A review of The Gazebo by Patricia Wentworth – 240706 The twenty-seventh novel in Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver series, originally published in 1955 and with an alterna… Read More

At the end of each July the New Orleans Recreation Department held a pool party to mark the end of the season when 14 of the city’s nineteen recreation centres closed. The end of t… Read More

A review of The Dark Angel by James Ronald – 240703 The fifth in the series of reissues of the work of James Ronald from Moonstone Press features as its main course The Dark Ang… Read More

To paraphrase Mrs Merton, what else other than the bright blue bottle and the bargain basement price tempted me to select a bottle of Blue Beetle London Dry Gin from the shelves of Drink… Read More

A review of The Swinging Death by Brian Flynn – 240701 Rather like Anthony Bathurst, Flynn’s serial amateur sleuth attached to the Yard, as he pens a final letter to his p… Read More

The craze for Pedestrianism, a forerunner of race walking, hit the United States in the 1840s and even Mark Twain was not immune to it. In November 1874 he and a friend set out to walk t… Read More

A review of The Ginger Cat Mystery by Robin Forsythe – 240627 The fourth book in Forsythe’s Algernon aka Anthony Vereker series, The Ginger Cat Mystery, which also went un… Read More

There are now 3,928 hectares under vine and 943 vineyards across the United Kingdom producing 12.2 million bottles of wine in 2022, according to WineGB. While this is a boom time for Bri… Read More

A review of Hag’s Nook by John Dickson Carr – 240625 Although not the first John Dickson Carr novel, Hag’s Nook, originally published in 1932, is the first of the tw… Read More

Shining Cliff Original Gin is another new gin, to me at least, which I picked up on my recent trip to the spiritual home of Drinkfinder UK, Constantine Stores. It is produced by White Pe… Read More

A review of The Case of the Happy Medium by Christopher Bush – 240621 This is another case of a thematic link between two books sitting next to each other in my TBR pile. You mi… Read More

Completing the Barclay Match, walking a mile every hour for a thousand hours, first achieved by the eponymous Captain Barclay, was regarded as one of the pinnacles of pedestrianism. Alth… Read More

A review of Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie – 240618 As neither a pet owner nor much of animal lover, I find it hard to relate to the tendency of some to anthropomorphise their… Read More

The introduction of the new tax on windows led to feverish efforts to identify and exploit loopholes in the legislation, aided and abetted with a little bribery of the local assessors. S… Read More

A review of A Bullet for Rhino by Clifford Witting – 240615 I was reading A Bullet for Rhino, originally published in 1950 and reissued by Galileo Publishers, while I was ponder… Read More

As a fan of unusual gin bottles my eye was drawn to a bottle of KWV Cruxland Gin sitting on the shelves of the spiritual headquarters of Drinkfinder UK, Constantine Stores, and in partic… Read More

A review of Three Quick and Five Dead by Gladys Mitchell – 240614 For anyone who has doggedly followed Gladys Mitchell’s long-running Mrs Bradley series in chronological o… Read More

While vandals destroy trees standing in splendid isolation in the UK, in New Zealand they shower them with accolades. The New Zealand Arboricultural Association recently revealed that… Read More

A review of The Glimpses of the Moon by Edmund Crispin – 240612 Originally published in 1977, a year before his death, The Glimpses of the Moon is the ninth and last in Edmund C… Read More

With the nation deciding its next government today and taxation forming part of the parties’ battleground, it is timely to turn the spotlight on a that gave rise to the phrase &ldq… Read More

A review of End of Chapter by Nicholas Blake – 240608 Nicholas Blake, the alter ego of the poet Cecil Day Lewis, is one of my favourite crime fiction but by his exalted standard… Read More

William Cadenhead Limited, founded in 1842, are Scotland’s oldest independent bottler and produce a wide range of spirits including whisky, rum, and gin from their operations in Ca… Read More

A review of The Voice Of The Corpse by Max Murray – 240606 The Voice of the Corpse, originally published in 1948 and reissued by Galileo Publishers, is the first of eleven murde… Read More

One man who can fairly claim to have put his stamp on the City of London and yet who is barely remembered is Sir Horace Jones. During his tenure as City Surveyor, a post he held from 186… Read More

