Challenge Completed

I am happy to say that I have now completed the 2015 Vintage Mystery Bingo Reading Challenge sponsored by Bev Hankins at her excellent blog, My Reader's Block.

If you haven't been following the challenge, which has been under way since January and continues through December, participants were challenged to read mysteries, all published before 1961, as described on the Bingo Score Card:

Each book read must meet the criteria set by one of the boxes on the score card. As with traditional Bingo, the idea was to fill in at least one row or column. Of course, if you wanted to do more...

I did, in fact, want to do more. As a result, I have read 36 books for the challenge and completely filled my Golden challenge card.

Here are the links to the individual reviews as posted here on Classic Mysteries. They are listed row by row, from left to right:

• Color: in the title or cover color: The Red Box, by Rex Stout
• TBR first lines: Jumping Jenny, by Anthony Berkeley
• Read one book set in the Entertainment world: The Headless Lady, by Clayton Rawson
• Read one country house mystery: The Hand in the Dark, by Arthur J. Rees
• Read a book with a detective "team": Corpse Diplomatique, by Delano Ames
• Read one book with a method of murder in the title: Deadly Nightshade, by Elizabeth Daly
  

 

• Read one book set anywhere except the U.S. or England: The Mysterious Mansion, by Maurice LeBlanc
• Read one with a number or quantity in the title: Man of Two Tribes, by Arthur Upfield
• One book that has been made into a movie or TV show: The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, by Fergus Hume
• One book with a lawyer, courtroom, judge, etc.: The Big Midget Murders, by Craig Rice
• One book with a time, day, month, etc. in the title: At 1:30, by Isabel Ostrander
• Read one book with a place in the title: The Mystery of Hunting's End, by Mignon G. Eberhart

 

• Read one book that features a crime other than murder: The Footsteps at the Lock, by Ronald Knox
• Read one book with an animal in the title: The Book of the Lion, by Elizabeth Daly
• Read one book with an amateur detective: Murder Gone Minoan, by Clyde B. Clason
• Read one book already read by a fellow challenger: The Golden Slipper, by Anna Katharine Green
• Birthday: Read 1 published in your birth year or year of loved one/friend: Panic, by Helen McCloy
• Read a book published under more than one title: Death at the President's Lodging, by Michael Innes

 

• Read one locked room or impossible crime: She Died a Lady, by John Dickson Carr, writing as "Carter Dickson"
• Read a book by an author you've never read before: Skeleton Key, by Lenore Glen Offord
• Read one book with a man in the title: The Leavenworth Case, by Anna Katharine Green
• Read one book outside your comfort zone: Dividend on Death, by Brett Halliday
• Read one short story collection: The New Adventures of Ellery Queen, by Ellery Queen
• Read one historical mystery: Fire, Burn! by John Dickson Carr

 

• One medical mystery (or features Dr. or nurse): Call Mr. Fortune, by H. C. Bailey
• Something "spooky" in title or on the cover: The Shrieking Pit, by Arthur J. Rees
• Read one academic mystery: Miss Pym Disposes, by Josephine Tey
• Read one that involves the clergy or religion: Death in Ecstasy, by Ngaio Marsh
• Read one book set in England or the U.S.: Night Walk, by Elizabeth Daly
• Read one book written by an author with a pseudonym: The Sussex Downs Murder, by John Bude

 

• Read one book with a professional detective: The Hog's Back Mystery, by Freeman Wills Crofts
• Read one book with a woman in the title: There Was an Old Woman, by Ellery Queen
• Read one book that involves a mode of transportation: Murder Underground, by Mavis Doriel Hay
• Author whose first or last name begins with same letter as yours: Dead Man's Shoes, by Leo Bruce (a double-header, with both my first and last initials)
• Read one book that you have to borrow (you do not own): No Wind of Blame, by Georgette Heyer
• Eat, drink & be merry: featuring, food, drink or a party: Death in a White Tie, by Ngaio Marsh

There you have it. 36 books, 36 reviews, and a really large amount of fun over the past several months.

 

Comments

[D]

Very well done, Les!

[Les Blatt]

Thank you. It did broaden my reading tastes as well - it's exciting to find so many classic authors making a comeback in electronic formats.