“Fatal Descent”

 Carter Dickson, Cecil Street, classic mysteries, Funny Mysteries, GAD, Golden Age, Golden Age of Detective Fiction, impossible crimes, John Dickson Carr, John Rhode, locked room mysteries, Locked Rooms/Impossible Crimes, mysteries, mystery, Reading Challenges  Comments Off
May 192013
 

You might think of it as a disgruntled author's revenge: an arrogant and well-disliked publisher gets into his small, private elevator on the top floor of his office building. The door locks automatically and the elevator descends. The publisher can even be seen through windows in the locked access doors, and he is standing in the elevator as it descends. The elevator never stops. Yet suddenly a gunshot is heard, and when the elevator car reaches the ground floor, the publisher is dead - shot through the heart. And there is no way anyone could possibly have shot him in that elevator, especially as there is no gun to be found either in the car or in the elevator shaft.

Impossible? Why of course! Welcome to Fatal Descent, by Carter Dickson and John Rhode - or, to give them their correct names, John Dickson Carr and Cecil Street. Both authors were masters of the impossible crime novel as well as being friends - and they collaborated on just this one book, in 1939. Fatal Descent is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the full review by clicking here.

Fatal Descent is a fascinating mystery, with two sleuths who team up to solve it. One, the Police Surgeon, Dr. Horatio Glass, is very much the type of detective favored by John Dickson Carr - full of ideas that give elegant solutions to impossible problems, brilliant in their conception and flawed only in that they are invariably wrong. Chief Inspector David Hornbeam is a realist who seeks the scientific explanations for crime, and he is quite representative of the kind of sleuth that Street wrote about under his "John Rhode" pen-name. Between them, they will eventually solve the case - but only after a second murder.

It’s a fine story, written with wit and good humor, quite fairly clued for the reader who can find the hints, and with some first-rate characters. It’s a pity that Street and Carr only wrote this one mystery together. Readers who enjoy a good impossible crime story really should read Fatal Descent. It’s been out of print for a while, but there is now an e-book edition available.

This is another entry in Bev's My Reader's Block blog Vintage Mysteries Reading Challenge. As this 1939 mystery was originally published under the title Drop to His Death, I am entering it in the category called "A Mystery by Any Other Name," a book that has been published under more than one title.

 

Withers on the Vine

 classic mysteries, Film, Funny Mysteries, GAD, Golden Age, Golden Age of Detective Fiction, Hildegarde Withers, Looking Back, mysteries, mystery, Mystery Publishers, Open Road Media, Stuart Palmer  Comments Off
May 162013
 

Some very good news today from Open Road Media, a company which has been making a significant number of Golden Age mysteries, both from the US and from England, available in electronic editions. The latest author to benefit from this treatment is Stuart Palmer, whose series detective, Hildegarde Withers, is one of my perennial favorites. Palmer frequently referred to her more-or-less affectionately as "that meddlesome old battleaxe," but Hildy Withers is nobody's fool, and she makes an interesting team with New York City Inspector Oscar Piper, with whom she maintains a rather prickly friendship.

Palmer created the character of Hildegarde Withers with actress Edna May Oliver in mind, In fact, Oliver did star as Hildy in several popular movies in the mid-1930s, opposite James Gleason as Inspector Piper.

As a general rule, the stories are well-plotted and told with some nice humorous touches. I've already reviewed nine of Palmer's books on this blog, and you can find a full list on the backlist page - just scroll down (the authors are listed alphabetically). I'll be reviewing more books from the series, now that Open Road is making them available. If you haven't met Hildegarde Withers...now is the time! I should mention that Open Road is also publishing some additional Stuart Palmer titles that do not have Hildy - I'll be looking forward to trying them as well.

Of Gladys Mitchell and the Saint

 classic mysteries, Film, GAD, Golden Age, Golden Age of Detective Fiction, Looking Back, mrs. bradley, mysteries, mystery, The Saint  Comments Off
May 132013
 

Exciting news for lovers of classic mysteries: Amazon will be republishing all 49 of Leslie Charteris's books featuring the character Simon Templar, known as "The Saint," as well as all 65 of the Mrs. Bradley books by Gladys Mitchell along with six of her other books that do not feature Mrs. Bradley.

Although I don't think I have ever read any of the original books, I remember The Saint from the series of "B" movies which were always on television when I was growing up, often featuring George Sanders in the title role. And I've written here - frequently - about some of the Mrs. Bradley mysteries, many of which have never been published in the U. S.

