SACRE BLEU! Caught Having a Good Time with Paul Halter

Those of you who have been kind enough to follow my excursions into classic mystery fiction know that along my reading travels there have been one or two travails, no more so, I fear, than my attempts to embrace Paul Halter, the modern-day French John Dickson Carr devotee and wannabe. God knows I’ve tried - …

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NILE vs. SUN: Fair Play With Spoilers

Over at The Invisible Event, JJ has compiled a list, voted on by an erudite assortment of fans, consisting of twelve titles that purportedly demonstrate the best qualities of a “fair play” mystery. It’s a list that does what these sorts of lists are supposed to do: it provides a jumping off point for arguments …

BRANAGH TO THE RESCUE: “Not Your Granny’s Christie”

This classic mystery fan is always grateful when the modern press pays attention to anything related to the Golden Age, so it was with great delight that I received my latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, only to find the cast of the upcoming remake of Murder on the Orient Express splashed across the cover. Kenneth …

ADIEU, GAMACHE: My Troubled Relationship with Modern Crime Fiction

“Adieu, Gamache” may sound like an allergic reaction, but I can assure you, this issue is nothing to sneeze at. Today I am calling attention to a fault within myself and, in true scholarly fashion, trying to assign the blame to others. Attend! I freely admit that I have contradictory tastes. I like my hotel rooms modern …

WHERE OCCUPATION MEETS OBSESSION: The Mystery Project Continues

In a previous post, I confessed (as we mystery lovers tend to do) that every year I force my drama students to submit to honoring my passion for classic mysteries by engaging them to come up with an original mystery play of their own. It’s a complex and difficult project, and many tears are shed …

CHRISTIE, CAMILLA AND THE CONCEPT OF FAIR PLAY

It’s a fine thing for a reader to expand his tastes, isn’t it? Having focused on classic mystery novels my entire life – and almost exclusively so over the past two years – it seemed like a good idea at the time to sign up for that Nordic Crime Fiction course at Stanford University. If you …

HELEN: What’s In a Name?

My life changed significantly on November 19, 2014, when I joined a group on Facebook called Golden Age Detection. It is one of the few events of my life connected to the Internet whose effect on me I cannot overdramatize. I have been reading classic murder mysteries for nearly fifty years, and I had experienced the …