Classic Mysteries

From the Vault: "Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries"

I suspect that there may be a goodly number of fans who read short crime stories by American authors who are not yet acquainted with Uncle Abner. This character, created by Melville Davisson Post, appears in 18 short stories, first published more than a century ago, in 1918. But these short stories are uniquely powerful, powerful in the stories they tell, powerful in the writing. And if the stories sometimes reflect the realities and prejudices of American frontier society (and they do), Uncle Abner is generally to be found on the side of the angels. I reviewed the collection of Uncle Abner stories, called Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries, several years ago, in an audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast. Here's a transcript, somewhat edited, of that review:

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Among the many wonderful characters who appear in American detective stories, one of the most memorable among them is a man known as Uncle Abner. In a series of stories set along the American frontier in the mountainous regions of western Virginia – the area which later became West Virginia – Uncle Abner represents the voice of morality in a rugged nation that sometimes had difficulty determining good from evil. Uncle Abner was the creation of Melville Davisson Post – and his 1918 collection is called Uncle Abner, Master of Mysteries.

The back-cover blurb to my own copy of the book nails these stories pretty well, I think, saying,

“If you look at any critical list of the ten most important books of detective stories published in the United States, the chances are great that you will find in it Uncle Abner.

Let me tell you a little more about the character of Uncle Abner. The stories are seen through the eyes of his nephew, Martin, who tells us this about his uncle:

He was one of those austere, deeply religious men who were the product of the Reformation. He always carried a Bible in his pocket and he read it where he pleased. Once the crowd at Roy’s Tavern tried to make sport of him when he got his book out by the fire; but they never tried it again. When the fight was over Abner paid Roy eighteen silver dollars for the broken chairs and the table – and he was the only man in the tavern who could ride a horse. Abner belonged to the church militant, and his God was a war lord.

I think that pretty well sums up Uncle Abner and his outlook on the world. In these eighteen short stories, Uncle Abner represents the moral power of good which has been lost by some of the others in the stories. Most of these stories about crime – mostly murder – are not really “fair-play” stories. Instead, we observe Abner as he talks to people and examines facts and frequently reveals a crime where none had been suspected – and solves it as well.

Some of the stories ARE closer to the conventions of the detective story.  The first story in the book, called “The Doomdorf Mystery,” is a marvelous locked-room puzzle: a man is shot to death inside a locked room. Two people confess to the murder, but it becomes clear on talking to them that neither could have done it and escaped from that locked room. It is Uncle Abner whose observations will explain the seemingly impossible crime.

Uncle Abner is not always concerned with the letter of the law. He is more concerned with what, to him, is divinely inspired justice. And by his focus on that, prompted by his own deeply religious beliefs, he acts as a champion of the wrongfully accused and explains mysteries as he uncovers them.

There are so many gems among the eighteen stories here that it is impossible to do them all justice. There is “Naboth’s Vineyard,” in which – again – two people confess to a murder, but Uncle Abner finds a deeper truth. In “The Concealed Path,” he delays a forced wedding long enough to uncover a grisly crime. In “A Twilight Adventure” he manages to stop the lynching of a couple of suspected cattle thieves. In all the stories, it is Uncle Abner’s vision, guided by his beliefs, that smooth some of the edges of rough frontier justice.

I should insert a short warning here to the politically correct: the stories were published in 1918, and they are set in a time and place where slavery was practiced. What we now politely refer to as the “n” word comes up occasionally – particularly in one story, “The Devil’s Tools,” where it is used frequently by a Black servant referring to others. If that sort of thing makes the entire book unpalatable to you – well, it’s your choice.

Personally, I think the stories in Uncle Abner, Master of Mysteries, by Melville Davisson Post, are remarkable examples of the storyteller’s art. Uncle Abner is a unique character, brilliantly drawn, standing out in the rough frontier atmosphere of these stories. Once again, let me quote the narrator, young Martin:

“for all his iron ways, Abner was a man who saw justice in its large and human aspect, and he stood for the spirit, above the letter, of the truth.”

I see that, on Amazon.com, one reader writes, in a review of the book,

“If you are a fan of mystery stories and you have not read Uncle Abner, your education is incomplete.”

I couldn’t agree more.

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You can listen to the complete audio review by clicking here.

Next: Murder for Christmas, by Agatha Christie.

