Fantastic Deities and Where to Find Them

I have never been very good at approaching my reading systematically. I will pick up whatever the heck I want to read, whenever I want to (or am able to). Thus, a look at my to-be-read pile will reveal a mish-mash of genres, authors, and page counts. Some books are barely longer than 150 pages, others are well over 1000. Dante’s Divine Comedy is palling around with a bunch of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels, and my Paul Halter omnibus can be found next to a Latin edition of Winnie the Pooh. Sometimes, I pick up a book that is extremely long, and then it takes me a long time to finish it. Which means that the review takes a long time to go up. Hence the delay since my last review. With this word of explanation, I’d like to begin talking about Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.

But before I do, let me answer the objection: “This is a crime fiction blog! What on earth are you doing reviewing a fantasy novel?” My answer is this: I have no answer for you. Technically, you could consider this a mystery novel – there is a mystery that is solved at a certain point in the novel – but I wouldn’t recommend approaching it as such. The reason I picked up this book is tangentially related to crime fiction – Bryan Fuller’s next project after the fantastic TV series Hannibal was a television adaptation of American Gods. I was intrigued by the description, and the book landed on my to-be-read pile. I felt like picking this book up a few weeks ago, so I did.

The Daft and the Furious

All the way back in September of last year, I absolutely lost it. If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you might remember September as the month in which I published a series of my mental breakdowns, disguised as a review of season one of the BBC’s Father Brown. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. Like the grizzled veteran of an action movie, who gets dragged in for “one last mission”, I’m back to once again do battle with the BBC’s Father Brown, mano-a-mano.

I’m a very big admirer of G. K. Chesterton. I love the man’s work, both as a writer of detective stories and as a spiritual writer. I’ll also admit I’m not an expert. I don’t know all the ins and outs of all things Chesterton. I own the brand-new, massive biography by Ian Ker, but I haven’t even gotten to the halfway point yet. I haven’t read Chesterton’s own autobiography for that matter (though I have read excerpts). I read Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man for the first time last year. All in all, there are people far more knowledgeable than I am on Chesterton’s life, works, and worldviews…

Twist Endings: You're Doing it Wrong!

It must be difficult being a writer. You spend so much of your time crafting a work of fiction which you hope will meet all the criteria. Trying to create credible characters, a good atmosphere, and a sense of time and place… and if you’re a mystery writer, you’re probably also trying to craft a good plot, maybe even one with a surprise twist ending.

Unfortunately, it seems as though the art of the twist ending has been lost. I have seen plenty of writers try their hands at twist endings in several mediums: in film, on TV, in books, on the radio… And sometimes, I see the same mistakes cropping up, the same heavy-handed clichés which make the twist ending very easy to guess with little-to-no brainpower. So I figured I’d compile a list of these approaches, the mistakes writers often make in trying to disguise their twist ending.

Now, I just want to be clear here: I’m not saying all of these approaches are inherently bad. In fact, many authors have done brilliant things with them. But I’ve seen the items on this list used very, very poorly over and over again. So if you’re planning to use this kind of twist ending, go ahead, but you want to make sure you’re not stepping into any of the obvious traps…

And so, without further ado, I present to you the post Twist Endings: You’re Doing it Wrong!

The Father Brown Maneouvre

It involves the suspects playing a merry game of ring-around-the-rosy, waltzing around the obvious, and saying things like: "My God, the killer could be absolutely any one of us! We are all suspects! Except Bob. Clearly Bob cannot be the killer. After all, he was having lunch with the Chief Constable in Nairobi at the time! Good old Bob. What a nice guy that Bob is. Good thing we can trust Bob! Because everyone else is a suspect!"

Dishonourable mention: This approach is named after the BBC series Father Brown, which first aired in 2013. It has the bad habit of going back to this method over and over again, as though it gets more shocking with repetition. This approach also shares much common ground with the Faux Christie Approach, in which the killer is the least likely suspect, and the least likely suspect is very obviously the least likely suspect. Father Brown has a bad habit of resorting to this twist ending as well.

Happy Birthday, Sherlock Holmes!

