Classic Mysteries

"More Work for the Undertaker"

Some of the most memorable characters in mystery fiction may be found in the marvelous novels of Margery Allingham, the creator of Albert Campion. In most of Allingham's books, the interesting characters are not limited to Campion and the regulars who surround him - people like his valet/factotum, Magersfontein Lugg, or Stanislaus Oates and Charlie Luke, his police regulars. It is the occasional characters in each of the novels who breathe life into what can be pretty far-fetched stories, making them more credible and much more human to us.

Certainly, that's the case in "More Work for the Undertaker," the subject of this week's review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, which you may listen to here. Albert Campion finds himself drawn into a most interesting case, at the center of which is one of those very eccentric English family, the Palinodes. The now-elderly offspring of a professor and his poetess wife, the Palinodes have come down in the world, living now as boarders in what used to be their own home on a small London byway called Apron Street. When a couple of them die mysteriously, the police think they may be killing each other. Campion isn't so sure.

The Palinodes are wonderful characters - but they're not the whole story here. There's an undertaker, with the unfortunate name of Jas. Bowels, and his son, Rowley, who are mixed up in...well, something that seems to be quite secretive and probably illegal. There's a doctor and a druggist and a bank manager, all of whom seem quite nervous for unexplained reasons. There's the woman who now owns the Palinodes' house, a former vaudeville performer and a friend of Campion's.

And there are the gangs of London, who seem to have acquired a fear of something undefined, expressed as a warning or desire not to "go up Apron Street." Not to mention a most peculiar casket which makes unexpected appearances and disappearances.

The book is well plotted and beautifully written, with some lovely unexpected twists and a fair helping of good humor. First published in 1949, I offer it as another entry in the Vintage Mysteries Reading Challenge for books published prior to 1960, now under way at the My Reader's Block book blog. "More Work for the Undertaker" is back in print, thanks to the Felony & Mayhem publishers, and it really should not be missed.

Back to Normal

Last week was quite a week for fun-loving readers and bloggers. At the same time and in the same place, there were three interconnected events: Book Expo America, the annual celebration of books, authors and readers; BlogWorld/New Media Expo, at the heart of social media; and the Book Bloggers' Convention, where several hundred dedicated book bloggers gathered to exchange ideas.

It was an amazing week.

I had never been to BEA before, and it was a revelation: more than a thousand exhibitors, including publishers, authors, influence groups, technical types, etc., all gathered in a hall more than large enough to hold a political convention. One separate area was set up as an organized place to collect autographs from favorite authors, many of whom also signed books at their publishers' exhibition spaces. I stood in more lines than I like to remember and came away with many, MANY autographed books and galleys. The galleys were probably the best part - free, advance copies of books to be published later this year.

I had been to past BlogWorlds, and I was glad to see it join forces with BEA this year. I ran into a couple of my social media cronies there and checked out those exhibitors as well.

And I probably had the most fun at the Book Bloggers' Conference. The panels, as always, were entertaining and informative, although the real fun comes at the breaks and meals, sitting around tables with several hundred other bloggers to talk about books and blogs.

Preliminary plans call for a repeat performance, complete with cohabitation, next year. If you're in the New York City area, it's worth being there. In the meantime, it's back to normal for these blogs.

(Co-posted at Classic Mysteries and LB's Rambles.)

BEA/BBC Etc.

This should be an interesting week. At the Javits Convention Center in New York, there are a couple of events going on simultaneously. It's Book Expo America week - BEA, as it's known - when book publishers and authors go all-out to promote their newest and best books to a huge crowd of visitors.

At the same time, the Javits Center will host BlogWorld/New Media Expo, which I've attended in the past. It's always exciting and interesting to meet so many other people who share a passion for new media. This year, a pass for one of these events gets you into the other as well. Not too shabby.

And then on Friday, in conjunction with BEA, comes BBC - the Book Bloggers Convention, for people like me who clutter up the Internet with blogs like this one. Some of my friends will be on panels there, and I'm really looking forward to meeting other book bloggers.

So it will be a good week for sharing passions. Blogging is likely to suffer a bit as a result, which sounds ironic considering the events. We'll see.

(Cross-posted to both Classic Mysteries and LB's Rambles)

"Three Witnesses"

Three novellas by Rex Stout. Three shorter-than-full-length stories about Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin, and the rest of the West 35th Street crew. Three enjoyable reads. "Three Witnesses" is the subject of this week's review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to it here.

