This blog celebrates detective stories – tales of crime, mystery and suspense – in print and on film, television, radio and the stage. It shares more than a little with my old Aficionado blog.
Thanks for visiting.
Sergio
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Recent Posts
== Currently off the shelf ==
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Archives
Top Posts & Pages
- Ranking the 87th Precinct Mysteries
- THE CRIME ON THE COTE DE NEIGES (1951) by David Montrose
- 87th Precinct
- The Perry Mason movies (1934-37)
- SEE THEM DIE (1960) by Ed McBain
- Top 20: Private Eye movies
- TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1937) by Ernest Hemingway
- THE LETTER (1927) by Somerset Maugham
- Film Noir
- THE LITTLE SISTER (1949) by Raymond Chandler
Blogroll
- Aficionado
- At the Scene of the Crime
- Battered, Tattered, Yellowed, & Creased
- Beneath the Stains of Time (aka Detection by Moonlight)
- Bitter Tea and Mystery
- Book Dirt
- Chess, Comics, Crosswords, Books, Music, Cinema
- Classic Mysteries
- Clothes in Books
- Confessions of a Mystery Novelist….
- Death Can Read
- Do You Write Under Your Own Name
- Existential Ennui
- Film Dirt
- Films on the Box
- Howdunit
- In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel
- In so many words …
- Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings
- La morte sa leggere
- Mike Ripley's getting away with murder
- Mrs. Peabody Investigates
- My Reader's Block
- Mystery File
- Noir of the Week
- Noirish
- Novels by Candlelight
- Past Offences
- pattinase
- Paul D Brazill
- Pretty Sinister Books
- Riding the High Country
- Sheldon Times – Sheldon Hall on Films and TV
- Sweet Freedom
- The Dark Time
- The Invisible Event
- The Locked Room
- The Passing Tramp
- The Rap Sheet
- The Stalking Moon
- Tip the Wink
- Vanished Into Thin Air
- West 1 Girl
Tipping My Fedora 
Loved the blog, which I discovered thanks to Rap Sheet.
You might be interested (occasionally) in my monthly “Getting Away With Murder” in Shots Magazine here in the UK.
Keep up the good work.
Dear Mike,
what an honour – thanks very much for the kind words and for reminding me to put “Shots Magazine” and your column on my blogroll, where they belong.
All the best,
Sergio
Dear Sergio,
How do I post you a copy of The Bottle Street Gazette, featuring your delightful column on Police at the Funeral? It will be out at the end of this week.
Carolyn C on behalf of Barry Pike for the Margery Allingham Society
I’ll send a PM right away Carolyn, thanks.
Well I wish you’d told me about this earlier! I still refer to that guide to mystery and police procedural authors that you made for me years ago. I’ve been exposed to so many great authors and books via your recommendations!
I’ve been rumbled! Hello Jamus and welcome to the playpen.
I just nominated you for a blog award. You can read about it here:
http://livius1.wordpress.com/2011/12/30/ending-the-year-on-a-high/
Thanks Colin, that’s very generous and really great company you’ve put me in – cheers mate.
Sergio
Hi Sergio. Love your blog, and just included it on a page of noir links on my new baseball murder mystery site, which launches this coming Friday.
Cheers mate, that very kind of you. Great to be in such fine criminous company!
All the best,
Sergio
Sergio – I found your site while looking for Johnny Fedora crime novels – Tipping my fedora I guess is quite close. I’m more than pleasantly pleased by your website. Congratulations,
Would be great to get your views on Johnny Fedora novels of which I’m becoming a fan. First came across him via Mike Ripley who you clearly know.
Hello Frank, sorry about the lack of coverage of Desmond Cory so far – I’ll have to try and remedy that in the future. Truth is I haven’t read the Fedora books. Of course, compared with Mike Ripley, when it comes to crime fiction very few of us really know what we’re talking about anyway! I’ll have to see about digging some of the books out though – thanks very much for the stimulus to action …
I really like your website….discovered the works of Ed McBain because of it. I have now read eight novels in the 87the Precinct series and loved them all. I enjoy his economical prose style, which can be quite lyrical in places, his humor, and the complex plots, which always have several threads that are connected in realistic and fascinating ways. Hard to pick what to read next though, but your reviews are very helpful…a couple of favorites so far are The Mugger and Give the Boys a Great Big Hand. I am thinking of reading some John Dickson Carr novels too. I read an excerpt of the Burning Court and its seems intriguing. I have read some negative comments about Carr’s prose style, but the excerpt didn’t raise any flags for me. Any suggestions as to where to start? I notice several titles now available for the Kindle.
