september 2025
Is anyone else as shocked by the end of this month as I am? How can it possibly be here already. Not that I’m not ready for October, mind you, just as always unprepared for the passage of time. Anyway I regret to inform you all that I have only become more insane about murder mysteries.
Pre-gaming Benoit
I await the arrival of a new Benoit Blanc film with something like religious devotion. Rian Johnson makes these movies because he’s a huge fan of the genre and he always shows his work, so I have come to enjoy spotting the references he’s making in the films as much as the films themselves. My lovely friend Tarra knows this so as soon as she saw an interview with Rian in which he dropped some of his inspiration for the forthcoming film, she sounded the alarm. Even queued up the video for me, bless her. I have been tearing through John Dickson Carr mysteries ever since, courtesy of the British Library.
It Walks By Night (1930) My only previous exposure to Carr was The Blind Barber, which is a farce, so I was surprised to hear him described as a writer of atmospheric, Poe-ish mysteries. But It Walks By Night is definitely that. Carr wrote it in college (it was originally serialized in his university newspaper!) and it feels very young. The detective is Henri Bencolin, a French judge with a devilish, pointed hairdo (I unfortunately could not stop envisioning Dilbert’s boss). It’s very atmospheric as well as a locked room mystery, two things Rian mentioned specifically. I was off to the races. The 2020 British Library reissue includes the short story "The Shadow of the Goat," which I also recommend. (Youtube audiobook)
Castle Skull (1931) This was far and away my favourite, with its Scooby-Doo setting and dramatic double mystery. Really good stuff, I had a blast. Bencolin is always accompanied by an emotional support American called Jeff Marle, whom he relies on to ask blundering questions of beautiful young ladies. Carr was himself American, and I suspect that Jeff was either an attempt to relate to his peers or an outright caricature of someone. This is less a locked room mystery than it is an inaccessible castle mystery, and has Bencolin going up against a German detective in a really catty competition to solve the thing. I really loved the villain and resolution in this. (Youtube audiobook)
The Lost Gallows (1931) This one sees Bencolin and Marle in London, reunited with Bencolin’s old friend from Scotland Yard (who appears in the Bencolin short stories Carr published in his school paper, including the one reproduced in the British Library’s reissue of this book) and hunting a historical hangman. This also includes Carr’s first explicitly nonwhite character, a wealthy bachelor from Egypt, who doesn’t come off very well (but to be fair, neither do most anyone else in these books). The solution to the puzzle is satisfyingly neat and also sees Marle in genuine mortal peril, which was fun. (Youtube audiobook)
The Corpse in the Waxworks (1932) Bencolin and Marle return to Paris and discover a corpse held in the arms of a wax satyr. Although It Walks By Night was also set in Paris, this one feels really Parisian, with city politicians, blackmail, and a secret club. There’s an honest-to-god action sequence, and the first female character from Carr who I genuinely liked. Carr was definitely figuring things out as he went, writing these books. (Youtube audiobook)
The Hollow Man, or The Three Coffins (1935) Skipped forward to this one, which I saw repeatedly described as Carr’s ultimate locked room mystery. The original name of the book was The Hollow Man, but it was published in America as The Three Coffins, so you’ll see it as both. This features Dr. Gideon Fell, another of Carr’s detectives. I’m not entirely sure what he’s a doctor of, but he seems to know everyone he needs to in order to be pulled into mysteries. I enjoyed the story of this one, and the way it works is very good, but it does feel a little like Carr had become interested in the puzzle to the detriment of the story. Dr. Fell goes so far as to break the fourth wall and deliver a lecture on the best locked room mysteries, complete with citations, declaring to his companions that it’s relevant because they of course are also in a detective story. Wild stuff! (Libro.fm audiobook)
The Black Spectacles (1939) Another Gideon Fell, a poisoning case, and impossible not because of a locked room but because several people saw it happen and it was filmed. Fell doesn’t come into it until the midpoint, and his police contact is a young man who is having the worst time of his life on account of having recently fallen in love at first sight with the woman suspected of being the poisoner while visiting Pompeii (she did not notice him in Pompeii and is naturally distracted by other things). I had fun with this one! Fell lectures on the topic of “the male poisoner” which was. weird! (Youtube audiobook)
game: Hades II (2025) I typically wait until I’ve finished a game to mention it, but since the original Hades was one of the best games I’ve ever played and I subsequently devoted more than 800 hours to it, I think it’s fair to throw this one on here now. I’ve spent a weekend playing it near nonstop and my thumbs and wrists hurt but I am having a very good time. Someday I will beat a boss.
reads: The Framed Women of Ardemore House (2024) and The Dead Come to Stay (2025) by Brandy Schillace. I’m always seeking out new murder mysteries, and nothing grabs my attention faster than the mention of a house. In the first of these books, American Jo inherits a manor in England from her mother, who had inherited it from Jo’s uncle and never mentioned it to Jo. Ready for a change, she moves there and immediately discovers a body. A thing I like about these books is that there are murders, and Jo is the main character, but she’s not really the one solving them. There’s a detective whose job that is in the mix, and Jo is mostly solving mysteries about her own family history (they do intertwine, of course). I also love how Jo’s autism is written, as well as her relationship with the detective. These books may be cosy mysteries, but the characters in them feel real and interesting. Can’t wait for more. (Library audiobook, Libro.fm audiobook)
read: Shady Hollow Mysteries by Juneau Black, read by Cassandra Campbell (2022-2024). After listening to Shady Hollow last month, I continued with the series. The atmosphere of woodland creatures solving mysteries is often better than the mysteries themselves, but I genuinely enjoy the ride. The most recent addition, Summers End, is the best one yet I think. Campbell’s narration remains spot-on. (All library audiobooks except for the newest, which I bought from Libro.fm)
read: Seducing the Sorcerer by Lee Welch (2024). Sometimes you need to take a break from murders and read about two tired 40-something men falling in love. Welch is a great writer, and I really enjoyed this, especially the character of Fenn who loves horses so much he aches with it. The magic didn’t totally make sense for me, but that’s not what I was in it for anyway. (Library ebook)
theatre: After many years living in Richmond, I am finally making an effort to experience the local theatre scene. I saw Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 at The Firehouse (which is quite literally an old firehouse—I was so charmed) and loved it. I didn’t know anything aside from the name of Great Comet, and it’s a wild show to go in blind on—it adapts a 70-page section of Tolstoy’s War & Peace. There are no spoken lines, and the music is incredible (and difficult! I was so impressed by the vocalists). I followed that up with Murder on the Orient Express at the Virginia Rep, which was extremely just okay. It doesn’t make sense as a play, and seeing it did not convince me otherwise.
read: The Dinner Lady Detectives by Hannah Hendy, read by Jenny Funnell (2021). If you read mysteries for the process of solving them, this book is not for you. However, if you would like to experience two lesbians in their 60s fumble about attempting to investigate the suspicious death of their boss then this is absolutely the book for you. A really charming good time. (Library audiobook)
read: The Spiral Staircase (originally Some Must Watch) by Ethel Lina White (1933). I knew of White only as the author of the book that Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes is based on, but recognized her name when I spotted this in a bookstore on vacation. Some might consider it an odd choice for a beach read, but I quite enjoyed reading about a housemaid stalked by a serial killer in a country manor accompanied by the sound of the ocean. (Paperback, Island Bookstore)
dog & cat:
