tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post7781556984949944333..comments2024-03-27T22:32:02.739+01:00Comments on Beneath the Stains of Time: The Strange Case of the Barrington Hills Vampire (2020) by James Scott ByrnsideTomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-84008872598003677632021-01-12T14:10:05.815+01:002021-01-12T14:10:05.815+01:00I don't remember the name of author but I have...I don't remember the name of author but I have read two short stories of his in a collection where the both solutions were original-(huge spoilers of tricks)the first one was a man found dead in his locked car with only the car tracks reaching him and the second story is the one where a man found died just after going out in stopped snow and the solutions were for the first the culprit use another tire of to reprint the tire tracks after walking off and for the second one a murderer used arrow tied with knife and then recovered the arrow with balloons and fishing rope!Mysterybloggerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05495648805008200117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-55161130771563812422020-11-17T21:36:40.640+01:002020-11-17T21:36:40.640+01:00My sincere apologies for daring to suggest you wou...My sincere apologies for daring to suggest you would consider penning something as common and unseemly as an inverted mystery. But keep up the good job with the locked rooms and whodunits! TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-54622149548916797802020-11-17T03:42:38.251+01:002020-11-17T03:42:38.251+01:00I'm offended you think I would write an invert...I'm offended you think I would write an inverted detective story. :) Glad you enjoyed it.JamesSByrnsidehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03436891505091962907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-80844593211059887292020-11-14T22:34:01.065+01:002020-11-14T22:34:01.065+01:00"Byrnside's works sound so good that it&#..."<i>Byrnside's works sound so good that it'll probably be within the next three months or so.</i>"<br /><br />It's almost December. So maybe start dropping some not so subtle hints among your family and friends. TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-40562494323004261072020-11-14T22:29:42.628+01:002020-11-14T22:29:42.628+01:00I've said this before, but I'll say it aga...I've said this before, but I'll say it again, it all depends on who's writing/plotting and particularly the Japanese have come up with some new and original locked room/impossible crime methods. Rintaro Norizuki's short story, "The Lure of the Green Door," is a good example that found a new solution to that old age problem, but you also have the marvelous <i>Detective Conan</i> episode, <i>The Cursed Mask Laughs Coldly</i>, which has the added benefit that it could show how it was done. Something that made the trick even better. You can find these new and original tricks in practically every detective anime/manga series. Even the pulp-style series <i>Fire Investigator Nanase</i> found a new way to do it (“Petals of Envy” in vol. 1). Cor Docter's sadly untranslated <i>Koude vrouw in Kralingen</i> came up with a new way to present and explain a locked room murder, which I've never seen anywhere else before or since. I could cite many more examples. So there definitely more than twenty, but coming up with another one requires some imagination. <br /><br />"<i>I'm not sure I entirely agree, but that seems the rationale for the impossibilities in tSCotBHV</i>"<br /><br />Yeah, kind of. You shouldn't read it solely for the impossible crimes, because they're part of a bigger picture. TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-79041740902747178302020-11-14T12:59:32.815+01:002020-11-14T12:59:32.815+01:00So it's better as a whodunit rather than an im...So it's better as a whodunit rather than an impossible crime story, huh? It sounds like the impossibilities are well-executed, but not necessarily original. Reminds me of a recent post on the authors blog saying that since there are only 20 or so locked room solutions, there's not much room for invention and therefore it's better to focus on misdirecting the reader from the standard solutions instead of originality. I'm not sure I entirely agree, but that seems the rationale for the impossibilities in tSCotBHV Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-77619949823855402182020-11-14T11:21:12.153+01:002020-11-14T11:21:12.153+01:00@TomCat: That's great to hear! Although I can&...@TomCat: That's great to hear! Although I can't say for sure when I'll get to <i>Goodnight Irene</i>, Byrnside's works sound so good that it'll probably be within the next three months or so.<br /><br />@J F Norris: When I first read your comment, I was a bit confused, but, when I looked back at what I wrote, I noticed that I made a mistake. The part of the quote that I found amusing wasn't untamed, it was <i>recesses</i>. The (somewhat tenuous) reason for this is that I associate recesses with mountainous terrain and Illinois is a prairie state. Unfortunately, I wrote my comment past three in the morning after working on a statistics project (same as tonight, in fact), which caused my sleep deprived mind to stress the wrong word. (It may be noted that, even as I intended it, my observation was not as amusing as I thought it was, the connection between recesses and mountains not being all that strong.) My sincere apologies for the misunderstanding, I had no wish to cast aspersions on our great state.