Past Offences

Reading wrap-up for July 2017

I’ve had a bit of a rest for a couple of months, during which my blog traffic has gone through the roof, which fact should probably teach me something about leaving well alone, but hasn’t. Here I am back with, if not a bang, a whimper. This is what I’ve been reading…

I’ve had a couple of John Rowland titles from the British Library on my shelves for a few years now. Murder in the Museum(1938)…

Every month on Past Offences a merry band of bloggers read and review the criminous output of a particular year. I call it Crimes of the Century, and this April we were looking at 1977.

Fittingly enough, our first entry was for The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn by Colin Dexter, who sadly passed away at the beginning of the month (you can read his obituary at the Guardian).

According to Jose…

My best of the hundred best crime and mystery stories

(aka Blogger tries clickbait headlines)

Earlier in the week I announced that I’d completed reviewing all 106 in the CWA’s list of the 100 best crime and mystery books, and promised to let you know which books I thought genuinely deserved a place in that list.

My favourites (with their ranking in the CWA list) are: (more…)

John Sladek: Invisible Green

Where else, Major, might one find a London bobby, a solicitor’s clerk, a baronet, an ex-Army chap, a greengrocer’s daughter and a – a bohemian eccentric, not to mention a chemistry student – all gathered in one room to discuss one subject? (more…)

Achievement Unlocked: The CWA top 100

Since beginning Past Offences I have been quietly working my way through the CWA’s 1990 list of the 100 best crime books, a list which begins or end with The Four Just Men (#100) and ends or begins with The Daughter of Time (#1).

With the publication of my review of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None(#19), I have officially completed the list. You probably sensed the disturbance in the…

Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None

If this had been an old house, with creaking wood, and dark shadows, and heavily panelled walls, there might have been an eerie feeling. But this house was the essence of modernity. There were no dark corners – no possible sliding panels – it was flooded with electric light – everything was new and bright  and shining. There was nothing hidden in this house, nothing concealed. It had no…

Stein Riverton: The Iron Chariot

‘I am, in fact, something of a poet. A poet of fear.’ (more…)

Lois Austen-Leigh: The Incredible Crime

Men with brains and ability can be found all over the world, moreover there are always others coming on to fill their places, but such Jacobean rooms as this are not to be found all over the world, nor are they to be reproduced. The ceiling was finely moulded, and the walls panelled with oak, stained and darkened by the passing years. The dominant colour of the room was dark red or red-brown, the…

‘The biggest group of red herrings’: #1937book roundup

Every month at Past Offences an intrepid band of bloggers proffers their opinions on a particular year on crime fiction. I call it Crimes of the Century.

The stakes were high this time. Regular player JJ recently made a case that 1937 was the Golden Age of the Golden Age. Would our findings back him up, or send him back to the drawing board for more graphs?

Brad blew in first with a flurry of…

Cameron McCabe: The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor

Now listen: you must cut out that Estella girl, every scene with her, I can’t have her, the picture’s too long. You must cut it down to seven thousand feet. I’ll send Robertson to help, and between the two of you you can do some juggling with your scissors and celluloid. You like it, don’t you? What you say?’ ‘It smells,’ I said. (more…)

Commemorative stamp celebrating Egypt’s Police Day in 1977

Every month at Past Offences I host a round-up of book and film reviews relating to a particular year in crime fiction.

For April I’ve plumped for 1977.

All you have to do is read a book, watch a film, read a comic, listen to a radio programme and tell us all about it.

Anyone can play, so over to you…

Small print

Just comment below to…

Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time

Everything in that history had been hearsay. And if there was one word that a policeman loathed more than another it was hearsay. Especially when applied to evidence. (more…)

Elisabeth Sanxay Holding: Miasma

‘Doctor Dennison, if I were you, I wouldn’t stay here,’ she said. Because he was so simple and direct himself, he was not inclined to impute subtle motives to other people. He saw in her grey eyes only an honest anxiety, and he believed she spoke in honesty and good-will. ‘Why?’ he asked. ‘I don’t think it’s the right place for you,’ she said. ‘Perhaps not,’ he answered. ‘But, just at present–‘ Sh…

Elisabeth Sanxay Holding: Lady Killer

It was the first time she had encountered the full force of the world’s laissez-faire. People, by and large, weren’t cruel, weren’t heartless; it was simply that they couldn’t believe anything would happen. A shot in the night was a car back-firing; a cry for help was just somebody skylarking. —— lying on the floor with ashes over her face was only someone who had had too many drinks. (more…)

“Was she getting sunbonnets on the brain?” #1943book roundup

Thanks to everyone who submitted a review for the February 2017 Crimes of the Century challenge to review a book or film from 1943.

Tracy at Bitter Tea and Mystery celebrated five years of blogging this month, and celebrated by sharing her review of Laura by Vera Caspary:

I had avoided this novel for years. Although I had never seen the movie based on the book, I thought I knew the story, and…