Genre: Crime

Review – Strange Houses

Posted October 4, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Strange Houses

Strange Houses

by Uketsu

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 208
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

A Japanese mystery bestseller, revolving around a series of unsettling floorplans, in which the reader is the detective - from the Youtube sensation Uketsu.

A mysterious windowless room on a house's floorplan hints at a hideous secret

A young girl suspects that her cousin's seemingly accidental death was the result of a sinister family tradition

Can you uncover the dark secret of these strange houses? When you do, an unforgettable truth will be revealed.

I really enjoyed the puzzle of Uketsu’sĀ Strange Pictures, so I was really looking forward toĀ Strange Houses, and if anything I think I enjoyed it even more. I ended up reading it really fast, all in one go. I learned from the past and made sure I read it in a physical copy, which made it easier to leaf back and forth looking at the plans (though they’re often repeated and zoomed in etc to follow the analysis in the story, which is helpful).

It’s fun to try and guess what’s going on, and in this book it was a bit easier because you knew all the different floorplans are linked, which helps (you know the sort of thing you’re looking for in each case).

Of course, the answer to the mystery is very convoluted and dramatic, but that was pretty much as expected after readingĀ Strange Pictures, and it felt right for the story that there was this grand… almost a conspiracy theory behind the weird houses.

Overall, looking forward toĀ Strange Buildings, which I gather is coming in 2026? Sooner would be great!

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – Nine Times Nine

Posted September 25, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Nine Times Nine

Nine Times Nine

by Anthony Boucher

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 255
Series: Sister Ursula #1
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

The man in the yellow robe had put a curse on Wolfe Harriganā€”the ancient curse called the Nine Times Nine. And when Matt Duncan looked up from the croquet lawn that afternoon, he saw the man in the yellow robe in Wolfe Harriganā€™s study.

When Matt got there, all the doors were locked and all the windows too; all locked from the inside. Harriganā€™s sister sat outside the room. She had seen no one come out. But when the door was broken down, there was no man in a yellow robe in the room, and the body of Wolfe Harrigan lay murdered on the floor.

Later the police discovered that at the time of the murder the man in the yellow robe was lecturing to a group of his followers miles away!

A man who could be in two places at once? An astral body? A miracle, perhaps?

Then who better to explain miracles than Sister Ursula, a nun, whose childhood ambition was to become a policewoman.

I probably made a mistake in the timing of reading Anthony Boucher’sĀ Nine Times Nine, as I readĀ Rocket to the MorgueĀ earlier this year during a rough time, and… coincidentally, ended up readingĀ Nine Times Nine at a similar, relatedly rough moment. Boucher definitely has a certain style that I think will now inevitably call up funerals for me!

Which is a bit sad, because it’s not a bad style (not particularly sad or grim, either), there’s just something about it which is veryĀ recognisable. Both books I’ve read of his are locked room mysteries, but this one is openly allusive to other locked room mysteries, even directly quoting John Dickson Carr’s work and embedding the reading of it into the attempted resolution of the mystery — as someone who’s read quite a bit of John Dickson Carr’s work, this did make me grin, but might be a bit tedious for someone who hasn’t, regardless of how clever it feels.

I wasn’t enamoured of the relationship between Concha and Matt; it moved in fits and starts, and always felt a lot more serious on her side than his (but in a very juvenile infatuation sort of way even on her side). As inĀ Rocket to the Morgue, I loved the relationship between Leona and Marshall though!

Overall, not bad, with some good atmospheric moments, and of course, gotta love Sister Ursula, the nun who actually solves everything (though one could wish to see more of what she’s thinking and have her more closely involved with the other characters). I’d probably read more of Boucher’s work if it happened to come my way, but I’m not in a hurry.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – Resorting to Murder

Posted September 18, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Resorting to Murder

Resorting to Murder: Holiday Mysteries

by Martin Edwards (editor)

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Short Stories
Pages: 317
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

Holidays offer us the luxury of getting away from it all. So, in a different way, do detective stories. This collection of vintage mysteries combines both those pleasures. From a golf course at the English seaside to a pension in Paris, and from a Swiss mountain resort to the cliffs of Normandy, this new selection shows the enjoyable and unexpected ways in which crime writers have used summer holidays as a theme.

These fourteen stories range widely across the golden age of British crime fiction. Stellar names from the past are well represented - Arthur Conan Doyle and G. K. Chesterton, for instance - with classic stories that have won acclaim over the decades. The collection also uncovers a wide range of hidden gems: Anthony Berkeley - whose brilliance with plot had even Agatha Christie in raptures - is represented by a story so (undeservedly) obscure that even the British Library does not own a copy. The stories by Phyllis Bentley and Helen Simpson are almost equally rare, despite the success which both writers achieved, while those by H. C. Bailey, Leo Bruce and the little-known Gerald Findler have seldom been reprinted.

