tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post3697869954859497452..comments2024-03-27T22:32:02.739+01:00Comments on Beneath the Stains of Time: My 150 Favorite Mysteries (Updated: July 1, 2012)TomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-72005429772032086062013-04-16T22:16:48.855+02:002013-04-16T22:16:48.855+02:00It's not a very original answer, but Agatha Ch...It's not a very original answer, but Agatha Christie's <i>Death on the Nile</i> fits that description. I re-read and reviewed it for this blog and knowing the solution enhenced my enjoyment of the story, because every thing ticks like a Swiss pocket watch. Plot, characters, setting and atmosphere gel perfectly. But I guess you have already read that one, huh? <br /><br />Brand's <i>Green for Danger</i>, Patrick's <i>Death and the Maiden</i> and Huxley's <i>Murder on Safari</i> even has footnotes in the solution pointing out the pages were the clues were given, and like my first answer, has a story were everything snugly fits together. Grossly underrated, IMHO. <br /><br />This is a harder question to answer than it appears, because plot quality is more subject to taste than you'd think. Like Green's <i>What a Body!</i>, which I think has a brilliant one-of-a-kind locked room trick, but Patrick couldn't disagree with me more. <br /><br /><br /><br />TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-16523128833957987722013-04-15T16:50:25.676+02:002013-04-15T16:50:25.676+02:00What do you think is the best plotted novel you...What do you think is the best plotted novel you've read? I'm looking for one which works like a Swiss clock, where every part serves a precise function, without any superfluous parts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-33150759841372437922012-07-06T07:52:23.618+02:002012-07-06T07:52:23.618+02:00I read The Innocence of Father Brown and thought i...I read The Innocence of Father Brown and thought it wad a decent read, then only I picked up Wisdom but I will take your suggestion and and give "The Incredulity of Father Brown" a try but not anytime soon.Rishi Arorahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02501794525895194262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-44819447091905397932012-07-05T20:56:24.183+02:002012-07-05T20:56:24.183+02:00Sorry to read that you are not enjoying Chesterton...Sorry to read that you are not enjoying Chesterton, but may I suggest <i>The Incredulity of Father Brown</i>, which, not surprisingly, is my personal favorite, before you give up on him altogether. If you don't like that one, either, than he's simply not your kind of mystery writer. <br /><br />The most difficult part in compiling these lists is dropping most of Carr's output from them. I could easily make a list filled with just JDC. So a list like this one will never be truly complete as far as Carr's output is concerned.TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-31055522027692374692012-07-05T06:58:50.821+02:002012-07-05T06:58:50.821+02:00hi,
This is a great list and gives me a lot of su...hi,<br /><br />This is a great list and gives me a lot of suggestions for what I should read in the coming months, I guess I would not put Father Brown mysteries in there. I'm currently reading The Wisdom of Father Brown and have absolutely disliked it.<br /><br />Very happy to see a lot of books from the master himself "John Dickson Carr", but a bit surprised to see that you have not included Reader is Warned or The Red Widow Murders.Rishi Arorahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02501794525895194262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-8863474239060109212011-06-23T09:36:54.310+02:002011-06-23T09:36:54.310+02:00@Ho-Ling
I know, right! Commenting on each, indiv...@Ho-Ling<br /><br />I know, right! Commenting on each, individual title was also a part of my initial, overly enthusiastically plans, but that's barely doable when you're putting together a Top 25 – let alone a 100 titles! <br /><br />This list really simplified compared to what I imagined when I started it. :P I should also start hunting down Furuhata Ninzaburou episodes again. Haven't seen an episode in over a year. The last one was the origin story with a young Furuhata Ninzaburou and all the wonderful Holmesian allusions.TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-14909437408437045642011-06-23T09:32:35.412+02:002011-06-23T09:32:35.412+02:00Woah! I've watched them all yet. Thanks for th...Woah! I've watched them all yet. Thanks for this list, I really like watching mystery movies.Albergue Da Juventudehttp://www.alberguedajuventude.org/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-21141396614643067252011-06-22T21:12:51.798+02:002011-06-22T21:12:51.798+02:00@Patrick: I'm actually surprised you're wa...@Patrick: I'm actually surprised you're watching it, as it's more a comedy than a mystery and relies really, really heavily on Japanese wordplay/pop-culture/knowledge of the <i>Kindaichi Kousuke</i>-type detective stereotype/the distinct directing of Tsutsumi (weird camera angles/movements/non-sequitur humor). <br /><br />Episodes I like best are <i>The Man With the All-Seeing Eye</i> (Season 1, episode 8), <i>Psi Trailer</i> (S2, 6~7), <i>The Retirement Home Where Nobody dies</i> (S3, 5~6) and <i>The Death Calling Punny Poems</i> (S3, 7~8).