This was a British Library crime reprint that I purchased on a recent visit. It's apparently "considered to be one of [the author's] finest works" according to the blurb on the back, and got a glowing review from Dorothy L. Sayers on initial publication.
My reaction, having read it, was that there's a reason Sayers, and Christie, and Freeman Wills Crofts were bestsellers, whereas Anthony Gilbert wasn't. ( Don't think there are any major spoilers, but just in case... )
It's a good week for fans of reaction videos and spooky 1980s TV -- Medusa Cascade has just started on Moondial, and Marie-Clare is most of the way through The Box of Delights, with the promise of Sapphire and Steel to follow. ( Various Box of Delights spoilers )
On an unrelated note: The other night I had a realistic, consistent dream in which the Fourteenth Doctor was being played by none other than Sir Tony Robinson. I didn't think the script was anything special, though.
Finished: Murder in Advent by David Williams. ( Read more... )
Reading: Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer. ( Read more... )
Also: Rereading The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. ( Read more... )
Recently finished: Love Lies Bleeding by Edmund Crispin.
Another one of the Gervase Fen mysteries. Rather more restrained than some in the series; it doesn't have the accelerating farce of The Moving Toyshop or the running gags of Buried for Pleasure. There's also a subplot involving what may very well be the manuscript of a lost Shakespeare play, which I found rather too similar to a subplot in John Dickson Carr's The Mad Hatter Mystery regarding what may well be the manuscript of a lost Poe story.
Reading now: Rereading Crime at Guildford by Freeman Wills Crofts.
This was the first one of Crofts' mysteries that I read, and it happens to be the last one I came to in my reread. I think, compared to some of the others I've read, it's one of his stodgier works, with the usual minor discrepancy that breaks an unbreakable alibi. In this case the discrepancy is when the company's accountant arrived at the office; was it five minutes before, or five minutes after, his colleagues?
Still liked the unintentional period detail. Rereading this series, it struck me how much Inspector French relies on tasks being done by people, that today would be automated. He gets a lot of his clues from questioning bank clerks, car park attendants and the like.
Thought I'd do one of these for once.
Recently completed: The Sleeping Sphinx by John Dickson Carr
This is the second one of Carr's books I've read where the aim seems to be breathlessness: the protagonist is thrown into the plot without being given any chance to stop and think, he has to react to events as they occur, and any time Dr Fell tries to explain what's going on, he's called away or suspects burst into the gathering demanding instant attention.
(The other one like that was Till Death Do Us Part).
It stands up quite well for the most part, though I think a mental health professional might have something to say about its handling of 'hysteria' in women.
Previously: Sir John Magill's Last Journey by Freeman Wills Crofts (re-read)
By way of a complete contrast: Crofts' detectives like to take things slowly, and carefully, and come to a halt now and then to sum things up for the reader. This one is set in the same part of the world as Dorothy L. Sayers' Five Red Herrings, and was published shortly before it; consequently, it gets a shout-out in 5RH, and that's how I first heard of it. Like a number of Crofts' books, it's a fair-play mystery, provided that you've got maps of Galloway and Northern Ireland and the sea between, and are willing to work out exactly who was where at what time and how fast they could travel.
Wylder's Hand by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Before reading Wylder's Hand, the only acquaintance I had with it was from the references to it in Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey stories. I'd come away with the impression that it was a supernatural story of some kind. Well, it (probably) isn't. It's more of a Gothic thriller. ( Hopefully free of major spoilers )
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