Skin o’ my Tooth (Baroness Orczy)

You'd have to be a Muggins to be surprised.

A Remarkable Case of Burglary (H. R. F. Keating)

Crime in Victorian London.

Site update

I have added a new page, listing reviews by authors: https://grandestgame.wordpress.com/reviews-by-author/ You'll find it in the top menu. That should make using this blog easier. (TomCat has the right idea.)

The Sign of Four (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Cocaine: would you care to try it?

A Study in Scarlet (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Enter Sherlock Holmes.

“The Grandest Game in the World”

John Dickson Carr's essay is now up. https://grandestgame.wordpress.com/the-grandest-game-in-the-world/ Thanks to Ronald Smyth for scanning the images.

Stars in my eyes

Over the last week, I’ve started to introduce a new ratings system, as follows: Five starsGreat / amazingFour starsVery good / really liked itThree starsGood / liked itTwo starsOKOne starPoor / didn’t like it This is based on the Goodreads scale, and on Curt Evans’ GADderdämmerung. Traditionally, I’ve given five-star / “A” ratings both to …

À travers les murailles / Through the Walls (Noël Vindry)

The murderer can come and go through the walls; is the devil at work?

2021: A Journal of the Plague Year

A look back at books read in 2021.

The Dead Past (Jean Scholey)

Murder in East Africa!