tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post8537808224525774744..comments2024-03-27T22:32:02.739+01:00Comments on Beneath the Stains of Time: Invisible Death (1929) by Brian FlynnTomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-6450004968560429762019-11-22T12:34:28.155+01:002019-11-22T12:34:28.155+01:00"Not only the members of the Silver Troika bu..."<i>Not only the members of the Silver Troika but also the character running around with a butterfly net and talking as if he's on speed.</i>"<br /><br />Well, if you put it like that, it probably would've been funnier if they had found Horace lying in the garden, smacked out of his bin, who then has to spend the rest of the story hallucinating on a sofa in the background. No explanation given as to who he is or how he ended up in the garden. He just there in background muttering gibberish. ;D TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-40787069673849922782019-11-22T12:11:52.571+01:002019-11-22T12:11:52.571+01:00"Cecilia is the first person narrator who wri..."<i>Cecilia is the first person narrator who writes about scenes where she wasn't present.</i>"<br /><br />You know, by itself, this is not necessarily a problem, if the narrator is not an unreliable one (i.e. the murderer) and perhaps a line explaining the narrator was filled on what happened when he/she wasn't present. I remember Christopher Bush did this once when he began to experiment with first-person narration (it might have been in <i>The Case of the Murdered Major</i>). <br /><br />"<i>It's worth reading for the solution alone. Right out of the weird menace pulps!</i>"<br /><br />Sounds like pure, pulpy fun! <br />TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-4438528003794755882019-11-20T17:07:19.138+01:002019-11-20T17:07:19.138+01:00It's worth reading for the solution alone. Rig...It's worth reading for the solution alone. Right out of the weird menace pulps! I pegged the culprit by the midpoint and solved the first half of the riddle/cryptogram instantly. Very proud of myself, but it's not all that difficult to do either.<br /><br />He also does the weird narration shift thing in TRIPLE BITE. Cecilia is the first person narrator who writes about scenes where she wasn't present. Uses her imagination and "later" reports described by the key players in those essentially third person scenes. Very strange that he did this repeatedly.J F Norrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06473487417479127354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-55674417429798780852019-11-20T16:00:53.252+01:002019-11-20T16:00:53.252+01:00Not only the members of the Silver Troika but also...Not only the members of the Silver Troika but also the character running around with a butterfly net and talking as if he's on speed. The latter's speech reminded me a bit of Bertie Wooster, actually. I definitely agree that all these slightly over the top characters are not meant to be taken seriously. Once one realizes that and approaches the book a bit as a farce, it is indeed quite enjoyable. <br /><br />I had a similar experience watching Forrest Gump. The scene where he loses he knee braces running through the fields in slow motion with the majestic music of Charriots of Fire playing in the background was so ridiculously cliche that It suddenly struck me that this movie was actually all an over the top farce, after which I started enjoying it tremendously.Christophehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978885973806549838noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-42695942454861134902019-11-20T15:08:09.427+01:002019-11-20T15:08:09.427+01:00Yeah, I know its more common in the pulp thrillers...Yeah, I know its more common in the pulp thrillers/private eye fiction of the time. I remember a particularly harrowing scene from Raymond Chandler's <i>Farewell, My Lovely</i>, but very uncommon in the work of traditional mystery writers. It just stood out like it did in Anthony Abbot's <i>The Murder of Geraldine Foster</i> and Rex Stout's <i>The Golden Spiders</i>. <br /><br />You mean <i>The Triple Bite</i> has more of this? Sign me up! Downsides you listed makes it sound like early Agatha Christie with a Conan Doyle-era plot. Sounds like a winner to me! TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-80346338427049388832019-11-20T15:06:02.846+01:002019-11-20T15:06:02.846+01:00I suppose you're revering to the members of th...I suppose you're revering to the members of the Silver Troika? They're certainly an odd bunch, but I they were clearly intended to be homages to some of the more colorful characters/villains found in the Sherlock Holmes stories (e.g. <i>The Sign of Four</i> and "The Man With the Twisted Lip"). Even the butterfly catcher sneaking around the