Last Update 12/30/23
Sherlock Holmes & the
Twelve Thefts of Christmas by Tim Major, Titan, 2023
Holmes
is bored and depressed when he receives a cryptic challenge from an old
acquaintance, Irene Adler. She presents him with a series of puzzles
involving the art world – stolen statues that are still there, stolen
paintings that never existed, stolen violin strings that reappear in
Watson’s pocket. There is a second thread. A Norwegian explorer and his
wife have become unsettled because someone is leaving slabs of raw meat
on their doorstep periodically, with no explanation. Holmes solves both
legs of the mystery, of course. I found this one uneven. The Adler
branch was fascinating, but the Norwegian sections were slow moving and
sometimes digressed from the story line. 12/30/23
Poirot
Investigates by Agatha Christie, 1925
Fourteen
short adventures of Hercule Poirot. They vary considerably in nature and
in quality. Poirot figures out where a kidnapped politician is being
kept, retrieves stolen jewels multiple times, solves murders involving
impersonation, faked suicides, a faked Egyptian curse, missing
negotiable bonds stolen on a cruise ship, and other ruses and problems.
Captain Hastings is his companion in these stories, which are from early
in Poirot’s career. Christie’s short fiction is not nearly as engaging
as are her novels, but for the most part they are well done formula
puzzles. 12/30/23
Obelists at Sea
by C. Daly King, Penzler, 2023 (originally published in 1932)
I
generally enjoy murder mysteries set on cruise ships. The closed
environment is probably why. This is an early one by an author I haven’t
previously tried. A man is murdered in a crowded room aboard a ship and
a necklace is stolen from his daughter. The thief is caught quickly, but
it appears that he is not the killer. There are four prominent
psychologists aboard, each from a different school of thought, and they
become amateur detectives - reaching three incorrect conclusions that
potentially were solutions. There is a good deal of psychological jargon
- some of it nonsensical - and an experimental lie detector. The prose
is a bit strained - there are some jarring transitions and occasionally
bits of information are left out. It is, on the other hand, a rather
clever device though the story goes on for too long. Oddly, however, I
found the mystery element unsatisfying. 12/27/23
The Devil's Flute Murders
by Seishi Yokomizo, Pushkin Vertigo, 2023 (from the 1973 Japanese
edition)
This
is the fifth in this series of murder mysteries to be published recently
in English. The story begins with two isolated incidents - a jewel theft
that results in multiple deaths and the disappearance of an uneffacing
older man who played the flute. His family believes that he committed
suicide because of some unexplained scandal, but despite the discovery
of his body months later, they are not sure that he is really dead. Then
a series of murders begins which will leave five more people dead and
lead to a second suicide. The scandal involves incestuous relationships
and two people pretending to be someone other than themselves. Very well
done. 12/26/23
The Final Curtain
by Keigo Higashino, Minotaur, 2023
This
is another very fine police procedural from Japan. The discovery of a
dead woman in an abandoned apartment and the disappearance of its
occupant begins a far reaching and elaborate investigation that uncovers
multiple false identities and at least two murders – not to mention a
couple of suicides and a justifiable homicide. Everything seems to
revolve around an actress who recently turned director and has reached
the pinnacle of her career with a new play she produced. But is the
story of her father’s suicide true? Why is she estranged from her
mother? What made her initiate contact with a police detective who was
proficient in martial arts? What happened to the devoted teacher who
eventually became her lover? All of this is meticulously uncovered by
several police officers in one of the best novels of its type I’ve read
recently. 12/22/23
The Charteris
Mystery by A. Fielding, Spitfire, 2023 (originally published in
1921)
A
young woman is found at the bottom of a deep pit, apparently having
fallen to her death. But one of the men who finds the body is suspicious
and discusses the case with a vacationing Scotland Yard inspector. The
inspector quickly finds evidence that she was killed elsewhere – thrown
or pushed from a balcony – and that her body was transported to where
she was found. But no one seems to have had a motive except possibly her
fiancé, who had expressed fury over the possibility of being jilted. I
had some difficulty with the prose. The language does not flow well and