January 6th marks the official birthday of the world's greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes. And to mark the occasion, the good folks at Open Road Integrated Media have created an infographic of books and authors inspired by Sherlock. To celebrate, a review of one of these books can be expected later today... Ah, but which one will it be? Tune in soon to find out!

The Acquisitive Chuckle II: A Desperate Attempt To Milk Some More Pageviews Out Of This Recurring Series Of Posts

It's been a while since the last "acquisitive chuckle" post from me, in which I show off the newest additions to my library. In fact, the last time I did this, the series went through an unnecessarily-gritty reboot. In part, this was me trying to deal with all the unnecessarily gritty reboots floating around. It was also my attempt to deal with the confused numbering of the series. But I'll link to them all at the end of the post either way, so you can see the way this series has evolved over time.

Anyways, where was I? Oh yes, my newest acquisitions. I was recently visiting relatives in my old hometown of Windsor, Ontario. There's one bookshop there which I make a point of visiting whenever I can. My visits are separated by three-four months, and as a result, they always have something of interest there. This visit was no exception. According to my sister, who witnessed the carnage, I was worse than a little kid at a candy store, jumping in and out of aisles, giggling with insane glee as I pulled one book after another down from the shelves.

So just what kind of haul did I get away with? Well, let's get started with the meat of the post:

From left to right, the books pictured above are Douglas G. Browne's Too Many Cousins, Leonard Holton's A Touch of Jonah, and Cameron McCabe's The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor. I loved Holton's The Saint Maker, which I read earlier this year. McCabe's book got a lot of praise from Julian Symons in Bloody Murder. And Browne is a name I'm familiar with from Curt Evans' essay Was Corinne's Murder Fairly Clued?, in which one of Browne's books (not this one) plays a major role.

It might come as a shock to anyone who remembers how much I hated the book, but I decided to purchase my own copy of The Long Goodbye. As it turns out, this isn't a first edition -- a careful search turned up that it was a book club edition -- but that makes no difference to me. The cover is still gorgeous and the voice at the back of my head said it'd look great on my shelf. As for my negative review, well, I was taking issue with Chandler on grounds that were, in retrospect, hugely unfair, even though I was convinced (at the time) that I was right. I really should give Chandler and this book in specific a second shot.

Above are three books by August Derleth, all starring his detective "Solar Pons" (who is basically Sherlock Holmes but not Sherlock Holmes, from what I hear). They are (from L to R) The Reminiscences of Solar Pons, Mr. Fairlie's FInal Journey, and The Adventures of Solar Pons. I've never read these books but look forward to them.

My first taste of Chesbro came with the deliciously surreal The Beasts of Valhalla. After that kind of whizz-banger of an introduction, can you blame me for going out and getting a pair of his books? I got these books - An Affair of Sorcerers and City of Whispering Stone - for only one reason: they have kick-ass titles. No, really, I love the sound of these titles, and I want to know what exactly is going on from that alone.

William Heyliger's Detectives Inc. was one of the books I got from the basement of the bookstore, which is devoted to hardcovers. This one caught my eye because it was so obviously old. On the inside is an inscription, which comes complete with its own Eerie Coincidence (brought to you by the ghost of Harry Stephen Keeler):

"To Pat
From Mother
Christmas 1942"

Seeing how my name is Patrick, I decided then and there that it was meant to be, and I added the book to my pile.

The books pictured here are Jack Finney's The House of Numbers and Herbert Brean's Dead Sure. All I know about Finney is that he is the guy behind the story that inspired Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I've never read any of his fiction, but I've heard great things (especially from Jon L. Breen in the collection A Shot Rang Out). As for Brean, the name had a vague familiarity to it, so trusting my wild impulse, I purchased the book without remembering why the author's name was familiar.

Loren D. Estleman is not an unfamiliar name to me, as I've read his Sherlock Holmes pastiches (in which Holmes meets Dracula and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde). I went with Jitterbug because the story sounds interesting. As for Harold Q. Masur, I've heard good things but have yet to read any of his books, so I decided to pick a book which I'm pretty sure I don't own yet, Make a Killing.

