Classic Mysteries

"The Golden Dagger"

The case began with an anonymous phone call from a public telephone to the police, insisting there had been a murder at Cobblers, an estate belonging to Lord Rone and Saine. It sounded like a prank phone call, but the police, in the person of Scotland Yard Commander Bobby Owen, thought it would be wise to check anyway.

Then a second call was received - this time from a woman, calling from the same public telephone box not far from Cobblers. She had just discovered a wicked-looking, and bloodstained, golden dagger in the phone booth.

So maybe something really was going on at Cobblers? The police dutifully trooped out there - to find only bland and rather indignant denials that anyone had been murdered, even though that dagger did come from Lord Rone's collection.

That's the opening of a fine mystery called "The Golden Dagger," by E. R. Punshon, another of those authors whose name is virtually unknown today. For once, that link doesn't go to Amazon - I can't find the book on Amazon - but links instead directly to the book's page on the website of Ramble House, which has brought this post-Golden Age mystery back into print. "The Golden Dagger" is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the full review by clicking here.

So here are the police, with a bloody dagger, and - they are assured - no murder. Someone missing? Why yes, now that you mention it...two people in fact. And much of the book will be spent trying to figure out exactly what did happen, and to whom, that night in and around Cobblers. Oh, and there's another clue: an expensive hat. It may have belonged to the murderer. If, in fact, there is a murderer...

Yes, it's a delightful, trickly little puzzle mystery, filled with distinctive and memorable characters. And, yes, all that blood on the dagger must have come from somewhere. Check out that page at Ramble House for information about how to get a copy; it's probably also available in an e-book format for six bucks, and it's great fun.

Top Ten List - Sort Of

Traditionally, the last few days of the old year are the days when writers and other listmakers try to come up with their "top ten lists," or "best 10" or "worst 10" - certainly you've seen them.

This year, as every year for the past five or so, I've offered you a new podcast review of a classic or traditionally-oriented mystery every week, usually with a blog post about the featured book as well.

So, in that list of 52 classics read and reviewed this year, is there a "Top Ten List" waiting to be published? A list of ten books that I particularly enjoyed this year and want to call to your attention again?

Why, yes. Yes there is.

So here goes my "sort of Top Ten List of books read in 2012." The books are more or less listed in inverse order of my own enjoyment of the book. (Title links are to the book listing at Amazon.com; "full review" will play the podcast for you; "blog post" will take you to one of my posts about that book. Many are available as ebooks as well, for Kindle and in other formats.)

10. "Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries," by Melville Davisson Post. Brilliant short stories, first appearing in 1918, about Uncle Abner, a nineteenth century pioneer living in the hard mountain country of Western Virginia. Clever plots, memorable characters, beautiful settings.  Full review, blog post

9. "Murder in the Maze," by J. J. Connington. A marvelously nightmarish "English country house" story, with murder taking place inside a giant hedge maze - and the killer apparently on the loose inside the maze with you. Full review, blog post

8. "The Chinese Parrot," by Earl Derr Biggers. The second of six novels written by Biggers to feature Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan., in pursuit of thieves and murderers in the American southwest. Full review, blog post

7. "The Lacquer Screen," by Robert van Gulik.Set in seventh century China, it features Judge Dee, one of my favorite detective characters, as he solves a very tricky murder case. Full review, blog post

6. "The Fourth Door: The Houdini Murders," by Paul Halter, a contemporary French author whose work is being compared - quite justifiably - to John Dickson Carr at his best. This one is a marvelous locked room/impossible crime situation, with plenty of unexpected twists. Full review, blog post

5. "Death of a Swagman," by Arthur Upfield. This author is, I think, shamefully under-appreciated for his Australian mysteries, written during the first half of the 20th century, featuring Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte, whose inherited brilliance from his Aborigine mother and his Caucasian father make him one of the ablest detectives at solving cases where other police officers have failed. Full review, blog post

4. "Any Shape or Form," by Elizabeth Daly. She was said to be Agatha Christie's favorite American author, and this book may help you understand why. Her detective, Henry Gamadge, is on hand for a murder at an American country estate, and the sudden twists and turns of the story may leave you breathless. Full review, blog post

