Indeed, he read very little except detective stories, which he devoured at a rate of one a day. Ronald Knox, The Motive
Five strangers alight from a train compartment and disappear into a Paddington station shrouded in thick fog. Moments later one of them is found seriously injured with his head bashed in, stripped of all identification and left for dead. Chief Inspector Robert MacDonald finds that the young man’s identity is not only the key to …
Continue reading Shroud of Darkness by E. C. R. Lorac (1954)
"You do see, don't you, that she's got to be killed?" While holidaying in Jerusalem, Hercule Poirot overhears these chilling words. Days later, he is called to investigate a death in Petra and learns who "she" was. Mrs. Boynton, a sadistic tyrant who dominates her family, has been found dead. Other than a puncture wound …
Continue reading Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie (1937)
The Creeping Jenny Mystery by Brian Flynn (1930) The seemingly untouchable jewel-thief “Creeping Jenny” has been burglarizing the country houses of England. But Jenny’s last job goes a bit to far, and it’s not just jewels that are taken. Not one of my favorite of Flynn's books. Bathurst isn't "seen" until almost the end of …
Continue reading A Bundle of Reviews #10 Or The Case of the Creeping Rabbi
The fishing wasn’t good off Burry Port. It’s so bad that all a man and his son caught was a waterlogged crate which they decide to float onto the beach. Inside is a decomposing body of a man. He has obviously been murdered, the face battered and any means of identification removed. It will take …
Continue reading Inspector French and the Sea Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts (1928)
The small town of Yewbury is shaken by the seemingly motiveless murder of Mrs. Pink, “a widow, of course, entirely given up to good works.” Motiveless that is until you take into account her very surly landlord Mr. Todman, who wants her out of his cottage, “one way or another.” Or Horace Wendon, Lady Furlong’s …
Continue reading Death Walks the Woods by Cyril Hare (1954) aka The Yew Tree’s Shade
The Arsenal Stadium Mystery by Leonard R. Gribble (1939) A crowd of thousands are on hand to watch the match between league champion Arsenal and the Trojans was the all-amateur team comprised of “carpenters and electricians, chemists and insurance brokers, clerks and salesmen.” The teams are well-matched, going toe-to-toe in a tie game. Then suddenly …
Continue reading A Bundle of Reviews #5 – From Highbury to Haworth