A Work in Progress

Maigret in Holland by Georges Simenon

A week or so ago I shared a teaser from Georges Simenon's Maigret in Holland (Un Crime en Hollande translated by Geoffrey Sainsbury) and just as the TLS describes Simenon's style, so I found this wonderful and wonderfully atmospheric mystery.  It's short, straightforward, not terribly complicated plotwise yet filled with enough red herrings and potential suspects to keep readers guessing and no political or historical markers which give the story a timeless quality even though it was published in 1940.  His geographical descriptions of the coastal town of Delfzijl, however, are very inviting and part of the draw for me for this story.  And Maigret is entirely likable.  While the story may be morally ambiguous (certainly Simenon doesn't interject his own opinions), Maigret himself is quite sympathetic.  Actually he's sympathetic but he has a certain mischievous streak to him at times, too, which I find amusing.

I've not read many of Simenon's Maigret novels, but of the few I have read there always seems to be a no-nonsense approach to the writing and plotting.  Crime novels seem to be the perfect place to show a society's ills, reveal its shortcomings.  You can tell a lot about a society from the crimes that are committed and by whom.  And it's often not confined to the seedy underbelly of a city.  Sometimes the detective or crime-solver is just as flawed as the criminals.  But with Maigret you get a crime, you get a piecing together of a puzzle and a little traditional sleuthing.  Maigret, however, relies as much on his gut feeling as on his close attention to the details of the crime, his observations and sorting through the clues to make it all fit together to get a satisfying resolution.  As for Maigret's life--I can't tell you much.  He smokes a pipe, likes to indulge a bit occasionally on a good meal and a few glasses of spirits.  I know from my other reading that he is married and has a good relationship with his wife, but Simenon doesn't spend a lot of time on the personal (except perhaps to draw a picture of the suspects and their motivations).

I think what's important in the Maigret stories is presenting a problem, in this case murder, looking at it from all angles, sorting the clues and the personalities and the motives and facts and then solving the crime.  A very basic, traditional mystery--but presented in a wholly entertaining way.  Maigret has been called to Holland from Paris to aid in the investigation of a murder.  A local man has been killed and the most obvious suspect happens to be a fellow Frenchman.  He very inconveniently found himself holding the gun which killed the man thereby putting himself under suspicion.  Curiously he had just given a lecture on the responsibility of criminals for their actions and has his own ideas of who killed the man and sets out his own ideas on who the killer is and how the crime was committed.  He's not the only potential suspect of course. 

The murdered man was a former sailor now settled down with a cultured and conventional wife.  He had a penchant for attractive young women (perhaps he settled down too soon without sowing his wild oats in full?), though only dabbling really.  He happened to have been dabbling with a local girl who is known for her flirtatiousness.  As a matter of fact a young cadet who was one of the murdered man's students is in love with her.  Then there is the murdered man's sister-in-law who has just finished her studies to become a lawyer who seems forever in a state of taciturnity, and the owner of a ship who's cap has inexplicably been discovered in the dead man's bathtub. 

No mystery worth its salt is complete without a hoard of secrets and lies.  So many suspects, so many motives and opportunities and a sprinkling of clues--love letters, a sailor's cap where it shouldn't be, a stray cigar butt and the light from a lighthouse which illuminates more than just the coastline.  Maigret is up to the challenge, however, and in true Porot-like fashion he re-creates the murder scene with all the players in place and deconstructs the crime.  The Dutch detectives are no match for Maigret's sleuthing prowess despite his 'unofficial' capacity in the case.

Since I read this as much for the setting as for the mystery, I would be remiss if I didn't share a few of the interesting cultural bits that I came across--keeping in mind of course that the book was published in 1940, so perhaps life has changed considerably in the passing years.

***

"The schnapps was drawn from a porcelain tap with brass fittings.  It was that which gave the place its pervading odor, as it did every other café in the Netherlands, and which was so very different from any café in France."

***

"The evening before, he had dinner at the table next to the professor's.  But now three places had been laid on the round table in the middle of the room.  The tablecloth was snowy white and the creases had not yet gone flat.  Moreover, three glasses had been set for each person, and that was a thing done only on grand occasions in Holland."