I was excited when I came across Alan Green's They Died Laughing, a book which I was half-convinced was merely a myth. I enjoyed Green's debut mystery, What a Body!, which is an excellent comedy and an interesting (but flawed) impossible crime novel. David Goodis, represented here by Black Friday, is not an unfamiliar name, but I have yet to read any of his books. As for the third book, it comes from The Saint Mystery Library, and it's a Craig Rice story entitled "The Frightened Millionaire". As someone who loves Rice's work, this was a very exciting purchase indeed.

Well, folks, that's what I left the store with. Hopefully these books live up to the promise of whatever-it-was-that-convinced-me-to-buy-them! Hope you enjoyed the piece!

Previous articles in this series (now unnecessarily rebooted and grittier than ever before):

http://at-scene-of-crime.blogspot.ca/2012/03/showing-off-recent-acquisitions.html

http://at-scene-of-crime.blogspot.ca/2012/04/acquisitive-chuckle.html

http://at-scene-of-crime.blogspot.ca/2012/07/acquisitive-chuckle-ii-return-of.html

http://at-scene-of-crime.blogspot.ca/2012/10/the-acquisitive-chuckle-iii-its-really.html
http://at-scene-of-crime.blogspot.ca/2012/11/the-acquisitive-chuckle.html

Of Shoes and Ships and Cereal

I might as well have tried to explain to a man dying of thirst that the water was being saved to do the laundry with.

- Archie Goodwin, The Silent Speaker

If you’re a regular visitor to this blog, you of course know by now that I love the work of Agatha Christie. She is the original Queen of Crime, the woman who introduced me to the world of detective fiction. For a long time she was my favourite author; with books like A Murder is Announced, Five Little Pigs, And Then There Were None, and Murder on the Orient Express to her credit, I consider her one of the most important figures in all of detective fiction.

Unfortunately, her popularity and historical importance have one major drawback, in that they’ve spawned a group of haters who mindlessly claim that Christie is psychologically shallow, a hackneyed writer repeating old clichés, “cozy”, naïve about sexual matters, or just plain “bad”. The most cursory look at Christie’s work is enough to dispel these notions, but the public perception of Christie has been influenced by many factors. And one of the most fatal is that Christie’s grandson, Matthew Prichard, is willing to put his grandmother’s name on just about anything.

Perhaps you’ve guessed what the subject of this article is going to be. If not, perhaps you haven’t heard the news yet. Well, last week reports surfaced that the Agatha Christie estate (read: her grandson, Matthew Prichard) has commissioned a brand-new Hercule Poirot novel, to be written by author Sophie Hannah. This book is expected to hit bookshelves next year. And if you look really carefully at the publicity photos, you can see that Matthew Prichard’s eyes have dollar signs in place of their pupils.

Have you heard about The Murder Room?

I’d like to flash back to almost two years ago, if you’ll permit me. Back in December 2011, I made a post called The Great E-Book Debate, in which I shared:

- That I, of all people, had just purchased a Kindle
- Six reasons I purchased a Kindle
- My initial impressions of the device

Much has changed since then. For one thing, I no longer use that Kindle which I was so proud of – I’ve since upgraded to the Kindle Paperwhite, a magical device that allows me to read pretty much any time, anywhere, under any lighting conditions.

But the technology is not the only thing that’s changed. A lot of e-books have been published since December 2011. Many of them are brand-new works, but just as many are reissues of classic mystery novels – exactly the kind of stuff I want to read. And one more major publisher has joined the game, and I’d like to take some time to shamelessly promote this publisher.

The Murder Room describes itself as “an online portal devoted to bringing hard-to-find or out-of-print crime classics to a brand new audience”. I’m glad to report that they certainly live up to that promise. If, like me, you’re a fan of classic crime fiction, you might experience a shudder of pleasure as you browse through their online catalogue. Where else will you find Margaret Millar’s name within scrolling length of J. J. Connington’s?

There’s plenty of material being brought back to print by The Murder Room. And as a result, you’ll basically find a book for anyone’s reading tastes in their catalogue. If you’re a fan of noir, you can find several books by Jim Thompson, including his infamous The Killer Inside Me. Or maybe you like thrillers with non-stop action – perhaps James Hadley Chase’s No Orchids for Miss Blandish might suit your taste? Maybe you enjoy intelligent detective stories with twist endings, but with clues planted everywhere pointing to the killer. In that case, I highly recommend J. J. Connington’s work, and Anthony Boucher is also rather good in this regard. Or maybe you want a good story involving a locked room? John Dickson Carr’s your man. All of these authors are available from The Murder Room.

