Classic Mysteries

New Feature: From the Vault

               

A major milestone is looming ahead for Classic Mysteries. Sometime near the end of this year, I'll be posting my 500th review on the Classic Mysteries podcast. That means the podcast has been providing a weekly review of a mystery classic every week for 9 1/2 years.

The podcast began in May, 2007, and the blog followed in June 2008. It's been a pretty good run so far, and I intend to keep going for a while. But it occurs to me that I reviewed a LOT of my own personal favorite classic mysteries in that first year or so - about 70 books in as many weeks, in fact - that were done only as podcasts before this blog came along to give my friends, my visitors and readers, a chance to read, learn about and discuss those books.

So I'm going to start a new feature on this blog - let's say, every Thursday, beginning on September 1. I'm going to bring back and re-post edited text versions of the original podcast reviews of some of my favorite books and favorite authors from that first year or so of reviews. I'm going to try to be certain that the books I write about are still readily available - either in print, as e-books, or (if neither of those options is available) are at least pretty readily available through second-hand copies found for you by your favorite independent book dealers (including dealers who work through Amazon). 

As always, I invite your comments about these books. There's nothing more satisfying for me than to hear that one of my visitors has discovered a new (to them) author or book that I've told them about. I'm calling the feature "From the Vault," and I have already picked several of the books I plan to re-review (or, at least, the podcasts I plan to provide in text format). It all starts on Thursday, when we'll begin with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles. Come along for the ride!

               

"Death of a Bovver Boy"

There's no question that "Dutch" Carver was nothing more than a young hooligan - a "Bovver boy," as Cockney slang would have it. Certainly, when he was murdered - his body stripped of clothing, his head shaved, apparently beaten - there didn't seem to be anybody mourning his death, not even his parents. To schoolmaster Carolus Deene, that seemed just plain wrong. Even if the police weren't particularly interested in Carver's death, Deene was determined to get at the truth about the murder. What he found is the subject of Leo Bruce's dark and powerful Death of a Bovver Boy, first published in 1974. It's the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the complete review by clicking here.

Leo Bruce - the pen name of Rupert Croft-Cooke - is remembered today primarily for two series of mystery stories which he wrote between 1937 and 1974. The first featured a British policeman called Sergeant Beef and the books were mostly written as parodies of other popular detective story writers. In 1955, however, Bruce began writing about another character, Carolus Deene, a schoolmaster, a former commando, with his own sense of justice and morality. The Sergeant Beef novels, for the most part, have a light touch and are written with considerable wit and humor. The later books featuring Carolus Deene tend to be darker. Certainly that's true of Death of a Bovver Boy, which the author, in the very first sentence, calls "the ugliest case which Carolus Deene ever chose to investigate." 

Deene’s housekeeper, Mrs. Stick, first brings the boy’s murder to her employer's attention, because her husband discovers the body of “Dutch” Carver abandoned by the roadside. The boy appeared to have been beaten, there are marks on the ankles and wrists, most of his hair appears to have been shaved off his head, and the body is completely naked. Deene dutifully reports the finding of the body to the police. But he is intrigued by the death – by the way so many people (including the police) seem to react with only a shrug or even with downright hostility towards the victim. So, working with the blessing of the local investigators, he begins asking questions – and is greeted everywhere with that same hostility. Was it because of the teen’s lack of social standing? His record of minor brushes with the law? Why did his parents seem to consider the boy’s death as merely another bother? The more Deene digs into the case, the more he becomes convinced that there is a great deal more going on here than the simple murder of one “bovver boy” by – perhaps – other groups of rivals and so-called friends.

It’s a story told, for the most part, without flinching from the ugliness of the case, and with very little humor. It's hardly a "fair-play" mystery; our detective really tells his readers very little until the final solution has been reached - and he must rely for that on a sort of confession. But the setting in the rural slums of England and amid the skinheads of the early 1970s, and the milieu of casual violence and seedy relationships that swallowed up many young people (and still does so today) make for a powerful book, well-written and certainly worth reading.

