I am now retired. It was planned for this year, but came six months earlier than anticipated. I was made an offer I couldn't refuse, so to speak. In the past two weeks I have had to fast forward all my planning that I was going to spread out over three months. Then yesterday a financial emergency had me spending close to three hours cancelling auto-payments and reorganizing that part of my life. When it was all solved, I sat back and reflected. I realized that 2025 is a year of new beginnings in more ways than I ever anticipated. With new beginnings comes a re-evaluation of what I missed doing and what brought me not only satisfaction but actual joy. And here I am again.
When I left the blog I entered a new phase of creativity in the world of theater which I had also abandoned back in 2013 or so. I've had modest successes (though very little monetary reward) but it was all exhilarating and joyous, aspects that were greatly missing from my life for decades. Now I'm finding a balance between theater and blogging as well as a return to bookselling. Slowly but surely you will find me selling online in at least two places in the coming weeks. But for now let's catch you up on what I read over the past year and a half. Well, at least the most noteworthy books.
In 2024 I spent much of my time reading newly published books, discovering writers working now as opposed to being obscure, forgotten and usually very dead. Here are some highlights for those who mix their vintage reading with contemporary and new books:
- Benjamin Stevenson - Everyone on this Train is a Suspect (2023) and Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret (2024) I think this guy is one of the best traditional mystery writers out there. He worships fair play motifs, and also sort of sends up the rules and conventions of traditional detective novels. I love the meta-fiction part of each book. His novels are not only puzzling and engaging but very witty with a offbeat sense of humor.
- Tom Mead - Cabaret Macabre (2024) Loved this rule breaking impossible crime mystery. The best of his three novels so far, I think.
I read a slew of horror novels and ghost stories in 2023 and 2024 and would love to rave about those too, but I have to move on to the vintage nuggets of gold from 2024. Following the habits of a few of my fellow vintage mystery bloggers I'll pick the best vintage mystery I read each month last year. And here are the first six...
FEBRUARY: The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo - Michael Butterworth (1983) Comic crime novel about a shoe salesman who in order to inherit his dead unce's estate must comply with a bizarre last wish according to the eccentric's will. The nephew must take the uncle's dead body to Monte Carlo on an all expense paid vacation and gamble away a set amount of money. How on earth is he going to pull that off? If he fails, then the money goes to a charity that cares for rescue dogs. Along the way the woman who owns the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn becomes his partner in the vacation adventure. Gangsters, disguises, silliness galore. Amazingly, this book was turned into an award winning musical called Lucky Stiff by Stephen Flaherty & Lynn Ahrens, the duo best known for Ragtime and Once on This Island. This was one of their earliest collaborations.
MARCH: The Forest Mystery - Nigel Burnaby (1934) Obscure and definitely forgotten writer (a journalist during the 30s and 40s) who wrote only five mystery novels. This one is about woman who has escaped from an asylum whose nude body is found in a wooded area off a remote country road. The body is battered and almost unidentifiable. Her husband is implicated in the crime and must clear his name. Intriguing plot twists with an ending that reminded me of Anthony Berkeley's early rule-breaking mystery novels. Innovative and often witty. Was so unusual that I bought two more of his books. Still have yet to read those.APRIL: No real winner this month. I read four new books (three of them superior and two already mentioned above in the modern section. Only read one vintage mystery: Too Much of Water by Bruce Hamilton (1958). I didn't really like it. Not up to the level of his other earlier novels, two of which I reviewed here at Pretty Sinister Books. Very talky, little action and an unsatisfactory, slightly contrived, resolution with one of the deaths turning out to be an accident. Only good thing about the book was the cool DJ and the plan of the cruise ship that was the novel's setting.
MAY: Swing High Sweet Murder - S. H Courtier (1962) One of my favorite mystery writers. A shame his books are so damn hard to find. Miraculously, I bought five of Courtier's books in the past two years and read almost all of them in 2024. All but one had a lot to recommend them. This is an impossible crime mystery about a tennis coach found hanged in a treehouse which serves as a fire tower for the area. Set in Australia, of course, with his series detective policeman "Digger" Haig. It cries out to filmed because the setting is so unusual and demands to be seen rather than imagined. I had to re-read passages to figure out how the house was built in this massive tree. Features a minor character who is developmentally delayed and has the talent of mimicking indigenous bird calls. The tennis background is also fascinating making this doubly tempting for sports mystery fans as well as impossible crime devotees.
JUNE: It Happened in Boston? - Russell H Greenan (1968) Utterly bizarre, often contemplative and prophetic, thoroughly entertaining. For once it’s a book that is easy to find and affordable to buy in cheap paperback copies. Highly recommend this unclassifiable "mystery". While not exactly a detective novel it does qualify as a crime novel but that aspect is the least of its merits. Absurd, satiric, trenchant and witty. Greenan was sui generis among the writers of the mystery world. In an ideal world everyone would know him, his books would have received several awards, and he'd still be in print. One plus - this book was reprinted by The Modern Library in 2003 with an intro by Jonathan Lethem. But I think that edition had a small print run. I dare not summarize nor mention any of the story of It Happened in Boston? for it must be personally experienced. The most surprising aspect of this book is it's about the art world and NONE of the blurbs on ANY of the editions mention this facet of the story. Those who enjoy art mysteries or novels about the art world take note! I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A true must read for people who love imaginative fiction of any type. With a mystery or without -- it's a damn fine book. I'll post the next six months' worth of highlights of 2024 vintage mystery reading later this week.
