Frank Chambers is a vagrant who rolls into a Californian town, specifically at Twin Oaks Tavern, run by Nick Papadakis and his wife, Cora. Nick offers him the job of a handyman which Frank takes up because he has fallen hard for Cora. As the intimacy between Frank and Cora increases, they plan to murder … Continue reading Classic Crime: The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain (1934)
Category: Libraries
#ClassicsClub: The Beautiful Miss Burroughes by Anne Meredith (1945)
Anthony Gilbert aka Lucy Beatrice Malleson is one of my favourite authors. Besides, Anthony Gilbert, Malleson also wrote under a couple of other pseudonymns. One of them was Anne Meredith, under which she wrote both mainstream and mystery novels. The novel, The Beautiful miss Burroughes can be classified as a mainstream novel with a mystery … Continue reading #ClassicsClub: The Beautiful Miss Burroughes by Anne Meredith (1945)
#ClassicsClub #FFB: Sober Truth (ed.) Margaret Barton and Osbert Sitwell (1930)
The subtitle of Sober Truth, compiled by Margaret Barton and Osbert Sitwell reads: A Collection of 19th Century Episodes, Fantastic, Grotesque and Mysterious. Indeed, right at the beginning of the preface, Sitwell confesses that the aim of the compilers (was) more propagandist than literary. True to the professed aim, the first chapter had the description … Continue reading #ClassicsClub #FFB: Sober Truth (ed.) Margaret Barton and Osbert Sitwell (1930)
#ClassicsClub: The Omnibus of Crime (ed.) by Dorothy L. Sayers (1929)
This mammoth anthology is divided into two main parts with further subdivisions. The first Detection and Mystery starts with Biblical mysteries: The History of Bel (considered to be the first locked-room mystery) where Daniel reveals that the food offered to Bel is actually eaten by the priests. Daniel plays detective again in The History of … Continue reading #ClassicsClub: The Omnibus of Crime (ed.) by Dorothy L. Sayers (1929)
#Dream Reprint #Classic Mystery: Mail Train by Kenneth Austin Dobson (1946)
It's the day when we nominate our dream reprint of the year i.e. a mystery that we read last year and feel it ought to be reprinted. For more details on this, please check out this post @ CrossexaminingCrime. My nomination is Mail Train which was first published in 1946 and about which I have … Continue reading #Dream Reprint #Classic Mystery: Mail Train by Kenneth Austin Dobson (1946)
#HYH25 #1925ReadingClub #ClassicsClub: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
Edith Wharton hailed it as "the great American novel". Marylin Monroe immortalized the central character Lorelei Lee on the big screen. It was a publishing sensation. When serialised in Harper's Bazaar, the magazine's sales quadrupled. When published in book form, it was an instant hit. A second edition of 60,000 copies was also quickly picked … Continue reading #HYH25 #1925ReadingClub #ClassicsClub: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
Friday’s Forgotten Classic: The Murder of the Mahatma by G.D. Khosla (1963)
I am often asked the question: 'What do you feel when you sentence a man to death?' Thus begins this book written by legal luminary, G.D. Khosla, who served in various capacities as magistrate, Civil Judge, District and Sessions Judge in British India as well as the Republic of India, and retired as the Chief … Continue reading Friday’s Forgotten Classic: The Murder of the Mahatma by G.D. Khosla (1963)
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: Follow this Fair Corpse by Laurence Dwight Smith (1941)
Deputy Chief Crighton is a worried man. He had been called by publisher Jefferson Judd earlier in the day. Judd told him that his estranged wife, Cora, had visited him the previous night and demanded money from him. On Judd's refusal (he feels that she would spend it on her drug addiction), she had threatened … Continue reading Friday’s Forgotten Book: Follow this Fair Corpse by Laurence Dwight Smith (1941)
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Who Died at the Grange? by Michael Halliday (1942)
Inspector Dew of Barshire is told by the Chief Constable that Scotland Yard had contacted him regarding an Irish national, Desmond O'Neill whom they suspect of spying and passing information to the Germans. The Yard had been following O'Neill, but then they lost trace of him. His last known whereabouts were Canford Grange, the estate … Continue reading Friday’s Forgotten Book: Who Died at the Grange? by Michael Halliday (1942)
a hot cup of pleasure