Apparently these will start appearing sometime later this year, under Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint.

S. T. Karnick has more details at his blog, The American Culture.

“Murder at Cambridge”

 classic mysteries, GAD, Golden Age, Golden Age of Detection, mysteries, mystery, Reading Challenges  Comments Off
May 122013
 

Another of England's ancient and long-respected universities is the setting for an entertaining Golden Age mystery by Q. Patrick. His 1933 book, Murder at Cambridge, follows the adventures of an American undergraduate student at that extremely English university, as he first falls in love at first sight with a young woman student - and then finds himself involved in a murder in which that young lady may have played a critical part. Murder at Cambridge is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the entire review by clicking here.

In Murder at Cambridge, we meet Hilary Fenton, an American who finds much to like at the university. He enjoys student life, his studies, the occasional escapades and pranks of his fellow students. But one day, sitting in class, he sees an unknown young woman sitting across the lecture hall from him. He immediately falls in love with her (all right, this IS Golden Age fiction, after all!), and tries to learn who she may be.

But before he can do so, he finds the body of another student, a young man who lives on the same stairway at Cambridge as Hilary does. And he thinks he sees the mysterious young woman coming down the stairs from the victim's rooms at what must have been right around the time of the murder.

So Hilary does what any young man (at least of the period) would do: he proceeds to meddle in the investigation, hiding potentially critical evidence and generally being a nuisance. Fortunately for him, and for the course of justice, the police officer in charge, Inspector Horrocks, is nobody's fool. He sees through Hilary's deceptions pretty quickly and still invites the young man to help him investigate. Working together, they must discover the relationship between that mysterious young woman and the victim and the secret that lies hidden at the heart of the murder. There will be a second murder, and the young woman herself will narrowly escape becoming a victim.

While all this is going on, we are given a student's-eye view of Cambridge University life in the early 1930s - perhaps too much so for some tastes. The author even includes a glossary of student terms, in an effort to help readers decipher some of the jargon - though even he cannot make me understand the game of cricket.

A word about the author: "Q. Patrick" was one of several names used by four different writers working together in various combinations between the 1930s and 1950s. Some books appeared under the names of "Patrick Quentin" and "Jonathan Stagge." Murder at Cambridge, though, appears to have been the solo work of Richard Wilson Webb, the only book he wrote without collaborating with another author. It is an entertaining book, and the university setting certainly adds to the reader's enjoyment of a pretty tight mystery. A British publisher, Ostara Publishing, has brought Q. Patrick's Murder at Cambridge back into print as one of a series of mysteries set in that fine old University town. The paperback, I think, is a bit on the pricey side, but there is also an edition for the Amazon Kindle which is available for less than half the price of the paper copy.

Murder at Cambridge is another entry in the My Reader's Block Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge. Its setting makes it a natural for the category called "Jolly Old England."

I would be remiss if I did not tell you that I came to Murder in Cambridge through a post by mystery writer Martin Edwards, on his excellent blog, "Do You Write Under Your Own Name," which you will find linked from my blogroll on the right.  His review includes more information about "Q. Patrick," and I commend the article to you.

 

“Vintage Murder”

 classic mysteries, GAD, Golden Age, Golden Age of Detection, mysteries, mystery, Ngaio Marsh, Reading Challenges  Comments Off
May 062013
 

You can do a lot of celebrating with a jereboam of champagne. The giant bottle, four times the "normal" size of a bottle of wine, was to be the centerpiece of a theatrical birthday party. Instead, it became a murder weapon. Fortunately for the New Zealand authorities, one of the witnesses to the entire sorry affair was an English detective - Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard. And that proved to be most unfortunate for someone who had carefully plotted what must have seemed like a perfect murder.

In essence, that's the story told in Vintage Murder, by Ngaio Marsh. First published in 1937, the fifth book in Marsh's long series of mysteries starring Detective Inspector Alleyn, it is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the entire review by clicking here.

In "Vintage Murder," we are introduced to the members of the Carolyn Dacres Comedy Company, a small but mostly successful English theater company which, at the time of this novel, is on tour, traveling to a town in New Zealand for a series of performances. Riding in the same compartment of the train with members of the theater group is Scotland Yard detective Roderick Alleyn, who is traveling on holiday through the area while recovering from surgery.