This is one of my favorite Wolfean collections because it includes the novella, "Die Like a Dog," which stars a Black Labrador Retriever named (at various points in the novella) "Bootsy" or "Jet." I prefer the latter. So does Nero Wolfe. However, the important point, as far as "Three Witnesses" is concerned, is that this particular witness is a dog who, quite simply, behaves the way a normal dog behaves - and, by doing so, helps Wolfe discover and pin down a murderer. It's a wonderful story. 

The other two stories in this collection, "The Next Witness" and "When a Man Murders..." are also quite good. In the former, Nero Wolfe himself is called as a witness at a murder trial - a position which he finds impossible to tolerate, so he leaves the courtroom, evades the police and attorneys (who want to charge him with contempt of court) and manages to both solve the case and introduce his solution at a murder trial, which - as any trial attorney might tell you - takes some doing. As for "When a Man Murders..." we have the odd situation of a dead man who manages to come back to life - only to be murdered. And, once again, the case hinges on the critical testimony of a witness.

Three cases. Three witnesses. Quite a collection. It's still in print - and also available as an e-book for the Amazon Kindle.

"Three Witnesses," published in 1956, is another entry in the Vintage Mysteries Reading Challenge at the My Reader's Block blog, where you can find a lot of other suggestions about great mysteries published prior to 1960.

eBooks Surpass Paper at Amazon

I suppose it was inevitable, but Amazon.com has announced that since April 1, it has been selling 105 eBooks for the Kindle for every 100 hardback or paperback books. More people are buying the electronic Kindle edition than the hard copies.

Amazon's only counting the books for which it charges - not the many free books it makes available in the Kindle format. If you were to include those books in the total count, the figures would be even further skewed towards the electronic format.

You can read the details here in an article from Computer World. The more I read books on my own Kindle, the more accustomed I become to the new format. Yes, I'm a lifelong reader, used to the feel and smell of a real book - but I'm also enough of a traveler to be grateful that I no longer really need to lug around an extra suitcase full of books.

In particular, as a reader of classic (and all too often out-of-print) mysteries, I am delighted to see more and more of my favorite authors are beginning to appear in Kindle editions. A lot of today's popular authors, of course, are also available on the Kindle. I trust the trend will continue.

Shameless plug: if you have been thinking about a Kindle, now might be a good time to do something about it - now that Kindle's price has come down so far. Please check it out here. And, of course, if you choose to buy it through my link, I do get a (small) commission - and you will have my thanks.

Hat tip: Shelly Palmer.

The Art of the Impossible

As I say in my review below, "Rim of the Pit" is a first-rate impossible crime mystery. I am particularly fond of the impossible crime/locked room genre, books which, for me, are among the most enjoyable kinds of mysteries. I thoroughly enjoy authors who are masters of the art of the impossible - who can present a fictional crime which, on the surface, couldn't possibly have happened, but who go on to explain how it did happen, preferably with clues for the alert reader to follow.

The master of the field, to be sure, was John Dickson Carr, whose books written under his own name or that of "Carter Dickson" range from good to magnificent. I've mentioned some of the best before.  But he's far from the only author worth your reading time. I've reviewed a pretty fair number of these books on this site. Here are links to some of my earlier reviews of locked room/impossible crime favorites:

There's another Carr - Glyn Carr, the pen name of mountaineer Showell Styles, who wrote a whole series of impossible crime novels set on mountainsides. If you can't picture how a rugged mountainside could become a sort of locked room, try one of this Carr's books.

Agatha Christie was superb at impossible crime stories. My favorite Christie still is "And Then There Were None," which, in many ways, is the ultimate in impossibilities. She also did a lovely "Murder for Christmas" - nothing like blood and murder at the holidays.

Agatha Christie's favorite American author was said to be Elizabeth Daly, and she wrote a wonderful impossible crime story in "Evidence of Things Seen," where it would appear that a ghost must have committed the murder.     

Georgette Heyer's "Envious Casca" is a fine example of the English country-house mystery; it's also a really ingenious locked room murder that - hopefully - will keep you guessing all the way through.

Edmund Crispin often featured locked rooms and impossible crimes in his mysteries. If I had to pick one, I'd recommend "Swan Song," which combines humor and horror in a package set in the world of opera.

Another of my favorite authors is Michael Innes. His "Lament for a Maker" is a dazzling book about an impossible murder, told by a succession of narrators who peel away layers of this mystery to reveal the ultimate solution.

There are so many more. Do you have a personal favorite? Please leave a comment here!

