Meta tags:

Headings (most frequently used words):

2026, by, monday, the, april, march, 2013, perfect, locked, room, pages, may, 27, 20, 13, 30, saturday, 28, about, me, blog, archive, fellow, connoisseurs, tags, short, haired, corpse, 2014, 2020, yuugo, aosaki, appeal, 2021, janice, hallett, bertie, and, seven, bodies, 1990, peter, lovesey, cards, on, table, 1936, agatha, christie, blood, from, stone, dolores, gordon, smith, case, of, gilded, fly, 1945, edmund, crispin, drishyam, written, jeethu, joseph,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (403), and (157), but (85), that (80), this (66), one (53), with (49), was (45), for (44), are (37), there (36), her (36), his (35), you (34), they (33), all (32), book (31), not (30), who (26), have (26), mystery (24), crime (24), like (23), share (22), some (22), killer (22), good (21), them (21), about (20), how (20), would (20), really (19), she (19), #christie (18), out (18), more (17), been (16), just (16), from (15), other (15), very (15), bertie (15), murder (14), reviews (14), has (14), first (14), man (14), even (14), novels (13), mysteries (13), what (13), two (13), reader (13), also (13), fen (13), story (13), think (13), lovesey (12), will (12), get (12), series (11), locked (11), know (11), only (11), when (11), him (11), can (11), read (11), detective (11), poirot (11), gad (10), impossible (10), hallett (10), where (10), into (10), might (10), while (10), see (10), mrs (10), four (10), aosaki (9), gordon (9), smith (9), case (9), dead (9), december (9), comments (9), off (9), novel (9), much (9), give (9), character (9), these (9), suspects (9), pretty (8), bad (8), 2026 (8), dark (8), bit (8), over (8), yseut (8), another (8), after (8), then (8), through (8), end (8), monday (8), paxton (8), short (7), crispin (7), fair (7), solve (7), july (7), august (7), april (7), labels (7), pinterest (7), facebook (7), blogthis (7), email (7), posted (7), part (7), most (7), well (7), georgekutty (7), way (7), their (7), don (7), quite (7), being (7), once (7), alibi (7), isn (7), liked (7), recommended (7), because (7), found (7), motive (7), say (7), could (7), everything (7), clues (7), which (7), games (6), post (6), joseph (6), carr (6), october (6), november (6), may (6), didn (6), time (6), looks (6), until (6), gets (6), family (6), movie (6), lot (6), makes (6), your (6), done (6), again (6), had (6), both (6), something (6), sure (6), people (6), characters (6), three (6), work (6), someone (6), own (6), why (6), any (6), detectives (6), murders (6), point (6), need (6), tori (6), yuugo (5), robert (5), peter (5), review (5), room (5), janice (5), ling (5), death (5), books (5), corpse (5), player (5), september (5), january (5), based (5), coming (5), around (5), whole (5), going (5), little (5), back (5), readers (5), scene (5), play (5), those (5), though (5), feel (5), oxford (5), clear (5), never (5), doesn (5), does (5), haldean (5), napier (5), reading (5), blood (5), shaitana (5), murderers (5), child (5), appeal (5), stories (4), crimes (4), jeethu (4), freeman (4), edmund (4), dolores (4), anthony (4), agatha (4), game (4), 2014 (4), june (4), march (4), version (4), seems (4), known (4), skeptical (4), takes (4), full (4), probably (4), happy (4), second (4), half (4), evidence (4), were (4), near (4), details (4), make (4), writer (4), write (4), under (4), name (4), enjoyed (4), gives (4), helen (4), same (4), shot (4), apartment (4), fly (4), mostly (4), than (4), else (4), solid (4), enough (4), down (4), sandy (4), later (4), before (4), bridge (4), here (4), etc (4), things (4), town (4), information (4), door (4), aren (4), modern (4), classic (4), party (4), battle (4), table (4), getting (4), fun (4), between (4), documents (4), emails (4), hisame (4), fiction (3), nicholas (3), blake (3), john (3), arthur (3), files (3), solving (3), 2020 (3), 2021 (3), haired (3), blog (3), home (3), knew (3), tell (3), 2013 (3), malayalam (3), different (3), kind (3), life (3), wife (3), anju (3), local (3), goes (3), varun (3), inspector (3), police (3), implies (3), tries (3), thing (3), night (3), victim (3), cover (3), watched (3), made (3), since (3), happens (3), stuff (3), sense (3), put (3), interesting (3), able (3), plenty (3), last (3), theater (3), issue (3), said (3), use (3), drishyam (3), himself (3), saw (3), decided (3), try (3), train (3), players (3), day (3), love (3), nigel (3), sir (3), amateur (3), looking (3), surprise (3), suicide (3), odd (3), comes (3), now (3), gilded (3), onto (3), job (3), minor (3), mood (3), type (3), better (3), let (3), myself (3), looked (3), giving (3), crossexaminingcrime (3), killed (3), doctor (3), finds (3), stabbed (3), thought (3), still (3), investigation (3), certain (3), maybe (3), behind (3), during (3), best (3), got (3), previous (3), stone (3), third (3), search (3), least (3), equal (3), idea (3), too (3), oliver (3), sits (3), help (3), moment (3), says (3), each (3), past (3), narrative (3), clearly (3), nice (3), suspect (3), couple (3), control (3), jerry (3), bodies (3), actions (3), its (3), femi (3), charlotte (3), poppy (3), person (3), messages (3), everyone (3), late (3), knockin (3), zenda (3), cut (3), hair (3), explanation (3), visual (2), video (2), published (2), macdonald (2), richard (2), publications (2), plays (2), non (2), movies (2), rooms (2), bruce (2), japanese (2), white (2), french (2), wills (2), crofts (2), queen (2), edward (2), witness (2), green (2), capsule (2), suddenly (2), author (2), criminal (2), february (2), posts (2), expect (2), film (2), written (2), came (2), hit (2), hindi (2), works (2), rani (2), dropped (2), young (2), real (2), yes (2), son (2), general (2), dies (2), instantly (2), major (2), shows (2), jerk (2), fitting (2), slightly (2), needs (2), putting (2), distinct (2), retreat (2), present (2), including (2), minute (2), screen (2), carefully (2), questions (2), seemingly (2), explains (2), excellent (2), ending (2), seat (2), find (2), youtube (2), thin (2), did (2), experience (2), small (2), opens (2), key (2), smug (2), jean (2), donald (2), fellows (2), sheila (2), gervase (2), should (2), glance (2), notes (2), outside (2), went (2), money (2), otherwise (2), group (2), titular (2), shoved (2), role (2), following (2), saying (2), anything (2), smart (2), ghost (2), meta (2), throw (2), course (2), together (2), tone (2), note (2), frustrating (2), constantly (2), thirds (2), interested (2), wish (2), gotten (2), wondering (2), annoying (2), wasn (2), usually (2), killers (2), comment (2), charitable (2), towards (2), itself (2), example (2), genre (2), possible (2), kicked (2), obvious (2), okay (2), actually (2), means (2), authors (2), promise (2), run (2), left (2), figure (2), nothing (2), complaints (2), improved (2), fictionfan (2), invisible (2), event (2), deduction (2), cluing (2), personally (2), metromania (2), week (2), window (2), jack (2), complex (2), village (2), guest (2), terence (2), lead (2), lost (2), missing (2), shortly (2), bedroom (2), forged (2), months (2), isabelle (2), reporter (2), head (2), making (2), almost (2), vicar (2), come (2), breagan (2), grange (2), estate (2), next (2), human (2), shady (2), dense (2), admit (2), partly (2), due (2), hard (2), hinges (2), identity (2), items (2), sit (2), likely (2), exciting (2), without (2), treated (2), constructed (2), set (2), clue (2), initial (2), solution (2), ahoy (2), sweet (2), ability (2), collection (2), away (2), race (2), laconic (2), shy (2), guests (2), noticed (2), psychological (2), commit (2), committed (2), promising (2), hush (2), dialogue (2), business (2), attention (2), hand (2), main (2), context (2), expertly (2), pace (2), easy (2), testament (2), skill (2), responding (2), want (2), wouldn (2), wants (2), entirely (2), cards (2), fire (2), beginning (2), prince (2), straight (2), shooting (2), alix (2), grace (2), chimes (2), members (2), miss (2), tuesday (2), hunt (2), wednesday (2), credit (2), action (2), strikes (2), either (2), keeps (2), guess (2), false (2), rhyme (2), light (2), events (2), realize (2), honestly (2), seven (2), told (2), haywards (2), charity (2), cast (2), text (2), anyone (2), others (2), yet (2), reveal (2), seeing (2), reason (2), narrated (2), our (2), narrator (2), great (2), creativity (2), final (2), perfect (2), awesome, inc, theme, powered, blogger, yukito, ayatsuji, william, brittain, web, vasan, bala, uketsu, tony, medawar, tom, mead, tokuya, higashigawa, tie, ins, thief, tetsuya, ayukawa, takemaru, abiko, szu, yen, lin, stuart, palmer, steven, steinbock, self, seimaru, amagi, sarah, caudwell, ross, ronald, knox, thorogood, adey, rintarou, norizuki, simms, rex, stout, remote, radio, stevens, pushkin, vertigo, pre, philip, paul, halter, patricia, craig, noel, vindry, nisioisin, nicked, ngaio, marsh, mike, ashley, max, rittenberg, martin, edwards, margery, allingham, marcia, muller, manga, louise, heal, kawai, international, leslie, charteris, leo, keikichi, osaka, keigo, higashino, mankiewicz, commings, pugmire, dickson, jim, rion, issac, asimov, conrad, hugh, wapole, wong, hiroshi, mori, hal, faust, bailey, greg, moore, galileo, chesterton, futaro, yamada, foreign, fan, erle, stanley, gardner, ellery, hoch, earl, derr, biggers, bentley, dwam, dorothy, sayers, detection, club, paradise, crippen, landru, cornell, woolrich, coachwhip, clemence, dane, christopher, fowler, brian, karetnyk, bill, pronzini, porges, conan, doyle, shaffer, horowitz, boucher, berkeley, anthology, alice, arisugawa, alan, conway, ace, attorney, tags, abstracts, chronicles, tangled, yarns, grandest, world, residence, sinister, justice, villa, rose, yesterday, musings, fellow, connoisseurs, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, archive, view, complete, profile, subscribe, atom, older, ostensibly, directed, proved, speaking, india, top, highest, grossing, films, produced, sequels, remade, languages, countries, chinese, remake, korean, american, ones, stars, mohanlal, lazy, cable, serviceman, lives, simple, humble, meena, daughters, ansiba, hassan, anu, esther, anil, school, age, oldest, daughter, schooling, ultimately, relationship, laws, conflict, power, tripping, cop, nature, camp, meets, prabhakar, spoiled, entitled, showering, blackmail, sex, walks, struggle, realizes, shake, considering, prominence, hope, advantage, hour, setting, dynamics, theory, object, helping, sexist, valid, characterization, uncomfortable, thematic, patriarch, doing, protect, falls, wayside, thinking, felt, divided, halves, wildly, tones, damper, times, noticeable, pretend, religious, indeed, showing, nowhere, watchers, already, faked, complications, arranged, tagline, visuals, deceiving, masterclass, manipulation, worded, unimpeachable, combining, nearly, unbreakable, mother, honored, break, magnificent, hooted, hollered, drags, huge, inverted, busters, subtitled, language, friends, original, check, highly, naming, similarities, inspiration, mislead, sleuth, saturday, montgomery, schoolteacher, composer, student, changing, inspiring, care, beware, trains, spurred, positive, journey, quick, windows, warner, satirical, mistress, rachel, west, actresses, haskell, sisters, personality, studious, skilled, sexual, affair, determined, barclay, palling, whitelegge, organist, carrying, torch, frustration, producer, mcgaw, board, journalist, returning, former, instructor, currently, arguing, chief, constable, value, english, critic, murdered, witnesses, swear, motives, flying, beyond, affairs, center, sister, unconnected, supposed, produce, stepped, removed, garish, ring, finger, massive, influence, thinner, gideon, fell, referencing, actual, teaching, typical, hero, falling, heroine, tells, jamesian, loved, undertone, technically, respects, fourth, wall, loves, volley, clicks, apparently, discordant, likeable, insulting, bowling, reflects, curious, knows, shouldn, begging, excuse, ruined, careers, broken, marriages, lovelorn, suicides, justify, forget, carrian, wanting, sympathetic, victims, monstrous, combine, eyebrow, raising, shining, method, brags, minutes, arriving, solved, nanosecond, carry, solvable, risk, flipping, freely, admits, intuitive, reasoning, boiling, spiteful, symbolism, pure, winner, stylistic, higher, tolerance, literary, flights, fancy, alley, caveats, douglas, greene, 177, 306, detect, explained, miracles, oxfordy, witty, arch, within, followed, eleven, died, violence, splendidly, complicated, honkaku, discord, server, baker, crooked, hinge, 1945, seventh, far, enjoying, start, topfordham, lady, received, unexpected, nephew, superior, attitude, rubbed, wrong, accepting, claims, long, battlefield, rumors, deserted, lying, low, paris, return, empty, handed, overdose, sleeping, draught, believes, proof, leaves, needless, scarce, stanton, cousin, traveling, encounter, unpleasant, blue, bowler, hat, unsettling, nauseous, compartments, telling, rambling, jewels, inside, shoving, passing, identify, beautiful, sapphire, necklace, reported, stolen, indicates, notorious, kill, various, gather, built, anxiety, temple, disturbing, imagery, history, sacrifice, private, eye, séances, experiences, connected, relations, latch, discussion, progress, belonged, weren, planted, accomplice, feature, plots, lots, avenues, feels, spend, talking, theoretical, identities, haven, met, concrete, brutal, attempted, overheard, statement, plausibly, conclusion, explanations, motion, happening, spite, griping, thrown, sake, fluff, digging, deeper, servants, skipped, believe, skip, leaving, sorts, mini, toys, albeit, committing, poisoning, séance, appear, hands, attacked, cave, although, trick, neat, gripes, wrapped, plentiful, foreshadowing, twists, problem, annoyance, noticing, motifs, returns, savvier, fooled, favorite, construction, worth, classically, styled, year, contains, spoilers, spoiler, analysis, countdown, journal, many, astonish, suspected, star, opportunity, begins, attended, collector, sets, sights, provokes, banters, show, prized, invites, dinner, esteemed, criminals, gentleman, stupidest, ever, heard, attendance, joined, superintendent, scotland, yard, colonel, service, ariadne, famous, appearance, matching, hearty, roberts, despard, classy, lorrimer, anne, meredith, relishes, conversation, dropping, hints, secret, pasts, proposing, watches, take, leave, chest, interrogations, barely, foreword, kidding, tends, repeat, themselves, methods, dig, trying, determine, match, practice, racist, won, skips, successful, practically, manages, having, blast, whenever, speaks, normal, replaced, paragraphs, poking, writing, sadly, fades, halfway, vivid, seem, respectable, watch, plausible, particular, chilling, lack, hesitation, stick, pay, similarity, deaths, clever, spelled, realized, yeah, picking, annoyed, somewhat, backs, equally, guilty, five, tutorials, paces, bored, often, dolling, right, keep, hooked, spiral, catches, mind, argue, thematically, weakness, forward, degree, imagined, react, truly, recommend, neophytes, few, belt, must, therefore, abc, supposing, chair, evening, dummy, gone, intent, 