A review of A Knife for Harry Dodd by George Bellairs – 240604 If you like a story with a high body count, then the eighteenth or possibly twenty-first in George Bellairs’… Read More

Here’s food for thought for men wishing to extend their lifespan; say farewell to your crown jewels.   A study published in Current Biology in 2012 into the lifespan of eig… Read More

A review of Someone from the Past by Margot Bennett – 240601 It is rather a neat touch to use a passage from a poem by Cecil Day Lewis, no mean hand as a detective fiction write… Read More

And now for something completely different. In 1599 on of the most important and influential alchemical works was published, The Twelve Keys, attributed to Basil Valentine but probably b… Read More

A review of Curiosity Killed the Cat by Joan Cockin – 240530 Joan Cockin was the nom de plume of Edith Macintosh and Curiosity Killed The Cat, originally published in 1949 and r… Read More

The phenomenal growth of London in the 19th century brought with it many problems, not least the ever present issue of traffic congestion. Charles Pearson, solicitor to the City of Londo… Read More

A review of They Can’t Hang Me by James Ronald – 240527 One of the finds for me in 2024, thanks to a wonderful series of reissues from Moonstone Press, is James Ronald and… Read More

While the pressure to change from petrol or diesel cars to hybrid or electric vehicles continue apace, a fascinating piece of research featured in the Journal of Epidemiology and Communi… Read More

A review of The Port of London Murders by Josephine Bell – 240525 Apart from a couple of short stories, this is the first novel of Josephine Bell’s that I have read, a lam… Read More

The assault on saucy seaside postcards, spearheaded by the Director of Public Prosecutions and implemented by the police, began in earnest in the early 1950s. In Blackpool, acting upon i… Read More

A review of The Case of the Fourth Detective by Christopher Bush – 240524 It is curious how a TBR pile constructed at random can display unexpected thematic links. Take the thir… Read More

Another notable practitioner of pedestrianism, a form of long distance walking which was all the rage in late Georgian Britain and the first half of the 19th century, was a baker from Wo… Read More

A review of Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie – 240523 The fifteenth novel in her Hercule Poirot series and the third in her Superintendent Battle series, Cards on the Table… Read More

A recent trip to Cornwall and Constantine, the spiritual home of Drinkfinder UK, gave me the opportunity to select some new (at least to me) gins with which to stock my cabinet. Readers… Read More

A review of Surfeit of Suspects by George Bellairs – 240522 A feature of 1960s municipal life, brought into the spotlight by the likes of Private Eye, was corruption and shady d… Read More

On July 15, 1954 a seventy-nine-year old man found himself in front of the magistrates court in Lincoln charged with breaking the Obscene Publications Act (1857). How he got there sheds… Read More

A review of This Way Out by James Ronald – 2405 Originally published in 1939 this is the main course of volume three of James Ronald’s work reissued by Moonstone Press. It… Read More

Despite being known as “The Blackheath Pedestrian”, George Wilson was actually born in Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1766 and was another with aspirations to prove their physical prow… Read More

A review of The Lake District Murder by John Bude – 240508 Originally published in 1935 and reissued as part of the British Library Crime Classics series, this is the first in J… Read More

Walking around the walled garden at Trewidden, near Penzance, on a recent trip to Cornwall, my attention was caught by two lines of bricks and, possibly, slate, set in a v-shape. Accordi… Read More

Originally published in 1941 and the twentieth in Lorac’s Robert Macdonald, this is one of those cheap but welcome reissues that seem to appear out of nowhere in the Kindle reposit… Read More

The rather glib comment of Mark Twain’s businessman recorded in Life on the Mississippi (1883) that “butter don’t stand any show – there ain’t any chance fo… Read More

A review of The King and the Corpse by Max Murray – 240503 Originally published in 1949 and reissued by Galileo Publishers, The King and the Corpse is the second of twelve murde… Read More

Captain Robert Barclay Allardice, known simply as Captain Barclay, was one of Britain’s earliest sporting heroes. Born in Stonehaven in 1779, one of eight children, he was immensel… Read More

A review of Exit, Sir John by Brian Flynn – 240501 The thirty-fourth novel in Brian Flynn’s Anthony Bathurst series, originally published in 1947 and reissued by Dean Stre… Read More