"Rim of the Pit"

Here is a book with one of the most compelling, atmospheric, and yet ultimately fair "impossible crime" situations I've ever encountered. It's by an author who only wrote two novels in his career - Hake Talbot. But "Rim of the Pit," first published in 1944, is one of the best impossible crime stories I've read. It's the subject of this week's Classic Mysteries podcast review, and you can listen to it here.

This book grabs you right from the first line: "I came up here to make a dead man change his mind." The speaker, a logging company owner named Luke Latham, means it literally. He has come to a remote lodge in northern New England, quite near the Canadian border, to try to call back the spirit of his former business partner through a séance.

What appears to happen at that séance, however, is that the spirit of that partner returns - and reveals itself as an utterly malevolent, evil spirit. We then get apparent cases of possession, impossible escapes from locked rooms, trails of footprints that start and end in the midst of fields of unmarked snow, a horrifying flying monster called a wendigo - and a couple of very bloody murders.

Note, however, that I said "what appears to happen." This is no "paranormal" mystery or ghost story. It is, rather, a brilliantly told, carefully plotted classic mystery, with more than a few seemingly impossible twists and turns. The new edition published by Ramble House even includes a back-cover map showing the scene of the crime, the location of the impossible footprints, etc. Amazing. I would have to rank it alongside the very best of John Dickson Carr's mysteries. Hake Talbot's "Rim of the Pit" shouldn't be missed by anyone who enjoys locked room mysteries.

Looking Back: Death in Mid-Air

Well, if not precisely mid-air, it might as well be - death on an open mountainside, a locked room with no walls. Glyn Carr was a master of the genre - call it the "locked mountain" type of mystery, perhaps - and this week's book, "Murder on the Matterhorn," is a fine example of it.

I have reviewed four other books by Glyn Carr over the past few years, and you'll find out more about them by either checking out my earlier post or by listening to the podcast reviews linked from my "backlist" page. They are all well-written, all quite clever, all feature an enthusiasm and love for mountaineering, and "Filthy" Lewker is a delightful character. If you haven't read any of them, try one - they can be addictive.

The Anthonys and the Battle of the Blogs

The nominees have been announced for this year's Anthony Awards, to be presented in September at Bouchercon in St. Louis.

A lot of the nominees look pretty familiar, having been nominated for (and, in several cases, won) Edgars and Agathas already. But there's one category which will present a real quandary: Best Web Site/Blog. It's going to be a tough "battle of the blogs." There are five excellent choices...two of which are blogs which I make it a point of checking daily: Jen's Book Thoughts, edited by Jen Forbus, and The Rap Sheet, edited by Jeff Pierce. They're both good writers, thoughtful critics, tireless bloggers - and how in the world am I going to vote for them both without cheating?

If you're not familiar with them - or with the other nominees - this would be a good time to start checking them out. And if you're a devoted mystery fan and haven't registered for Bouchercon yet...this would be a good time to do so (and get to vote for the winners).

"Murder on the Matterhorn"

Can you conceive of a wide-open mountainside as the perfect setting for a "locked room" or impossible crime mystery? Author Glyn Carr could and did, turning out more than a dozen first-rate mysteries set on mountainsides.

Carr's second novel, published in 1951, was "Murder on the Matterhorn," set on the rocky face of one of the world's most famous mountains. It's the subject of this week's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, which you can listen to here. Carr's amateur detective, Shakespearean actor Abercrombie Lewker (known as "Filthy" to his friends) is called upon to solve the murder of an experienced climber who apparently falls to his death during a solo ascent of the Matterhorn. While there is no shortage of people with excellent motives (including some extreme political groups), it appears, from the evidence, that nobody could possibly have committed the crime.

Glyn Carr was the pen name of Showell Styles, an accomplished mountaineer, and his love for the sport of mountain climbing is apparent on almost every page of his books. Even a devout coward and confirmed acrophobe like me gains some appreciation of this beautiful and - the author insists - not particularly dangerous sport. (Well, I suppose it's dangerous when there are murderers about.) Glyn Carr's books nicely combine mountaineering and seemingly impossible crimes. If you haven't read any of his books, "Murder on the Matterhorn" can be a good place to start.

As this book was published in 1951, I am submitting it to the continuing Vintage Mysteries Reading Challenge at the My Reader's Block book blog. If you haven't been there yet to check out some of the books oher people are reading, you're missing some first-rate suggestions for fine pre-1960 mysteries.