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Category Archives: 2014 Vintage Mystery Challenge Bingo
Buon Natale 2014
2014 has been very busy – but will it be remembered as a vintage year?
DOLLY AND THE BIRD OF PARADISE (1983) by Dorothy Dunnett
Dorothy Dunnett (1923 – 2001) was best known for her historical novels but she also penned a series of mysteries featuring Johnson Johnson, a portrait painter and spy who travels on his yacht, the eponymous ‘Dolly,’ each book narrated by a … Continue reading
THE BODY VANISHES (1976) by Jacquemard-Sénécal
Originally published in France as ‘Le Crime de la maison Grün’, this elaborate murder mystery was the earliest book by the team of Yves Jacquemard (1943-1980) and Jean-Michel Sénécal to be translated into English. Although the prose is a little … Continue reading
BLACK ALICE (1968) by Thomas M. Disch and John T. Sladek
When Todd Mason wrote on his Sweet Freedom blog about the neglect of SF writer Thomas M. Disch, this immediately struck a chord. I realised that not only did I know very little of the man’s work but that what … Continue reading
BURY ME DEEP (1947) by Harold Q. Masur
This was the first in the series featuring New York lawyer Scott Jordan. It opens with a great screwball variant on that hardboiled cliché of a man waking up with a hangover and an unknown dead blonde in his bed. … Continue reading
THE LIVING SHADOW (1931) by Maxwell Grant
One of the great figures from the pulp magazines era, The Shadow was also something of a multimedia phenomenon in the 1930s. This was the first novel in which the vigilante appeared and was penned by the ultra prolific Walter B. … Continue reading
THE RIVERSIDE VILLAS MURDER (1973) by Kingsley Amis
From its mid 1930s setting to its convoluted murder method, this is an affectionate (if sui generis) hommage to the Golden Age mystery – from a seemingly unlikely champion, the angry young ironist of 1950s British literature, Kingsley Amis. But … Continue reading
The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949)
Charles Laughton plays Inspector Maigret in this highly atypical Hollywood movie, shot in colour and on location in Paris. Despite a cast that includes Franchot Tone and Burgess Meredith (who also took over as director at the last-minute), this is … Continue reading
AN EASTER EGG HUNT (1981) by Gillian Freeman
This three-part novel begins in 1915, when a girl goes missing from a country finishing school while on an Easter treasure hunt. This is presented in the form of a true-crime story published two years later, with the names changed … Continue reading
Fedora (1978) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film
I had to review this film for its title alone! But it’s also a great movie, well worth 2 hours of your time (it’s just been released on Blu-ray). Based on the eponymous novella by Thomas Tryon – the actor-turned-author … Continue reading
Vote for your Top 10 John Dickson Carr books
What are your favourite books by John Dickson Carr (aka Carter Dickson)? The topic came up while re-reading The Crooked Hinge, a title that regularly turns up in lists of the author’s best works, though few think it as ‘perfect’ a performance … Continue reading
THE LETTER (1927) by Somerset Maugham
At night on a Malaya rubber plantation a gunshot rings out. A man stumbles out of a bungalow, pursued by a woman, who empties all the chambers of her revolver into him. The moonlight reveals a distraught, gun-toting Bette Davis … Continue reading
STRANGLED PROSE (1986) by Joan Hess
I haven’t read many books in the ‘contemporary cosy’ genre but decided to check this one out after a strong review from that wise mathematician, the Puzzledoctor. It’s the first in the continuing series of Claire Malloy mysteries set in Farberville, … Continue reading
Posted in 2014 Vintage Mystery Challenge Bingo, Campus Crime, Cosy Cozy, Friday's Forgotten Book
Tagged Joan Hess
49 Comments
THE FURY (1976) by John Farris
A wannabe blockbuster in its day, John Farris’s expansive novel – and the far more linear movie version he scripted for Brian De Palma – still works as a sui generis mixture of espionage, action and the paranormal. Gillian is a … Continue reading
THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT (1973) by Robert B. Parker
