Browsed by
Category: Mystery

What I’ve Been Listening To: November 2024

What I’ve Been Listening To: November 2024

Comments 1 comment

So, I did not update you last month, on what I’ve been listening to most recently. Let me tell you, the FLOOD of emails and comments, wanting to know what’s been running through my Audible, was deafening. Wait. No. I mean, deathly silent.

MISTLETOE MURDERS 3

I like Hallmark Christmas movies. They’re all similar, but they’re enjoyable. My ex-wife and I even got our son to kind of enjoy them. He would laugh at the tropes when they occurred, like the snowball fight, the misunderstanding, the plot twist at 90 minutes EVERY time.

Sometimes I watch the Hallmark Mystery movies, and the general ones. Mistletoe Murders is an Audible Original series, included with my membership level. On its third season. This radio show about a gift shop owner is like a Hallmark Mystery Christmas series. But with more emphasis on the mystery side, than the ‘sappy/silly’ Christmas side. She has a past that makes her far more than just a store owner.

Seasons have varied in number of episodes and length, running about an hour and-a-half first time out, and between four and four and-half-hours in the next two seasons.

If you like Hallmark Mysteries (which I wrote about here long ago), this wont’ do much for you. If you do like them, then this is pure bonus for your Hallmark-loving heart.

Just a few weeks ago, the first season of a streaming series started on Hallmark+. I don’t have that channel, so I haven’t seen it. But I think it’s cool they took the audio series and put it on screen. I hope to catch it soon.

…

Read More Read More

What I’ve Been Listening To: August (II) 2024

What I’ve Been Listening To: August (II) 2024

Comments 2 comments

I posted last week about several audiobooks I’ve been listening to. Audiobooks totally fit in with my lifestyle (to the extent I have one). I can listen to them while working, driving, writing, falling asleep, walking outside, and even watching soccer which I’m not too invested in.

I wouldn’t get to a lot of the stuff I listen to, if I had to read it. I mean, you have never heard such caterwauling as the folks in the carpool when I read a paperback while driving. Yeesh!

I re-listen to a lot of stuff. But between Audible Premium, and select library borrows through the Hoopla app, I have audiobooks going a lot of the time.

Here are some more recent listens – some repeats, some brand new to my ears.

LEAPHORN AND CHEE – Tony Hillerman

I did a rather in-depth three-part series on Tony Hillerman and his terrific police procedurals set on the Navajo reservation. I have read/listened to this series a dozen times over the years. I absolutely love it. Somewhere I’ve got some cassette tapes, read by Hillerman himself. But between DVDs and Audible, I’ve managed to get unabridged (do NOT get the abridged versions. Not nearly as good) versions of each novel, read well by George Guidall.

…

Read More Read More

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Richard Deming’s Manville Moon

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Richard Deming’s Manville Moon

Comments 0 Comment

“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

(Gat — Prohibition Era term for a gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun)

 

Richard Deming’s career flourished during the end of the Pulps and the birth of the digests. He published short stories in five different decades. After serving in World War II, he was working for the Red Cross when he sold his first story, “The Juarez Knife,” to Popular Detective. He would write a total of sixteen more stories, as well as four novels, featuring his one-legged war veteran, Manville (‘Manny,’ ‘Mister’) Moon, mostly appearing in Black Mask, and Dime Detective.

He wrote three police procedural novels starring Matt Rudd, a vice cop in Southern California. Deming appeared in the final issue of Dime Detective, but had already transitioned to Manhhunt, the digest magazine that was the successor to the hardboiled Pulps.

Deming also wrote for television – an experience he did not speak of fondly.

…

Read More Read More

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Rex Stout’s ‘The Mother of Invention’

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Rex Stout’s ‘The Mother of Invention’

Comments 2 comments

“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

(Gat — Prohibition Era term for a gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun)

If you read more than just this Pulp series of mine each summer, you know that I am a gargantuan Nero Wolfe fan. It’s my favorite mystery series, and I have written a lot of fiction and non-fiction about Wolfe, and Archie Goodwin.

Rex Stout wrote several novels and many short stories, before the first Wolfe novel dropped in 1934. Of course, there was no looking back after Fer de Lance.

He placed “A Professional Recall” in the December, 1912 issue of The Black Cat magazine. “Pamfret and Peace” followed the next month. There would be three more over the next few years.