"Death Has Deep Roots"

Why would a woman accused of murder in England, about to go on trial for her life, suddenly insist on changing lawyers?

Victoria Lamartine, once a member of the French resistance fighting against German occupation during World War II, a woman who had managed to escape from the Gestapo and continue fighting, was accused of the murder of Major Eric Thoseby, the man English police said had been her lover and the father of her child. Everyone agreed that she was guilty, the evidence against her was overwhelming. Even her lawyers believed in her guilt, although they were confident that she was more likely to escape the extreme penalty because of the circumstances of the case and the heroism of the accused.

So it came as quite a shock when, two days before her trial was to begin, Victoria Lamartine fired those lawyers. Instead, she hired another solicitor, "Nap" Rumbold because, she insisted, she was innocent of the crime, no matter what the evidence appeared to show - and while that evidence was very powerful indeed she insisted on being defended by a lawyer who believed in her innocence. Nap Rumbold accepted the case. And even as her trial began in London's Old Bailey courtroom, that search for proof took the solicitor and others across to France, for the crime - and its solution - will prove to have very deep roots indeed, stretching back into the violence and tragedy of World War II. It's the subject of Michael Gilbert's Death Has Deep Roots, originally published in 1951 and now being reissued as one of the British Library Crime Classics series. Already available in the U.K., it is being published in the U.S. in a couple of weeks by Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks, who sent me an advanced reader's copy for the purposes of this review.  You can listen to the complete review by clicking here.

Over the course of his career, Michael Gilbert, one of the founders of the British Crime Writers' Association, proved himself able to write easily in a variety of sub-genres. This is very much on display in Death Has Deep Roots, which cuts across several of those sub-genres to present a story which held me glued from the beginning all the way through to the last page.

• It is a powerful courtroom drama, set in London’s Old Bailey court, with the life of the defendant at stake.
• It is a thriller, following key members of the defense team as they race against the clock through France, looking for the proof they need and risking their lives against powerful enemies. 
• It is a classic detective story, with a murder to be solved and clues to discover.
• And – to at least some considerable degree – it is a fascinating picture of what life was like in France and in England during and after the brutality of World War II.

Michael Gilbert – who was one of the founders in Britain of the Crime Writers’ Association – was not only a prolific and talented author, he was also a member of a major British law firm, and his courtroom scenes in particular are compelling. He also managed to escape during the war from an Italian prisoner of war camp. In this new British Library Crime Classics edition of Death Has Deep Roots, mystery historian Martin Edwards has provided readers with an excellent introduction to Gilbert and explains how his real life experiences clearly helped him create this unusual tale of murder and suspense. It’s a remarkable book, and I really couldn’t put it down.

From the Vault: "The Lacquer Screen"

Another of my favorite fictional detectives visits us today from ancient China, though it's worth noting that he really did exist. Judge Dee was a court official in China more than a thousand years ago, a magistrate in the civil service system of justice that was well-organized in the China of the seventh century. Judge Dee was a real person - though the stories told here are the creations of author Robert Van Gulik. I've reviewed a number of Van Gulik's books about Judge Dee, all of which are certainly worth your reading time. Here's the (slightly edited) review I wrote of The Lacquer Screen:

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Come back in time with me to seventh-century imperial China. Judge Dee, the magistrate of the district of Peng-lai, is on his way home from an official conference. He stops along the way in another district, called Wei-ping, hoping to take a few days off from the duties of his demanding office. Instead, he finds himself pressed into service by the magistrate of Wei-Ping to solve three puzzling cases – including the murder of that magistrate’s wife. A murder which may have been predicted by the curious and inexplicable changes made to a scene on the magistrate’s lacquered screen. It happens in The Lacquer Screen, a Judge Dee mystery by Robert van Gulik.

Robert Van Gulik was a Dutch diplomat who spent many years in China. He was an authority on Chinese culture and loved the many ancient Chinese detective stories. Most of them were written in the 18^th century, but were set more than a thousand years earlier. In the 1940s, he translated and published one such book as The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, featuring a character who was an actual magistrate and later court official in China during the seventh century. At the end of the book, Van Gulik issued a challenge to other authors to come up with new stories, in the traditional mode, about Judge Dee. Nobody did – so Van Gulik himself went on to write sixteen books featuring the investigations of Judge Dee. All are set in the seventh century and they contain fascinating pictures of everyday life in ancient China.

