A Momentary Taste of Being

I last had the pleasure of reviewing Mr. Zeltserman's work with the really creepy and wonderful The Caretaker of Lorne Field .  That book was superb, readable, in all ways truly a fine example of the type of work it was. I'm pleased to say that this book was also rewarding and entertaining, although I must say that it didn't quite hold together as well as Lorne Field.  Mr. Zeltserman has a strong prose style that draws the reader in and holds his or her attention until the book has ended.  His characters are interesting and the plot--a serial killer loose--was sufficiently interesting to hold our attention. In addition we are introduced to a character with a very special and very rare ability--a fascinating ability that I am certain shall play an important role in the books to come.  And it seems fairly clear from this one that there is at least one more book to come.  This is certainly a welcome note for me. I think my biggest quibble with the book is tha...

Margery Allingham, one of the Queens of Mystery I never acquired the taste for Ms. Allingham's fiction.  I must try again.  Marsh, Sayers, Christie, Rice, Heyer, even others--but somehow I missed Ms. Allingham.

Ordinary Thunderstorms --William Boyd, reviewed

One of the great mystery clichés examined Warning: this does have at least one spoiler for fans of Early 20th Century Mystery fiction--to say more would be to perpetuate the spoilage. Indeed, the butler as culprit was something I had encountered only once in my mystery reading, and that in the book cited for the crime; and the crime a result of unusual hurried plotting and writing according to the article.  Fascinating.

The Adventure of the Two Collaborators found via The Little Professor

Hard Case Crime as a paradigm for the new publishing.

Armadale reviewed

Books to bring back from the dead I didn't realize that Robert McCammon had withdrawn his first four books from publication.  That's a real shame, because a couple of them are really superb and all of them are good. I wonder whether the question is withdrawal or simply lack of republication, because when I look at his bibliography , I see all four listed, recognized and being published in Europe.  For me the least successful of the group was the premier effort Baal .  And even while a debut effort, I still liked it a great deal.  I loved Bethany's Sin even though it tracks Thomas Tryon's Harvest Home pretty closely.  Night Boat with its crew of Nazi Zombies reminded me at once of some of the more intense Italian Zombi films of seventies and eighties mixed with the classic Zombies of Mora Tau .  ( Mora Tau doesn't get great ratings at IMDB, but most reviewing it probably didn't see it on late night television when they were 12 or 13 years old. ) And ...

Mary Roberts Rinehart Despite all the weaknesses of plot and the devices and problems noted by our commentator, I do love Mary Roberts Rinehart--after all she gave us The Bat , and the incredible solution to The Circular Staircase. It was in reaction to the way that she played so fast and loose (in part) that the Golden Age writers came up with their rules for mysteries.

Hound of the Baskervilles r eviewed

A review of What Alice Knew by Paul Marantz Cohen The James Gang (Henry, William and Alice) track down Jack the Ripper. via Books Inq.

Faithful Place reviewed I started one of Ms. French's books-- Into the Woods , I think.  The writing was superb, but the subject matter so intense and so deeply disturbing I could not read far into it, even though I desperately wanted to follow the characters.  If ever I find the intestinal fortitude to do so, this is one writer to read.

Hammett v. Chandler

A review of Black as He's Painted Ngaio Marsh isn't my very favorite of the Golden Age writers, there's something in her prose that often derails me.  But she is unquestionably very, very fine, and very produces very enjoyable and often quite humorous stories.  Too much neglected, too much in the shadow of Dame Agatha, she deserves a lasting revival.

For all her insistence upon reality and the fact that the reading public has rejected the "ingenious" mystery in favor of "psychological depth," Ms. James does not pay much attention to what people are actually reading. from Talking About Detective Fiction P. D. James There is one way in which Dorothy L. Sayers was very much a writer of her own time, and that is the ingenuity of her complicated methods of death.  This is one aspect of her talent which ahs had little influence on modern novelists, and one which we have largely outgrown. We have not now, and will not outgrow the clever puzzle. This is demonstrated time and again in what sells well both in book and cinema. It is my contention that Dan Brown's books do as well as they do based largely on the ingenuity of the built-in puzzle factor.  (They certainly don't take any awards for good writing.)  And the National Treasure series of films succeed (if they have been deemed a success) on the clever...

I was a bit disappointed to read the following critical judgment from P. D. James: from Talking About Detective Fiction P. D. James Agatha Christie hasn't in my view had a profound influence on the later development of the detective story. She wasn't an innovative writer and had no interest in exploring the possibilities of the genre. What she consistently provided is a strong and exciting narrative, the challenge of a puzzle, an accommodating and accessible style and original detectives in Poirot and Miss Marple, whom readers can encounter in book after book with the comfortable assurance that they are meeting old friends. Her main influence on contemporary crime writers was to affirm the popularity and importance of ingenuity in clue plotting and of surprise in the final solution, thus helping significantly to set the limited range and convention of what were to become the books of the Golden Age. My argument is mostly with the first sentence here; although, much depen...

Ms. James continues to define and analyze the detective genre.  Talking About Detective Fiction P. D. James A distinguished novelist, Reginald Hill, . . . wrote in 1978, "Let me be clear. Without a police force there can be no detective fiction although several modern writers have, with varying degrees of success, tried to write detective stories set in pre-police days." The opinion seems rational: detective fiction is unlikely to flourish in societies without an organised system of law enforcement or in which murder is commonplace. Mystery novelists, particularly in the Golden Age, were generally strong supporters of institutional law and order, and of the police. Individual officers might be portrayed as ineffective, plodding, slow-witted and ill-educated, but never as corrupt. Detective fiction is in the tradition of the English novel, which sees crime, violence and social chaos as an aberration, virtue and good order as the norm for which all reasonable people strive...

When I was wandering through one of the many bookstores that permeate my existence I happened upon a book by P. D. James about Detective Fiction.  I am not a fan of Ms. James's writing, but the book was intriguing to me and I thought about buying it.  However, I always have recourse first to my library and I was surprised to walk in and find it on the shelves.  It will be worth owning if it lives up to the promise of this passage. from Talking about Detective Fiction P. D. James Although the detective story at its highest can also operate on the dangerous edge of things, it is differentiated both from mainstream fiction and from the generality of crime novels by a highly organised structure and recognised conventions. What we can expect is a central mysterious crime, usually murder; a closed circle of suspects, each with motive, means and opportunity for the crime; a detective, either amateur or professional, who comes in alike an avenging deity to solve it; and, by ...

Can be found at Novels, Stories, and More .  I'm sorely tempted to copy out the entire thing so that I'll have it to hand.  And perhaps I shall after the break.  Even if you stay here and read on--please visit the original site to get the details of how the list was compiled.  The least we can do to show appreciation for this enormous amount of work is to stop by and say hello.