Crammed together: Nine Books

My to-be-reviewed pile for 2022 is long and toppling over. Before I forget all about the books, here are just a couple of lines about nine of them. So in no particular order: Death of a Hollow Man (1987): I had enjoyed Caroline Graham's The Killings at Badger's Drift, the first in her Inspector Barnaby's …

Wrap-Up: Reading by the Numbers 2022

Have also successfully completed another challenge hosted by Bev @ My Reader's Block. this time: Reading by the Numbers. Here are the books read (and thankfully also reviewed): Goal: 51 books The Religious Body by Catherine Aird Life Cycle by Harry Carmichael The Seeds of Hate by Harry Carmichael Death of a Star by G.D.H. …

Last Read of 2022: The Twisted Tree by Frank Baker (1935)

Oh, my dear Lord! thought Tansy. What are we all here for at all, if it's nothing but a long walk from cradle to grave? I had wanted to read more of British author Frank Baker since the time I read his intriguing Miss Hargreaves. Finally, I was able to get a copy of his …

Friday’s Forgotten Book: Evil Intent by John Wainwright (1966)

British author John Wainwright (1921-1995) was a rear-gunner during the second world war. Subsequent to that he joined the police constabulary. In 1965, he published his first crime novel. In all, he published around eighty novels, all of which unfortunately seem to have fallen through the crevices of time. The novel begins with a police …

Great Finds: Murder with Impatience by Robert Verron (1944) and The Cloze Papers by Kenneth Livingston (1936)

It is always great when a book that you pick up randomly from the library shelves without any idea of the title or even the author turns out to be a great read. Here are two such books: Renowned criminologist Kennedy Critchley is planning to spend a few weeks with his cousin in Scotland when …

Locked-Room: The Double Turn by Carol Carnac (1956)

Adrian Delafield, once a great-in-demand painter of the Victorian era, now lives a secluded life at Firenze at St. John's Wood, looked after by his devoted maid, Miss Trimming. Trimming who is a religious fanatic keeps him away from 'the evils of the world'; one of those evils apparently being Delafield's own daughter, Virgilia Delafield, …

Short Story Wednesday: Rogues’ Gallery: The Great Criminals of Modern Fiction (ed.) by Ellery Queen (1945)

Usually when I read a mystery, I want the criminal to be punished and the moral-order restored. Usually. Because at times, I find myself rooting for the criminal and hoping that he escapes the long-arm of justice. In this anthology of short stories, all the criminals escape justice (or rather not but I will come …

Post-War: The Writing on the Wall by Herbert Adams (1945)

Sir James Norland, who has risen from a reporter to his present powerful position of a newspaper baron who owns various newspapers and has been knighted for his services is yet not content. What he wants is a title. His grandson would become Marquis of Mellowfont if his son Peter marries Diana who would become …

Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Family Man by Anne Meredith (1942)

God's a good playwright... just when you think the curtain's coming down the plot takes a freash twist, and you find that, in spite of death and disappointment, life still goes on. Anthony Gilbert is one of my favourite authors of all time. However, Anthony Gilbert was not the solo pseudonym of Lucy Beatrice Malleson. …

Short Story Wednesday: Tales from the Arabian Nights

The Arabian Nights, those tales that Scheherazade, told to her husband, the Sultan, for 1001 nights, so that he'd spare her life for just one more day has been on my wishlist for long. This edition, published by Thomas Nelson & Sons, but missing the name of the translator, includes 18 of the tales. Some …