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Category Archives: 2015 Vintage Mystery Challenge
AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE (1984) by Ed McBain
This is my last review of the year and I couldn’t resist a seasonal entry from my favourite police procedural series. This 87th Precinct short story (which first appeared in the December 1984 issue of Playboy) got the royal treatment … Continue reading
CASTLE SKULL (1931) by John Dickson Carr
Henri Bencolin visits the Rhine in his third novel, and appropriately enough there are a trio of killings to solve: the impossible attack on a magician in a train carriage under constant supervision, apparently thrown out by an unseen assailant; … Continue reading
THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR (1956) by Lionel White
This unusual thriller comes in a new volume comprising two previously hard-to-find titles by Lionel White (1905-85) from those very nice people at Stark House Press, the imprint specialising in new and classic crime fiction. White was the king of … Continue reading
WHO IS SIMON WARWICK? (1978) by Patricia Moyes
This smart detective story provides a really entertaining bridge between the Golden era of pure deduction and the modern scientific age. It is based on a classic scenario from popular culture – the long-lost heir of who may or not … Continue reading
SLEEP LONG, MY LOVE (1959) by Hilary Waugh
Waugh was one of the founding fathers of the American police procedural, following on from Lawrence Treat and Sidney Kingsley and paving the way for the likes of Ed McBain. His best and most widely read book remains the classic … Continue reading
MURDER WITHIN MURDER (1946) by Richard and Frances Lockridge
This was the tenth in the long-running series of screwball mysteries featuring Pam and Jerry North, a married couple with (of course) a penchant for solving crimes. He is editing a new book on true crimes and when one of … Continue reading
YOURS TRULY, JACK THE RIPPER by Robert Bloch
Before Robert Bloch (1917-1994) was made immortal by the success of Psycho, he was best-known for Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper, the classic 1943 short story that first appeared in Weird Tales. It was the first of many of Bloch’s efforts … Continue reading
MURDER IN THE COLLECTIVE (1984) by Barbara Wilson
This was the first of a trio of mysteries set in Seattle featuring amateur sleuth Pam Nilsen, who with her sister Penny runs a printing business (inherited from their parents) as a cooperative. A radical lesbian typesetter collective expresses an … Continue reading
Posted in 2015 Vintage Mystery Challenge, Seattle
54 Comments
I START COUNTING (1966) by Audrey Erskine Lindop
Audrey Erskine Lindop (1920-86) was once a popular author of romantic, historical and crime-inflected fiction. I Start Counting was one of her last but seems to be the one she is best known for today. This may be because it was … Continue reading
THE CRIME ON THE COTE DE NEIGES (1951) by David Montrose
The influence of Chandler initially looms large in this highly enjoyable private eye novel but this eventually proves itself to be a pretty distinctive performance, not least for its Montreal setting. This was the book that launched the Ricochet Series of … Continue reading
Posted in 2015 Vintage Mystery Challenge, Canada, Noir
32 Comments
A PERFECT MATCH (1983) by Jill McGown
This marked the debut of Scottish writer Jill McGown (1947-2007) and her two detectives, DCI Lloyd (no first name ever provided and it turns out to be something of a bone of contention) and Detective Sergeant Judy Hill, his partner … Continue reading
Posted in 2015 Vintage Mystery Challenge, England, Jill McGown
39 Comments
THE PILLARS OF MIDNIGHT (1957) by Elleston Trevor
This book was one of the first of a new breed of medical thrillers dealing with threats at the microscopic scale, spawned by anxieties over germ warfare (and which can be said to have peaked with Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda … Continue reading
TRICKS (1987) by Ed McBain
As this book is set entirely on Halloween night, this seemed like a perfect fit. Pretty much the entire cast of the 87th appears in this ultra busy entry in Ed McBain’s series. We have four major cases: Eileen and … Continue reading
SHEILA LEVINE IS DEAD AND LIVING IN NEW YORK (1972) by Gail Parent
