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it was beyond obvious like hello my other major issue is that the author only decides it s time to bring out the major twist in the susan ryeland story way too close to the final part of the book giving a really rushed feel to the novel s ending there are more niggly things but this post is getting a bit long on the other hand i have to admit that it entertained me for well over two days so that can t be a bad thing when all is said and done it just wasn t as entertaining or satisfying as its two predecessors so for me it was a bit of a letdown but as i said people are raving about marble hall murders so if you re following the series you may likely want to read it from pbs lesley manville and tim mcmullan one of the tags i used for this post is page to screen since according to pbs there will be a third and final installment in the masterpiece series starring lesley manville as susan ryeland and tim mcmullan as atticus pünd the previous two have been extremely bingeworthy so even though i didn t care for the book as much as i might have i will be ready to watch when the series rolls around again posted by nancyo at 2 10 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels 2025 british mysteries uk crime fiction page to screen sunday may 18 2025 night cry by william l stuart 9798886011531 stark house press 2025 originally published 1948 162 pp paperback read in april a few weeks ago i turned on my television and an ad small clip for the 1950 movie where the sidewalk ends popped up on the home page for amazon fire tv i know but i really hate cable i clicked on the add to my list button thinking it looked like a good noir film to hold on to for a late night insomnia viewing so imagine my surprise when this book arrived the next day with its photo of dana andrews on the cover i took it as kismet and read the novel right away and before i get into this post my many thanks to the stark house press people they are just terrific lieutenant mark deglin is still angry over missing out on a promotion he thought he d had in the bag he believes that he s one of the best detectives on the force but as his captain notes he doesn t do things by the book all the time while on the job he s still carrying that chip on his shoulders the night he is called out to a gambling club to investigate a murder the victim had been in a fight earlier that evening with another gambler by the name of kendall paine a war weary decorated vet who had since been thrown out of the club so he quickly becomes the prime suspect deglin goes to paine s apartment where he starts asking questions but the situation changes for the worse when the two men get into a physical fight and paine falls down dead when deglin calls in he learns that the murder has been solved and that paine wasn t the killer instead of copping to the truth of what happened he goes into cover up mode ditching the body while leaving clues that suggest that paine had left town things might have worked out at this point but the real complications set in when deglin is told that although he s no longer wanted for murder the da really needs paine as a witness in the murder case and deglin s captain assigns him the task of finding him deglin s web of deceit becomes even more tangled when paine s girlfriend morgan taylor refuses to believe that paine would just up and leave and a reporter named smith offers to help her find him to add yet another twist to the knife some secrets refuse to stay buried backing deglin into a tight corner while the walls close in first edition dial 1948 from abebooks aside from the taut story here night cry is a compelling psychological portrait of a man battling his inner demons as the weight of his actions comes down on him it also asks the question of what happens when the badge becomes worthless and a cop is left to ponder what s left it is a truly fine crime novel with darkness gripping the narrative tightly and with noir vibes seeping deep into all facets of this book it is gritty moody and emotionally charged and i give the author a lot of credit for building this story in well under two hundred pages from the outset the author crafted an atmosphere that not only doesn t quit but stays with you long after you ve finished reading i can most highly recommend this book especially to readers of vintage noir and to crime aficionados who don t mind the darkness from posteritati the novel is the latest in stark house s film noir classics series so after the book comes the film viewing the 1950 film scripted by ben hecht and directed by otto preminger is gripping in its own right and well worth the watch although i have to admit my preference for the novel in the movie deglin becomes mark dixon dana andrews really throws himself into the role slipping into dixon s skin and taking on the moral weight that drags this man down as he finds himself ever so slowly hemmed in by his actions gene