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Classic Corner features mysteries from the past currently in re-release.
JANUARY - FEBRUARY REVIEWS MAN
ON THE BOULEVARD
Maigret comes into contact with several of the victim’s friends: the landlady of a rooming house, a middle-aged woman friend, a former circus acrobat, and his daughter. In his usual style, Simenon lets the reader speculate what the seemingly simple question-and-answer sessions reveal. One who says little or nothing may, in fact, be revealing important information. Simenon’s deceptively simplistic writing style hooks the reader from the first. He knows human nature and how it reveals itself, often unknowingly. His suspense and people grab the reader. Simenon is unbeatable.
MY
FRIEND MAIGRET.
Maigret is sent to a very hot Mediterranean island to investigate the
murder of a man who had boasted about his “friend” Maigret.
Maigret must take along with him Scotland Yard Inspector Pyke, who is
interested in the French detective. Maigret
checks into almost the entire island population shadowed by Pyke who seems like
a “serious-minded student.” All
the characters are vividly portrayed. NOVEMBER - DECEMBER REVIEWS
This
is a reissue of the very first Dalziel and Pascoe mystery, featuring the
wonderfully mismatched pair of
During
an overheated July in CLOSE
QUARTERS The
Dean of Melchester Cathedral is deeply distressed at the flurry of hate
materials directed against elderly senior verger Appledown. He is sufficiently
upset to break the customary isolationistic tranquility of the religious setting
to invite his nephew to take time off from his usual job at Scotland Yard to pay
a visit and take an unofficial look at what is happening. Just as young Sergeant
Pollock settles in and, with the aid of a map of the Close, helpfully reprinted
for the reader, identifies the residents of the locale, the unthinkable happens.
Old Appledown is murdered. With
customary diplomatic tiptoeing around the local constabulary to avoid stepping
on – well – toes, Pollock is joined by his superior, Chief Inspector
Hazlerigg, who leads an insightful and skillful investigation. As is typical in
such a small community, everyone knows everything about everyone else (or at
least they think that they do) and no one can twitch a curtain without several
witnesses spotting the action from behind their own hiding spots. Motives appear
sparse, and opportunity even more so. By careful reconstruction of the events of
the night of the murder, suspects get eliminated and the hunt narrows down to a
select few. Watching the pair of hardworking coppers track down the killer is
greatly entertaining and, despite the absence of deeply depicted
characterizations, they are a likable and admirable pair. This
classic reprint is the first novel by Michael Gilbert, a prolific British author
who won numerous prestigious awards during his lengthy career. Set in the Close
of a Cathedral that is marvelously similar to that of Salisbury Cathedral, this
is a cozy police procedural with classic red herrings, classic literary
references, and charmingly biting, tongue-in-cheek humor. There’s even a
crossword puzzle that plays a crucial role. An utterly delightful blast from the
past. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. THE
ARCHER FILES THE
ARCHER FILES includes
all the Lew Archer short stories featured in THE
NAME IS ARCHER and LEW ARCHER,
PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR plus two new stories and a section on Archer’s case
notes, as told to Ross Macdonald. Normally, I don’t like short stories, but in
this case this book reveals a side of private investigator Lew Archer not seen
in the novels. First,
there is the introduction, which is actually a history of Archer’s early life
up through the military, the police department and how, eventually, he becomes a
private investigator in Then,
there is a section of short stories
in which we meet a young Lew Archer. In several of the cases it Archer’s
understanding of what makes people do the things they do that helps him to
survive the brutal nonchalance of murder that takes place on an almost daily
basis. This quality also allows him to deal with drug dealers, blackmailers,
thugs, and people who think they are above the law and don’t have to pay for
their crimes. Following the short stories are a list of case notes that were
either used in some stories, or were just basic facts of a case that Archer
dealt with, but didn’t record into a story or news item. These notes show how
a private investigator takes facts of the case and tries to make sense of them,
especially when the facts tend to contradict each other. THE
ARCHER FILES is a
must have for people who have read the Ross Macdonald novels of Lew Archer. Or,
if new to the mystery reading field, this is a great introduction to a writer
who wrote some of the most complex mysteries featuring this private
investigator. This is a collection that fills in the gaps in Lew Archer’s
compendium of cases. THE
WIDENING STAIN Professor
Coffman, a member of the psychology department at an august Ivy League
university, has got it all figured out when it comes to why his colleagues
couldn't possibly be guilty of a violent crime. The way he sees it, "People
on the faculty as a rule know enough about psychology, including their own, to
diagnose their own troubles. We work off our crimes in conversation, or in
imagination, or in reading. That's
what love stories are for. And
murder stories. Here's a motto for
the faculties: read a good book and keep the commandments."