The recent storm in a china teacup over the constituents of a National Trust scone has once more brought into sharp focus the contentious question of food substitutes, none more so than… Read More

The fourteenth book in Christie’s Hercule Poirot series, originally published in 1936, is a rather odd affair, notable for being the first to directly reference her growing interes… Read More

There is a well worn path made by people moving from Lancashire settling in Shropshire; it was, in part, what the A49 was built for. My parents did so in the 1960s, albeit via Anglesey a… Read More

A review of Murder in the Family by James Ronald – 240425 Moonstone Press have reissued James Ronald’s 1936 novel, Murder in the Family, also known as The Murder in Gay La… Read More

The Olympic Games offers a quadrennial opportunity to shine the spotlight on some sports that would otherwise languish in obscurity. One such is race walking, which made its first appear… Read More

A review of The Arsenal Stadium Mystery by Leonard Gribble – 240423 There is a long history of media tie ups with football clubs which often do not end up as the parties had ant… Read More

A clue to the solution to the shortage of live green turtles for turtle soup is provided in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), in which Lewis Carroll’s eponymous heroin… Read More

A review of The Whisper in the Gloom by Nicholas Blake – 240420 The eleventh in Nicholas Blake’s Nigel Strangeways series, originally published in 1954 and going by the al… Read More

It all started out in a former 1950s pig shed at Harewell House Farm in the heart of Nidderdale in North Yorkshire, from which Jane and Toby Whittaker launched their award winning Origin… Read More

A review of The Benevent Treasure by Patricia Wentworth – 240418 I am wearing a beige granddad collar tee shirt, a quarter zip black specked lambswool sweater, a pair of blue Le… Read More

14% of the UK population, around 10 million of us, are currently members of a gym, according to a recent survey, although whether all are active is a moot point. Pumping iron, lifting du… Read More

A review of The Case of the Corner Cottage by Christopher Bush – 240415 There is a distinctive change of tone in this, the thirty-eight novel in Bush’s long-running Ludovi… Read More

It all began out of necessity. In the early 18th century, on discovering that they were edible, British sailors in the Caribbean kept live green turtles on board their ships to ensure a… Read More

A review of The Sea Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts – 240412 When you pick up a book by Freeman Wills Crofts you can be certain that you are going to be immersed in a detailed… Read More

By 1922 cultivars of Actinidia chinensis were available commercially with nurseryman, Hayward Wright, from Avondale, now part of suburban Auckland, describing the plant in his catalogue… Read More

A review of Triple Quest by E R Punshon – 240409 The thirty-fourth and penultimate novel in Punshon’s long running Bobby Owen series was originally published in 1955 and h… Read More

At 200 feet high and 1,638 feet long it was described as “one of the most significant examples of technological achievement during the Industrial Revolution”, but all that re… Read More

A review of A Telegram from Le Touquet by John Bude – 240406 A Telegram from Le Touquet, originally published in 1956, has been recently reissued as part of the excellent Britis… Read More

Nimbyism is one thing, existing residents objecting to a proposal that will affect their peace and quiet, but having the audacity to move into an area and then complain about what you fi… Read More

A review of Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal by Roy Horniman – 24040 Originally published in 1907 and reissued by Dean Street Press, this book will be better known f… Read More

With its furry, light brown skin, bright green flesh speckled with tiny black seeds, and a tropical flavour reminiscent of a mix of strawberries and bananas, the kiwi fruit has moved on… Read More

A review of Murder by Burial by Stanley Casson – 240330 Stanley Casson was a prominent British archaeologist in his day and I remember dipping into some of his works when I was… Read More

There always used to be a frisson of excitement when the circus came to town and the arrival of William Cooke’s Royal Circus at Great Yarmouth on May 2, 1845, was no exception. To… Read More

A review of The Essex Murders by Vernon Loder – 240328 After reading some of John Vahey’s books under his nom de plume of Henrietta Clandon, I decided to sample some of hi… Read More

By the last decade of the 19th century around 80% of the population of England was living in urban settings, lured from the countryside by the prospect of finding streets paved with gold… Read More

A review of My Bones Will Keep by Gladys Mitchell – 240326 Opening a Gladys Mitchell book for the first time, I take a deep breath just like I would if I was going to plunge int… Read More

