The Deadly Truth

 The Deadly Truth (1941) by Helen McCloy

Honesty is the best policy. At least that the way the saying goes. But is it really? The guests of Claudia Bethune find out the answer when the wealthy beauty throws a dinner party with drinks laced with truth serum. Claudia is a fabulously wealthy socialite with a vicious sense of humor. She thinks it will be great fun to get her "friends" together and have them blurt out the truth and nothing but the truth. But she gets more than she bargained for and before the next morning comes, she's discovered strangled to death with her own platinum and emerald necklace.

Dr. Basil Willing, psychiatric consultant to the New York district attorney's office has been renting the "Hut" (a small cottage on the Bethune country estate) and he's soon asked by the local authorities to give them some help on the murder case. There's a houseful of suspects. Claudia's husband, Michael, was still in love with his ex-wife and after the beans got spilled at dinner about that little secret it may have been prudent for him to kill Claudia before she had time to cut him out of her will or divorce him. Phyllis Bethune (the aforementioned ex-wife) may have had the same thought. Charles Rodney, manager of Claudia's textile mill, has been playing games with the labor force and working on buying up stock cheap--he's almost got enough to hold the majority vote on the board. When that came out over drinks, Claudia threatened to put a stop to his anticipated future purchases. Maybe he thought it would be easier with Claudia completely out of the way. Dr. Roger Slater is the man who developed the new scopolamine derivative--and the man from whom Claudia stole the doses she dropped in the drinks. If the news of his carelessness (he left the tubes right there in front of her after all), he'll lose his job--and maybe never work again as a scientist. Peggy Titus was under a cloud of suspicion for theft and Claudia held the trump card that would prove her innocence. Peggy kept hanging around and searching the premises for the proof, but maybe she got tired of looking and decided to get rid of the source of the rumors. 

The interesting thing for me about this one is that even though motive is a driving force, it's not the important part of the investigation. The true motive is only revealed in the final pages of the story, but you don't need it to get to the solution. A lot of emphasis is placed on auditory clues and I am pleased that I can say I picked up all the correct ones (there are a few red herrings about--as you would expect in a nicely plotted mystery). I will say that if we consider the characters as real people then I am a bit surprised that the culprit fell into the trap laid for him in the semi-reconstruction-of-the-crime scene. Willing has just finished emphasizing one of the auditory clues. If I'm the killer, I'm certainly not going to follow that up by making my connection to that clue blazingly obvious. Did the culprit not hear a thing Willing just said? Maybe s/he subconsciously wanted to get caught and just couldn't help themselves.... Oh, well. Other than that, a nicely plotted and very interesting mystery.  ★★★★  

First line: A butterfly in a beehive could not have looked more out of place than Claudia Bethune in the vestibule of the Southerland Foundation.

The trooper seemed to think the fact that he had arrested Basil constituted a bond between them. In the circumstances, it was just as well. [p. 112]

No one every expects to fall in love. Perhaps no one ever really wants to. [Dr. Roger Slater; p. 136]

Last lines: "Only afterward did I realize that killing her was even more foolish than kissing her. She wasn't worth it..."
*******************

Deaths = 4 (two natural; one strangled; one shot)

Murder Every Monday...on Wednesday (Same Story, Different Cover Take 2)

 

So...as I mentioned on Monday, Kate's theme for Murder Every Monday this week was "same book, different editions." And I playfully said that I could have done a whole post with my Lord Peter Wimsey Books by Dorothy L. Sayers. But I didn't. But then I thought, Well, why not do a whole post on Sayers? So, here it is. I hope you enjoy it. This doesn't quite cover (see what I did there?) my whole collection--I don't have all of the covers scanned in yet. But this does represent a large portion of it.

2024 My Year in Books

 

Anne at Head Full of Books has revived the old meme, My Year in Books from 2017. Just use book titles from 2024 and try to fill in the blanks. Here are my answers:

1. In high school I was The Cat Who Saved Books  (Sosuke Natsukawa)

2. People might be surprised [when] Murder Rides the Campaign Train  (The Gordons--Mildred & Gordon Gordon)

3. I will never be [a] Wicked Uncle (Patricia Wentworth)

4. My fantasy job is Only in Books  (J. Kevin Graffagnino)

5. At the end of a long day I need [to be] Twice Retired (Richard Lockridge)

6.I hate it [when I have a] Nightmare at Noon  (Stewart Sterling)