"The Grand Banks Cafe"

It had been a stange and terrible voyage for the crew of the French fishing trawler Océan. Now the ship's captain himself was dead - strangled, his body dumped into the harbor at the fishing port of Fécamp. The police arrested the ship's radio operator, a young man on bad terms with the captain - but his friends and relatives refused to believe that he was the killer. One of those friends appealed to another old friend, Chief Detective Inspector Jules Maigret to get involved. And so Maigret decided to go to Fécamp for his annual vacation and ask a few questions. He quickly discovered that there were some very dark secrets hidden away on that last voyage of the Océan - and that the key to unlocking those secrets was hidden among the crew members who could be found between voyages at a small waterfront bar called The Grand Banks Café. That's the title of the 1931 bleak but gripping story about Maigret from author Georges Simenon. It's the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the complete review by clicking here.

Maigret goes to Fécamp and discovers that many members of the Océan's crew spend their time (and money) when in port at the seedy little bar called the Grand Banks Café. He discovers that the men are very unwilling to talk about their last voyage. The trawler had an incredible run of bad luck, they say – and the captain appears to have been largely to blame. His behavior was most peculiar for the entire journey. Meanwhile, bad things kept happening. There were accidents – one of them fatal. And the fish they had caught was beginning to go bad even before they could bring it back to port. It was a terrible trip. Perhaps the ship – or the captain himself – was under some curse, the evil eye? Better not to talk about it. And so, when the captain was murdered, and the young radio operator who had quarreled with him was arrested, the rest of the crew members were surprised – but resigned.

Maigret begins his own investigation (with the help and approval of the local police). As he digs his way through the evidence he uncovers, he begins to realize that this voyage of the Océan was very different from its usual fishing trips. And he would need to break through the silence of the crew and the others connected with the case before he would be able to determine the truth about what really happened on board the trawler – and why.

Georges Simenon was an amazingly prolific writer, credited with some 450 novels and short stories, including about 75 featuring Maigret. In 1931 alone, he wrote ten novels about Maigret, including The Grand Banks Café. These early books tend to be quite dark in tone, but they are fascinating stories, Penguin has been republishing Simenon's Maigret books, many in new and very good translations; the one for The Grand Banks Café is credited to David Coward. It is quite short, fewer than 150 pages, but it is a powerful story, told by a master storyteller, and I recommend it heartily.

Bookgiving: Day Twelve

On the twelfth day of Bookgiving, my true love gave to me:

The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett.

“Well, now, the Emperor Charles has given them Malta, and all the rent he asks is one insignificant bird per annum, just as a matter of form. What could be more natural than for these immeasurably wealthy Knights to look around for some way of expressing their gratitude? Well, sir, that’s exactly what they did, and they hit on the happy thought of sending Charles for the first year’s tribute, not an insignificant live bird, but a glorious golden falcon encrusted from head to foot with the finest jewels in their coffers.”

That’s the description of the black bird – The Maltese Falcon – a classic American mystery by Dashiell Hammett. Regular visitors to this site will know that I don't really write very often about hardboiled (or even medium-boiled) detectives or the American "P.I." tradition. One notable exception to that is The Maltese Falcon, first published in 1930, which is one of the books which really defines that tradition. Hammett's detective in this book (and in a few other short stories - that's all!) is Sam Spade. He is tough, cynical, operating on his own obscure and very personal moral code. The setting is San Francisco. The streets are mean, and most of the characters even meaner.

The plot revolves around that fabulous “black bird,” the Maltese falcon. There are four murders in the course of the book, all tied in with the search for the falcon. It’s not really a “puzzle” mystery – the reader is generally left to sort it out, along with Sam Spade, as he tries to figure out what has happened and what to do next. But the story comes alive through its characters and its dialogue. Maybe that's one reason why the movie version still bears repeated viewing; that crackling dialogue on the screen is lifted pretty much verbatim from the book. But I do urge you, if you're familiar with the movie but not the book, to go back to the original source and savor it.

The latest printed version of the book is in the form of a paperback from Vintage. There are e-book versions, including this version for the Amazon Kindle. If you'd rather have it read to you, there's a recording via Audible. And, if you're one of those unfortunates who has never had a chance to see that classic movie version written and directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor (and a whole wonderful cast of leading character actors), I'm happy to say that you can still get this film on DVD.

(If you came in late, here's what we're doing for bookgiving - I hope you'll join in!)

