Book Review: Ding Dong Bell | Certain Sleep

Book Review: Ding Dong Bell | Certain Sleep by Helen Reilly It’s time for another Ace Double, paperbacks with two short books bound upside down from each other. This one, G-528, is from the Giant Double Novel Book series of mysteries. Although it wasn’t advertised as such, this line was entirely devoted to female authors.… Continue reading Book Review: Ding Dong Bell | Certain Sleep

Magazine Review: High Adventure #169: The Fort Terror Murders

This scene does not appear in the story.

Magazine Review: High Adventure #169: The Fort Terror Murders edited by John P. Gunnison The main feature in this pulp reprint originally appeared in Complete Detective Novel Magazine in December 1931, but the text comes from its reprint in Mystery Novels Magazine Quarterly in Summer 1932. Both magazines had relatively short runs, so it is… Continue reading Magazine Review: High Adventure #169: The Fort Terror Murders

Book Review: The Case of the Constant Suicides

Book Review: The Case of the Constant Suicides by John Dickson Carr Castle Shira is not a canny place. Ever since one of the Campbell soldiers involved in the Glencoe Massacre threw himself from the tower, supposedly to escape the ghost of a murdered MacDonald, there have been a series of falling deaths associated with… Continue reading Book Review: The Case of the Constant Suicides

Manga Review: Case Closed, Volumes 77-79

Manga Review: Case Closed, Volumes 77-79 by Gosho Aoyama Recap: Conan Edogawa is actually Shinichi Kudou (Jimmy Kudo in the U.S. version), a genius teen detective who was poisoned by the Black Organization and now has the body of a pre-teen. This makes it more difficult for him to get listened to, but he keeps… Continue reading Manga Review: Case Closed, Volumes 77-79

Television Review: Scooby Doo!: Mystery Incorporated

The town is less than appreciative of its young mythbusters.

Television Review: Scooby Doo!: Mystery Incorporated Crystal Cove advertises itself as “the most hauntedest town on Earth” and it’s easy to see why. Its history is full of curses, ghosts, monsters and mysterious disappearances, starting with the Spanish conquistadors who founded the place. But if you dig a little deeper, you discover that many of… Continue reading Television Review: Scooby Doo!: Mystery Incorporated

Movie Review: Scared to Death (1947)

Bill Raymond engages in a duel of wits with Professor Leonide. Too bad he's unarmed!

Movie Review: Scared to Death (1947) directed by Christy Cabanne There’s an unusually chatty corpse in the morgue tonight, and it wants to tell us all about how it got there. Laura Van Ee (Molly Lamont) made a poor choice in marrying Ward Van Ee (Roland Varno), son of eminent physician Dr. Joseph Van Ee (George… Continue reading Movie Review: Scared to Death (1947)

Book Review: Widows Wear Weeds

Book Review: Widows Wear Weeds by A.A. Fair (Erle Stanley Gardner) Erle Stanley Gardner became famous thanks to his Perry Mason stories, featuring a defense attorney whose client is always innocent (of the particular murder the story is about.) But not every one of his story ideas fit that mold, so under the pen name… Continue reading Book Review: Widows Wear Weeds

Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine September/October 2021

Cover by Brian Stauffer

Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine September/October 2021 edited by Janet Hutchings “The years keep coming and they just keep coming.” It seems like just a few months ago I reviewed a 75th anniversary issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, but in fact it was five years ago, and here’s the 80th anniversary issue. It’s… Continue reading Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine September/October 2021

Comic Book Review: An Inspector Calls: The Graphic Novel

Comic Book Review: An Inspector Calls: The Graphic Novel script by J.B. Priestley, adaptation by Jason Cobley, linework by Will Volley It is spring, 1912 in the English town of Brumley. Wealthy manufacturer Arthur Birling and his wife Sybil are having a small dinner party to celebrate the engagement of their daughter Sheila to Gerald… Continue reading Comic Book Review: An Inspector Calls: The Graphic Novel

Book Review: The Circular Staircase

Book Review: The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart Miss Rachel Innes is a woman of independent means who raised her brother’s children Halsey and Gertrude after he and his wife passed away. They’re now in their early twenties, and have at long last persuaded their maiden aunt to rent a summer house out in… Continue reading Book Review: The Circular Staircase