<br /><br />For the public here, I think the best Japanese dramas are <i><a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/search/label/Furuhata%20Ninzaburou" rel="nofollow">Furuhata Ninzaburou</a></i> (Japanese <i>Columbo</i>) and <i>33pun Tantei</i> (brilliant <i>Police Squad</i>-style parody of the genre; the premise is that although they always find the culprit within 5 minutes, they need to fill up the complete 33 minutes the programme takes, so they come up with bizarre deductions all too familiar to fans of the genre just to see if someone else might've done it). <br /><br />Oh, and the first half of <a href="http://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post_23.html" rel="nofollow"><i>Keizoku</i></a> is pretty good though; It's from the same director of <i>Trick</i>, but starts out a bit more serious (the latter half is supernatural weirdness though).<br /><br />@TomCat: I'm just too lazy for that. I know myself pretty well and I would try to comment on every title if I were to make such a list, but such a post would just take way too long to compose, even if I only did 25~50 titles :PHo-Linghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-44062290890225899032011-06-22T16:18:30.150+02:002011-06-22T16:18:30.150+02:00Well, there are two reasons for listing Baantjer: ...Well, there are two reasons for listing Baantjer: 1) the nostalgia factor (Baantjer was my introduction to the world of mystery and detection, after which I graduated fairly quickly to world GAD) 2) when he was at his best, he wrote stories that were very much in the classic tradition. <br /><br /><i>Een strop voor Bobby</i>, for example, is a crime story in the vein of George Simenon, but turns into a full-fledge locked room mystery in the final quarter of the book. <i>De Cock en de stervende wandelaar</i> has a dying message and <i>De Cock en de moord in séance</i> is a nod and a wink at Agatha Christie – and one of his best pure detective stories. Baantjer introduced me to all the stuff I love today. He was also a great story teller. There's a reason why some foreign critics, who know their stuff, called him the Dutch Conan Doyle or the new George Simenon. And remember that a lot of our home grown critics, who slammed Baantjer, also have the same opinion of Doyle, Christie, Carr, Queen, etc. <br /><br />The layman often knows more and has a better judgement than the so called experts.TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-8005752016298018602011-06-22T15:46:54.616+02:002011-06-22T15:46:54.616+02:00Wait wut....I only just noticed, why do you have B...Wait wut....I only just noticed, why do you have Baantjer listed? I always expected it to belong to the second-rate group of detectives.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-12204934800525130382011-06-22T15:21:57.578+02:002011-06-22T15:21:57.578+02:00@Ho-Ling
I was thinking of doing a multi-media li...@Ho-Ling<br /><br />I was thinking of doing a multi-media list of favorite mysteries with separate columns for full-length novels, short story collections, individual short stories, TV/Movie and manga/anime, but that was too much work – especially the anime/manga bit. I really didn’t feel like plowing through nearly 40 volumes of Detective Conan to find my favorite stories. <br /><br />Yeah, I can be really lazy if I want to. But why don’t you post such a list. I think your list would be one of the more interesting ones around here.TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-19311561293769053042011-06-21T23:55:42.996+02:002011-06-21T23:55:42.996+02:00@Ho-Ling
Any episodes of "Trick" particu...@Ho-Ling<br />Any episodes of "Trick" particularly worth watching? I just recently got started on that series.<br /><br />Aslo, TomCat, I was walking in a store today and saw "The Maine Massacre". Ordinarily, I wouldn't have given it a second look, but I remembered seeing it on this list and bought it.Patrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01844617192737950378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-25979191238002889502011-06-21T21:24:32.049+02:002011-06-21T21:24:32.049+02:00Once again, thanks for the plug :)
I think I woul...Once again, thanks for the plug :)<br /><br />I think I would name individual short stories, rather than a whole collection if I were to make such a list, but even then I doubt I'd make it to 100 titles. Then again, I'm pretty sure I would make the list a bit more multi-media, including stories from <i>manga</i>/TV drama/games. No list of mine would be complete without stories from <i>Detective Conan</i> or <i>Detective Academy Q</i>, one or two cases from the <i>Phoenix Wright</i> games, or some episodes from <i>Columbo</i>, <i>Furuhata Ninzaburou</i> or <i>Trick</i>!Ho-Linghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-46302344816306319402011-06-21T17:46:53.149+02:002011-06-21T17:46:53.149+02:00Quick responses:
@Patrick
Well, it wasn't o...Quick responses: <br /><br />@Patrick<br /><br />Well, it wasn't one of the most easiest tasks I set myself, I can assure you that – and even now I'm constantly face palming for not including a specific title that should've been on there. There really isn't much of an excuse to exclude Maurice Leblanc's epic <i>813</i> from my list or any of Edmund Crispin's novels! <br /><br />I also fear harsh criticism for preferring the alternative Crime Queens, Christianna Brand and Gladys Mitchell, over Dorothy Sayers, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh. Although the latter should've been represented with at least one book. So yeah, this list is still far from perfect and needs some more tweaking. <br /><br />@Bloodymurder <br /><br />I consider <i>Caves of Steel</i> to be one of the big achievements in the genre, which genuinely broke new grounds and still manages to stay through to the heart of soul of the detective story – and it's the end all argument to throw at people who claim that stuff like forensic science killed the traditional detective story. <br /><br />This book is set in a futuristic world of ray guns, mind probes and robots and it still pulled off a classic fair-play mystery plot with a string of false solutions in the Queen-Berkeley-Bruce tradition. It's not a pick that should unexpected, but a standard one, but then again, that just my humble opinion. <br /><br />@John<br /><br />Not only your memory is failing you, but also your eye-sight: Clyde Clason's <i>The Man from Tibet</i> AND <i>Poison Jasmine</i> are on my list. I haven't read anything by Anthony Wynne... yet! ;) <br /><br />I sort of agree with your assessment of <i>The Youth Hostel Murders</i>, but I just had to include it because it's plotted like a Scooby Doo episode – which is a series I (still) love and adore. Heck, it's probably the root cause of my detection addiction. <br /><br />The books by Dick van den Heuvel and Simon de Waal have never been translated into English, however, there is a German translation of that book available – if that is any help. By the way, any special reason for being interested in that specific book? <br /><br />The Kido book is simply amazing. Not just the fun, Holmesian stories, but also quality of the book itself. The lengthy, insightful introduction, a ton of extensive footnotes and a beautiful map of Old Edo with all the locations. A collectors item, IMHO! <br /><br />@Arman<br /><br />Yeah, you've got a lot of catching up to! ;DTomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-4046429446394796292011-06-21T17:21:09.459+02:002011-06-21T17:21:09.459+02:00Now THIS is a post I can work with! ^^bNow THIS is a post I can work with! ^^bAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-82439887898764690782011-06-21T17:05:48.052+02:002011-06-21T17:05:48.052+02:00Not surprised to see it tipping the scales in favo...Not surprised to see it tipping the scales in favor of impossible crime and locked room mysteries. But not one Anthony Wynne or Clyde Clason on your list. Have you read any of their books? I don't know about THE YOUTH HOSTEL MURDERS. The plot was fairly transparent to me. But Lewker is a fun character.<br /><br />P.S. The word verification for my comment was "pasion." Even with the missing S it's very fitting.<br /><br />Has the Heuvel & deWaal book been translated into English?<br /><br />I found a copy of Okamoto Kido's book a few months ago in a Half Price Books Store for less than $8. The translator's introduction and the history of the stories was fascinating. I've only read the first story so far and I reserve my judgement until I finish the entire book.J F Norrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06473487417479127354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-78936127057302548942011-06-21T12:10:28.011+02:002011-06-21T12:10:28.011+02:00TomCat mate, what a fantastic list - along with lo...TomCat mate, what a fantastic list - along with lots of traditional authors we all know and love like Carr, Christie, Queen, Pronzini and Quentin there are also many intriguing and unexpected selections like the genre cross-over with the excellent Asimov title (which i just might purloin and add to my list actually) and all those amazing international titles that look like they are very hard to find in an English translation which is just plain cruel! How many languages to do you speak? <br /><br />There is a lot to learn from here - thanks very much for sharing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-32128734669654719142011-06-21T01:38:53.867+02:002011-06-21T01:38:53.867+02:00I could never create such a list. I've tried t...I could never create such a list. I've tried to do so and failed. There are still so many books to read, and how can you narrow down such a wonderful genre to just 100 books? I, for one, can't do it- I'm far too indecisive about such a thing.Patrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01844617192737950378noreply@blogger.com