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Category Archives: Switzerland
SINGLE & SINGLE (1999) by John le Carré
John le Carré (born David Cornwell on 19 October 1931) is 86 years old today – and to celebrate here is a quick review of a title that is perhaps unfairly neglected. This is one of the later books that … Continue reading
Posted in England, Espionage, John le Carre, London, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey
16 Comments
THE NIGHT MANAGER (1993) by John le Carré
This is a spy novel that got great reviews from the get-go, but I somehow kept delaying actually reading it and despite several attempts, never seemed to actually crack on with it (I don’t mean that literally – cracking spines … Continue reading
Posted in Bahamas, Egypt, England, Espionage, John le Carre, Switzerland
38 Comments
THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL (1983) by John le Carré
John le Carré remains a true perennial and an astonishing success story. Some 55 years from his debut, he is still a best-selling author and adaptations of his work, like the BBC mini-series of The Night Manager, are big ratings … Continue reading
Vote for your favourite 1930s Hitchcock movies
In the 1930s Hitchcock hired a PR firm to get his name in the news and very soon he was cultivating the black humour and publicity gimmicks that would ultimately make him as well-known as the films he made. During … Continue reading
THE PLEDGE (1958) by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
This is a police procedural with a real difference. The story of an investigation that goes wrong, it tries to bring the reality of crime investigation (circa 1958) in a face-off with the conventions of the mystery genre. Indeed, it … 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
THE SAINT IN EUROPE (1953) by Leslie Charteris
I can’t quite believe it but this may in fact be the first Saint book I have read in about 35 years! I do remember picking up some of the tie-ins reprinted when Return of the Saint premiered on TV in 1978 … Continue reading
The End of the Game (1975)
In 1950 Swiss novelist and playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt published his existential crime classic The Judge and His Hangman, which I previously reviewed here and which I have also listed in my ongoing list of Top 100 Mystery Books. Twenty-five years … Continue reading
THE JUDGE AND HIS HANGMAN (1950) by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Originally published in German in 1950 as ‘Der Richter und sein Henker’ by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, this was the first of two books featuring Kommissar Hans Bärlach of the Berne police (they have since been collected in an omnibus volume as … Continue reading