The Black Cat was founded by Herman Umbstaetter in 1895. He had gained and lost a fortune before managing to fund his own magazine in Baltimore. It was not a Pulp, and was about the size of the Dime Novels of the day (about 6” x 9”). Umbstaetter encouraged new writers, and paid based on the quality of the story, not by the word. His wife did the early covers.

…

Read More Read More

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Ya Gotta Ask – Reprise

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Ya Gotta Ask – Reprise

Comments 6 comments

“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

(Gat — Prohibition Era term for a gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun)

Nine years ago this past January, I wrote a post here titled, Ya Gotta Ask. I felt like that one could use a bit of polish and expansion, and it would still be a pretty good post. So, here’s a revised version, as the Monday morning column gets ready to kick off another Summer of Pulp with A (Black) Gat in the Hand.

One of the cool things about Black Gate is that there are a bunch of authors who blog here. These are Writers with a capital ‘W’. I have worked hard to become a pretty good blogger, and I think I’ve succeeded. I’ve got a couple awards to back that up. I’ve published some short stories and non-fiction, as well. But I still think of myself as a lower case ‘w’ writer. I am working towards capitalizing that letter, but as any Writer will tell you, you just gotta keep working at it.

Now, some authors here at Black Gate can (and have) given you advice on how to write a novel, or get a book published: be it here, or on their own blogs or other sites. Follow their advice, make it happen, and then you can be a Writer too (a novel isn’t the defining element: I’m just using it as a benchmark for this essay). I’m going to make a suggestion on how you can become a writer, like me. I know, I know: you’re all atingle.

…

Read More Read More

Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone: ‘A Toast to Nero Wolfe, & ‘A Stay at Home Intro’

Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone: ‘A Toast to Nero Wolfe, & ‘A Stay at Home Intro’

Comments 0 Comment

Last week I gave a big recap of April’s Wolfe Pack gathering at the Greenbrier Resort, in West Virginia. Too Many Cooks, the fifth Wolfe novel, takes place at Kanawha Spa. Kanawha is essentially the Greenbrier, and that’s why the Wolfe Pack has a fun weekend there every five-ish years. This was the fifth of those, and my first.

As I mentioned last week, I gave a toast to Nero Wolfe at the Friday Night (American) Dinner. The whole gathering was run by the Wolfe Pack Wereowance, Ira Matesky. He kindly let me hand out a printed copy of my Stay at Home Series, to the attendees, as a perk.

You can read the entire Stay at Home series here at Black Gate – no charge. :-). Just click on the links at the end of this post. I recommend reading them in order – it will definitely make more sense.

I was tabbed late for the honor (‘That Byrne guy? His posts make sense most of the time. Get him to do it”). So, I wrote the entire speech the day I arrived, sitting on this sofa in the North Parlor (I called it the piano room. I had a couple more pics of it in last week’s post).

I didn’t have an Archie with me, so it’s good that no one took a shot at me through the windows, from the balcony. Though I’d like to think I didn’t annoy anyone THAT much in my short time there. The comments under this post may disabuse me of that notion…

My toast was related to the Stay at Home series, in looking at Nero Wolfe and the Brownstone as something timeless, while the times around us changed. During the Pandemic, dramatically.

…

Read More Read More

Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone: Welcome to Kanawha Spa – The Wolfe Pack 2024 Greenbrier Weekend

Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone: Welcome to Kanawha Spa – The Wolfe Pack 2024 Greenbrier Weekend

Comments 4 comments

So, last month, I joined fellow Wolfe Pack members for a long weekend at The Greenbrier Resort, in West Virginia. It was the fifth trip there for the group, though my first. It’s only a four hour-plus drive, which isn’t much for a Midwestern guy who also lived in Colorado and Texas.

Too Many Cooks is the fifth Nero Wolfe novel. I think it’s better than the four prior ones, and it’s the first where the series really starts to take off. It was followed by Some Buried Caesar. I think those two together, mark the beginning of excellence for the Wolfe Corpus.

Wolfe and Archie travel to Kanawha Spa, where a chef is murdered. Kanawha is the Greenbrier, which is why the Wolfe Pack sojourns there. It’s a VERY fancy resort, known for it’s golf courses (it was on the PGA tour before a flood wrecked things a bit), and for having a Cold War bunker for White House officials. It was never used, but you can take a tour of it now (I did not).