And I’ve got plenty other names I could mention, authors well worth your time. Names like Ronald Knox, Stanley Ellin, Anthony Gilbert, Joe Gores, Jonathan Latimer, Donald Thomas… Or how about Dorothy Uhnak, a respected police procedural writer who won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel for The Bait… which is also available from The Murder Room! (You can read more about Uhnak here, where you’ll find a great piece full of enthusiasm written by Sarah Weinman.)

The great thing is, even if you don’t own an e-reader, you can take advantage of The Murder Room’s catalogue. Many of their books are available as e-editions and print-on-demand books.

So why this post? Am I being paid to advertise? Is this part of an elaborate tax dodge? Well, no. I have two reasons for writing this piece. The first reason is to share news of The Murder Room’s existence: you can’t imagine how happy I was to find out about them. If anyone out there is desperately searching for one more Bill Crane mystery or that one Ronald Knox novel, this is a great place to look for them. And from what I hear, more great stuff is on the way. For instance, several Elizabeth Ferrars titles are being shown in the Kindle store as available for pre-order... and I have heard that one Helen McCloy might be finding her way back into print quite soon!

The second reason is that this post forms a nice introduction to tomorrow’s review, of a book written by an unfairly-neglected author… and which has been brought back to life by The Murder Room. Intrigued? Then come back tomorrow and find out just who is this Alternative Queen of Crime!

The Sound and the Fury

Do you have any idea how long it’s taken me to write this post? I’ve been trying to sit down and write a review of Father Brown for months, ever since the first episode aired. I thought the first episode was decent – not particularly good, but not out-and-out terrible either. But it didn’t inspire me in any way. I didn’t feel like watching more of the show, nor could I write a half-decent review of the first episode. Along with Elementary, it’s one of the few things I’ve watched which I simply couldn’t review. I tried and I tried, but everything I wrote seemed absolutely terrible. I even tried writing a post comparing the flaws of Elementary with the flaws of Father Brown, and abandoned it after writing two pages. Even in that aborted attempt at a post (abandoned in mid-May), I complained about just how difficult it was for me to write a review about Father Brown. Here is the relevant excerpt:

***

G. K. Chesterton’s original tales are remarkable works, some of the finest short stories ever written. Father Brown solves mysteries not with the dropped handkerchief or burnt cigarette ash, but with his knowledge of the human spirit and the evil of which it is capable. And how did he get this knowledge? His religion: as a priest, he has seen all kinds of evil and has heard it in the confessional booth. I’m afraid, however, that someone at the BBC missed the entire point, and like the editor in The Purple Wig, decided that “God” should be replaced by “circumstances”.

Elementary, My Dear Holmes!

The new issue of Mysterical-E is now up after a delay, and I'm back with a column I wrote back in November. The column is entitled Elementary, My Dear Holmes! and you can find it here. In the column I take a very general look at some notable Holmesian pastiches, both good and not-so-good. I spell out my conclusions about Sherlock and its American derivative, Elementary, and why one show gets Holmes so right and the other gets Holmes so wrong. 

Note: Unfortunately there are no accompanying images to break up the block of text, but some day I will reprint the article on here complete with illustrations.

"At the Scene of the Crime" celebrates two years online!

Wow.

Honestly, that's all I can say. I opened up a Blogger account and created At the Scene of the Crime two years ago today. Long-time readers might recall that my debut post was a video review, to date the only one I've done. It's also one of my very worst reviews, and I'm surprised that after a video like that I wasn't chased off the Internet by a group of irate readers armed with knives and pitchforks.

