Classic Noir
Margaret Millar: Vanish in an Instant
The Appointment with Agatha group’s April side read, and the third book by Millar I’ve read this year alone. Though I didn’t like it quite as well as my very first foray into her oeuvre (An Air That Kills), it’s not very far behind, and I can definitely see how the two novels came […]
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Q1 / 2022 Reading Recap
Well, as it turned out 2022 began as 2021 had ended — all work and no play, albeit with the addition of a hospital detour to boot. (Nothing serious, just way more painful and, all told, protracted, than it had any right to be.) So I’m back to posting one summary post for the first […]
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Margaret Millar: Ask for Me Tomorrow
Blurb: Tom Aragon, a young Hispanic lawyer, is hired by Gilda Decker to find her husband who disappeared in Mexico after reportedly amassing a fortune. Aragon travels to Mexico to unravel the past, which he finds shrouded in mystery. But as he starts getting close to his quarry, witnesses start dying. The first of Millar’s […]
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Vera Caspary: Laura
Blurb: In the doorway of an elegant New York apartment, blood seeps over silk negligee, over polished wood floors and plush carpet: a beautiful young woman lies dead, her face disfigured by a single gun shot. But who was Laura? What power did she hold over the very different men in her life? How does […]
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Raymond Chandler: The Little Sister
Blurb: “So you need help. What’s your name and trouble?” Private investigator Philip Marlowe’s latest client is Orfamay Quest. She’s come all the way from Manhattan, Kansas, to find her missing brother Orrin. Or at least that’s what she tells Marlowe, offering him just 20 dollars for his trouble. Feeling charitable, Marlowe accepts — though […]
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Margaret Millar: An Air That Kills
Blurb: From the Edgar-Award winning author of Beast in View, this landmark novel of domestic suspense is a gripping tale of ordinary lives ripped apart by lust, deceit, adultery, conspiracy and betrayal. On a Saturday night in April, Ron Galloway’s friends have all arrived at his Ontario lakeside vacation lodge for a boys’ weekend without […]
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February and March 2021: Reading Recap
Well, go figure. The first quarter of 2021 is already behind us, never mind that I’m still having to remind myself on occasion to write “2021” instead of “2020” … (and we’re even a week into April already, but let that go). Anyway, since I never got around to doing a “February in review” post, […]
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Patricia Highsmith: Carol (The Price of Salt)
My record with Highsmith’s writing is a mixed one: I found the first Ripley novel (The Talented Mr. Ripley) morbidly fascinating and the sardonic put-down of the arts world in the second one (Ripley Under Ground) oddly amusing, and I obviously love any cat story of hers where a cat gets the better of a […]
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2020: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
We’re still a month away from the end of the year, but my reading will probably consist mainly of Christmas books in December, and I hope and pray that life won’t come up and throw anything else at me in the final month of the year, either. So I might as well post my “Year […]
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Ellery Queen: Calamity Town
24 Festive Tasks: Door 14 – Diwali, Book: Read a book about a homecoming or set in India or with Indian characters. Murder and other mischief follows on the foot of a young man’s return to his home town, to marry (after all) the girl he’d jilted at the altar a few years before. […]
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Patricia Highsmith: Ripley Under Ground
This year’s Halloween Bingo buddy read — thanks again to Christine, BrokenTune and Lillelara for the fun of reading this book together! Somehow, that seems to be the way Patricia Highsmith’s books are enjoyed best … Though I have to say, while I struggled with Strangers on a Train, I’m getting a complete and total […]
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BL-opoly, Pandemic Edition – Seventh Roll
* Slowly releases breath * I guess it’s just as well that I decided not to roll again immediately after finishing my last BL-opoly book last night … this one turned out the game’s first true, um, roller-coaster. In sequence: … all of which, a trip round half the board later, takes me to […]
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Oh, look! Matching Spines!
One of the results of this week’s Big Decluttering Project was that rearranging my Golden Age mystery shelves finally allowed me to put up my Margaret Millar omnibus volumes in the upright position and right next to each other. And look what I found! I love it when that happens … Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/2112374/oh-look-matching-spines
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Bingo Call: 10/31/19 – Genre: Suspense
Reblogged from: Moonlight Murder Last Call! Bingo is officially over. Genre: Suspense: anything that fits into the suspense genre. Book list linked here. Original post: http://moonlightreader.booklikes.com/post/1942289/bingo-call-10-31-19
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Halloween Bingo: Book Selections – UPDATED
Like virtually all of my book consumption this year, my Halloween Bingo books are more or less necessarily going to have to be primarily audiobooks. So I had a look at my Audible and CD collections what might fit the bill for my card, and here’s what I’ve come up with (mostly new-to-me books but […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019: Tracking Post — Blackout! (And bingos Nos. 12 and 13.)
Many thanks to Moonlight Reader and Obsidian Blue for hosting this game for the fourth year in a row, bigger and better than ever before! Witih today’s call, I’ve blacked out my card, in addition to collecting my final bingos (nos. 12 and 13). Somewhat to my surprise, after completing my books for my […]
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Bingo Call: 10/30/2019 – Murder Most Foul
Reblogged from: Obsidian Blue Murder Most Foul: any murder mystery. Book list linked here. Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1980295/bingo-call-10-30-2019
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Bingo call: 10/29/19 – Fear the Drowning Deep
Reblogged from: Moonlight Murder Fear the Drowning Deep: books with sea-related elements: sea creatures, ships, and sharks. Book list linked here. Non-genre-specific square. Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1979523/bingo-call-10-29-19
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Bingo Call: 10/26/2019 – Terror in a Small Town
Reblogged from: Obsidian Blue Terror in a Small Town: any horror book where the action primarily occurs in a small town or village. Examples would include: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, It by Stephen King. Book list linked here. Horror square. (But mysteries & suspense featuring terror / horrific events may […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019: Twenty Fourth Extra Square – Classic Noir
Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1976204/halloween-bingo-2019-twenty-fourth-second-extra-square
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