-
Recent Posts
== Currently off the shelf ==
Categories
Archives
Top Posts & Pages
- Ranking the 87th Precinct Mysteries
- 9 of the Best by Ellery Queen
- BRAT FARRAR (1949) by Josephine Tey
- THE LETTER (1927) by Somerset Maugham
- SHAKE HANDS FOREVER (1975) by Ruth Rendell
- 87th Precinct
- SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE (1971) by PD James
- YOURS TRULY, JACK THE RIPPER by Robert Bloch
- Tequila Sunrise (1988) - Tuesday's Forgotten Film
- THE NIGHT MANAGER (1993) by John le Carré
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
Category Archives: 2012 Alphabet of Crime
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
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
THE ZEBRA-STRIPED HEARSE (1962) by Ross Macdonald
This review is my final contribution to Kerrie’s 2012 Alphabet of Crime community meme for her Mysteries in Paradise blog, which this week reaches the letter Z. It’s been an amazing ride for six months and I am pleased as … Continue reading
THE YELLOW DOG (1931) by Georges Simenon
This is one the first Maigret novels. Georges Simenon chronicled some 100 of his cases over a period of 40 years but initially churned them out in a blaze of activity – indeed this was the first of seven Maigret … Continue reading
THE BEAST OF THE CAMARGUE by Xavier-Marie Bonnot
Dr Xavier-Marie Bonnot, author of the Commandant de Palma series, is the focus of this week’s Alphabet of Crime entry, which is reaching its always fairly head-scratching conclusion now that most of the ‘easier’ letters, shall we say, have been … Continue reading
THE WENCH IS DEAD (1955) by Fredric Brown
This unconventional mystery by cult author Fredric Brown has unfortunately become a little bit scarce, its absentee status probably not helped by the fact that the title, taken from Christopher Marlowe, has been used for several other novels too. The … Continue reading
VERONICA’S ROOM (1973) by Ira Levin
Even if you have not seen his plays performed on the stage or read his novels, you are probably familiar with some of the movies adapted from the work of Ira Levin (1929-2007). I thought I knew his output pretty … Continue reading
UNFINISHED PORTRAIT (1934) by Agatha Christie
When I started Fedora I promised myself that I would try to avoid Agatha Christie as much as possible, not because I don’t enjoy her work but simply out of a spirit of self-preservation. She is already so well represented … Continue reading
TRAITOR’S PURSE (1941) by Margery Allingham
This is an Albert Campion novel like no other. Margery Allingham had introduced the character in the late 1920s and deployed him in a broad range of books, alternating between whodunits like Police at the Funeral (1931), Death of a … Continue reading
SALT RIVER by James Sallis
An author of compact mysteries rooted in the Deep South, poet and novelist James Sallis saw his profile rise last year after the release of the critically acclaimed Ryan Gosling movie Drive, an adaptation of his eponymous novel. Otherwise best … Continue reading
REUNION WITH MURDER (1941) by Timothy Fuller
Harvard University is a real character in this novel, as a place rich in tradition, as a maker of men and as a source of continuity and reassurance ahead of America’s entry into the Second World War. However, while conventional … Continue reading
QUEEN IN DANGER (1952) by Adam Hall
Elleston Trevor doesn’t rate a single mention in The Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing (1999), and that’s a real shame. The author of some 100 novels, as Trevor he published exciting war and adventure stories that easily stand … Continue reading
THE PIZZA HOUSE CRASH (1989) by Denise Danks
Georgina Powers is 25 years old and her life is a bit of a mess. A journalist working in London for a weekly computer magazine, she doesn’t take very good care of herself and is recovering from a brief and … Continue reading
ONE FOR THE ROAD (1958) by Fredric Brown
A whodunit that, as the title suggests, is more than a tad on the bibulous side, One For the Road is one of the less well-known mysteries by cult author Fredric Brown and one of his last. In the 40s … Continue reading
NIGHTMARE CRUISE (1961) by Wade Miller
The phrase ‘cook’s tour’ takes on a rather sinister meaning in this unjustly neglected maritime thriller, first published in 1961 as an Ace paperback original from the team of Robert Wade and Bill Miller. It was their penultimate book though a … Continue reading
MURDER ON THE BLACKBOARD (1932) by Stuart Palmer
This book features one of the first, and funniest, examples of that mystery mainstay, the spinster sleuth. From Mary Roberts Rinehart’s plucky one-off heroines to the more professional investigating of Agatha Christie’s Jane Marple and Patricia Wentworth’s Maud Silver (both first … Continue reading
THE LONG WAIT (1951) by Mickey Spillane
Well, I suppose it had to happen sooner or later at Fedora! After a year and a half of blogging it is time to confront some potentially ingrained snobbery and decided if we have descended to the level of Mickey … Continue reading
K is for … Stuart Kaminsky
The prolific mystery writer and academic Stuart Melvin Kaminsky was born in Chicago in 1934 and spent most of his career as a professor of film. Eventually he would spend 16 years teaching at Northwestern University before becoming a Professor … Continue reading
J is for … Jonathan Latimer
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
INVISIBLE GREEN (1977) by John Sladek
This detective novel by science fiction author John Sladek offers several impossible crimes in the style of John Dickson Carr and deserves to be much better known. It was paid a great compliment in 1981 when, only two years after … Continue reading
HE WHO HESITATES (1965) by Ed McBain
Today we turn to one of the most anomalous entries in the 87th Precinct series, which I am currently re-reading in the order of original publication (my previous reviews can be found here). The chronology of the series is only … Continue reading
G is for … William Goldman
What do The Princess Bride, All the President’s Men (1976), Marathon Man, the cinema adaptations of Maverick (1994), Misery (1990) and The Stepford Wives (1975) as well as that great counter-culture Western, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, all have in common? … Continue reading
FACE TO FACE (1967) by Ellery Queen
Did you know that at the end of his illustrious career Ellery Queen retired to Italy, got married and sired a son? And that ‘Queen’ was not his real name, even in the fictional sense? Well, this is the information … Continue reading
Posted in 2012 Alphabet of Crime, Crime Fiction Alphabet, Ellery Queen, New York, Scene of the crime
Tagged frederic dannay
34 Comments
E is for … Stanley Ellin
Kerrie’s Alphabet of Crime community meme over at the Mysteries in Paradise blog this week reaches the letter E. Those participating will post a review, author biog or a thematic item that matches the letter of the week either with … Continue reading
DEATH IS A LONELY BUSINESS (1985) by Ray Bradbury
I delayed reading this book for the best part of thirty years but finally made the leap last week. I was thirty pages in when I heard the news: Ray Bradbury had died at the age of 91. The following, … Continue reading
C is for … John Dickson Carr
Kerrie’s Alphabet of Crime community meme over at the Mysteries in Paradise blog has returned for 2012. Those participating will post a review, author biog or a thematic item that matches the letter of the week either with the first … Continue reading
BRAT FARRAR (1949) by Josephine Tey
Imposture lies at the heart of this well constructed suspense novel by Elizabeth Mackintosh, the Scottish author best known today for the mysteries she published as ‘Josephine Tey’, though she also wrote books and plays using her own name and … Continue reading
A is for … Amnesia
Kerrie’s Alphabet of Crime community meme over at the Mysteries in Paradise blog has returned for 2012. Each week those participating will post a review, author biog or a thematic item in which either the first letter of the title … Continue reading
Tipping My Fedora 