***

"In Holland we never drink with meals, only afterward.  In the course of the evening--that is, at large repceptions--they serve a small glass of wine with the cigars . . . Another point on which we differ from you: we never put bread on he table."

***

"It's the very embodiment of cleanliness and order."

***

I've wanted to read more Maigret for ages and this was only a brief foray into his world.  I'll be back for more.  Maigret in Holland is doing double duty for me.  It's not only the next spot to be filled in my Vintage Bingo card (three more to go to fill my row and get 'bingo'--this one is for the 'one mystery set other than the US or England slot) but is my last 'formal' book in my summer Reading the Netherlands project.  I've got a couple of books left that will spill over into the end of the year, but I'll be wrapping things up this weekend  in anticipation of other reading plans to see me through the end of the year.  Cath has kindly written a last post, which we'll be sharing tomorrow and I have a few loose ends to tie up over the weekend.  I might end up with one of those spillover books in my travel bag next week, or maybe another Maigret mystery or maybe another book to help fill in my Bingo card.  So many good choices.

Teaser Tuesday: Maigret in Holland

I've read a few novels by Georges Simenon but only one Maigret mystery.  I've picked up his 1940 mystery, Maigret in Holland, which is doing double duty for me since it will count as one of my vintage mystery choices and with its Dutch setting will fit in nicely with the rest of my "Netherlands" reading as well. 

Simenon was an interesting man, not least because he was very prolific.  I think he wrote close to two hundred books during his lifetime and he was a fast writer (though with such an output he would have to be, wouldn't he?) and well regarded.  The TLS had an interesting article on him last May.  He "wrote extremely quickly, disliked 'literature' and had a voluptuous interest in both fame and money, was admired by, among others: Gide, Cocteau, Céline, Anouilh, Colette, Mauriac, Somerset Maugham, Thornton Wilder, T. S. Eliot, Henry Miller and John Cowper Powys."  I'd say that's a pretty respectable fan base.  Apparently it was thanks to a combination of qualities that helped create his success and notoriety.

"His admirable positives: swiftness of creation; swiftness of effect; clearly demarcated personal territory; intense atmosphere and resonant detail; knowledge of, and sympathy with, les petites gens; moral ambiguity; a usually baffling plot with a usually satisfactory denouement. As for his enviable negatives: Simenon got away with a very restricted and therefore very repetitive vocabulary (about 2,000 words, by his own estimation) – he didn’t want any reader to have to pause over a word, let alone reach for the dictionary. He kept his books very short, able to be read in one sitting, or (often) journey: none risks outstaying its welcome. He eschews all rhetorical effect – there is rarely more than one simile per book, and no metaphors, let alone anything approaching a symbol. There is text, but no subtext; there is plot but no subplot – or rather, what appears to be possible subplot usually ends up being part of the main plot. There are no literary or cultural allusions, and minimal reference to what is going on in the wider world of French politics, let alone the international arena. There is also – both admirable positive and enviable negative – no authorial presence, no authorial judgement, and no obvious moral signposts. Which helps make Simenon’s fiction remarkably like life."

In other words his books are entirely gulpable, entertaining.  As for the cultural allusions, I'm not so sure about that reference.  The novels may be slim, but they certainly do reflect something of the time and place while there is perhaps no grand statement about societal ills, I think the reader can still take something away from his stories.

I'm only a few chapters in (and I do hope to easily finish this by the end of the week--I am actually finding it a very engaging...and yes, gulpable...story so far), but I am forming quite a picture in my mind of the little town of Delfzijl, where a French citizen is being held for questioning in the death of a local man.  Inspector Maigret is in this extreme northeast town of the Netherlands in only a semiofficial capacity.  It's actually Maigret's impression of Delfzijl which is the teaser I want to share. 

"Right from the start, he found Delfzijl disconcerting.  At dawn he had found himself rolling through the traditional Holland of tulips.  Then came Amsterdam, which he already knew.  But Drenthe, an endless stretch of heather, had taken him by surprise.  A twenty-mile horizon sectioned by canals."

"And what he now came to was something that bore no relation to the ordinary picture postcard of Holland.  It was far more Nordic than anything he imagined."

