileges he enjoys are less easy to identify with. Helpfully, anyone who has enjoyed Ian Carmichael's BBC/PBS television creation of Wimsey will easily have his voice and dapper appearance in mind while enjoying the short journey through the novel. Light, engaging, and stylish, Sayer's delivers as good as her word: Wimsey really is a cross between Fred Astaire and Bertie Wooster!...more
The Saltmarsh Murders by Gladys Mitchell, is a series and an author -- incredibly -- I did not know before. Mitchell began her mystery writing career The Saltmarsh Murders by Gladys Mitchell, is a series and an author -- incredibly -- I did not know before. Mitchell began her mystery writing career in 1929 and is pretty much a contemporary of Agatha Christie. Her heroine ... through 66 novels! ... is Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley, or "Mrs Bradley" as she is referred to in this early outing, first published in 1932.
Random House Vintage has reissued a half dozen of the (mostly) early titles. This one bears the tagline: "A quick-witted, clever mystery from the Golden Age of crime writing" and that sums it up nicely. It is quaint in some ways, but also unexpectedly funny in other places. There are vicars, and pubs, and secret passages ... and murder. Like a number of Christie novels, this one has a fairly long lead in of facts and characters before the story really starts to take off. So prepare yourself for a leisurely entrée into the world of Saltmarsh, as narrated by the young deacon, Noel Wells, and the surprising characters that inhabit this town. ...more
SS Van Dine, the pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright, created the popular fiction detective Philo Vance. His first appearance was in The Benson MurSS Van Dine, the pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright, created the popular fiction detective Philo Vance. His first appearance was in The Benson Murder Case, which was published by Scribner's in 1926. Another 11 novels appeared, about one per year, until his early death in 1939 at the age of 51.
There are some, like the current Philo Vance wiki author, who believe "Vance's character as portrayed in the novels might seem to many modern readers to be supercilious, obnoxiously affected, and highly irritating" and, actually, that's true. Throughout this tale, I heard the unmistakable inflected accent of Lord Peter Wimsey, without his corresponding business-like masculinity. As Ogden Nash quipped: "Philo Vance / Needs a kick in the pance".
But that's really unfair. Yes, the book is a little padded, and the explanations at times wearyingly long-winded, but there's also terrific charm. And, without question, the work is an expression of its time: the period shortly after WWI when New York was re-emerging from the chill of war and for the first time feeling its strength as a true International capital -- and before the devastation that would hit four years later as the markets crashed. It was a time of much greater class delineation, and certainly an era where being called an immigrant was not yet pejorative. Much of this tale inhabits the privileged class of which Vance was securely, and proudly, a member.
So, there's my own long-winded way of putting it: a charming bon-bon of classic early American detective fiction that's well worth devouring....more
It was inevitable that I would finally break down and uy one of the Penguin ebooks of the truly gifted writer Georges Simenon who created one of the 2It was inevitable that I would finally break down and uy one of the Penguin ebooks of the truly gifted writer Georges Simenon who created one of the 20th century's most memorable detective characters, Maigret. One of Simenon's first Maigret tales is Lock 14 and is reissued in a translation by Robert Baldick. (The French title, "Le Charretier de la 'Providence'" is arguably a better title as it refers to the barge workers central to the story; but it has also been issued in English as "The Crime at Lock 14", "Maigret Meets a Milord" and "The Triumph of Inspector Maigret", each title becoming less and less relevant. But I, too, digress.)
Simenon's stark prose, and dark settings many of us never encounter -- in this case the barge workers along the Marne river in France around 1930 before modern shipping replaced them -- is wonderfully bleak. I think it's raining almost the entire story, with mud everywhere. In the opening pages, a women, otherwise tastefully dressed and ready for cocktails, is found half buried in a stable under some hay; two barge workers, into their cups before retiring, slept beside her all night without discovering the corpse. As Maigret attempts to unravel the mystery, barges -- including perhaps a murderer -- are passing the scene daily as they progress through the lock system of the river.
It's not a long read but it is compelling and every page digs us deeper into this rough and shabby world dangerously balanced on the edge of disaster that could strike at a moment's notice. It isn't until a second body turns up that Maigret begins to turn the clues into a vision of what might have happened and how events long past have come to haunt the present. Highly recommended. ...more
Agatha Christie's first Poirot, The Mysterious Affair at Styles was the perfect thing to shake off the summer thunder showers. Set at the end of WWI, Agatha Christie's first Poirot, The Mysterious Affair at Styles was the perfect thing to shake off the summer thunder showers. Set at the end of WWI, we meet Hastings and Poirot for the first time, solving the locked room murder of Hasting's friend's step-mother, Emily Cavendish. As happen in so many later novels, Poirot gathers the suspects near the end to reveal the murderer. Later tales refine Poirot's mannerisms, but much is already in place. This work is PD and can be found in an excellent edition on Mobileread....more
There's nothing like a classic. I recently read my first Ngaio Marsh novel, the second of the Roderick Alleyn tales, Enter A Murderer. Somehow I've neThere's nothing like a classic. I recently read my first Ngaio Marsh novel, the second of the Roderick Alleyn tales, Enter A Murderer. Somehow I've never managed to see even the PBS/Brit TV episodes.