7. Wish I had The Phoenix Crown  (Kate Quinn & Janie Chang)

8. My family reunions are [a] Gaudy Night  (Dorothy L. Sayers)

9. At a party you'd find me Making It So  (Patrick Stewart)

10. I've never been to Scarhaven Keep  (J. S. Fletcher)

11. A happy day includes Reading Up a Storm (Eva Gates)

12.Motto I live by Never Cross a Vampire  (Stuart Kaminsky)

13. On my bucket list is A Vacation to Kill For  (Eunice Mays Boyd)

14. In my next life, I want to have The Midnight Library  (Matt Haig)

Murder Every Monday: Same Story, Different Cover

 

Kate at Cross Examining Crime hosts a fun mystery cover game on Instagram called Murder Every Monday. Our assignment, should we choose to accept it, is to display book covers and titles from books you own that meet prompts which she posts well in advance (see link). 

 

Today's theme is same book, but different editions. Of course, I could have done a whole post about my Lord Peter Wimsey books by Sayers. Or my Lockridge books. But I thought I'd mix it up a bit.

Whose Body? ~Dorothy L. Sayers (three of my many editions of this title)

And...three more.

Strong Poison ~Dorothy L. Sayers (I don't have as many editions of this one)

The Norths Meet Murder ~Frances & Richard Lockridge

  (aka Mr. & Mrs. North Meet Murder)

Curtain for a Jester ~Frances & Richard Lockridge

The Thin Man ~Dashiell Hammett

Call for Michael Shayne ~Brett Halliday

Murder With Southern Hospitality ~Leslie Ford

A Shilling for Candles ~Josephine Tey

And Then There Were None ~Agatha Christie

The Mountain Cat Murders ~Rex Stout

The Mystery of Hunting's End ~Mignon G. Eberhart

Card Deck Reading Challenge

I really need to stop (but if Jamie will keep posting new challenges on the Facebook challenge site, what's a girl to do?). Erin @erin_likes_books on Instagram has devised the Card Deck Reading Challenge and, having checked my massive TBR mountain range, it looks like I can cover this with books I already own. So...here I go. One more challenge! Some tentative choices listed below.

Joker (wild card/any book): The Deadly Truth by Helen McCloy (1/15/25)

Ace (in title OR book about cards/tennis): The Green Ace by Stuart Palmer OR Death in the Cards by Ann T. Smith

Two (in title): A Thief or Two by Sara Woods

Three (in title): Look Three Ways at Murder by John Creasey

Four (in title): Look Four Ways at Murder by J. S. Fletcher

Five (in title): Bodies from the Library 5 by Tony Medawar, ed

Six (in title): Six Nuns & a Shotgun by Colin Watson

Seven (in title): Seven Chose Murder by Roy Vickers

Eight (in title): The Eighth Circle by Stanley Ellin

Nine (in title): Nine Strings to Your Bow by Lee Thayer

Ten (in title): Bloody Ten by William F. Love

Jack (in title OR author's name): The Right Jack by Margaret Maron OR Jack O'Lantern by George Goodchild
Queen (in title): The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
King (in title): The King of Diamonds by Louis Tracy OR Jeeves & the King of Clubs by Ben Schott
Heart (in title): The Malignant Heart by Celestine Sibley
Diamond (gem in title): Deadly Is the Diamond by Mary Roberts Rinehart
Spade: ("dig," "bury," or "spade" in title): Dig Me a Grave by John Spain OR Dig Another Grave by Don Cameron
Club (in title): The Girl from the Mimosa Club by Leslie Ford
Red (in title/dominant cover color): The Corpse with the Red-Headed Friend by R.A.J. Walling
Black (in title/dominant cover color): The Clue of the Black Keys by Carolyn Keene

 

Picture Prompt Book Bingo

 

Mayri at Book Forager is offering the Picture Prompt Book Bingo again this year. I enjoyed it so much last year that I've just got to sign up again. This is a pretty open challenge--just read books that connect in some way with the pictures on the bingo card. An apple? There could be an apple or apple tree on the cover. Or the book could be about a teacher [an apple for the teacher :-)]. As long as you're happy with the connection, Mayri says go for it!