"A small town.  At the most, ten or fifteen streets paved with beautiful red tiles, as regularly laid as those of a kitchen floor.  Low houses of brick, ornamented with a profusion of carved woodwork painted in cheerful colors."

"The whole place was like a toy, all the more so because it was completely encircled by a dike.  In this dike were openings with heavy lock gates, which were no doubt closed during spring tides."

"Beyond was the estuary of the Ems River, and then the North Sea, a long silver ribbon of water.  Ships were unloading their cargoes under the cranes on the quay.  In the canals were innumerable sailing boats, big as barges and as heavy, built to withstand the open seas."

Perhaps Cath will be able to tell us whether it is indeed and accurate reckoning of the town.  I wonder why Maigret finds it disconcerting?  Perhaps it doesn't match his image of what it should be like?  The beauty of books like this is getting an image of a place and the people and this is all the more interesting since it is filtered through the eyes and perceptions of a Frenchman.  It's curious that so far there is no mention of the war, though the book was published in 1940 and Rotterdam was only bombed in May of 1940 with the Dutch army surrendering shortly thereafter.  And as the TLS article noted that Simenon kept mum about politics in his books, so maybe not surprising after all. 

August is flying by and I have several books underway for my Reading Netherlands summer project.  I think I might devote the majority of my reading time to these books, though a few other books will need some attention as well.  Don't be surprised if you hear more about my reading in the next couple of weeks.  I'd say a class trip to The Netherlands would be in order next, but it may have to be virtual only.  Someday I will get there, however.  And my reading of Dutch authors will continue for the rest of the year. 

Vintage Bingo Redux

So I've been trying to organize my reading piles this past weekend.  I'm midstream in so many books and reading projects, and with the year quickly speeding by, I wonder if there is still time to finish most of them and salvage earlier plans and ambitions.  I have been reading (literally am in the middle of quite a few) lots of mysteries this year, but none of them at the moment will count towards my vintage mystery reading (you can see the Bingo card here that I am working on).

I'm opting to fill the six spots down from the G as I've read two so far that will fit--Agatha Christie's The Man in the Brown Suit for a mystery with a color in the title, and Josephine Tey's The Man in the Queue with a theatrical setting.  Now it's time to think about which books will fit the rest of the slots (rather than my random reading so far).  Four books to read by the end of the year?  It sounds easy enough.  It's just the rest of the books I am reading or want to read that always throw me off.  But there is no harm in planning, right?

* * * * * *

Read one book set anywhere except the US or England.  I've picked up George Simenon's Maigret in Holland (which is being reissued this fall by Penguin with the title A Crime in Holland), which will do double duty as I finish up my Reading the Netherlands books. 

Read one locked room mystery.  I have two that would work.  I am leaning towards John Dickson Carr's The Hollow Man, which is a classic from what I understand.  Georgette Heyer's Envious Casca would also work (but I am unsure where my copy is and am not sure if I am up to digging through bins in search of it--how lazy is that).  The latter is set on a country estate during a house party and the former has a snowy setting.

Read one academic mystery.  This one is easy as I have been wanting to try another Josephine Tey mystery.  While this is not an Inspector Grant mystery I have heard many good things about Miss Pym Disposes.  It is set at a girl's physical training college.

This leaves me with one slot, for which I am stumped.

Read one book that features a crime other than murder.  I am sure there are loads of them, but the catch is that any books I choose must have been written before 1960.  Mysteries usually mean murder is the crime, and nothing really comes to mind.  I'm leaning towards Bunny Lake is Missing by Evelyn Piper, which is about a child's disappearance.  It has the added advantage of being a noir thriller and tale of domestic suspense, so perhaps I'll give it a go. 

It's always good to have ideas in reserve, so suggestions for good books always welcome.  Now to sort through the rest of my reading and end of the year plans.  Obviously my plans are always pretty loose (or my reading wouldn't be all over the place like it is at the moment . . .).  What about you?  Thinking ahead, making plans, tidying up old plans?  Or not thinking about it at all and just reading at whim?  I sometimes think I 'think about books and reading' too much.  Or is that even possible?

