Tag: crime

Review – The Seat of the Scornful

Posted November 17, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – The Seat of the Scornful

The Seat of the Scornful

by John Dickson Carr

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 240
Series: Dr Gideon Fell #14
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Judge Horace Ireton didn't care about the letter of the law. He was interested in administering absolute, impartial justice as he saw it. To some, his methods of meting out justice made him seem hardly human, for they were coldly calculated - the same type of "cat and mouse" technique that he used in his chess games with Dr. Gideon Fell, the elephantine detective. The system, as he explained it, consisted in "letting your opponent think he's perfectly safe, winning hands down: and then catch him in a corner." But the system was not infallible. One day Judge Ireton was found with a pistol in his hand, beside the body of his daughter's fiancé, a man he had every reason to dislike, as many people knew; and he found that when one was on the inside looking out, the game had to be played differently.

I really thought I disliked John Dickson Carr’s writing, and didn’t pick up most of his books republished in the British Library Crime Classics series. It seems I was wrong: after I enjoyed He Who Whispers, I decided to give a couple more a shot, and this is the first one I got to. It concerns a judge who is particularly merciless in court, dealing out justice according to his own sense of it, who becomes entangled in a murder case — the murder of his daughter’s undesirable fiancé.

It’s not the usual locked-room puzzle, but more of a puzzle of how people work, and how appearances can be made to serve one narrative or another. It has a bit more humanity to it than some of Carr’s other books (perhaps ones written earlier), and the characters feel a little more real, a little less like archetypes acting out their stories.

It made for a fun puzzle, at least, and I’m convinced enough to try reading John Dickson Carr’s other novels — clearly they can be either hit or miss for me, and must each be judged on their own merits, despite my run of bad luck with his other work that I’d read before.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Heads You Lose

Posted November 13, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Heads You Lose

Heads You Lose

by Christianna Brand

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 159
Series: Inspector Cockrill #1
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Pigeonsford Estate is playing host to a group of close friends when one of their number, Grace Morland, is found dead in a ditch. The murder is made even more unusual by the fact that Grace was wearing her friend Francesca's hat, the same hat that only the day before she'd claimed she wouldn't be caught dead wearing. Inspector Cockrill has known most of the friends since they were children. They are all from good families and very close to one another; how, then, could one of them be a cold-blooded killer? And if one of them had murdered Grace which one was it and why had they done it?

Heads You Lose did some very interesting things, from my point of view: the sympathy with a particular character was genuinely affecting, to me at least, and I’m noting some patterns with her work that intrigue me. As a story, though, there were a few things that bothered me. It’s a bit spoilery to go into them in depth, so I’ll just start by saying that I think in the end I’d say it was worth reading, at least for me as a fan of this period of mystery/crime fiction, but I do have caveats and content warnings to go with that.

The main caveat is the fact that the plot hinges on the oft-derived trope of a mentally ill killer, one who has blackouts and commits crimes unbeknownst to himself. That means the third-person narration is sometimes a bit unreliable, as it sticks close to particular characters’ POV, and thus misleads the reader. You have to read very closely to catch the clue, and of course you’re not looking there for it.

I did think that the ending was rather better than the “psycho killer with blackouts” trope portended. There’s a lot of pathos in the ending for that particular character and how it comes about.

I would also note that there’s a Jewish character who is treated somewhat sympathetically, and yet at the same time with some anti-Semitic tropes. Of course this was common in the crime fiction in and around the Golden Age (Dorothy L. Sayers did similar in Whose Body?), but it’s worth knowing going in.

I am noticing that Brand doesn’t do much bringing her villains to justice. They usually die in some kind of appropriate way — not in the way that some other detective novels do, with a “you should write a confession and shoot yourself, or I’ll put the police in possession of what I know”, but still, they each die. It has less of a “detective as judge and jury” ring, and more like… “the universe will put things right, somehow”. Either way, an interesting thing to note, as I read more of Brand’s work.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Accident by Design

Posted November 10, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Accident by Design

Accident by Design

by E.C.R. Lorac

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 199
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Templedean Place in the Cotswold Hills of England was among the last of the truly aristocratic estates, where old family traditions still flourished. When Gerald Vanstead arrived from Australia with his family, to attend his father in his last illness, other, more deadly things flourished.

