(This is for Carol.) True story: after acing my bar mitzvah at the tender age of 13, I told my parents that when I grew up, I did NOT want to be a rabbi - I wanted to be a movie star. My mom and dad exchanged a look – correct that: it was a Look – … Continue reading THE JUSTICE LEAGUE: My Ten (or so) Favorite Courtroom Cases
locked room mysteries
ABRA-CADAVER: Death and the Conjuror
Let’s face it: life these days has not been just a bowl of cherries. You might wonder, then, why I seem to only read books about violent death. The answer, for any fan of classic crime stories at least, is obvious: we read mysteries for the same reason that millions of souls gobbled them up between 1920 … Continue reading ABRA-CADAVER: Death and the Conjuror
PODCAST MANIA, PART II: The Crooked Hinge (with Flex and Herds)
“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)
DEATH AND DELIGHT ON THE HIGH C’S: Edmund Crispin’s Swan Song
Picture, if you dare, last month’s meeting of Book Club: We gathered on Zoom with grave faces, struggling to figure out how to fill the two hours with talk about a very dull book. As it turned out, we made short shrift of a desultory conversation about The Gutenberg Murders and devoted the bulk of our time in a group … Continue reading DEATH AND DELIGHT ON THE HIGH C’S: Edmund Crispin’s Swan Song
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
” . . . 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
IN THE QUEEN’S PARLOR: Ellery Queen Episodes 5 & 6
ELLERY QUEEN MYSTERIES: Episodes Five and Six We are on a roll and cooking with gas and every other mixed metaphor with two fine episodes. The first ranks as one of the top puzzles in the series and the second has one of the best casts. Plus, Frank Flannagan and Simon Brimmer continue to add … Continue reading IN THE QUEEN’S PARLOR: Ellery Queen Episodes 5 & 6
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
THE RATCHETT EFFECT: Kids Solve Krimes on Trains
I have to hand it to my pal JJ: through his regular feature, “Minor Felonies,” over at his blog The Invisible Event, he has been calling my attention to some amazing mystery novels written with young people (and the young at heart) in mind. Sure, my shelves are over-crowded and my pocketbook depleted, but I’m … Continue reading THE RATCHETT EFFECT: Kids Solve Krimes on Trains
RISING (FROM THE UNDEAD) CLIMAX: Murder on the Way – The End
It’s the moment that you’ve both all been waiting for: the chance to see me (and hear Flex and Herds, fellow sleuths and hosts of the Aussie podcast Death of the Reader) prove our mettle as armchair sleuths – or fall on our faces before the annoying superiority of blogger, podcaster and two-time book editor JJ McJJ of The … Continue reading RISING (FROM THE UNDEAD) CLIMAX: Murder on the Way – The End
Ah Sweet Mystery! 