The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey

I like Josephine Tey's Inspector Alan Grant.  As a matter of fact I think he is worthy of inclusion into my own personal 'crushable' favorite characters hall of fame (crushable being--the sort of fictional character on whom I will admit to having a little crush).  The Man in the Queue, published in 1929, is Grant's first mystery.  Tey (really Elizabeth Mackintosh) only wrote six of them along with a small handful of standalone novels and a few plays.  The blurb on the cover of the book is "The Classic Mystery Writer" and I think I have to concur with that categorization.  This is a very traditional, well plotted, good old fashioned detective story.

Inspector Grant?  Where to begin.  He reminds me a little of P.D. James's Adam Dalgliesh--a private, cerebral person, thought rather tall, dark and handsome by some.  Inspector Grant has a good supply of devotion and duty along with brains and courage.  Four years on the Western Front and many more in the C.I.D. has led him to develop an acute sixth sense which serves him well when working on a murder case or general crime solving.  The last thing he looks like, however, is a police officer.  He's of mid-height, slight build and on the dapper side (though not of a "tailor's dummy type" Tey informs her reader).  He has a half-careless thoroughness about him and is efficient and practical.  He's brisk and always thinking and speculating on his work.  Some years before he came into a considerable legacy and easily could have retired, but he's got quite a knack for his job and no desire to give it up.  Oh, and he's a good judge of a horse.

He'll need every bit of that efficiency and thoroughness for London's latest murder.  Not only must the murderer be sussed out, but the identity of the victim isn't even known until well into the story.  It's a March evening and the long running play "Didn't You Know" is coming to an end.  The star, Ray Marcable, is taking her success to America.  She's much loved and the crowd outside the theater is thick with fans waiting to see her one last time.  The crush of people is so intense that no one even realizes that a man in the queue has been stabbed in the back.  The sheer number of people packed together has kept him upright, and it is only when the line begins to move and he slumps forward and falls does anyone realize that something dark and deadly has just occurred.

There is very little on the man's body to help identify him.  Despite so many people so close together no one seems to have seen much of anything.  The forensic evidence points to a left handed man, and definitely a man and not a woman, who yielded enough force to drive the weapon in at such close quarters.  It's determined that the murderer used a very thin, sharp stiletto to commit the murder.  And Grant is sure that the murder was planned with much ingenuity and and executed with great subtlety.  And he believes that this is a most un-English crime.  Between the way the murder was executed and the particular weapon used Grant has formed in his mind a picture of just who might have committed it.

It's by a combination of supposition and plain everyday detective work--pounding the pavement and asking questions over and over that Grant pieces together who the man murdered was, and who is likely to have been the perpetrator.  He is hot on his heels when the suspect, a step ahead of Grant, flees to Scotland where an arduous and adventurous chase ensues.  And when he tracks the suspect down Grant must reassess all the clues he's gathered and the picture he has in his mind of the murderer.  Things rarely are what they seem, and when all the clues stack up and point directly at the individual who Grant was certain did the deed, he begins to second guess himself fearing he's caught the wrong man.  Circumstances put him in the right place at the wrong time, but did he really do it?

And the picture Grant paints at the start of the story based on the murder?  A so very un-English type of crime?  Well, there are lots of red herrings and turns down streets with no outlets to create doubt and leave questions unanswered.  There are a few twists and turns but nothing shocking, just good, plain detective work by a man with admirable talents.  I'll just say that Tey has created a very human and likable character who is not without faults or shortcomings but is mostly very good at his job. 

I want to know him more.  Grant's next mystery is A Shilling for Candles which I see that Alfred Hitchcock filmed as Young and Innocent.  With only six Grant mysteries I am thinking I could easily read them in almost one go, though I will likely pick something different for my next Vintage Mystery.  For Bingo I need to read six mysteries (and fill six slots--so far I have read one book with a 'color in the title' and one 'set in the entertainment world').  I think I like Josephine Tey very much and especially her dapper detective.

Teaser Tuesday: A Murder is Announced

Well, I'm not entirely sure this story is going to involve a country house per se, but Agatha Christie is always good, far too much time has passed since I picked up a Miss Marple mystery, and I need to get cracking on my Vintage Mystery Bingo card (I've only read one so far).  I am reading Josephine Tey's The Man in the Queue at the moment as well, but I am nothing if not greedy when it comes to books and so am going to binge a little on mysteries right now.  So both books will count towards my Bingo.

