(1939)
John Dickson Carr
A sinister case of deadly poisoned chocolates from Sodbury Cross's high street shop haunts the group of friends and relatives assembled at Bellegarde, among the orchards of 'peach-fancier' Marcus Chesney.
To prove a point about how the sweets could have been poisoned under the nose of the shopkeeper, Chesney stages an elaborate memory game to test whether any of his guests can see beyond their 'black spectacles'; that is, to see the truth without assumptions as witnesses. During the test - which is also being filmed - Chesney is murdered by his accomplice, dressed head to toe in an 'invisible man' disguise.
The keen wits of Dr Gideon Fell are called for to crack this brazen and bizarre murder. This classic novel is widely regarded as one of John Dickson Carr's masterpieces and remains among the greatest impossible crime mysteries of all time.
I loved it! Carr never disappoints.
________________________
I am especially loving how well this ties into my university and seminary learnings - particularly the evolutionary thought of Fr. Teilhard de Chardin and, later, my studies in process theology.
In Rohr's Preface, he writes about
a 20th-century mystic named Caryll Houselander who described how an ordinary underground train journey through London transformed into a vision on Saturday morning that changed her life. In this "vision" she suddenly "saw Christ in everyone." She began her ministry after that vision, emphasizing her "realization of oneness," that "every kind of life has meaning," and that "every life has an influence on every other kind of life that exists in God's created order."
Rohr spends a few paragraphs explaining how,
in the Great Schism of 1054, the western church lost something that the eastern orthodox churches maintained - and that is the true meaning of "the Christ." The West gradually limited the Divine Presence (the idea of Christ incarnate) to the single body of Jesus, "when, in fact, it is as ubiquitous as Light itself - and uncircumscribable by human boundaries."
He then ties this important distinction between the historical Jesus of Nazareth, the man, and the notion of "the Christ" to the Gospel of John 1:1-14,
"He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light..."
Father Richard Rohr asks,
"What if Christ is not Jesus' last name (as some seem to think) but rather the transcendent within of every "thing" in the universe?"
G.K. Chesterton once wrote,
"Your religion is not the church you belong to, but the cosmos you live inside of."
Rohr expands on this by reminding us that the essential function of religion is to radically connect us with everything - material and spiritual. (Re-ligio = to re-ligament or reconnect.) Truly enlightened people see the oneness of the universe because they look out from oneness, instead of labeling everything as superior or inferior, in or out.
If you think you are privately "saved" or enlightened, then you are neither. A cosmic notion of Christ competes with and excludes no one. Rather, it includes everyone and everything (Acts 10:15, 34)
Melinda Gates is quoted as saying about "The Universal Christ,"
"Fr. Richard challenges us to search beneath the surface of our faith and see what is sacred in everyone and everything..."
And U2's frontman Bono wrote,
"Rohr see Christ everywhere, and not just in people. He reminds us that the first incarnation of God is in Creation itself, and he tells us that 'God loves things by becoming them.' Just for that sentence, and there are so many more, I could not put this book down."
Brian D. McLaren writes in the Forward,
"Yes, bad religion can hurt you -- you've probably witnessed how bad religion has hurt people around you who happen to be practicing bad religion. But good religion can help you - really help you, even save your life and our world's future, especially at a time when bad religion is currently running the show.
Fr. Richard Rohr's life has been dedicated to articulating, advocating, and embodying good religion and good theology - theology that helps us create a better future... When you immerse yourself in the chapters of this book, you will be invited to see the Christian faith in a radically new and fresh way.
... Even more important, you'll be invited to look at life and the universe differently."
I want to highly recommend this book
to all my progressive-thinking friends.
____________________
(1935)
John Bude
John Bude was the pseudonym of Ernest Elmore (1901–57), who wrote thirty crime novels, all of which are now very rare. He was cofounder of the famous Crime Writers’ Association and worked in the theater as a producer and director.