1936, file, historical, sgt, cribb, contemporary, diamond, experimented, variety, starring, wales, future, king, vii, indicated, thriller, soho, press, omnibus, edition, containing, introduction, meant, centenary, birth, further, whetting, appetite, patch, perhaps, tribute, worthwhile, invitation, desborough, ameila, drummond, widow, alexandra, intends, accompany, prevent, funny, hostess, brother, marcus, pelham, george, holdfast, moria, stuttering, poet, wilfred, osgot, edge, gribble, duke, bournemouth, commoner, claude, bullivant, latest, fling, actress, queenie, assorted, such, famed, explorer, isabella, dundas, household, promises, shootings, parlor, faceplants, dessert, morning, natural, shocking, concerned, gunshot, thinks, grief, stricken, discoverers, endeavor, sardines, dumbwaiter, starts, murderer, afoot, guiding, conclusions, pieces, paper, labeled, inexplicable, days, reference, poem, forth, replacing, grant, magnitude, sinks, competent, certainly, decisive, taking, sweeney, bodyguard, balance, inflated, ego, incompetence, versus, dumb, decisions, justified, boneheaded, amorous, quickly, called, narration, crown, weight, gain, matter, dislike, moving, wit, amusement, offhanded, genuine, provides, solutions, along, dare, implemented, early, playing, ambiguity, lines, misdirect, connections, tenuous, working, handwaved, casts, somber, preceding, darker, hue, revived, faith, cold, legitimate, tempted, strength, passion, per, face, woe, tin, 1990, debut, released, rave, blogosphere, surely, promised, front, uncover, truth, couldn, overhyped, reviewers, puzzle, sounded, intriguing, epistolary, universe, framing, device, lawyers, assigned, detailing, trials, tribulations, fairway, perform, led, aristocracy, intend, performance, miller, disaster, granddaughter, diagnosed, medulloblastoma, rare, brain, cancer, expensive, treatment, community, springs, arranging, fundraisers, whatever, smoothly, hidden, tensions, frustrations, among, targeted, fraudsters, new, convinced, taken, ride, grudge, happened, africa, promotional, material, none, wrote, sent, anticipating, open, formal, bring, misunderstandings, aware, easier, lie, choice, asked, letting, personalities, shine, sees, firm, impression, occasionally, verses, standout, nurse, isabel, issy, perfectly, captures, nightmare, emotional, parasite, drains, latches, decides, herself, enemy, friend, flat, ignored, sorry, rooting, building, drama, engaging, mention, consequence, basic, joy, dossier, kick, recently, box, profiles, maps, testimonies, newspapers, brochures, reads, easily, insult, wasted, informs, contributes, plot, occasional, comic, relief, format, boss, ask, prime, big, pointed, handful, list, large, manageable, build, climax, forty, chunk, obviously, trouble, keeping, access, expecting, answer, fact, shown, page, strange, regret, trial, sooner, bias, against, rid, stephen, pierce, block, unsolved, sons, mysterious, alperton, angels, ago, reviewed, titled, posting, mentioned, translated, originally, magazine, fumbling, shared, translation, allowing, agency, switched, narrators, whydunit, specialist, howdunit, expert, sidelined, mika, leader, troupe, wood, ear, strangled, bathroom, laying, running, shower, underwear, pair, shoulders, rest, place, ideally, latter, domain, laugh, accomplished, pointing, directly, reasons, outdoes, misunderstanding, reversal, facts, unlike, involved, irrelevant, literally, pictures, descriptions, interactions, balanced, billing, explaining, explain, indicate, imbalance, persistent, throughout, compared, treat, binged, charm, wear, finished, translating, popcorn, super, dokuraku, library, pages,

Text of the page (random words):
