It is that time of the year again when we nominate and vote for the reprint of the year, thanks to Kate Jackson @ CrossexaminingCrime. If this is new(s) to you, see this post. This year, it gives me great pleasure to nominate one of my all-time-favourite murder mysteries: The Clock in the Hatbox by … Continue reading Reprint of the Year 2025: The Clock in the Hatbox by Anthony Gilbert
Category: Collins Crime Club
Four Silver Mysteries
Here are short notes on a few Silver Mysteries read this year: The Killing of Katie Steelstock by Michael Gilbert (1980) When I first started reading mysteries, I enjoyed the amateur detective besting the police-officer (Fatty vs Mr. Goon) but over the years, it is the police procedural that has become my favourite genre in … Continue reading Four Silver Mysteries
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Mr. Babbacombe Dies by Miles Burton (1939)
String-King Adrian Babbacombe is a self-made man. Born to be lord of the manor, he ran away from his country-estate and started working in a London factory while in his teens. This shocked his parents and three sisters who could not imagine somebody besmirching the family name by getting into trade. However, Babbacombe continued with … Continue reading Friday’s Forgotten Book: Mr. Babbacombe Dies by Miles Burton (1939)
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Frame-Up by Andrew Garve (1964)
Artist John Lumsden is found dead in his studio. The disarray in the studio shows that Lumsden had put up quite a fight before being strangled to death. Enter Scotland Yard detective Charles Blair with Sergeant Harry Dawson. Detectives, according to the author, are of various types: There were jocular detectives, and grim detectives, and … Continue reading Friday’s Forgotten Book: Frame-Up by Andrew Garve (1964)
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Exit John Horton by J. Jefferson Farjeon (1939)
John Horton is a mild-mannered small-time businessman stuck in a bad marriage. His wife, Ethel, spends more time with artistic 'modern' young men who John finds utterly vapid. There are only a few sparks in his dull routine-life: his secretary, Mary Brown and an annual weekly tour of the countryside on a cycle. When the … Continue reading Friday’s Forgotten Book: Exit John Horton by J. Jefferson Farjeon (1939)
Two Mysteries by Nina Bawden: The Odd Flamingo (1954) & The Solitary Child (1956)
"Thinke upon me as long as it is pleasant and convenient to you to doe so, and afterwards forget me..." https://www.dustjackets.com/pages/books/39155/nina-bawden/odd-flamingo-the Lawyer William Hunt is enjoying his evening when he gets a call from Celia Stone to come immediately. At one time, Will was in love with Celia and hoped to marry her before she … Continue reading Two Mysteries by Nina Bawden: The Odd Flamingo (1954) & The Solitary Child (1956)
Five Novels by J. Jefferson Farjeon
Like many others, I too discovered J. Jefferson Farjeon when his book Mystery in White became a Christmas hit. In fact, such a big hit that it ushered in a wave of reprints. I enjoyed the book when I read it and went in search of his other mysteries. None of them could match Mystery … Continue reading Five Novels by J. Jefferson Farjeon
Friday’s Forgotten Books: Two Mysteries by Cecil John Street
This year I read two books by Cecil John Street which curiously enough employed the same method of murder. In Miles Burton's Death Leaves No Card (1939) which I read way back in February, young Basil Maplewood is staying with his uncle, the miserly Geoffrey Maplewood, when he is found dead inside the bathroom. The … Continue reading Friday’s Forgotten Books: Two Mysteries by Cecil John Street
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Rope to Spare by Philip MacDonald (1932)
Colonel Anthony Gethryn is convalescing at an inn called The Spanish Guardsman at Ford-under-Stapleton when he receives a letter from an anonymous person stating that Gethryn cannot put wool over their eyes and that he is actually there not because of his ill-health but because he wants to save a woman whom the letter-writer refers … Continue reading Friday’s Forgotten Book: Rope to Spare by Philip MacDonald (1932)
#1970 Club: Six Mysteries
As the 1970 Club draws to a close (and what a fulfilling event it has been) here are short notes on the mysteries read of this year. In alphabetical order: Beyond This Point are Monsters by Margaret Millar Devon, a young woman from the East coast does not feel at home in California. She had … Continue reading #1970 Club: Six Mysteries
a hot cup of pleasure