Each story is introduced by the editor, Martin Edwards, who sheds light on the authors' lives and the background to their writing.

Resorting to Murder: Holiday Mysteries is, like all the short story collections in the British Library Crime Classics series, edited by Martin Edwards, so it’s the usual spread of stories which includes some well-known ones (Conan Doyle), some standbys for the series (H.C. Bailey) and a couple of lesser-known ones, including one where the author is virtually unknown — or was at the time of publication.

For someone interested in crime fiction in general, then, it has the usual interest of being a survey of mystery stories around this theme, etc, etc. I must admit it was far from being a favourite for me, not helped by the fact that one of the stories (the one from Anthony Berkeley, if I recall) has been used in one of the other collections before or since (not sure which one, but I know the story, and that’s the only reason I would).

There are some fun stories in this collection, don’t get me wrong (I liked the atmosphere in “Where Is Mr Manetot?” for instance), but overall it didn’t grab me.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

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Review – The Odd Flamingo

Posted August 23, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Odd Flamingo

The Odd Flamingo

by Nina Bawden

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

Rose has news for Celia ā€“ she is due to have a baby by Celiaā€™s husband, Humphrey. Soon after, the seeds of scandal bear a criminal fruit when a body is discovered in Little Venice along with Roseā€™s handbag. Celia drafts in an old flame, Will, to root out the truth from suspicions of murder and blackmail, as the evidence starts to converge on the patrons and strange goings-on of the seedy Chelsea club, ā€˜The Odd Flamingoā€™. First published in 1954, this was one of two gritty and atmospheric crime novels written by the accomplished childrenā€™s author Nina Bawden.

I knew of Nina Bawden because I readĀ Carrie’s WarĀ in university — I think for the children’s literature class I took? I hadn’t expected to see a book by her from the British Library Crime Classics series, that’s for sure.

The Odd Flamingo turns out to be a noir-ish and rather grubby story, in which few (if any) people are genuine or trustworthy. Bawden carefully gives us the hero worship the main character has for his friend Humphrey, and his idealisation of a young girl, Rose, who seems fresh and innocent… and then carefully spends the whole book tearing it down.

It’s pretty weird as a mystery/crime novel, because the main character doesn’t really get very far in solving anything, and the interest (depending on your tastes) is more on the character studies. I found it overall pretty unpleasant, and while I could admire the craft, it wasn’t what I usually hope for in classic crime. (Which is fair enough for the series, to be clear: even “classic crime” as a concept contains multitudes!)

It’s an interesting read, but not one I enjoyed in and of itself.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

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Review – The Judas Window

Posted August 17, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Judas Window

The Judas Window

by John Dickson Carr, Carter Dickson

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 269
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Avory Hume is found stabbed to death with an arrow - in a study with bolted steel shutters and a heavy door locked from the inside. In the same room James Caplon Answell lies unconscious, his clothes disordered as though from a struggle, his fingerprints on the damning arrow.

Here is the unique Carter Dickson "impossible situation" - yet the great, explosive Sir Henry Merrivale gets down to serious sleuthing and at last startles the crowd in the Old Bailey with a reconstruction of the crime along logical, convincing lines.

H.M. in his most exciting case - an original, unconventional mystery, with a rich story background and a thrilling trial scene.

Every time the British Library Crime Classics series republish one of John Dickson Carr’s mysteries (under that name or as Carter Dickson), the intro hyperbolically refers to it as one of the greatest locked room mysteries ever, etc etc.Ā The Judas Window was a genuinely fun one though, with one of the least goofy explanations of how the locked room wasn’t actually impenetrable, and it’s one of the books in John Dickson Carr’s oeuvre that I got on with best so far (not always having been much of a fan).

It certainly helps that much of it is courtroom drama, with the larger-than-life H.M. defending the prisoner in court, with a few sensations along the way. The character of Mary Hume is pretty amazing, and a rare one in crime fiction: having allowed a lover to take erotic photos of her and then been blackmailed about them, she comes out in court to take all the power out of it by forthrightly admitting the whole thing. I feel like this doesn’t get as much spotlight as it deserves in the story, because it’s a heck of a power play.

