I loved the 1938 Hitchcock film, The Lady Vanishes. Agatha Christie is my gold standard when it comes to classic mysteries. So by all accounts, I should love this golden age mystery on which the film is based. Unfortunately, I didn’t. The story is incredibly dated with a whole lotContinue Reading
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is an awesome golden-age mystery book, arguably the best in the Agatha Christie canon. I actually guessed the murderer’s identity because of reading some non-spoiler reviews so I’m not going to say anything about the plot. However, I love mysteries and have read 100s probablyContinue Reading
The American Gun Mystery is an early Ellery Queen mystery originally published in 1933. It has been out-of-print for over thirty years until now. I’m a fan of Queen and have read four of the earliest novels with pleasure. This is my first time reading this book. I was disappointedContinue Reading
If Agatha Christie decided to try her hand at a modern-day cozy mystery, The Postscript Murders would be the result. When 90-year-old Peggy is found dead in her retirement home in West Suffix, no one is surprised. She was old and suffering from a heart condition. However, when her caretakerContinue Reading
I have been reading a lot of mysteries lately where the characters and even the setting were prioritized above the mystery itself. Having read other locked room mysteries by this author, I was looking forward to the challenge. And the Plague Court Murders did not disappoint! “Cats with their throatsContinue Reading
Down these mean streets, even a woman must go. In the forties, a woman’s only power over men was her sex appeal. In The Bride Wore Black, Julie is a beautiful woman. What evil lurks within her? Because in classic noir, it’s always about the dame. As a child, wheneverContinue Reading
The Eighth Detective is a clever thinking-man’s thriller that uses golden-age mystery tropes in an imaginative way. It’s a modern homage to the genre. And, surprisingly, a debut! It’s 1930 in Spain. Megan, Henry and Bunny meet to discuss their old Oxford school days. Bunny says, “The three of usContinue Reading
Both Death in White Pyjamas & Death Knows No Calendar were disappointments to me. I expect more from John Bude than an incredibly long setup and a disappointing conclusion. Both tales have a vicious female provocateur that is murdered late in the story. Deidre in Pyjamas was literally hated byContinue Reading
Be forewarned! Castle Skull is not your typical John Dickson Carr mystery. It has many melodramatic elements tacked onto the traditional golden-age mystery. A castle that looks like a skull. Its owner, a magician, missing from a train car who is later found drowned in a nearby river. A closeContinue Reading
A sharpened pickax, a full water butt (barrel), a marline-spike, an obscure poison are all used (or maybe not used) for murder with A Measure of Malice in this new collection of British golden and silver-aged mysteries. Fourteen more intriguing, but unfortunately forgotten, tales from famous (Arthur Conan Doyle) andContinue Reading
Prodigal son and heir Richard returns to his hometown in rural 1944 England in the Fell Murder. Richard’s argumentative father Robert had forced him from the family land when he married a local farmer’s daughter. Richard wants to tramp across the land of his childhood but has no intention ofContinue Reading
It’s about time that the British Library Crime Classics had a challenger from across the pond. American Mystery Classics is republishing Dread Journey from 1945. It is an excellent example of an American golden-age mystery. It begins with a murder on a luxurious train speeding across the US with aContinue Reading
Another great selection of eleven British golden-age mystery stories is found in the Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories. From Blind Man’s Hood from the great John Dickson Carr to ‘Twist the Cup and the Lip by Julian Symons, many of the authors will be familiar to those who loveContinue Reading
Death in the Stocks is the first Superintendent Hannasyde mystery written in 1935. Arnold Vereker is found locked in the village stocks and stabbed to death. Superintendent Hannasyde has a multitude of suspects since everyone seemed to dislike him and no one has an ironclad alibi. Maybe it is theContinue Reading
Herbert Cargate is a very unpleasant man. He is also soon to be poisoned on a train in the English countryside in Excellent Intentions. Starting a murder case at the end, in the courtroom trying to prove a mysterious person’s guilt, is an unusual plot structure. Published in 1938, fifteenContinue Reading
Malice Aforethought is a great British golden-age mystery with a killer twist. Mrs. Julia Bickleigh was born into wealth and minor aristocracy. When her father blew the family fortunes before his death, Julia was forced to marry a common doctor. She never let her husband, Dr. Edmund Bickleigh, forget heContinue Reading