Since I started out behind on reporting on my reading this year, I've decided to finish out the year with my quarterly reading round-up. Once I've caught things up for the last three months of 2023, I will follow up with a year-end wrap up post. In previous years I have done a monthly round-up with statistics and handed out a Pick of the Month (POM) Award to the best mystery read. Let's take a look at the overall stats for the quarter and then we'll see who the big winners for each month are for mystery fiction and hand out those sparkly POMs. Then, we'll see which books make the Best of 2023 list.
Total Books Read for the Quarter: 40 (a definite dip since last quarter)
Total Pages: 9,944 (quite a drop from last time)
Average Rating: 3.22 stars
Top Rating: 4.5 stars
Percentage by Female Authors: 40%
Percentage by Male Authors: 58%
Percentage by both Female & Male Authors: 2%
Percentage by US Authors: 68%
Percentage by Non-US/Non-British Authors: 5%
Percentage Mystery: 95%
Percentage Fiction: 98%
Percentage Written 2000+: 28%
Percentage Rereads: 15%
Percentage Read for Challenges: 100% (it's easy when you do as many challenges as I do)
Number of Challenges Complete: 39 (100%)
Mysteries Read
The Mystery of the Silver Spider by Robert Arthur (3 stars)
Sound of Revelry by Octavus Roy Cohen (4 stars)
Only the Good by Mary Collins (3 stars)
The War of the Worlds Murder by Max Allan Collins (3 stars)
Murder for Two by George Harmon Coxe (4 stars)
Murder on the Purple Water by Frances Crane (4 stars)
The Toff & the Runaway Bride by John Creasey (3 stars)
Murder Is a Collector's Item by Elizabeth Dean (3.5 stars)
While the Clock Ticked by Franklin W. Dixon (4 stars)
Vultures in the Sky by Todd Downing (3.5 stars)
Black Friday by David Goodis (4 stars)
Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery as ed. by Alfred Hitchcock (ed. by Robert Arthur) (4 stars)
Body Blow by Kenneth Hopkins (3 stars)
What Happened at Hazelwood? by Michael Innes (3 stars)
Murder on Fifth Avenue by Michael Jahn (3 stars)
The Mistletoe Murders & Other Stories by P. D. James (4 stars)
The Clue in the Jewel Box by Carolyn Keene (3 stars)
The Quest of the Missing Map by Carolyn Keene (3 stars)
The Secret in the Old Attic by Carolyn Keene (4 stars)
Blind Man's Bluff by Baynard Kendrick (4 stars)
Fear Nothing Vol 1 by Dean Koontz (4 stars)
Death of a Doll by Hilda Lawrence (2 stars)
You'll Be the Death of Me by Miriam Lynch (2 stars)
Death & Chicanery by Philip MacDonald (3 stars)
Death & the Conjuror by Tom Mead (4.5 stars)
Uncoffin'd Clay by Gladys Mitchell (3 stars)
The Red Death Murders by Jim Noy (4.5 stars)
The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien (3 stars)
Murder in Bloomsbury by D. M. Quincy (4 stars)
Murder in Mayfair by D. M. Quincy (3.75)
A Most Efficient Murder by Anthony Slayton (4 stars)
The Floating Lady Murder by Daniel Stashower (3 stars)
Secret of the Old Post Box by Dorothy Sterling (4 stars)
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (1 star)
The Will of the Tribe by Arthur W. Upfield (3 stars)
The Professor Knits a Shroud by Wirt Van Arsdale (4 stars)
The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace (3 stars)
This year I've been able to stick to my no repeat/reread winners policy. I'll keep to it if I can, but if doing so means I'll be awarding a POM to book that earned three stars or less then I may have to break policy. In general, the fall months were not particularly strong. But both October and November did see run-away winners with 4.5 stars each. In October, I read Death & the Conjurer, Tom Mead's debut novel in his Joseph Spector series. A very nicely done, very self-aware mystery in the style of the Golden Age. It plays with the tropes that were popular at the time--the puzzle plot, a locked room that gives a tip of the hat to the master John Dickson Carr, and the accomplished amateur to help the police find their way. And what he does really well is make me believe that this could have been written in the Golden Age. The historical period is well represented and the tone and setting is pitch perfect. So, without further ado, let's hand the P.O.M. Award for October to Tom Mead...