That
may be good advice, but in practice someone on the staff may have done the
reading part but the individual has been more than just a little lax in keeping
the commandments. The body of a French professor found in the school's library
attests to the fact that someone has not only violated the "Thou shall not
kill" commandment, but also apparently ignored a few others as well. Enter
Professor Francis Parry, whose sleuthing abilities rival his unfortunate
penchant for creating limericks at inappropriate times. To counter the bumbling
efforts of the local police detective assigned to the homicide, Parry and some
of his colleagues take it upon themselves to
discover who was responsible for pushing Mademoiselle Lucie Coindreau
over the edge, thus violating the inner sanctum of the Wilmerding Library. A
reprint of a mystery first published in 1942, this comic whodunit was written
under the pseudonym W. Bolingbroke Johnson, the pen name adopted by Morris
Bishop. A Professor of Romance Literature at Cornell, Bishop also served for
awhile as the university's provost. A writer of light verse that often appeared
in The New Yorker, Life
and The
Saturday Evening Post, Morris had perhaps too much "fun" at the
expense of his own school, thinly disguised as "the university" in
this work. Fearing perhaps social repercussions at the time, using another name
seemed a wise course of action. Reputedly,
THE WIDENING STAIN was so well
received it went through a number of printings when it was first issued. Thanks
to Tom and Enid Schantz of Rue Morgue Press, today's readers can judge for
themselves if Bishop's "japery and inside knowledge of academic life"
are as amusing today as they were sixty-five years ago.
- Bob Walch THE
DANGER WITHIN In
1952, Michael Gilbert gave the mystery world a locked room murder set in an
Italian POW camp during World War II. The Rue Morgue Press re-release gives this
crime classic a new audience and reminds all mystery fans why the Brits have a
corner on the classic mystery genre. A POW
himself, Gilbert’s descriptions of camp life and routines has absolute
credibility and his characters run the gamut of the Allied powers, from Gary
Cooper look-alike American Air Force colonels to Royal Navy types with bushy red
beards. His Axis guards are a mix of brutal fascists and war-weary Italian
guards who are willing to sell almost anything for a price. When a
suspected German spy is found dead in a collapsed section of escape tunnel, none
of the prisoners cry any tears. It is only when the scene is studied more
closely that they begin to realize that they have a serious problem on their
hands. The alleged informer, a heartily disliked Greek soldier named Cyriakos
Coutoules, is found at the end of Camp 127’s longest escape tunnel, mere yards
from opening a route to freedom. The tunnel entrance is concealed by a trap door
that requires four strong men and pulleys to open. No one was with Coutoules
after roll call the night he died and the tunnel crew saw him alive at the time
the trap door was closed for the night. If his body is left where it was found,
the guards will discover his absence at the next roll call, destroy the tunnel
and set back escape efforts by months. The
escape committee decides to move the body to another tunnel, which has been
abandoned, report the death to the guards and pretend to know nothing about the
circumstances. When the fascists conclude that the death was murder rather than
an accident and announce that they will execute the British officer that they
believe was the murderer, the leaders of the prisoners decide that the truth has
to be discovered, fast. Enter
Captain Henry “Cuckoo” Goyles, a former headmaster, master tunneller and
amateur detective. Using all of the classic methodology perfected by Agatha
Christie for Poirot and Miss Marple, Goyles begins asking questions, watching
for reactions, and analyzing everything, pushed by the deadline of the upcoming
firing squad. THE
WAY SOME PEOPLE DIE When
Galatea “Galley” As
Archer’s investigation begins, he doesn’t see anything going wrong. However,
he soon learns that Galley has fallen in with a mobster, Joe Tarantine, who
might be responsible for the attempted murder of his boss, Herman Speed. It is
at the hospital where Speed is taken that Galley and Joe meet. From there,
things get even more dangerous as Danny Dowser, who lost a large shipment of
drugs to Tarantine, tries to get Archer to retrieve the drugs for him. Then the
murders start. Archer is looking for the connections when suddenly it all
becomes clear. With a resounding resolution, THE WAY SOME PEOPLE DIE, ends
with everything tidied up, as the mobsters get arrested and the murders solved. I really
enjoyed rereading this vintage Ross Macdonald mystery. This author knew how to
plot complex but readable mysteries. Using family as the main motive for
whatever could go wrong with a child or how the past could come back to play a
part in a modern murder, the author could spin a reliable and entertaining
mystery. THE
BLACK CURL Bill
Runson is not having a good week. The
head of a nameless company, whose cousin, Eliot, drinks a great deal and sponges
off him, he is being faced with a number of problems.
His stepmother, Irene, and her daughter, Madeleine, appear suddenly at
his house to visit. His housekeeper,
Mrs. Goodhue, disappears, and a Mrs. Reilly and her son, Joe, arrive; the former
to take the housekeeper’s position. And
then odd things happen. Joe,
immediately upon turning up, faints; he does that frequently.
A portrait of Bill is no longer on the wall, although it does later turn
up. The coffee is doped.
Bill awakens to find that the curl of hair on his forehead has been cut
off while he slept. The hair oil in
Bill’s bottle has been replaced with water.
But none of this matters when a murdered body is found in the bottom of
the refrigerator. And Dykes, a
police detective, turns up to investigate and another body turns up. This
delightful novel, the 21st and last of the Little Sisters, shows
their usual quickly made-out people, their humor, and their involved but
believable solution. They make some
valid points about human relationships. “They
(women) should have an interest outside of romance, as men do.”
Bill’s comment. Those
sisters well deserve to have their works reprinted, and they should now be read
by a new generation that loves light-hearted tales with ongoing suspense.
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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