I bought this book last year and I realized that I never wrote about it. It’s an anthology of short crime stories, each one of which is related in some way to a Stephen Sondheim song. But not simply related to a song, most of the stories are filled with sly and not so sly … Continue reading Every Day a Little Death
Mysteries
The Sheep in the Meadow
I finally got around to watching The Sheep Detectives. I loved it. The movie has a fairly long genesis. A woman by the name of Leonie Swann wrote a mystery entitled Glennkill: Ein Schafskrimi that was published in Germany in 2005. It became an international best seller and is better known in English speaking lands as … Continue reading The Sheep in the Meadow
The Adventure of the Table Foot
Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, made his debut in Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887 and thereafter appeared in a series of short stories in The Strand Magazine. The character has been dramatized scores of times and imitated and pastiched and parodied both affectionately and otherwise. Apparently, it didn’t take long, as this story from … Continue reading The Adventure of the Table Foot
Brokenwood
I believe I’ve mentioned The Brokenwood Mysteries previously, but as the show has entered its 12th season, I thought I’d give it another shout out. It’s a police procedural set in New Zealand, and while it’s subject is murder mysteries, it always has an ample dose of light comedy. What I especially enjoy about it is … Continue reading Brokenwood
August 6, 1930
Joe was born on January 5, 1889, in Easton, Pennsylvania, the eldest of four children of Irish immigrants. Educated at Lafayette College and Columbia University, Joe met Stella, who was married, but they fell in love and with his legal education, he helped her get a divorce, after which they wed. Joe began his legal … Continue reading August 6, 1930
Dial Seven for Agatha
Regular readers will note that there are certain recurring characters in this blog. It’s rare that I go more than a few weeks without a mention of Stephen Sondheim, for example, or Isaac Asimov. Not quite at their frequency but still an often mentioned personage is the Queen of Crime, Dame Agatha Christie. Hard as … Continue reading Dial Seven for Agatha
What’s the Matter with Rachel Bennette?
“I like a good detective story, but, you know, they begin in the wrong place! They begin with the murder. But the murder is the end. The story begins long before that—years before sometimes—with all the causes and events that bring certain people to a certain place at a certain time on a certain day. … Continue reading What’s the Matter with Rachel Bennette?
What’s the Matter with Robert Graves?
Quote of the day: Very few of us are what we seem.—Agatha Christie Robert Graves, the writer of the novels I, Claudius and Claudius the God, which were turned into the successful BBC TV series I, Claudius, became friends with Agatha Christie and her husband during World War II when they found themselves neighbors. Although they dwelt in … Continue reading What’s the Matter with Robert Graves?
The Mother of the Detective Novel
Quote of the day: The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.—Voltaire Everett Raymond had been a junior partner in the law firm of Veeley, Carr & Raymond for about a year when a young man appeared at the office in the temporary … Continue reading The Mother of the Detective Novel
It’s Always the Coverup
Should you ever be in the market for what is known as a page-turner, you might want to give John Sandford’s Lucas Davenport series of thrillers a try. He’s been writing them since 1989’s Rules of Prey, although I’ve only been reading them for the last three or four years. There are 35 books in the … Continue reading It’s Always the Coverup