tierney s morgan taylor changes in the movie novel from a socialite to the daughter of a cabbie who models designer gowns for a living the story goes well during the first half of the film pacing and plot on point but starts to lose its intensity as dixon and taylor find themselves falling in love and while the novel s ending wasn t exactly the best the film s ending was just disappointing but as i say it s still well worth watching bottom line loved the book movie was good but not a great or b as well done as the novel posted by nancyo at 2 46 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels 1940s 2025 american crime fiction mystery page to screen stark house friday may 16 2025 the mouthless dead by anthony quinn it was a mask one that he wore so determinedly it became his other self 9780349146928 abacus little brown book group 2025 274 pp hardcover read in april i don t remember how i happened upon this book but i was hooked from the moment i read the blurb and knew i had to have it for one thing it turns out to be a novel based on the brutal murder of mrs julia wallace that happened back in 1931 and i love historical crime both fact and fiction the other thing that piqued my interest is that i had never heard of this case before so while i was waiting for my book to arrive from the uk i spent quite a bit of time doing some research it was a case which raymond chandler regarded as unbeatable it will always be unbeatable and about which he also said that it was an impossible murder because wallace couldn t have done it and neither could anyone else so now i m hooked and my book isn t even here yet by the time it actually arrived i was already primed ready to dive in and i was not disappointed this post will be shorter than usual because i don t really want to say too much about what actually happens in this book to tell too much is to completely ruin things and i don t want to be responsible for that the murder of julia wallace took place at her liverpool home one night while her husband william had gone to call on a potential client william worked for prudential insurance and one night while at his chess club he had received a message about a phone call from a mr qualtrough who had asked wallace to meet him at his home the address was also left on the message and william made his way from his home to the meeting he left his house and caught a tram to the area but never actually got to the qualtrough home it seems that the address was incorrect and he spent quite a bit of time asking for help from a policeman and other people in the area none of whom had heard of a mr qualtrough frustrated he made his way home only to find his wife dead there was no apparent motive and yet despite what seems to have been an unshakeable alibi with witnesses and the assurances from neighbors that the wallaces were quiet people who were not inclined to argue the lead detective zoomed in on wallace as the prime suspect he was arrested for the murder and sent to trial where he was found guilty and sentenced to hang not too long after the verdict however the court of criminal appeals overturned the conviction and wallace was set free with the murder left unsolved by the way none of this is spoiler material just a very brief outline of the actual case the mouthless dead begins some fifteen years later and one of the former members of the wallace investigation team a now retired detective inspector key who had served as a liverpool policeman for nigh on thirty years is on board an ocean liner sailing from england to new york he is in the process of putting together a memoir about his career which would have been quite unexceptional except for the one case that was in its time wildly notorious and had become in the years since the material of legend he makes the acquaintance of two fellow passengers lydia tarrant somewhat plain and traveling with her mother but interested in his stories and teddy absolom a younger man in his twenties for whom film had been his obsession since boyhood teddy hopes to look for work in the industry in new york or maybe even hollywood where he s interested in writing and directing lydia reveals to teddy that key is writing about the wallace case in his memoir and teddy admits to having been obsessed with it as a schoolboy teddy believes that the hand of fate must be at work here because the case would make a great movie with the lot a brutal killing a police force baffled a man condemned to hang never mind that there was no ending according to teddy it wouldn t be a documentary but a drama based on a real life story much like hitchcock did with his movie rope and thus it begins with key holding teddy and lydia spellbound with his continuing story key is only too happy to oblige helping teddy unable to resist showing off his insider knowledge julia and william wallace from the julia wallace murder foundation in the acknowledgments section of the book the author notes that he owes