"The Golden Slipper"

As a young woman living in New York City in the early years of the 20th century, Violet Strange certainly stood out. She was, to be sure, one of the leading social lights of New York society, constantly attending parties and other affairs. But she also had another, more secret life as a detective, working very discreetly with another, male, detective - and commanding a large sum of money for her work. Why? That's just one of the mysteries to be discovered in a thoroughly enjoyable collection of short stories called The Golden Slipper: and Other Problems for Violet Strange, by Anna Katharine Green, originally published a century ago, in 1915. The Golden Slipper is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the full review, together with brief summaries of the nine individual stories that make up the book, by clicking here.

Anna Katharine Green is remembered today primarily as the author of The Leavenworth Case, which was reviewed here and on the podcast several months ago. In Violet Strange, Green gives us a fascinating character, one whose real motive for the work she does - and for keeping it secret - is only revealed to us in the final story in The Golden Slipper. We meet her first in a story where her acceptance and admittance into society functions give her the opportunity to solve a puzzling series of thefts. We go on to stories of murder and intrigue, some of them quite dark and unhappy - think of it as "early noir." There is a tendency (shared with many other authors and books of the period) to use very emotional and florid prose, but it feels justified in these stories, right for the period and right for the characters.

Nine problems, nine interesting stories, ranging from intricate puzzles to full-fledged Gothic and emotional nightmares. Violet Strange is a remarkable heroine – there’s not much of the "had-I-but-known" vapors about her. The Golden Slipper: and Other Problems for Violet Strange is available in a variety of formats, including an ebook edition from MysteriousPress.com and Open Road Media. It's definitely worth your reading time.

The 2015 Bingo Challenge

We're closing in on the last few titles to fill the remaining squares in the 2015 Vintage Mystery Bingo challenge. under way at the My Reader's Block blog, The Golden Slipper: and Other Problems for Violet Strange is my entry for the square (third row, fourth column) calling for one book already read by a fellow challenger. In this case, the book was reviewed back in January by Bev Hankins at My Reader's Block. Just one more week to go for the challenge!

None Is More Popular than "None"

With the 125th anniversary of the birth of Agatha Christie coming up on September 15, the "official" Agatha Christie website has announced that And Then There Were None has been voted the favorite among all of that author's 66 novels. The mystery, which features neither Hercule Poirot nor Miss Marple, was voted best over second-place finisher Murder on the Orient Express and third-place holder The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

According to the information on the website, more than 15 thousand votes were cast in more than 100 nations worldwide. I find it interesting and rather heartening that the largest number of voters were in the 25-to-34 age group, which is younger than I would have expected.

You could argue that each of the top three finishers breaks a few of those much-discussed "rules" for mystery writing. But that, to me, simply shows Christie's genius at transcending that sort of thing. If, by some chance, you haven't read any of those (or the others listed in the "top ten" from the poll), you really are missing a treat. And Then There Were None really is my favorite Christie book - extremely clever, rather dark, with interesting characters and a mounting tension that doesn't end until the very last chapter. No wonder that her books are outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare.  Happy Birthday (a bit early) to the Mystery Queen - and give yourself the present of reading her books. 

"The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side"

Miss Jane Marple may have been getting older, but she still valued her independence. She was not going to be treated either as an elderly relic of a bygone age or as an infant to be coddled. That's why she went out for a walk by herself one afternoon. When she tripped and fell, she was helped by a kindly (if rather self-centered) woman named Heather Badcock, and Miss Marple was quite grateful for the assistance. So when Mrs. Badcock was murdered, Miss Marple naturally took an interest in seeing that justice was done. The story may be found in The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, by Agatha Christie, and it's the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast. You can listen to the entire review by clicking here.

The story is fairly intricate, and I have summed it up, I think, in the podcast, so rather than repeat myself, I'll just invite you to click the link above and listen to the review. 

Agatha Christie was 71 years old in 1962, when The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side was published, but this book is, I think, one of the best of her later books involving Miss Marple. The title is a quotation from Tennyson's poem, "The Lady of Shalott":

Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack’d from side to side;
‘The curse has come upon me,’
cried The Lady of Shalott.

 It will prove to be most relevant to the events chronicled here. This is a fairly grim book - more unhappy, I would say, than many of Christie's others. It is filled with marvelous characters, and it is also a pure "armchair detective" story, for Miss Marple gathers clues while sitting in her house and deduces the correct solution to the mystery based solely on what others tell her and, of course, her skill at understanding human nature, as developed in a very small village. In fact, she only visits the scene of the crime at the end, when she has learned the truth about what has happened - and why. If you enjoy Miss Marple, or even if she is new to you, I think you'll enjoy this one.