1. Arrowhead

2. Lighthouse

3. Apple on a branch

4. Archery target

5. Large telescope

6. Human skull: Dangerous Davies: The Last Detective by Leslie Thomas (1/11/25) [Davies solves cold case and finds remains of a teenager missing for 25 years]

7. A stag

8. Ruins of a temple

9. A crab

10. Sheaf of Wheat

11. Old manual typewriter

12. Cluster of mushrooms

13. Umbrella/parasol

14. Chemistry bottles/test tubes: The Deadly Truth by Helen McCloy (1/15/25) [Scientist as main character]

15. Sun with human face

16. Roman helmet

Mystery Reporter's Challenge 2025

  

Mystery Reporter's Challenge 2025 is sponsored by Ellie in The Challenge Factory on Goodreads.

My post in the challenge: HERE

Who? What? When? Where? Why?

How--In a cozy chair with a hot cup of cocoa and a box of bonbons!

I'll be going for the Columnist level (2 books from each basic category) and hoping to complete them all.

Cub Reporter: 5 books (one from each category) 

Columnist: 10 books (two from each) 

News Anchor: 15 books (three from each) 

Editor: 20 books (four from each) 

Newspaper Mogul: 25 books (all five from each)

Bonus Category:

Pulitzer Prize Winner = Newspaper Mogul plus bonus categories (30 books)

Extra Bonus Category

Nobel Prize for Literature = Pulitzer plus final bonus category (31 books) 

WHO

Protagonist is established in their business/career: Dangerous Davies: The Last Detective by Leslie Thomas (1/11/25)

Character is a dead person (ghost/vampire/zombie/etc.):

Main Character works with animals:

Side Character is fun/kooky (you want to be BFFs):

Character works with books/writes:

WHAT

Number in title:

Food in title:

Title starts with letter in your first name:

Holiday in title:

Title is play on words:

WHERE

City that starts with C, M, or T:

Set in hotel/B&B/Air BnB:

Set in a Midwest state:

Set in a popular vacation spot:

Set on foreign soil (not US or England)

WHEN

Set during celebration (not a holiday--birthday, anniversary, etc)

Set in 1900s: The Deadly Truth by Helen McCloy (1/15/25)

Set during winter:

Set during fall:

Set during storm:

HOW

Strangled: The Devil's Flute Murders by Seishi Yokomizo (1/5/25)

Stabbed:

Shot:

Poisoned:

Blunt Instrument:

BONUS--Pulitzer Prize

Who--you figured out who did it before the protagonist:

What--title at least six words:

Where--set in fictional place you'd like to live:

When--during a holiday (not Christmas or Halloween)

How--unpremeditated

Extra Bonus--Nobel Prize 

Horoscope: Pick a horoscope from the 15th of any month and read a book related to the horoscope

Dangerous Davies: The Last Detective

 Dangerous Davies: The Last Detective (1976) by Leslie Thomas

Dangerous Davies is the last detective. The last detective Inspector Yardbird would send to investigate an important case. The last detective you'd want handling anything the least bit delicate or high-profile. But...the first detective you'd give mind-numbing door-to-door questioning to. Everyone wonders how Davies wound up a detective. Even Davies isn't sure how that happened and how he manages to keep on being a detective. And Davies is the first detective you'd send into dangerous situations...because, well, you wouldn't want to lose anyone valuable would you? So...when an antique bed frame goes missing, send Davies (nobody cares about the bed frame, do they? Except the landlady who won't shut up about it). When a large West African man goes a little crazy and threatens to kill anybody who tries to calm him down, send Davies (while the man beats him over the head with a mirror, the other officers will have a chance to subdue him). 

But then...Special Branch comes along and wants the local force to help them find a big-name criminal who's managed to slip through official fingers repeatedly. Ramscar, had left Britain to ply his felonious trade elsewhere, but it's rumored he's returned home--to Yardbird's manor--for something really big. Inspector Yardbird is ready to handle it himself or put his best junior man on it, but the bigwigs don't want that. They want a very clumsy investigation--something that will flush Ramscar out. Luckily, Yardbird has just the man--Davies. 

In the course of his inquires, Davies manages to rile Ramscar enough that he gets beaten up for his troubles...not once, but twice. But...he also discovers a cold case file from 25 years ago that mentions Ramscar. It was a case of a missing seventeen-year-old girl by the name of Celia Norris. At first, she was thought to be a runaway, but further evidence suggested foul play and Ramscar was one of the suspects. But Celia was never found--dead or alive--and the investigation was dropped. Once Davies sees a picture of Celia in the old case file, he can't help himself from getting interested. Soon, he's on the hunt for clues from 25 years ago. Will Davies solve his first murder ever? And will he find Ramscar for the Special Branch boys while he's at it? Heck, Davies may even get himself a special award before it's all over. If he survives all the beatings...and if the killer who has gone undiscovered all these years doesn't get too worried about the clumsy detective's investigation.