But no, the mystery blogging community is a very forgiving one, and I soon found myself doing reviews on a regular basis. I've re-discovered some old favourites, and I've found new ones. I became an avid e-book reader thanks to The Mysterious Press. I've gained an appreciation for subgenres that I may have marginalized before starting this blog. I got to virtually meet some authors that I've admired tremendously, such as Paul Halter, Peter Lovesey, and René Reouven. I finally met my match in Harry Stephen Keeler. I re-read the entire James Bond series. I've finally discovered a story about the giant rat of Sumatra that has left me satisfied! (Tune in for that within the next week.) I grew a beard and shaved it off. The blog went through two major redesigns. I even started getting enough spam comments to be forced to remove Anonymous commenting! (I apologize to all users who do not wish to sign up for a Google account, but the spam was rapidly getting out of control one week, and it was all coming from anonymous spammers. I think I removed all traces of their visits, but if you spot one of their comments lying around feel free to let me know.) In general, the last two years have been a bit of a crazy ride.

Thank you for everyone who stops in to read this blog! Your encouragement, as well as the discussions we've had (both agreements and disagreements), have helped to fuel my enthusiasm for the last two years.

Last year, to commemorate my one-year anniversary, I held a month-long celebration full of crossover reviews and articles. However, I realized that I had no way to top such a performance this year. So I decided early on that I had no intention to try. Instead, I decided to commemorate this anniversary in a smaller way. I began earlier today by posting my review of Jeffery Deaver's Carte Blanche, the very first James Bond continuation that I've read.

The second part of the celebration has been a long time coming: it's the second episode of Fair and Foul Play. This was delayed by exams and by the blog redesign, and I hope readers will forgive me. I didn't intend to have such a delay between the two parts of an episode, and it won't happen with the next episode. There might, however, be a longer delay between episodes, i.e. the end of episode 1 and the start of episode 2.

But to return to the subject at hand, I hope you will enjoy listening to the conclusion of the "mysteries in audio" segment of Fair and Foul Play. In this conclusion, I rejoin Sergio for a discussion that picks up where we left off discussing audiobooks, radio plays, and other mysteries set in the world of audio. Due to some tech issues, the images I used to illustrate the video all disappeared and I cannot explain why, but the audio itself is intact. I therefore suggest listening to this video as though it were a radio broadcast, which is only appropriate considering the subject matter. (And hopefully YouTube will be more co-operative next time!) I made some minor tweaks to the opening credits, but the show's format remains unchanged.

All Aboard the Cliché Train!!!

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 author of such a tale expect me to do? Throw my hands in the air and scream “Oh, my God!!! A gay person!!! I thought they were only mythical creatures that hid in forests, picked berries while the moon was full, and secretly stole pens whenever you needed them!” This twist ending has long outgrown its shock value… and its welcome. And the ending has introduced a brand-new set of clichés to the genre, clichés I’m sick of seeing.

Apathy. Sheer Bloody Apathy.

The Agatha Awards noms have been announced, and looking over the nominations list, I am overcome with a wave of emotion. That emotion is 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 underappreciated art of mediocrity.

But don’t worry, I’m just being a jackass today, and after I finish writing this piece I’ll go to a corner, sulk and cry myself to sleep, all while pondering on my various psychological issues, caused by my mother not hugging me enough when I was a child. At least, that’s the only explanation I can come up with. I should be excited! It’s award season! We’re celebrating the cream of the crop— the very best that the mystery field had to offer in 2012! I should turn that frown upside down, grab a martini (shaken, not stirred) and talk about how brilliant all these novels were.

Well, no. I refuse. I’m reminded of a scene in Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Our heroes were subjected to the third-worst poetry in the universe, and are asked by the poet, a heartless Vogon, what they thought of it. And they babble on about how the rhythmic devices counterpointed the surrealism of the metaphors and nonsense like that. I’ve taken English classes before, and I have written essays praising some unreadable crap as masterful literature. You can do that with anything. There’s just no honesty in it.

A Look Back on 2012 and a Look Ahead to 2013

Well, it’s New Years Day today, which means it’s a time for reflections, resolutions, and the like. So today I thought I’d spend some time looking back on the year that was 2012 and giving you all some hints as to what you can expect come 2013.

2012 was an interesting year by any definition. Back in January, I watched and reviewed the second series of Sherlock, one that was far more rewarding and intelligent, I felt, than the first series. And then to end the month I got to “meet” and interview Paul Halter, an author I’ve long admired. It was a fascinating discussion where I asked M. Halter about his more recent work, work that wasn’t covered in Roland Lacourbe’s excellent interview for the simple reason that so much had yet to be written.

Cyber Monday Madness!!!

