On a recent episode of Graham Norton’s chat show M. Night Shyamalan said there is no expiration date for spoilers. I agree. Just because a movie or a book is three months or three years or a hundred years old, if it’s any good, there will always be new readers or viewers waiting to be … Continue reading Spoilers
Books
Betcha Can’t Read Just One
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a mystery fan, having just read a satisfying Christie whodunit, must be in want of another. And after finishing Christie’s Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, I was rarin’ to tackle one more. As the next episode of the Poirot series was a dramatization of the 1955 novel Hickory Dickory Dock, I decided to … Continue reading Betcha Can’t Read Just One
So Much Blood…
Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? James Watts, Agatha Christie’s brother-in-law, complained that her murders were getting too anaemic. He wanted a “good violent murder with lots of blood”, so she wrote Hercule Poirot’s Christmas and dedicated it to him. The 1938 novel is classic Christie and … Continue reading So Much Blood…
Rian Meets Carr
Episode 579 of the Scriptnotes podcast, entitled Rian Johnson Returns, features, not surprisingly, a guest appearance by Rian Johnson. Rian Johnson is the writer/director of the Knives Out series of whodunits that began with Knives Out and is continuing with Glass Onion. The discussion is lots of fun, as John and Craig have a bit … Continue reading Rian Meets Carr
Murder After Christmas
Christmas seems like such a perfect time for a murder, doesn’t it? All the suspects, uh, I mean relatives, are gathered together in what is supposed to be, but seldom is, a joyous occasion. Perhaps that’s why there are so many whodunits centered around a Christmas theme. Including this little gem by little-known author Rupert … Continue reading Murder After Christmas
The Biblical Absalom
I’ve been hearing a lot of mentions of William Faulkner in recent months, and as I’ve managed to reach my maturity without reading any of his books, I’ve decided to try to rectify that. Given that even his longest novels are only a fraction of the length of Warren Pease, maybe I’ll have more success. … Continue reading The Biblical Absalom
The Bad Little Boy
Once there was a bad little boy whose name was Jim—though, if you will notice, you will find that bad little boys are nearly always called James in your Sunday-school books. It was strange, but still it was true, that this one was called Jim. He didn’t have any sick mother, either—a sick mother who … Continue reading The Bad Little Boy
The James Joyce Murder
In 2013 I found myself moving from a house in the Wissahickon neighborhood back into an apartment in Center City Philadelphia, and sadly one of the casualties of that move was the need to rid myself of most of the 2,000 plus books that I had acquired. Included in that hoard were the almost complete … Continue reading The James Joyce Murder
Fatal Detective
I don’t like stupid people. And when I say that, I mean I don’t like them in real life (I do my best to avoid them, although sometimes that’s just not possible), and I don’t like them in works of fiction. Of course, I make an exception for comic characters, who can be equal parts … Continue reading Fatal Detective
The Door Into Summer
While it’s hard to pick a favorite book among Robert Heinlein’s works, The Door Into Summer is most definitely right there near the top. It’s sort of a Count of Monte Cristo meets H.G. Wells’s The Sleeper Awakes, if I had to come up with a capsule description of it. Daniel Boone Davis, the narrator/protagonist of The Door … Continue reading The Door Into Summer