Ciao Sal, thanks very much for the kind words. Another fan of the boys in the 87th – hurrah! I did a personal top 10 of Carr in my post about him here. Of the Carr titles on Kindle (and his alter ego ‘Carter Dickson’), I would definitely reccomend the historical mystery (with a dash of the supernatural) The Burning Court and the Carter Dickson Classics She Died a Lady and The Plague Court Murders (which introduced Henry Merrvale). Of the Fell mysteries currently available in the format, The Problem of the Green Capsule is truly masterful while He Who Whispers is less well known but one of his best too.
Buona lettura,
Sergio
Sergio:
I love your blog. I’ve been reading it for quite some time and always enjoy what you post. I’ve got a link to your blog posted on my website. I post about many of the same things you do. Here’s the link: http://frankcampbell56.blogspot.com. Check it out and if you like what you see, please consider posting a link on your blog. Thanks for your time. Keep up the good work!
Will do Frank – and thanks very much for the kind words.
I’ve passed on a brace of blogging awards to you. Hope you enjoy.
See – http://livius1.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/new-year-awards/
Colin
Cheers matey.
I was intrigued by your entry on Murder in Cambridge, so I’ve just read it and featured it in my blog, Clothes in Books http://clothesinbooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/murder-at-cambridge-by-q-patrick.html
— you get a shoutout and a recommended link. Hope you might be interested…
Thanks very much Moira – glad it was of interest.
Dear Sergio,
I found your swell blog on the very kind recommendation of E at Ela’s Book Blog. I wrote her regarding a crazy experiment I had in mind regarding a hard-boiled project I’ve launched. She thought I might look you up. Curious?
bsolomon at thehardboileddetective.com
In any case, keep up the good work!
Ben
Thanks Ben – shall certainly take a gander …
Awful kind of you, Sergio. If it strikes your fancy, I’ll float you my hair-brained idea for an experiment. Thanks again.
Sergio,
I thought you might enjoy this. I recently happened upon a long-lost interview with Dashiell Hammett from 1929. (Credit goes to Terry Zobeck who sifted through countless scans. I discovered his guest blog about it thanks to a lucky search.)
If you’d like to read this quick piece of mystery history, here are two links for you.
The original newspaper scan (I’ve had some trouble loading it lately):
Click to access Brooklyn%20NY%20Daily%20Eagle%201929%20a%20Grayscale%20-%200615.pdf
My transcription:
http://thehardboileddetective.com/featuresforgottenhammett.php
The beat goes on,
Keep up the good work,
Ben
Will do Ben – thanks very much indeed – we all need more Hammet in our lives!
Just handed you a WordPress Family award pal.
http://livius1.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/awards-time/
Crikey! Thanks Colin, you’re a rootin’ tootin’ mensch.
Sergio-
I have nominated you for The Versatile Blogger Award. The consistent intelligence, insight and entertainment value generated by your site sets a very high standard. Every posting is a renewed pleasure.
Gosh, that is very kind indeed- many thanks.
Sergio or Cavershamragu , as a noir fan, I appreciate your blog. I was drawn here from a search for info on Cornell Woolrich, an author I’ve written about in my mystery blog. Specifically I was trying to find out which of his novels were taken from earlier short stories or novellas of his. I just finished reading “The Night Has 1,000 Eyes”, and halfway through I realized I’d read the story before–but not the novel. I think he wrote more than one novel based on a short story.
Any ideas?
Best,
Mark Bacon
Hello Mark, thanks very much for taking the time to stop by – the Woolrich short story I think must be ‘Speak to Me of Death’, first published in the February 27 edition of Argosy in 1937 and which was certainly something of a dry run for the terrific novel later published as by ‘George Hopley’
Sergio-I wonder if I might contribute some type of post about my forthcoming book on your blog. I have in mind a post called WHY I WROTE THE BOOK I WROTE-and should I have. But I don’t know what your policy is on this. I’d be willing to do something else entirely. It comes out June 9 so anytime after that would work well. But no hard feelings if this doesn’t work for you.