there is a jerky quality to the plot – lots of things happen in a couple
of pages then nothing for many more. Fielding wrote several other
mysteries, but I’ll probably give them a pass. 12/21/23
Vertigo by Pierre
Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, Dell, 1958
Aka
The Living and the Dead. Yes, this was the basis for the Alfred
Hitchcock classic movie. A man is worried that his wife might be
slipping slowly into insanity so he asks an old friend, recently retired
from the police, to follow her for a while and find out what is going
on. The ex-detective gets drawn into the situation much more deeply than
he anticipated. This relatively short novel describes a systematic
descent into a strange kind of madness. The film alters things a little
so this won’t read like a novelization. Much of the work by this writing
team has never been translated into English for some reason. What I have
read of it is all very good. 12/21/23
The Mysterious
Mr. Quin by Agatha Christie, 1947
A
collection of unusual short stories featuring Harley Quin, who appears
in some form in each story to help his friend Satterthwaite to solve
crimes, usually but not always murder. Quin is a vaguely supernatural
being, and a couple of the stories include decided elements of the
fantastic. But for the most part they involve murder for gain and
jealousy, unsavory characters, hidden secrets, tragic love affairs, and
other typical mystery premises. I didn’t care for this selection very
much. Satterthwaite seems almost to have supernatural powers of
observation of his own, and the puzzled are solved too easily. This was
an interesting experiment with the mystery format, but for the most part
I don't think it worked at all well. 12/16/23
Three Assassins by Kotaro
Isaka, Vintage, 2022
The
author of Bullet Train has a somewhat similar and almost equally
entertaining novel that is a kind of prequel. The three assassins are
the Pusher, who pushes people in front of moving vehicles, the Whale,
who can make them commit suicide by what amounts to a psychic power, and
Cicada, who specializes in murdering entire families. When the Pusher
kills the son of a major crimelord, it starts a complicated dance of
assassins and other criminals, plus one man who is seeking revenge for
the murder of his wife. Although this was fairly long, I read it in a
single sitting and I am said to say I'll now have to wait until he
writes another. Very highly recommended for people who like John
Connolly, Robert Parker, or Mickey Spillane. 12/15/23
The
Case of the Corporal’s Leave by Christopher Bush, Dean Street,
2018 (originally published in 1945)
A
pompous man running a charity drive unwisely carries a valuable
collection of donated jewels while walking home in the darkness. He is
found dead the following day and the jewels are, of course, gone.
Ludovic Travers investigates the suspects including his two secretaries,
his ethically challenged sister-in-law, an obsessed collector of antique
rings, and others. There is a rather awkward red herring – who moved the
body and why – and a facile solution that appears to be true until
Travers has a brainstorm and picks a completely different explanation
out of mostly thin air. One of the characters commits suicide for no
clear reason. Slightly below average. 12/12/23
Fish Swimming in
Dappled Sunlight by Riku Onda, Bitter Lemon, 2022 (from the 2007
Japanese edition)
This
is a psychological thriller wrapped around what appears to be a murder.
The two protagonists have been living together but their romance has
come to the end and they are breaking up housekeeping. On their final
night together, they play an intricate, unstated game in which it is
apparent that each of them believes that the other is responsible for a
murder. But neither can be entirely sure, and since the chapters
alternate between viewpoints, the reader is even less certain. Quite
engaging although the puzzle is not one involving clues or deduction. It
was also written in present tense, which meant I had to struggle to get
through it. 12/12/23
The Labors of
Hercules by Agatha Christie, 1947
A
collection of short adventures of Hercule Poirot, each of which is
loosely – very loosely – related to one of the supposed tasks performed
by the Greek hero Hercules. The cases are often surprisingly minor – a
kidnapped dog, a missing maid, a newspaper about to bring down a
government, and a mildly clever pair of swindlers. But other stories
include the search for a disguised murderer, a poisoned wife, the theft
of a valuable painting, a drug related shooting, and other crimes. Quite
varied which is a plus. Poirot even takes a partner in one of the
stories, a character he caught breaking the law in another story.
