tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59517942009-02-20T20:31:12.777-05:00Classic Mystery Stories of the Golden Age of Detection: Book Review PageWyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1127294197816043022005-09-21T05:09:00.000-04:002005-09-21T05:41:48.520-04:00

Dangerous D@ta...by lury_gibson (2001)How much do you want to know? Every move you take, every payment you make creates data. Personal data about you. Facts that exist in a timeless present, because nothing can ever be truly erased. Maybe it seems like individual facts don't matter. They're just a set of unrelated data, right? Dream on. Someone's looking through them. Sifting. Data-mining.

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1127277325538021682005-09-21T00:32:00.000-04:002005-09-21T02:18:33.970-04:00

I discovered this site from an article in "Time Magazine." I am not into Blogging, but do have this Blogger Site and need to publicize it more!Here is the Technorati posting link: mystery novels.

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1117496083000045462005-05-30T19:33:00.000-04:002005-09-21T02:12:21.156-04:00

This is one of the best of the Ellery Queen mysteries, although it is rather schizophrenic in structure as well as theme. It starts out with a classic ABC murder plot (a series of killings where the intended real victim is 'disguised' by being one of a group of apparently random murders by some maniac). Halfway through, the murderer is revealed by a bit of luck -- his mistake plus meticulous

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1101938462671212282004-12-01T17:00:00.000-05:002005-09-21T05:45:23.113-04:00

"The Mystery of 31 New Inn" (1905?)* and "The Cat's Eye" (1923) are two mystery novels by R. Austin Freeman with Dr. Thorndyke as the detective. Freeman is noted for pioneering 'scientific' detection, that is, forensic examination of the clues, and is really superb in doing that, although many readers complain that Thorndyke's encylopedic knowledge in all areas ranging from biology to archeology

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1089161826070132682004-07-06T20:56:00.000-04:002004-07-06T20:57:06.083-04:00

One of the early collections of classic detective stories was compiled by Willard Huntington Wright, better known by his nom-de-plume S. S. Van Dine. It comes with an excellent introduction in which Wright 'defines' what a detective story is -- as opposed to other kinds of popular fiction. He distinguishes four types of 'light' fiction vs. 'literary' fiction, but note that he doesn't mention the

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1088460888500757952004-06-28T18:13:00.000-04:002005-09-21T02:24:39.916-04:00

[This is not a thought-out review but a work in progress as I plod through this very long but fascinating book. Warning: Parts of this give away the mystery. If enough is said to encourage you to read the book, then don't read this entire critique until you have. -- Wyatt James]I am in the process of re-reading this unusual novel after some 30 years. So far I am really impressed. Collins was such

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1088460669935407792004-06-28T18:09:00.000-04:002004-06-28T18:11:09.936-04:00

This is arguably the first 'locked-room' mystery novel (1892 UK; 1895 US), that is, a detective story in which the puzzle aspect is the critical element of the plot rather than being an ancillary item, as it was in Le Fanu's Uncle Silas, for example. It is also a pre-Golden-Age-of-Detection prototype in that it follows the rules of 'fair play' by providing the evidence for the solution in the

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1082755463636896592004-04-23T17:24:00.000-04:002005-09-21T06:00:32.036-04:00

Hammett's most famous detective is Sam Spade, who appears only in this novel and three rather trivial short stories produced on demand from his publishers. This mystery became John Huston's classic movie with Bogart, Lorre, Greenstreet, et al., and lifted dialogue intact from this book -- that's how vividly written it is. One of the early but hardly surpassed (if ever) hard-boiled detective

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1081375913465102782004-04-07T18:11:00.000-04:002005-09-21T06:00:56.190-04:00

Ned Beaumont is the hero of this grim novel; he is the Fixer (nowadays he'd probably be called an Expediter) for a corrupt political boss, Paul Madvig. (Does that name remind you of Ludwig of Bavaria? Probably no coincidence.) While the main story is a murder mystery (who killed the Senator's son?), the episodes concern the ambitions, hatreds, rivalries, cowardice, and spite of the various

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1081039586337114952004-04-03T19:46:00.000-05:002005-09-21T06:01:17.836-04:00

Having recently read too many modern 500-page mysteries that arepadded out with kinky sex, bloodthirsty insanity, and protagonistscrippled by angst, I found it a pleasure to pick up "The Dain Curse"again (the other four Hammett novels will follow in quickorder). 160 pages or so of beautifully contrived workmanship. Ifyou'll allow the analogy, it is like the old mechanical Timex watch Ihad for

