There’s a certain type of mystery plot out there that is really starting to get on my nerves. The plot isn’t confined to a single sub-genre. The book can be set in a charming English village where an elderly lady plays the role of amateur sleuth. It can just as easily be a tough-as-nails hardboiled story about a tough wise-cracking PI. But for some reason, many authors think it’s a clever idea to use the following twist ending: the killer is gay. What does the…
The comic book industry is in a tough place. Congress is getting set to examine the problem of comic books and how they defile the moral fabric of America’s youth. Angry parenting groups are burning comic books, and the industry is losing money. Enter Jack Starr, the Starr syndicate’s troubleshooter. Whenever trouble rears its ugly head, Jack has to go and take care of it, and Dr. Frederick’s passionate anti-comic-books crusade certainly qualifies. This forms the plot of Max Allan Collins’ excellent new mystery, 'Seduction…
The Agatha Awards nominations for contemporary mystery fiction have just been announced, and looking over the list, I am overcome with a wave of emotion: sheer apathy. I just don’t care about any of these nominations. I read plenty of new books in 2012, and I enjoyed myself for the most part. But come awards season, it seems to be a celebration of the bestseller lists and of the over-appreciated art of mediocrity. . . .
Your humble writer's parents used to employ the phrase, "the height of laziness," whenever they perceived sloppy execution of household tasks, farm chores, or homework. If either of them had taken up criticism as a vocation, they would've applied that phrase to 'Killing Them Softly,' a Brad Pitt vehicle abounding with artistic laziness. A film noir of sorts, 'Killing Them Softly' attempts an analogy between the bad actors responsible for the 2008 financial meltdown and criminals of every rank and social standing in a film…
The ION Television Network is presenting a good five hours of Christmas-themed mysteries for this day after Thanksgiving. From 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. EST, the network will show reruns of two episodes of Monk, two of Psych, and one of Leverage. They're all well worth watching. (Schedule details below; check your local listings for confirmation.) I was disappointed last year to find out , , ,
Tonight brings the season-ending episode of 'Major Crimes,' TNT's replacement for the popular 'The Closer.' 'Major Crimes' reprises nearly all of the police team from 'The Closer' and replaces Kyra Sedgwick's character with a new boss of the LAPD Major Crimes unit, Sharon Raydor (Mary McDonnell).The producers retained the police-procedural format of the show's progenitor, but they wisely have made sufficient changes to give this show a fresh approach. For one thing, they have placed a bit less emphasis on the central character's private life.…
Someone needs to buy Christopher Fowler a congratulatory drink. I’d do it myself, except I’m not in the UK. Here is a modern writer who understands that, generally speaking, a mystery is only as good as its story. And he comes up with a terrific plot idea in this one: 'Bryant and May and the Invisible Code.' Two children are playing “Witch Hunter” outside a church, and decide that a sad-looking young woman is a witch. “So how are we going to kill her?” one…
The newest book by murder mystery master Peter Lovesey, Cop to Corpse, follows a classic plot device: a serial killer is out there targeting policemen. Cop to Corpse opens on the third such murder by “the Somerset Sniper.” Three police officers walking their beat are now dead, a clean shot straight to the head by an expert marksman who chose ideal locations from which to fire.Lovesey has a good story to tell, and by gum he tells it. He doesn't forget about characters or atmosphere,…
There's good news and mixed news regarding British TV mysteries. A new Jonathan Creek movie may be on the way, and a new Father Brown series is already in production. S. T. Karnick reports.
The British crime drama series Whitechapel resumes tonight at 10 EDT on BBC America with the first episode of a six-part season three. It's worth watching—especially for those looking for a modern murder mystery that respects the classics of the form.Or, at least it seems to do so at present.. . . .
“It snowed all day and all night. On the 22nd it was still snowing. Snowballs flew, snowmen grew. Sceptical children regained their belief in fairyland, and sour adults felt like Santa Claus, buying more presents than they had ever intended. In the evening the voice of the announcer, traveling through endless white ether, informed the millions that more snow was coming…. More snow came. It floated down from its limitless source like a vast extinguisher. Sweepers, eager for their harvest, waited in vain for the…
To be sure, Ian Rankin, the leading figure in the so-called “Tartan Noir” movement, has been a powerful force in moving British detective fiction away from its cozy, genteel, village and country house gentry stereotype, but in his own day Freeman Wills Crofts did much the same thing, albeit more gently, decades earlier. Both series are well worth reading and discussing today—the two detectives share a defining quality, one that readers will find bracing in an era seen as rife with immorality and excessive concentration…
Halloween approacheth, a season in which it is particularly appropriate to read horror stories. One of the more unusual sub-categories of such tales is the one that melds the supernatural tale with the detective story (e.g., the Dr Taverner series by the occultist Dion Fortune). The fact that these elements are essentially incompatible make the successful ones rather remarkable. Perhaps the best one is the 1937 novel The Burning Court, by John Dickson Carr, republished this year by Langtail Press (www.langtailpress.com). Carr (1906-1977) is one…
Blessings be upon Felony and Mayhem Press (http://www.felonyandmayhem.com), which is currently engaged in reprinting all sixteen of the detective novels of Elizabeth Daly. (They are now up to seven.) Daly (1878-1967) ought to be even better known than she is. She came along at the tail-end of the so-called golden-age of detective fiction which emphasized puzzle plots and brilliant detectives, and she was one of the finest practitioners of that style. She was of a privileged background. Her father, Joseph, was a judge of the…
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