Dangerous Davies seems to me to be a cross between a British Columbo and maybe Steve Conacher (the first private eye that pops into my head when I think of those routinely beaten up, see link for examples). He wears the rumpled coat, drives a beat-up older car, and often has a dog with him--like Columbo. Though I don't think his dog nearly as loveable as Columbo's basset hound. And, as far as I can tell, he behaves much more like a private investigator than a policeman. He goes off on his own to investigate the cold case and has an unlikely side-kick in Mod Lewis. And--as mentioned--he routinely gets beaten up during the course of his investigation. There is, I think, meant to be humor running through this. I can see it here and there, but I don't think I fully appreciate the type of humor on display.

I'm also not terribly fond of the representation of the police force. Are they all a little crooked? It seems so. Except for Davies. Davies seems on the up and up, but he's difficult to take seriously. Yes, he does get his man in the end and, yes, it did take some brains and dedication to get to the bottom of things, but I don't find his character nearly as sympathetic as I do Columbo. It's a decent mystery, but I don't see myself picking up another in the series. ★★ and 1/2

First line: This is the story of a man who became deeply concerned with unsolved murder of a young girl, committed twenty-five years before.

Last line: "Do you think I might have a few words with you in private?"
*******************

Deaths = 4 (one strangled; two natural; one beaten)

The Price of Silence

 The Price of Silence (2005) by Kate Wilhelm

Synopsis (from the book flap): Brindle is a dying town, each generation smaller than the last. But Ruth Ann Colonna, who has run the local paper for almost sixty years, is determined to keep the past alive with a special edition of The Brindle Times to celebrate the town's centennial. Photos, letters, and newspaper articles trace the town's inhabitants back to its founding members. But the relics of the past hold more than a record of marriages and deaths; they also hide a secret too dark to acknowledge.

Todd Fielding needs a job, and the offer to prived her computer expertise to The Brindle Times seems like the perfect opportunity. The only downside to small-town life is the potential for boredom, she suspects. But soon after her arrival in Brindle, Todd realizes she was very wrong. A young girl disappears...and no one in the town appears particularly concerned.

Looking deeper into the story, Todd uncovers a shocking fact: five other girls have "run away" from Brindle under strange circumstances over the past twenty years--and no [has ever seemed] interested in finding them. With Ruth Ann's help, she begins to understand the history of a town steeped in evil, manipulation, and cold-blooded murder. This town has cloaked itself in secrecy far too long. And innocents are paying the deadly price of silence.

It's been long enough since I picked this up at a library book sale that I'm not entirely sure what hooked me enough to make me bring it home. I'm willing to bet that the fact that Todd is married to a grad student and so there is a very loose academic connection was part of it. I'm surprised that the missing girls wasn't a turn-off. It really should have been--even though most of the violence takes place off-stage. And the academic connection wasn't enough to call this an academic mystery--even if we stretch that connection paper-thin.Todd's husband Barney just isn't involved in the mystery enough to count it.

I also found it difficult to believe that the state police who wind up involved would have been that disbelieving of the mother's concern about her daughter. Sure, the town has been busy covering things up all these years, so the local police's response is reasonable. But I would expect the state to have put in a bit more effort.

That's the bad...the good is that the characters of Todd and Ruth Ann really come alive. Their interest in both the past history of Brindle and the more recent disappearances is fascinating and infectious. I wanted to know what they would find out. And both are strong female characters in a town that could use a lot more backbone. I'm giving all of the star rating to these women and they way they handle their investigations. ★★★

First line: The Bend News, July 1888 Four people perished in a fire that destroyed the Warden House last week in the town of Brindle.

Last line: In an even lower voice she added, "Rest in peace, Janey."

********************
Deaths = 9 (four in fire; revealing how for the other five would be too spoilerish)

The Devil's Flute Murders

 The Devil's Flute Murders (1973 as book; 1951 serialized) by Seishi Yokomizo

Set in post-World War II Japan, Yokomizo's story focuses on one of many noble families who lost their titles in the democratic reworkings by the Allies after the war. Hidesuki Tsubaki, former viscount as well as a flautist and composer, finds himself suspected in a very disturbing jewel theft that resulted in the poisoning of most of the jewelry store's staff. And, although he was cleared of suspicion, he disappears shortly thereafter and later, his body is found--an apparent suicide by poison. His daughter, Mineko, comes to the police with an odd request: can they prove that her father really is dead? It's really odd since Mineko was one of the family members who positively identified the body after it was discovered.

