BOOK REVIEWS
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I decided this Christmas to reread the familiar Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol. I would guess that I last read it some 40-plus years ago. I wonder if there is a single work of fiction that has had more different adaptations of it filmed over the years. I highly doubt it. The familiar character of Scrooge has become (along with such literary characters as Sherlock… Read more
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Rex Stout (1886-1975) is best known of course for his Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin Series. In total, Stout wrote 33 novels and 39 novellas or short stories featuring the pair between 1934 and 1975. I have read a lot of them. But certainly not all of them. “The Santa Claus Beat” was a complete surprise. Quite unlike… Read more
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Patricia Moyes (1923-2000) was born in Dublin. She is best known for her Inspector Henry Tibbett Series. This is the first Moyes story that I think I have ever read. And it was a good one. I found it in the anthology Merry Murder. “Who Killed Father Christmas?” can best be described as sort of… Read more
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It is estimated that John D. MacDonald (1916-1986) sold over 70 million books in his lifetime. He is best known, of course, for his Travis McGee Series. (I have read them all). Any legitimate list of the Best Crime/Suspense writers of the 20th Century would have to include MacDonald in the Top 5. Here are some quotes… Read more
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“The Red-Headed League” was the second Sherlock Holmes short story that John Watson shared with the world (the first was “A Scandal in Bohemia”). It is the story of Jabez Wilson, who comes to consult Sherlock Holmes and Watson. Wilson tells them that some weeks before, his young assistant, Vincent Spaulding, had urged him to respond to a newspaper advertisement by… Read more
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I have said it before here at ClimbingSky: I love a good Police Procedural. The book I am reviewing here today, Mist-Walker by Barbara Fradkin, fits the bill well. Mist-Walker does a wonderful job of blending the tension of a Police Procedural with the eerie pull of Psychological Suspense. Set in a rugged, fog-shrouded landscape, the novel follows Inspector Michael Green as he’s drawn… Read more
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I am a huge fan of Susan Hill’s ghost stories, especially her masterpiece The Woman in Black. I have had her Simon Serrailler Detective Series on my To-Be-Read list for a long time. The only reason I hadn’t started it years ago is because I was “saving” it for the time when I would need a great mystery. Finally, in early November, I caved.… Read more
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