Classic Mysteries

"13 to the Gallows"

This week's selection for our Classic Mysteries podcast review is a special treat for me, because it's the first time in many years that I have come across some previously-unread works by John Dickson Carr. Carr was, of course, the undisputed master of the locked room and impossible crime story. "13 to the Gallows" is a collection of four stage plays by Carr, two of them written in collaboration with Val Gielgud. Gielgud, the brother of actor Sir John Gielgud, was a BBC radio producer, and his contributions to the two plays set in radio studios undoubtedly added to the believability and authenticity of the plays.

But it is, quite clearly, Carr and his brilliant plotting and imagination who was the driving force behind all four of these plays. You can hear my full review here, but each play is built around a seemingly impossible situation - a woman apparently pushed off a high tower when nobody could have been nearby; another murder in a radio studio where the gun used in the murder appears to have disappeared in front of a roomful of witnesses. As with most of Carr's novels and stories, a great deal of attention is paid to building up a mood of tension, where one almost expects to find that the solution is supernatural - but it is not.

One point which I found most interesting in reading these scripts is the way Carr insisted on scrupulous fair play for the audience; sometimes, the plot may be given away to the script reader by a stage direction ordering a particular actor to make sure the audience sees him (or her) acting in a particular way. No matter: these are delightful dramas and a series of new plots from one of the finest talents in mystery fiction.

Cyber Monday

Today is "Cyber Monday," the day when online shoppers traditionally are supposed to be out there ordering gifts online for family, friends and themselves. If you're planning to order anything from Amazon.com, let me again ask you to use the box on the upper right corner of the page, which will give me a small commission. If you want to see some of Amazon's Cyber Monday specials, click here. It's not just books - DVDs, electronics, cameras, clothing - you name it. And thank you.

More Maigret

As I mentioned some time ago, I was never a big fan of Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret mysteries when I first read them, many years ago. Lately, I have rediscovered some of them. I don't know whether my taste has improved with maturity or merely become less selective, but I find I really enjoy them now.

I came across another one in my local library this week: "Maigret and the Fortuneteller." As with most of the Maigret novels, it is a cross between a police procedural and a psychological drama. It begins with the murder of a fortune teller, a murder predicted in a note to police from a mysterious character who signs it "Picpus." Maigret pieces together a handful of odd clues: the man who discovered the Picpus note attempts suicide; a strange old man is discovered locked in a room in the fortune teller's apartment; a mysterious financier goes fishing - but the fish he catches have no hook marks. Maigret pieces it all together, with his own keen insight into the personalities and psychological quirks of some very memorable characters. For a hardened detective, Maigret can be quite compassionate.

The book is currently out of print; as usual, Amazon.com has links to a variety of sources for new and used copies of the book. I think this one is really one of Simenon's better efforts.

Something Old, Something New

I have been reading a remarkably good mystery that is really somewhat out of the normal run you'll find reviewed here - but one that could easily fit into our classic pattern. It's "The Bloody Tower," by Carola Dunn, a book written just a couple of years ago, but set in England in 1925 - right in the middle of our Golden Age. It combines something old - the Tower of London - and something new - a 21st century sensibility looking at a 20th century detective.

The detective in this case, is Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher, a young woman from a noble family who is married to Alec Fletcher, a Chief Detective Inspector at Scotland Yard. Daisy is a writer, and she is working on some articles about the Tower, one of London's ancient historic landmarks, home to the colorful Yeoman Warders and nearly a thousand years of history. While so occupied, she literally almost stumbles on the body of one of the warders - and so is drawn into the murder investigation. Her husband, assigned to solve the crime, finds that, like it or not, Daisy is going to help him.

It is not her first such episode. This was the sixth book in Carola Dunn's series about Daisy. It's the first I have read, and it won't be the last. Curiously enough, it appears to be out of print at the moment, except for a fairly expensive large-print edition, but Amazon has links to a number of sources, as well as to other books by Carola Dunn, both within the Daisy Dalrymple series and others featuring other series detectives. I'm very partial to "The Bloody Tower"- if only because Daisy is quite a fan of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas; I'll admit I was drawn to this book because of my own taste for "The Yeoman of the Guard," and I was delighted to find so much historical background about the Tower, its traditions and its guards, all in the midst of a very well plotted mystery. I heartily recommend it.

Thank You

I am thankful for many things and many people on this Thanksgiving, but I particularly wanted to thank those of you who read this blog. I do put a fair amount of effort into the weekly podcast and the periodic blog additions and posts, and I appreciate your interest and friendship. Let me invite you - again - to feel free to comment on the books and other topics posted here. And - also again - if you are inclined to do any online shopping at Amazon, and do so by using the search box at the top of the right hand column on this page - I would be most thankful. Enjoy your holidays!

