Category Archives: Fredric Brown

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (2017 Blu-ray)

Posted on 20 June 2017 by Cavershamragu

Finally available (it was released yesterday) in a restored and high def format that preserves the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, this visually audacious whodunit lands on Blu-ray in a gorgeous looking edition from Arrow Films. Starring Tony Musante and Suzy … Continue reading →

Posted in Dario Argento, Fredric Brown, Giallo, Rome, Scene of the crime, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | 28 Comments

MYSTERIES UNLOCKED – ESSAYS IN HONOR OF DOUGLAS G. GREENE edited by Curtis Evans

Posted on 13 August 2014 by Cavershamragu

Curtis Evans, he of The Passing Tramp blog and the Masters of the Humdrum Mystery book, has edited the new anthology, Mysteries Unlocked – Essays in Honor of Douglas G. Greene. It’s a celebration of the work of the founder of Crippen & … Continue reading →

Posted in Agatha Christie, Edmund Crispin, Fredric Brown, John Dickson Carr, Margery Allingham, Patrick Quentin, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald | Tagged Curtis Evans, Douglas G. Greene, Radio Mysteries of John Dickson Carr, Steven Steinbock | 32 Comments

THE WENCH IS DEAD (1955) by Fredric Brown

Posted on 25 October 2012 by Cavershamragu

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 →

Posted in 2012 Alphabet of Crime, 2012 Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge, Amnesia, Campus Crime, Crime Fiction Alphabet, Fredric Brown, Friday's Forgotten Book, Los Angeles, Scene of the crime | 37 Comments

ONE FOR THE ROAD (1958) by Fredric Brown

Posted on 30 August 2012 by Cavershamragu

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 →

Posted in 2012 Alphabet of Crime, Arizona, Crime Fiction Alphabet, Fredric Brown, Friday's Forgotten Book, Robert Bloch | 14 Comments

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) – Tuesday’s Forgotten Film

Posted on 3 July 2012 by Cavershamragu

After Sergio Leone, Italy’s best known genre filmmaker probably remains Dario Argento, even though his heyday was a good three decades ago. He had already worked on several films as a screenwriter when he collaborated with Bernardo Bertolucci on a … Continue reading →

Posted in Dario Argento, Fredric Brown, Giallo, Rome, Scene of the crime, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | 20 Comments

E is for … Stanley Ellin

Posted on 22 June 2012 by Cavershamragu

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 →

Posted in 2012 Alphabet of Crime, Alfred Hitchcock, Crime Fiction Alphabet, Fredric Brown, HRF Keating, Julian Symons, Private Eye, Stanley Ellin | Tagged ellin stanley | 18 Comments

Top 100 mystery books (almost)

Posted on 29 May 2011 by Cavershamragu

The plan was to come up with a top 100 that I was prepared to stand by – but I wanted to re-read so many of the books that I might have included but now remembered too vaguely (such as Ngaio Marsh’s output or books like Tey’s hugely popular The Daughter of Time) that I thought I should publish only a partial list. Not to mention finding it a bit hard to just settle on one book by Georges Simenon given the enormity of his output – I have placed a list of 80+ titles on the site and am extremely open to suggestions …

So here are My (Nearly) Top 100 Mystery Books Continue reading →

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F is for … Fredric Brown

Posted on 16 February 2011 by Cavershamragu

Over at the always informative, market-leading In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel blog, attention has been drawn to the Alphabet of Crime, in which every week a successive letter of the alphabet has to be reflected in a blog entry either through the title of a book or the first or last name of an author. Sounds like fun – so, tipping my fedora in acknowledgement … Continue reading →

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Did Agatha Chrisitie invent the ‘Giallo’ genre?

Posted on 23 January 2011 by Cavershamragu

In Italy ‘giallo’ is the word for yellow but in common parlance there is often used as a shortcut for thrillers and detective stories, mainly because a popular imprint chose that colour for the covers of a series of mystery novels in the 1930s – its nearest equivalent is the French ‘Serie Noire’ in the 1940s, which was a label for a series of dark hardboiled thrillers and which influence the use of the term ‘Film noir’ to similarly dark crime movies. Continue reading →