The police direct her to the brilliant Kosuke Kindaichi who seems to have a flair for odd mysteries. Her story is that her mother Akiko swears that her husband isn't really dead. That he is alive somewhere and is looking to revenge himself on her and her family. It seems that the family never treated the musician very well. They considered him weak and his talent of little use. He wasn't assertive enough and they took advantage of it. But what would have made him suddenly change from the mild man he was scorned for being into some sort of vengeful monster? Mineko can't answer that; she only knows that there is a dreadful atmosphere at the house. 

That very evening there is to be a divination, a sort of seance and she wants the detective to come as her guest. She's very afraid that something will happen. So, Kindaichi agrees. And something does happen. During the divination, which involves a pendulum-type device making patterns in sand, the pattern drawn seems to alarm the group of relatives gathered round--Mineko, Akiko, Akiko's brother and his wife, Akiko's uncle (head of Akiko's family) and his young lover, and Tsubaki's ward. It seems to have the same effect on Dr. Mega, the man conducting the divination. But before Kindaichi can ask any questions about the symbol, the sound of a flute is heard. It is last composition written by the late musician--a piece called "The Devil Comes and Plays His Flute" and the family is even more agitated. After the sound is traced to a record player that anyone could have set up to play, things become calmer and they decide to call it a night. 

The next day sees the beginning of string of murders--starting with Akiko's uncle and working through the family. There are sightings of a man who strongly resembles Tsubaki (if it's not him) and it begins to look like the musician may well be taking revenge on those who were cruel to him. But Kindaichi thinks there is more going on and he follows a trail that leads to a nun on an island and back in time to a few years before the war.

This is a very atmospheric, period-piece mystery. Western readers are very aware of the cultural shift that we must adjust to in order to take everything in properly. It took me a couple of chapters to settle into the style of story-telling, but once comfortable I enjoyed myself thoroughly. There are hints of the supernatural with the focus on the devil and the possibility of Tsubaki reaching back from the grave to wreak revenge. It is also a delight for classic mystery fans because we start off with a very nice little locked room mystery--Akiko's uncle, the first victim, is found strangled behind the locked door of the room where the divination took place. The windows are all locked and there are no secret panels or passages. I got completely distracted by a detail that honestly never gets explained and so missed the possibility that allows for the solution. 

A very clever mystery with an interesting motive behind the murders. I will say that I had my eye on the culprit from the beginning. But I wasn't quite sure of the motive. ★★★★

First line: As I take up my pen to begin recording this miserable tale, I cannot help but feel some pangs of conscience.

Last line: And so the devil that had swooped down on the Tsubaki house played his flute one final time, then left this world for good.
***************

Deaths = 11 (four poisoned;four strangled; two natural; one bombed ia air raid)

The Ultimate My Reader's Block Challenge Wrap-Up Winners!

 

As promised--albeit a couple days late--I have wheeled out the random number generator to select the prize winner/s from the My Reader's Block 2024 Challenges.  Since I only had ten challenge link-ups, I did two drawings. The first with those who made the link up before it closed and a second drawing which included the two challengers who missed the link up and left comments. Our first winner is link #3 Mark @ Carstairs Considers with his Calendar of Crime entry. When I added the two commenters and revved up the generator again, it gave us #7 Joelendil with a Mount TBR entry. Congratulations to our two winners!  I will contact you soon about choosing a prize.

Thank you to all who join me in these challenges. I hope you had fun with them and that you will be along for another round in 2025!

Reminder 2025 My Reader's Block Sponsored Challenges

 It's early days in 2025 and just wanted to remind my faithful challengers and all those looking for reading challenges that the posts for my regular Reader's Block Challenges went up in November. And the Headquarters links in the sidebar also have been updated for this year's challenges. Here's a handy list of each one. Come join me for new reading adventures in 2025!

