There is nothing more satisfying than reading a book while sipping a hot cup of tea.
Have you ever noticed in murder cases how often it's some trivial detail that tips the scale? Some flower-seller or some old woman running out to the post or a dog getting run over at a moment when you couldn't allow for any of those things happening... Janet Scott, wife of a young solicitor, Gerald … Continue reading Friday’s Forgotten Book: Treason in My Breast by Anthony Gilbert (1938)
"Here, steady on! we are not in Chicago, you know."..."We are in London and that is far more dangerous because it is safer." Earlier this year I read The Death Coins by an author new to me - Walter S. Masterman. I did not enjoy the book but was also not ready to dismiss the … Continue reading In Pursuit: The Hunted Man by Walter S. Masterman (1938)
Lena Dale returns home arguing with her husband Henry. As their quarrel turns more ugly, Lena retires to her room. But soon she is back again in the drawing room where her husband lies dead in a pool of blood. A shocked Lena is still more shocked when a masked man emerges from the library. … Continue reading Short Notes: Dark Lady by J.J. Farjeon (1938)
Very brief descriptions of five mysteries read at the fag-end of this year.The Murders in Praed Street by John Rhode (1928)A book which begins extremely well as a man receives a call from a hospital to come and identify a body. He reaches there only to be told that no such call had been made … Continue reading Forgotten Books: Five Mysteries by Rhode, Rinehart, Jackson, and Vine
The only kind of spy stories that I am fond of reading are where the world is not divided between those wearing white hats and black hats and where the emphasis is on the emotional estrangement and entanglements of the secret service agent(s), something like Somerset Maugham's Ashenden or Graham Greene's The Human Factor.And thus … Continue reading Forgotten Book: Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler
The stock-market crash of October 1929 destroyed economies all over the world. Hunger, poverty, and unemployment rose and heralded in what is called The Great Depression. I recently read two mysteries written by American authors in the thirties and it was interesting to see how they reflected the tenor of the times.Cover Image: Photo of … Continue reading The US in the Thirties: The Thin Man, and The Devil To Pay
With time being at a premium nowadays and the review pile towering up, I have decided to write short reviews for the books read.KARTOGRAPHY (OR HOW TO BE FRIENDS WITH YOUR EX AND HIS/ HER SPOUSE) by KAMILA SHAMSIEI first discovered Kamila Shamsie in the late Nineties when I read her book Salt and Saffron. … Continue reading Short Reviews: Kartography, Murder Among Friends, Too Many Cooks
"O I fear ye are poisoned, Lord Randal, my son!O I fear ye are poisoned, my handsome young man!''O yes! I am poisoned; mother, make my bed soon,For I am sick at the heart, and I fain would lie down!'"But it was Lord Randal's young woman who did that to him, I thought," Georgia said."So … Continue reading Review: The Beast Must Die
When Caird's housekeeper showed his visitor to the door a few moments later, the old actor stood and listened as Flemming's footsteps died away beyond the closed door. He had turned to the right, towards the staircase which led to the upper part of the house, not to the left, towards the descending flight.Caird shrugged … Continue reading Review: The Slippery Staircase by E.C.R Lorac
a hot cup of pleasure 