this book to a conversation he d had that had triggered a childhood memory he remembered his parents talking about it once likely because his family had lived very close to menlove gardens where wallace was supposed to go to meet the mysterious mr qualtrough as he says the story came out like a revenant from the darkness of forgetting and i knew i had to retell it the author s done a great job here bringing in the historical record of the wallace case complete with police work and materials from the trials solidly landing the reader back in 1930s liverpool however the real genius at work here is that the retelling is offered to us via the fictional key s perspective suffusing the narrative with an unexpected intensity so much so that i could not put this book down the mouthless dead is both a gripping engrossing tale and a keenly observed study of character one that i can recommend very highly to readers who enjoy historical crime fiction or well written intelligent crime novels it s also a book i won t soon forget posted by nancyo at 2 52 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels 2025 british mysteries uk crime fiction historical crime fiction older posts home subscribe to posts atom search this blog the crime fiction collection so far my crime fiction shelf thought of the day blog archive 2026 1 january 1 a silver spade the kindest use a knife by louisa 2025 10 november 1 october 1 june 2 may 3 march 2 january 1 2024 16 december 2 october 1 september 3 august 2 june 2 may 1 april 1 march 1 february 2 january 1 2023 12 november 4 october 3 july 1 june 3 april 1 2022 11 december 2 july 1 june 2 march 1 february 2 january 3 2021 15 september 3 august 1 june 3 april 1 march 2 february 3 january 2 2020 24 december 3 october 4 september 2 august 2 july 1 june 1 may 2 april 1 march 3 february 2 january 3 2019 27 december 1 november 1 october 2 september 3 august 2 july 4 june 3 may 2 april 3 march 1 february 1 january 4 2018 41 december 4 november 3 october 1 september 5 august 3 july 2 june 6 may 3 april 3 march 4 february 5 january 2 2017 51 december 5 november 4 october 3 september 4 august 6 july 5 june 4 may 3 april 3 march 6 february 4 january 4 2016 45 december 3 november 5 september 4 august 2 july 8 june 4 may 4 april 3 march 3 february 5 january 4 2015 74 december 12 november 8 october 5 september 8 august 4 july 5 june 5 may 7 april 7 march 4 february 4 january 5 2014 58 december 5 november 5 october 2 september 6 august 3 july 7 june 8 may 2 april 5 march 4 february 7 january 4 2013 47 december 3 november 3 october 2 september 5 august 3 july 14 june 5 may 2 april 4 march 4 january 2 2012 64 december 3 november 4 october 4 september 3 august 6 july 7 june 5 may 3 april 5 march 10 february 9 january 5 2011 71 december 3 november 4 october 5 september 7 august 9 july 12 june 13 may 2 april 3 march 8 february 4 january 1 2010 64 december 1 november 3 september 3 august 5 july 13 june 5 may 3 april 4 march 8 february 11 january 8 what i ve read this year in crime fiction and mystery a split off of my regular reading journal hands down crime fiction is my favorite genre i am a wee bit picky though and i trend toward the darker side of crime my focus in reading in this genre is to explore what makes people do what they do whether it s the bad guy or the good guy i truly believe that the best crime fiction should explore human nature and how one s actions are determined by both outward and internal influences the crime segments is part of my overall online book journal it s neither a literary nor expert take on crime fiction mysteries but rather a way to keep a record of my reading as i explore different authors different subgenres and currently works from obscure writers have fun and do feel free to comment back to the home blog the rest of the books for the year if you re interested labels 18th century 1 1900s 9 1910s 13 1920s 15 1920s crime fiction and mysteries 4 1930s 28 1930s crime fiction and mysteries 25 1940s 25 1940s crime fiction and mysteries 21 1950s 15 1950s crime fiction and mysteries 27 1960s 6 1960s crime fiction and mysteries 13 1970s 3 1970s crime fiction and mysteries 4 1980s 6 1990s 1 19th century mystery crime fiction 29 2015 47 2016 45 2017 46 2018 40 2019 26 2020 24 2021 14 2022 11 2023 12 2024 17 2025 9 2026 1 african crime fiction mystery 3 agatha christie 15 algeria crime fiction 1 american crime fiction 78 american crime fiction mystery 24 another forgotten author 2 australia crime fiction 8 austria crime fiction 8 belgian crime fiction 3 belgium crime fiction 6 best of 1 bitter lemon press 20 black coat press 1 black curtain press 1 black dog books 1 black mask 1 blue rider press 3 book reviews british fiction 1 british fiction 2 british library crime classics 14 british mysteries uk crime fiction 128 canadian crime fiction 1 caribbean crime fiction 1 cassava republic press 1 chinese crime fiction 2 closed circle crime 1 coachwhip publications 3 co...