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Recent Posts
- THE AXEMAN COMETH by Nev Fountain
- Ragu in The Smoke – part 2
- THE NAKED FACE (1970) by Sidney Sheldon
- Endeavour Morse will return
- Vienna: The Memory Box
- MAIGRET SETS A TRAP (1955) by Georges Simenon
- In Your Hands – Tuesday’s Forgotten Film
- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TURK! (1986) by Jakob Arjouni
- St. Ives (1976) – Tuesday’s Forgotten Film
- FUZZ (1968) by Ed McBain
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Author Archives: Cavershamragu
THE AXEMAN COMETH by Nev Fountain
What do you mean you’ve never heard of cult sci-fi series Vixens from the Void – what about its star, the sultry Vanity Mycroft - no? Well, that’s understandable because they only exist in the imagination of Nev Fountain, serving … Continue reading
Ragu in The Smoke – part 2
In British parlance I am supposed to be ‘Exchanging Contracts’ this week – putting a deposit on my flat, binding all parties to the sale. These things always take longer than you imagine, however … so activity here at Fedora … Continue reading
Posted in 'In praise of ...', London
20 Comments
THE NAKED FACE (1970) by Sidney Sheldon
In the 1970s Sidney Sheldon became one of the biggest names in publishing after an already highly successful career as a screenwriter and producer, his dozens of film and TV credits ranging from the musical Easter Parade to the sitcom … Continue reading
Endeavour Morse will return
News reaches us at Fedora that a second series of Endeavor has now been commissioned. The show is a prequel to Inspector Morse with Shaun Evans playing the younger iteration of the character created on screen by the late John … Continue reading
Posted in Colin Dexter, Inspector Morse
Tagged colin dexter, inspector morse, roger allam
26 Comments
Vienna: The Memory Box
Vienna Salvatori – a glamorous bounty hunter played by the equally glam Chase Masterson – first appeared in last year’s Doctor Who audio The Shadow Heart opposite Sylvester McCoy. She has now been spun off into this pilot for a … Continue reading
Posted in Audio Review, Big Finish, Jonathan Morris, Philip K. Dick
Tagged Chase Masterson
10 Comments
MAIGRET SETS A TRAP (1955) by Georges Simenon
A psychopath is stalking the women of a small district in Paris and Jules Maigret of the Police Judiciaire is under pressure to find the culprit. Pretty soon, after a failed attack, an arrest is made – but then another … Continue reading
In Your Hands – Tuesday’s Forgotten Film
Kristin Scott Thomas is the woman in jeopardy in this unusual suspense movie. It opens with a nervy bravura sequence, dialogue-free and shot hand-held, charting her return home in a highly agitated state. She is days late getting back from … Continue reading
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TURK! (1986) by Jakob Arjouni
This fast-paced private eye novel stands out in a very crowded field thanks to its originality of tone, theme and setting. The place is Frankfurt and the time is August 1983, well before Germany’s reunification. The protagonist is Kemal Kayankaya and … Continue reading
Posted in Germany, Jakob Arjouni, Private Eye, Scene of the crime
22 Comments
St. Ives (1976) – Tuesday’s Forgotten Film
Steve Chibnall in his 400-page tome on the films of J. Lee Thompson (director of The Guns of Navarone, the original Cape Fear and the war classic Ice Cold in Alex) devotes a grand total of three words to the … Continue reading
FUZZ (1968) by Ed McBain
And Fedora is back (for now …) and so is Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series (for my previous reviews click here). I am reading them chronologically, an approach that pays dividends in the case of Fuzz. Not only does it … Continue reading
MEMOS FROM PURGATORY (1961) by Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison is a writer with a unique voice, paddling his own caustic canoe (sic), defying all those who would pigeon-hole his talent. His resistance to easy categorisation remains ever more laudable in an age of cookie counter consumerism and … Continue reading
Ragu in The Smoke
Activity here at Fedora will be decidedly erratic over the next couple of months while I move the ragu (me) out of Caversham (on the Berkshire/Oxfordshire border) and relocate to a temporary abode in The Smoke (London). This will be … Continue reading
Posted in London
48 Comments
PROOF OF GUILT (1973) by Bill Pronzini
Buon compleanno Bill! Tomorrow is the 70th birthday of William John Pronzini, now into his sixth decade of activity as a mystery author and still one of the best on the scene – and thankfully, one of the most prolific too. … Continue reading
Les Seins de glace (1974) – Tuesday’s Forgotten Film
On Friday I reviewed Richard Matheson’s debut novel Someone is Bleeding (click here to read it), a pretty decent whodunit spiced up with some less convincing post-war cod Freudian psychologising. The novel was filmed in France and released there in … Continue reading
SOMEONE IS BLEEDING (1953) by Richard Matheson
Like so many writers of his generation, Richard Matheson – who turned 87 last month – was shaped by his experiences in World War Two. Though this produced only one directly autobiographical book, The Beardless Warriors, postwar malaise and unease … Continue reading
The Age of Revolution
Corks – it’s the return of theatre impresario Henry Gordon Jago and pathologist Professor George Litefoot, those two fruity Victorian investigators played to perfection by Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter. They are back for another quartet of audio adventures, courtesy … Continue reading
EIGHTY MILLION EYES (1966) by Ed McBain
