LB's Rambles

"Smallbone Deceased"

It is distressing when members of a prestigious English law firm cannot find one of their prominent clients, the trustee of a charitable foundation. It is more distressing when that client turns up - quite dead - inside an oversized safe deposit box, or deed box. That's the situation in "Smallbone Deceased," by Michael Gilbert, which is reviewed on this week's "Classic Mysteries" podcast. You can listen to the complete review here.

Gilbert was a much-honored writer of all kinds of crime fiction, and "Smallbone Deceased" is widely regarded as one of his best books. It is a classic puzzle mystery, with the major clues made available to the reader who will be challenged to solve the mystery before the detectives can do so. First published in 1950, it is one of the few Gilbert mysteries available in print. If you're a fan of these puzzles, you'll enjoy it.

For more discussions about this and other mysteries, please visit www.classicmysteries.net and join in the conversation.

"The Longer Bodies"

Murder most British is on tap this week, as our "Classic Mysteries" podcast reviews "The Longer Bodies," by Gladys Mitchell. This novel, which first appeared in 1930, features the detective work of Beatrice Lestrange Bradley, a psychiatrist who helps the police - and who is sufficiently eccentric in her appearance and her behavior to be one of the more memorable detectives in fiction. You can listen to the full review here.

The plot is complex, but it begins with an old woman's plan to choose an heir for her rather considerable fortune by encouraging her grandnephews to train for the Olympics. Her idea is to award her estate to the first grandnephew to win an Olympic medal for Britain. If that sounds odd, let me stress that it is only the beginning of a most remarkable book that incorporates murder and a bit of madness as well.

If you are fond of mysteries from the golden age, or of other classic mysteries both before and after that era, I hope you'll come visit www.classicmysteries.net - that's where we continue our discussions about these fine vintage mysteries. Come on over and join the conversation!

"The Widening Stain"

This week's podcast review on Classic Mysteries comes with the due weight, solemnity and overall gravitas one would expect to find at a prestigious Ivy League university. Or maybe not. The goings-on in Morris Bishop's "The Widening Stain" were sufficiently irreverent and offbeat for Bishop, a Cornell University professor and later the school's provost, to hide behind the unlikely pseudonym of "W. Bolingbroke Johnson," which may have been a good career move. 

The book is marked by a significant number of funny limericks, some unfortunate professorial behavior, and a couple of murders, including a quite-well-done impossible crime. The Rue Morgue Press has brought this 1942 comic mystery back from relative obscurity - which is a fine thing for classic mystery readers.

And let me put in my weekly plug: for those of you who enjoy good mysteries, come visit me at www.classicmysteries.net and let's talk about them!

"The House Without the Door"

Our "Classic Mysteries" podcast this week takes us back to New York in the 1940s, in "The House Without the Door," by Elizabeth Daly. A criminal jury has acquitted a woman of the charge of murdering her husband. But public opinion believes she did it - and somebody may be trying to murder her as well. Enter Daly's sleuth, Henry Gamadge, a professional expert in rare books who also has made a name for himself investigating difficult criminal cases. If you don't know Elizabeth Daly's books, this is a good place to start. You can hear my full review here. And, as always, I invite you to join the conversation at www.classicmysteries.net.

"The Case of the Late Pig"

Interesting situation for Albert Campion: he attends the funeral of someone he knew at school, a bully named Pig Peters. Some six months later, he is called in to help solve a murder - and the body, murdered in the last 24 hours, is that of Pig Peters. A peculiar situation - and, for Campion, it will be a most dangerous case. It's "The Case of the Late Pig," by Margery Allingham, and the subject of this week's podcast review on Classic Mysteries, which you may listen to here.

Allingham was one of Britain's so-called "crime queens" of the Golden Age, and "The Case of the Late Pig" is, I think, a fairly strong entry. It is quite short, so there's little rambling, and we are given a limited field of suspects along with plenty of clues. It's a good mystery, a great deal of fun, with a lot of humor taking some of the sting out of a couple of quite nasty crimes.

Grade Inflation?

Are web reviews too positive? Maybe so. The Wall Street Journal says online reviews for just about everything average about 4.3 out of 5 stars. This in a medium which originated and defined the word "snark." Think of it, perhaps, as grade inflation for brands and products.

I wonder if that's why the Federal Trade Commission thinks that bloggers should be revealing any freebies or similar incentives to make nice towards specific products.