Gerald's wife was the bickering kind; he drank too much, was given to feuding with the chauffeur, and seemed excessively tightlipped and disagreeable—and so no one was particularly sorry when one day the brakes on Gerald's car failed to hold, and he and his wife were killed.

A family picnic ended in the accidental death of another Vanstead, a fire destroyed what might have been a clue, and there was a night of horrible suspense before Inspector Macdonald could say who hated Gerald Vanstead the most and who, in a house of cultured, well-bred men and women, was most capable of murder.

I’ve said for a while that E.C.R. Lorac is one of my favourite authors from this period, and that’s in part because she can sketch in a place and a cast that one can care about, often full of decent people trying to do their best, and driven by her humane and careful detective, Macdonald.

Accident by Design is another case of that, but it subverted my expectations somewhat in the way the characters were set up, proving that Lorac was careful not to get too formulaic. It would be easy to slip into looking for a certain character type, and to feel sure that they are guilty, but Lorac doesn’t make it so easy.

In the end, it isn’t one of my favourite stories by Lorac (I think that still goes to Death of an Author, which isn’t even a Macdonald book, and is rather clever instead of being atmospheric), but it’s a solid example of her work. Perhaps best enjoyed once you’re used to her tendencies, so you get the surprise I did…

I continue to think Lorac’s one of the best of her generation of mystery writers — and that’s despite a fairly prolific output.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Death of Mr Dodsley

Posted November 7, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Death of Mr Dodsley

Death of Mr Dodsley

by John Ferguson

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 256
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Mr Richard Dodsley, owner of a fine second-hand bookshop on Charing Cross Road, has been found murdered in the cold hours of the morning. Shot in his own office, few clues remain besides three cigarette ends, two spent matches and a few books on the shelves which have been rearranged.

In an investigation spanning the second-hand bookshops of London and the Houses of Parliament (since an MP’s daughter's new crime novel Death at the Desk appears to have some bearing on the case), Ferguson’s series sleuth MacNab is at hand to assist Scotland Yard in this atmospheric and ingenious fair-play bibliomystery, first published in 1937.

I found that Death of Mr Dodsley was a bit too slow for my tastes — or at least, too slow in bringing together the strands of the plot and making it clear as to why the book opens in the Houses of Parliament! Much of the novel seems to have little to do with that, and though it’s obvious it will tie in somehow… it never quite did so properly, to be honest. The red herring is only very slightly tinged, and I never believed in it.

All in all, that made it a little frustrating, as the evidence-gathering is rather slow, and it also vacillates about which detective, precisely, it wants to follow (starting with the police and later moving on to MacNab).

It wasn’t a bad read by any measure, but not one of my favourites, despite being focused around a book written by one of the suspects, and set mostly in a bookshop, no less! But alas, that didn’t add enough charm to keep up sparkling.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – The Paddington Mystery

Posted November 2, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Paddington Mystery

The Paddington Mystery

by John Rhode

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 187
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

When Harold Merefield returns home from a nightclub in the early hours, he is startled by the gruesome discovery of a corpse - on his own bed! Who is he, and how did he get there?

Unconvinced by the inquest's verdict of 'death from natural causes', Harold determines to investigate the matter for himself and seeks the help of Professor Priestly, an academic with a reputation for solving curious affairs by the simple but unusual method of logical reasoning...

Apparently this is one of the first of John Rhode’s mysteries, so I was pretty intrigued: I’ve enjoyed his work, especially as Miles Burton, in a very classic mystery sort of way — perhaps not too enlightening about characters or even places, but a fun puzzle, and a satisfying sense of the world being put more or less to rights.

This book has those things, with actually a reasonable amount of character: Harold’s a bit of a mess, but cleaning his act up, and the Professor comes across quite sympathetically given that his daughter is tangentially involved in the mystery. I remember I’ve read one of the others starring Priestly, but couldn’t remember a single detail about him: this is a bit more memorable.

