Classic Mysteries

New Issue of "I Love a Mystery" Newsletter

Sally Powers has just published the latest issue of her bimonthly "I Love a Mystery" newsletter. It features a LOT of reviews (including two by me) of just about all kinds of mysteries which have been published, or republished, in the past couple of months. No matter what kind of mysteries you prefer, you'll find some good, brief reviews here that may help guide your reading into the new year. And it's all free. Give it a try!

"Murder Begins at Home"

Back in the 1940s and 50s, several different mystery writers came up with a series of husband-and-wife detecting teams. They're usually amateurs, often married to each other (or they wound up that way after a book or two). Nick and Nora Charles, to be sure, but also Pam and Jerry North, Jeff and Haila Troy and Pat and Jean Abbott were among the couples I have in mind - and so were Jane and Dagobert Brown, who appeared in a series of books by Delano Ames. The second of these books, "Murder Begins at Home," is reviewed today on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the whole thing here.

This 1949 entry in the series finds Jane and Dagobert, newly married and newly arrived in the U. S. from England, headed from New York to Detroit via New Mexico. If that seems a bit out of the way, it may be because Dagobert, who is naturally averse to work, is trying to avoid reaching Detroit, where an aunt apparently intends to offer him a job. So they go via the American Southwest, where - Dagobert conveniently remembers - a woman he met in the army during World War II now lives. Jane is not thrilled. But when the couple arrive in New Mexico, they quickly become involved in murder - more than one, in fact. And they - and the local sheriff - will eventually work out the details of what happened - and why - and by whom. For a murder story, the tone stays remarkably light, although there are some pretty disturbing elements along the way. It's a good story, with some intriguing characters.

Dead Lines

As a group dedicated to fictional death, in its more traditional forms, I feel compelled to point out to my fellow classic mysteries readers that we are approaching the final days of 2010 - which means we are arriving at a couple of significant deadlines for those interested in meeting great mystery authors, readers and other hangers-on in the world of literary crimes.

First, there's Malice Domestic, the annual convention for people who love traditional mysteries. In 2011, the 23rd annual gathering will be held from April 29 through May 1 in Bethesda, MD, just outside Washington, D. C. If you register before midnight, December 31, 2010, you can save $25 from the registration fee. Full details are at the link; I was at the convention last year and will be attending again this year. It's great fun and an excellent opportunity to meet fellow readers and some of your favorite authors - and, if you act NOW, you can save some money too.

And then there's the granddaddy of mystery conferences, Bouchercon, which will be held in St. Louis from September 15-18, 2010. It's the oldest and largest of the mystery conferences, and this will be the 42nd annual conference. This one is for readers and writers of all kinds of crime fiction, and it's about three times the size of Malice Domestic. Hey, when it comes to mystery people, the more the merrier. This is another conference where you are pretty well guaranteed to have a great time - and here too, if you sign up before midnight on December 31, 2010, you can save $25 off the registration fee. I'm registered and planning to be there in September. I hope to see you all there.

"Before Midnight"

Speaking as a person with a background in communications, there is no doubt that people in advertising and other forms of communications can become preoccupied with their own problems and needs, sometimes to a degree that may surprise the casual observer. So when the top executives of a large advertising agency come to the office of Nero Wolfe and declare that they need to hire him for something more urgetn and important than solving a murder, Wolfe is understandably a bit skeptical. But the problem presented to Wolfe and to Archie Goodwin is not to solve the murder of another advertising executive. Rather, it is how to salvage a national advertising contest with a million dollars in cash prizes which has been put into jeopardy by the murder of that executive.

Welcome to the world of Rex Stout's "Before Midnight," a 1955 entry in the Wolfe/Goodwin saga that has some truly delightful elements. The book is the subject of this week's review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the whole thing here.

The million-dollar contest is on behalf of a perfume, called "Pour Amour." Contestants have been given a series of riddles to solve, in the form of poems that are meant to describe famous women of history. The riddles obviously become more difficult with each round. But when the contest has come down to the final five riddles, the man responsible for the contest is murdered - and, it appears, the answers to the final riddles may have been stolen from his body. This is the puzzle which the executives bring to Wolfe's door. Frankly, they don't care who murdered their colleague - they want to find a way to save the contest, despite the theft of the final riddles.

"Before Midnight" is a fine entry in the series of Nero Wolfe stories. Before it ends, there will be an outrageous crime within Wolfe's brownstone - and the solution to the problems requires all of Wolfe's genius and a fair dose of Archie's practical detective work. It's Stout in his best writing form. I'm happy to see that there's edition for the Amazon Kindle e-reader..

Making a List and Checking it Twice

Well, thgat's what the song says Santa Claus is supposed to be doing at Christmas time - making a list and checking it twice. Trust me on this one: Santa's got nothing on Janet Rudolph, of Mystery Fanfare. She's been making a list of Christmas-related mysteries. The list is so long, she's had to break it into four parts, over the past several days. Here's a link to the last part of her list, showing authors from S to Z; you'll find links from there to the earlier segments with the rest of the alphabet. Believe me, there are more than enough books here to last for many Christmases to come - but if you find something's missing, let her know in the comments! As for the list...well checking it even once should prove that naughty can be nice...

"Aunt Dimity's Christmas"

Maybe it's a result of being immersed, as we are, in the holiday spirit, but the book reviewed this week on the Classic Mysteries podcast is one of the more unusual books on our list. For one thing, it's one of the newest we've recommended here, having been written in 1999. For another, the traditional mystery element is mixed with a dose of the supernatural or "paranormal," as one of the central characters of the entire series has been dead for a number of years, a fact which doesn't stop her from regular communication with the heroine.