The Lacquer Screen tells of a visit paid by Judge Dee to the home town of another, more senior magistrate. He arrives at a time of crisis for that magistrate, whose wife has disappeared. The magistrate tells Dee that he believes he is losing his mind. He shows his visitor a beautiful, four-panel lacquer screen on which the image of a pair of lovers has been altered to show the man stabbing the woman. The magistrate fears that he may have murdered his wife – who, in fact, has been murdered.

That is only one of three interconnected cases that Judge Dee must solve, in order to help the other magistrate but also – more importantly, in Judge Dee’s mind – to preserve the order and sanity of the world around him. The role of the Chinese magistrate was central to the organization of China’s vast civil service system; the magistrate was called the “father and mother official,” with power over virtually every aspect of everyday civilian life.

At the same time, Judge Dee must try to solve the mystery of a wealthy local businessman who appears to have gone mad and committed suicide. And there is also the matter of an apparent embezzlement of a large sum of money from that same local businessman.

In order to solve the crimes that confront him, Judge Dee must take extraordinary measures – at one point going incognito disguised as a roving thief, a position which brings him into contact with a wonderfully colorful character known as “The Corporal,” the head of the town’s underworld. In the course of his investigation, Judge Dee learns a new respect for “The Corporal” – and is left to question the integrity of the town’s magistrate.

According to Van Gulik, it was quite common for the local magistrate to be forced to solve multiple crimes at once. He relied for help on a few carefully chosen assistants, along with the local constables and other petty officials. It was Van Gulik’s genius to take this framework and rework it into a fashion that would be both exotic and familiar to modern Western readers. Speaking personally, the Judge Dee mysteries pushed me into reading a few basic books about Chinese history, to learn more about an ancient and honorable culture. The Judge Dee books can be read in just about any order; events in The Lacquer Screen take place early in Dee’s fictional career, although the book itself was the eighth original work written by van Gulik.

I have thoroughly enjoyed every one of the books, and that is certainly true of The Lacquer Screen. It provides an excellent look at a very different culture from most of the Western world, and it is filled with fascinating characters – the corporal, the underworld boss, is really a piece of work. Robert Van Gulik’s books, including The Lacquer Screen, are available both in print editions and as e-books, and they are highly recommended.

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You can listen to the original audio review by clicking here.

Next: The Fourth Door, by Paul Halter

"The Case of the Fighting Soldier"

During the darkest days of the second world war, the British Golden Age author Christopher Bush wrote a trilogy of mysteries, based at least in part on his own experiences in both World War I and World War II. The mysteries featured Bush's regular series detectives, Ludovic Travers and his friend and frequent colleague, Superintendent George Wharton of Scotland Yard, who now apparently holds a much broader portfolio for military intelligence. I have already reviewed the first two volumes in the trilogy, The Case of the Murdered Major and The Case of the Kidnapped Colonel. The third and final volume, The Case of the Fighting Soldier has also been republished by Dean Street Press, which made an electronic version available to me for this review. While each of the books may be read on its own, they make a powerful combination when read in order. The Case of the Fighting Soldier is the subject of today's Classic Mysteries podcast review, and you can listen to the audio version of the review by clicking here.

In the third part of the trilogy, Ludovic Travers, now a Major, is assigned to train British Home Guard troops for likely duty during the war. Travers and George Wharton are on hand when escalating tensions between “regular” army officers and the “not-so-regular,” if more experienced, officers explode into murder. That’s literal, by the way: the victim is killed by the explosion of a powerful bomb from the army’s arsenal. The “fighting soldier” of the title is a man called Captain Mortar, one of the “non-regular” mercenary soldiers. who had gone off to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Captain Mortar regards himself as a “fighting soldier,”  but his contempt for the “regular” officers – the ones with training and superior rank but without much of Mortar’s practical experience – leads to a sharp escalation of tensions. Apparent “accidents” that may not be accidents at all keep happening – and, eventually, there is murder. Wharton and Travers tackle the murder to try to determine if those very evident tensions at the training school led to the murders or if there was a deeper, more subtle motive in long-hidden wartime secrets.

