Just the Facts 2019 – Wrap up

I just was able to finish both of these challenges on the December 31 deadline. Whew. Not the best year for reading.

Who
1. Edmund Crispin – Frequent Hearses (4/27/19)
2. Ellery Queen – The Tragedy of Z (10/18/19)
3. A.A. Fair – Double or Quits (2/7/19)
4. Rufus King – Diagnosis: Murder (2/12/19)
5. Holly Roth – The Shocking Secret (3/6/19)
6. George Harmon Coxe – The Camera Clue (3/20/19)
7. Jack Webb – The Delicate Darling (4/25/19)
8. Thomas B. Dewey – Mourning After (1/13/19)
9. Richard and Frances Lockridge – Payoff for the Banker (10/9/19)
10. Harrison Hunt – Murder Picks the Jury (1/7/19)

Where
1. Ngaio Marsh – Death and the Dancing Footman (3/1/19)
2. Edward S. Aarons – The State Department Murders (3/2/19)
3. Will Oursler – Departure Delayed (1/18/19)
4. Lange Lewis – Murder Among Friends (7/21/19)
5. Edmund Crispin – Buried for Pleasure (4/7/19)
6. Edward Candy – Which Doctor? (1/31/19)
7. Arthur Upfield – The Sands of Windee (7/5/19)
8. Kathleen Moore Knight – High Rendezvous (2/3/19)
9. Frances and Richard Lockridge – Death Takes a Bow (6/19/19)
10. John Dickson Carr – He Who Whispers (2/22/19)

What
1. George Harmon Coxe – Mrs. Murdock Takes a Case (12/17/19)
2. George Harmon Coxe – Four Frightened Women (7/13/19)
3. Eric Knight – You Play the Black and the Red Comes Up (2/16/19)
4. Harry Whittington – The Brass Monkey (3/5/19)
5. Louis Trimble – Stab in the Dark (4/7/19)
6. Ellery Queen – The Tragedy of Y (4/17/19)
7. Craig Rice – Trial by Fury (2/9/19)
8. Fredric Brown – Madball (2/18/19)
9. Helen Reilly – Mr. Smith’s Hat (1/9/19)
10. Agatha Christie – The Moving Finger (3/10/19)

How
1. Dale Clark – Death Wore Fins (1/1/19)
2. Louis Trimble – The Corpse Without a Country (5/27/19)
3. Talmage Powell – The Smasher (3/31/19)
4. Phoebe Atwood Taylor – Deathblow Hill (2/11/19)
5. Carter Dickson – The Judas Window (6/8/19)
6. Fredric Brown – We All Killed Grandma (1/3/19)
7. Phoebe Atwood Taylor – Beginning with a Bash (4/3/19)
8. Marvin Claire – The Drowning Wire (3/28/19)
9. William P. McGivern – Very Cold for May (1/9/19)
10. James McConnaughey – Three for the Money (1/26/19)

When
1. Richard Ellington – Shoot the Works (11/15/19)
2. Arthur Conan Doyle – The Return of Sherlock Holmes (12/3/19)
3. John D. MacDonald – April Evil (7/24/19)
4. Carter Dickson – The Punch and Judy Murders (3/23/19)
5. Phoebe Atwood Taylor – Out of Order (5/27/19)
6. Ngaio Marsh – Died in the Wool (3/10/19)
7. Robert van Gulik – The Chinese Maze Murders (12/31/19)
8. Ngaio Marsh – Spinsters in Jeopardy (8/5/19)
9. Ngaio Marsh – Night at the Vulcan (7/6/19)
10. William Campbell Gault – Fair Prey (9/11/19)

Why
1. William Campbell Gault – Don’t Cry for Me (1/21/19)
2. Ben Benson – The End of Violence (2/23/19)
3. John Dickson Carr – Death Turns the Tables (1/6/19)
4. Robert Colby – The Quaking Widow (1/14/19)
5. Ngaio Marsh – Death of a Peer (1/20/19)
6. Georges Simenon – Maigret Stonewalled (2/23/19)
7. Frank Bunce – So Young a Body (2/14/19)
8. Arthur Upfield – The Bachelors of Broken Hill (1/2/19)
9. Richard and Frances Lockridge – Death on the Aisle (5/19/19)
10. Ngaio Marsh – Final Curtain (5/17/19)