Of course Patti, I’d be honoured to run that – I’ll send you an email.
Hello Sergio,
I write this here since I can’t find an email address to contact you. Well, just a few lines about my new (and first) book, “In Bianco”, which will be published in November in Italy. Here is the blog about it: https://delittoinbianco.wordpress.com/
It’s some sort of a “golden age” mystery, even if it’s set today (between 1974 and mostly 2013). I regularly follow your blog, so I thought it was not a bad idea to drop these lines.
Best
Marco.
Grazie per l’informazione Marco, molto gentile – poi vado al sito. Saluti, Sergio
Dear Sergio,
I hope this messagel finds you well.
I work for the digital publishing platform The Pigeonhole and, in partnership with Atlantic books, we’re just about to serialise Post Mortem, an explosive crime debut from former Metropolitan Police detective Kate London.
We thought this would be right up your street, so we’d love to offer you a review copy of the book and hoped you might like to feature an extract on Bloody Murder. We plan to run a blog tour with a difference, posting an extract on a few hand-picked crime blogs (including yours) and leaving an enigmatic clue indicating where the reader can find the next extract.
Alternatively, a standard review would also be wonderful. Let me know if this would be of interest and I’ll send you a physical or digital copy.
I do hope this is something you’d be interested in. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
All best,
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer – I sent you a quick email directly – hope you got it.
Sergio
Hi Sergio, terrific blog. I would like to suggest you my mystery – dark novella Imago Mortis, set in Milan. It’s available both in English and Italian languages. Thanks a lot. Samuel
Thanks Samuel – I don’t currently have an e-reader but this certainly looks introguing. Thanks for getting in touch and I’ll see if I can manage something.
Saw your blog last night after watching No Way Out and your great blog was a top search for No Way Out cheat? Thanks for a great review site and keeping it up for years.
In No Way Out, other than the Stoli, straight, early in film, is there any other tip off regarding his possible identity?
Salve Sergio,
è uscito il mio secondo romanzo, “In Nero”, un giallo d’impianto deduttivo. Qui c’è qualcosa in proposito: https://giallidimarcobigliazzi.wordpress.com/
Se ti potesse interessare, fammelo sapere.
A presto
mb
Grazie Marco, e complimenti! Mi piacerebbe leggerlo pero sappi che qui a Fedora ci lavoro sempre di meno e dopo natale saranno mesi prima che rimetto su mano 🙂
Dear Sergio
I hope you and your loved ones back home in Italy are all fine. The spread of this virus is really scary. I couldn’t find your email id and so I posting this over here. I hope you still check the comments. Please take care.
Regards
Neeru
[Don’t know whether you remember me but I used to blog @a hot cup of pleasure.]
Dear Neeru, very kind of you to get in touch. Families on my side are spread out between Italy, UK and Australia and so far all are managing OK. Yes, such a scary time. Hope you and yours are safe and well? All the best, Sergio
Such a relief to hear that your family members are all safe and well. I was worried because the crisis in Italy seems to be worsening every day. Yes, I remember your brother was in Australia. Glad to hear that he and his family are doing well. All my loved ones are fine. Thanks for asking. We all are living in apprehensive times.
Sergio, any hope of you returning to blogging? I really wish you would. Can’t tell you how much I miss this blog.
Take care
Warms
Neeru
Glad you are all well. Such troubling times for us all. Thanks for all the kind words about the blog, very good of you.
Sergio, are you still residing in London and working for *******? I was to visit London this May, but unfortunately I had to cancel it because of the coronavirus scare.
Hi Santosh, I try to be discreet here so tweaked your message, even if the blog is very quiet now. I hope you are all well. Things are changing very fast here. All the best and let’s hope things improve soon.
Wow, I’m very greatful I found this blog. There is someone who definitely shares my own interests when it comes to crime novels. People who still know – and love (!) – John Dickson Carr are hard to find. And you also seem to like the genre of noir as much as mee. I’m going to follow you from now on.
Have a nice Sunday
Best regards from the german Crimealley
Stefan Heidsiek
Thanks Stefan, very kind of you. However, I’m afraid the blog has been inactive for several years now. Have a great weekend.
Oh, yes. I just noticed it. That’s a shame cause I really love the topics you chose for your blog. On the other hand there is still a lot to discover on your site. And probably there will be a come back one day. 😉 – Take care!