I've been (very slowly) making my way through the Miss Marple mysteries in the order Agatha Christie published them: Murder at the Vicarage (1930), The Thirteen Problems (Short Stories--1932) which I read a few years back but cannot find a proper post on them,  The Body in the Library (1942), The Moving Finger (1943), Sleeping Murder (published in 1972 but written during WWII), A Murder is Announced (the book I am just now starting--1960) . . . and to follow: 4.50 From Paddington (1957), Greenshaw's Folly (1960), The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (1962), A Caribbean Mystery (1964), At Bertram's Hotel (1965), They Do it with Mirrors (1952), A Pocket Full of Rye (1953), Nemesis (1971), Miss Marple's Final Cases (short stories--1979).  I see that the list given on the Agatha Christie website puts the books in a different reading order, so I might have to reassess my reading plans.  (No wonder I couldn't find my link to Sleeping Murder--I've not yet read it).

Oh well.  As I've started A Murder is Announced and she has already sucked me into the story, no use switching gears at this point.  The story involves one of those mystery games played at a party where one person pretends to be murdered and the rest are suspects and try and suss out just who did it.  In this case, however, someone actually is murdered.  It's the humor that got me.  I think this is going to be a fun read.  In the opening chapters a mother and her grown son are sitting at the breakfast table reading their respective newspapers, and the mother is making a running commentary of what she's reading:

"Bull mastiff puppies," read out Mrs.  Settenham.  "I really don't know how people manage to feed big dogs nowadays--I really don't . . . H'm, Selina Lawrence is advertising for a cook again.  I could tell her it's just a waste of time advertising in these days.  She hasn't put her address, only a box number--that's quite fatal--I could have told her so--servants simply insist on knowing where they are going.  They like a good address . . . False teeth--I can't think why false teeth are so popular.  Best prices paid . . . Beautiful bulbs.  Our special selection.  They sound rather cheap . . . Here's a girl wants an Interesting post--would travel.  I daresay!  Who wouldn't?  Dachshunds . . .  I've never really cared for dachshunds myself--I don't mean because they're German, because we've got all over that--I just don't care for them, that's all.  Yes, Mrs. Finch?"

And no, Mrs. Finch can't clear the dishes yet as Edmund was still eating his breakfast! 

isn't that great?  Can't you just picture this in your mind?  And Mrs. Settenham who thinks she knows everything and knows best and is most likely the worst busybody, but she's going to be entertaining as all get out to picture in my mind as I am reading!

Just what I need right now.

And unrelated to my Tuesday teaser, though this is a mystery project . . .  Remember when I shared this detail of a needlework project that I am working on?  I have finished it.  Literally finished it.  Last night I pulled out my sewing machine (how long has it been--I almost forgot how to work it!) and it sits here ready to go into the mail.  I have taken photos and will share them when the mystery project has arrived at its destination.  My first proper needlework finish of the year, which is not shabby at all considering I not only began it from scratch, but only in the last few weeks picked up needle and thread in earnest.  Maybe I am out of my needlework rut, which would be a good thing indeed.

Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

In broad daylight and right in front of her eyes, Anne Beddingfeld sees a man fall to his death from a train platform.  Was it an accident?  Did he just fall, or is there something far more sinister at play?  Or was he pushed?  Suspiciously, a man in a brown suit rushes to his side, but then dashes off.  Anne assumes he's a doctor hoping to help the man, but the man was beyond help.  Published in 1924 The Man in the Brown Suit is one of Agatha Christie's earliest mysteries and it has about it an air of romantic suspense.  The story is narrated by beautiful but accident-prone Anne Beddingfeld, the daughter of a scholar who cares more about his antiquities than about Anne.  Upon his death she sees her moment for a life of adventure finally arrive.  And she's about to have the adventure of a lifetime.