Tensions are running high among some of the members of the company. Alleyn, despite his efforts to avoid any possible involvement, finds himself present at a birthday party held onstage after a performance of the show  for the company's leading lady. During the course of the party, arrangements have been made for a jereboam of champagne to be lowered gently from the flies above the stage, as a surprise. Instead, it comes crashing down, killing the person sitting underneath it.

Despite Alleyn's reluctance, he finds himself advising the local police in their investigation - for he, and they, quickly determine that it was no accident. And, among the limited field of suspects, it is up to Alleyn to identify the villain.

There is a great deal to enjoy in Vintage Murder. Ngaio Marsh, in addition to her writing, held a "day job" as producer/director for a successful New Zealand acting troupe, and her mysteries placed in theatrical settings are among her best works. She is wonderful at evoking character in a few lines. For example, here is how she describes one of the character actors in the company:

"Old Brandon Vernon looked a little the worse for wear. The hollows under his cheek bones and the lines round his eyes seemed to have made one of those grim encroachments to which middle-aged faces are so cruelly subject. A faint hint of a rimy stubble broke the smooth pallor of his chin; his eyes, in spite of their look of sardonic impertinence, were lackluster and tired. Yet when he spoke one forgot his age, for his voice was quite beautiful, deep, and exquisitely modulated. He was one of that company of old actors that are only found in the West End of London. They still believe in using their voices as instruments, they speak without affectation, and they are indeed actors."

As a New Zealander, and a theatrical producer, Marsh was writing about the things and people she knew and loved. That comes across very strongly in Vintage Murder. It has been republished by the Felony & Mayhem Press. It is highly recommended.

Vintage Murder is another of my entries in the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge under way at the My Reader's Block blog, in the category, "Staging the Crime." If you haven't been checking the challenge, you are missing some great reading - it's not too late to start!

 

“Vultures in the Sky”

 classic mysteries, Golden Age, Mexican mysteries, My Readers Block, mysteries, mystery, Reading Challenges, vintage mystery reading challenge  Comments Off
Apr 292013
 

The Mexicans call them zopilotes; in English they are turkey vultures - giant birds that feast primarily on the dead flesh of other animals. Certainly, it cannot be a harbinger of anything good when they are seen flying over a train making its way from Monterrey to Mexico City. It is enough to make the passengers extremely nervous. And that was before the murders really began.

That's the situation we find in a marvelous, largely forgotten book called Vultures in the Sky, by Todd Downing. First published in 1935, at the heart of the American Golden Age of Detective Fiction, it features Downing's series detective, U. S. Customs Service agent Hugh Rennert, who finds himself on this nightmare of a train journey, trapped with a murderer who seems to be killing off the other first-class passengers pretty much at will. Vultures in the Sky is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the entire review by clicking here.

There is a great deal going on aboard - and around - the little train, making its way across Mexico. Hugh Rennert must try to determine why (and how) some of the passengers are being murdered. At the same time, there is an ominous sense that there is a much broader and deadlier danger looming. There is talk of a general strike by Pullman Company workers (the first-class passengers are all traveling in the Pullman cars of the train), possible sabotage and - as the train breaks down more than once along its journey - the possibility exists of some kind of assault against the train. There may also be a connection to a recent spectacular and deadly kidnapping case. And, all the time, above the train, the vultures are flying, perhaps attracted by the smell of death...

Downing juggles all these plot threads admirably, keeping the reader guessing - although it is most definitely a "fair-play" mystery, with clues that, when properly deciphered, can lead the reader to the correct solution.

Long out-of-print, Todd Downing's novels are back in trade paperback editions from Coachwhip Publications. These editions feature a new introduction by mystery scholar Curtis Evans, providing excellent and fascinating background information about Downing and his books, particularly his use of Mexico as the setting for the books, which Evans says "is his most significant contribution to the genre." In addition, Downing's fascinating characters and the brooding atmosphere which hovers over the book rather like the vultures themselves make Vultures in the Sky a book that should not be missed.

This book is my seventh entry in the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge at the My Reader's Block blog. I am entering it in the category, "World Traveler": one mystery set in any country except the US or Britain. If you haven't checked out some of the first-rate books showing up in this challenge, use the link in this paragraph to see what you're missing.

 

“The Grand Tour”

 Agatha Christie, classic mysteries, General Suggestions, grand tour, travel  Comments Off
Apr 222013
 

Let's turn to non-fiction today, written by one of the greatest storytellers of all time.

In 1922, Agatha Christie and her then-husband, Archie, were approached by an influential friend and offered a trip around the world, lasting nearly a year, on behalf of a British trade mission. Agatha Christie and her husband had always wanted to travel, but in 1922 that required a great deal of money and time. Travel over land mostly meant by rail; travel over sea meant weeks on board a ship.

