Sixteen Kinds of Vintage Murder

If you have been following my blog so far this year, you know that I have been taking part in the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge which has been under way at the My Reader's Block blog. The idea was to read mysteries, all written by 1960 or earlier, and post reviews of them, along with links to (and from) the challenge page. The moderator, Bev Hankins, provided a list of "scattergories" - 37 in all - in which our vintage books might be classified.

We are now a little more than halfway into the year, and I am pleased to say that I have completed sixteen reviews for the challenge. While participants were only required to make sure that each of the first eight books completed fit into one of those "scattergories," I am happy and proud to say that each of the sixteen books I have read so far falls into a different category.

For the record, here are the books (in the order in which I read them), together with their categories:

1. No Coffin for the Corpse, by Clayton Rawson (1942). In category 21. Things That Go Bump in the Night: a mystery with something spooky, creepy, gothic in the title.
2. Gaudy Night, by Dorothy L. Sayers (1936). In category 20. Murder Is Academic: a mystery involving a scholar, teacher, librarian, etc.  OR set at a school, university, library, etc.
3. The Fingerprint, by Patricia Wentworth (1960). In Category 4, Leave it to the Professionals: a book featuring cops, private eyes, secret service, professional spies, etc.
4. The Chinese Orange Mystery, by Ellery Queen (1934). In Category 35, Genuine Fakes: Authors who wrote under a pseudonym.
5. The Case of the Gilded Fly, by Edmund Crispin (1944). In Category 16, Locked Rooms.
6. Blind Drifts, by Clyde B. Clason (1937). In Category 3, Amateur Night: a book with a "detective" who is not a P.I., police officer, official.
7. Vultures in the Sky, by Todd Downing (1935). In Category 7, World Traveler: one mystery set in any country except the US or Britain.
8. Vintage Murder, by Ngaio Marsh (1937). In Category 13, Staging the Crime, a mystery set in the entertainment world.
9. Murder at Cambridge, by Q. Patrick (1933). In Category 5, Jolly Old England, one mystery set in Britain.
10. Fatal Descent, by John Dickson Carr and Cecil Street (1939). In Category 24, A Mystery By Any Other Name, any book that has been published under more than one title.
11. Revelation of a Lady Detective, by William Stephens Hayward (1864). In Category 10, Wicked Women, a book with a woman in the title.
12. The Puzzle of the Happy Hooligan, by Stuart Palmer (1941). In Category 6, Yankee Doodle Dandy, one mystery set in the United States.
13. The Thin Man, by Dashiell Hammett (1934).In Category 34, Somebody Else's Crime, read one book that someone else has already reviewed for the Vintage Mystery Challenge.
14. The Corpse Steps Out, by Craig Rice (1940). In Category 29, The Old Bailey (it features lawyer John J. Malone), a mystery featuring a judge, lawyer, barrister, D.A., etc.
15. The Case with Nine Solutions, by J. J. Connington (1928). In Category 2, Murder by the Numbers, a book with a number, quantity in the title.
16. The Lodger, by Marie Belloc Lowndes (1913). In Category 28, Book to Movie, one vintage mystery that has appeared on screen.

The links will take you back to my original blog post for each of the titles.

So...read any good books lately?

Comments

[Margot Kinberg]

Les - Thanks so much for taking the time to put this summing-up together. I love the variety you've got here. There really are a lot of different kinds of vintage mysteries, and your excellent reviews show that.

[Les Blatt]

If you take a look at some of the other books being reviewed as part of the challenge, Margot, you'll find people writing about all kinds of mysteries, from just about every sub-genre. Spy stories, psychological thrillers, noir, police procedurals - all have books that could easily fit into the category of "vintage." And Bev's "scattergories" are marvelous; I'd love to find entries in "Murder on the High Seas" or "The Butler Did It" or "Serial killers: books that were originally published in serial format." There's still a lot of reading to be done!

[TracyK]

Very interesting list. I will be checking out all of the links, altho I know I read some of them already. And some are authors that are new to me or that I don't know much about.

[Les Blatt]

Thanks, Tracy. There's never a guarantee that everyone will like the books I enjoyed - but if you find a few books or authors on my list that sound intriguing, I do hope you'll try them.

[Nancy Turner]

I enjoy and am inspired by your web series Classic Mysteries. Because of you, I have recently purchased 2 used, recently published mysteries you reviewed or mentioned herein: Mayhem at the Orient Express by Kylie Logan and The Christie Curse by Victoria Abbott. Both are firsts in new cozy mysteries series. Kylie's book was enjoyable but light fare and I guessed the murderer as soon as she/he was introduced in the story. But I like the characters and setting -- I read it mainly for the setting, on South Bass Island in Lake Erie, off the coast of Sandusky,Ohio; as a girl 55+ years ago I'd spent a summer at a Catholic Camp on nearby Kelleys (no apostrophe) Island in the old Kelley Mansion and was familiar with the ferry system to these islands and what it's like to be on one of these islands. The second book, The Christie Curse, is my current reading, but the premise and characters grabbed me immediately: a young woman with a recent Master's in English literature is hired by a not-so-pleasant,recluse woman to live in a garret suite in her huge,decaying mansion to work on researching and finding, if it's real, an unpublished manuscript for a play supposedly written by Christie during her 11 days of mysterious disappearance after her husband asked her for a divorce. The first page of The Christie Curse grabbed my full interest. Anyway, thank you for this blog and for presenting more future reading choices for your readers! Your periodic mentioning of the Vintage Mysteries Reading Challenge also has spiked my interest as to potential future reading.

[Les Blatt]

I must admit I'm not familiar with the Kylie Logan book, Nancy, but I did enjoy "The Christie Curse." I do hope you'll find other enjoyable books among the ones I review. Thanks for the kind words!

[Bev@My Reader's Block]

Les: Congratulations on finishing the challenge (with 16, no less!). I've read over half of yours...and Murder at Cambridge is on the list to finish this year. I'm not going to peek at your review until I get that one done. With 16, you have qualified for the automatic prize--if you'd like to collect, just send me an email at phryne1969 AT gmail DOT com.

[Les Blatt]

Thanks, Bev - the email will be there shortly. I think you'll enjoy Murder at Cambridge, by the way! I'm going to keep posting some of the mysteries I'm reading to the challenge - it's been a lot of fun finding books that fit the categories (or bending the categories to fit the books!).