Classic Mysteries

Read All About It

There's a new issue of Sally Powers' excellent bimonthly "I Love a Mystery" newsletter, crammed full (as always) with reviews of all kinds of newly-released or re-released mysteries. No matter what kind of niche your taste buds may fancy, you'll probably find something to enjoy here.

And, for classic fans, may I immodestly point out my own "Classic Corner" in the newsletter, where you'll find my reviews of - what else? - classic mysteries.

Enjoy!

"A Night of Errors"

Some of the very fine mysteries written by Michael Innes have truly memorable characters. Some have plots which very nearly veer off into fantasy. Some have impossibilities built into them which must be accepted at face value. Most are funny, even if in a dark-humored way.

And then there is "A Night of Errors," which combines all of these elements and more in a witty, fascinating and macabre way. It is the subject of this week's review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the full review by clicking here.

Written in 1948, and with very clear and direct ties to some of the characters (and events) in Shakespeare's, "A Comedy of Errors," "A Night of Errors" follows the fate of the Dromio family, an eccentric (to the point of insanity) English family. The titular head of the family is found murdered - his body partially burned in a fireplace in his family mansion. The dead man was one of identical triplets – and the only survivor, as a baby forty years earlier, of a fire that apparently killed his brothers and may have been set by his father, who later died insane. The local police ask for help from now-retired Scotland Yard inspector John Appleby, who reluctantly agrees to help.

In one amazing and quite fantastic night, Appleby is presented with a series of crimes and an embarrassment of eccentric suspects. Fire plays a central role in the mystery, and it is through fire that the ultimate truth will be revealed.

The book is also quite notable for one of the most memorable butlers in any "country home" mystery, the rather loathsome Swindle, who tends to terrorize the family and keep them under control even in his senility. He is a marvelously comic character, and he plays an extremely important part in the events of this one very peculiar night.

If you have read Innes, you know what to expect. Once again, though, if you have never read any of him, this may not be the place to start. But for those who enjoy fine vintage mysteries, and who know Innes, his sudden twists, his eccentric characters and his marvelously entertaining plots, "A Night of Errors" really should not be missed.

One More Reminder

I'm enjoying a week or so off the Internet. The next podcast review will be posted here on Tuesday, August 30. After that, we'll be back to the regular Monday publishing schedule.

I hope you're all enjoying the remaining days of summer. See you on Tuesday.

Looking Back: "Case for Three Detectives"

Of all the Leo Bruce mysteries that I have read, I think the one I have enjoyed the most is "Case For Three Detectives," the 1936 novel that introduced Bruce's first detective, the phlegmatic, stolid - and thoroughly reliable - Sergeant Beef. It is a marvelous satire of the classic mystery, complete with an impossible crime. To solve the murder, Sergeant Beef must make way (on orders from his superiors) for three "gifted" amateur detectives likely to be quite familiar to most classic mystery readers. There's the elegant Lord Simon Plimsoll, the brilliant Monsieur Amer Picon, and that mysterious man of the cloth, Monsignor Smith.

Readers will recognize the parodies of Lord Peter Wimsey, M. Hercule Poirot and Father Brown, to be sure. But never fear - the three detectives come up with three different and quite brilliant solutions to the crime. The only flaw, alas, is that they are all wrong. The real murderer is discovered by the dull and quite unspectacular Sergeant Beef - but then, he has been saying all along, throughout the book, "I know who done it!"

I reviewed this book here last year. It's a great deal of fun, a good mystery that pokes not-so-gentle fun at the so-called "great" detectives. Academy Chicago Publishers has brought it back, and it's a light-hearted and enjoyable read.

"Death With Blue Ribbon"

Under the pen name Leo Bruce, British author Rupert Croft-Cooke wrote two very good mystery series. The first featured the earthy Sergeant Beef, who solved a series of mysteries by using common sense to cut through a number of fairly interesting problems. The second, and longer, series stars Carolus Deene, a former commando turned schoolteacher. The mysteries that I have read in the Carolus Deene series are noticeably grimmer than the Sergeant Beef books.

Certainly that's the case with "Death With Blue Ribbon," which was first published in 1969. It's the subject of today's review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, which can be heard in full by clicking here. Most of the characters, unfortunately, tend to be unpleasant - both victims and criminals. But they are interesting as characters while offering some insight and some satire about the world of "haute cuisine" as practiced in some restaurants - a chef who calls himself "Antoine," for example, turns out to be a Cockney named Tony.