But recognizing the opportunity, the Christies accepted the offer. Leaving their very young daughter with family members, Archie and Agatha Christie set out on their voyage. And - because Agatha Christie was a writer - she did what she knew best: she wrote. She wrote long letters home, to her mother and her family, and she also mailed home a great many black-and-white photographs, taken with her new camera.

All of that material, together with relevant parts of Christie's Autobiography, have now been assembled and published for the first time as "The Grand Tour: Around the World with the Queen of Mystery," edited by Christie's grandson Mathew Prichard. It is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the full review by clicking here.

It's an enormous and absolutely fascinating work. Agatha Christie recorded everything - her seasickness, the long journeys by ship and by train, the meetings with various Commonwealth government officials as part of the official duties, staying in hotel rooms "reeking of commercial travelers," all of this combined with handwritten letters, postcards, clippings and scores of photographs.

No, there's no mystery here - but there are marvelous stories, and it's fun to read Christie's description of the many people she meets - people who, at least as character types, will show up later in her fiction. In fact, the leader of the trade mission, Major Belcher, turns up as a major character named Sir Eustace Pedlar in Christie's 1924 thriller, The Man in the Brown Suit. Some of the real life incidents from the trip turn up in that book as well, particularly a general strike in South Africa that turned into what Christie called "a young revolution."

The Grand Tour is a wonderful real-life adventure, from the days when travel really was an adventure, a time when most people could never imagine seeing such places as Australia and Hawaii, both stops on the Christies' tour. If you enjoy travel, and you enjoy Agatha Christie, you will enjoy this book.

This post is based on a longer review which I wrote for the I Love a Mystery Newsletter, edited by Sally Powers, and I'm grateful to her for letting me share it with you.

“Make No Bones”

 Aaron Elkins, classic mysteries, Funny Mysteries, Malice Domestic, MD25, Modern Masters, mysteries, mystery, Police procedurals  Comments Off
Apr 152013
 

With the annual Malice Domestic conference coming up in less than three weeks, I thought it was high time that I made the acquaintance of some of the fine authors of traditional mysteries who will be honored at the event. One of the honorees this year will be Aaron Elkins, who will be receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, and I thought it would be good to start by reading one of the books in his primary series featuring the "Skeleton Detective," Dr. Gideon Oliver. Have I been missing a lot?

Well...frankly...yes. I may be late to the party, but I found Dr. Oliver a most enjoyable companion, as he led me through a rudimentary appreciation of forensic anthropology, the scientific study of human remains, in an often funny, if sometimes grisly, mystery.

I found a good example of what that means - and how Gideon Oliver puts together the fragments of a mysterious death to reveal a pretty shocking crime - in "Make No Bones," originally published in 1991, and the seventh book in Elkins' continuing series. It's the subject of this week's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the full review by clicking here.

In "Make No Bones," members of the Western Association of Forensic Anthropologists are gathering for their biennial get-together - what the organizer calls the group’s "eagerly anticipated bone bash and weenie roast." It’s a combination of a scientific business conference, with academic discussions of forensic science and anthropology, together with a social gathering. The problem, this year, is that the organizer has chosen to hold it at Whitebark Lodge, in Oregon, where the association was formed, ten years earlier. That original ill-fated conference had ended in tragedy, as Albert Evan Jasper, called the “dean of American forensic anthropologists,” died in a fiery bus crash. As the scientists gather again a decade later at Whitebark Lodge, there will be unpleasant surprises in store – not to mention murders, old and new to be solved. It will be up to Gideon Oliver, working with his wife, Julie, and their friend, FBI Agent John Lau, to unravel a grisly set of clues to reveal a deadly secret.

There's a fair amount of police procedure here, and some insight into how these forensic scientists go about finding clues in a handful of bones or bone fragments. But it's also a traditional mystery, with considerable fair play and some very nicely hidden clues. And there's a lot of humor - sometimes very dark, to be sure, but also quite funny. I thoroughly enjoyed "Make No Bones," and I'm looking forward to meeting Aaron Elkins and hearing him speak at Malice Domestic.

