Some of the best murder mysteries play out like nightmares. There's a narrative point when all the clues, suspects, and blood turn meaningless. I'm thinking of the multiple confessions in Death of Jezebel or the second beautifully presented murder in Whistle Up the Devil. It's a challenge to ground a story in reality and then… Continue reading Death in the House of Rain
I've been very satisfied with my Booksirens review service. It's effective at gathering a wide array of reader-types to get an honest consensus at a very affordable price. The quality of the reviews varies greatly, but they're generally good at summarizing the strengths/weaknesses and describing the genre and style. One of my favorite reviews was… Continue reading Review for Vampire
Brian Flynn's Fear and Trembling is an entertaining murder mystery with perhaps a bit more of the procedural about it than most of the books I read. Its primary strength is the personality of our Detective Anthony Bathurst who approaches his job with nary a hint of the tortured mentality afflicting so many brilliant sleuths.… Continue reading Fear and Trembling (along with a 2020 wrap up)
"...see everything, boys, I mean everything, the sex mystery exposed, red hot, sex in the raw, everything explained, plain down to earth unadorned, right before your very eyes, now it can be told, what papa did to mama, one dime only one dime, come and see for yourselves, the mystery of sex, only for a… Continue reading For readers who like it rough: Madball (1953)
Seishi Yokomizo's The Honjin Murders is a bloody locked-room whodunnit containing a lot of the typical tricks of our favorite murder mysteries. Like the best of the genre, it carries with it the somber feeling of old wounds causing present-day murder while still being self-aware enough to discuss it's own genre playfully. (I don't even… Continue reading The Honjin Murders
