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"Golden Age" Detective Fiction


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Just finished "Surfeit of Suspects" by George Bellairs, a late entry in the Inspector Littlejohn series.  This one was published in 1964, decades after the first one, but it maintained a very similar feel to the earlier stories.  A short commentary at the beginning expresses the belief that the tastes of the reading public had likely moved on from the style and settings of Bellairs's work by the time this story was published, but I for one am grateful that he didn't try to ginger up his novels with elements to make them more "modern."  

This story was well done and full of twists and turns as the "onion of truth" was peeled.  (Hey, Cole, I can make up expressions like that too.)  I just wish the LA Public Library had more Bellairs books in the digital library.  

Now I'm back to the Ellery Queen tale, "The Dutch Shoe Mystery," while awaiting the Ngaio Marsh book-that-must-not-be-named.  

R

 

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Have now finished "The Dutch Shoe Mystery" by Ellery Queen, the third novel in the series.  The title does tie in to elements of the story, although not in any immediately obvious way.  As before, there is a point in the book where the reader is told, "You now have all the information necessary to solve the mystery."  Nonetheless, the solution of "whodunit" was wholly unexpected for me.  

These Ellery Queen stories are an excellent "guilty pleasure" and I will now move on to the fourth book, "The Greek Coffin Mystery," next.

R

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1 hour ago, Merkin said:

The cat may be irate because you haven't remembered to feed it, Camy.

It? IT! I'll have you know she's a she, and very well pampered and taken care of. Better looked after than I am, if I'm honest. As, so she tells me, is her right.

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And now, at last, I have finished the fourth Ellery Queen book, "The Greek Coffin Mystery."  This one is noticeably longer than the last one (it's hard to tell because the ebook does not have actual page numbers but rather "locations," which run into the thousands), and the authors used this length to take the reader on a complex journey of twists and turns and false solutions before leading to the finale in which a totally unexpected person turns out to be the villain.  As in the earlier books, this one interrupts the narrative near the end to proclaim to readers that they now had all the same information Ellery had and therefore should be able to solve the mystery.  

What is most entertaining about this series is the language used by the authors.  A brief example (beginning of Chapter 26):

The day, as Ellery was to discover, had not yet ended.  For, with a telephone call from his father an hour later, the tree which had been planted by Mrs. Sloane's uneventful visit some days before blossomed and bore fruit with a horticultural fecundity as astonishing as it was unexpected. 

They just don't write 'em like this any more!  It's not all florid prose like this, but these little amusements pop up regularly.

The next book in the series is "The Egyptian Cross Mystery" and I foolishly did not look for it on the LA Public Library site until yesterday.  I had to place a hold, because not only is their copy checked out but there is someone else ahead of me on the hold list.  Perhaps in the meantime the Ngaio Marsh title-that-must-not-be-spoken will emerge from its hold status so that I can finish it.  The LAPL site says I will likely have to wait two more weeks, but it all depends on when the current borrower turns it in.

It may be time to look for another George Bellairs title.  😃

R

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Oh frabjous day! Callou, callay!  The long-awaited Ngaio Marsh title-that-must-not-under-any-circumstances-be-named has come out of "hold" and is now safely ensconced on my Kindle reader (for 21 days).  

So, alpaca nice lunch and find a place where I can finish the book before they have to call in the Merinos.  If worse comes to worsted I'll stay up late at night.  

R

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3 hours ago, Rutabaga said:

  So, alpaca nice lunch and find a place where I can finish the book before they have to call in the Merinos.  If worse comes to worsted I'll stay up late at night.  

R

Poor choice.  Read it in one day and you're out of reading material again.  Best to make it last at least another day, maybe two.

You did see the free ebook sites mentioned here yesterday, didn't you?  Bet you could find more old mysteries there.

C

 

 

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3 hours ago, Cole Parker said:

You did see the free ebook sites mentioned here yesterday, didn't you?  Bet you could find more old mysteries there.

I did, and specifically went to see what I could find in the mystery realm, but the pickings were somewhat slim and there was nothing that did not cost a couple of bucks or so.

R

P.S. -- I will undoubtedly fall asleep while reading it, so it will last for a bit.

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1 hour ago, Camy said:

Have I mentioned Charter's and Caldicott?

Yes.  But they are on film or television, not in printed books.  I have a very faint memory of recording some many years ago but I don't think I ever watched the recordings.  The recording quality I could achieve was poor. 

R

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Now I have finished my palate cleanser, “Death Before Breakfast” by George Bellairs.  A well-done whodunit and not overly long. By coincidence, literally as I was reading the last pages I received notice that “Final Curtain” by Ngaio Marsh, the next Roderick Alleyn novel, had emerged from the hold I placed on it at the library.  So that one is next. 
 

R

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2 hours ago, Cole Parker said:

Probably should start all the Agatha Christies next.

Well that’s the problem. I’ve read essentially every story written by Agatha Christie and watched all of the television adaptations of Miss Marple (both series) and Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) more than once.  I’ve seen various filmed versions of “Death on the Nile” and “Murder on the Orient Express,” not to mention the Margaret Rutherford Marple films. The whole point here was to find some new furrows to plow. And I would say it has met with some success, thanks to the suggestions above. 
 

R

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LESLIE THOMAS WROTE A FEW  BRITISH POLICE MYSTERIES THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO BE OKAY.  PERHAPS SOME OF OUR ENGLISH COHORTS COULD ENLIGHTEN US AS TO WHETHER THEY'RE WORTH PURSUING.

  • Dangerous Davies: The Last Detective (1976)
  • Dangerous in Love (1987)
  • Dangerous by Moonlight (1993)
  • Dangerous Davies and the Lonely Heart (1998)
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On 10/26/2021 at 6:38 PM, Rutabaga said:

I’ve read essentially every story written by Agatha Christie

Possibly not!

I found a site called 'I Write Like' where you can: Check which famous writer you write like with this statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them with those of the famous writers.

I tried various bits and got: Agatha Christie, Stephen King, Cory Doctorow, and Chuck Palahniuk.

Yay! Famous in my own lunchtime!

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