Murder Within Murder Frances and Richard Lockridge 1946 The first time I read the book, I was impressed with what I felt was new territory being explored–an old murder having a direct bearing on a recent one. It felt unique. But upon second reading for this list, I wasn’t as taken with the plot within the plot as I was before, and I guessed the outcome far earlier than I should have. Still, it has its points, the greatest being the writing of Richard Lockridge. I hope to compose a more comprehensive article on the author at a later date. He and his then wife Frances, wrote many novels with a Nick and Nora inspired married couple. They were sophisticated New Yorkers, he the owner
Book Reviews Archive
I finished two crime novels around the same time. I historically never read more than one title at at time. I thought I needed complete concentration on one–or I thought I’d be cheating on the book if I read a another as well. With age, and less time, I find myself reading at least 2 and most likely 4 or 5 at a time. Naturally, some never are finished. They bored me, or I forgot where I laid them or they were fine but I never bothered picking them up again. I thought the former was going to happen to The Hangover Murders, because honestly, I was getting mighty sick of the characters constantly being drunk, or if not drunk, drinking to get drunk.Yes, I’m
By Carrie Bailey Context changes things. In 1907, the concept of a clockwork man was innovative, a device before its time. In fact, Frank L. Baum created his character Tik Tok before the word “robot” was first used to describe “a machine resembling a human being and able to replicate certain human movements and functions.” It was Karel Capek, a Czech writer, first coined the term from the Slavic word robota, which means “servitude” or “forced labor.” Capek’s work wasn’t translated into English until 1921. Tik Tok, who first appeared in Ozma of Oz, is preceded only by Edward S. Ellis’s Steam Man of the Prairies (1868) as an early example of a robot in literature. Imagination, hope and wonderful is what appealed to
The Glass Room Edwin Rolfe and Lester Fuller 1946 “In 1946 the phrase first appeared in the murder mystery novel Murder in the Glass Room (by Edwin Rolfe and Lester Fuller) as “you can never tell a book by its cover.” Wow, that fact, I just found, may tip the book onto the list! We’ll see. Whenever I’d pass a particular spot on one of the myriads of bookcases, I’d see the spine of The Glass Room and remember that I had really liked it. Finally, after thinking about it again and again, I decided to reread. I thought maybe I was leaving out a book that should have made the Best 100 list, if I kept thinking how great it was. So I did–reread
The Phantom Lady William Irish (Cornell Woolrich) 1942 IP I know you’re all thinking, ‘oh no, not HIM again!’ but yes, Woolrich again, and again, and again, because he was that good. I was going to write a review of I Married a Dead Man until i realized I’d written an article about selling it, and that will work for its review–so that left me with a couple of Woolrich’s to go, Phantom Lady being one. And why not? It was the first book I reviewed on Amazon–way back in 1999. I’ve reviewed a massive 3 books since then. Why bother with a classic crime noir title? Because the edition I was reviewing was an exact facsimile of the original book, dust jacket art and