Guaranteed to make Americans prouder of their country than any episode in its recent political history.
Think British writers had a monopoly on the formal detective story between the wars? Penzler presents evidence that may change your mind.
The single most appealing feature of this collection of 15 stories first published by American writers between 1925 and 1949 is, in fact, their varied sources. Ellery Queen is here, of course, with “Man Bites Dog,” whose mystery and solution unfold in the stands during the 1939 World Series, and so are other genre stalwarts like Mary Roberts Rinehart, Melville Davisson Post, C. Daly King, Mignon G. Eberhart, Anthony Boucher, Helen Reilly (her only short story), and Vincent Starrett, whose novella Too Many Sleuths includes enough twists and detectives for a full-length novel. But it’s revelatory to see the material supplied by Stephen Vincent Benet, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ring Lardner—even if, as Penzler notes, “it takes a while before the reader recognizes that [Lardner’s often-anthologized “Haircut”] is a crime story,” and nobody would call it a whodunit. The best stories here are among the shortest—“Haircut,” along with Stuart Palmer’s “Fingerprints Don’t Lie,” in which Hildegarde Withers stars in a tale that manages to be both lighthearted and ingenious, and Clayton Rawson’s “The Clue of the Tattooed Man,” in which the Great Merlini, basing his deductions entirely on Inspector Gavigan’s description of a murder, solves the mystery so quickly it’s over almost before it’s begun. The most original entry is Fredric Brown’s futuristic “Crisis, 1999,” even though its title date has passed and it’s not a whodunit either. And psychologist Henry Poggioli, who investigates the murder of a Trinidad servant’s bride in “A Passage to Benares,” provides the perfect punchline for the whole volume.
Guaranteed to make Americans prouder of their country than any episode in its recent political history.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781613165416
Page Count: 288
Publisher: American Mystery Classics
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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