This classic mystery of the golden age of British crime is set against the vividly described backdrop of a fishing village on Cornwall's Atlantic coast. It is now republished for the first time since the 1930s with an introduction by the award-winning crime writer Martin Edwards.
The Reverend Dodd, vicar of the quiet Cornish village of Boscawen, spends his evenings reading detective stories by the fireside - but heaven forbid that the shadow of any real crime should ever fall across his seaside parish.
But the vicar's peace is shattered one stormy night when Julius Tregarthan, a secretive and ill-tempered magistrate, is found at his house in Boscawen with a bullet through his head.
The local police inspector is baffled by the complete absence of clues. Luckily for Inspector Bigswell, the Reverend Dodd is on hand, and ready to put his keen understanding of the criminal mind to the test.
(1933)
Anthony Berkeley
At a costume party with the dubious theme of 'famous murderers and their victims', the know-it-all amateur criminologist Roger Sheringham is settled in for an evening of beer, small talk and analysing his companions.
One guest in particular has caught his attention for her theatrics, and his theory that she might have several enemies among the partygoers proves true when she is found hanging from the 'decorative' gallows on the roof terrace. Noticing a key detail which could implicate a friend in the crime, Sheringham decides to meddle with the scene and unwittingly casts himself into jeopardy as the uncommonly thorough police investigation circles closer and closer to the truth.
Tightly paced and cleverly defying the conventions of the classic detective story, this 1933 novel remains a milestone of the inverted mystery subgenre.
_______________
(1938)
Anthony Berkeley
In the comfortable English Dorsetshire village of Anneypenny in the 1930s, fruit farmer Douglas Sewell–narrator of the story–sees his friend John die in agony. The death certificate states gastric ulcers but the post mortem’s revealing of poison punctures Anneypenny’s idyllic backdrop. Soon every friend and neighbour seems to harbour something suspicious.
Douglas challenges his readers, or listeners, to answer the key questions before throwing out several scenarios and turning them upside-down in a tantalising path to the truth.
This mystery is unique in its absence of a lead detective as the main character. Fruit farmer Douglas is refreshingly relatable. I thoroughly enjoyed this Berkeley gem.
(1927)
Anthony Berkeley
Republished for the first time in nearly 95 years, a classic winter country house mystery by the founder of the famous Detection Club, Anthony Berkeley.
I thought Mike Grady did a fabulous job narrating.
__________
(1920)
Freeman Wills Crofts
The Cask is a classic detective novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, considered a masterpiece of the "Golden Age" of detective fiction, known for its meticulous plotting and realistic police procedure. The story begins with the discovery of a murdered woman and gold sovereigns inside a wine cask at a London dock, which then mysteriously disappears, leading Inspector Burnley of Scotland Yard on a complex, international investigation to trace the cask's journey from France.
The novel is celebrated for its logical deduction, detailed focus on investigative work, and intricate puzzle-solving.
Freeman Wills Crofts (1879-1957) was an Irish engineer, church organist and choirmaster, and a mystery author, remembered best for the character of Inspector Joseph French. A railway engineer by training, Crofts introduced railway themes into many of his stories, including his first novel The Cask. Although authors of the so-called golden age of detective fiction such as Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers are more famous, Crofts was regularly praised by each of those authors, and he held a long-time leadership role in the Detection Club to which they all belonged. The author of over 35 mysteries between 1920 and 1954, in 1939 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
(1937)
Anthony Berkeley
In a creative twist, a fatally ill man’s great humanitarian act is to seek out and kill someone deserving of death; but the horror of an innocent man being accused of the murder was not an outcome Mr Todhunter, or the friends who advised him, considered. His job is then to prove his own guilt. Dedicated to P.G. Wodehouse, the story is suspenseful, inventive and humorous, with a riveting attention to detail and a profound suggestion of the absurdity of trying to influence destiny.
The book is read in audiobook format by the award-winning narrator David Timson.
A journalist as well as a novelist, Anthony Berkeley was a founding member of the Detection Club and one of crime fiction’s greatest innovators. He was one of the first to predict the development of the ‘psychological’ crime novel.