Unlocking the Locked Room

 classic mysteries, impossible crimes, John Pugmire, Locked Room International, locked room mysteries, Locked Rooms/Impossible Crimes, LRI, mysteries, mystery, Paul Halter, Web/Tech, Weblogs  Comments Off
Apr 102013
 

One of the genres I most enjoy is the locked room mystery and its broader implementation as the "impossible crime" story. All of Clyde B. Clason's works fall into that sphere. So do most of the works of John Dickson Carr, the acknowledged master of the field. Many other mystery authors, from the Golden Age and beyond, have written in the genre, with varying degrees of success.

So it's important, I think, to recognize that there are still authors writing today who specialize in locked room detective stories. Many of them, unfortunately, do not write in English, and translations are not always easy to find.

Enter translator John Pugmire, whom I mentioned earlier on this blog for his terrific work translating the contemporary French locked-room mystery author, Paul Halter. Pugmire now has begun a website devoted to the genre, called Locked Room International. I like the way he defines the genre:

"What is a locked room mystery? It is ideally a mystery which follows Golden Age Rules about providing fair clues to the reader and also poses the question: how was it done? A "locked room" is a special case of the more general "impossible crime," in which one or more victims are discovered dead in what appear to be impossible circumstances (hermetically sealed room, no footprints in the snow, inaccessible site, etc.) It makes no pretense to be probable, no attempt to analyze the human condition, and no effort to probe the detective's foibles. Its purpose is purely and simply to baffle while entertaining. It challenges the mind, not the heart or the spirit."

The site is still pretty basic, and we are promised additions and improvements as it is developed. It's not primarily a blog. Locked Room International is involved in publishing (as print-on-demand and/or e-book editions) good, English-language translations of locked-room masterpieces by Paul Halter and others; there are hints that we may eventually see translated versions from a modern Japanese master of the form.

The site is well worth a visit from anyone interested in the genre. I have more Halter books in my ever-massive "To Be Read" pile, and I'm looking forward to them and other LRI books.

Hat tip to the Golden Age of Detective Fiction mail group on Yahoo, which alerted me to the existence of this new LRI website.

“Blind Drifts”

 classic mysteries, GAD, Golden Age, Golden Age of Detective Fiction, ILAM, ILoveAMystery Newsletter; locked rooms, impossible crimes, Locked Rooms/Impossible Crimes, mysteries, mystery, Reading Challenges  Comments Off
Apr 082013
 

When one of the directors of the Virgin Queen Gold Mine was shot, deep inside the mine, it happened in front of seven witnesses. Unfortunately, none of them apparently saw the shot fired, nor did they have any idea who might have fired it. And there was no sign of a gun. It was, to be blunt, an impossible situation. So it was probably a good thing that one of the witnesses on hand was a professor of Roman history and amateur detective named Theocritus Lucius Westborough, a man who had earned something of a reputation for solving impossible crime puzzles. He does so again in "Blind Drifts," a 1937 "impossible crime" novel by Clyde B. Clason which is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast. You can listen to the full review by clicking here.

Professor Westborough, having inherited a large amount of stock in the Virgin Queen mine from his brother, finds himself at the mine in Baddington, Colorado and caught in the middle of a power struggle between two groups of directors seeking control of the mine. The more he investigates, the more he finds himself caught up in the remarkable violence that seems to befall some of the key players in the power struggle. Another of the mine’s directors has vanished, and may be the victim of foul play. That director’s daughter has also vanished, last having been seen walking onto the campus of the local university – and apparently vanishing. As the situation grows more complicated and dangerous, the local sheriff is more than happy to have assistance from Professor Westborough.

In the 1930s, writing during America's Golden Age of Detective Fiction, Clyde B. Clason made a reputation for himself as an author with a knack for coming up with ingenious locked room/impossible crime situations. Although I find his stories are less exciting than those of John Dickson Carr, whose gift for creating eerie atmospheres was unequalled, I think Clason's books about Professor Westborough are clever and quite enjoyable. "Blind Drifts" takes the reader into a very unusual world - a world of gold mining, drifts, adits, crosscuts, stopes, vugs, strikes and more. The action is fairly slow to start, but once it picks up and the bodies start falling, and believe me they do, it moves to a good, tight conclusion.

"Blind Drifts" is another book read for the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge under way at Bev's Reader's Block blog. I'm putting it in the category called Amateur Night: a book with a "detective" who is not a P.I., police officer, official.

It's also another book which I have reviewed for the I Love a Mystery newsletter, edited by Sally Powers, who has graciously given me her permission to use portions of that review here and on my podcast. She also provided me with a copy of the new Rue Morgue Press edition of "Blind Drifts" for my review.

 

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