12/10/23
The Million
Dollar Diamond by J.S.
Fletcher, Spitfire, 2021 (originally published in 1923)
Fletcher
was quite popular at the time he was writing, but he’s pretty crude by
contemporary standards. This short novel involves the theft of a diamond
and brief kidnapping of its owner, supposedly a prank to show him how
foolish it is to carry the gem on his person, but there a couple of not
bad reversals along the way. The problem is that the prose is awkward
and most of the characters act in transparently stupid ways in order to
keep the plot moving. Fletcher was very prolific but only a couple of
his mysteries are noteworthy, and this was not one of them. 12/10/23
The Under Dog and
Other Stories by Agatha Christie, 1926
Hercule
Poirot is featured in a novella and several short stories. He solves
murders, proves one assumed homicide to be an accident, investigates a
case of missing submarine plans vital to the government, tracks down a
missing cook who was lured away by a strange letter, penetrates various
disguises and ruses, figures out convoluted problems, catches the bad
guys and clears the good ones, and generally performs in his usual
manner. The title story is the best in this selection, which is
generally quite rewarding. 12/8/23
Three Blind Mice
by Agatha Christie, 1976
Aka
Mousetrap. The title story is a novella with none of Christie’s
recurring characters involved, which is a rarity. Four guests and a
police officer are trapped by snow at a newly opened lodge and one of
them is a crazed serial killer. Much more suspenseful than most of
Christie’s other mysteries, which are generally puzzles. The remaining
stories are pretty good to fair, involving kidnapping, murder, and
impersonation and featuring Poirot, Marple, and others. This was a
pretty good collection. 12/8/23
Foul Play
Suspected by John Wyndham, Modern Library, 2023 (originally
published in 1935)
I
had wanted to read this for a very long time and it has finally been
reprinted. It’s not a spectacularly good mystery – and it’s more
adventure than mystery in any case. A young woman returns from three
years in India to discover that her father and his staff all
mysteriously disappeared a few months earlier. A few nights later she is
kidnapped by a wealthy man and held prisoner while he questions her
about her father’s research. She manages to escape but for various
reasons – not entirely convincing – the police are not notified
immediately and are unable to act when they do hear about it. Then the
family lawyer is abducted and his body is found in a river. Her cousin
and his best friend team up with a Scotland Yard inspector to find out
what is really going on. Not bad at all, but Wyndham became a much
better writer in the years that followed. 12/6/23
The Gelignite Gang
by John Creasey, Perennial, 1987 (originally published in 1955)
Aka
Inspector West Makes Haste. A gang of thieves who specialize in
explosives kill a night watchman while robbing a jewelry store. The dead
man is the father-in-law of one of the gang, which causes Inspector West
to interview his wife. Her nervousness immediately raises his suspicions
and it is almost inevitable that this leads to the solution. Along the
way, however, are a couple of murders, an abduction, and other efforts
by the gang to thwart Scotland Yard. This was okay but it is a pure
crime novel rather than a mystery, since we know almost everything right
from the outset. 12/1/23
The Turquoise Shop
by Frances Crane, Rue Morgue, 2004 (originally published in 1941)
This
was the first book about a husband and wife – they didn’t marry until
book three – detective team. The story is set in a small artists colony
in New Mexico. A local man has gone missing and another has been killed.