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1074066683278750482004-01-14T02:51:00.000-05:002005-09-21T06:07:00.923-04:00

There are only four books in this series, all written before 1933. This was still Depression-era and the authors wanted to publish as many books as they could and not overtax their publishers (and the reading public) with too many Ellery Queens, and they also wanted to introduce a new detective hero so as not to glut their Ellery readership. Later on (very soon), when EQ was became popular, they

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1073449691116653122004-01-06T23:28:00.000-05:002005-09-21T06:08:38.886-04:00

Somewhere recently on a mystery aficionado site on the Internet (forget which), I encountered favorable mention of a book from 1875 by Wilkie Collins of "Moonstone" and "Woman in White" fame. Never heard of this title before, but having some remains of an Amazon Xmas gift certificate, I sent off for a used copy.What a pleasant surprise! This is not as great a novel as "The Moonstone" (1869) but

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1067880011092805202003-11-03T12:20:00.000-05:002005-09-21T06:09:24.070-04:00

THE MOONSTONE (Wilkie Collins -- 1868)...or, The Perils of Giving up SmokingThe sub-title I have given this is a spoiler to the plot, but that should be no more of an issue here than the revelation to mystery fans that Stapleton was the villain in "Hound of the Baskervilles" or that the narrator of "Who Killed Roger Ackroyd" was the murderer. Franklin Blake, having given up his cigars because his

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1066360453852665982003-10-16T23:14:00.000-04:002005-09-21T06:09:58.913-04:00

Mr. Reginald Fortune, medical adviser to Scotland Yard, is, superficially, one of the Wimseyish "silly ass" brigade - g-droppin', epicurean, upper-class, with a monocle-spouting Scotland Yard chief, the Hon. Stanley Lomas, as Watson. However, there's much more to Reggie than this: Reggie Fortune is, like Father Brown or Mrs. Bradley, a sort of divine justice, willing to murder those whom the law

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1066360335835308912003-10-16T23:12:00.000-04:002005-09-21T06:10:21.923-04:00

Mrs. Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley, later Dame Beatrice (in 12 Horses and the Hangman's Noose, 1956), psychiatric consultant to the Home Office, is surely one of the most startlingly original and amusing detectives ever invented. Described with reptilian metaphors (her nickname - given to her by her secretary, Laura Menzies - is Mrs. Croc, she has a "reptilian grin" and "saurian smile", and

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1066341971511736652003-10-16T18:06:00.000-04:002005-09-21T06:10:42.116-04:00

There is something rather pathetic and nostalgic about Christie's laterbooks. Nostalgia is not an emotion one can properly apply to eventsor times before one's birth, but there is a pseudo-nostalgic appealin these books. "At Bertram's Hotel" captures this mood perfectly,even if one can quibble about how good the mystery is. The very settingis perfect and logical, even if it is totally unrealistic

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1074066540793408342003-07-01T02:49:00.000-04:002005-09-21T06:12:52.613-04:00

A period piece ... Not a detective story but an overelaborate and very gradual revelation of the way a mechanical genius used one of his inventions to counterfeit murder. Useful bits of lore about travel between New York and Boston in the twenties. -- Barzun and Taylor's Catalogue of Crime William Gillette (1855-1937), an American actor, was the definitive Sherlock Holmes on the stage

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1074066342118195682002-05-01T02:44:00.000-04:002005-09-21T06:16:21.440-04:00

The Murder of Sir Edmund Godfrey-- by John Dickson CarrI have just finished re-reading this book (after its sitting on my bedside table for months after my marathon re-reading of all Carr's other books last year -- this was just too fat and loaded with footnotes). A mistake, because this is one of the finest productions he ever did.Whether or not he 'solved' the murder, with or without help from

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951794.post-1066345225557421882000-12-31T19:00:00.000-05:002005-09-21T05:57:54.043-04:00

This is the first-posted Blog item for MysteryList. I do not yet know how to use it! The purpose of this Blog is to allow users of MysteryList to post book reviews. In order to do this, you must register at Blogger. Then when you have a userid and password, log on and add http://mysterylist.blogspot.com as a NEW BLOG. This will give you access to post to the site. To view the Blog Site at any

Wyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12626814141069945313noreply@blogger.com