Crime Fiction Recommendations - Page 29

poohbear_nc · 08-20-2011, 09:48 AM

As a side note, all of the Nero Wolfe books are now available as ebooks. Quality varies, as I believe most are scans of the last Bantam paperback versions (with the "bonus" material at the end). Funnily enough, the "newly" released 2-in-1 paperback versions of Nero Wolfe are also reprinted scans of the Bantam versions as well - some are quite horrible to read (mass market paperback page size of text on a trade paperback size page) - look like a made at home Xerox version.

SensualPoet · 08-20-2011, 11:52 PM

Scottish mystery writer Michael Innes, the nom de plume of J.I.M. Stewart, crafted 35 Sir John Appleby novels of which Appleby and Honeybath was the 33rd, published in 1983. Born in 1906, the first Appleby, Death at the President's Lodging, appeared when the author was 30; Innes passed away in 1994. Innes wrote other mysteries, including a series featuring an amateur detective, Charles Honeybath, whose full-time job is Royal Academy portrait painter; in the present volume, Innes puts the two detectives into one tale for the first and last time. (J.I.M. Stewart also wrote a number of books under his real name and was, in real life, an Oxford Don.)

Terrence Grinton, lord of the manor, has a hallowed family history but his only real interest is fox hunting ... and figuring out how to pay taxes on the ancestral manor. He's invited a clutch of guests for the weekend, including his daughter, son-in-law and kids; his wife's friend Judith Appleby and her husband Sir John, retired from Scotland Yard; Charles Honeybath who is to prep for painting his portrait to hang alongside those of his ancestors; and three other seemingly eccentric men and women of various academic backgrounds. The family library, which holds little interest for Terrence, becomes a focal point for one and all when a body is found in it (and as quickly lost). Burrows, the long suffering butler, whose family has butlered at the manor for some generations itself, knows more than he is saying; and Inspector Denver, and his local constabulary, are brought in to search for the missing corpse. Are there treasures to be found in the library, behind secret panels, in the misty past and present of family and guests ... and will the corpse, when found, be found to be murdered at all?

Tongue in cheek, and certainly with mischievous wit, this relatively brief tale unfolds in the course of little more than 24 hours with fingers squarely pointed at one person, then another, then several at once. The writing is superb and quite British; I found myself looking up several words along the way, and "worked out" several others. In places, it reads a bit like a summer stock farce -- there are certainly enough doors and exits and comings and goings! -- though it’s a much richer experience than that and succeeds admirably as a deliciously frothy entertainment.

Happily, House of Stratus has obtained rights to the entire series and has issued the lot in both paper and ebook form. This title is at Kindle and Kobo for under $10.

poohbear_nc · 08-21-2011, 07:08 PM

The Appleby series is quite strong even today with well-plotted mysteries containing wonderfully quirky characters. And Innes really develops Appleby's character, and allows Appleby to age and retire.
The Honeybath series is (for me) more of a "fluff" series - showing an artist solving crimes ...

SensualPoet · 08-22-2011, 07:36 PM

This year Chief Inspector Reg Wexford celebrated his 23rd novel (The Vault), if one may put it that way for a fictional character; and he was "born" in Ruth Rendell's 1964 published From Doon With Death. It was also, more remarkably, Rendell's first novel which emerged full shaped, well plotted, with believable (and memorable) characters.

Margaret Parsons is the rather non-descript wife of a rather non-descript employee of a small English town hardware store who is barely able to make ends meet. But when she doesn't come home one afternoon, her husband asked Mike Burden, a neighbour, for help: Burden is Chief Inspector Reg Wexford's right-hand man. It's not long before fear turns to grief as Margaret's body turns up in a nearby wood, quite dead. As the investigation progresses, the facts of her final hours are peeled back, onion skin like, and as other local residents come within the orbit of the investigation, new clues emerge pointing to teenage love affairs re-ignited. Particularly mysterious, is Doon who authoured several frankly amorous inscriptions in the flyleaves of Margaret's packed away books of poetry. Now Doon appears to have re-entered her life ... with love to be rekindled or vengeance?

Although police procedurals are commonplace today, this early outing snaps along at a goodly pace, without unnecessarily forensic details or gore to bog down the storyline. I admit I had a pretty strong clue who the killer might be by about the book's mid-point, it in no way interfered with the pleasure of the working out and final revelations. This is a first rate crime fiction tale that sets one up, mouth watering, for the next in the series.

Available for Kindle or Kobo for about $9.

amward · 08-23-2011, 12:47 AM

I just love the Inspector Wexford novels and over the years have read most of them at least once. The TV show was great too, the actor who played Wexford looked exactly how I thought he should.

