“This thing was wrong. Terrors should not be domestic terrors. It was like being told that in your own home you may completely disappear for four hours. It was like being told that in your own home you may open a familiar door, and enter not your own room, but a room you have never … Continue reading PODCAST MANIA, PART II: The Crooked Hinge (with Flex and Herds)
John Dickson Carr
A HALTER WITH BITE: The Mask of the Vampire
Let us consider the vampire. What other monster is simultaneously so alluring and so repellent? Immortal, eternally youthful, a creature whose method of attack has been compared in centuries of fiction as something akin to kinky sex! And yet it dwells in darkness, sleeps in a coffin, subsists on human blood, and is a close friend … Continue reading A HALTER WITH BITE: The Mask of the Vampire
NO SHIRT, SHERLOCK: Elementary, Season One
Somewhere between the Hardy Boys and Agatha Christie, some kindly relative introduced me to the World’s Greatest Detective with a collection of six or seven of Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous stories about Sherlock Holmes. I think the first story I read was “The Red-Headed League” where, even at the age of 8 or 9, … Continue reading NO SHIRT, SHERLOCK: Elementary, Season One
” . . . there are matters of which no jest can be made:” THE RED DEATH MURDERS
Well, it was bound to happen! A pandemic comes along, and you stop teaching. There’s nothing to do but stare at the walls, studiously avoid that mountain of books comprising your TBR pile, and desultorily post in your blog about this or that mediocre novel that you read in Book Club. And then – inspiration! You … Continue reading ” . . . there are matters of which no jest can be made:” THE RED DEATH MURDERS
BOOK CLUB FROM HELL!!! The Five False Suicides
I hate to start the new year with a sad fact, but reading, and the enjoyment thereof, has become a rare commodity. When I taught high school, I was disheartened by how few of my students carried around a book for pleasure. Maybe it’s the solitary nature of reading, or the lack of bells-and-whistles flummery … Continue reading BOOK CLUB FROM HELL!!! The Five False Suicides
BITING OFF MORE . . . (My 2022 Resolutions)
Here it comes – the moment when all the bloggers you visit try and entice you to keep coming back with our promises of things to come. Some of my plans are rather amorphous: I hope to do some spiffing up of the site itself so that Ah Sweet Mystery will be better organized, sport … Continue reading BITING OFF MORE . . . (My 2022 Resolutions)
BRAD’S BEST READS OF 2021
As book bloggers go, in sheer number of reads I’m a dismal failure. Don’t even try and compare me, say, to my friend Kate over at Cross Examining Crime who, even in a bad month (May, when she had to tend to the birth of five baby goats), reviewed thirteen books, ten more than my monthly average … Continue reading BRAD’S BEST READS OF 2021
THE 2021 ROY AWARDS: Baby, You Can Drive This Carr
As you scroll down the list of books we’re all including in Kate Jackson’s 2021 ROY awards, there’s great cause for celebration. No less than three titles by John Dickson Carr have been reprinted this year. Is it mere coincidence, or is it the sign we have been waiting for, signaling a great resurgence of … Continue reading THE 2021 ROY AWARDS: Baby, You Can Drive This Carr
DONE IN? DONE GOOD: Why It Has to Be Murder
In a recent post at The Invisible Event, one of JJ’s readers ended his response, full of interesting observations, with this: “Finally, a point that’s been bugging me for years. Why does so much detective fiction, especially the novels, focus on murder? Detective short stories, at least, tend to be a bit more diverse and focus … Continue reading DONE IN? DONE GOOD: Why It Has to Be Murder
ACDC PART NINE/BOOK CLUB ’38: Death in Five Boxes
I have just finished reading a review of Carter Dickson’s Death in Five Boxes, written by my pal, the Puzzle Doctor, and I must say – I am confused. Make that doubly confused. My puzzlement first stems from Book Club, of which PD and I are both members. Last month, you might have heard the collective groaning over the Zoom … Continue reading ACDC PART NINE/BOOK CLUB ’38: Death in Five Boxes
Ah Sweet Mystery! 