<br /><br />This year, I've actually been visiting more state parks and historic sites, which has been a lot of fun. (Although nothing has yet unseated Starved Rock from its place as my favorite state park.) And I definately agree with you about Southern Illinois. I have family down that way and the drive to visit them is, especially in fall, breathtakingly beautiful.Kacey Crainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13492997736737601983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-49980021948497827922020-11-13T23:46:26.373+01:002020-11-13T23:46:26.373+01:00Not knowing exactly if it was ten or twelve years ...Not knowing exactly if it was ten or twelve years ago you were almost shot and killed is the most American part of your little campfire anecdote. Never change, you crazy bastards. ;D TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-77665404956012363162020-11-13T23:10:59.587+01:002020-11-13T23:10:59.587+01:00Don't have anything to say an bout the book bu...Don't have anything to say an bout the book but I feel compleed to comment on Kacey's crack about our state. You ought to explore the Illinois state parks, Kacey. You are most definitely missing out on "untamed Illinois." Joe and I were nearly murdered by hunters in one state park about ten or twelve years ago. Not as terrifying as <i>Deliverance,</i> but makes for an excellent campfire anecdote and one experience I hope never to be repeated. Southern Illinois for all its denigration in the press come election time is perhaps the most beautiful part of the state -- Cache River and Shawnee National Forest are among the highlights of underappreciated still very wild places.J F Norrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06473487417479127354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-25260448524801623032020-11-13T23:05:32.408+01:002020-11-13T23:05:32.408+01:00You can compare the violence in Byrnside's nov...You can compare the violence in Byrnside's novels to the corpse-puzzles found in Japanese shin honkaku mysteries (i.e. parts of the puzzle), but they're never as gory, or graphic, as in the slashers by Michael Slade. So you'll be fine. <br />TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-76969370392165450862020-11-13T23:02:39.235+01:002020-11-13T23:02:39.235+01:00The titles I listed are a good place to start and ...The titles I listed are a good place to start and you can find many more under the "locked room mysteries" tag and the muniment room at the top of the page. Hope you enjoy them!<br />TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-88302868660202166452020-11-13T23:01:03.089+01:002020-11-13T23:01:03.089+01:00He couldn't have picked a better time to begin...He couldn't have picked a better time to begin than now with a renaissance age in full swing and self-publishing giving the time and space to grow and built an audience. Byrnside has made me more curious than ever before where the genre will be in ten, twenty years from now and how the fandom of that time will look back on this period. TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-68121900085655319502020-11-13T11:05:42.132+01:002020-11-13T11:05:42.132+01:00As a life long Illinoisan, I cracked up at the men...As a life long Illinoisan, I cracked up at the mention of "<i>the recesses of untamed Illinois</i>." I don't think we <i>have</i> any untamed Illinois. If it's not a city, it's probably farmland :D (I'm not saying that it's an incorrect discription, I don't know the first thing about Barrington Hills in 1920, I'm just saying that it's a funny one.)<br /><br />I really should give Byrnside a try one of these days. I mean, tbe very idea that there's a modern American novelist specifically writing impossible crimes should be enough to make me rush out to pick up all of his books, just to show my support. The one thing that's been stoping me (other than the insane length of my TBR pile being coupled with lack of reading time due to college courses) is the reviews of <i>Goodnight Irene</i> that talk about it being violent, without giving enough information to tell what that means. I've seen reviews calling the works of Yokomizo or Shimada violent, and I didn't see anything wrong with them, while, on the other end of the spectrum, I have no desire to read something gore-drenched á la Michael Slade or the average Scandi Noir. (To be fair, I don't want to read <i>anything</i> á la Scandi Noir, be it gore, bad plotting, or unlikable, angsty, overly psychoanalyzed characters.) I don't mind so much if it's essential to the clueing or the mystery, but I don't like it to be gratuitous. (And yes, I have seen the reviews of <i>Barrington Hills</i> pointing out that it definitely has some gore, but it's the third novel in the series, so I can worry about that when I come to it.)Kacey Crainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13492997736737601983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-73647575460764847672020-11-13T10:22:50.165+01:002020-11-13T10:22:50.165+01:00It's at times like this that I think there'...It's at times like this that I think there's a future for you and me, TC -- we agreeeee! Byrnside has been one of the great discoveries of my blogging tenure, and I'm so pleased to see him finding an audience who really get what he's trying to resurrect.JJ @ The Invisible Eventhttps://theinvisibleevent.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-21716697518180261142020-11-13T05:11:35.801+01:002020-11-13T05:11:35.801+01:00So excited to read all those books.
Thanks for men...So excited to read all those books.<br />Thanks for mentioning about the footprint trick( I have written a little story) with an original solution,I m now curious about works which feature an original solution of locked room mystery or vanishing tricks.Mysterybloggerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05495648805008200117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-58242277334832626652020-11-12T22:49:28.333+01:002020-11-12T22:49:28.333+01:00Thanks! That bright future you see is a Second Gol...Thanks! That bright future you see is a Second Golden Age looming on the horizon. :)TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-85631886802045336812020-11-12T21:18:29.940+01:002020-11-12T21:18:29.940+01:00Great review! I enjoyed so much this novel, even m...Great review! I enjoyed so much this novel, even more of GI and TONM. The supernatural aspect is handled superbly,the clues are fantastic, the humour nice. A mix of Carr, Queen and Brand. A scene reminds me also of Roscoe's "Murder on the Way". I was able to answer only to one point of the challenge; for the no-footprints scenario I've imagined something on the line of "The White Priory Murder", but I was wrong. James is a great writer, I'll see a bright future for him.<br /><br />PS: Carr was great in this kind of impossibilities also in "White Priory" and the short story "King Arthur's Chair".Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10048428370227106622noreply@blogger.com