tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post7146307499302187572..comments2024-03-17T02:38:18.796+01:00Comments on Beneath the Stains of Time: A Query for Mystery Buffs: Come Into Our ParlorTomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-44114118083527416222011-10-13T05:29:08.118+02:002011-10-13T05:29:08.118+02:00A bit out of left field, but I'd go with Woody...A bit out of left field, but I'd go with Woody Allen. If you know him only as a director you owe to yourself to check out some of his prose humor, which ranks on the "spray beverages through your nose" level of funny. A good bit of it was devoted to satirizing great works and genres of literature but I don't recall that he tackled mysteries.William I. Lengeman IIIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16851637611407729555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-62521323486236769452011-10-10T20:21:45.764+02:002011-10-10T20:21:45.764+02:00Just imagine the hissy fit some critics would have...Just imagine the hissy fit some critics would have, behind closed doors, after praising a Nobel Prize winner who proudly continued the tradition of Carr and Christie!TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-62442020801586558392011-10-10T17:36:24.161+02:002011-10-10T17:36:24.161+02:00I would personally want to see Polish author (and ...I would personally want to see Polish author (and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature) Henryk Sienkiewicz take a crack at the mystery. He wrote some of my favourite non-English novels of all time, including the greatest romantic novel ever written, "Quo Vadis". It has romance, action, suspense, forbidden love-- and heck, it's worth every page just for the scene where the heroine is strapped to a bull and a strong man must wrestle it without killing her. "W Pustyni i w Puszczy" is a remarkably fun adventure novel. Both of these, incidentally, have recently had some solid Polish film adaptations. (I'm also fond of his "Potop".)<br /><br />He had a great sense of adventure, and as readers of this blog will soon discover, the Polish imagination has been criminally underappreciated in mysteries.<br /><br />Plus, since he won the Nobel Prize for the entire body of his work, Julian Symons and P. D. James wouldn't be able to accuse him of not being literary. :)Patrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01844617192737950378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-19143723344236159872011-10-10T15:39:43.930+02:002011-10-10T15:39:43.930+02:00@Xavier
Did he had anything in particular against...@Xavier<br /><br />Did he had anything in particular against the genre? I guess he probably perceived it as too mechanical, since he couldn't have hold a lack of realism against it. <br /><br />@Sexton Blake<br /><br />I really should read and reread some of his ghost stories, but funny that you should also drag John Dickson Carr into this. Even though we'll never know what James would've been like had he written detective stories, we do know what the result would've been if Carr had dedicated himself to supernatural fiction. There are a few of his ghost stories collected in <i>The Door to Doom and Other Detections</i>. <br /><br />@Tony Medawar<br /><br />What's keeping you from writing them? I'm sure the EQMM is interested in short locked room stories and in this day and age you can self publish your novels – which is a route that Paul Halter (and his translator John Pugmire) took to publish his stories in English. Of course, it's harder to attract a sizable audience that will make them bestsellers, but rest assured you will find in us, at least, an appreciative circle of readers. <br /><br />@Nick<br /><br />I honestly didn’t see that one coming, but I can already imagine a running gag in which constantly denies his Austrian heritage, "<i>ich bin kein Österreichischer besserwisser</i>," as a spoof on Poirot when he points out that he isn't French.TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-47987104598996597662011-10-10T12:58:35.772+02:002011-10-10T12:58:35.772+02:00Adolf Hitler. For the scene where the funny littl...Adolf Hitler. For the scene where the funny little foreigner with the moustache and the overweening ego ("Me, I am on the side of the big battalions!" & "There are two who know: le bon Dieu...and me!") gathers all the suspects in the library, and announces that the murder was committed by a gang of international Zionist Communist conspirators, & uses this as an excuse to seize power.Nicknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-39275922626728876942011-10-09T21:46:14.685+02:002011-10-09T21:46:14.685+02:00I'd have to say myself as I hav long dreamed o...I'd have to say myself as I hav long dreamed of writing a novel and have at least four plots worked out - all involving impossibl crimes and three of which have simplesolutions that, as far as I can tell, hav no been used before. Perhaps I'll try them as short stories! Otherwise, my answer would be Jose Luige Borges.Tony Medawarnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-46091043079314694942011-10-09T17:38:40.837+02:002011-10-09T17:38:40.837+02:00M R James: A lot of his ghost stories have an edge...M R James: A lot of his ghost stories have an edge of mystery solving (THE TREASURE OF ABBOT THOMAS revolves around a bit of code breaking, and a treasure hunt), and you always get the feeling that he could have stretched quite easily to producing a full-blown detective story. John Dickson Carr's short story BLIND MAN'S HOOD from THE DEPARTMENT OF QUEER COMPLAINTS, is an excellent fusion of ghost story and detective story, where both work and actually strengthen each other, so you can see what James might have produced. DETECTIVE STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY might have been a fascinating work.Sextonblakenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-10854485972663402962011-10-09T12:43:30.863+02:002011-10-09T12:43:30.863+02:00Well, there are many candidates, but if I am to ch...Well, there are many candidates, but if I am to chose only one, it would be...<br /><br />Vladimir Nabokov. <br /><br />He had imagination, he had intelligence, he had wit and cleverness; also he loathed realism! In short he had all it takes to be a first-rate mystery writer. Too bad he despised the genre...Xavierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05702919450638993709noreply@blogger.com