NGAIO MARSH: The Third Queen of Crime

The Tuesday Night Bloggers group was founded by Curtis Evans with the purpose of exploring a different Golden Age mystery writer each month. So far, I have had it easy! We started with Christie – and everyone knows something about her! Next came Ellery Queen. So far, so good: after Christie, I think I know …

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MAKING HISTORY: Two Movies to Gobble Up This Holiday Time

Some people mark the coming of Christmas as that time of year when the wife and kids bundle up into their warmest clothing, fire up the car, and head over to Target or Best Buy or Kohl’s for the Black Friday sales . . . all while Dad sits at the table and says, “But …

Agatha Christie’s THE THIRTEEN PROBLEMS: Part V

And now we come to the final four tales in this, my favorite Agatha Christie story collection. After the three male members of the dinner party at Colonel Bantry’s estate tell their stories, Sir Henry Clithering issues a complaint: “We are a company of six, three representatives of each sex, and I protest on behalf …

CHALLENGE TO THE LISTENER: Ellery Queen on the Radio

I have long been a fan of old radio shows, and for me the best show ever to hit the air was . . . not Ellery Queen! It was, without a doubt, Ol’ Blue Eyes himself, Jack Benny. Benny hosted a top tier program for nearly his entire career on the radio, and it …

Agatha Christie’s THE THIRTEEN PROBLEMS: Part IV

The second half dozen stories found in The Thirteen Problems were originally published in The Story-Teller Magazine from December 1929 to May 1930, eighteen months after the first six tales had appeared. This set differs in its cast of characters and its format: rather than a weekly meeting at Miss Marple’s house, these six tales …

Agatha Christie’s THE THIRTEEN PROBLEMS: Part III

It’s Thanksgiving Week, a perfect time for this Christie fan to indulge in reflection about one of her best short story collections. I think others like it, too; we who discuss the best of the best Golden Age writers have named ourselves The Tuesday Night Bloggers, in honor of the guests who met each week …

Agatha Christie’s THE THIRTEEN PROBLEMS: Part II

Grabbing at the chance to enter into the discussion about short stories over at The Invisible Event and always eager to talk about Agatha Christie, I thought I would spend the next few posts discussing The Thirteen Problems, Christie’s version of The Arabian Nights Tales that served to introduce everyone’s favorite spinster sleuth, Miss Marple. …