 

Vintage Scavenger Hunt

Mount TBR Reading Challenge

Virtual Mount TBR Reading Challenge

 

Reading by the Numbers Challenge

Calendar of Crime

Color Coded and Read It Again, Sam Challenges

The Best (and Worst) of 2024

 

This is a place to celebrate and review my reading journey over the last year. And...despite 2024 not being the best reading year every (especially in the last three months or so...) it still wasn't bad. I didn't make the 200 books read as I have the last three years, but by mid-October I knew that dream was out the window. I did manage (somehow) to complete all 37 challenges that I signed up for (yes, I am a bit addicted to the reading challenge...) and I also managed to shift 117 books off of my own TBR mountain range (shhh--don't ask how many are left). Overall, a fairly satisfying year for this reader and challenge-aholic. I still don't visit my fellow bloggers as often as I used to (hardly at all--I'm sorry, folks!). I wish I could go back to the early days of the blog when I seemed to have time to read and write reviews and go visit all my virtual friends. And I wish life would stop getting in the way.

But...back to celebrating. Let's take a look at the year-end reading stats.

Total Books Read: 156

Books Owned & Read: 117

Pages Read: 38,801

Percentage of Rereads: 17%

Percentage of New-to-Me Authors: 30%

Percentage Mystery: 89%

Percentage Nonfiction: 5%

Percentage by Women: 51%

Percentage Written 2000+: 32%

Percentage Non-US/UK: 15%

Non-US/UK Authors: Australian, Brazilian, Canadian, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish,Taiwanese

Non-US States/UK Settings: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, a Fantasy World, Fictitious European Country, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Outer Space, Russia, Ship (Atlantic Ocean), South America (unspecified), Sweden, Taiwan

Top Vintage Mysteries of 2024 (no rereads)

The Twelve Deaths of Christmas by Marian Babson (Silver Age, 1979; 4 stars)

Seven Keys to Baldpate by Earl Derr Biggers (Golden Age, 1913; 4 stars)

Crossed Skis by Carol Carnac (Golden Age, 1952; 4 stars)

Heberden's Seat by Douglas Clark (Silver Age, 1979; 4 stars)

Miraculous Mysteries ed by Martin Edwards (all stories Golden Age, 2017; 4 stars)

Murder by the Book ed by Martin Edwards (all stories Silver Age or earlier, 2021; 4 stars)

The Final Days of Abbot Montrose by Sven Elvestad (Golden Age, 1917; 4 stars)

Murder in C Major by Sara Hoskinson Frommer (Silver Age, 1986; 4 stars)

Dance of Death by Helen McCloy (Golden Age, 1938; 4 stars)

Bodies from the Library 3 ed by Tony Medawar (all stories Silver Age or earlier, 2020; 4 stars)

Bodies from the Library 4 ed by Tony Medawar (all stories Golden Age, 2021; 4 stars)

McKee of Centre Street by Helen Reilly (Golden Age, 1933; 4 stars)

The Owl in the Cellar by Margaret Scherf (Golden Age, 1945; 4 stars)

Death, My Darling Daughters by Jonathan Stagge (Golden Age, 1945; 4 stars)

The Final Deduction by Rex Stout (Silver Age, 1961; 4 stars)

Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout (Golden Age, 1934; 4 stars)

The Desert Moon Mystery by Kay Cleaver Strahan (Golden Age, 1927; 4 stars)

The New Shoe by Arthur W. Upfield (Golden Age, 1951; 4 stars)

Wicked Uncle by Patricia Wentworth (Golden Age, 1947; 4 stars)

Top Modern Mysteries 2024 (no rereads)

The Blood-Dimmed Tide by Rennie Airth (2004; 4 stars)

The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves (2022; 4 stars)

Think Twice by Harlan Coben (2024; 4 stars)

Sepulchre Street by Martin Edwards (2023)

A Fete Worse Than Death by Dolores Gordon-Smith (2007; 4 stars)

Murder & Mendelssohn by Kerry Greenwood (2013; 4.5 stars)

What Cannot Be Said by C. S. Harris (2024; 5 stars)

Unnatural Ends by Christopher Huang (2023; 4 stars)

Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell (2015; 4 stars)

Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi (2020; 4 stars)

Still Life by Louise Penny (2005; 4 stars)

The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn & Janie Change (2024; 4 stars)

Coronation Year by Jennifer Robson (2023; 4 stars)

Top Fiction 2024 (no rereads)

Amphigorey by Edward Gorey (4 stars)

The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton (4 stars)

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin (5 stars)

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa (4 stars)

Top Nonfiction 2024 (no rereads)