Were they the same person? Who is the rich local woman actually sleeping
with? Why was a body mutilated? The twosome meet and are pulled into the
situation rather than actively interested. The writing is not bad, but
it’s occasionally awkward and it feels too much like a standard
contemporary cozy. It does age rather well though. 12/1/23
And Then
There Were None by Agatha Christie, 1939
Aka
Ten Little Indians. This is the classic story of ten people who
gather on an isolated island in response to anonymous invitations. They
are cut off from the outside world and someone starts killing them, one
by one. Is their host somewhere in hiding, or is one of their number
responsible for the deaths? Slowly they begin to die, always in parallel
to the classic rhyme about ten little Indians. Christie adopted an
uncharacteristically staccato style for this one, very short paragraphs,
mostly a single sentence. Abrupt dialogue. Not much description. It
helps to keep the story moving quickly to its surprise ending. 11/30/23
13 Clues
for Miss Marple by Agatha Christie, 1966
Short
cases for Jane Marple involving the usual range of devices – murder,
impersonation, a missing fortune cleverly concealed, a retired spy,
stolen gems, fake wills, disappearing ink, and so on. All of them are
readable but none really stand out. In many cases, the stories are set
well after the crime. Marple and others are at a social event and the
details are revealed, after which Marple makes a marvelous jump to the
right conclusion – usually fairly logically, occasionally a bit of a
leap of faith. These have all been collected elsewhere. 11/25/23
Black Coffee
by Charles Osborne, St Martins, 1997
This
is a Hercule Poirot mystery based on a 1930 play by Agatha Christie. Sir
Claude Emory has discovered a new explosive, but he is poisoned and the
formula stolen during a gathering of his family and two guests. Poirot
arrives to recover the document and identify the murderer, who turns out
to be the secretary, hoping to sell the discovery to a foreign power.
The plot is very straightforward and the red herrings are ineffectual.
The solution is somewhat of a leap of logic. This is quite obviously a
play since the entire novel takes place effectively in a single room.
11/25/23
Two for
Inspector West by John Creasey, Pan, 1972 (originally published
in 1955)
Inspector
West of Scotland Yard is sent to a remote area to investigate a murder
and promptly finds another one. A young wife becomes a hostage as a
professional killer seeks a hidden store of stolen money, even though
her husband does not seem to know where it is. This is mostly a routine
police procedural. I am not really a fan of the form, although this was
reasonably entertaining. West does not seem to be particularly talented
or insightful in the first of his adventures that I have ever read.
11/20/23
Jimmy Lavender
by Vincent Starrett, Gold Label, 1944
A
collection of short mystery stories featuring the title character.
Lavender is sort of a catalyst for solution in many of these rather than
the actual solver. The stories are all quite readable and sometimes have
fairly clever twists, but Lavender doesn’t have much depth as a
character and there is not a single story that I would consider
memorable, although a couple of them are close. Starrett wrote a couple
of mildly interesting mysteries but I remember him mostly for editing a
collection of essays about Sherlock Holmes. 11/19/23
The Running Grave
by Robert Galbraith, Mulholland, 2023
The
Seventh outing of Cormoran Strike is another approximately 1000 page but
still suspenseful novel, although it deals with infiltrating a cult, a
plot device I generally find uninteresting. In this case his partner
takes center stage, joining a supposedly charitable humanist group that
is actually a rather predictable mix of sexual slavery, negligence and
abuse of children and female members, and ultimately mixed with an
actual murder designed to alter the power balance within the ruling
family. I found the closing chapters less rewarding than I expected.
Most of the villains are taken without a struggle and the head of the
church is actually arrested off stage. There are some subplots, mostly
involving a feud with a rival agency. This series continues to be well
worth the time despite some lapses. 11/18/23
Sherlock Holmes and
the Case of Sabina Hall by L.B. Greenwood, Pocket, 1989
A
moderately interesting pastiche that takes Holmes and Watson to a remote
mansion whose miserly owner dies of poison just before they arrive. His
dependents are rather unpleasant people and his entire fortune is left
to his nasty minded sister. She is poisoned as well before she can enjoy
her newfound wealth. The story is very low key. The two detectives are
portrayed well and do not stray from the canon. The mystery is rather
standard for the series and I couldn’t help thinking it would have made
a very nice, longish story but couldn’t quite justify its existence as a
novel. 11/18/23
The Ink Black Heart by Robert
Galbraith, Muholland, 2022
The
latest Cormoran Strike novel from J.K. Rowling is 1000 pages long,
although it doesn't feel that way. One of the two creators of a
successful online cartoon series is being threatened anonymously, but
the agency is too busy to take the job. A short time later she is killed
in a cemetery and her partner is left paralyzed from the same attack.