Near the body Anne discovers a slip of paper with a rather cryptic notation--a series of numbers that seem to be a date and the name Kilmorden Castle.  As the only witness to this 'crime' Anne sets off to do a little sleuthing on her own.  She begins to wonder if the man in the brown suit is the murderer rather than a concerned bystander, especially when she crosses paths with him again and yet more dead bodies begin to turn up.  Whatever she lacks in ready cash (her father left her with nothing but bills) and practical skills, she makes up for in moxie and a certain fearlessness.

She convinces the owner of a newspaper to publish her story if she can get to the bottom of this messy affair and sets out to untangle the sordid web that she seems to have fallen into.  Murder on a train platform.  A mysterious man in a brown suit. A dropped note.  An unknown woman murdered in the house the dead man was planning to rent.  A film canister.  And stolen diamonds.  Cherchez l'homme.  If she can find the man in the brown suit, she knows she can fit together all the pieces. 

Her search takes her to a ship sailing for South Africa, and she has  just enough cash to buy a ticket.  A disparate group of travelers will muddy the waters and throw Anne into increasingly dangerous situations.  She has a knack for walking into traps set by the murderer and his thugs.  But she has, too, a knack for slipping away at just the right moment.   She's befriended by a slightly older woman who happens to have an equal sense of adventure as well as a wealthy husband, and she breaks not just a few hearts along the way, too.

The culprit is unsurprisingly right in front of our eyes all the way, and romantic sparks flare from just the corner we expect it.  Agatha Christie's The Man in the Brown Suit is a somewhat farcical, good-humored rollercoaster ride of a story.  It comes before Miss Marple arrives on scene in later books and with just a couple of Poirot novels under her belt.  The novels feels like a departure from where her works will spin off to in the future, which is perhaps not a bad thing.  There is the signature Christie reasoning and deductive puzzle solving here, but also the romantic thread is quite lively in this story.  Interestingly the play between the sexes, and human nature in general is quite pronounced--what later will be Miss Marple's puzzle solving forte.  But as a novel of its times, the romance is more akin to 'cave man' school of romance than of an independent woman coming into her own.  Not a bad thing considering the period, only there were some curious scenes, comments and assumptions.  As well, though, there were some very amusing lines, too.

"It is really a hard life.  Men will not be nice to you if you are not good-looking, and women will not be nice to you if you are."

***

"I walked out with what dignity I could muster.  I dare say it is good for one now and again to realize what an idiot one can be!  But nobody relishes the process."

All in all this was an entertaining read, though not Agatha Christie's best--with as many books as she wrote and considering this is an early work, it's not surprising really.  Still an Agatha Christie novel is almost always a good bet.  I'm glad I have so many still to discover.  And I do love a good mystery that includes adventures by rail or boat!  This is my first Vintage Mystery Bingo read.  I think I'll put my marker on the "read one book with a color in the title" category.  I've already started Josephine Tey's The Man in the Queue, the first Inspector Grant mystery.  It should fit the "book set in the entertainment world" slot nicely since the queue the title refers to is for the theatre.

Teaser Tuesday: Trying on Stories for Size

Dilemma!  I am ready to begin reading a book for Vintage Mystery Bingo--I'm jumping the gun just a little, but as I know I won't finish the book before the end of the year, it will be a carryover into January.  I might as well get a head start, as I am in the mood for a good mystery.  To start I'll choose a book and match it up with a category rather than picking a category and finding a book to fill the slot.  There will be plenty of time for that later. 

I am, as usual, spoiled for choice.  When this happens I dip into several different books and see which grabs me.  The only "rules" I need to follow are picking a book published prior to 1960, and the story has to be mostly a mystery.  I didn't dig too deeply into my mystery bins (that would be dangerous--I'd spend too much time looking at all the books . . . ), but I still came away with a small handful of stories.  So, my teaser is actually a set of teasers.  Here are first lines to give a taste:

Mystery Mile (1930) by Margery Allingham -- I had planned on reading all the Albert Campion novels, and it is high time I picked up another book.  "'I'll bet you fifty dollars, even money,' said the American who was sitting nearest the door in the opulent lounge of the homeward-bound Elephantine, 'that that man over there is murdered within a fortnight'."