t that they ll commit the same type of murder the four detectives each dig into the suspects past trying to determine what murders they ve committed to match them with shaitana s death this is very promising but in practice it s mostly just poirot and battle race does all his work off screen says some racist stuff about how a white man won t commit a murder then skips out of the narrative to do hush hush work mrs oliver is more successful both practically she manages to get one over battle by getting information on one of the past murders and in the meta sense christie is clearly having a blast whenever mrs oliver speaks her normal laconic to the point dialogue is replaced with paragraphs of her poking fun at the business of mystery writing sadly she too fades out of the narrative about halfway through the suspects are also vivid characters all of them seem like very nice respectable people but those are the people you need to watch out for in christie it seems impossible that any of them would have committed a crime but christie gives them all plausible murders each distinct to the suspect one character in particular is chilling in their lack of any hesitation when it comes to murder and they ll stick with me for a while again you need to pay attention to the past murders to be able to solve the present one this mostly works out on the one hand the psychological similarity between the deaths is clever it s not obvious but when poirot spelled it out i realized that yeah it makes sense but i can see a more skeptical reader picking at it or being annoyed at how christie somewhat backs off on her promise that all four suspects are equally guilty near the end of the book i will say you do not need to know bridge to solve this a couple of five minute tutorials on youtube are all you need and i think the main point is made clear enough through context christie expertly paces the book while reading i thought to myself i should really be bored with this because christie is all dialogue and like i said it s often very to the point but man could she control a narrative expertly dolling out information at just the right pace to keep you hooked it would have been very easy to let this spiral out of control with four detectives and four suspects and it s a testament to christie s skill that it doesn t but i m not happy with how poirot catches the killer i didn t mind it in the moment and i feel that you can argue it s thematically fitting but it is a weakness in the book all in all i liked this one i ve been looking forward to it and there s a degree where i know i m responding to the book that i imagined it would be and not the book it is but i still enjoyed it i want to read it again to see how i react to it which i wouldn t want to do if the book was truly bad i wouldn t recommend it to christie neophytes but for someone who has a few christie s under their belt and wants to see her try something a little different this is recommended other reviews ah sweet mystery contains spoilers for the tv version at the end in search of the classic mystery novel review one and review two the green capsule mysteries ahoy countdown john s christie journal crossexaminingcrime spoiler analysis fictionfan s book reviews also this was her third poirot book that year posted by the dark one at 10 00 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels agatha christie gad novels monday april 6 2026 blood from a stone 2013 by dolores gordon smith blood from a stone is the seventh in dolores gordon smith s jack haldean series so far i ve been really enjoying these books this is one of her more complex mysteries we start in the small village of topfordham where local lady mrs paxton has received an unexpected guest her nephew terence napier napier s superior attitude has rubbed the village the wrong way but mrs paxton is very accepting since he claims to be able to lead her to her long lost son sandy sandy went missing on the battlefield but there are rumors that he deserted and is lying low in paris but mrs paxton and napier return from there empty handed then shortly after mrs paxton is found dead in her bedroom from an overdose of sleeping draught it looks like a clear suicide but the local doctor believes it s murder and finds proof including a forged will that leaves her money to napier needless to say he makes himself scarce two months later isabelle stanton cousin to jack haldean is traveling by train when she has an encounter with an unpleasant man in a blue bowler hat she finds the experience unsettling but doesn t think more of it until she finds a would be reporter looking nauseous outside one of the compartments telling her not to go in and rambling about jewels the man is inside someone stabbed him before shoving his head out the window as the train was passing a bridge making him almost impossible to identify and there s a beautiful sapphire necklace under the seat one that was just reported stolen evidence on the man indicates that he might have been the vicar a notorious criminal thought dead but there s more to come someone tries to kill both isabelle and the reporter the various characters gather at breagan grange an estate built next to an anxiety temple with