It’s a fascinating story. As usual with Christopher Bush, there is a carefully pieced-together plot; there is also a great deal of military lore to be learned and the casual reader is likely to come away with a fair amount of detailed information about the kinds of specialized bombs that were used in wartime by the British fighting forces. Once again, mystery historian Curtis Evans has provided a helpful introduction to The Case of the Fighting Soldier, which also contains a great deal of information about Christopher Bush’s life and, of course, his other books.

The Lefties, 2019

The 2019 Lefty Awards were presented this evening, Saturday, March 30, 2019, at the Awards Banquet of Left Coast Crime, meeting in Vancouver, B.C.

There were awards in four categories. In the list below, the winner is at the top of each category, with the runners-up listed beneath the winner.

Best Humorous Mystery

• ***Scot Free, by Catriona McPherson***
• Mardi Gras Murder, by Ellen Byron
• Hollywood Ending, by Kellye Garrett
• Nighttown, by Timothy Hallinan
• Death al Fresco, by Leslie Karst
• The Spirit in Question, by Cynthia Kuhn

Best Historical Mystery  (Prior to 1960)

---The Bruce Alexander Memorial---

• ***The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey***
• Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding, by Rhys Bowen
• The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday, by David Corbett
• Island of the Mad, by Laurie R. King
• A Dying Note, by Ann Parker
• It Begins in Betrayal, by Iona Whishaw

Best Debut Mystery

• ***A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder, by Dianne Freeman***
• Broken Places, by Tracy Clark
• Cobra Clutch, by A.J. Devlin
• The Woman in the Window, by A.J. Finn
• What Doesn't Kill You, by Aimee Hix
• Deadly Solutions, by Keenan Powell
• Give Out Creek, by Judy Toews

Best Mystery (Not in Other Categories)

• ***November Road, by Lou Berney***
• Wrong Light, by Matt Coyle
• Kingdom of the Blind, by Louise Penny
• Under a Dark Sky, by Lori Rader-Day
• A Reckoning in the Back Country, by Terry Shames
• A Stone's Throw, by James W. Ziskin

Congratulations to all of the winners and the runners-up.

"The Conqueror Inn"

The Conqueror Inn is ancient, possibly dating back to the eleventh century, but it is a very new crime which brings Inspector Bobby Owen to the inn's door. The inn's owner had phoned the police to say that he had found a box full of money lying in the road, and would the police kindly come and take it away? Well, it was the middle of World War Two and England had other worries on its hands, so Bobby Owen sighed and headed out to the inn. By the time he arrived there, he was greeted with the news that there seemed to be something else left lying about - a body in an unmarked grave. And that turned out to be a gruesome sight indeed, for somebody had battered the body so badly after death that it was going to be close to impossible to identify it.

That's the situation you will find in The Conqueror Inn, by the British Golden Age author, E. R. Punshon. The book is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you are welcome to listen to the complete review by clicking here.

In 1943, when The Conqueror Inn was first published, Britain was at a low point in its struggle for survival during World War II. A lot of the puzzles in the book, and its description of the routine of everyday life in wartime, make it clear how disruptive and demoralizing the effects of the war, and the need for eternal vigilance against aerial bombing, infiltration by possible spies, rationing and an active and pernicious black market, could be for the average person – not to mention the daily tragedies of family and friends killed in battle. When you read The Conqueror Inn, you’ll learn a great deal about what life was like under those conditions.

The war is one of the primary reasons that Inspector Bobby Owen first gets involved in the strange goings-on at the Conqueror Inn – there really isn’t anyone else left to do the job. He sees a chance to get out of his office on a simple errand – picking up that box of money. He doesn’t expect to be led to the shallow grave containing that horrifyingly mutilated body, a development which puts him squarely into the middle of a murder investigation. 

With little to go on in the way of clues – and NOTHING to go on to help him in terms of identifying the dead man – Bobby Owen begins hunting for young men of roughly the same age as the victim who might have gone missing. As he investigates, he will find that many of the local residents have secrets to hide, and Bobby will have to sort out their stories and find himself searching desperately, trying to find evidence that will stand up in court. And somehow, the Conqueror Inn itself is at the heart of both the mystery – and its solution.

The Conqueror Inn, by E.R. Punshon is a tightly written book with a complex plot and some sharply defined characters – including, I might add, the “character” of that gloomy and unwelcoming inn. It is a grim crime indeed, and a dark solution, too. You will enjoy it. As a bonus for today’s readers, mystery historian Curtis Evans has provided an introduction to this new edition from Dean Street Press.