I suppose I'm somewhat guilty of it too - over at www.classicmysteries.net my reviews are mostly positive. That's because I'm looking for books I like in order to recommend them to my readers and friends; I tend to ignore the books I don't enjoy.

And - in case the FTC is reading this - I own or buy my books (or occasionally borrow them from my local public library). If you buy them from Amazon, and use my link, I get a few cents. I don't get review copies - which, since most of the books I review have been around for half a century or more, may not be particularly surprising. But don't you feel enlightened?

UPDATE: Hat Tip: IAB SmartBrief

"The Avenging Chance"

This week's review on the "Classic Mysteries" podcast is of a collection of short stories that really should be better known: "The Avenging Chance and Other Mysteries from Roger Sheringham's Casebook," by Anthony Berkeley. It's a Golden Age classic, dating from 1930, by a leading author who helped create the rules for the classic detective story, insisting, as he did, on scrupulously fair play for the mystery reader. You can listen to the full review here.

Berkeley was one of the founders of Britain's Detection Club, an organization which still exists today, although, as Wikipedia notes, "the fair play rules have been considerably relaxed." For those of us who enjoy the puzzle aspect of mystery stories, that's a pity. Berkeley is not well known today. He should be.

For more discussion of this and other mysteries, please visit - and comment - at www.classicmysteries.net.

"Bulldog Drummond"

Reading the original "Bulldog Drummond," by "Sapper," is a little like eating some junk foods - you know it can't be good for you, but it's irresistable and tastes good. So it is with Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond. From his first appearance in this 1920 book by H. C. McNeile, under the pen name of "Sapper," Drummond proved an immediate hit with audiences - both readers and moviegoers. And he was Ian Fleming's model for James Bond - a rough but cool, honest, patriotic man, quick with his fists and his weapons. "Bulldog Drummond" is the subject of this week's review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you may listen to it here.

The plot is very James Bond-ish: Drummond, newly released from the British army after the war, and bored with a peaceful life, becomes involved in fighting a vast international conspiracy aimed at world domination, complete with a super-villain (who appeared in several more books). It's a thriller in the classic mold. If you enjoy James Bond, you probably would enjoy "Bulldog Drummond."

As always, let me invite you to visit www.classicmysteries.net and join in the discussion of classic mystery stories. Your opinions and comments are welcome.

"Death at Crane's Court"

It's a curious fact that remarkably few Golden Age mystery stories were set in Ireland. One of the first to use Ireland as the primary setting was "Death at Crane's Court," by the Irish author Eilis Dillon. In the course of a long and prolific career, she wrote only three mysteries, all of them during the 1950s. "Death at Crane's Court" was the first, and it is delightful. A full review is featured on this week's Classic Mysteries podcast, which you can listen to here.

The story is set in Galway, at a residential hotel for elderly invalids - the kind of place where the ill and old may go to live out their lives. But it is the hotel's new owner who is found murdered, and it is up to the local police detective, with some assistance from a couple of the hotel's residents, to make sense out of the events. There is a fair amount of sometimes grotesque humor and some really bizarre events, but the mystery is designed as a puzzle for the reader, and it is very well done. The Rue Morgue Press is republishing all three of Dillon's mysteries; it's a pity she never wrote more.

As always, let me invite you to visit www.classicmysteries.net and join us there for conversation about fine mysteries. I hope to see you there.

"The Grey Mist Murders"

A slow cruise across the Pacific Ocean was a fine way to pass the time back in 1938. Or it should have been. Of course, when somebody gets murdered in the next cabin, it can somewhat dampen your enthusiasm. At least, that's what happens in "The Grey Mist Murders," by Constance and Gwenyth Little. The full audio review, as always, is available here, but let me add that this off-the-wall funny mystery is a good example of one of the better "Had I But Known" mysteries, the humor keeps everything moving along, and, if the heroine does seem to have a tendency to faint rather readily, well, it was 1938.

This week's book appears to have just gone out of print, but copies remain available through the Amazon links above (on which, as I always remind you, I get a small percentage). It's a fast and funny book and a pretty good mystery as well.

If you enjoy mysteries, let me invite you once again to visit at www.classicmysteries.net where you are welcome to join the conversation about favorite mysteries. Hope to see you there.

(UPDATED to fix spelling. Sorry.)