3. "Dead Men Don't Ski," by Patricia Moyes. Inspector Tibbett is on the scene when a man who was certainly alive when he got on the ski lift at the top arrives at the bottom dead from a gunshot wound. I hope this is the first of many Moyes novels to be re-issued. Full review, blog post

2. "Murder on Wheels," by Stuart Palmer. A strong entry in the series featuring schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers. An impossible crime, great characters (including a foul-mouthed parrot), even an entire rodeo. Lots of fun. Full review, blog post

1. "Murder by the Book," by Rex Stout. One of the strongest plots of any book featuring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, and the characters are particularly well done, especially a couple of the victims. Read about a book so dangerous that anybody who might have read it is murdered.  Full review, blog post

So there you have it. Some of the authors on that list may be new to you; I encourage you to make them all your friends in the new year.

Kindling Books

Did Santa (or anyone else, for any reason or holiday whatsoever) bring you a new Kindle from Amazon this year? Yes, I know there are other models of ebook readers, but I have to stick to what I know, which is the Kindle. And if you have a new one, or even an old one, you may be looking for some ideas about Kindling books - that library of traditional mysteries you've always wanted to carry around with you but never had enough baggage room before.

Well, here are a few suggestions to help you load your Kindle with some fine reading material for a long winter's night or two.

To begin at the beginning, why not "bulk up" and get The Classic Mystery Collection (100+ books and stories) for just $2.99. That includes ALL of the original Sherlock Holmes stories - the four novels and the 56 short stories. It has Hercule Poirot's debut appearance in Agatha Christie's "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" and also her first book about Tommy and Tuppence, "The Secret Adversary." Two of Chesterton's books of Father Brown short stories are here, along with "The Man Who Was Thursday." Ever read E. C. Bentley's "Trent's Last Case"? It's here. And a whole lot more. Sure, there's a lot of "stuff" you may not like - or you may discover some new authors whose works demand exploration. It's worth a shot.

One of my all-time favorite mysteries, still at the top of most lists of "impossible crime" books, is John Dickson Carr's The Hollow Man, originally published in the U. S. as "The Three Coffins," now newly re-released as a Kindle book. if you have never read this one, you are in for a treat. What is it about? In the very first paragraph, Carr sets out this challenge to the reader:

“To the murder of Professor Grimaud, and later the equally incredible crime in Cagliostro Street, many fantastic terms could be applied – with reason. Those of Dr. Fell’s friends who like impossible situations will not find in his casebook any puzzle more baffling or more terrifying. Thus: two murders were committed, in such fashion that the murderer must not only have been invisible; but lighter than air. According to the evidence, this person killed his first victim and literally disappeared. Again according to the evidence, he killed his second victim in the middle of an empty street, with watchers at either end; yet not a soul saw him, and no footprint appeared in the snow.”

And that's exactly what you will get.

Another of Carr's impossible crime masterpieces, written as Carter Dickson and featuring Carr's other great creation, Sir Henry Merrivale, is "The Judas Window," with one of the nicest locked room explanations you'll ever encounter. As Sir Henry reminds you throughout, the solution was simply that the murderer used a "Judas Window" to carry out the crime in a locked and bolted room. What's that, you may ask? Why almost every room has one...if you know where to look...

And there's so much more...for example:

• The Nine Tailors, by Dorothy L. Sayers, my favorite Lord Peter Wimsey book;
• The House Without a Key, by Earl Derr Biggers, the book that introduced the great Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan;
• The Roman Hat Mystery, starring Ellery Queen, the detective, and written by Ellery Queen, the writer (Frederick Dannay and Manfred B. Lee), featuring a murder in a crowded Broadway theater.

I'm sure you get the idea. There are lots and lots of mysteries eagerly awaiting placement on your Kindle; you can build a TBR pile that is the envy of those of us with teetering hard copy piles. The cold, dark and stormy nights are approaching - be sure your ebooks are ready!

(Disclosure to keep the gummint happy: if you should actually buy something via one of my links to Amazon, I get a few cents - literally - as a commission. Now don't you feel better for knowing that?)