The puzzle works out nicely, with my only quibble being that I didn’t think the actual culprit made a lot of sense without some more clues or build-up. But that wasn’t so much the point of the story, I think, so it wasn’t a huge downside. Overall, I really liked this one.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – Serpents in Eden

Posted August 13, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Serpents in Eden

Serpents in Eden: Countryside Crimes

by Martin Edwards (editor)

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Short Stories
Pages: 276
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

'The lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.... Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser.' - Sherlock Holmes

Many of the greatest British crime writers have explored the possibilities of crime in the countryside in lively and ingenious short stories. Serpents in Eden celebrates the rural British mystery by bringing together an eclectic mix of crime stories written over half a century. From a tale of poison-pen letters tearing apart a village community to a macabre mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle, the stories collected here reveal the dark truths hidden in an assortment of rural paradises. Among the writers included here are such major figures as G. K. Chesterton and Margery Allingham, along with a host of lesser-known discoveries whose best stories are among the unsung riches of the golden age of British crime fiction between the two world wars.

As ever, the British Library Crime Classics series editor, Martin Edwards, put together a spread of stories by different authors and from slightly different periods for Serpents in Eden, themed around mysteries set in the countryside. Some of them are better than others, but overall I thought it was a pretty strong collection.

A highlight for me was the R. Austin Freeman story; he’s always so thorough, and while in this one I had an idea what Thorndyke was looking for, it was interesting to see the process unfold. At least as far as the detecting part goes — the spy stuff was a little less interesting to me, but that just provides the motive, and not much of the actual mystery part.

For some reason this one did take me longer to finish than I’d have guessed, so I guess it was a bit slow/the majority of the stories were quite long, but it’s not like IĀ mindedĀ that.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – Murder at the Dolphin Hotel

Posted August 9, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Murder at the Dolphin Hotel

Murder at the Dolphin Hotel

by Helena Dixon

Genres: Crime, Historical Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 252
Series: Miss Underhay #1
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

June 1933. Independent young Kitty Underhay has been left in charge of her family's hotel, The Dolphin, on the tranquil English coast. She's expecting her days at the bustling resort to be filled with comfortable chatter with chambermaids as they polish the mahogany desk and glittering candelabras of the elegant foyer. Everything must be perfect for the arrival of a glamourous jazz singer from Chicago and a masked ball that will be the cultural highlight of the season.

But when several rooms are broken into and searched, including Kitty's own, she quickly realises that something out of the ordinary is afoot at the hotel. Soon rumours are flying in the cozy town that someone is on the hunt for a stolen ruby. A ruby that Kitty's mother may well have possessed when she herself went missing during the Great War. And when the break-ins are followed by a series of attacks and murders, including of the town's former mayoress, it seems the perpetrator will stop at nothing to find it.

Aided by ex-army captain Matthew Bryant, the Dolphin's new security officer, Kitty is determined to decipher this mystery and preserve not only the reputation of her hotel, but also the lives of her guests. Is there a cold-blooded killer under her own roof? And what connects the missing jewel to the mystery from Kitty's own past?

Helena Dixon’sĀ Murder at the Dolphin Hotel is a competent enough mystery that I found mildly entertaining. I think that damns it with faint praise a little, but unfortunately it’s how I feel: I had a good enough time reading it, but it wasn’t compelling enough to stand out or stick in my head, it was just one of those competent pseudo-classic mysteries that are pleasant enough to read once, but not to knock your socks off.

And to be clear, that’s sometimes what I want, and also I know other people are far bigger fans of that than I am. The undemandingness is a feature! I just didn’t latch onto it as much as I hoped, e.g. onto the main characters or their relationship, and I found it maybe a little bit too obvious. I’d probably have rated it a little higher if I’d rated it right away after finishing, but with a day of reflection in between, that feels a tad too generous.

So for me, not a stand-out, though enjoyable enough at the time I was reading it.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

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Review – A Case of Life and Limb

Posted July 24, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – A Case of Life and Limb

A Case of Life and Limb

by Sally Smith

Genres: Crime, Historical Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 336
Series: The Trials of Gabriel Ward #2
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Winter, 1901. The Inner Temple is even quieter than usual under a blanket of snow and Gabriel Ward KC is hard at work on a thorny libel case. All is calm, all is bright - until the mummified hand arrives in the post...

While the hand's recipient, Temple Treasurer Sir William Waring, is rightfully shaken, Gabriel is filled with curiosity. Who would want to send such a thing? And why? But as more parcels arrive - one with fatal consequences - Gabriel realises that it is not Sir William who is the target, but the Temple itself.