(See more biographical notes on Berkeley in my 2025 Reading List, "The Piccadilly Murder")
The books I've read on my Nook
Silent Night
(2023)
Sophie Hannah
Since the publication of her first book in 1920, Agatha Christie wrote 33 novels, two plays and more than 50 short stories featuring Hercule Poirot. And now, for the first time ever, the guardians of her legacy have approved a brand new series featuring Dame Agatha's most beloved creation. And I've been quite pleased with the new Poirot series authored by Sophie Hannah. My first introduction to Hannah was her 2006 bestseller "Little Face." The Poirot series began wth her 2014 publication of "The Monogram Murders."
Hercule Poirot's Silent Night is Book 5 in the new series featuring Christie's famed detective now being authored by Sophie Hannah.
It’s December 19, 1931. Hercule Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool are looking forward to a much-needed, restful Christmas holiday, when they are called upon to investigate the murder of a man in a Norfolk hospital ward. Cynthia Catchpool, Edward’s mother, insists that Poirot stay with her in a crumbling mansion by the coast, so that they can all be together for the festive period while he solves the case.
With no obvious motive or suspect, Poirot has less than a week to solve the crime and prevent more murders, if he is to escape from this nightmare scenario and get home in time for Christmas. Meanwhile, someone else—someone utterly ruthless—also has ideas about what ought to happen to Hercule Poirot…
I loved it! Can't wait til the next edition in the new Poirot series!
Charlotte Vassell
This was a surprise, one that I came upon by accident. And, as they say on the other side of the pond, I'm bloody glad I did! Some of the wittiest banter I've read in quite some time.
WINNER OF THE 2025 EDGAR AWARD
FOR BEST NOVEL
An electrifying, whip-smart whodunit about the dastardly misbehavior of London's high society—where being "in" or "out" can be a life-and-death matter.
In Southwest London, socialites and politicos swap gossip and sip cocktails while making snide remarks at each other. Not far from this frivolity, though, a body has been discovered in the River Thames. At first, it appears to be an unfortunate accident, but the death is connected to this gathering of who's who in a way that will surely spell scandal.
Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Caius Beauchamp, attempting to enjoy an evening at the theatre, is shocked to discover another dead body, just a few seats away. The death is linked to the decades-old disappearance of a fourteen-year-old girl at a boarding school in Cornwall.
As Caius, along with his associates Matt Cheung and Amy Noakes, investigates these parallel cases, he plunges into the exclusive world of money, title, and power as only England can dish it up, where justice is available only to the privileged.
- Death in a Strange Country (1993)
Donna LeonDeath in a Strange Country is the second novel in Donna Leon's mystery series set in Venice, Italy featuring the delightful Commissario Guido Brunetti. A few years back I read the first book in the series, Death at La Fenice, and was very impressed with her development of characters and plot. This second book in the series reveals the first was no fluke, she is an excellent writer.
This mystery, featuring the murder of an American soldier in Venice, leads Brunetti to uncover a conspiracy involving toxic waste dumping, the American military, and the Mafia, despite his superiors trying to shut down the investigation. The book offers strong plot, rich atmosphere, and an intriguing exploration of corruption within the Italian government and military, contrasting with Brunetti's moral compass. - Surfeit of Lampreys (1941)
Ngaio Marsh
The Surfeit of Lampreys
serves up
a surfeit
of laughter!
I loved it!
Dame Ngaio Marsh was a New Zealand crime writer and theatre director. Of all the "Great Ladies" of the English mystery's golden age, including Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh alone survived to publish in the 1980s. Over a fifty-year span, from 1932 to 1982, Marsh wrote thirty-two classic English detective novels, which gained international acclaim.
The Lampreys had plenty of charm - but no cash. They all knew they were peculiar - and rather gloried in it. The double and triple charades, for instance, with which they would entertain their guests - like rich but awful Uncle Gabriel, who was always such a bore. The Lampreys thought if they jollied him up he would bail them out - yet again.