"Too Many Clients"

It is all too possible to have too much of a good thing. Consider the events that took place when Archie Goodwin, concerned that the bank account of his boss, Nero Wolfe, was getting dangerously low, decided to scare up a client. He was successful, all right - but too much so, as entirely too many people started trying to persuade Wolfe to represent their interests in a compicated case, where murder was only one small factor in the equation.

Welcome to "Too Many Clients," another in Rex Stout's marvelous series about the exploits of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin and the rest of the "Thirty-Fifth Street Irregulars" who lived and/or worked at the Wolfe brownstone in New York City. Written in 1960, "Too Many Clients" is the subject of this week's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the full review by clicking here.

It was the precarious state of Wolfe's bank balance that made Archie open the door to the unprepossessing man on the brownstone's stoop. No problem; the man claimed to be a fabulously wealthy businessman who wanted to hire Archie - yes, Archie, not Wolfe himself - to find out who was following him when he went to a certain address on the upper west side of Manhattan. Certainly it seemed like easy money.

Only it wasn't. Not when the body of a murdered man turned up near that apartment. The victim turned out to be that same fabulously wealthy businessman - only it was not the man who had hired Archie. THAT man had disappeared. That upper west side address turned out to be the site of an elaborate and secret love nest, used by the businessman for his illicit trysts with a surprising number of partners. And, suddenly, potential clients for Nero Wolfe's services were lining up, wanting Wolfe to get involved to keep the secret of that apartment - and find the killer.

It's all great fun - even if some of the 1960-ish attitudes, particularly towards women, sex and domestic violence, are likely to cause raised eyebrows among many modern readers. "Too Many Clients" is still one of Rex Stout's better plots, with some lovely characters and one of Wolfe's greatest duels with Inspector Cramer of Homicide. At the moment, it appears to be out of print, but it is available as an e-book and there are plenty of copies available via the network of used book stores and mystery specialists.

Have a Little Drink, M. Poirot?

I don't know what the Greater Significance of this might mean, but I was out to dinner last evening with my wife, celebrating our anniversary. The restaurant had a little card on the table advertising its special drinks. On that list, to my surprise, was a drink called "The Hercule Poirot," apparently consisting of Absolut Pear, Triple Sec, Lime Juice and Pear Nectar. No "sirop de cassis," apparently. Would M. Poirot have enjoyed it? I don't know. It sounded a bit sweet to me, in a heavily pear-shaped way. Anybody out there know anything about such a drink? To your good health, M. Poirot!

Mysterious Travel Plans

I am reminded that time is running out to make early travel plans to attend a couple of fine and mysterious conferences next year. Or, at least, to do so at a discount.

I am planning to attend two such conferences in 2013. The first, to be held May 3-5 in Bethesda, MD, will be the 25th annual Malice Domestic conference - home of the Agatha Awards. It's for lovers of traditional mysteries, typified by Agatha Christie. Among the honorees in attendance in 2013 will be Laurie R. King, Laura Lippman, Aaron Elkins, Peter Robinson and Carolyn Hart. If you register before December 31, you'll not only get a price break but you'll be eligible to submit possible nominees for the Agatha Awards.

Then, in September, come to Albany, New York, for the 44th Bouchercon, the granddaddy of all mystery conferences, which will run from September 19th through the 22nd. Once again, there's a special low rate if you register before midnight on December 31st. There's always a star-studded guest list of authors for this one; in 2013, the honorees will include Sue Grafton, P. C. Doherty, Tess Gerritsen and Steve Hamilton, among others. As always, attendees get to participate in the selection of the Anthony Award winners.

Of course there are others. Left Coast Crime (happening in March) comes to mind, but I'm an east-coaster, so I don't often get out to that one (though people who have attended love it just as much as I enjoy, say, Malice Domestic). There are some great conferences in the U.K. as well, and one of these years I really do want to try one.

If you've never been to a mystery writers/fans conference, and you really enjoy reading and talking about mysteries, why not make 2013 the year you attend your first conference? All the conferences I've attended have been a treat from first to last - a chance to meet and talk with literally hundreds of your favorite authors. Find out what's new, what's in the publishing pipeline, meet some new authors and get autographs from longtime favorites. Everyone is friendly, everyone loves talking mysteries. Still a reading neophyte? Not to worry; EVERYONE you meet will have suggestions for you about books you'll enjoy. It's a wonderful way to take a short vacation while talking about something you love, the conferences are NOT particularly exspensive, and the host hotels are pretty reasonably priced. I hope to see you at a conference in 2013.

