Back in March, I reviewed Henna e ( Strange Pictures , 2022) written by the pseudonymous Japanese horror and mystery Youtuber, "Uketsu," wh...| moonlight-detective.blogspot.com
Last| Beneath the Stains of Time
Last| Beneath the Stains of Time
Edward| Beneath the Stains of Time
I first encountered James Yaffe via his story ‘The Problem of the Emperor’s Mushrooms’ (1945), but have heard much about his ‘Mom’ stories, in which a police officer’s mother “is usually able to solve over the dinner table crimes that keep the police running around in circles for weeks”. So I was delighted to acquire … Continue reading #1333: “Why shouldn’t I know? I know how people act, don’t I?” – My Mother, the Detective [ss] (2016) by James Yaffe| The Invisible Event
The BBB began serializing MORI Hiroshi 's Warawanai sugakusha ( Mathematical Goodbye , 1996), third novel in the S&M series, in the summer...| moonlight-detective.blogspot.com
Back| Beneath the Stains of Time
Last| Beneath the Stains of Time
On 18th August 2025, The Invisible Event will have been running for ten years. And while I’m not a big one for introspection — I read books, I write about those books, some people read what I’ve written, rinse, repeat — a decade feels like a notable achievement and so some introspection is going to … Continue reading #1328: The Tenniversary – Ten Books That (Unwittingly) Shaped This Blog| The Invisible Event
It’s true that, by reading a lot of crime and detective fiction and trying to write three posts a week on that subject, I sometimes forget to just enjoy my reading. So thank heavens it’s time for another Alasdair Beckett-King novel, with Sabotage at Sea (2025) being the fourth in the Montgomery Bonbon corpus. This … Continue reading #1325: Minor Felonies – Montgomery Bonbon: Sabotage at Sea (2025) by Alasdair Beckett-King [ill. Claire Powell]| The Invisible Event
Fun fact: I did not pick up With a Vengeance (2025), the ninth novel by Riley Sager, because I knew it featured an impossible crime. In fact, I’m not even sure it does feature an impossible crime. But it might, and I had a lot of fun with this book, and those two points alone … Continue reading #1324: A Little Help for My Friends – Finding a Modern Locked Room Mystery for TomCat Attempt #28: With a Vengeance (2025) by Riley Sager| The Invisible Event
Herbert| Beneath the Stains of Time
With Libby at Solving Mystery of Murder continuing to struggle with the work of French maestro of the impossible crime Paul Halter, and with no new Halter titles on the horizon for a little while at least, I got to reflecting on the titles that John Pugmire so selflessly translated under his Locked Room International … Continue reading #1321: A Joyous-Going Fellow – My Ten Favourite Paul Halter Translations| The Invisible Event
In the continuing saga that is the translation and publication of Japanese honkaku mysteries into English, Pushkin Vertigo brings us another prolific but seldom read author. Taku Ashibe h…| Ah Sweet Mystery!
Since 2018, when James Scott Byrnside’s Goodnight Irene debuted in all its self-published glory, I’ve had an image of the author sitting in his bathtub in the luxury penthouse he owns atop one of L…| Ah Sweet Mystery!
The first story from Motohiro Katou's Q.E.D. vol. 42, "Escher Hotel," brings Sou Touma and Kana Mizuhara to the titular hotel, " designed b...| moonlight-detective.blogspot.com
The| Beneath the Stains of Time
Last| Beneath the Stains of Time
In 2020, P.J. Fitzsimmons debuted his series of humorous, lighthearted historical locked room “cozies” about the bantering, snooping idler-...| moonlight-detective.blogspot.com
I| Beneath the Stains of Time
Edward| Beneath the Stains of Time
Another Tuesday in June, another book which has lingered on my TBR, and, coincidentally, another impossible crime. So, does Murder Most Ingenious (1962) by Kip Chase live up to its own self-confident billing? Sort of. The setup sees the wealthy and unpopular Hubert Goodall, owner and operator of a small art gallery, take possession of … Continue reading #1307: Mining Mount TBR – Murder Most Ingenious (1962) by Kip Chase| The Invisible Event
You don’t write as much as Edward D. Hoch without hitting the bull’s-eye a few times, so I’m finally doing what I should have done all along and starting the Dr. Sam Hawthorne series from the beginning, with this first tranche of 12 stories published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine between 1974 and 1978. The … Continue reading #1306: “Ain’t nothin’ like this ever happened in Northmont afore!” – Diagnosis: Impossible: The Problems of Dr. Sam Hawthorne [ss] (2000) by Edward D...| The Invisible Event
Another book, bought because I understood it to contain an impossible crime, which has been left lingering on my TBR because it’s a later entry in a series I’ve not otherwise read. More than that, this is a continuation novel, so not even by the series’ original author. I’m starting to think that I should … Continue reading #1304: Mining Mount TBR – McNally’s Folly (2000) by Vincent Lardo| The Invisible Event
I have an undeniable fondness for the work of Edgar Allan Poe, having looked at his tales of ratiocination on this blog as well as written a novel inspired by one of his most famous stories. So Beyond Rue Morgue [ss] (2013), a collection of stories edited by Paul Kane and Charles Prepolec purporting to … Continue reading #1303: “Why ask for my deductions if you seek only to dismiss them?” – Beyond Rue Morgue: Further Tales of Edgar Allan Poe’s First Detective [ss] (2013) ed. Paul Ka...| The Invisible Event
Tuesdays this month will once again be dedicated to digging books out of my TBR pile that have lingered unloved and are likely to remain so without drastic intervention. First up, Mind Over Magic (…| The Invisible Event