Black Friday

I'm still not sure I know the etymology behind calling what is traditionally one of the year's businest shopping day "Black Friday." But the day after Thanksgiving certainly has become a major day for retailers, at least in the US. So let me put in a plug for myself:

As I've said before, I get a small amount (really small!) of money from Amazon whenever somebody uses my link to their site to buy anything. It doesn't have to be books (and I'd just as soon you get your books from a favorite local bookstore and mystery dealer) - anything Amazon sells qualifies: electronics, music, cameras, Swiss Army knives, Kindles - anything. If you go to their site through my search box - at the top of the right hand column on this page - I will get credit for anything you may buy.

This week, Amazon is running specials leading up to Black Friday - if you use this link, you will see their offers. Anything you buy that way, again, I'll get a small percentage. It ain't much, but it can help pay for the blog costs, anyway. Thank you for your consideration - it is much appreciated.

Cross-posted to LB's Rambles.

"The Continental Op"

He really is a man of mystery - someone about whom we know surprisingly little. He's a good detective, one who prefers to use his brain but who is not averse to using his fists or a gun, if necessary. He has no name - at least none that he is willing to share with the reader. He is simply a detective, an operative working for the Continental Detective Agency in the San Francisco of the 1920s. He is Dashiell Hammett's marvelous creation, "The Continental Op," featured in some of Hammett's short stories, collected and published in an anthology from Vintage, one of Random House's imprints. That collection is reviewed on this week's Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the entire review here.

Hammett is widely regarded as one of the most influential American mystery writers of the first half of the 20th century, and some of his books were made into top-notch movies. His fiction is American; his tough guy is tough, although there's not a lot of gratuitous violence. Nobody is ever likely to mistake one of Hammett's heroes for the detectives of Britain's Golden Age. But the Op roams the streets of San Francisco, getting involved with many different types of people. And, because the author is Hammett, the writing is colorful, the plotting strong and the characters memorable. This collection is a worthy addition to your library.

Christie at Her Best

When I talk with friends about Agatha Christie's books, the question invariably comes up: is it possible to point to one of her books as the best she ever wrote? It's not an easy question. For someone with such a long list of fine mysteries, with so many memorable series characters - Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, the Beresfords, Parker Pyne, Harley Quin - and so many different styles, from thrillers to elaborate puzzle mysteries, how do you pick one as the best?

For me, though, there's still only one answer: her 1939 masterpiece, "And Then There Were None." I don't think Christie ever came up with a better, or more chilling, plot, or a more ingenious solution. It's not in any series, and it features none of her famous detectives, but I think that just makes it a better story, as we must begin without preconceived notions about who is, if not the hero or heroine, at least the representative of justice in some form.

If you have never read "And Then There Were None," let me refer you to my podcast review for a summary. Briefly, ten people find themselves stranded on a lonely (and inaccessible) island - and somebody is killing them, one by one. Yet there appears to be nobody else on the island. And so, as the body count mounts, the tensions get higher, as the survivors attempt to discover which one of them may be responsible - before it is too late for them all.

It is an amazing book, very tightly written, and the tension quickly becomes almost unbearable. Yet it is also a puzzle - and, at the end, the author points to just three clues which might have given the secret away. You'll have to read it to understand - but I really do think it is Agatha Christie's most amazing book and, yes, her best.

Sony Gets Back in the eGame

What with Amazon's Kindle eReader and the Nook from Barnes & Noble, Sony must be feeling a pretty fair amount of pressure on its eBlook product. I posted an entry last year complaining that Sony's proprietary format for eBooks was making it hard for me to get much value from their product.

Sony apparently has seen the light. I received an email from them this week advising me that they are updating their older eReaders - including mine - with new firmware. Free. They're doing this because they are dropping their proprietary format in favor of what has become the industry standard ePub format. If I don't want the free update (it does require sending the reader to Sony), I can buy one of their new models at a fairly significant rake-off.

Good for Sony. I think this keeps them alive in the eBook competition - and it's the right thing to do for those of us who have their older readers and had been wondering what to do with them. Now...where did I put mine...

(Cross=posted to Classic Mysteries and LBs Rambles)

"The Labors of Hercules"

We are talking here, not about the labors of the classical Hercules, the Graeco-Roman mythological hero. Rather, we are talking about the labors of a modern Hercules - or Hercule, as in "Hercule Poirot." Poirot's creator, Agatha Christie, wrote a collection of 12 short stories called "The Labors of Hercules," in which Poirot deliberately sought out and solved twelve different mysteries which could be thought of as parallel to the original labors of Hercules in the classic myths. This collection is reviewed in full on today's Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to it here.

Because the stories are by Agatha Christie, they are all ingenious, and the modern puzzles are readily linked with the original 12 labors of Hercules. The case of "The Nemean Lion," for example, begins with the kidnapping of a Pekingese dog, while "The Stymphalean Birds" involves a group of female blackmailers. Not all are murder mysteries, but all are fascinating, full of Christie's twists and turns - yes, and fair play as well. The Herculean link - pun not really intended - makes this one of her better short story collections.

Curiously, Amazon seems to think this is out of print, and the text link above takes you to an Amazon page with a long list of available dealers and editions. However, a mass market paperback edition seems to be available through Barnes & Noble, and I'm sure that just about any mystery book dealer will either have a copy or have no difficulty finding one for you.