In this 1935 adventure, Inspector Alleyn and his sidekick journalist Nigel Bathgate are the scene of a murder that takes place, literally, on stage to a packed house. The dialogue is delicious and the twists-and-turns great fun. Marsh had a solid bead on theatrical people and conjures them up in a delightful manner. Her style is also a reminder of how British mystery writers -- from Agatha Christie to Ian Rankin -- often add a special "readability" ingredient: the way one word follows another reflects an intelligence and "groundedness" not often found elsewhere outside of so-called "literary fiction"....more
In Georges Simenon's 1942 novel, Hotel Majestic, Chief Inspector Jules Maigret must solve the murder of an American tycoon's wife whose strangled bodyIn Georges Simenon's 1942 novel, Hotel Majestic, Chief Inspector Jules Maigret must solve the murder of an American tycoon's wife whose strangled body is found unceremoniously stuffed into an employee's locker in the basement of a Paris hotel. The tycoon, however, has an alibi (he's been dallying with the governess instead of his French-born wife), and if the tycoon's six year old son, with fiery red hair, happens to bear a striking resemblance to the accused murderer, a hotel employee named Prosper Donge, then it can only be because Simenon is up to his old tricks plotting a delightful yarn which needs serious unravelling.
If the year of the tale is a bit fuzzy -- there is no hint of a war in Europe -- there is no lack of clarity in Maigret's vision: the Inspector acts as if he's pieced the puzzle together long before the rest of us. Donge lives with a plump mid-30s woman, more roommates than lovers though they share a bed, and they both have some history with the murdered woman -- and another set of minor characters in Cannes which Maigret visits by train. But Donge has been unlucky in love, it seems, and his somewhat simple mental capabilities lead multiple characters to impose upon and take advantage of him. Ah, but he did have motive for the murder, as facts begin to come to light, and opportunity ... until a second strangled body turns up, in the same locker ....
Simenon's gently eccentric characters, including Maigret who does some rather shocking things by current police standards, are delightful to spend time with. It's hard to dislike the bad guys, and the flaws of the good guys make them that much more charming. The wonderful thing about these stories is not the puzzle (although it can be torturous), nor the psychology (which is thoughtful and always humane), nor the language (which is evocative but never self-consciously clever) ... it is truly that the stories are comfortable and can be read over and over and still produce delight....more
Murder on the Links, is the second Hercule Poirot tale, with Hastings and Poirot investigating the murder of a client in France. Told from Hasting's pMurder on the Links, is the second Hercule Poirot tale, with Hastings and Poirot investigating the murder of a client in France. Told from Hasting's perspective, we are constantly bombarded by Hasting's solutions and Poirot's continual admonishments and course corrections. There's an amusing second detective, M Giraud, who is made out to be a buffoon and is the spitting image someone embracing the methods of Sherlock Holmes ... only Watson is missing. A little author's rivalry perhaps?
Elizabeth Ferrars wrote Enough to Kill a Horse in 1955 and by the time was well established as a mystery writer somewhat in the Agatha Christie vein aElizabeth Ferrars wrote Enough to Kill a Horse in 1955 and by the time was well established as a mystery writer somewhat in the Agatha Christie vein although most of her novels, including the current one, were stand alone affairs without a starring recurring detective. She was billed as "E.X. Ferrars" in the US because the publisher thought it would sell better. Except for a brief period just before the writing of this current title where she and her husband lived in the US, Ferrars made her home in England most of her life, the latter half in Edinburgh and Oxfordshire.
This new edition is published by Longtail Press of England for Amazon Kindle.
Written in the third voice, the narrator tells us of the events and continually eavesdrops into the hidden voices of many of the characters. We don't see the landscape from the point-of-view of a single character but of much of the cast. It's a splendid technique which helps develop each character and their motivations; in a mystery novel, a wonderful place to unleash one red herring after another.
Fanny and Basil live in a small town a couple of hours by train from London. Fanny is a housewife and her world is her home; Basil is a scientist by trade. Also living in the household is Kit, Fanny's half-brother, who helps Fanny run an antique shop in a small room attached to the front of the house. There are next-door neighbours -- Jean and Colin Gregory who are frightfully wealthy (Colin lives off his wife's money) -- and a local pub, with a couple of hotel rooms to let upstairs, which acts as another locale where other neighbours appear. When Kit announces he will not marry the local girl Susan but has proposed to a divorced, young professional woman in London, Fanny decides to throw a welcoming party to meet Laura at Fanny's home. Fanny worries that she is not good enough to face the beautiful and sophisticated Laura and so invites Sir Peter, a retired newspaper publisher, and her longtime best friend Joan, who also lives in London.
So there you are: a large cast of characters (and I've left out the pub owners, more neighbours such as the Mordues, the local doctor and, of course, a police inspector) in an English country setting -- the grist for so many classic whodunit writers like Christie, Marsh, Mitchell and others. Naturally, at the party, someone dies eating Fanny's favourite hors d'oeuvres. Was it an accident? Was it murder? Was the victim the intended victim or was someone else supposed to die? And why? This is not a police procedural: the police inspector has a bit part; it is Fanny and others who are busy "solving" the case and misleading the reader down countless byways. The final working out, occuring in the final pages, cannot fail to surprise....more
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