I| Beneath the Stains of Time
Image from ‘The Man on the Train’ Something a little different today: knowing that I’m a fan of the Australian dramatist and novelist Malcolm ‘Max’ Afford, Tony Medawar — the closest thing the GAD firmament has to Indiana Jones — sent me a selection of Afford’s thus-far-uncollected short fiction, as found in a variety of … Continue reading #1297: Appointments with Death – Some Uncollected Tales (1932-48) by Max Afford| The Invisible Event
The| Beneath the Stains of Time
One of my favourite discoveries of recent years has been the character of Captain Duncan Maclain, the blind protagonist of a baker’s dozen of books by Baynard Kendrick. Having enjoyed The Odor of Violets (1941) and Blind Man’s Bluff (1943) as part of the American Mystery Classics range, I’ve been keeping an eye out for … Continue reading #1293: The Whistling Hangman (1937) by Baynard Kendrick| The Invisible Event
I ended the review of Motohiro Katou's Q.E.D. vol. 42-43 with the plan to have this series wrapped before July, which can be done at the c...| moonlight-detective.blogspot.com
Even before the sad death of John Pugmire, who brought us much in the way of foreign language impossible crime novels through Locked Room International, Pushkin Vertigo had started some heavy lifti…| The Invisible Event
Among the five books I have reread for Thursday reviews this January, The Case of the Gilded Fly (1944), the debut of the composer Bruce Montgomery under the name Edmund Crispin, is unique in that …| The Invisible Event
I picked my ten favourite crime and detective novels published in the 1930s a little while ago for my online book club, but I only do a Ten Favourite… list every four months or so and thus am…| The Invisible Event
Since I don’t post about books in the order that I read them, I must start this review by informing you that, behind the scenes, I gave up on five books by five different authors before settl…| The Invisible Event
Perhaps there’s a charm imbued here by being slightly separated from too direct an experience of the career of former Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel; the porcine indiscretions of David C…| The Invisible Event
Ah, my great white whale. Well, in this case, it is more a White Circle. Pocket Edition, that is. I’ve been steadily hunting for The Sleeping Bacchus for about five years, and I’ve never come close to spotting it for sale. Not in the original hardback form, nor in the White Circle Pocket Edition from … Continue reading "The Sleeping Bacchus – Hilary St George Saunders (1952)"| The Green Capsule
When holiday season rolls around and I finally get some concentrated time off work, I like to splurge a bit and dive into books that I know are likely a guaranteed top read. That typically translates to impossible crime novels by the likes of Locked Room International, Pushkin Vertigo, and Ramble House. Last year, a … Continue reading "The Red Death Murders – Jim Noy (2022)"| The Green Capsule
Nothing like a Paul Halter novel to bring me back to life. When The Gold Watch first dropped in 2019, the big headline was that the author had written a new novel – following a five year gap – and that it was being published in English immediately. That we got the new novel in … Continue reading "The Gold Watch – Paul Halter (2019)"| The Green Capsule
A 2021 post about The Anthony Boucher Chronicles over at Cross Examining Crime tipped me off to some (now) obscure locked room mysteries that Boucher had reviewed back in the day. I first tried my luck with One of These Seven, which turned out to be a pretty vapid pulp mystery that didn’t even feature … Continue reading "Murder and the Married Virgin – Brett Halliday (1944)"| The Green Capsule
Let me know when you’ve found another book that throws down the gauntlet in the opening stretch like this one does. The Problem of the Wire Cage? The Judas Window? The Red Widow Murders? Maybe. I scan my bookshelves and I struggle to find a book that comes out with as solid of an opening … Continue reading "The Hollow Man (The Three Coffins) – John Dickson Carr (1935)"| The Green Capsule
It’s easy to dismiss James Patterson for not writing his own books or being too prolific or being a hack or [insert insult of choice here], but I’m a fan of giving someone a chance befo…| The Invisible Event
“My New Year’s resolution is to murder a man I’ve never met” — thus does Basil Palmer lay out his intentions at the very start of his journal in Hemlock Bay (2024) by …| The Invisible Event
I’ve written before about the impact the long-defunct Orion Crime Masterworks series had on my discovery of classic-era crime and detective fiction, and a recent pruning of my shelves brought…| The Invisible Event
Recently, this blog went through another period in which the locked room mystery and impossible crime reviews crowded everything else out, w...| moonlight-detective.blogspot.com
Another month, another Sherlock Holmes pastiche, this time from the very enjoyable US TV series Elementary (2012-19). My belated discovery of two novelisations in that universe was a source of imme…| The Invisible Event
Serendipity brought the superb Penguin Book of Gaslight Crime [ss] (2009) edited by Michael Sims to my awareness, and highlighted Sims’ erudition and excellent coverage of Victorian crime fic…| The Invisible Event
Last weekend, it was my distinct honour to present for a fourth time at the Bodies from the Library conference, in this instance on the topic of Enid Blyton’s detective fiction as represented…| The Invisible Event
Case for Three Detectives (1936) by Leo Bruce was perhaps the first impossible crime novel I read after becoming aware that the subgenre existed, and it had such a marked effect on me that, ne…| The Invisible Event