Search results for ""Felony Mayhem""

Dov Taylor is an ex-everything - an ex-husband, an ex-cop, an ex-drinker, an ex-observant Jew. The way he sees it, he doesn't have much to offer, so he's a tad surprised when he gets a summons from a local rabbi: There's been a hideous murder in the Hassidic community, and Dov, says the rabbi, is the man to solve the crime. Why Dov? Some hundred-odd years ago, his ancestor was a famous Polish mystic, revered for his ability to discern the truth. The rabbi agrees that Dov is not what might be called an impressive candidate. But perhaps some shred of the mystic's wisdom can be persuaded to whisper down the decades, help Dov see what others cannot. Channel a long-dead Polish wackjob? That's not really in Dov's line of work. On the other hand, he doesn't have a lot of better offers. This extraordinary, deeply unusual mystery was shortlisted for the Edgar in 1994.

Read more less

In Skeleton Key, readers were introduced to Georgine Wyeth, a widowed young mother in California who stumbled across a body and walked-she emphatically did not fall-into the arms of Todd McKinnon, a pulp novelist living in the community where the murder took place. It's now a few years later, and the couple are taking a car trip with Georgine's daughter, Barbie. On their way home they stop for what they fondly imagine will be a brief visit with a most peculiar family, only to be sucked into the family's extremely peculiar mystery, involving a disappeared husband, a dead old lady, and mysterious footsteps in the night. First published in 1944, Glass Mask is a fascinating mix of old-fashioned puzzle-mystery and a startlingly modern sensibility-that allows Todd and Georgine to travel together, for example, without the benefit of wedding rings. It's a delight.

Read more less

One has to admit that the timing was peculiar. No one could doubt that Mr. Percival Pyke Period was genuinely distraught to hear that his neighbor, Harry Cartell, had turned up dead in a ditch. But how is it that Mr. Percival Pyke came to write the letter of condolence before the body was found? And how is it that Mr. Cartell came to inspire such violence? Yes he was boring, yes he was stuffy, but who would kill a man for the crime of being a bad conversationalist? If tediousness has become grounds for murder, Inspector Alleyn shudders to think of the body-count to come.

Read more less

Like The Gracie Allen Murder Case before it, Winter was first written as a screenplay, in this case a vehicle for the figure skater Sonja Henie. However, while Allen’s scatterbrained persona made a charming foil for Philo’s stuffed-shirt pretensions, Ms. Henie provided no such inspiration. Van Dine did not live long enough to see her outed as a Nazi supporter, but her ice-princess act offered less for Philo to play against. It should be noted that Winter was published posthumously to close out the series, and though it went to press without Van Dine’s usual repeated revisions, it is true vintage Philo—utterly distinctive in style and its own very genuine kind of pleasure.

Read more less

Gracie Allen breaks the Philo Phormula in a number of ways. First is its title: this is the only book in the series to modify “Murder Case” with more than one word, much less with the name of a character. And then there’s that character: Gracie Allen was a very real, much-loved comedienne in the 1930s, famous for her double act with George Burns, and in fact the plot revolves around her. Gracie’s centrality is no accident: Van Dine wrote the story as a vehicle for Allen, and actually created the novel only after the film had come out. So do all these departures pay off? We’d be lying if we said that Gracie hits every single mark, but Van Dine does a surprisingly entertaining job of translating Ms. Allen’s delicious Ditzy Blonde persona to the page, and she makes a charming foil for Philo’s evergreen erudition.

Read more less

It's true, darts is nobody's idea of a low-risk amusement, yet it is rarely lethal. Tell that to the famous barrister who was enjoying a pint at the Plume of Feathers pub, and is now residing at the morgue. Inspector Roderick Alleyn has a growing hunch that the peculiar "accident" can be traced to an old legal case.

Read more less

Ng'ombwana is a (fictional) African nation to have emerged in the wake of colonialism; as it happens, its President is Inspector Alleyn's old school chum, the "Boomer." Old school ties being what they are, the Boomer-making an official visit to London-insists that Alleyn handle his security, rather than Her Majesty's Special Branch. The Special Branch is not best pleased about this, as the Boomer is known to have some very deadly enemies, and the threats only increase when the Ng'ombwanan ambassador is killed. Happily for the Boomer, not only is Alleyn up to the task, but he is assisted by the rescued cat Lucy Lockett, who may have lost her pocket but proves extremely adept at finding clues.

Read more less

A comedy of manners and the odd dead bodyLondon is full of clubs. The Garrick, for example, caters to those with theatrical inclinations, the Athenaeum to eggheads. But the Asterisk may have the strictest membership regulations: Acquitted murderers only.Happily, Benjamin Cann fits the brief. Sure, he strangled Rachel Bolger with a length of pongee silk, but the jury thought different, so while Benji''s old landlord may not want him back, the Asterisk gang—suave Clifford Flush (pushed ladies off trains), Mitteleuropean sexpot Lilli Cluj (crushed her husband with a bumper-car), et al.—offers a warm welcome. Benji doesn''t love the thought of sharing digs with people more than usually inclined to poison the sherry, but the motherly Mrs. Barratt (dosed Mr. B with ground glass) is delighted. So nice to have fresh blood. And it will be such fun to watch him meet the neighbors!

Read more less

In this, his third adventure, Professor Andrew Basnett takes a brief break from his usual stomping grounds in the Little English Village, opting to spend Christmas in a Small Australian City instead. He’s visiting Tony, an old colleague with a newish wife, and he’s barely had a post-flight snack before he’s made aware of a cloud hanging over the marriage. Jan, Tony’s bride, is widely believed to have bashed her first husband over the head, and though she was acquitted of the murder, Tony himself is starting to have uncomfortable second thoughts. Things don’t get any more comfortable when, at a family dinner, one of the guests is done in, killed with a chunk of the same crystal that put paid to Jan’s first husband. And Jan herself? She’s disappeared. Only the Professor, it would seem, can banish the clouds of distrust and reveal the truth, clear as crystal.

Read more less

Following up on The Innocent Spy, the second Ted Stratton novel is set in the summer of 1944, almost five years into the war. Bombs are still falling in London and everyone is thoroughly exhausted of the war. In the middle of all this Stratton investigates a string of deaths in a hospital, where he suspects a serial killer might be at work.

Read more less

TWO BOOKS IN THE SERIES, TWO EDGAR NOMINATIONS Ethelred and Elsie are an unlikely duo: He's a deeply mediocre mystery writer (first encountered in the Edgar-nominated The Herring Seller's Apprentice), and she's his deeply nosy, chocolate-chomping agent. And yet they are stuck with one another, if only because their combined sleuthing abilities are much more impressive than anything either one of them can come up with alone. Tonight's agenda: Dinner with Ethelred's pal "Shagger" Muntham and his titled wife. Elsie may not be overly fond of the Shag, but she wasn't exactly hoping someone would murder him in the library of his own stately home. However, now that someone has done the dastardly deed, would it kill Ethelred to take a little interest, show a little Sherlockian spirit for once?

Read more less