In an Olympic year it might be churlish to gainsay the founder of the modern games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, whose mantra was that “the most important thing in the Olympic Games… Read More

A review of The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie – 240323 The thirteenth novel in Christie’s Hercule Poirot series, originally published in 1936, is generally regarded as be… Read More

The third largest in Wales, Cefn Coed Viaduct was built to carry the Brecon & Merthyr Railway over the River Taff near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. Designed by Alexander Sutherland… Read More

A review of Eight to Nine by R A J Walling – 240321 The curiously titled sixth novel in Robert Walling’s Philip Tolefree series, also known as The Bachelor Flat Mystery, o… Read More

Where do you meet on a crowded railway concourse? The obvious place is under the station clock as it is usually centrally positioned so that it is visible from each of the exits from the… Read More

A review of Shroud of Darkness by E C R Lorac – 240318 The fortieth in Lorac’s long-running Robert Macdonald series, originally published in 1954, is as much a thriller as… Read More

A game of rock, paper, scissors (RPS) is an acknowledged way of settling a friendly dispute, often seen as a more sophisticated alternative to tossing a coin. It appears a deceptively si… Read More

A review of The Dr Britling Stories – Volume 1 – by James Ronald – 240316 Moonstone Press have recently reissued the first volume of a collection of short stories an… Read More

Astride the Erewash Valley between Ilkeston in Derbyshire and Awsworth in Nottinghamshire stands the longest wrought iron viaduct in the British Isles, some 1452 feet long carrying the r… Read More

A review of The Case of the Happy Warrior by Christopher Bush – 240313 In delirio veritas. The fear of someone with a secret to hide is that the truth will emerge when their sub… Read More

Grass roots football is poles apart from the pampered world of the elite game. The almost endless rain that we have endured over the last couple of months has meant that many non league… Read More

A review of The Dreadful Hollow by Nicholas Blake – 240311 Drawing its title from the opening line of Tennyson’s Maud: A Monodrama, the tenth book in Nicholas Blake’… Read More

Those imbued with a less romantic spirit, though, sought to provide a rational explanation of the phenomenon of The Flying Dutchman. An early attempt appeared in Frank Stockton’s R… Read More

A review of Power on the Scent by Henrietta Clandon – 240307 I seem to be on a random sort of thematic chain at the moment. Having just finished two books that involved a poison… Read More

I cannot say that I have given anthropodermic bibliopegy much thought but the practice of using human skin as a form of binding for a book has recently been in the headlines when Harvard… Read More

A review of Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie – 240305 The twelfth novel in Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot series, originally published in 1935 and going under the… Read More

The success of the London and Birmingham line prompted other lines from the Midlands and the North East to use the Euston terminus as their gateway to London, putting pressure on the alr… Read More

A review of The Sharp Quillet by Brian Flynn – 240303 After Conspiracy at Angel had been almost universally panned by critics Brian Flynn went back to basics and starts The Shar… Read More

The fate of a merchant ship owned by the Dutch East India Company, which went missing off the Cape of Good Hope in 1641, was the source of increasingly more lurid tales. By May 1821, Bla… Read More

A review of Impact of Evidence by Carol Carnac – 240301 For its February 2024 reissue the excellent British Library Crime Classics series has chosen Impact of Evidence, original… Read More

If you are in Paris and are looking for fast café service in Paris, perhaps you should seek out Pauline van Wymeersch at the Le Petit Pont café facing the Notre Dame cathed… Read More

A review of Vanishing Point by Patricia Wentworth – 240228 In the twenty-fifth book in her Miss Silver series, originally published in 1953, Patricia Wentworth blends two famili… Read More

The circularity of history. When George and Robert Stephenson conceived their plan for what was to be the world’s first long distance passenger railway, they planned to run the lin… Read More

A review of Spotted hemlock by Gladys Mitchell – 240225 The first thing to say about Spotted Hemlock, the thirty-first in the Mrs Bradley series and originally published in 1958… Read More

Noah Webster might have radicalised the way that words were spelt in America, but some of his suggestions fell on stoney ground, such as tung for tongue, wimmen for women, and iland for… Read More