Carolus Deene finds himself caught up in fighting a protection racket that is victimizing some of the fine restaurants of England. It's a simple proposition: pay up - or someone will get very sick eating your restaurant's food. That kind of thing could be devastating for a restaurant. Eventually, there's a murder of a particularly unpleasant restaurant critic. Was it the result of personal animosities - or of the protection racketeers? Deene sets out to break the racket open, at what turns out to be considerable personal risk.

Academy Chicago Publishers have been reprinting many of Leo Bruce's titles, including "Death With Blue Ribbon." Here's another detective whose acquaintance you will probably enjoy making.

Just a Reminder...

...that the next weekly podcast (with its blog posts) will be published on Wednesday next week, rather than Monday, to make my life a little simpler. Hey, it's August.

Good News From Kennebunk

We've seen too many depressing news stories in the past year or so about stalwart independent mystery bookstores forced to close their doors (to say nothing about Borders). So it was refreshing when a friend of mine up New England way sent me this story from the Portland Press Herald up in Maine about a fairly new indie bookstore in Kennebunk, Maine called Mainely Murders.

Paula Keeney and her partner, Ann Whetstone,  established the store (after talking about it for 35 years), and, I'm happy to say, one of their specialties appears to be Golden Age mysteries.

It's been a long time since I've traveled that far north. This may be a good reason to plan a visit.

Box Set

"Death in the Fifth Position" was the first of three novels written by Gore Vidal as Edgar Box. The other two are "Death Before Bedtime" and "Death Likes It Hot." I haven't read the last two, but I suspect they probably share a lot of the qualities of the first book - "medium-boiled," as far as sex and violence are concerned, some nice twists and surprises, and Vidal's tongue planted pretty firmly in his cheek. All three of them, in the new edition from Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, should be readily available through your favorite mystery bookseller - or through Amazon.com, particularly if you want to find the Kindle editions.

"Death in the Fifth Position"

Are mysteries "literature" as well as popular entertainments? You can get into a fine argument any day with critics and academics and other readers over that question. So it's worth pointing out the number of so-called "serious" authors who have written mysteries. People like Charles Dickens, say. Or Edgar Allan Poe.

Or Gore Vidal.

Gore Vidal? Yes. Early in his career, Vidal tossed off three "medium-boiled" detective stories, writing under the name "Edgar Box." Those three mysteries, starring a P. R. man named Peter Sargeant, have now been republished by Vintage Books under their Vintage Crime/Black Lizard imprint. The first of those books, "Death in the Fifth Position," which appeared in 1952, is the subject of this week's Classic Mysteries podcast review, and you can listen to the full review by clicking here.

Vidal certainly makes no claim for these books as literature, and the introduction he has provided to this new edition makes that very clear: he wrote them because they put food on the table - and did so, apparently, for quite a few years, before the author could build his reputation as a serious writer. But taken for what they clearly are - funny, cleverly written potboilers - these books can be a lot of fun to read.

"Death in the Fifth Position" is centered around a visiting ballet troupe visiting New York City. Sargeant is hired to do public relations for the company and to try to head off a potential PR disaster over a choreographer accused of being a Communist. Almost immediately, one of the company's ballerinas is murdered, falling to her death on stage in what the ballet world calls a perfect fifth position. The plot takes off from there and becomes pretty complicated, involving several deaths before it all gets sorted out. Vidal claims to have learned a lot from Agatha Christie, so there are some nice surprising twists here. If you prefer an electronic edition, there is a version formatted for the Amazon Kindle.

Sad News

An email from "MaggieMay" on the "For Mystery Addicts" (4MA) Yahoo mail list passes along the sad news that Enid Schantz of the Rue Morgue Press and Bookshop has passed away. According to the post, she had been suffering from cancer and had been on hospice care.

As readers of this site probably are aware, Enid and her husband, Tom, were tireless workers on behalf of traditional and classic mysteries. I would guess that nearly half of the more than 200 books I have reviewed here have been published by their Rue Morgue Press, and their quarterly catalog is a reader's delight. I'm sure my readers will join in offering condolences to Tom Schantz on his loss.