It’s common to hear it said that an act ‘died’ on stage but in the case of TV comic Stan Gifford this proves to be literally true – and in front of 40 million viewers too. This is the premise … Continue reading
Mysteries in Audio: Podcast
Patrick, a man wise beyond his years and master of that smashing resource, At The Scene of the Crime, today celebrates the second online birthday of his blog. As we are both fans of mystery audios I was thrilled to … Continue reading
Posted in Audio Review, Big Finish, Gilbert Adair, Jago & Litefoot, Podcast, Sherlock Holmes
7 Comments
THE CASE OF THE LATE PIG (1937) by Margery Allingham
This is Margery Allingham’s shortest Albert Campion novel (my Penguin TV tie-in edition, featured on the right, runs to 138 pages) but it certainly packs in plenty of incident with the sleuth battling problems on the domestic and romantic front … Continue reading
Garde à vue (1981) – Tuesday’s Forgotten Film
Also released in some English-speaking territories as either The Inquisitor or The Grilling, this was the first cinema adaptation of John Wainwright’s 1979 novel Brainwash (click here to read my review). The second, Under Suspicion (2000), was in effect a … Continue reading
THE GREEN PLAID PANTS (1951) by Margaret Scherf
This was the second of four screwball mysteries featuring Emily and Henry Bryce, full-time husband-and-wife interior decorators and part-time amateur sleuths. After eleven months of marriage the volcanic Emily is already feeling that their life in New York is in … Continue reading
Side Effects
The thriller genre can be so capacious and seductive that filmmakers often use the form to smuggle in less commercial content on its coat-tails. Successful examples of this include the debate on Britain’s antiquated homosexuality laws found in Victim (1961), … Continue reading
THE BLOODY MATCH by Paul Halter
I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions usually but I promised myself two things for 2013: first, that I would try some of the great books recommended by my blogging compadres; and second, that I would finally read some of … Continue reading
The Mystery of the Missing Hour
Agatha Christie meets Pirandello in this rather splendid audio mystery by Joseph Lidster starring Susannah Harker and David Warner as ‘time detectives’ Sapphire and Steel. It’s Cairo in 1926 and an expedition arrives from England to uncover the secrets of a … Continue reading
DREADFUL SUMMIT (1948) by Stanley Ellin
Stanley Ellin burst on the literary scene in Spring 1948 with a one-two punch with the twin successes of his first short story, ‘The Specialty of the House’, the classic tale of the macabre for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and … Continue reading
Sergeant Rutledge (1960)
John Ford was one of the great directors of the studio system, winner of four Oscars, a tyrant on the set, and maker of many classic Westerns – but he also made dozens of films in other genres including comedies, … Continue reading
Fedora’s 200,000 visits
Where does the time go? This site just passed another milestone at the beginning of this week with its 200,000th visit! Flabbergasting is the word. To celebrate, here is Alain Delon sporting one of my favourite fedoras in action in … Continue reading
Posted in 'In praise of ...', France, Scene of the crime
34 Comments
BRAINWASH (1979) by John Wainwright
This claustrophobic psychological whodunit was one of over 80 books by John William Wainwright (1921-1995), a crime writer from Leeds who despite his prolific output seems in danger of being forgotten – at present in fact none of his books … Continue reading
The Big Sleep (1978)
Michael Winner, the pugnacious British filmmaker (and restaurant critic), died in January at age 77. He dabbled in almost every genre (Westerns, musicals, horror, costume melodrama, war movies etc.) though was most at home with ironic comedies during the 1960s … Continue reading
DEKOK AND THE SORROWING TOMCAT by Baantjer (1969)
Revered in The Netherlands (and translated into several languages), this series of mysteries by ex-policeman Albert Cornelis Baantjer featured Inspector Jurrian De Cock and his sidekick Dick Vledder and appeared at a rate of roughly two a year from 1963 … Continue reading
Douglas Slocombe – 100 years old today
OK movie buffs, here’s a fun pop quiz for you: what do Raiders of the Lost Ark, Sean Connery’s last Bond movie, Michael Caine in The Italian Job, Montgomery Clift’s turn as Sigmund Freud and several classic Ealing comedies such … Continue reading
DOLL (1965) by Ed McBain
After an unexpected break of several months I return to the urban (and sometimes urbane) world of Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct with one of its best and most compact entries so far. I am at present re-reading the entire corpus … Continue reading
Top 20 TV Spies
Not everyone agrees, but for me the spy story is definitely a subset of the crime and mystery genre. However, tales of espionage do come in all shapes and sizes: from contemporary to historical, deadly serious like Tinker Tailor Soldier … Continue reading
THE GIRL WHO HAD TO DIE (1940) by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
A belated Fedora welcome to 2013, which this year opens with a review of this fine book by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (1889-1955), who after a brief dalliance with romance novels became a specialist in psychological suspense and thrillers. The Girl … Continue reading
Two years of Fedora tips
I can’t quite believe it but this blog started two years ago today. A lot has happened here since then but the nicest byproduct has definitely been the regular exchanges of views with the many fine bloggers out there on … Continue reading
Posted in 'In praise of ...'