The mystery wasn’t too surprising, and I figured out some chunks of it quite quickly, but it was still satisfying to unravel and to see how Priestly gets things straightened out. I enjoyed it.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Post After Post-Mortem

Posted October 30, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Post After Post-Mortem

Post After Post-Mortem

by E.C.R. Lorac

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 300
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

The Surrays and their five children form a prolific writing machine, with scores of treatises, reviews and crime thrillers published under their family name. Following a rare convergence of the whole household at their Oxfordshire home, Ruth – middle sister who writes ‘books which are just books’ – decides to spend some weeks there recovering from the pressures of the writing life while the rest of the brood scatter to the winds again. Their next return is heralded by the tragic news that Ruth has taken her life after an evening at the Surrays’ hosting a set of publishers and writers, one of whom is named as Ruth’s literary executor in the will she left behind.

Despite some suspicions from the family, the verdict at the inquest is suicide – but when Ruth’s brother Richard receives a letter from the deceased which was delayed in the post, he enlists the help of CID Robert Macdonald to investigate what could only be an ingeniously planned murder.

I normally love E.C.R. Lorac’s books, and I think this was a very fine example of her work… without being one that I, strictly speaking, enjoyed. She has a way of describing characters and places that can make you love them and feel their goodness — and in this book, the nastiness of murder feels particularly prominent. It’s less “good people overcome” and more “good people are overcome”, and it just hit wrong for my current mood, despite being well handled.

Those who read it should be warned that the setup has the murder being taken to be suicide at first, and that the family react accordingly, with shock and horror and the sense that the world is upended. And that isn’t the end to their sorrows.

It’s a good thing that Lorac writes such a sensitive, humane detective in MacDonald, because his sympathy also helped to make this book as powerful as it is.

In the end, the solution was also a sad one, and the whole thing just left me with a sense of melancholy. Beautifully written, perhaps among Lorac’s best — but perhaps not one that I’ll visit again.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Crocodile on the Sandbank

Posted October 26, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Crocodile on the Sandbank

Crocodile on the Sandbank

by Elizabeth Peters

Genres: Mystery, Romance
Pages: 296
Series: Amelia Peabody #1
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Amelia Peabody is Elizabeth Peters' most brilliant and best-loved creation, a thoroughly Victorian feminist who takes the stuffy world of archaeology by storm with her shocking men's pants and no-nonsense attitude!

In this first adventure, our headstrong heroine decides to use her substantial inheritance to see the world. On her travels, she rescues a gentlewoman in distress - Evelyn Barton-Forbes - and the two become friends. The two companions continue to Egypt where they face mysteries, mummies and the redoubtable Radcliffe Emerson, an outspoken archaeologist, who doesn't need women to help him solve mysteries -- at least, that's what he thinks.

The main problem with The Crocodile on the Sandbank is that it’s impossible to tell whether Peters was trying to write about period-appropriate attitudes, or whether the racism is ingrained. Either way, it doesn’t sit comfortably for a modern reader, at least without some sense that it’s on purpose: Amelia Peabody is so close to modern in some ways that it feels jarring when she’s a typical colonialist Brit of the period. At the same time, the fact that other details strive for period accuracy suggests it may be (at least in part) for the sake of verisimilitude.

As it is, I ended up trying to read it with my “enthusiast of classic crime” hat on, since it comes out of that mould. And in that light, it’s pretty enjoyable; I thought the mystery a little obvious, but it also makes sense that the headstrong characters don’t communicate and put things together because they’re too busy being headstrong.

I do love books set in and around Egypt, so it also fits into that craving for me, which made it extra enjoyable.

I’ll give the next book a try, though whether I keep up somewhat depends on where we’re going next (in terms of plot: I gather Egypt remains our location, based on the next couple of titles).