Instead Uncle Gabriel met a violent end with a meat skewer through the eye. Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn (this is book #10 in the Alleyn series) has to work out who did the horrific deed while Uncle Gabriel was riding in a descending lift.
Plenty of entertaining plot twists along the way.
- Anthony Berkeley"The Poisoned Chocolates Case" (1929)
A classic
in the Murder Mystery genre -
perhaps one of the
greatest whodunnits of all time.Set in 1920s London, a group of armchair detectives who have founded their own "Crimes Circle" club, formulate theories on a recent murder case that Scotland Yard has been unable to solve.
Each of the six members, including their president, Berkeley's own regularly featured amateur sleuth Roger Sheringham, arrives at an altogether different solution as to the motive and the identity of the perpetrator, and also applies different methods of detection.By providing examples of each of these varying methods of detection, Berkeley, as the book’s subtitle “An Academic Reader” suggests, is providing readers with a somewhat instructive tome on the writing of crime fiction and categories of (deductive or inductive or a combination of both) investigative procedures most oft employed by the featured detective(s).
Completely devoid of brutality but containing a lot of subtle, tongue-in-cheek humor instead, The Poisoned Chocolates Case is one of the classic whodunnits of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. As at least six plausible explanations of what really happened are put forward one after the other, the reader—just like the members of the Crimes Circle themselves—is kept guessing right up to the final pages of the book.
"The Piccadilly Murder" (1929)
Anthony BerkeleyAnthony Berkeley Cox (pictured at school in 1911) was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the British Army in September 1914. He was promoted to temporary lieutenant in 1915 and he served in the 7th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment during the First World War. He suffered from a gas attack in France, which caused long-term damage to his health.
Following the war, he worked as a journalist for many years, contributing to such magazines as Punch and The Humorist.
His first novel, The Layton Court Mystery, was published anonymously in 1925. It introduced Roger Sheringham, the amateur detective who features in many of the author's novels including the classic Poisoned Chocolates Case.
In 1930, Berkeley founded the Detection Club in London along with Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, G. K. Chesterton and other established mystery writers.His 1932 novel (written under the pseudonym "Francis Iles"), Before the Fact was adapted into the 1941 classic film Suspicion, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
A key figure in the development of crime fiction, he died in 1971 in London.
The Piccadilly Murder Berkeley published in 1929 and it features the character of Chief Inspector Moresby of Scotland Yard who appears several times in Berkeley’s other mysteries. Moresby reappears with the chief protagonist Chitterwick in a sequel Trial and Error in 1937.
In this humorous and delightful work, Ambrose Chitterwick is a witness to the death of a lady in the lounge at the Piccadilly Palace Hotel, shortly after her companion dropped something into her coffee. Chief Inspector Moresby is convinced she was murdered by him her nephew and sole heir, Major Sinclair, using prussic acid. He arrests Sinclair and plans to use Chitterwick as star witness for the prosecution. However, nagging doubts in Chitterwick's mind lead him to turn amateur detective and find the real truth.
“Becoming Sherlock: The Magician” (2025)
[Book 3 in Series]
Sarah J. Naughton
This final installment in the trilogy blew me away. I loved the revelations that unfurled one-by-one about Sherlock and his connection to Moriarty, Mycroft, and – my favorite surprise of all – a character named, of all things, Doyle! I highly recommend this wonderfully re-imagined Holmes series, and I definitely recommend enjoying them in the correct order.“Becoming Sherlock: The Irregulars” (2024)
[Book 2 in Series]
Anthony Horowitz & Sarah J. Naughton
Excellent follow-up to the first in the series “The Red Circle,” this second installment titled “The Irregulars” provides a great origin story for this motley crew who were regularly featured in Doyle’s original tales of Sherlock Holmes. I loved this one!- "Becoming Sherlock: The Red Circle," (2023)
[Book 1 in Series]
Anthony Horowitz & Sarah J. Naughton
The first book in a new trilogy, set in a dystopian 2065 London where a mysterious, amnesiac man with brilliant deductive skills is discovered by a returning war veteran, John Watson. The story follows this man (Holmes, of course) as he tries to solve the mystery of his own identity and a complex case known as "The Red Circle". The series offers a fresh, futuristic take on the classic Sherlock Holmes characters and setting. I found it to be entertaining – especially the thought-provoking revelations about what has happened to our world's major landmarks and other parts of life in the (not too distant) future. - "The Case of the Gilded Fly," (1944)
Edmund Crispin.Edmund Crispin was the pseudonym of Robert Bruce Montgomery, an English crime writer and composer. Under this pen name (taken from a character in Michael Innes's Hamlet, Revenge!), Montgomery wrote nine detective novels and two collections of short stories. The stories feature Oxford don Gervase Fen, who is a Professor of English at the University and a fellow of St Christopher's College, a fictional institution that Crispin locates next to St John's College.