Yesterday was Cyber Monday, and to celebrate, The Mysterious Press marked down prices on all its titles by 80%. I'd be a fool not to take advantage of such an opportunity in the Kindle store, and so I merrily made my way through the publisher's catalogue on my Kindle Paperwhite. I took advantage of this sale to complete my e-collections by Charlotte Armstrong and David Handler, and made some serious headway on the Stuart Kaminsky, Ron Goulart, and Ross Thomas fronts. And then just for fun I got some random Edgar winning titles. And then just for fun I listened to recommendations. And then, for even more fun, I picked a few random titles that seemed interesting. So when the dust settled, I ended up with 38 new Kindle books. Here they are below, grouped by author:

I bought this one days before the sale.

THE BETTER TO EAT YOU – Charlotte Armstrong

A LITTLE LESS THAN KIND – Charlotte Armstrong

CATCH-AS-CATCH-CAN – Charlotte Armstrong

THE BLACK-EYED STRANGER – Charlotte Armstrong

A DRAM OF POISON – Charlotte Armstrong

THE SEVENTEEN WIDOWS OF SANS SOUCI – Charlotte Armstrong

THE INNOCENT FLOWER – Charlotte Armstrong

THE TURRET ROOM – Charlotte Armstrong

THE CHOCOLATE COBWEB – Charlotte Armstrong

THE UNSUSPECTED – Charlotte Armstrong

THE GIFT SHOP – Charlotte Armstrong

THE JACK LEVINE TRILOGY – Andrew Bergman

THE THREE-CORNERED HALO – Christianna Brand

DEADLY IMAGE – George Harmon Coxe

FASHIONED FOR MURDER – George Harmon Coxe

HOPSCOTCH – Brian Garfield

BIG BANG – Ron Goulart

BRAINZ, INC. – Ron Goulart

ONE GRAVE TOO MANY – Ron Goulart

THE BOY WHO NEVER GREW UP – David Handler

THE MAN WHO LIVED BY NIGHT – David Handler

THE MAN WHO DIED LAUGHING – David Handler

THE MAN WHO SHOT LEWIS VANCE – Stuart Kaminsky

NEVER CROSS A VAMPIRE – Stuart Kaminsky

A COLD RED SUNRISE – Stuart Kaminsky

FIRES OF LONDON – Janice Law

NIGHT OF THE TOADS – Dennis Lynds

JEOPARDY IS MY JOB – Stephen Marlowe

KILLERS ARE MY MEAT – Stephen Marlowe

DANGER IS MY LINE – Stephen Marlowe

THE GREAT DETECTIVES: THE WORLD’S MOST CELEBRATED SLEUTHS UNMASKED BY THEIR AUTHORS – ed. Otto Penzler

THE HIGHBINDERS – Ross Thomas

PROTOCOL FOR A KIDNAPPING – Ross Thomas

THE SEERSUCKER WHIPSAW – Ross Thomas

THE COLD WAR SWAP – Ross Thomas

CAST A YELLOW SHADOW – Ross Thomas

THE FOOLS IN TOWN ARE ON OUR SIDE – Ross Thomas

You should see me right now-- I'm as pleased as the cat who knows perfectly well where the canary has disappeared to. This should keep me out of trouble for the next two days. (*wink, wink*) I hope people saw the sale in time to take advantage of it-- and hopefully the Mysterious Press does this again next year! Here's to the wonders of discovering new authors!

The Acquisitive Chuckle

Regular readers of mine are probably aware, by now, of this semi-regular “showing off acquisitions” series, which due to a lack of originality from my part is undergoing a reboot today. I don’t have much to share this time but what I do have to share is fairly major. And so without further ado, let’s get down to business. Well, pictures speak louder than words, so let this image speak for itself:

That’s right, the complete set of Columbo arrived for me just this morning, after I began worrying it may have been lost in the mail. This is a terrific series starring the late, great Peter Falk in the titular role. I’ve only seen a handful of episodes, watching the series sporadically, but I liked every episode very much, and now I’ll have the ability to catch up with the entire series. I look forward to it.

