Trust No One. Sir Stafford Nye, a minor diplomat, encounters an irresistible call to adventure on a routine business trip. All his training and his common sense tell him to refuse. But he’s bored with his ordinary life, he’s curious, and he’s got a mischievous streak that he can’t help indulging. Impulsively, he takes the …
Review: Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie Read More »
As you may recall, Mottley’s longstanding friendship with Chief Inspector Forthright reached a breaking point in Mr Mottley Gets His Man: “I’ll grant you see things, Mottley – things we might never pick up on. I let you muck in on this case because I thought you might be useful. Mucking, indeed! Look what you’ve done, …
#SneakPeek: Mr Mottley & the Plushbottom Conundrum – Old Friends Read More »
Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a warm, safe, and fun holiday celebration. And I hope those who don’t celebrate Christmas were more amused than annoyed by those of us who do. I wasn’t sure whether I’d get to read and review a holiday mystery this month, because my hands were always full with work, …
Mottley & Baker’s second adventure, Mister Mottley and the Dying Fall is set in October of 1932, six months after Book 1. My stories always have a lot of humor in them, but since his one was set just before Halloween, I wanted to bring in an element of spookiness, danger, a moody atmosphere and …
…or rather, Tey for four. I’ve been on an author binge this summer, and I don’t regret a single minute of it. After reading Nicola Upson’s marvellous mindbender An Expert in Murder, I went out collecting original Josephine Teys, to refresh my memory on her effortless, masterful style. My first find was her 1950 novel, To Love and …
Warning: Nicola Upson will mess with your mind, and make you like it. This brain-bending story forces you to question reality, but not because of the mystery plot. An Expert in Murder is structured as a classic whodunnit. No, it’s Upson’s choice of character and setting that will send you into a Blair-Witch style guessing game of “did …
Ask and you shall receive. I’ve heard cat lovers speak of “Cat Central,” a mystical agency that assigns cats to their destined homes, often by opaque or circuitous chains of cause and effect. Sometimes I think there’s a version of this for books and authors, bringing a certain volume into your hands at just the …
Review: Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d by Alan Bradley Read More »
“There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature.” –P.G. Wodehouse Maia Chance and I are going to be very good friends. Don’t worry, I haven’t gone stalkery. But when I opened Teetotaled and saw a P.G. Wodehouse quote as the epigraph, I knew I’d just made two new …
Growing up in my house was a constant refrain of “Tomayto, Tomahto.” Dad liked red wine and oysters. Mom was a teetotaler and hated any seafood but canned tuna (which hardly counts, face it.) My brother built model airplanes and read the entire Dune series (all two dozen). I made up interpretive dances to the …
One of the best parts of writing vintage-style fiction, is that hours of research on my favorite topics all count as “work”! I use Pinterest to organize my visual reference material, which means surfing Pinterest also counts as “work.” Vertically integrated, you see? Here’s a delightful article I found while “working,” which describes General George …