Author Archives: richmcd

Solve-Along #2: The Devil’s Star

So next up on the Solve-along list is Jo Nesbø’s The Devil’s Star. I’ve chosen this for a few reasons: I want a variety of stuff, not just Golden Age Mysteries; my friend lent it to me specifically because he wanted to know if I could guess what happened; I feel I should read more Scandinavian fiction after throwing my copy of The Girl Who Played With Fire out the window for crimes against sanity; but mainly I just love any excuse to use the letter ø!

As before, I’ll start with my preconceptions. I don’t know much about it, although the blurb, title and cover all suggest there are going to be mutilations and pentagrams galore. So I’m not expecting it to be a laugh riot (at least not intentionally).

[Spoilers for The Devil’s Star, of course, but nothing else.] Continue reading →

Death on the Nile (Oberon Games, 2007)

Several of the more famous Agatha Christie books have been adapted into computer games: AWE made traditional point-and-click adventure versions of Murder on the Orient Express, Evil Under the Sun and And Then There Were None, with limited success. But AWE either let the licence lapse, or it wasn’t exclusive, because 2007’s Death on the Nile was developed by Oberon Games and is in a completely different style. Like so many casual games nowadays, it’s a Hidden Object game. And like so many Hidden Object games, it’s not very good.

[Spoilers for Death on the Nile, but nothing else] Continue reading →

Solve-Along #1: Cat of Many Tails

So welcome to the first Solve-Along! There’s a longer explanation here, but basically each week I’m going to read a book and write down my thoughts about the solution as I go along. Once it seems like the book is winding up I’ll pick a murderer and stick with it, and we’ll see if I was right or not. I promise not to go back and change anything if I make a complete fool of myself.

This week it’s the 1949 novel Cat of Many Tails by Ellery Queen. I actually don’t have the edition in the picture on the left, but mine’s a completely blank red Gollancz hardback. I don’t know if the dust jacket got lost or if Victor was going through his minimalist phase, but there isn’t even a title. Which is exactly what you want if you’re trying to approach a mystery completely blind, but I decided it didn’t make for a great picture…

[Obviously there’ll be thorough spoilers for Cat of Many Tails, but also some for the ABC Murders and Towards Zero by Agatha Christie and for Singing in the Shrouds by Ngaio Marsh] Continue reading →

Solve-Alongs

I enjoyed thinking about my top-ten list, but it’s time for this blog to start living up to its name. My ‘to-read’ pile has been teetering precariously for months now, and hopefully blogging will encourage me to tackle it, but I don’t really want to do regular reviews. There are plenty of excellent mystery review sites out there, and many of the books in the pile are there because I read an online review, so adding my own opinion to an existing forest of reviews would be a bit pointless. I’ll still do a few reviews, but they’ll most likely be for computer games, or for books which I haven’t seen reviewed anywhere else. Continue reading →

Honourable Mentions

Looking back over my top 10 list, I’m pleasantly surprised by how balanced it’s turned out to be. I didn’t cook it at all: if my top ten mysteries had all been by Jeffrey Deaver they’d all have been up there (and you would have had my permission to check me for concussion). But it just so happens that I got a nice mix: of eras, styles, formats and male/female authors.

Still, there are some disappointing gaps. There’s no ‘serious’ fantasy and no sci-fi at all. There are no films (there’s a feature length TV episode, but nothing that got a cinema release). Saddest of all is the absence of a single computer game or interactive story. Ever since playing Cruise for a Corpse when I was about ten I’ve been waiting for a really good mystery game but none has emerged. There are a lot of good examples on the Nintendo DS, but almost all of the PC mysteries I’ve played have been truly dire. (I actually played Cruise for a Corpse again recently, and while it still holds up surprisingly well in the style department, it turns out the mystery is pretty dull).

[Like the previous post, there are no real spoilers here. The section on the Red Right Hand contains some comments about that book’s solution.]

Continue reading →

Top Ten Mysteries

Hello there! Welcome to my new mystery blog.

I’m going to kick things off in spectacularly unoriginal fashion by posting a top-ten. I was going to do a background thing, about how I came to be obsessed with mysteries, but hopefully this list will give you an idea of where my mystery loyalties lie, without having to hear about my disappointingly wholesome childhood.

No serious spoilers this time, although I’ve given away some plot details of Death on the Nile… But do click the link at the top for more info on my spoiler policy.

Continue reading →