SensualPoet · 08-26-2011, 10:46 PM

There is a thread which ties Raymond Chandler, Howard Hawks, William Faulkner and George Lucas together and that is the unusual talent of Leigh Brackett. Brackett, whose first novel No Good From a Corpse, caught the attention of Hawks, was brought in to "improve" the screenplay Faulkner was struggling with: Chandler's The Big Sleep -- among the iconic films of film noir ... and the film which cemented the reputation of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall as Hollywood's most sizzling couple. Brackett had already written science fiction stories and wrote extensively in the field throughout her life, her last project being the original draft of The Empire Strikes Back in the Star Wars series.

Ed Clive is a private detective in Los Angeles with a young sidekick name Jonathan Ladd Jones. Clive has a friendly stalemate sort of relationship with Homicide Division's Detective Lieutenant Jordan Gaines. When Clive and his buddy Mick Hammond turn up in the apartment of murdered nightclub singer Laurel Dane, Hammond is tossed into jail; Clive sets out to clear his friend's, and his own, name. Hammond's wife, Jane Alcott, is loaded and holds the key to the family fortune -- leaving siblings Richard and Vivien fuming (and drinking). Enter an ex-con with an alibi, some no goods from the club, and an assortment of noirish backdrops and Chandleresque dialogue ... the often brutal encounters between characters keeps the pulse thumping and the plot twisting, twisting, twisting ... who did it and die he or she do all of it?

It's not clear to me why this novel, first published in 1944, is in the public domain but what a treat it is. You can practically feel the fog roll in, smell the wet asphalt and ... what perfume was that dame wearing? The plot could have been a little less convoluted but that, too, is part of the charm. What a pit Ms Brackett wrote so little in this genre after what has to be considered a first rate debut.

Available free in multiple ebook formats at Munsey's.

DMcCunney · 08-26-2011, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

It's not clear to me why this novel, first published in 1944, is in the public domain but what a treat it is. You can practically feel the fog roll in, smell the wet asphalt and ... what perfume was that dame wearing? The plot could have been a little less convoluted but that, too, is part of the charm. What a pit Ms Brackett wrote so little in this genre after what has to be considered a first rate debut.

I met Brackett many years ago, shortly after her stint working on the Star Wars film. She was an affable no-nonsense woman, under no illusions about Hollywood, and a superb craftsman who could probably have written in any genre. I think her first love was SF, and she was married to well known SF writer Edmond Hamilton, who she wed in 1946.

As an additional side-note on the The Big Sleep, she was halfway through an SF novella for Planet Stories called ""Lorelei of the Red Mist", when she got the call to come to Hollywood to work on the film. She turned the story over to another Planet Stories author for completion - a fellow named Ray Bradbury.
______
Dennis

applepie · 08-27-2011, 11:19 PM

Agatha Christie
Arthur Conan Doyle

Stitchawl · 08-27-2011, 11:40 PM

Just putting this in to get the thread onto my 'subscribed' list...

Stitchawl

GA Russell · 08-28-2011, 02:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

Available free in multiple ebook formats at Munsey's.

Thanks for that link, SP. It seems to me that I had looked for Leigh Brackett at munseys.com before but hadn't found anything.

DoctorOhh · 08-28-2011, 02:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Just putting this in to get the thread onto my 'subscribed' list...

For future reference if you don't have an actual post to contribute just click on the dropdown list under Thread Tools at the top and select subscribe, see attached.

GA Russell · 08-28-2011, 03:25 AM

Thanks dwanthny! I didn't know that.

Stitchawl · 08-28-2011, 04:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Thanks dwanthny! I didn't know that.

Me too! Me too! That's a handy feature to know about!

Stitchawl

SensualPoet · 08-28-2011, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I met Brackett many years ago, shortly after her stint working on the Star Wars film. She was an affable no-nonsense woman, under no illusions about Hollywood, and a superb craftsman who could probably have written in any genre. I think her first love was SF, and she was married to well known SF writer Edmond Hamilton, who she wed in 1946.

Thanks so much for posting this personable remembrance of Ms Brackett!

HarryT · 08-28-2011, 10:53 AM

I've just started reading Ngaio Marsh's "Inspector Alleyn" novels. She wrote 32 of them, in a long writing career which stretched from 1934 to 1982. I've read the first two so far. The first, "A Man Lay Dead", is a typical "murder at an upper-class English house-party" story. Short, but well-written, and it was a "fair" detective story, with all the clues being presented to the reader as the story progresses. The second, "Enter a Murderer" is set (as are many of her books) in the world of the theatre. Easy reading. Good for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

They're all available as eBooks (in the UK, at least).