Robert B Parker’s Boston private eye Spenser made his debut with this campus investigation, first into the theft of the eponymous precious artefact (he never does find it) before looking into several murders linked to a student revolutionary group. Like … Continue reading
MAGIC (1976) by William Goldman
William Goldman is probably known best for The Princess Bride and Marathon Man, both of which he adapted into successful movies. His suspense novel Magic was a hit in its day too, though did less well when he reworked it for … Continue reading
SOME MUST WATCH (1933) by Ethel Lina White
It’s Halloween, so time for things to get a little shuddery here at Fedora! Ethel Lina White, a big name in the 1930s, is best known today for The Wheel Spins, later filmed by Hitchcock as The Lady Vanishes. Some … Continue reading
THE RETURN OF THE THIN MAN by Dashiell Hammett
Absurd as it may seem, there are those who don’t think the delightful screwball mysteries featuring Nick and Nora Charles really belong in the oeuvre of hardboiled master, Dashiell Hammett. This has been exacerbated by the perceived devaluation of his … Continue reading
THE BLACK SPECTACLES (1939) by John Dickson Carr
I was always predisposed to love this book: first off, it’s an impossible crime mystery, second it’s by John Dickson Carr and third it involves movie-making equipment – perfect! It sees the titanic powers of lexicographer detective Gideon Fell at … Continue reading
THE DRAGON MURDER CASE (1933) by SS Van Dine
A man dives into an open air swimming pool and vanishes, never to be seen alive again. When the pool is drained, the only clue to be found is what looks like the footprints of a dragon on the muddy … Continue reading
THE SNATCH (1971) by Bill Pronzini
After reading Marcia Muller’s first book in the Sharon McCone series (click here for the review), I thought it might be fun to go look at the debut of another San Francisco private eye, one that she would subsequently meet. … Continue reading
The Empty Beach (1985) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film
Bryan Brown played Australian private investigator Cliff Hardy in this adaptation of the fourth in the continuing series of mysteries by Peter Corris. As of this year Hardy has featured in 40 books, and as the author is usually credited … Continue reading
DETOUR (1953) by Helen Nielsen
Danny Ross is 18 years old and heading south, anxious to start a new life. A few hundred miles from the Mexico border his car packs up but is offered a lift by old Doc Gaynor, who is heading to … Continue reading
The Jigsaw Man (1983) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film
This spy thriller was inspired by the exploits of double agent Kim Philby. Indeed the author went so far as to cheekily dedicate the book to him, and all her ‘dear friends in the KGB’ including those, ‘not yet surfaced.’ … Continue reading
Phantom Lady (1944) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film
This great movie is based on the book that got me hooked on the dark suspense of Cornell Woolrich in the 1980s – and I suspect that, along with The Bride Wore Black, it’s the one that does it for … Continue reading
SHOOTING STAR (1958) by Robert Bloch
Reprinted by Hard Case Crime a few years back, this was Robert Bloch’s one and only private eye novel – so of course, given his inclination towards the tongue-in-cheek, he made it a book about an investigator with only one … Continue reading
Try This One for Size (1989) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film
This amusing comedy-thriller was the first of a quartet of films starring Michael Brandon derived from the work of euro noir legend, James Hadley Chase. Set in the double-dealing world of smugglers and dodgy art dealers, this one brought Paradise City detective Tom … Continue reading
A SCENT OF NEW-MOWN HAY (1958) by John Blackburn
I’ve been looking to sample this author’s weird fiction for years after hearing him compared with LP Davies, one of my favourite British pulp authors of the 1960s. So I have decided, in my usual fashion, to start at the … Continue reading
SLEEP WITH SLANDER (1960) by Dolores Hitchens
This was the second, and last, of the novels featuring private detective Jim Sader published under her ‘Dolores Hitchens’ byline by Julia Clara Catharine Dolores Birk Olsen Hitchens (1907–1973), who also wrote as D. B. Olsen, Dolan Birkley and Noel Burke. … Continue reading
Tipping My Fedora 