First published in 1927 and recommended to me by one of my classmates at uni, Dashiell Hammett is an icon in hard boiled detective novels. When you read his books you get a really good idea of how people must have spoken in those days and places. I won’t say ...
"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me." C.S. Lewis
Est. 2009
This is one of those phenomenal books that is actually good. I know I’ve read the translation but a good translation is going to be as good as the original rather than better, and this is very good. Having finally read it, only ten years after the translation was published, ...
I do enjoy a good murder mystery and I’m rather fond of cats. Not so fond of siamese cats as they tend to be rather more demanding than tabbies but as I’m not the one looking after these cats I’m happy. Don’t ask me why I’m talking about looking after ...
I’ve read Alan Gold before and found him a good read, this book was no different. Paired up with Mikes Jones Gold has produced a book which kept me spellbound. It’s set in Israel and opens us up to a whole new world of conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, I can see ...
If you’ve been around long enough you might possibly know that I’m in love with pulp magazines and have been since as far back as I can remember. It’s a love affair that shows in so many magazines on my shelf which include two I bought from the newsstand in ...
This was first published in 1940 using the pseudonym Raymond Marshall, and published again in 1961 with the name James Hadley Chase to bring it under the name where he did most of his writing. Neither of these were his real name. René Lodge Brabazon Raymond was his real name, but we all know him ...
The title of this book refers to The Monkey’s Mask by Dorothy Porter, a hard-boiled detective book written in poetry rather than prose. I’m not saying this book is poetical as it’s written in prose but it’s just a nod to the Porter book. Having said that there’s a quote from ...
There must be something in this book to keep me reading through to the end, it might have been that I wanted to find out if the protagonist actually managed to retire in one piece or it might have been the writing. Bumper Morgan is an LAPD patrolman, he’s decided he’s ...
The Murder Game – Joan Flanagan The premise of this book is interesting. You’ve got a rather demented host, both he and his family enjoy playing practical jokes on each other and their guests. This has been going on since the year dot and when host Bart decides to host ...
I’ve been collecting Agatha Christie for a very long time, if you’ve been reading here since the beginning you’ll have seen this little thought where I confessed they belonged to my sister first. I have a couple still to collect but they’re only three short stories so I’m just about there. I ...
Picked this book up in an op shop in Frankston. I bought it for the cover and the age of the book, it’s very distinctive as having been published in the early 1960s. I love it for that alone, everything else is a bonus. Ed McBain published under several pseudonyms, including that ...
My brilliantly named new series continues. Where I randomly select two books from my shelves and attempt to find a link. I do not promise it will be a good link, only that it will be a link. It might be anything at all. One thing I do promise is that the ...
The things one finds on a quick search! Having tantalised you I’m going to talk about the book first before telling you what I’ve found. You can either be patient and read through or ignore it and skip to the bottom. The Sad Variety by Nicholas Blake The Book! This is ...
Knights of Madness by Peter Haining Peter Haining is my all-time favourite editor, he’s put together so many of my favourite anthologies that I wouldn’t know where to begin to choose just one. Instead I’ll talk about the latest one I’ve read. Haining has been putting together anthologies for longer than I ...
The Cat Who Saw Red by Lilian Jackson Braun This is the fourth book in the Cat Who series. There’s only 29 mysteries in this series and unlikely to be more. Number 30 was cancelled when Braun died in 2011. You’ll find I scribbled a few words about the second book ...