Up next in the awards line-up we have another debut--The Red Death Murders by Jim Noy (of The Invisible Event blogging fame) is our other 4.5 star winner for the quarter. This may be Jim's debut book, but he handles it like a pro. The characterization is superb with all nine men well-defined and easily distinguished. I especially enjoyed the relationship between Thomas and his master, Sir William, and Sir William's brother Sir Marcus--even when suspicion fell upon one or another of them. The setting is also well-defined and I easily followed the action and where it happened. I loved that a map was included--just as in so many Golden Age crime novels. It was also fun to have the "Challenge to the Reader" found so often in the early Ellery Queen mysteries. Jim went out of his way to make GAD aficionados happy. And he definitely succeeded with this GAD fan. If Jim will step to the platform, we have a bright, shiny P.O.M. award with his name on it...
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And now...for December. December was the most disappointing reading month. No mysteries earned 4.5 stars. Only four earned four stars--one of which (The Secret in the Old Attic) was a reread. This leaves us with Baynard Kendrick's Blind Man's Bluff, P. D. James's The Mistletoe Murders & Other Stories, and Octavus Roy Cohen's Sound of Revelry. The Mistletoe Murders features a quartet of mysterious short stories--three of which take place during the Christmas holiday season and two of which feature James's Adam Dalgliesh. She provides the reader with some surprises and twists to delight the mystery fan. I knew there was a twist coming the first of the stories, but I actually anticipated it twisting in a different direction. Nicely done, but not quite a P.O.M. winner. It's a little harder to choose between our remaining contenders.
Cohen's Sound of Revelry was a delightful read--and a bit of a surprise. This was the first of his mysteries I have tried. I didn't know what to expect (there is no blurb on the back or in the front cover) and the only clue was the cover photo indicating shenanigans at a party. Which is true...sortof. The character of Steve is great. Poor baffled Steve. He knows that bad things are happening, but he's not sure why. Judy inherits a nightclub and everything else from Mr. Tate (our corpse) and after that and after Lieutenant Gold enters the scene she starts acting weird. But insists she's not. Perfect strangers start pumping Steve for everything he knows about Tate and Judy and anything else. And the cops don't care. Steve starts playing a lone hand and finds a mysterious key, a large wad of cash, and a few more dead bodies. But in the end, his lone detective work turns up trumps and nails the bad guys for the cops. A lot action and a lot of fun.
And Kendrick's Blind Man's Bluff was my nominee for the Reprint of the Year (ROY) Awards in December. And when I did so I said, "yes, I know I say 'Vote for...' on every single reprint that I nominate for the ROY Awards. But I really mean it this time. Blind Man's Bluff is the best Kendrick mystery I've read so far and is absolutely deserving of your vote. If you want an unusual detective, Kendrick's got that. Captain Duncan Maclain was blinded during WWI and has spent years working on methods to help him navigate in a world of darkness and to strengthen his other senses in realistic ways to help compensate for his lack of sight. To add to this interesting set-up for a detective, in this mystery, Kendrick has thrown in a bonus. Not only is our detective blind, but so is one of our first victims. If you like impossible crimes, then Kendrick's got that too. Here we have a string of deaths that the upper levels of the police have called suicides. f you not only like an impossible crime, but an ingenious method for accomplishing it then once again, Kendrick's got you covered. It's both ingenious and terrifying. And he plays fair with the reader. The clues are all there waiting for the observant armchair detective to pick them up and put them together for a clever solution.
Okay...I've convinced myself...er...the judges. Not only should Kendrick have won the ROY Award voting, he deserves December's P.O.M. Award as well. And we're going to give that one to him right now...
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