A slight change of pace here at Fedora, revisiting a comic novel from the 1970s. Sheila is a young Jewish woman from Pennsylvania who in the early 60s heads to the Big Apple in search of domestic bliss. After a … Continue reading
A THREE PIPE PROBLEM (1975) by Julian Symons
When is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche not a Sherlock Holmes pastiche? Well, when the great detective does not in fact appear … This is the clever conceit of this mystery by poet, critic, novelist and editor Julian Symons, who brings … Continue reading
POISON (1987) by Ed McBain
What, another 87th Precinct review at Fedora? Well, it’s a pretty good one and I wanted to share … Carella takes the backseat while perennial second banana Hal Willis is pleasingly brought to the fore in this story of a beguiling … Continue reading
READY REVENGE (1960) by Catherine Arley
The French writer Catherine Arley is best known for Woman of Straw, one of only a few of her thrillers to have made it into English. Ready Revenge was translated by Virginia Graham and when it was published by Random House … Continue reading
THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1902) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this is one of those books that may seem very familiar even to those who have never actually read it. But they really should because it holds up beautifully. It is certainly the single best known … Continue reading
THE RED SCARF (1958) by Gil Brewer
One of the many Florida-set paperback originals written by Gil Brewer in the 1950s, it has a plot that mostly recycles James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice but also adds some very effective gear changes. Roy Nichols has been … Continue reading
DEATH AT THE OPERA (1934) by Gladys Mitchell
Gladys Mitchell is one of the true eccentrics of the Golden Age mystery, an author that easily divides fans of the genre, especially for her highly idiosyncratic plots and her decidedly ‘colourful’ detective, Mrs Bradley. After a couple of failed … Continue reading
EIGHT BLACK HORSES (1985) by Ed McBain
At the end of Lightning, the previous book in the 87th Precinct series, a photo of eight black horses was sent to Steve Carella – and immediately he and his colleagues knew this could mean only one thing: the return … Continue reading
LIGHTNING (1984) by Ed McBain
This is a rather problematic entry in the 87th Precinct series, though outwardly it conforms to the structure of many of McBain’s efforts from the era: it begins with Monoghan & Monroe making comments in bad taste about a dead … Continue reading
THE WIDOW OF BATH (1952) by Margot Bennett
This is an elegant and witty novel and it is very easy to see just why Margot Bennett was so greatly admired by the likes of Graham Greene and Julian Symons. The protagonist is Hugh, a damaged young man who … Continue reading
ICE (1983) by Ed McBain
After a two-year gap Ed McBain returned to the cops of the Eight Seven with their longest case yet. Clocking in at over 300 pages, we are presented with four intersecting murder cases, all taking place during a particularly glacial … Continue reading
ELEVEN CAME BACK (1943) by Mabel Seeley
This wartime example of the ‘Had I But Known’ school was one of the handful of mysteries published by the Minnesotan writer Mabel Seeley (1903-1991), who principally set her work in the Mid West. This particular title however takes place … Continue reading
HEAT (1981) by Ed McBain
It’s summer in the city and we get a quartet of plotlines for the thirty-fifth volume in the 87th Precinct series (I am in the process of reading / re-reading them all in chronological order; to see my previous 34 … Continue reading
A MAN LAY DEAD (1934) by Ngaio Marsh
Having rather hated one of the later cases featuring Roderick Alleyn, the upper-class cop invented by Ngaio Marsh (click here for my splenetic review of False Scent), I thought I would dial back the clock and see how he fared … Continue reading
POSTERN OF FATE (1973) by Agatha Christie
This was Agatha Christie’s farewell to Tommy and Tuppence, the fun-loving Jazz Age adventurers currently back on TV in the shape of David Walliams and Jessica Raine. This was their fifth and final volume and sees the couple now in … Continue reading
FIFTY-TWO PICKUP (1974) by Elmore Leonard
This was the novel that put Elmore Leonard on the map as a crime writer – and was filmed twice in very quick succession, which is some kind of compliment! Having appeared as The Ambassador in 1984, it was re-made … Continue reading
Tipping My Fedora 