garden was a nod to <i>The House of the Baskervilles</i>. So I had no problem going along with the fantastical yarn Flynn was spinning. :D<br /><br /><i>Invisible Death</i> is a shocker with substance and tremendously enjoyable one at that! TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-206527825284516892019-11-19T20:00:22.207+01:002019-11-19T20:00:22.207+01:00Pulp magazine fiction of the Golden Age is overflo...Pulp magazine fiction of the Golden Age is overflowing with torture scenes, but I guess you were discounting that portion of the genre when you used the term "traditional detective fiction." I include private eye fiction of any type in that umbrella category. Kendell Foster Crossen had an outlandish torture scene in THE INVISIBLE MAN MURDERS. I wrote about it on my blog.<br /><br />This book has a lot in common with THE TRIPLE BITE which I am trying to finish now. There is an mysterious murder means that borders on supernatural, Gothic excess, criminals barging into a house looking for a hidden treasure, bound and gagged prisoners in their own home, among them. But the book is so damn talky with monologue after monologue. Sometimes there are page long paragraphs that make me feel like I'm reading something by Mrs. Henry Wood! The other unusual aspect of the book is the woman narrator. While she is outspoken and spunky at times Cecilia tends to reflect an antiquated feminine worldview and conventional thinking for a 1930s woman character that also made me think I was reading Mrs. Wood.J F Norrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06473487417479127354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-55464747548309628062019-11-19T02:40:33.764+01:002019-11-19T02:40:33.764+01:00If these people can find better American writers o...If these people can find better American writers of thrillers than Fleming or Rohmer, I will conceded their point.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-9193304969801330492019-11-19T02:25:04.423+01:002019-11-19T02:25:04.423+01:00Your review is spot on. The first part is entirely...Your review is spot on. The first part is entirely thriller/shocker rather than Detection. And the second half is a mix. Some of the characters require one to suspend disbelief, and view the book as a bit of a farce. But, as you note, the whole thing is most enjoyable for GAD enthusiasts.Christophehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978885973806549838noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-27184476597214401982019-11-18T23:05:06.161+01:002019-11-18T23:05:06.161+01:00"For some reason, the British seem to write t..."<i>For some reason, the British seem to write the best thrillers in the world.</i>"<br /><br />Funnily enough, some believe Americans write better detective stories than the British, but the pure detective story is usually associated with the British and the thriller with the Americans. Is this why normal people find us fans tiresome? TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-79628325278598404302019-11-18T23:02:55.806+01:002019-11-18T23:02:55.806+01:00Thanks!
Flynn has stated himself the Sherlock Ho...Thanks! <br /><br />Flynn has stated himself the Sherlock Holmes stories were his main source of inspiration, but also spoke highly of other, early Golden Age writers and detective-characters. One of them being Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. <br /><br />So I don't believe <i>Invisible Death</i> was intended as an Edgar Wallace-style moneymaker. And if Wallace influenced <i>Invisible Death</i>, it was probably by proxy through Christie's <i>The Big Four</i>. TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-87110000929178265142019-11-18T20:22:16.877+01:002019-11-18T20:22:16.877+01:00The fair play detective story and the thriller are...The fair play detective story and the thriller are fairly distinct art forms, as Knox pointed out with his "no Chinamen" rule. I think it is very uncommon to see the two forms combined successfully in a single novel, so congratulations to Flynn. For some reason, the British seem to write the best thrillers in the world. I don't think anyone ever did it better than Fleming in Goldfinger or Rohmer in President Fu Manchu.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-45688556464431840422019-11-18T14:25:53.916+01:002019-11-18T14:25:53.916+01:00Love your blog and enjoy your point of view on Gol...Love your blog and enjoy your point of view on Golden Age.<br />One thing I would suggest is the exceptional popularity<br />of Edgar Wallace at this time. His thrillers were everywhere<br />and Flynn may have wished to cash in with his audience.<br /><br />Chris WallaceChris Wallacehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07988108756268364934noreply@blogger.com