From the Vault: "The Chinese Gold Murders"

For our excursion into the Classic Mysteries vault this week, I've chosen something that tells a story set long ago and far away. It's one of Robert Van Gulik's marvelous Judge Dee mysteries, set in T'ang dynasty China - roughly midway through the seventh century. Judge Dee was a real person, but most of Van Gulik's stories about him were pure fiction. They also provided readers with a picture of what we know about everyday life in ancient China. One of the best titles in the series, I think, is The Chinese Gold Murders, written in 1959. Here's the text of the audio review I recorded for the Classic Mysteries podcast several years ago, slightly edited for clarity:

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The year is 663. A young, newly-minted Chinese official leaves the imperial capital on his way to his first post as magistrate. Before he finishes his journey, he will have been waylaid by highwaymen, whom he will turn into trusted aides. He will arrive in the fictional district of Peng-lai, where the previous magistrate has been murdered. He will solve a variety of terrible crimes. And he will begin a career as a Chinese government official which will eventually bring him considerable fame. Welcome to The Chinese Gold Murders, by Robert Van Gulik, chronologically the first of the Judge Dee mysteries.

One of the many things I enjoy about the novels by Robert Van Gulik featuring the exploits of Judge Dee is the fact that it is not necessary to read them in any particular order. Certainly, they were written out of order; you can find a good chronology in the Wikipedia entry on “Judge Dee.” But while some of the books do refer to events that happen in earlier books, no prior knowledge of those past events is necessary for your full enjoyment.

The Chinese Gold Murders, written in 1959, was the third written from scratch by Van Gulik – I do not count his first book, The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, which was actually translated from an old Chinese manuscript by Van Gulik and exists outside the chronology created for and by the later books. The Chinese Gold Murders is first in that chronology, telling of Judge Dee’s assignment to his first post as magistrate in the district of Peng-Lai.

It is clear that the judge will not have an easy time of it – in fact, two of his friends in the Imperial capital try to talk him out of accepting the position. Judge Dee, however, has a very strong sense of his own duty and is anxious, as he puts it, “to have an opportunity right away for getting rid of dry-as-dust theorizing and paper work.” Judge Dee is talking about the first case that will await him in Peng-Lai: the murder of his predecessor; the previous magistrate was poisoned, and the case is unsolved – in fact, it is an impossible murder, for there appears to have been no way that anyone could have put poison in the magistrate’s tea.

At any rate, Judge Dee sets out for Peng-Lai, accompanied by a faithful family retainer, Sergeant Hoong (who will become a major character in many of the Judge Dee stories). On the way, they are accosted by two highwaymen, Ma Joong and Chiao Tai, who wind up in a swordfight with Judge Dee – and who decide that they want to become his followers and assistants.

At any rate, when they all arrive in Peng Lai, Judge Dee begins to work on the murder of the former magistrate – and he finds that he has a great number of other mysteries to be solved at the same time. There appears to be a man-eating tiger attacking people outside the city gates. A wealthy ship owner comes to the tribunal to report that his bride has disappeared. The chief clerk of the tribunal has also disappeared. The body of a Buddhist monk, who may have been murdered, turns up unexpectedly in the wrong grave. A Korean prostitute delivers a message to Judge Dee that had been left with her by his predecessor. And there are reports that the ghost of that former magistrate has been seen wandering in the tribunal.

Judge Dee finds that he must juggle all these cases – and it is only in solving them that he discovers that they all appear to be interconnected – and, moreover, that there is something else underlying all the mysteries which, when the Judge uncovers it, will turn out to be a huge and serious plot involving some very high officials indeed.

Woven into this story, as always in Van Gulik’s novel, is a great deal of information about the everyday life in seventh century China – particularly as it would have been seen in the eyes of the seventeenth century Chinese writers who turned out enormously popular detective stories featuring heroes such as Judge Dee. But just as the judge himself was, in fact, based on a historical Chinese official, so Van Gulik’s twentieth century novels were solely the product of his own imagination – though influenced, quite clearly, by those seventeenth century stories with which he was so familiar.