08-20-2011, 11:52 PM	#422
SensualPoet Wizard Posts: 2,302 Karma: 2607151 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Aura HD, Kindle Paperwhite, Asus ZenPad 3, Kobo Glo	Michael Innes - Appleby and Honeybath Scottish mystery writer Michael Innes, the nom de plume of J.I.M. Stewart, crafted 35 Sir John Appleby novels of which Appleby and Honeybath was the 33rd, published in 1983. Born in 1906, the first Appleby, Death at the President's Lodging, appeared when the author was 30; Innes passed away in 1994. Innes wrote other mysteries, including a series featuring an amateur detective, Charles Honeybath, whose full-time job is Royal Academy portrait painter; in the present volume, Innes puts the two detectives into one tale for the first and last time. (J.I.M. Stewart also wrote a number of books under his real name and was, in real life, an Oxford Don.) Terrence Grinton, lord of the manor, has a hallowed family history but his only real interest is fox hunting ... and figuring out how to pay taxes on the ancestral manor. He's invited a clutch of guests for the weekend, including his daughter, son-in-law and kids; his wife's friend Judith Appleby and her husband Sir John, retired from Scotland Yard; Charles Honeybath who is to prep for painting his portrait to hang alongside those of his ancestors; and three other seemingly eccentric men and women of various academic backgrounds. The family library, which holds little interest for Terrence, becomes a focal point for one and all when a body is found in it (and as quickly lost). Burrows, the long suffering butler, whose family has butlered at the manor for some generations itself, knows more than he is saying; and Inspector Denver, and his local constabulary, are brought in to search for the missing corpse. Are there treasures to be found in the library, behind secret panels, in the misty past and present of family and guests ... and will the corpse, when found, be found to be murdered at all? Tongue in cheek, and certainly with mischievous wit, this relatively brief tale unfolds in the course of little more than 24 hours with fingers squarely pointed at one person, then another, then several at once. The writing is superb and quite British; I found myself looking up several words along the way, and "worked out" several others. In places, it reads a bit like a summer stock farce -- there are certainly enough doors and exits and comings and goings! -- though it’s a much richer experience than that and succeeds admirably as a deliciously frothy entertainment. Happily, House of Stratus has obtained rights to the entire series and has issued the lot in both paper and ebook form. This title is at Kindle and Kobo for under $10.

08-22-2011, 07:36 PM	#424
SensualPoet Wizard Posts: 2,302 Karma: 2607151 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Aura HD, Kindle Paperwhite, Asus ZenPad 3, Kobo Glo	Ruth Rendell - From Doon With Death This year Chief Inspector Reg Wexford celebrated his 23rd novel (The Vault), if one may put it that way for a fictional character; and he was "born" in Ruth Rendell's 1964 published From Doon With Death. It was also, more remarkably, Rendell's first novel which emerged full shaped, well plotted, with believable (and memorable) characters. Margaret Parsons is the rather non-descript wife of a rather non-descript employee of a small English town hardware store who is barely able to make ends meet. But when she doesn't come home one afternoon, her husband asked Mike Burden, a neighbour, for help: Burden is Chief Inspector Reg Wexford's right-hand man. It's not long before fear turns to grief as Margaret's body turns up in a nearby wood, quite dead. As the investigation progresses, the facts of her final hours are peeled back, onion skin like, and as other local residents come within the orbit of the investigation, new clues emerge pointing to teenage love affairs re-ignited. Particularly mysterious, is Doon who authoured several frankly amorous inscriptions in the flyleaves of Margaret's packed away books of poetry. Now Doon appears to have re-entered her life ... with love to be rekindled or vengeance? Although police procedurals are commonplace today, this early outing snaps along at a goodly pace, without unnecessarily forensic details or gore to bog down the storyline. I admit I had a pretty strong clue who the killer might be by about the book's mid-point, it in no way interfered with the pleasure of the working out and final revelations. This is a first rate crime fiction tale that sets one up, mouth watering, for the next in the series. Available for Kindle or Kobo for about $9.

