Classic Crime: The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain (1934)
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…
#1961Club #ClassicsClub: Crime Reads
1961 is the year chosen by Kaggsy @ Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings and Simon @ Stuck in a Book for their first Reading Club of 2026. Here are short notes on some of the crime reads of the year. The Ballad of the Running Man by Shelley Smith RAF veteran, Rex, now a moderately successful writer…
#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…
#ReadingIrelandMonth26 #ClassicsClub: The House by the Churchyard (1863) and Uncle Silas (1864) by Sheridan Le Fanu
This post contains major SPOILERS, especially for Uncle Silas, so please do not read unless you have read the books. Like #ReadingWales that I finally participated in this year, # ReadingIreland, hosted by 746Books, had long been on my reading radar. This year, I am happy to have read Sheridan Le Fanu’s Uncle Silas for…
#ReadingWales’26: Put Out the Light by Ethel Lina White (1931)
For years, I have thought of taking part in the Reading Wales event but due to one reason or another, could not do so. This year, however, I have been able to read a mystery by one of my favourite authors who happens to be Welsh, Ethel Lina White. Put Out the Light was White’s…
#ClassicsClub: Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman by Stefan Zweig (1927)
The unnamed narrator is staying at a small guest-house in the French Riviera and gets on well with the other guests of various nationalities. However, one day, a French lady, Madame Henriette, staying there, elopes with a man she had (presumably) known only for a couple of days. She leaves behind a distraught husband and…
#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…
#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…
#ReadIndies: The Report by Jessica Francis Kane (2010)
The day is Wednesday, March 3rd, 1943 and London is on edge. On Monday, England had bombed Germany in a deadly manner and there is a feeling in the air that German retalliation would be even deadlier with some new bombs, even more destructive than the ones used earlier. So when the siren goes off,…
Vote Now: Dream Reprint of the Year
Voting is now open for the Dream Reprint of the year @ CrossexaminingCrime. There are 15 books nominated and to help you in making a choice, The Puzzle Doctor has summarized the books over here. So, have a look at the post and then cast your vote. Who knows, the Publisher gods might smile down…
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