Dorothy & Jack: The Transforming Friendship of Dorothy L. Sayers & C. S. Lewis by Gina Dalfonzo (4 stars)

Only in Books by J. Kevin Graffagnino (4 stars)

Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson (4 stars)

Playing with Myself by Randy Rainbow (4 stars)

Making It So by Patrick Stewart (4 stars)

Monthly P.O.M. (Pick of the Month) Award Winners

January: Murder & Mendelssohn by Kerry Greenwood

February: The Final Days of Abbot Montrose by Sven Elvestad

March: Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

April: Sepulchre Street by Martin Edwards

May: The Owl in the Cellar by Margaret Scherf

June: Still Life by Louise Penny

July: Crossed Skis by Carol Carnac

August: Dance of Death by Helen McCloy

September: Think Twice by Harlan Coben

October: Wicked Uncle by Patricia Wentworth

November: Heberden's Seat by Douglas Clark

December: McKee of Centre Street by Helen Reilly

Now...before we move on to the big winner of 2024--the P.O.Y. (Pick of the Year) Award, I have a few other awards to hand out--my own version of the Razzie Awards.

The Penny For Your Thoughts [and mine aren't very good] Award goes to The Penny Detective by John Tallon Jones. I really wanted to give this a glowing review. One of my Secret Santas in 2016 sent me this and the second Penny Detective novel as part of my gift. But I just couldn't do it. I'm not a huge private eye/hardboiled detective fan, but when I do read them I want them to be good. And this one just wasn't. I assume the title is a reference to how much Morris Shannon's services are worth, because he certainly isn't a very good PI. Of course, he really hasn't been all that good or dedicated at any of the jobs he's had up till now, so why would opening up his own private detective business be any different? If he didn't have his ex-cop bestie Shoddy to do his leg work, he wouldn't be solving anything ever....

The Where's Waldo Award goes to Kill the Boss Good-by by Peter Rabe. Rabe has the honor of earning the only one-star rating I handed out last year (the previous award winner came close with 1.5 stars). The only thing it had going for it was an interesting look at the psychotic boss's descent into madness--but there was no detective, no clues, and nearly no mystery in sight. I had pretty good success with the Waldo books--but Rabe hid all hints of a good mystery where I doubt anyone could find them. If gang-land shoot-em-ups are your thing, then this may be for you. But there are better examples of those out there than this.

The Sleeping Pill Award goes to The Moneypenny Diaries by Kate Westbrook. This is meant to read like nonfiction--with Jane's niece supposedly going to all kinds of trouble to cross-reference and prove the validity of all these incidents. Which makes this read like a dry-as-dust historical account for about 90% of the book. It would be a heck of a lot more interesting if the story had just been told through Moneypenny's diaries and without all the footnotes and editorializing by Jane Moneypenny's niece. It has a great hook--with Moneypenny wanting to investigate what really happened to her father--but really poor execution.

Sleeping Schoolboy Reading a book by J. B. Greuze

The It's So Secret I Can't Even Tell Myself Award and the Math for No Reason Award both go to H. F. Wood for The Passenger from Scotland Yard. So....according to E. F. Bleiler, who provides the introduction to Wood's novel, this is the best detective novel between Poe and Doyle (and he doesn't really count Doyle's longer works because they are "detective short stories tacked onto historical romances"). I have to say--if this was the best thing going, I'm surprised detective fiction took off at all. Because Wood has a bizarre narrative style. Yes, a detective novelist is trying to pull the wool over the reader's eyes in an effort to surprise her with the solution at the end...but never have I read a book where the detective (here, Inspector Byde) almost seems intent on keeping the clues secret from himself. He never refers to any of his suspects by name, always using the most circuitous methods of description to indicate who he's talking about. And his obsession with mathematical theorems were enough to make me want to pull my hair out. 

And now...the moment we've all been waiting for...the presentation of the Mystery Pick of the Year! This has been a tough decision for our judges this year. If I go purely by the star-rating, then it's obvious that Murder & Mendelssohn is the winner with the only 4.5 rating (there were no five-star winners which were not rereads this year). And the review is a strong one. But Helen McCloy gave a great introduction to Basil Willing in a very solid, fairly-clued mystery. And Harlan Coben surprised with an out-of-our comfort zone mystery that tempts me to go back and read the series from the beginning (that doesn't happen very often). 

So...after much deliberation (drum roll please), I'm pleased to present the P.O.Y. Award to Think Twice by Harlan Coben!