July MysteryKIT: Golden Age

July MysteryKIT: Golden Age


(Agatha Christie at her home. Image from here.)

According to Wikipedia, the Golden Age of detective fiction generally refers to the interwar period of the 1920s and ‘30s. But novels in a similar style were published long before and after this 20-year window, so the boundaries are somewhat porous. For purposes of this KIT, I arbitrarily declare that any mystery novel originally published between 1900 and 1960 will count!

Golden Age mysteries tend to be “fair play” puzzles, in which the author reveals all the information necessary to discover the solution, so the reader can solve the mystery alongside the fictional sleuth. Ronald Knox wrote a set of “rules” for detective novels in 1929, and while many of these rules have been successfully broken, they are still cornerstones of the mystery genre today.

Some famous Golden Age authors include: Margery Allingham, Anthony Berkeley, Nicholas Blake, John Dickson Carr, G.K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, Edmund Crispin, Freeman Wills Crofts, Georgette Heyer, Michael Innes, E.C.R. Lorac, Ngaio Marsh, Ellery Queen, John Rhode, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Dorothy L. Sayers, Georges Simenon, Rex Stout, Josephine Tey, and Patricia Wentworth. For even more options, check out the offerings at British Library Crime Classics and American Mystery Classics!

Please post what you’re reading (or planning to read) for this KIT below, and don’t forget to update the wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/MysteryKIT_2022#July:_Golden_Age. This is one of my favorite genres, so I’m looking forward to getting hit by multiple BBs in this thread!

Probably something by Agatha Christie, though I haven't decided which yet.

I have never read Dorothy Sayers. Where should I start?

>3 beebeereads: The first book in her Lord Peter Wimsey series is Whose Body?, but I might recommend beginning with Strong Poison, which introduces important series character Harriet Vane.

Big window to choose from, so lots of options on my shelves.

Thanks for the precise explanation (1900 - 1960). I will read Smallbone Deceased by MichaelGilbert and A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie. Both were first published in 1950.

>6 clue: I enjoy a clearly defined challenge! :) I based the dates on a vintage mysteries reading challenge I participate in every year, which places the Golden Age cutoff at 1960 as well.

I think this is the month I finally read The Arsenal Stadium Mystery, by Leonard Gribble (one of several as-yet-unread British Library Crime Classics on my shelves).

>4 christina_reads: Thank you Christina.

I have several Agatha Christie novels, just not sure which one I will be reading yet.

This is one of my favorite genres as well. So far I am planning on reading Three Act Tragedy (1934) by Agatha Christie and The Horizontal Man (1946) by Helen Eustis.

I think I might read A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh, the first in a series many people here like.

I looked to see what I had not yet reviewed by Sayers, and discovered I own a non-Wimsey that apparently I've never read, The Documents in the Case.

I'll be reading They Found Him Dead.

Right now I'm planning on Eight Faces at Three by Craig Rice, and possibly also Vintage Murder by Ngaio Marsh (depends on when my library hold comes in!).

I plan to read Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie.

I only have one on my shelf that fits this category, so The Bellamy Trial by Frances Noyes Hart will be it!

This is one of my favourite genres so I have tons to choose from, which means I'll be like a kid in a candy shop.

>18 VivienneR: I get that! Lots on my shelves that fit this one.

Post After Post-Mortem by E. C. R. Lorac is on my Kindle, so fingers crossed that it's a good one.

I’ll be visiting Nero Wolf and Archie Goodwin with Rex Stout for this theme.

I've never read a Perry Mason, so I'm going with The Case of the Terrified Typist.

I read Vintage Murder (1937) by Ngaio Marsh a little early, since my library hold came in sooner than expected. It was a solid three stars for me -- perfectly fine, but nothing extraordinary. I wouldn't particularly recommend it unless you're a Marsh completist. It did have a unique New Zealand setting and a positive (for its time) depiction of a Maori character.

I recently reread Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers, so I'm counting it although I finished it in June.

Last year I read Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh and then watched the movie. Even though it is in the middle of the series, the main character's background is explained well enough. I'll probably pick another one by Marsh, although I have some Christie on my list as well.

I ended up reading Calamity Town by Ellery Queen after reading a review of this book by another LT -er.

I've finished Post After Post-Mortem by E. C. R. Lorac early. It was first published in 1936. I wouldn't call it good, but I enjoyed it and have added another layer to my picture of the author and her prejudices. Intellectuals! Bad!

Finished Murder in the Basement by Anthony Berkeley, first published in 1932. Enjoyed it.

I have completed Three-Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie, first published in 1934. I thought this was a very entertaining mystery.