Stocking Stuffer from the Pit

If you're looking for a definition of the word "eclectic," I can offer you one in three words: Ramble House publishers. This small and very independent press publishes all kinds of books, including some fine mysteries. Fender Tucker, who runs the place, publishes all of Rupert Penny's Golden Age novels, for example, as well as reams of Harry Stephen Keeler books (I've never read any, but I promise to get around to it very soon and report back).

More to the point, at this holiday season, when you or someone you love may be looking for great e-books as stocking stuffers for that new, or old-and-treasured, e-reader, Ramble House's entire backlist is now available in several popular ebook formats at just six bucks a book.

Which brings me to my main point: I've posted here about "Rim of the Pit," by Hake Talbot, one of the best "impossible crime" books I've ever read. It rivals John Dickson Carr in its ingenuity and its atmosphere; it requires a lot of bravery to read it at home alone on a stormy night. It opens with the line: "I came up here to make a dead man change his mind." And it just keeps getting better - impossible murder, seances, footprints that begin and end in unbroken fields of snow, a giant flying...something...what's not to like?

My point is, if you have an ebook reader that takes either EPUB (Nook and, I think, Sony?) or MOBI format, you can get it now from Ramble House for six bucks. It may be the best six bucks you ever spent on a traditional, well-written, truly terrifying mystery. Check out the "back cover map" - one of the best of its kind - here. Email Ramble House for details on how to get the ebook version - [email protected]

"Laurels Are Poison"

Are you acquainted with Mrs. Bradley? Mrs. Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley, noted psychiatrist, frequently employed by the police as a criminal investigator? Mrs. Bradley does not laugh, she "cackles." Her features have frequently been described by her author, Gladys Mitchell, as "reptilian," even as a "benevolent crocodile"; her students and other acquaintances often refer to her as "Mrs. Croc." It is safe to say that Mrs. Bradley is one of the most original and unusual protagonists to come down to us from the so-called Golden Age of Detective Fiction in England.

Mitchell's books about Mrs. Bradley - more than 60 of them - are something of an acquired taste, but to those of us who have been captivated by Mrs. Bradley's odd behavior, her belief that witchcraft has its uses, her insistence on doing things her way (even, on at least one occasion, committing murder herself), she is a marvelous companion. Take the events in "Laurels Are Poison," first published in 1942, which is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast. It is said to have been Mitchell's favorite among her own books. You can listen to the entire review by clicking here.

In "Laurels Are Poison," we find Mrs. Bradley acting as the Warden - the person in charge - of a residence hall at the Cartaret Training College, where young women are trained to become teachers. The previous Warden unaccountably disappeared one night - simply wandered off and vanished - and Mrs. Bradley has been asked to move in and see if she can figure out what happened.

To that end, she enlists three of the students (who refer to themselves throughout as "The Three Musketeers") to help in her search. And there are more inexplicable phenomena, including a variety of apparent pranks, some innocent, others quite dangerous. Eventually, of course, there is murder.

All of which, I fear, gives very little idea of the general mayhem that is going on in this highly enjoyable book. It is enjoyable, that is, if you enjoy some of the extreme forms of English eccentricity. The writing is high-spirited, frequently funny, sometimes grimly so. Some of the events are quite surreal, if fascinating - take the discovery, for example, of a female drowning victim's corsets floating in the river. There are occasional attacks against Mrs. Bradley, too. And, as is often the case with Gladys Mitchell, while some events are quite thoroughly explained, others sort of...well, just happen, and the reader is left to go back and figure out precisely how, when and why.

During Gladys Mitchell's lifetime and her remarkably prolific and long writing career - her first book appeared in 1929, her last in 1984, after her death - remarkably few of her books about Mrs. Bradley were published in the United States. I think it's the occasional runs into the surreal and the amazing eccentricities of Mrs. Bradley and the other characters that may explain why she never really caught on among many American readers. But I am delighted to find some of her books, such as "Laurels Are Poison," being republished by the Rue Morgue Press and others. In fact, this book - and other Mitchells - are now available in a Kindle edition for Amazon.