The whodunit novels have complex plots and fantastic, somewhat unbelievable solutions, including strong examples of the locked room mystery. They are written in a humorous, literary and sometimes farcical style and they are among the few mystery novels to break the fourth wall and occasionally speak directly to the audience.
Crispin is considered by many to be one of the last great exponents of the 'classic' crime mystery. He counted amongst his friends Philip Larkin, Kingsley Amis and Agatha Christie. Crispin was also a composer, writing musical scores for about fifty feature films.
"The Case of the Gilded Fly" was one of his locked-room mysteries written while Crispin was an undergraduate at Oxford and first published in the UK in 1944. The book contains the first appearance of eccentric amateur detective Gervase Fen, Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford, who went on to appear in all nine of Crispin's novels as well as most of the short stories. The book abounds in literary allusions ranging from classical antiquity to the mid-20th century. - "Death of a Bookseller," (1956)
Bernard J. Farmer.
The 100th installment in the British Library's Crime Classics series is a fantastically fun bookish romp of a mystery! - "Close to Death," (2024)
Anthony Horowitz.
Horowitz has never disappointed me, and his catty humor when describing this story's colorful characters has never been more delightful! Get ready to learn even more secrets about Detective Hawthorne in this edition of the Hawthorne and Horowitz series, and prepare as well for one surprise after another in this book's concluding pages. - "The Twist of a Knife," (2023)
Anthony Horowitz.
After his new play receives a scathing review from a critic who is then found murdered with Horowitz's fingerprints on the weapon, Horowitz must rely on his estranged former partner, Detective Hawthorne, to prove his innocence. - "A Line to Kill," (2021)
Anthony Horowitz.
Oh, how we Cozy Mystery lovers relish a locked-room whodunnit. Anthony gives us a good one. Featuring the fictionalized author Anthony Horowitz as the narrator and sidekick to the ex-detective Daniel Hawthorne, this story follows the duo to a literary festival on the island of Alderney, where a murder occurs, trapping the guests and forcing Hawthorne to investigate the killer among them.
- SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (2015)
Mary Beard.
The English Classicist Mary Beard tells history like no other contemporary historian. So I was thrilled when a hardcover birthday gift arrived from my friend Joe. Joe knows better than anyone my love of Greco-Roman history. The year before, he gave me Beard's "Emperor of Rome" and, like it, "SPQR" enthralled me from beginning to end because Beard's history writing is not dry details but a captivating narrative. - "The Puzzle of Blackstone Lodge:
a Rachel Savernake Mystery" [Book 3]
Martin Edwards. (2023)
I love Martin Edwards - as the host and sometimes narrator of the British Library Crime Classics. As an author himself, particularly the Savernake mysteries, I remain unimpressed. - "Two-Way Murder,"
(published posthumously in 2021)
E.C.R. Lorac.
All the hallmarks of the Golden Age mystery are here in this previously unpublished novel by E.C.R. Lorac, boasting the author's characteristically detailed sense of setting and gripping police work. - "Murder by Matchlight," (1945)
E.C.R. Lorac.
