Category Archives: ‘In praise of …’

PROOF OF GUILT (1973) by Bill Pronzini

Posted on 12 April 2013 by

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 →

Posted in 'In praise of ...', 2013 Book to Movie Challenge, Bill Pronzini, Locked Room Mystery | 36 Comments

Fedora’s 200,000 visits

Posted on 24 February 2013 by

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

Douglas Slocombe – 100 years old today

Posted on 10 February 2013 by

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 →

Posted in 'In praise of ...', Basil Dearden, Douglas Slocombe, Film Noir, George Baxt, Gothic, Hammer Studios, Jimmy Sangster, Joseph Losey, London, New York, Paris, Scene of the crime, Screwball | 19 Comments

Two years of Fedora tips

Posted on 22 January 2013 by

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

Buon Natale 2012

Posted on 25 December 2012 by

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 →

Posted in 'Best of' lists, 'In praise of ...', 2012 Alphabet of Crime, 2012 Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge, 2013 Book to Movie Challenge, 2013 Vintage Mystery Challenge, Doctor Who, James Bond | 24 Comments

Fifty shades of James Bond

Posted on 4 October 2012 by

Tomorrow is ‘International James Bond Day’, not actually a national holiday yet but I’m sure it’ll catch on eventually. It’s part of a coordinated media blitz celebrating the 50 years on screen of ‘the world’s favourite secret agent’. I’m starting … Continue reading →

Posted in 'Best of' lists, 'In praise of ...', Espionage, Ian Fleming, James Bond, Spy movies | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 22 Comments

J is for … Jonathan Latimer

Posted on 26 July 2012 by

Kerrie’s 2012 Alphabet of Crime community meme over at her Mysteries in Paradise blog continues this week and has reached the letter J. As part of my contribution, I offer a look at the work of Jonathan Latimer, one of … Continue reading →

Posted in 'In praise of ...', 2012 Alphabet of Crime, Columbo, Cornell Woolrich, Crime Fiction Alphabet, Dashiell Hammett, Erle Stanley Gardner, Film Noir, Jonathan Latimer, Los Angeles, Perry Mason, Private Eye, Raymond Chandler, Scene of the crime, Screwball, The Thin Man | 18 Comments

Quote of the day

Posted on 3 June 2012 by

“(Car journeys are the frowning parentheses at the start and end of any good holiday).” – Joe Dunthorne, Submarine (2008) With so many people traveling in the UK this weekend as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, this witticism by … Continue reading →

Posted in 'In praise of ...' | 4 Comments

Posthumous collaborations: The April Robin Murders case

Posted on 23 March 2012 by

The recent BBC TV adaptation of Dickens’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood, that classic crime novel left unfinished at the time of the author’s death in 1870, got me thinking about ‘enforced collaborations’ where works were completed post-mortem by other … Continue reading →

Posted in 'In praise of ...', 2012 Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge, Cornell Woolrich, Craig Rice, Ed McBain, Golden Age Girls, Hildegarde Withers, Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler, Robert B. Parker, Stuart Palmer | 9 Comments

John le Carré at 80

Posted on 20 October 2011 by

David Cornwell, aka John le Carré, turned 80 yesterday and celebrations are definitely in order. Not only is the feature film adaptation of his 1974 novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy a roaring critical and box office success but he is still publishing new work that is attracting praise from all quarters. A master of the espionage story, he has branched well beyond the constraints of genre fiction to produce work that in its topicality, lucid prose style and in its charting of the decay of the late and unlamented British Empire can certainly bear comparison with that of his great literary mentor and inspiration, Graham Greene. Of his most recent work, The Constant Gardener (2001), a trenchant conspiracy thriller and exposé of the ethics big pharma, he may well have produced his finest work to date, though there is a real bounty to choose from. Continue reading →

Posted in 'In praise of ...', Espionage, George Smiley, John le Carre | Leave a comment

Everyone’s a critic: In praise of Julian Symons

Posted on 28 September 2011 by

Julian Gustave Symons (1912-1994) was a poet, novelist and scholar and published over 80 books in his lifetime. These include biographies of Dickens and Carlyle as well as studies of Hammett, Christie, Conan Doyle and Poe. During the 1970s he … Continue reading →

Posted in 'In praise of ...', Julian Symons | 15 Comments

In praise of … INSPECTOR MORSE

Posted on 19 September 2011 by

There are two distinct flavours of Inspector Morse – first there are the Colin Dexter series of thirteen novels (and a handful of short stories) published between 1975 and 1999; then there are the 33 feature-length episodes of the TV … Continue reading →

Posted in 'Best of' lists, 'In praise of ...', Colin Dexter, Columbo, Inspector Morse, Oxford | 18 Comments

In Praise of … COLUMBO

Posted on 25 June 2011 by

Peter Falk has died at the age of 83 after several years in poor health. A brilliant stage and film actor equally adept at comedy and drama, familiar for his blistering performances in John Cassavetes’ films and as the loving … Continue reading →

Posted in 'Best of' lists, 'In praise of ...', Columbo, Top 10 | 15 Comments

Blogs what I have read

Posted on 4 June 2011 by

Unaccustomed as I am to blogging (with apologies to the immortal British comedy duo Morecambe and Wise and their scriptwriter Eddie Braben), I just thought I’d stop for a minute or two to point with amazement at the apparent synchronicity surrounding the great time I have been having of late participating in the blogosphere. Without realising it, I seem to have joined a group of bloggers all of whom celebrate fairly traditional detective stories, with most of us in particular being great fans of John Dickson Carr and Ellery Queen.

There’s a lot of great crime and mystery bloggers out there and I have to tip my hat to several that I have recently had the pleasure of getting better acquainted with Continue reading →

Gallery | 8 Comments

In praise of … Stuart Kaminsky (1934-2009)

Posted on 30 January 2011 by
StuartKaminsky

This gallery contains 2 photos.

In some ways, Stuart M. Kaminsky’s place here is absolutely essential – he was a prolific writer of all kinds of crime novels (psychological, suspense, thrillers, spy fiction as well as the hard-boiled mysteries he is best known for), and won the Edgar for best Mystery novel for A Cold Red Sunrise, a police procedural set in Siberia. But, he also had a long career as professor of film; and his best novels are the series featuring shambolic shamus Toby Peters (the names of his two sons) which ably combine excellent plots with vivid descriptions of California in the 1930s and 40s and a firm knowledge of film (which, as we know, holds the secrets to all life’s mysteries). Continue reading →

Gallery | 2 Comments