The attacker appears to be active online as Anomie, who helped design an
online game based on the animation, but who is has been constantly
attacking the female creator as a plagiarist, and then as someone who is
betraying her fans. Strike and Ellacott end up investigating to find out
Anomie's identity, which leads them into a complex web of mysteries,
both online and off. Compelling reading, an intriguing handful of
mysteries, and strong characterizations, even of the people we never
actually see. 11/15/23
The Case of
the Missing Men by Christopher Bush, Dean Street, 2018
(originally published in 1946)
A
writer of detective novels is unpopular with almost everyone – his much
younger wife, his poetically inclined wastrel son, even his agent. Only
his secretary appears reasonably comfortable with him. There is also a
mysterious figure renting a house nearby who disappears when the author
is found dead in his study. Although it looks like there was a struggle,
Travers points out that it was staged and the murder actually took place
somewhere else. The explanation is reasonably inventive, although it
relies on some timing so perfect that it could never have been
accomplished in real life. There is a second murder as well, which is a
locked room variant, though not a particularly inventive one. 10/21/23
The Monster of the Mere
by Philip Purser-Hallard, Titan, 2023
This
Sherlock Holmes pastiche is more adventure than mystery, and it feels
like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle collaborating with Algernon Blackwood Watson
is hiking in a remote part of England when he stumbles upon the legend
of a lake monster that seems to be confirmed by the mauling of a
visiting scientist. There is clearly a snake cult surviving in the area,
and they may have some objective evidence of an oversized serpent in the
area. The local vicar jumps to his death from a belfry when confronted
by snakes, and later a third man is found savagely mutilated. Holmes has
arrived by then and is investigating, and it is clear that even he is
puzzled by aspects of the case. I've enjoyed all four of this author's
Holmes adventures, but I think this one is the best yet. 10/19/23
Where the
Dark Streets Go by Dorothy Salisbury Davis, 1975 (originally
published in 1962)
A
young boy leads a priest to a man dying of a stab wound. The man will
not say who attacked him and dies quickly. The priest decides to
investigate on his own and finds connections to a condemned building in
the area. The man who owns the land refuses to sell to a developer even
though he cannot build anything there himself. The dead man was an
artist whose true identity is unknown. The solution involves a complex
hoax and an obviously unhinged killer who ultimately confesses. There is
a kind of inevitable progress throughout the priest’s efforts but the
pace remains a bit too deliberate to generate any suspense. 10/16/.23
A Town of Masks
by Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Dell, 1952
A
bitter woman who feels that her peers are looking down on her pursues
her efforts to control a local library board. She is, frankly, not a
very nice person, When one of her rivals is strangled to death, she is
secretly pleased, but suddenly she begins to receive the attention she
felt that she deserved, but for the wrong reasons. She is increasingly
considered the most likely suspect. Although the mystery element is well
done, I felt such antipathy toward the protagonist that I never really
cared whether or not she escaped suspicion, and we never saw enough of
the victim to care if she was avenged. 10/16/23
The
Chrysanthemum Chain by James Melville, Crest, 1982
This
was the second Inspector Otani novel. A man who makes a living by
teaching English in Japan is found murdered in his apartment. The
investigation turns up literally thousands of visiting cards that he has
accumulated over the years. The dead man had annotated each of the cards
with some information about their contact and a code tag. Some of the
cards refer to men who are or were highly placed in the Japanese
government. Otani has to thread his way diplomatically to find out what
the codes mean and who murdered the instructor and why he did so. A
fairly good mystery somewhat self conscious about Japanese culture.