…

Read More Read More

The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Jack Tracy’s ‘The Published Apocrypha’

The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Jack Tracy’s ‘The Published Apocrypha’

Comments 3 comments

I am bringing back The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes for a Doyle-centric run in April. Getting in the mood, here’s my review of Jack Tracy’s cornerstone book, Sherlock Holmes: The Published Apocrypha.

Sherlockians like to hold the Canon (Doyle’s sixty Holmes stories) in the same esteem that Christians hold the Bible. So it should come as no surprise that there are some works by Doyle that are comparable to apocrypha. The term refers to early Christian writings not included in the Bible.

Jack Tracy, author of the superb Encyclopedia Sherlockiana, collected some authentic and near-authentic Holmes works that are not part of the Canon. Few books made up of Holmes fiction can justifiably sit on your bookshelf next to Doyle’s short stories and novels about the wisest and finest man Dr. Watson ever knew. This book should be the very first one.

No one who has looked at Tracy’s Encyclopedia can doubt his Sherlockian scholarship. He utilizes his vast knowledge in an efficient and readable way in Sherlock Holmes: The Published Apocrypha. Each section begins with info about the writings that follow. Interesting and “must know” details set the stage for the pieces themselves.

…

Read More Read More

A Q&A With Holmes on the Range’s Steve Hockensmith

A Q&A With Holmes on the Range’s Steve Hockensmith

Comments 6 comments

So, I’ve long been a fan of your  Holmes on the Range series. Two weeks ago over at BlackGate.com, I did a deep dive into it for my weekly Monday morning column. Last week, it was a spoiler-free, comprehensive chronology of the series. Along with a publication timeline. I think it’s the only all-inclusive, current one out there. Thanks for your input.

And you’ve agreed to a Q&A to wrap up our coverage of the series. Thanks again!

QUESTION – You wanted to sell more stories to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and you saw the annual Sherlock Holmes issue as a way to do that. But you didn’t want to ‘just’ write more standard Holmes. How did you hit on the idea of Gustav and Otto?

Before I start blathering on about myself, I want to pause to thank you for all the attention and positivity you’ve been lavishing on the Holmes on the Range books. It is much, much appreciated!

Now — on to me!

I love Sherlock Holmes, but when I was thinking about writing something Sherlockian for Ellery Queen I just couldn’t get comfortable with the idea of a Holmes pastiche. So many other writers do them so well. Did the world really need me to give it a try? Especially when what I think are my strong suits — my voice and humor — feel so very American. So I tried to think of American characters who’d be inspired by Dr. Watson’s stories about Holmes. And when you’re thinking about fun, interesting, late 19th century Americans, naturally cowboys come to mind sooner or later.

…

Read More Read More

Holmes on the Range: A Chronology

Holmes on the Range: A Chronology

Comments 4 comments

There are a lot of ways to go about writing a Sherlock Holmes story. Some folks attempt to very carefully emulate Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s own style, and to turn out a tale that feels as if it might have been penned (or typed these days) by the creator of the great detective himself. No surprise that results vary. GREATLY. Hugh Ashton and Denis O. Smith are the best I’ve found in this regard. Last week, I took a deep dive into Steve Hockensmith’s Holmes on the Range series. You might want to click over and read that. Below, I present a complete chronology of the series (along with a list in publication order, following). Each entry comes with a non-spoiler summary – the kind of thing you’d find on a dust jacket or on a back cover. I think this is a useful reference to a terrific series. Steve himself reviewed and assisted, so it’s accurate. Come back next week for a Q&A with Steve, to wrap up our series.

A HOLMES ON THE RANGE CHRONOLOGY

ss – short story; nvlla – novella; nov – novel

 (ss) Dear Mr. Holmes (July 1892)

So begins the Holmes on the Range saga. Gustav (Old Red) and Otto (Big Red) Amlingmeyer travel to Brownsville, TX, to sign on for a cattle drive. They’re gonna help move three thousand Mexican longhorns all the way up to Billings, Montana. En route one night, there’s a stampede. As they get the herd back in place, two of the cowboys are found, stomachs slashed, eyes cut out, and scalped. Clearly, Indians had raided the drive and killed the men. Except, Gustav’s not quite so sure. For the first time, he gets to try out the Holmes methods he’d heard sitting around the campfire and listening to Otto read “The Red-Headed League.” A stranger shortly joins the group, a lawman shows up, fireworks ensue, and Big Red gets the detection’ bug.

…

Read More Read More