London, 1945. The capital is shrouded in the darkness of the blackout, and mystery abounds in the parks after dusk. This wonderful selection in the Lorac collection provides a great description of what that historic period was like for Londoners. Our ever-brilliant C.I.D. man, MacDonald, must set to work once again to unravel this near-impossible mystery. - "Murder in Vienna," (1956)
E.C.R. Lorac.
Set against the enchanting background of post war Vienna, with its beautiful palaces and gardens, its disenchanted residents and scars of war, E.C.R. Lorac constructs a characteristic detective story featuring Inspector MacDonald. This exceedingly rare mystery, first published in 1956, makes its triumphant return for the first time since its original appearance. - "Death of an Author," (1935)
E.C.R. Lorac.
Bond and Warner of Scotland Yard set to work to investigate a murder with no body and a potentially fictional victim, as E. C. R. Lorac spins a twisting tale full of wry humour and red herrings, poking some fun at her contemporary reviewers who long suspected the Lorac pseudonym to belong to a man (since a woman could apparently not have written mysteries the way that she did). - "Smallbone Deceased," (1950)
Michael Gilbert.
The most celebrated of Michael Gilbert's mysteries, and deservedly so, 1950's Smallbone Deceased offers a wonderful ant's-nest look into a firm of solicitors who find an unwanted corpse among the office paperwork. Specifically, the body of Marcus Smallbone is discovered stuffed into an air-tight deed box, and it is left to Inspector Hazlerigg to determine not only who killed and hid the trustee but also when the murder took place. - "Marble Hall Murders," (2025)
Anthony Horowitz.
Horowitz dazzles with the brilliant third entry in his Susan Ryeland series. Once again, the real and the fictional worlds have become dangerously entangled. And if Susan doesn't solve the mystery of Pünd’s Last Case, she could well be its next victim. - "The Man Who Didn't Fly," (1955)
Margot Bennett.
Who was the man who didn’t fly? What did he have to gain? And would he commit such an explosive murder to get it? First published in 1955, Margot Bennett’s ingenious mystery remains an innovative and thoroughly entertaining inversion of the classic whodunit. - "The Widow of Bath," (1952)
Margot Bennett.
The Widow of Bath offers intricate puzzles, international intrigue and a richly evoked portrait of post-war Britain, all delivered with Bennett's signature brand of witty and elegant prose. - "Crook o' Lune" (1953)
E.C.R. Lorac.
Lorac spins a tale portraying the natural beauty, cosy quiet and more brutal elements of country living in this classic rural mystery. Holidaying with his friends the Hoggetts in High Gimmerdale while on a trip to find some farmland for his retirement, Robert Macdonald agrees to help in investigating the identity of sheep-stealers, before being dragged into a case requiring his full experience as Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard. - "Murder in the Mill-Race" (1952)
E.C.R. Lorac.
Everyone says that Sister Monica, warden of a children's home, is a saint - but is she? When her body is found drowned in the mill-race. Chief Inspector Macdonald faces one of his most difficult cases in a village determined not to betray its dark secrets to a stranger. - "Death Under a Little Sky" (2023)
Stig Abell.
When Jake Jackson inherits his reclusive uncle’s property in the country, the detective seizes the opportunity for a new life away from the hustle of London. But when a young woman’s bones are discovered, Jake finds himself pulled back into the role of detective, and on the trail of a dangerous killer hiding within this most unlikely of settings.
Family History,
Book Reviews, and Articles of Interest
can be found in the
Terry's Library
Meditations!
Enjoy looking through my Library
Avoid the 3 PsBsSs
Processed Foods, Phthalates, Plastics;
Beef, Butter, Breads;
you’ll be feeling better in no time!
Avoid the 3 F’s
misinformation, fear, anger and hate!
JOIN ME IN ENSURING AN EDUCATED CITIZENRY!
JOIN ME IN ENSURING AN EDUCATED CITIZENRY!
I drink it morning through late afternoon.
 |
| Best Bean Ever! |
While on vacation in Oregon I fell in love with the many varieties I discovered at Portland Coffee Roasters.
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