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Black as He’s Painted (1974) – Ngaio Marsh
This is one of Marsh’s last books. It’s a difficult book to review because of the racist tropes that the author uses while attempting to criticize racist views. She was 79 at the time this book was...
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Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford series
I’ve done it! I’ve read all of Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford series. Ruth Rendell wrote her Inspector Wexford series from 1964 to 2013 – that’s an amazing time span. (By comparison, Ed McBain’s...
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Died in the Wool (1945) – Ngaio Marsh
This one is classic Ngaio Marsh: A bizarre means of death, an isolated setting, multiple suspects, and Roderick Alleyn on the case. And because it takes place in 1942, Alleyn is also doing some...
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Death of a Fool (1956) – Ngaio Marsh
Continuing my reviews of Marsh’s books, after a long hiatus, I picked out Death of a Fool (also known as Off with His Head) from my TBR pile. I’m pleased to report that this one is classic Marsh....
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Dead Water (1963) – Ngaio Marsh
Continuing my reading of Ngaio Marsh, I found Dead Water to be more engaging than several I’ve recently reviewed. It’s unusual in that Roderick Alleyn actually has a personal interest in this case – he...
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Last Ditch (1977) – Ngaio Marsh
This is one of Marsh’s last mysteries – and one of her weakest. There is the usual start with a family of gentry – the Pharamonds – and an early death, soon suspected to be a murder. Ricky Alleyn, the...
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Hand in Glove (1962) – Ngaio Marsh
Looking back at my last Ngaio Marsh review, Scales of Justice, I am struck by how similar that book is to this one. In both books, we are first introduced to families with connections to nobility, and...
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Scales of Justice (1955) – Ngaio Marsh
Continuing my journey through the works of Ngaio Marsh, I’ve just completed Scales of Justice (1955). On the back cover, there was a quote from the legendary Anthony Boucher (of Bouchercon fame) that...
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Murder in Mesopotamia (1936) – Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie, whose second husband was the British archeologist Max Mallowan, once said, “An archeologist is the best husband any woman can get. Just consider: The older she gets, the more he is...
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Singing in the Shrouds – Ngaio Marsh (1958)
Ngaio Marsh spent much of her life on ships, travelling from New Zealand to England and back, so she knew a lot about long sea voyages. (Maybe she’s even showing off a little in this book when she...
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Martha Grimes: An Addendum
Sad to say: The Old Success was a failure as far as I’m concerned. After her previous book, The Knowledge (2018), made my Top Ten list for 2019, I was eager to read the next installment. (See my review...
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Parnell Hall: An Appreciation
Parnell Hall (1944 – 2020) died this past week, and I’m so saddened by this. Parnell was an old friend from DorothyL and from so many mystery conferences like Bouchercon and Malice Domestic. He was...
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When in Rome (1970) – Ngaio Marsh
Ngaio Marsh (1895-1982) began writing Golden Age mysteries in 1934 and continued writing them right up to her death. Some of the later ones are excellent (see my reviews of Clutch of Constables and...
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The Real Cool Killers (1958) – Chester Himes
Chester Himes was an angry man – and his mysteries are full of rage. Expelled from Ohio State University as a sophomore in 1928 for a fraternity prank that ended in a bar brawl, and sentenced to 25...
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The Knowledge (2018) – Martha Grimes
I’ve been reading Martha Grimes’s Richard Jury books since the 1980s. I remember, early on, loving her precocious child characters, like ten-year-old Lady Jessica of Help the Poor Struggler (1985)....
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Gaudy Night (1935) – Dorothy L. Sayers
In 2000, Anthony Award voters selected the best mysteries of the 20th Century; the 5 finalists were The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Rebecca, and Gaudy Night, with...
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The Thin Man (1934) – Dashiell Hammett
Most people hearing the title, The Thin Man, think of a classic film with William Powell and Myrna Loy. Perhaps they know that there were a series of films starring Powell and Loy with “Thin Man” in...
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The Father Dowling mysteries (1977-2011) – Ralph McInerny
The Father Dowling mysteries by Ralph McInerny must have been quite popular because McInerny’s publisher (St. Martin’s from the ’80s on) kept them in print for so many years. Yet the only major...
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Friday the Rabbi Slept Late (1964) – Harry Kemelman
Friday the Rabbi Slept Late is a traditional mystery with an untraditional detective. The protagonist, Rabbi David Small, is a young, somewhat unkempt, scholar and rabbi, who is new to his congregation...
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Photo Finish (1980) – Ngaio Marsh
I’m still making my way through unread books of Ngaio Marsh; Photo Finish, a book late in the Roderick Alleyn series, is not one of her best, I’m sad to say. As in many of her books, there is a...
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