The Acquisitive Chuckle III: It's Really the Fourth Entry in the "Showing off Acquisitions" Series, but Only the Third to Use "The Acquisitive Chuckle" in the Title

Well, folks, it’s been a while since my last update on acquisitions. And believe me, there have been plenty of acquisitions in the interim. My biggest haul was pulled off lately when a local used bookstore, which just closed down, held a huge final sale in which prices were ridiculously low. How could I not take advantage of these deals? There are plenty of books to cover and I know I’ll manage to forget some, so let’s get right to it!

The Acquisitive Chuckle II: Return of the Chuckling

Hello everybody and I’d like to welcome you to another edition of me bragging about recent acquisitions of mine. This is the part of the show where I pretend to post in order to inflate my statistics, as well as taking advantage of an opportunity to just get up and brag about the newest additions to my collection. It’s been a long time since I’ve done this and there have been many acquisitions along the way—I wouldn’t be surprised if I managed to forget something along the way! So let’s get started.

 

The Acquisitive Chuckle

Well, folks, it’s that magical time when you’ve just received a bunch of books in the mail and are hopping around the room for joy. And so I thought to myself—why not show off my acquisitions? Granted, there’s no ultra-rare-holy-hell-am-I-ever-jealous edition among these books, but nonetheless I am rather proud of the newest additions to a region of my room called Mount To-Be-Read. It will soon require its own tectonic plate…

Showing Off Recent Acquisitions

I recently made many new acquisitions to my book collection, many of them in French. Those of you who read this blog regularly will by now know that I regularly read and review French mysteries on here, especially the work of Paul Halter. But there are some other authors whose books I’ve acquired recently, and I’d like to take this time to show off the new books—these are French mysteries you can look forward to my reading and reviewing in the near future, with a few more in the mail that I expect next week. What is the point of all this? Well, I want to show off, and since I have a blog, I can do it. The regularly-scheduled programme will be back soon enough.

First up, we have the work of Paul Halter. I bought a used copy of Le Mystère de l’allée des Anges (The Mystery of Angels’ Lane; right) as well as a copy of his brand new young adult novel Spiral.

Next is an author I am not familiar with: Martin Méroy. From right to left, the books (with titles translated into English) are: Lead for the Family, Silence—We Kill!, Murder in a Dark Room, and A Knife in the Wound. Blogger TomCat has reviewed two of these books on his blog, and one (Murder in a Dark Room) even made it onto his list of best locked-room mysteries. (Of course, the list’s reliability is challenged by the inclusion of What a Body! and The Curse of the Bronze Lamp… I’m kidding, I’m kidding!)

TomCat also reviewed the next author featured here: Maurice-Bernard Endrèbe. His review of Elvire à la tour monte (Elvire Climbs the Tower) was far from enthusiastic, however, and he tore its impossible crime to shreds. (I’ve since found out what the ending was, and I must agree it’s a complete let-down.) Endrèbe was far more prolific as a translator, famously translating John Dickson Carr’s The Burning Court. But he did write some of his own books—one of these, at the far right, is his only other ‘impossible crime’ novel, La Vieille dame sans merci (The Old Lady without Mercy). The other two are Danger Intime (Intimate Danger) and Gondoles pour le cimitière (Gondolas for the Cemetery).

Finally, we move on to the work of a personal favourite author of mine—René Reouven, who has a new page on this blog devoted to his work. The four books pictured here from left to right (with titles translated into English) are: Grandfather is Dead, The Best One’s Will is Always the Strongest, Six Characters in Search of a Murder, and Death to the Jury. (I’m also awaiting Reouven’s newest book, a young adult novel.)

Last, but not least, is a book I’ve been eager to find for a long time. It is the French equivalent of Robert Adey’s classic bibliography Locked Room Murders. Titled Chambres closes|crimes impossibles (Locked rooms|Impossible Crimes), it is a French-language survey of the impossible crime sub-genre. Not all of these books are French—in fact, quite a fair chunk I’ve seen are English-language novels—but it promises to portray quite a bit of the French impossible crime landscape with spoilers very cleverly hidden while being stated. (It’s a long story.) My copy is also inscribed by one of the authors, M. Philippe Fooz—I’m very grateful to him for having pointed out several French novels I would enjoy, and his list of suggestions played a major role in these recent acquisitions.