I have written in some more detail about this book in a recent edition of Sally Powers's excellent "I Love a Mystery" Newsletter, and I thank her for letting me re-review it here.

A Gift for Young Readers: "The Westing Game"

I am asked frequently to recommend a book that may encourage young readers to try reading the kind of traditional mysteries we enjoy so much.

My favorite such mystery apparently is back in print. "The Westing Game," by Ellen Raskin, works on many levels as an introduction to complex, fairly-clued, puzzle-type mysteries. The book won the Newbery Medal for children's literature in 1979, and it is generally recommended for readers over the age of 9, though adults will enjoy it as well.

I wrote a fairly lengthy blog post nearly two years ago, laying out the story, and I invite you to visit that post for a more complete review and plot rundown. Basically, it's about a group of sixteen people, including four children, who are called to a mysterious old house to hear the reading of the last will of multi-millionaire Samuel Westing. According to that will, those sixteen are invited to follow a trail of clues in a kind of difficult and sometimes dangerous game to determine who killed Westing - for, again according to that will, he did not die a natural death. The one who succeeds will inherit the bulk of Westing's $200 million estate.

How they react, what each of them does - and how they find and handle the clues all of which are fairly given to the reader, all these things should fascinate the new mystery reader. Only one person in the book will follow the clues and interpret them correctly to reach the surprising conclusion. And - when all is revealed - the reader can look back at the clues and see how cleverly he or she was misdirected by the author. If you are trying to explain to a new mystery reader why, as experienced readers, we so love this kind of mystery puzzle- this book should make it very clear.

I am delighted to see that the book is available again in paperback as well as in electronic formats. I think it makes a great stocking stuffer for any young readers on your gift list - and I hope that they will become as fascinated as we are with this kind of mystery.

"The Lucky Stiff"

If I recommend a book that is hardboiled and grimly noir, it could have been written by any one of a pretty large number of writers. If I recommend a book that is hardboiled and grimly noir and unbelievably funny, it is virtually certain that I have only one author in mind: Craig Rice. Writing in the 1940s and 1950s, Rice turned out a series of stories and novels that combined hardboiled and sometimes grim mystery with screwball comedy.

For a perfect example of what sounds like an unlikely marriage of styles, try Rice's 1945 novel, "The Lucky Stiff." It features a trio of central characters who appeared in many of Rice's books: Chicago lawyer John J. Malone and his two friends, small-time press agent Jake Justus and Jake's by-this-time-in-the-series wife, Helene. "The Lucky Stiff" is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the full review by clicking here.

The book begins in a cell on death row, where a young woman named Anna Marie is about to be executed for a murder she did not commit. When the guards come to take her to the electric chair, she believes her life is over. Instead, they take her to the Warden's office, where he informs her that the real murderer has just made a death-bed confession which clears her.

Grateful? Not Anna Marie. She forces the warden and her lawyer to release a story saying she has died in the electric chair, the confession coming too late to save her. She intends to reappear as a ghost, to haunt the crooks responsible for the murder and to get revenge on them.

And she does - with the help of Malone and the Justuses. And, in the course of the increasingly surreal and bizarre events, there are several more murders, a reasonable amount of crooked dealing, numerous fist-fights (often involving Malone), and - incidentally - increasingly hilarious plot twists alternating with situations that really could define the "noir" genre. If you don't think there can be anything hilariously funny about a bomb going off in a funeral home...well, read "The Lucky Stiff" and find out.

Writing at the Golden Age of Detection wiki, critic Mike Grost observes, "Almost everything that happens in a Rice novel is surrealistic. The characters, plots, settings and incidents all seem intended to surprise the reader with imaginative newness, and to shake up his or her preconceptions about reality." I think that's what you'll find in "The Lucky Stiff." It's most easily available in e-book format, although there seem to be a fair number of used paperback versions as well; your independent mystery book dealer can help, or try the above link to Amazon's Kindle and independent dealers.