#231: Antidote to Venom (1938) by Freeman Wills Crofts
The reputation for being something of an interminable bore that still dogs Freeman Wills Crofts some 60 years after his death wants for evidence in Antidote to Venom. We’re about halfway through when...
View Article#272: John Sladek’s Criminal Year – 1968 and the Fruits Thereof…
Following on from last week’s post about John Sladek’s Thackeray Phin short stories, we turn our attention to the remaining crime stories collected in Maps, all of which were published in 1968. Is...
View Article#331: She Who Was No More (1952) by Boileau-Narcejac [trans. Geoffrey...
I have no specific rule for the order in which I read the books on my TBR, but only in special cases does something immediately jump to the head of the list. The chance to lock horns with French grand...
View Article#349: Family Matters (1933) by Anthony Rolls
Detective fiction’s Golden Age produced many very witty books — Case for Three Detectives (1936), etc — but Family Matters (1933) by Anthony Rolls is to my mind the first time that the process of...
View Article#444: The Criminous Alphabet – A is for…Alibi [Part 1 of 2]
Okay, let’s get into it: Or, if you prefer: Suppose these two, knowing of each other’s position, had conspired together to commit the crime which would relieve the necessities of both? In some way not...
View Article#447: The Criminous Alphabet – A is for…Alibi [Part 2 of 2]
Last week I talked — at great length — about the alibi in crime and detective fiction as utilised by the criminal working alone. This week, I’ll hopefully find as much (or, depending on your feelings...
View Article#491: Spoiler Warning 9 – Mr. Priestley’s Problem, a.k.a. The Amateur Crime...
Here we go again, with the usual warnings: this post discusses in spoiler-heavy detail elements of the plot of Mr. Priestley’s Problem, a.k.a. The Amateur Crime (1927) by Anthony Berkeley, also...
View Article#496: The Beast Must Die (1938) by Nicholas Blake
“I am going to kill a man” — it must surely be the most famous opening line in the whole firmament of Golden Age detective fiction, and but for Sherlock Holmes and “the” woman I’d suggest the famousest...
View Article#510: Minor Felonies – The Mad Scientists’ Club [ss] (1965) by Bertrand R....
This collection is composed of seven fun, light-hearted stories of youthful shenanigans perpetrated in the smalltown Americana of Mammoth Falls. Sure, it’s not strictly detection, but the prospect of...
View Article#539: The Origin of Evil – Contrasting Malice Aforethought (1931) by Francis...
Genre is essentially the formalisation of deja vu. Those of us who return to — or avoid — particular genres do so because of the essential ingredients that recur there, whether through implicit rules...
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#518: The Providential Op – Offbeat Criminal Detection in Monk Season 1 (2002)
Running for 125 episodes over eight seasons from 2002 to 2009, the TV series Monk — created by Andy Breckman and starring Tony Shalhoub as the eponymous OCD-afflicted detective — was something that...
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#599: Heir Presumptive (1935) by Henry Wade
Without wishing to overlook the great work once done by The Murder Room, someone needs to reprint Henry Wade. I enjoyed The Hanging Captain (1933) and very much enjoyed The Duke of York’s Steps...
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#606: Ooh-Ma, Ooh-Pa – Obvious Creative Divergence in Monk Season 2, Episodes...
Thank heavens that the Andy Breckman-created TV series Monk is now finished, because at this rate I’ll probably never finish watching it myself. One and a half seasons down, six and a half to go…how...
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#612: A Snapshot in the Family Album – Opportune Character Development in...
Okay, I’ve made a concerted effort to get on with the second half of this second season of Monk, so how do the cases taken on by OCD-afflicted police consultant Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) and his...
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#623: Mr. Pottermack’s Oversight (1930) by R. Austin Freeman
When digging his garden to lay a foundation for a new sundial, quiet, unostentatious bachelor Marcus Pottermack uncovers a previously-unknown well. That same day, he receives yet another demand for...
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In GAD We Trust – Episode 2: Inverted Mysteries [w’ Aidan @ Mysteries Ahoy!]
Another week in lockdown, another episode of my new “hopefully this will distract you” Golden Age Detection podcast, In GAD We Trust. Today I’m joined by Aidan of Mysteries Ahoy! who, having made...
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#667: A Kiss Before Dying (1953) by Ira Levin
In our recent discussion about inverted mysteries, Aidan made Ira Levin’s debut A Kiss Before Dying (1953) sound simply fabulous: the first part of the novel follows a nameless man as he commits a...
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#676: The Heel of Achilles (1950) by E. & M.A. Radford
When a man wrongly implicated in criminous deeds finds himself at the mercy of a blackmailer, is pushed to the limit by the blackmailer’s avarice, kills said blackmailer and goes to great lengths to...
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#689: The Green-Eyed Monster Spies a Golden Opportunity in The Case of the...
Serendipity is a wonderful thing. First, on the GAD Facebook group, Jeffrey Marks — something of an expert on the life and work of Erle Stanley Gardner — mentioned The Case of the Crimson Kiss (1948)...
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#694: “It was a small matter but very conclusive”– The Singing Bone, a.k.a....
It’s my understanding that William Shakespeare invented the word “eyeball”. The noun eye was extant at the time, as was the concept of a ball being something round, but Shakespeare was the one to...
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