The Circular Staircase (1908) by Mary Roberts Rinehart -- I always mean to read Roberts Rinehart (have a few of her books) and always mean to start with this particular book.  "This is the story of how a middle-aged spinster lost her mind, deserted her domestic gods in the city, took a furnished house for the summer out of town, and found herself involved in one of those mysterious crimes that keep our newspapers and detective agencies happy and prosperous."

The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin (1946) -- I usually start with first books in series when it comes to mysteries, but I really like the premise of this one.  "Richard Cadogan raised his revolver, took careful aim and pulled the trigger.  The explosion rent the small garden and, like the widening circles which surrounded a pebble dropped into the water, created alarms and disturbances of diminishing intensity throughout the suburb of St. John's Wood."

The Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr (1935) -- This is a classic 'locked door' mystery.  "To the murder of Professor Grimaud, and later the equally incredible crime in Cagliostro Street, many fantastic terms could be applied -- with reason."

The Man in the Brown Suit (1924) by Agatha Christie -- It's hard to resist an Agatha Christie novel and I like them all--Miss Marples, Poirots and all the standalones, too.   "Everybody has been at me, right and left, to write this story from the great (represented by Lord Nasby), to the small (represented by our late maid of all work, Emily, whom I saw when I was last in England.  'Lor', miss, what a beyewtiful book you might make out of it all--just like the pictures!')."

The Singing Sands (1953) by Josephine Tey -- I thought this was her first Inspector Alan Grant book, but it was her last and published posthumously.  She died in 1952.  Maybe I should look for the first book?  "It was six o'clock of a March morning, and still dark.  The long train came sidling through the scattered lights of the yard, clicking gently over the points."

The Patient in Room 18 (1929) by Mignon Eberhart -- She was a Nebraska author.  I've read one of her books and have meant to read more!  "St. Ann's is an old hospital, sprawling in a great heap of weather-stained red brick and green ivy on the side of Thatcher Hill, a little east and south of the city of B---."

Oh, I do love picking out new books to read (are you surprised? -- see sidebar . . . ahem . . . ).  I think next year is going to be an especially good mystery reading year (at least I hope so).  I'm sort of leaning towards The Circular Staircase at the moment followed closely by The Man in the Brown Suit, but ask me tomorrow and I might have just changed my mind.  I think I am going to do a little 'investigating' myself and see if I can find some 'off the beaten path' mysteries to read next year.  I'll let you know what I come up with and am always open to suggestions, too.

Vintage Mystery Bingo

It's futile to resist, and as I want to read more mysteries next year in any case, I might as well have a little fun doing so.  And it is always nice having company when working on a little reading project, so I am going to join the 2014 Vintage Mystery Bingo Challenge hosted by My Reader's Block.  There are two Bingo cards to play from--Silver or Gold the distinction being mysteries written either before or after 1960.  I'm opting for the Golden version, so I'll be choosing books written before 1960.  As I'm a great fan of vintage/Golden Age mystery authors I should have no problem 'getting Bingo' over the course of the year.  If you are curious you can read all the rules here, but the way the Bingo works:

"BINGOS may be claimed by completing all spaces in a row--horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.  You may also claim a 'Four Corner' BINGO by reading a book for each of the four corners plus two more spaces—any two.  A valid BINGO must have six complete spaces."

Six books over the course of the year, surely even I can do that, right?  I'm sure I'll still get my fill of regular contemporary crime novels and other mysteries, but this will give me the opportunity to revisit some authors I've read and enjoyed and have been meaning to get back to. 

I won't be creating a list of books to read, as it will be more fun to see where my reading takes me according to my mood and the categories on the card (you can click on it to enlarge it).  But I do have a mental list going of possible authors: Agatha Christie (of course), Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, Dorothy Sayers, Josephine Tey, Ross MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Mignon Eberhart, and Christianna Brand to name just a few from the top of my head.  I am sure I'll come across more, and as always am open to suggestions. 

I'm not sure where I'll start in the card, but as I have been (very slowly) reading the Miss Marple mysteries in the order they were written, perhaps I'll see where I can make A Murder is Announced (1950) fit on the card.  Or maybe I'll study the card and then find a book that fits for something a little different and unexpected.  I think I'll be starting a new mystery over my upcoming break.  Something else to look forward to!