47 Comments
Historically Criminal
Here’s a news item from Mike Ripley that I am very glad to re-post here at Fedora as the following event should be of great interest to crime fiction fans who can be in London on Monday 18 February Join … Continue reading
Posted in Mike Ripley
28 Comments
THE HORIZONTAL MAN (1946) by Helen Eustis
Phew! By the skin of my teeth I’ve managed to complete the 2012 Vintage Mystery Readers Challenge. To celebrate, and as my last blog post until late January, here is my (short) review of Helen Eustis’ influential Edgar-winning debut. Set … Continue reading
2013 Book to Movie Challenge
I had promised myself that in 2013 I would not undertake any new Challenges … but this one created over at the Doing Dewey blog was just too tempting – and besides, it’s not New Year yet so if as … Continue reading
NIGHT WALKER (1954) by Donald Hamilton
Donald Hamilton (1916-2006) produced many different types of adventure books including Westerns such as The Big Country (filmed in 1958 with Gregory Peck). He is best known for his series of 27 Matt Helm novels, four of which were adapted … Continue reading
THE G-STRING MURDERS (1941) by Gypsy Rose Lee
Rose Louise Hovick (1914-70), better known under her stage name, ‘Gypsy Rose Lee’, had a brief but notable career. Her autobiography, Gypsy, detailing her rise to become the ‘Queen of Burlesque’ was a Broadway hit and was later filmed with … Continue reading
Buon Natale 2012
This site began back in January 2011 and here we are, two years and 270 posts later and the year is almost up. What have we learned from the Blogosphere? Well, for one thing, WordPress and Google’s blogger software like each … Continue reading
GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS PAST by Tony Lee
This new audio play by Tony Lee brings together two (fictional) icons of Victorian England – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s immortal consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray, that perverse satyr, sensualist and scoundrel whose own narcissism led … Continue reading
Posted in Audio Review, Big Finish, London, Scene of the crime, Sherlock Holmes
11 Comments
A CLOSED BOOK (1999) by Gilbert Adair
The novelist, screenwriter and critic Gilbert Adair (who died last year) was above all a postmodernist, one whose work riffed and built self-consciously on pre-existing works. I’m a big fan of Adair and enjoy postmodern fiction too but an appreciation … Continue reading
Stalag 17 (1953) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Christmas Mystery
Now, I know what you’re thinking – isn’t this the Oscar-winning war movie starring William Holden, the one that got ripped off and turned into that silly 1960s sitcom, Hogan’s Heroes? Wasn’t this film a big hit in its day? … Continue reading
MURDER AT CAMBRIDGE (1932) by Q Patrick
This was the third novel by ‘Q. Patrick’, the byline belonging to the same family as ‘Patrick Quentin’ and ‘Jonathan Stagge’. The first two were collaborations between Richard Wilson Webb and Martha Mott Kelley but this was by Webb writing … Continue reading
The Spiritualist (1948) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film
Also known as The Amazing Mr X, this beautifully shot and gently mocking ’Gaslight-meets-Rebecca‘ mystery melodrama also has a Noir style all its own. It also sports a charming performance from the late Turhan Bey who, in what appears to … Continue reading
2013 Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge
The indefatigable and always welcoming Bev of My Reader’s Block is already laying out the groundwork for her 2013 Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge, which as always focuses on mystery fiction published pre-1960 to be eligible for inclusion. I’ve had a … Continue reading
A GRAVEYARD FOR LUNATICS (1990) by Ray Bradbury
Hollywood, 1954 and the unnamed protagonist of Ray Bradbury’s Death is a Lonely Business (which I reviewed here) is back. When we saw him last he was a struggling pulp writer living in Venice (California) – since then has moved … Continue reading
Jonathan Creek returns
Good news for lovers of the locked room mystery in the style of John Dickson Carr. It has been announced that after a (too) long sabbatical, Alan Davies will again don his duffel coat to investigate an impossible crime in … Continue reading
