There's a moment late in John Dickson Carr's The Punch and Judy Murders when we are told that the earlier parts of the evening had been an adventure yarn, but now it was time for the psychological study. In other words, 2/3 of this novel was a North by Northwest/The 39 Steps hybrid, and the… Continue reading The Punch and Judy Murders
Tokuya Higashigawa's Lending the Key to the Locked Room is a humorous, rather gentle take on the impossible-crime murder mystery. It doesn't function well as a whodunnit (thanks to the paucity of suspects), but I feel as if it would be unfair to judge it on that basis. What it does exceedingly well is present… Continue reading Lending the Key to the Locked Room
Wow! John Dickson Carr's The Judas Window is a ripping impossible-crime whodunnit filled with bristling suspense and intelligence. It's the best Carr I've read since The Problem of the Green Capsule and my first unquestionable masterpiece of 2021. Believe me, I needed one! The Problem: It's the kind that's keeps you reading deep into the… Continue reading The Judas Window
Because The Plague Court Murders has plenty of enjoyable elements, I'd like to begin with its main flaw, one I consider entirely unnecessary, and one which has recently put me off reading another book. We're talking about the legend...excuse me...THE LEGEND. It works like this. 80 (or 700) years ago, this curse/murder/impossible event happened. Now,… Continue reading The Plague Court Murders
It's been a rough month. Besides contracting Covid and (worse) my mother getting it and going into the hospital, the bad-news Gods performed their usual magic last week and took Jinxy from me. In 2002, both of my cats died, leading me to forever give up on pets of any kind. The pain of saying… Continue reading I’ve just been taking a little break
James Scott Byrnside 