But "Aunt Dimity's Christmas" is really a fine Christmas story and an engaging mystery, and, as always, you can listen to the full review here. I admit to a fondness for the entire series, by Nancy Atherton - a series which continues to grow with a new volume every year or so. The presence of Aunt Dimity - the ghost who communicates with heroine Lori Shepherd via the pages of a private journal - is never overstated; the mysteries will be solved by Lori and her friends, guided (but never really led) by Dimity.

And this is a fine Christmas story. It begins with the discovery of a homeless man, frozen nearly to death outside Lori's door. She will spend much of the book trying to determine who he is - and why he was there. There are secrets to be uncovered and a surprising hostility from Lori's neighbors, all set against a background of Christmas in the English countryside. It's a good book to snuggle down with on a long winter's night.

Ho Ho Ho

Ho ho ho indeed. Two weeks to go until Christmas. Less than that to Winter Solstice. One day more than that to Kwanzaa. Negative days back to Chanukah. Whatever, if you want to shop online, and you want to see the latest deals on all kinds of stuff (NOT just books) from Amazon, please click here. If you do, and you wind up buying something, I get a small commission. Doesn't cost you anything and helps me pay for the site, hosting, etc. Just sayin'!

Answering the Challenge

As I noted here the other day, I will be taking part in the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge which Bev Hankins is organizing on her My Reader's Block blog, I am taking the challenge at the highest level - to read at least 16 "vintage" mysteries in 2011. The only ground rules are that they must have first appeared before 1960 and that they must be mysteries.

Given the nature of what we do on this site, of course, I expect to read, and review, many more than 16. But, for the purposes of the challenge, here is a list of the 16 which I plan to read:

• Agatha Christie, Partners in Crime (1929)
• Ngaio Marsh, Artists in Crime (1938)
• Phoebe Atwood Taylor, Punch with Care (1946)
• Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men (1935)
• Gladys Mitchell, Merlin's Furlong (1953)
• Stuart Palmer, The Puzzle of the Silver Persian (1934)
• John Dickson Carr, The Case of the Constant Suicides (1941)
• Georgette Heyer, Death in the Stocks (1935)
• Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Circular Staircase (1908)
• Dorothy Bowers, Fear and Miss Bettony (1941)
• Edmund Crispin, Frequent Hearses (1950)
• Glyn Carr, Murder on the Matterhorn (1951)
• Clyde B. Clason, Dragon's Cave (1940)
• Elizabeth Daly, Arrow Pointing Nowhere (1944)
• Margery Allingham, More Work for the Undertaker (1948)
• H. C. Bailey, Call Mr. Fortune (1920)

At this point, that's a preliminary list, and there may be changes as the project moves ahead. Obviously, there will be other books reviewed here as well. But these sixteen seem to me to cover a fair number of authors, some of whom - I hope - will be new to many readers. It should be fun.

By the way, if you want to participate in the challenge - at any level - please do so by signing up over at My Reader's Block. If you have a blog, you can use the linking mechanism there; if you don't, you're still welcome to participate by leaving a comment on the signup page.

 

Looking Back: More Crispin

Edmund Crispin, the author of "Holy Disorders," wrote 9 novels and two collections of short stories featuring Oxford professor and eclectic detective Gervase Fen. Crispin was the pen name of Robert Bruce Montgomery, whose primary source of income was as a composer of movie music. Readers old enough to remember the old British movie comedies in the "Carry On" series will have heard Montgomery's music in those movies.

His books are witty, literate and very funny. The humor is frequently a very dark humor indeed, with laugh-out-loud scenes juxtaposed against some of the very real horrors in the books. Too many of his books remain out of print. At the moment, that includes his best-known work, "The Moving Toyshop," although I am hopeful that Felony & Mayhem Press, which has been republishing other Crispins, will get around to this one as well. For now, a number of Amazon's third-party sellers have copies, most of which are fairly expensive but there may be some decent prices at the link.

I have reviewed several Crispins on the podcast, and I will be doing more as we move forward. But if you want what I think is one of the best Crispins, let me recommend "Swan Song." It features the murder of an operatic baritone (and all-around nasty individual), and it combines a fine impossible-crime situation with some very funny backstage antics. Crispin's characters are eccentric, but also quite well drawn, with many sympathetic characters and some really unpleasant villains.

"Holy Disorders"

Today's offering on the Classic Mysteries podcast comes from another Golden Age author who is among my favorites: Edmund Crispin. "Holy Disorders" is about an impossible murder in a church - in fact, as with last week's novel, Catherine Aird's "His Burial Too," it involves a victim who is crushed by a massive piece of stone - in this case, the slab covering a tomb - inside a church, in such a way that it appears to have been impossible for anyone to commit the murder. You can listen to the full review here.

"Holy Disorders" features Crispin's Oxford University professor Gervase Fen as its detective. To call Fen "eccentric" may be a gross underestimation, but the book itself is full of both Crispin's humor - which is superb - and sudden juxtapositions with some very frightening and ugly horrors - which is effective. There is a background of evil here; the person or persons responsible for the crimes are truly chilling. But there is also a lot of very funny material here; if you like the macabre overtones of "black comedy," you'll have no trouble with the book. It's a puzzle-type mystery, and there are pretty good clues scattered throughout, although the identity of the ultimate culprit may surprise you. It was a fine entry in the Fen series, and it is very much worth your time and enjoyment.