Getting Serious About a Challenge

From time to time this year, I've talked about submitting appropriate reviews to the ongoing Vintage Mystery Bingo Reading Challenge under way at Bev's My Reader's Block blog. The idea is that we are filling in a "Bingo"-type scorecard in which each square requires reading a book that meets a particular criterion (see below). For the Golden scorecard, the books must all have been published prior to 1960. There are 36 squares on the scorecard.

So far this year, I have read (and submitted) reviews of 18 books. 

So it's time to get serious. Each book selected for the podcast for the next 18 weeks will fill in one of the missing squares. In other words, my goal is to fill in the entire scorecard.

here are links to all of the ones I've read and reviewed so far (with space for the squares not yet filled). I am listing them as they appear on the scorecard, by row from top to bottom, in order going across left and right.

Row 1:

• One book with a color in the title: Green Shiver, by Clyde B. Clason
• A book published under more than one title: Murder Can Be Fun, by Fredric Brown
• One book with a "spooky" title: Diabolic Candelabra, by E. R. Punshon
• A book by an author you've read before: Going, Going Gone, by Phoebe Atwood Taylor
  
• A book with a detective team: The Greek Coffin Mystery, by Ellery Queen
• One book with an animal in the title: The Puzzle of the Red Stallion, by Stuart Palmer

Row 2:

• One book set anywhere except the U.S. or England:
• One book with a number in the title:
• One book that has been made into a movie:
• One book with a lawyer, courtroom, judge, etc.:
• One book with a time, day, month, etc. in the title:
• One book with a place in the title: Murder a la Richelieu, by Anita Blackmon

Row 3:

•  One book that features a crime other than murder: Murder Must Wait, by Arthur W. Upfield
• One book that features food/cooks in some way:
• One book with an amateur detective: Whose Body?, by Dorothy L. Sayers
• One book already read by a fellow challenger: One Drop of Blood, by Anne Austin
• One translated work:
• One book with a size in the title:

Row 4:

• One locked room mystery:
• A book by an author you've never read before:
• One book with a man in the title: Pietr the Latvian, by Georges Simenon
• One book with a professional detective: They Found Him Dead, by Georgette Heyer
• One short story collection: Dorothy L. Sayers: The Complete Stories
• One medical mystery (or features Dr. or nurse):

Row 5:

• One academic mystery: Death on the Cherwell, by Mavis Doriel Hay
• One book with a method of murder in the title: Death-Watch, by John Dickson Carr
• One country house mystery: The Cornish Coast Murder, by John Bude
• One mystery that involves water:
• One book set in England: The Devil at Saxon Wall, by Gladys Mitchell
• One book written by an author with a pseudonym:

Row 6:

• One book set in the entertainment world: And So to Murder, by John Dickson Carr, writing as Carter Dickson
• One book with a woman in the title:
• One book that involves a mode of transportation:
• One book outside your comfort zone:
• One book that you have to borrow (you do not own):
• One book set in the U.S.:

So that's 18 filled so far - and you can see what lies ahead. I have books selected for all those so-far empty spaces and slots. Thanks to Bev Hankins for coming up with a really challenging challenge this year.

Time to get readin'. I hope you'll come along for the ride!

 

Comments

[Margot Kinberg]

Les - I can't imagine anyone in a better position to do a brilliant job with this challenge than you. Glad to hear you've decided to do it.

[Les Blatt]

Thanks, Margot. Halfway there...and a pretty solid list set for the next 18 weeks. And away we go...

[Sergio Angelini]

Ambitious stuff Les - I'm always terrified I won;t quote make it, but this year I am very determined to complete both the gold and silver challenges - we shall see ...

[Les Blatt]

I have done a few of the silver challenge slots (those are for books originally published between 1960 and 1980), but realized that I probably needed to concentrate on just one of them...which I'm doing with the golden challenge. I'd be willing to bet that you do complete them both! (Folks, check out Sergio's blog, Tipping My Fedora - it's in the blogroll on the lower right side of this page.)

[Cath Russell]

You're doing really well, Les! My aim is to try and read from every category too. So far I've read 16 books but a couple of the categories are not easy... 'Outside my comfort zone' for instance. I can't think of anything vintage crime-wise that is out of my comfort zone. I'm a bit stuck on a book set in the USA too. I wasn't mad about Rex Stout... can you recommend another author?

[Les Blatt]

Cath, there are several possibilities. Most of Craig Rice's books or Phoebe Atwood Taylor's Asey Mayo mysteries combine a lot of humor with their plots, and they're all set in America. There's always Ellery Queen - I'd suggest the early ones as being the best plotted, although many readers like "middle period" Queens. Stuart Palmer's books about New York City schoolteacher Hildegard Withers are still very enjoyable, although some of those are set outside the US. I'd also strongly recommend some of Elizabeth Daly's titles (all but her first couple, which are not as well done, IMHO), set in and around New York City. I'm curious about which of Stout's books you read, as I'm very much a Nero Wolfe fan - or, more correctly, an Archie Goodwin fan. As for MY comfort zone book, I think I've pretty well settled on an early espionage thriller, Eric Ambler's "The Coffin of Dimitrios." I'm not big on espionage thrillers, but this one does come recommended.

[Cath Russell]

Thanks very much for all the recs, Les. I've made a note and particularly like the sound of the Stuart Palmer books. All suggestions are very helpful though.

So far, I've just read Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout. It was not bad but not wonderful. Of course, I realise I need to give the author more of a chance than that and have several more to try at a later date.

Also thanks for the espionage idea... I'm not big on those either and I think Agatha Christie wrote one along those lines. I'm also not big on court dramas but that has its own category on the card and I'm not reading two. LOL!

I'll bookmark your post as I may choose one of your titles for 'A book already read by a fellow challenger'.

[Les Blatt]

You're welcome, Cath. Fer-de-Lance, as the first Nero Wolfe book, is not my favorite. I don't think the characters had developed enough in that book. I'd suggest you try some of the later ones, from the 1940s and 1950s. I love The Doorbell Rang, where Wolfe takes on the FBI. I hope you enjoy all the reading for the vintage challenge.