disturbing imagery and a history of human sacrifice there s a shady private eye séances near death experiences and yes it s all connected to the murder of mrs paxton blood is another one of gordon smith s dense and complex mysteries i admit she partly lost me this time this might have been due to my mood while i was reading but i had a hard time following some of the character relations i think this could be because gordon smith doesn t really give the reader much to latch onto like in her previous book the mystery hinges on the dead man s identity but we get a lot of discussion about it and not much progress is he sandy paxton some of the items on him could have belonged to sandy and they weren t forged but were they planted is he the still missing terence napier is he the vicar an accomplice gordon smith s other novels feature dense plots with lots of possible avenues but here it feels like we spend a lot of time talking about the theoretical identities of people we haven t met it s not concrete even when we get a quite brutal attempted murder later in the book we never really sit down and think about who could have done this why would they do it etc the only investigation is based an overheard statement that while the character would plausibly come to a certain conclusion the reader is likely to see other explanations this is frustrating because the book is really good otherwise it s a book in motion things are happening and in spite of my griping they don t feel thrown in for the sake of exciting the reader with fluff haldean does some good detective work here digging deeper into the crimes for example after mrs paxton was killed all three of her servants skipped town haldean can believe that one maybe two would but why would all three skip town without leaving any information i like these sorts of mini mysteries that give the reader something to think about gordon smith also toys with the impossible crime here albeit without committing to it mrs paxton dies behind the locked door of her bedroom but her poisoning isn t treated as a locked room later at breagan grange during a séance one character has blood suddenly appear on their hands and they re later attacked in a cave with a locked door but again they aren t treated as impossible crimes although the blood trick is pretty neat for all my gripes once everything is wrapped up and haldean explains everything this is probably the best constructed mystery i ve read from gordon smith there are more clues the clues that are there are more plentiful there s foreshadowing and set up for the twists etc some of the clues are only clues because this is a mystery novel and so you know that x is going to be a clue but this is a minor problem once i got over my initial annoyance at the identity games and thought about the solution i saw that it was pretty solid i m noticing certain motifs that the author returns to so a savvier reader might see the solution coming but i was fooled and happy to be so so in the end this is another solid work from one of my favorite modern authors again this is the best mystery i ve read by her even if the construction could have been improved recommended this is well worth your time if you like classically styled mysteries posted by the dark one at 12 09 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels dolores gordon smith novels post gad monday march 30 2026 the case of the gilded fly 1945 by edmund crispin robert bruce montgomery was a schoolteacher and composer who d read carr s novel the crooked hinge while a student at oxford the experience was life changing inspiring him to write mystery novels himself under the name of edmund crispin i ve read a small bit of his short fiction i didn t care for his most well known short beware of the trains but i enjoyed the name on the window and really enjoyed who killed baker so spurred on by some positive comments i saw on ho ling s honkaku discord server i decided to give his novels a try the case of the gilded fly opens on a train journey to oxford where crispin gives us some quick windows into the key players there s robert warner who s putting on the satirical play metromania as well as his mistress rachel west two of the actresses are yseut and helen haskell the half sisters are night and day in personality with helen being the studious and skilled one yseut the sexual one she had an affair with robert and is determined to get him back there s also nicholas barclay a smug jerk palling around with jean whitelegge who s in love with organist donald fellows fellows for his part is carrying a torch for yseut to the frustration of both jean and nicholas another producer sheila mcgaw is also on her way to oxford also on board is nigel blake a journalist who s returning to oxford to see his former instructor gervase