BINGO! All 36 Squares on my Vintage Mystery Scorecard - FILLED

As any reader of this blog is aware, I have been taking part in the Vintage Mystery Bingo Reading Challenge at Bev's terrific My Reader's Block blog. The idea was to read books that would - in Bingo fashion - make up horizontal or vertical lines on the challenge image - this one:

This Golden card was to be filled with mysteries published before 1960. There was also a Silver card for mysteries published between 1960 and 1980. I chose to concentrate on the Golden card.

Of course, we were also challenged to try filling in the ENTIRE card. And I'm pleased to say that this is exactly what I have done. For those who either want to check my honesty or - perhaps on a brighter note - read my reviews, here are links to all of them. I am listing them by row from top to bottom, in order going across left and right.

Row 1:

• One book with a color in the title: Green Shiver, by Clyde B. Clason
• A book published under more than one title: Murder Can Be Fun, by Fredric Brown
• One book with a "spooky" title: Diabolic Candelabra, by E. R. Punshon
• A book by an author you've read before: Going, Going Gone, by Phoebe Atwood Taylor
  
• A book with a detective team: The Greek Coffin Mystery, by Ellery Queen
• One book with an animal in the title: The Puzzle of the Red Stallion, by Stuart Palmer

Row 2:

• One book set anywhere except the U.S. or England: The Chinese Maze Murders, by Robert Van Gulik
• One book with a number in the title: 8 Faces at 3, by Craig Rice
• One book that has been made into a movie: The Door with Seven Locks, by Edgar Wallace
• One book with a lawyer, courtroom, judge, etc. The Case of the Crooked Candle, by Erle Stanley Gardner
• One book with a time, day, month, etc. in the title: 4:50 from Paddington, by Agatha Christie
• One book with a place in the title: Murder a la Richelieu, by Anita Blackmon

Row 3:

•  One book that features a crime other than murder: Murder Must Wait, by Arthur W. Upfield
• One book that features food/cooks in some way: Too Many Cooks, by Rex Stout
  
• One book with an amateur detective: Whose Body?, by Dorothy L. Sayers
• One book already read by a fellow challenger: One Drop of Blood, by Anne Austin
• One translated work: The Late Monsieur Gallet, by Georges Simenon
• One book with a size in the title: The Little Sister, by Raymond Chandler

Row 4:

• One locked room mystery: The Kennel Murder Case, by S. S. Van Dine
• A book by an author you've never read before: Death Wears a White Gardenia, by Zelda Popkin
• One book with a man in the title: Pietr the Latvian, by Georges Simenon
• One book with a professional detective: They Found Him Dead, by Georgette Heyer
• One short story collection: Dorothy L. Sayers: The Complete Stories
• One medical mystery (or features Dr. or nurse):  The Red Thumb Mark by R. Austin Freeman

Row 5:

• One academic mystery: Death on the Cherwell, by Mavis Doriel Hay
• One book with a method of murder in the title: Death-Watch, by John Dickson Carr
• One country house mystery: The Cornish Coast Murder, by John Bude
• One mystery that involves water: Tragedy at Ravensthorpe, by J. J. Connington
• One book set in England: The Devil at Saxon Wall, by Gladys Mitchell
• One book written by an author with a pseudonym: The Lake District Murder, by John Bude

Row 6:

• One book set in the entertainment world: And So to Murder, by John Dickson Carr, writing as Carter Dickson
• One book with a woman in the title: Look to the Lady, by Margery Allingham
• One book that involves a mode of transportation: The Blind Barber, by John Dickson Carr
• One book outside your comfort zone: A Coffin for Dimitrios, by Eric Ambler
• One book that you have to borrow (you do not own): Detection Unlimited, by Georgette Heyer
• One book set in the U.S.: The Egyptian Cross Mystery, by Ellery Queen

That's 36 books, 36 reviews, 36 squares covered. Whew. And now, time to get ready for Bev's 2015 challenge - same idea, different categories. Where to start, where to start...

"A Coffin for Dimitrios"

A mystery writer gets involved in a conversation with a Turkish official about crime fiction and crime fact. The writer gets himself taken to the local morgue to view the body of a man described as a petty criminal, one Dimitrios Makropoulos. The Turkish official calls Dimitrios "a dirty type, common, cowardly, scum. Murder, espionage, drugs – that is the history. There were also two affairs of assassination."

But the writer becomes obsessed with learning more about Dimitrios - and winds up finding himself in the middle of a large and dangerous conspiracy.

If it sounds like a classic plot for a thriller, that's exactly what it is. The book, now 75 years old, is A Coffin for Dimitrios, by Eric Ambler, and it is considered one of the foundation stones upon which many of today's thrillers are built. A Coffin for Dimitrios is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the entire review by clicking here.

The deeper he gets into his search for facts about Dimitrios, Charles Latimer learns more and more disturbing things about him. Latimer is no professional spy or secret police agent - he is very much an ordinary man, swept up in a world of intrigue. Latimer suddenly finds himself in the midst of a very dangerous game involving political assassinations, illicit drugs, the sex trade, spies, blackmail, murder and – everywhere -treachery. It is a world totally unfamiliar to Latimer, a world in which the easiest way to tell if someone is lying to you is by watching to see if their lips move.

The book was turned into a classic movie in 1944, under the original British title, The Mask of Dimitrios. Readers of this blog know that I don't do very much with modern "noir" thrillers - they simply aren't the kind of mysteries I usually prefer. But A Coffin For Dimitrios proves to be an exciting read, even now, 75 years after its first publication in 1939. I highly recommend it.

The Challenge

As part of my continuing commitment to the Vintage Mystery Bingo Reading Challenge under way at the My Reader's Block blog, I am submitting this to cover the Bingo square calling for one book outside my comfort zone. For details about the challenge, and what I'm doing for it, please click here.

"The Little Sister"

Philip Marlowe is not the sort of private eye to flinch or shy away from troublesome clients. When he gets a phone call from a young woman who thinks she wants to hire him - although she doesn't approve of his drinking or smoking and doesn't think he's a gentleman - he hangs up the phone on her. That, he muses, was a mistake: "It was a step in the right direction, but it didn't go far enogh. I ought to have locked the door and hid under the desk." Instead, he finds himself drawn into a dark and violent search through the glitz of Hollywood in the late 1940s. You'll find the story in Raymond Chandler's 1949 novel, The Little Sister, and believe me, Marlowe should have followed his instincts. The Little Sister is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the entire review by clicking here.

The woman who telephoned Marlowe about hiring him turns up at his office and does, in fact, hire him. Her name is Orfamay Quest, she has come to Los Angeles from her home in Manhattan, Kansas, and she wants Marlowe to find her younger brother, who left home to take a job in Los Angeles but who has failed to communicate with his family. The trail leads Marlowe to Hollywood and the definitely tarnished glamor of the movie industry.

Sound pretty straightforward? Well, no. This is Raymond Chandler, after all, and it isn't long before the bodies are piling up, Marlowe is finding that just about everyone has secrets to hide and is lying to him, and his client is turning out to be...well, let's just say, difficult. The plot is complex, with a fair number of twists and turns, violent and very dark indeed.

All of that is redeemed, for me, by Chandler's clever writing; he can come up with one-line descriptions that make any writer jealous. Of one Hollywood actress, for example, he says, “She smelled the way the Taj Mahal looks by moonlight.” Or consider this description of a night-time drive through Los Angeles and Studio City:

"I drove on past the gaudy neons and the false fronts behind them, the sleazy hamburger joints that look like palaces under the colors, the circular drive-ins as gay as circuses with the chipper hard-eyed carhops, the brilliant counters, and the sweaty greasy kitchens that would have poisoned a toad."

My edition of The Little Sister quotes a New Yorker magazine review that says Chandler wrote as if pain hurt and life mattered. Readers looking for a happily-ever-after ending won’t find it here; in this world, everyone and everything is damaged. But they will find an intense but ultimately pleasurable reading experience.

The Challenge

As part of my continuing commitment to the Vintage Mystery Bingo Reading Challenge under way at the My Reader's Block blog, I am submitting this to cover the Bingo square calling for one book with a size in the title. For details about the challenge, and what I'm doing for it, please click here.