10/13/23
Sad Cypress by
Agatha Christie, 1940
A
young woman inadvertently steals another person’s fiance’s affections,
and is then poisoned in a situation where only the affronted party seems
to have had the opportunity to commit the crime. She is already being
tried when Poirot conducts a series of interviews and hears one obvious
lie that leads him to conclude that someone else is guilty. There’s some
cheating here. The lie involves having been scratched by a rose thorn,
but the reader is not told that this particular type of rose is
thornless. There are a couple of ingenious alternate solutions that are
considered and discarded, and another and rather clumsy lie that led me
to suspect someone else. One of her better books. 10/9/23
Follow the Saint
by Leslie Charteris, 1938
Three
novellas. In the first, a chance encounter leads the Saint to
investigate a tea distributor who sometimes puts bank notes into bags of
tea for specific customers. In the second, an accident leaves a
millionaire swathed in bandages, but is it really him or someone trying
to make off with his money. Finally, the Saint inadvertently gets
involved with bank robbers, a banker with amnesia, and a pubic figure
who parades his morality whenever he gets the chance. About average for
the series. The plots have started to feel a lot alike at this point.
This was actually the first crime/mystery book I ever read, way back in
1951. 10/9/23
The Case
of the Second Chance by Christopher Bush, Dean Street, 2019
(originally published in 1946)
Ludovic
Travers was present at a murder case that was not solved at the time,
but three years later he is coincidentally drawn back to it when one of
the suspects consults a private detective because she is being
blackmailed. She suddenly changes her story and fires them after a
mysterious figure appears – who is transparently her supposedly dead
husband. She gets murdered herself, but not by the person who committed
the first killing but actually an innocent man whom she was blackmailing
so regularly that he cracked under the pressure. The original murder was
actually accidental. A pretty good installment in the series, although
some of the surprises are telegraphed. 10/7/23
The Saint
Plays with Fire by Leslie Charteris, 1938
The
Saint happens upon a house fire in which one man is killed.
Circumstances of his death seem fishy and he looks further into the
matter. The dead man’s roommate is murdered a short time later. The
first victim was a leftist who had joined a French fascist movement
under a false name and obviously learned something dangerous to the
movement. His papers were left with a society woman who unwisely
attempts to blackmail the three men who hope to profit from a new round
of military buildups and war. They attempt to kill her and the Saint,
but their efforts fail and instead the Saint learns of a planned
assassination and undercuts the fascist plans. This is one of the best
of the Saint novels. 10/5/23
Easy to Kill
by Agatha Christie, 1939
Aka
Murder Is Easy. None of Christie’s recurring detectives are in
this one except a brief appearance by Inspector Battle. A retired
policeman encounters a woman who is subsequently murdered on her way to
Scotland Yard where she is going to report a series of murders. He finds
this rather coincidental and decides to investigate. His efforts uncover
lots of interconnections among characters in a small village, and lots
of animosity, but they ultimately lead him to suspect the local lord of
the manor, who appears to be only marginally sane. But he is wrong and
the real killer is about to strike again. 10/5/23
The Saint Bids
Diamonds by Leslie Charteris, 1938
Aka
Thieves’ Picnic. The Saint gets involved with some diamond
thieves by pretending to be capable of cutting them for resale. He also
runs into a man and his daughter who have been pressured into helping
the crooks, and who are now trying to escape thanks to having won a
large sum of money in a lottery. Except that the winning ticket has gone
missing. Surprisingly little happens in the novel. Templar tries to find
a way to recover the ticket, foil the bad guys, and escape. An innocent
young woman is caught in the crossfire. The villains are better
organized than most of his earlier opponents, but ultimately they are
outsmarted by the Saint.
A Holiday for
Murder by Agatha Christie,
1938
Poirot
investigates a locked room murder – although a solution is offered
almost immediately. A nasty old man who has been tormenting his sons and
their wives is viciously murdered in his room. Some of the suspects seem
to have good alibis, others do not. Some are clearly lying. A casual
visitor may have misrepresented himself and his motives for being there.
A newly discovered grand-daughter has a bloodthirsty nature but the man
was murdered before he could change his well to her benefit. There are
also some uncut diamonds that he kept in his bedroom which have gone
missing, and his valet is oddly nervous when the police are there. There
are various motives in addition to his money, including revenge, and it
is very difficult to choose the most likely suspect from a group of
mostly unlikable characters. 10/1/23
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