fen as well as to hit on helen fen is currently arguing with sir richard freeman chief constable of oxford about the value of detective novels sir freeman being an amateur english critic the same way fen is an amateur detective fen s looking to solve a crime a really splendidly complicated crime within the week that followed three of these eleven died by violence it should surprise no one when yseut is found shot in donald s apartment it looks like suicide at first glance but fen notes some odd details that it make it clear she was murdered but no one was in the apartment and witnesses outside swear no one went in after her so how was it done there are plenty of motives flying around beyond the love affairs that she was the center of helen comes into a lot of money now that her sister is dead and even sheila who s otherwise unconnected to the group has a motive she was supposed to produce metromania until yseut stepped in to get her removed and what of the titular gilded fly a garish ring that the killer shoved onto yseut s finger it s clear that carr was a massive influence on crispin gervase fen is a thinner gideon fell even referencing him with an actual teaching job nigel plays the role of the typical carr hero following the detective around never saying anything smart and falling in love with the heroine there s even a bit where a minor character tells an m r jamesian ghost story something that i m sure carr would have loved there s a very meta undertone to the whole book mostly from fen who technically respects the fourth wall but loves to throw a volley over it now and then and of course there s the impossible crime but i don t think all of this quite clicks together part of it is the tone it s all very arch and witty and oxfordy apparently i was not in the mood for that the tone was a discordant note for me fen is also frustrating as a detective he s not really likeable just constantly insulting people and bowling over them there s a bit about two thirds through where nigel reflects on the type of man fen is curious interested in people even when he knows that what they do better than them and i wish we d gotten more of that detective fen is constantly wondering if he shouldn t just let yseut s killer off really he s begging for an excuse to do this but as the character s note yseut might have been personally very annoying but she really wasn t that bad no ruined careers broken marriages lovelorn suicides or anything else to really justify how happy the characters are to forget the whole thing again very carrian wanting to let the killer off but usually carr makes his killers a little more sympathetic his victims a little more monstrous combine this with an eyebrow raising comment about the killer s motive and i don t feel very charitable towards crispin this is annoying because the impossible crime itself is quite good not a shining example of the genre i really don t know if the murder was as possible as fen implies but solid enough and i kicked myself when i looked back and saw how obvious the method was fen brags that he knew who the killer was three minutes after arriving on the scene and okay fair you can solve this if you actually think about what the crime scene actually means but i think this whole i solved the crime in a nanosecond stuff doesn t work as well as some authors think it does sure the detective looks smart for saying it but if you carry through on that promise that the crime is that solvable you run the risk of someone flipping back and solving the crime with half the book left to go there s also not really that much in the way of cluing or deduction fen freely admits that he s an intuitive detective and once you figure out how the crime was done you have your killer and the titular fly means nothing the reasoning boiling down to spiteful symbolism so this book wasn t a pure winner for me i liked it in the end the impossible crime is good and some of my complaints are stylistic if i d been in a better mood i might have liked it more and if you have a higher tolerance for literary flights of fancy it might be up your alley it s a young man s work and i m sure that he improved i m giving this a recommended with caveats douglas g greene s the man who explained miracles 177 306 other reviews crossexaminingcrime only detect do you write under your own name the invisible event fictionfan s book reviews posted by the dark one at 10 00 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels edmund crispin gad locked rooms and impossible crimes novels saturday march 28 2026 drishyam 2013 written by jeethu joseph i really didn t know what to expect from drishyam visual i knew it was ostensibly based off a japanese novel but that didn t tell me much the film written and directed by jeethu joseph came out in 2013 an...