"If you build it, they will come." So goes the famous line in the movie Field of Dreams. And they did come to this blog for years and years. Perhaps if I rebuild, then they will return. If you are one of them now reading this, thank you for returning. I hope to stay here for as long as I can this time.
I am excited to see you posting here again. I have missed you and your blog posts. It is good to hear that you have been enjoying the world of theater and I am glad that you are also going to be blogging. And retirement sounds good.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading about the more recently published books you have read. I am already planning to read Everyone on this Train is a Suspect and I read Stuart Turton's first book and liked it. I will look into the others you wrote about.
My husband read a lot of ghost stories and weird stories last year but I don't often read in that area. The vintage books and authors that you discussed are not familiar to me and I will check them out. It Happened in Boston sounds good and I will work on getting a copy of that one when I am buying books again. I look forward to more posts.
Tracy! Glad you were the first to post a comment. One of my regulars dating back to the first days of PSB. I do still live the obscure and forgotten writers but I’ll be writing about a lot of easily obtained books this year too. Good to be back.
DeleteGreat recap of your year. I have resisted the Benjamin Stevenson books as I don't get on with modern mysteries ... but perhaps I will make an exception here given you and others rate this author highly.
ReplyDelete"Lady in a Wedding Dress" sounds like a good read. Once you start selling again, where can I find your books if you don't mind sharing that? Thank you.
I think you will like Stevenson. He really loves the genre. All of his books are meta-detective novels and always contain commentary by the narrator detective on how a traditional mystery should play out. Of course, his don't always strictly follow the rules and he makes some clever allusions to conventions then upends them. I think they're meant to be fun, entertaining books.
DeleteDue to a handful of oddballs still sending me nasty comments that go unpublished I will find a circumspect way to announce the bookselling sites.
DeleteStevenson's like a modern-day Leo Bruce or Edmund Crispin? Guess I'll have to add another new name to the wishlist.
DeleteWelcome back!
Thanks, TomCat. I was reading your blog periodically all last year. Thought for sure you’d have read Stevenson’s books. Do check him out! You perhaps ought to start with his first book, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. It’s still the best one. Has a couple of impossible crimes. His most recent mystery is very short and concise like all the mystery books published in the 1970s. Also has a clever structure that mimics an advent calendar while also commenting on the TV Christmas specials so popular in the UK.
DeleteHello John, it's absolutely wonderful to see you back in action. Am so glad that you found plenty of joy when you took up theater again. Thanks for this recap of the years and some of the books sound very appealing but more than that I am happy to see you blogging once again. Take care.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Neeru. I'm glad to start many new chapters this year. And revitalizing this blog that I thought I had grown tired of is chief among them.
DeleteI binge-read your blog a couple of years ago and quite enjoyed reading your thoughts. I'm glad to see you've returned!
ReplyDeleteI think you left comments on supernatural and horror book reviews. Thanks for stopping by again. I will have several supernatural books to cover this year. Hope you’ll be back.
DeleteJohn, I am glad you are back blogging. Tracy spoke for a lot of people in saying you were missed. I hope you will blog long into the future.
ReplyDeleteOf the books you mentioned I have enjoyed reading books by Tom Mead and Margot Douaihy. I have not read the latest by either of them but hope to read them in 2025.
With Tom's first two books I put up regular reviews and then commentary posts by fictional sleuths.
I hope your bookselling goes well. I am always glad to hear of someone setting up a new bookselling venture.
I do not often venture into vintage mysteries but I am thinking about the books you mentioned above.
All the best.
Thanks, Bill, for all your kind wishes. Been a long time since you’ve left a comment here. I may be tempted to write about some new books, as a have in the past, if the book is a homage to traditional detective fiction.
DeleteBlogs certainly don't get the traffic they did a decade or more ago but it is a nice way to keep in touch with those who still amble by. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteWelcome back! Hope the disruptions aren't too dire...and look forward to your horror discoveries as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Todd. Appreciate all the emails over the past months. Next week I will have a horror review of three books about haunted films and supernatural movies.
DeleteJohn, glad to see you back!
ReplyDeleteYou didn't participate in the last ROY awards of Kate ?
Selling online in at least two places in the coming weeks? Would one of these be Amazon or are you still disgruntled with them ?
Anyway, wish you the best !
Ah, yes. No ROY for me anymore. And I will not be on Amazon.
DeleteDelighted to see you back, John, and very pleased to hear that you've had a rewarding time away from the blog.
ReplyDeleteYou very seldom see Michael Butterworth mentioned I think--I've not read this specific book, but I have read a couple of the mysteries he wrote in the 80s under the name Sarah Kemp, featuring the pathologist Dr Tina May, and I quite enjoyed them. There are three in total--I read the first two but somehow never got around to the third one. I think I have it lying around somewhere.
Hello you! I thought of you last year when a strange woman emailed asking me about Ann Hocking and Mary Fitt books I might have for sale. I enlightened her about the Fitt books being reprinted by Moonstone Press. Then offered her a copy of Walk into My Parlour , a rare Hocking title from the 1930s (she only wanted the books without Insp. Austen), and quoted a price. I never heard form her again. HA! Can't have wanted the book too much, I think.
DeleteEchoing the sentiment that I am thrilled to see you returning to blogging. It sounds like you read some really interesting books over the past year - some I had heard of but quite a few that hadn't been on my radar. Lady in a Wedding Dress sounds fun (very curious about the blood transfusion revealing secrets comment!).
ReplyDeleteI look forward to hearing about your reading in the second half of the year and adding more titles to my wishlists. Welcome back!
I posted the second part three days ago, Aidan. Thanks for stopping by! I'll have to write up a post on Lady in a Wedding Dress to satisfy your curiosity.
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