Someone is holding a grudge that has already led to at least one death. Now it's up to Gabriel, and Constable Wright of the City of London Police, to find out who, before an old death leads to a new murder.

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I loved Sally Smith’s first Gabriel Ward book, so I was very eager to dig intoĀ A Case of Life and Limb. I enjoyed it just as much, though the wintery vibes are a bit at odds with the weather, and enjoyed once more the kindness and decency of Gabriel, the way his conscience nags at him so that he seeks out true justice — and the way the real world outside of his work is beginning to tug at his attention, through his friendship with Wright and his unexpected detective work.

I did find that this sequel did have a few surprises: I didn’t expect a particular character to die, I didn’t expect one of Gabriel’s trials to be quite so sad, and I saw a certain issue coming somewhat but I almost expected it to be a red herring — I’m trying not to say too much, in order to avoid spoilers, but suffice it to say that sadness touches the story more than I’d expected. There’s also some period-typical homophobia (not approved of by Gabriel).

I did feel that a particular event didn’t linger quite so much on Gabriel as I’d expected, but then he is a rather dry character and not really moved to great grief.

All in all, I probably prefer the first book as a fun reading experience, but I did really enjoy this too, and in some ways it surprised me, well-versed in reading crime as I am. And you’ve got to love the introduction of Delphinium, and Gabriel’s surprising affection for her.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – Payment Deferred

Posted July 6, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Payment Deferred

Payment Deferred

by C.S. Forester

Genres: Crime
Pages: 192
Rating: one-star
Synopsis:

Mr Marble is in serious debt, desperate for money to pay his family's bills, until the combination of a wealthy relative, a bottle of Cyanide and a shovel offer him the perfect solution. Slowly the Marble family becomes poisoned by guilt, and caught in a trap of secrets, fear and blackmail. Then Mrs Marble ensures that retribution comes in the most unexpected of ways...

C.S. Forester’sĀ Payment Deferred is a horrible little story. I’m not saying it’s not well-written, but the protagonist is horrible in so many ways, and it’s basically the story of how he and his family become ever more twisted by a murder that he commits and then more or less successfully hides, for money (of course for money).

Mr Marble doesn’t seem like a great person to begin with, alcoholic and disinterested in his family, but murder brings out the worst in him, and the contamination seems to spread. It takes a long time for Mrs Marble to realise what’s happening (the portrayal of her is vicious and misogynistic), but eventually she too understands the murder, while the kids don’t, but definitely get twisted by the situation their parents have created.

If I hadn’t been reading this as a serial via Serial Reader, I’m not sure I would have finished it. It’s just relentlessly unpleasant. It’sĀ meantĀ to be — there’s no way Mr Marble is meant to be any kind of hero — but all the same, it’s not the kind of reading experience I generally enjoy. Still, it’s interesting as an example of a sort of inverted mystery, where the suspense is not “whodunnit” but “will he get away with it?”

Rating: 1/5

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Review – Cyanide in the Sun

Posted June 30, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Cyanide in the Sun

Cyanide in the Sun and Other Stories of Summertime Crime

by Martin Edwards (editor)

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Short Stories
Pages: 288
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

ā€œAll about them, happy holiday-makers were strolling and laughing, evidently oblivious of the prevailing perils of their chosen resort...ā€

A cold case of poisonings heats up at a quaint guest house. A string of suspicious murders follows a crime writerā€™s tour bus. Two seedy stowaways uncover an infamous smuggling ring. Everyone needs a break now and then, but sometimes getting away can be murder.

In this new anthology, Martin Edwards presents a jam-packed travel-case of eighteen classic mysteries, featuring short stories from crime fiction legends such as Christianna Brand, Anthony Berkeley and Celia Fremlin alongside rare finds revived from the British Library archives. Including intriguing notes on the stories and their authors, this volume is your ticket to a thrilling journey from 1920s seaside skulduggery through to calamity in 1980s suburbia ā€“ perfect for armchair travelling or your own summer getaway.

Cyanide in the SunĀ and Other Stories of Summertime Crime is, as usual, edited by Martin Edwards and collects a range of “classic” crime stories (where “classic” means mostly within a certain period of crime fiction, rather than “well known and has stood the test of time”, etc), this time themed around holidays.

There’s a surprising number of short ones in this volume, which makes it speed by quite a bit, and I feel like there was less reliance on the same few obvious names (though of course Christianna Brand, Anthony Berkeley and Julian Symons do appear), maybe. Perhaps the net is being cast a bit wider now, with so many collections already out there.

As usual, there were one or two I didn’t care for, but it’s an interesting collection as a whole.

Rating: 3/5

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