I've read Anthony Berkeley's Jumping Jenny, 1933. I liked it, but had to ignore Berkeley's blatant misogyny. I'm now reading two more because I was reading Leo Bruce's Our Jubilee is Death, 1959, when my Kobo went flat, so had to start Murder After Christmas, 1944, on the Kindle.

I finished They Found Him Dead.

Finished Leo Bruce's Our Jubilee is Death, 1959. Liked it very much.

Discontinuing Murder After Christmas because, although I like the writing and the characters, nothing much is happening. Lots of build-up but no action.

I just finished Eight Faces at Three by Craig Rice (1939). If you like your mysteries with a large helping of screwball comedy, à la The Thin Man, you'll love this one!

I've read The Case of the Terrified Typist, a Perry Mason from 1956. It was my first Mason and I don't know if I picked a dud, but it wasn't that interesting to me. Too much time spent on working out who this terrified typist temp was.

I find the Perry Mason books seem to be written to a formula and so they usually fail to surprise or even engage me much. They are quick and simple reads but there's not much substance to hold the interest.

Waiting on it from the library, but my plan is for:
Royal Blood / Rhys Bowen

Not sure if it really fits, as I found it via tags, but I think it was the only book that came up!

ETA: As I read the intro, this doesn't really fit. I'm hoping the style is close, as I'm unlikely to pick something else.

Case for Three Detectives by Leo Bruce was first published in 1936. It's a locked room mystery featuring stand-ins for three famous detectives: Lord Peter Wimsey, Hercule Poirot and Father Brown.

>34 mstrust: Every Perry Mason book I've come across reads as though the author dashed it off in an afternoon.

>35 DeltaQueen50: >37 pamelad: Good to hear it wasn't just me that was underwhelmed. I guess that the drawn out courtroom scenes and slow search for the suspect was more realistic than most crime novels back then.

August thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/342883

I read The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout. It is the second book in the Nero Wolfe series, published in 1935. I really enjoyed it.

After enjoying the recent adaptation of Why Didn't They Ask Evans?, I decided to re-read the book, originally published in 1934. Still a fun read, even though I knew who the baddies were!

I have completed The Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis

I finished La guinguette à deux sous, an early Maigret story from 1931. This was an unintentional reread, because of sloppy cataloguing, but it was so compelling that I carried on.

I read Postscript to Poison by Dorothy Bowers, an author that I only recently discovered thanks to another LT reader.

This was very good mystery even though I guessed the culprit very early. I'm taking off a half star for two reasons: the first half droned on a bit that made the book longer than it should have been, and secondly, I had trouble seeing a picture of the characters in my mind's eye. It was otherwise well-written and I particularly liked this description of a sudden storm.

"From the first sly breeze preceding the first impact of thunder and crazy leap of lightning, through the surge and riot of contending wind and flogging rain that washed gardens into paths and paths into a mess of pebbles and sandy slush, to the last reluctant grumble of the clouds and rush of astonished gutters, less than an hour elapsed."

I read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie for the challenge.

Not published in the time frame indicated in the first post, but it is set in the 1930s. Oops, sorry!

Royal Blood / Rhys Bowen
4 stars

(4th in a series) As Georgie’s brother and his wife come to London and are appalled at how Georgie lives, Georgie is asked by the queen to represent the royal family at a royal wedding in Romania. But Georgie is expected to bring her (nonexistent!) maid. At the last minute, Georgie finds someone willing to come, despite the perceived dangers of travelling abroad. Unfortunately, Queenie is a disaster as a maid! Even worse, when they arrive at the isolated castle where the wedding will take place – none other than Vlad the Impaler’s castle! – they are snowed in. Georgie is certain she is seeing vampires around the castle. Then at supper one night, a guest – hated by most of the others – suddenly dies, an apparent poisoning.

There is to be a lot going on in this one, but I loved the setting at the castle in Transylvania and the slightly gothic atmosphere of it. I really enjoyed some of the secondary characters (and I do like Georgie, too), but what a hopeless case Queenie is! In addition to the gothic atmosphere, there was humour scattered throughout the book. I was thinking I might like this best of the series so far, but it looks like I also rated the 2nd book the 4 stars.

I read Death in the Dusk by Virgil Markham

I just read Traitor's Purse by Margery Allingham.

I just read A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh.

I read A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie. I had not planned on reading this but had such a hard time getting into what I had planned to read I looked at the TBR for something else and this was on my Kindle.

>49 dudes22: I read this one also. I had read a later book in the series a while ago, so finally decided to start from the beginning.

I also found a golden age Japanese mystery, The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo which was written in 1946.

>51 staci426:
I have had that series on my TBR list for some time. How did you like it?

>52 benitastrnad: I enjoyed it and will be looking for more in the series. It was interesting to see a mystery from this time in a different culture from what I'm used to compared to all of the British ones I've read.