After his first translation of The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, Van Gulik issued a challenge to other writers to come up with similar stories that followed the format of the classical Chinese detective story. Nobody took him up on his challenge, so he wrote sixteen original books about Judge Dee. The Chinese Gold Murders is one of my favorites – it is a fairly upbeat and cheerful entry in the series and a good way to meet Judge Dee and his closest assistants. I am happy to see that the books apparently remain in print (though I don't see either audio or e-book editions) and your favorite mystery book dealer should be able to get them for you.

 

To listen to the complete original review from the podcast, click here.

Next: Diagnosis: Impossible, stories by Edward D. Hoch.

From the Vault: "Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee"

For many years, I have been a fan of Robert Van Gulik's marvelous mysteries featuring Judge Dee, of T'ang Dynasty China. Dee Jen-djieh was, in fact, a real, historic figure who served in the Imperial Court and elsewhere around the latter part of the seventh century. While Van Gulik, a Dutch diplomat and scholar who served in China and elsewhere, wrote all of the later Judge Dee mysteries by himself, he began by translating an existing Chinese manuscript, Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee. I reviewed it on the podcast several years ago. It remains a favorite book. Here's the text of my original review, slightly edited (mostly for time references).

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Those of us who relish good, classic mysteries – and enjoy the occasional foray into exotic settings and historical mysteries – are fortunate to have more than a dozen books by Robert Van Gulik about the exploits of Judge Dee. Judge Dee was a real person who lived in seventh century China. For much of his early career, he was a district magistrate, the most powerful local official in early Chinese society, before moving on later in life to become a leading official at the imperial court. Van Gulik – an orientalist and Dutch diplomat – introduced many western readers to imperial China, with his original novels and short stories about Judge Dee. But he began in 1949 with a truly classic mystery – a Chinese detective story, written in the 18^th century, featuring Judge Dee, which Van Gulik translated for western readers. The book was called Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee.

The traditional Chinese detective story was different in many ways from the kind of mystery that those of us in the west enjoy. In his introduction to Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, Robert Van Gulik notes five primary characteristics that might surprise many readers. First, the criminal is generally revealed at the outset of the book, so that the reader is less concerned with the question of whodunit than how and why the detective catches the culprit. Second, there is often a supernatural element, with the detective aided by ghosts or dreams. Third, there is an excess of details and digressions. Fourth, there is an enormous population of characters. And fifth, there are incredibly detailed and gruesome descriptions of the criminal’s ultimate execution.

Van Gulik picked Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, written by an anonymous Chinese author in the 18^th century, to translate because most of these factors were far less prominent than they were in many other traditional novels. He did take some liberties in his translation, trying to make the book more palatable to western readers – and I think he succeeded admirably.

Judge Dee, as noted earlier, was a historical figure. In this book, he is the magistrate of the district of Chang-ping. The magistrate was the central local authority and civil official in any district, called “the father-and-mother figure” by the people, responsible for everything from maintaining land records to solving crimes. In Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, he is presented with three difficult crimes which must be solved, sometimes at considerable risk to himself. There is the murder of a silk trader, whose body is found lying by the side of a road. There is another murder in a nearby village, which proves both difficult and dangerous to solve. And there is the poisoning of a bride on her wedding night. While the cases are not related to each other, the judge must solve them all nearly simultaneously.

Van Gulik’s introduction provides a great deal of information about the Chinese justice system and how it worked, and the background information is invaluable in making the book readable and enjoyable. While there is a supernatural element involved in the plot, it is far less important in this novel (at least according to Van Gulik) than in many others, as the supernatural guidance tends merely to reinforce the judge’s own observations and deductions. Overall, the book provides a fascinating look inside another culture that few of us can really claim to know well. More to the point, it is an enjoyable mystery. It is fascinating to see how the judge reaches his conclusions and how he manages to solve the crimes and bring them home to the guilty. Van Gulik’s introduction and notes add considerable value to his translation. In those notes after the book, by the way, he observes:

I think that it might be an interesting experiment if one of our modern writers of detective stories would try his hand at composing an ancient Chinese detective story himself.

Apparently nobody took him up on his challenge – so Van Gulik himself went on to write 15 novels and a volume of short stories, all about Judge Dee, all put together along the lines of the Classic Chinese detective story. I find them thoroughly enjoyable, in no small measure for what they reveal about what was, to me, a little known or understood way of life. If you want to see how it all started, try Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, by Robert Van Gulik.

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You can listen to the original podcast review by clicking here.

Next: The Case of the One-Eyed Witness, by Erle Stanley Gardner.