Rating: 3/5

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Review – He Who Whispers

Posted October 23, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – He Who Whispers

He Who Whispers

by John Dickson Carr

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 270
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

'It almost seemed that the murder, if it was a murder, must have been committed by someone who could rise up unsupported in the air…'

When Miles Hammond is invited to a meeting of the Murder Club in London, he is met instead with just two other guests and is treated to a strange tale of an impossible crime in France from years before; the murder of a man on a tower with only one staircase, under watch at the time at which the murder took place. With theories of levitating vampires abounding, the story comes home to Miles when he realises that the librarian he has just hired for his home is none other than Fay Seton, a woman whose name still echoes from the heart of this bizarre and unsolved murder of the past.

I don’t normally get along with John Dickson Carr’s work. In fact, I don’t even buy the British Library Crime Classic editions — it’s one of only three gaps in my collection (a few of the short story collections, which I’m slowly picking up, and the Sergeant Cluff books are the others), because I just haven’t got along with the others.

It’s hard to say why this was an exception. I think in part it’s that it’s a fair-play mystery. Though there is a Great Detective (Gideon Fell), the POV character isn’t treated too much as his side-kick, and there’s some interesting attempts at psychological realism (even if it’s unfortunately in part about a “nymphomaniac” girl). I was able to form theories about it, and feel like I had the clues that fell into place at the right moments, and I didn’t universally hate the characters. There’s nothing so straightforward as some of Carr’s other female characters and snap romances.

It’s enough to give me hope for some of the Carr books I haven’t picked up yet: maybe some of those will equally have some joys for me. I was glad I gave this a shot thanks to my British Library Crime Classics subscription!

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Mummy Case Mystery

Posted October 20, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – The Mummy Case Mystery

The Mummy Case Mystery

by Dermot Morrah

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 230
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

The Commemoration Night ball at Beaufort College, Oxford, is disturbed first by a strange prank with a professor's mummy, then by a tragic fire that kills the professor-or did it? If he died in the fire, what happened to the mummy? Professors Sargent and Considine take it upon themselves to investigate when the coroner rules accidental death, leaving them with unanswered questions.

I read about this book in Martin Edwards’ book on classic crime, and thought it sounded pretty awesome, so I tracked down a copy. In the UK they’re stupidly expensive, but AbeBooks solved that problem.

The book is very much an Oxford mystery: the first few chapters are just completely redolent of nostalgia and love for Oxford. It’s very similar in feel to Gaudy Night, and I’d be surprised if Dermot Morrah wasn’t an alumnus. (There’s a touch of romance here, but only the very lightest touch: no placet ne, magistra? here, and no chance of it either. It’s not anti-women but it’s not particularly positive about them either, though at least one character’s views on women in education are rather shown up.)

The mystery is entertaining enough, and I cottoned on to significant parts of it — not all, but most. Don’t be fooled by the title, in any case: the Egyptian stuff is mere trappings, though the mummy case is important in its way. Oxford is the real star.

I found it enjoyable, but a little slow and convoluted.

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Review – Death in Captivity

Posted September 15, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Death in Captivity by Michael GilbertDeath in Captivity, Michael Gilbert

Oof, I find talking about this one… complicated. Michael Gilbert was a prisoner of war during World War II, so in this story set in a prison camp in Italy, he knows exactly what he’s writing about. And that shows. It’s not like some war stories written nowadays where the gritty detail is intended to evoke a sense of hopelessness and despair: instead, it’s his matter-of-factness about the details and the shape of daily life that makes me feel a little crushed, reading it. Things often don’t seem so bad, kind of normal, and then atrocities casually happen.

As a result, it was a reading experience that I more appreciated than enjoyed, if that makes sense. It’s an inspired setting for a murder mystery, and Gilbert’s writing is… perhaps not the most descriptive, picture-painting stuff, but it makes things very clear, and for all that it’s matter of fact, the sense of life in the PoW camp really did come through.

As for the mystery… well. I don’t want to say too much, but I was disappointed by the solution — not because it didn’t make sense or anything, but just because it was more of that awful war-time mood. Not unexpected, not a bad twist to the story, nothing like that. Just… very WWII.

Rating: 3/5

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