08-26-2011, 10:46 PM	#426
SensualPoet Wizard Posts: 2,302 Karma: 2607151 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Aura HD, Kindle Paperwhite, Asus ZenPad 3, Kobo Glo	Leigh Brackett - No Good from a Corpse There is a thread which ties Raymond Chandler, Howard Hawks, William Faulkner and George Lucas together and that is the unusual talent of Leigh Brackett. Brackett, whose first novel No Good From a Corpse, caught the attention of Hawks, was brought in to "improve" the screenplay Faulkner was struggling with: Chandler's The Big Sleep -- among the iconic films of film noir ... and the film which cemented the reputation of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall as Hollywood's most sizzling couple. Brackett had already written science fiction stories and wrote extensively in the field throughout her life, her last project being the original draft of The Empire Strikes Back in the Star Wars series. Ed Clive is a private detective in Los Angeles with a young sidekick name Jonathan Ladd Jones. Clive has a friendly stalemate sort of relationship with Homicide Division's Detective Lieutenant Jordan Gaines. When Clive and his buddy Mick Hammond turn up in the apartment of murdered nightclub singer Laurel Dane, Hammond is tossed into jail; Clive sets out to clear his friend's, and his own, name. Hammond's wife, Jane Alcott, is loaded and holds the key to the family fortune -- leaving siblings Richard and Vivien fuming (and drinking). Enter an ex-con with an alibi, some no goods from the club, and an assortment of noirish backdrops and Chandleresque dialogue ... the often brutal encounters between characters keeps the pulse thumping and the plot twisting, twisting, twisting ... who did it and die he or she do all of it? It's not clear to me why this novel, first published in 1944, is in the public domain but what a treat it is. You can practically feel the fog roll in, smell the wet asphalt and ... what perfume was that dame wearing? The plot could have been a little less convoluted but that, too, is part of the charm. What a pit Ms Brackett wrote so little in this genre after what has to be considered a first rate debut. Available free in multiple ebook formats at Munsey's.

08-28-2011, 10:53 AM	#435
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	I've just started reading Ngaio Marsh's "Inspector Alleyn" novels. She wrote 32 of them, in a long writing career which stretched from 1934 to 1982. I've read the first two so far. The first, "A Man Lay Dead", is a typical "murder at an upper-class English house-party" story. Short, but well-written, and it was a "fair" detective story, with all the clues being presented to the reader as the story progresses. The second, "Enter a Murderer" is set (as are many of her books) in the world of the theatre. Easy reading. Good for a lazy Sunday afternoon. They're all available as eBooks (in the UK, at least). Last edited by HarryT; 08-28-2011 at 10:58 AM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
MR crime/mysteries recommendations sought	GA Russell	Reading Recommendations	17	10-31-2011 12:15 PM
Award-winning short crime fiction - Nowhere To Go	Iain Rowan	Self-Promotions by Authors and Publishers	3	05-31-2011 02:02 PM

08-20-2011, 09:48 AM	#421
poohbear_nc Bah! Humbug! Posts: 63,432 Karma: 135239851 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Durham, NC Device: Every Kindle Ever Made & To Be Made!	As a side note, all of the Nero Wolfe books are now available as ebooks. Quality varies, as I believe most are scans of the last Bantam paperback versions (with the "bonus" material at the end). Funnily enough, the "newly" released 2-in-1 paperback versions of Nero Wolfe are also reprinted scans of the Bantam versions as well - some are quite horrible to read (mass market paperback page size of text on a trade paperback size page) - look like a made at home Xerox version.

08-21-2011, 07:08 PM	#423
poohbear_nc Bah! Humbug! Posts: 63,432 Karma: 135239851 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Durham, NC Device: Every Kindle Ever Made & To Be Made!	The Appleby series is quite strong even today with well-plotted mysteries containing wonderfully quirky characters. And Innes really develops Appleby's character, and allows Appleby to age and retire. The Honeybath series is (for me) more of a "fluff" series - showing an artist solving crimes ...

08-23-2011, 12:47 AM	#425
amward Wizard Posts: 1,299 Karma: 2081110 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: SW Australia Device: Eco Eclipse, Sony PRS 350 (pink), Ipod Touch, Kindle Touch	I just love the Inspector Wexford novels and over the years have read most of them at least once. The TV show was great too, the actor who played Wexford looked exactly how I thought he should.

08-27-2011, 11:19 PM	#428
applepie Enthusiast Posts: 28 Karma: 3866 Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: USA Device: Nook, Kindle	Agatha Christie Arthur Conan Doyle

08-27-2011, 11:40 PM	#429
Stitchawl Opsimath Posts: 12,344 Karma: 187123287 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand Device: Sony PRS-650, iPhone 5, Kobo Glo, Sony PRS-350, iPad, Samsung Galaxy	Just putting this in to get the thread onto my 'subscribed' list... Stitchawl

08-28-2011, 03:25 AM	#432
GA Russell Ticats win 4th straight Posts: 7,694 Karma: 31487351 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Raleigh, NC Device: Paperwhite, Kindles 10 & 4 and jetBook Lite	Thanks dwanthny! I didn't know that.

Advert

Advert