The Agatha Awards

At Saturday Night's banquet at the Malice Domestic conference, the 2017 Agatha Awards were presented to the winners of this year's prizes. Here are the winners and the other nominees (the winner in each category is marked with three asterisks - *** )

Best Contemporary Novel

• Death Overdue, by Allison Brook
• A Cajun Christmas Killing, by Ellen Byron
• No Way Home, by Annette Dashofy
• Take Out, by Margaret Maron
• ***Glass Houses, by Louise Penny

 

Best Historical Novel

• ***In Farleigh Field, by Rhys Bowen
• Murder in an English Village, by Jessica Ellicott
• Called to Justice, by Edith Maxwell
• The Paris Spy, by Susan Elia MacNeal
• Dangerous to Know, by Renee Patrick

 

Best First Novel

• Adrift, by Micki Browning
• The Plot is Murder, by V.M. Burns
• ***Hollywood Homicide, by Kellye Garrett
• Daughters of Bad Men, by Laura Oles
• Protocol, by Kahleen Valenti

 

Best Nonfiction

• ***From Holmes to Sherlock: The Story of the Men and Women Who Created an Icon, by Mattias Boström
• The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, by Martin Edwrds
• American Fire: Love, Arson and Life in a Vanishing Land, by Monica Hesse
• Rewrite Your Life: Discover Your Truth Through the Healing Power of Fiction, by Jess Lourey
• Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier, by Tatiana de Rosnay

 

Best Short Story

• "Double Deck the Halls," by Gretchen Archer
• "Whose Wine is it Anyway," by Barb Goffman
• "The Night They Burned Miss Dixie's Place," by Debra Goldstein
• ***"The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn," by Gigi Pandian
• "A Necessary Ingredient," by Art Taylor

 

Best Children's/Young Adult

• City of Angels, by Kristi Belcamino
• ***Sydney Mackenzie Knocks 'Em Dead, by Cindy Callaghan
• The World's Greatest Detective, by Caroline Carlson
• Audacity Jones Steals the Show, by Kirby Larson
• The Harlem Charade, by Natasha Tarpley

Here is how Malice Domestic defines and describes the Agathas:

The Agatha Awards will be awarded at Malice Domestic 30 for books and stories first published in the United States by a living author during the calendar year 2017 (January 1-December 31), either in hardcover, as a paperback original, or as an e-book by an e-publishing firm.

The Agatha Awards honor the "traditional mystery," books typified by the works of Agatha Christie and others. For our purposes, the genre is loosely defined as mysteries that contain no explicit sex, excessive gore or gratuitous violence, and are not classified as "hard-boiled."

As always, congratulations to all the winners and runners-up.

 

Conquering the Leftys at Left Coast Crime

The 2018 edition of the Left Coast Crime mystery conference has ended, with most participants looking forward to next year's conference in Vancouver, B.C. About 560 people attended LCC this year in Reno, Nevada. At the group's banquet Saturday night, the winners of this year's Lefty awards were announced. The winners are in boldface below, followed by the other nominees:

Best Humorous Mystery

• Cajun Christmas Killing, by Ellen Byron
• Gone Gull, by Dona Andrews
• Dying on the Vine, by Marla Cooper
• Art of Vanishing, by Cynthia Kuhn
• Dying for a Diamond, by Cindy Sample

Best Historical Mystery (prior to 1960) - The Bruce Alexander Memorial

• In Farleigh Field, by Rhys Bowen
• Woman in the Camphor Trunk, by Jennifer Kincheloe
• Dangerous to Know, by Renee Patrick
• Proud Sinner, by Patricia Royale
• Season of Blood, by Jeri Westerson

Best Debut Mystery

• Hollywood Homicide, by Kellye Garrett
• Short Time to Die, by Susan Alice Bickford
• Lost Luggage, by Wendall Thomas
• A Head in Cambodia, by Nancy Tingley
• Protocol, by Kathleen Valenti

Best Mystery (not in other categories)

• Sulfur Springs, by William Kent Krueger
• Blood Truth, by Matt Coyle
• Glass Houses, by Louise Penny
• Unsettling Crime for Samuel Craddock, by Terry Shames
• Cast the First Stone, by James W. Ziskin

The awards are made based on the votes of Left Coast Crime attendees. Congratulations to all the winners and runners-up!