Who
1. Robert Colby – Kill Me a Fortune (10/1/19)
2. Robert Colby – The Star Trap (7/2/19)
3. Wilfred McNeilly – No Way Out (8/31/19)
4. Michael Crichton – The Venom Business (12/26/19)
5. Robert Colby – Beautiful But Bad (9/7/19)
6. George Harmon Coxe – Deadly Image (11/26/19)
7. Harry Kemelman – Monday the Rabbi Took Off (12/31/19)
8. Frank Thomas – Sherlock Holmes and the Treasure Train (12/12/19)
9. Michael Gilbert – The Etruscan Net (12/23/19)
10. Anthony Gilbert – She Shall Die (11/29/19)

Where
1. Helen Reilly – The Day She Died (11/27/19)
2. Edward S. Aarons – Assignment the Cairo Dancers (10/23/19)
3. Basil Heatter – Harry and the Bikini Bandits (4/21/19)
4. Michael Gilbert – The Night of the Twelfth (10/27/19)
5. Edward S. Aarons – Assignment Ankara (8/18/19)
6. Brett Halliday – Murder in Haste (7/24/19)
7. Edward S. Aarons – Assignment Mara Tirana (6/9/19)
8. Jay Bennett – Murder Money (6/7/19)
9. Frank Kane – Hearse Class Male (6/25/19)
10. Clayton Rawson – The Great Merlini (3/29/19)

What
1. Carter Brown – Zelda (6/1/19)
2. Brett Halliday – Mike Shayne’s 50th Case (9/14/19)
3. Ellery Queen – The Black Hearts Murder (11/29/19)
4. James Dark – Operation Octopus (1/4/19)
5. Neil MacNeil – Death Ride (9/1/19)
6. Emma Lathen – A Place for Murder (12/8/19)
7. Richard S. Prather – The Meandering Corpse (6/16/19)
8. Tedd Thomey – Kill Me a Husband (6/5/19)
9. Donald Westlake – Help, I Am Being Held Prisoner (12/18/19)
10. Agatha Christie – Endless Night (11/7/19)

How
1. Carter Brown – The White Bikini (6/28/19)
2. William Campbell Gault – The Dead Seed (10/26/19)
3. D.M. Devine – His Own Appointed Day (8/25/19)
4. Carter Brown – The Sad-Eyed Seductress (2/5/19)
5. Brett Halliday – Murder Takes No Holiday (11/17/19)
6. Carter Brown – The Invisible Flamini (9/9/19)
7. Stephen Marlowe – Jeopardy Is My Job (2/3/19)
8. Ed Lacy – A Deadly Affair (7/4/19)
9. William Campbell Gault – Death in Donegal Bay (8/11/19)
10. Brett Halliday – Nice Fillies Finish Last (4/29/19)

When
1. John Tiger – Wipeout (10/19/19)
2. Loren D. Estleman – Sherlock Homes vs. Dracula (12/20/19)
3. Carter Brown – Die Anytime, After Tuesday! (3/16/19)
4. George Harmon Coxe – The Last Commandment (9/29/19)
5. Van Wyck Mason – Trouble in Burma (5/20/19)
6. Georges Simenon – The Trail (9/19/19)
7. Robert van Gulik – The Haunted Monastery (12/24/19)
8. Frank Kane – Crime of Their Life (10/12/19)
9. Frank Kane – Margin for Terror (8/24/19)
10. Ellery Queen – What’s in the Dark? (3/24/19)

Why
1. Donald Westlake – God Save the Mark (12/23/19)
2. Donald Westlake – The Spy in the Ointment (12/2/19)
3. John D. MacDonald – The Only Girl in the Game (12/10/19)
4. Robert Colby – The Faster She Runs (3/2/19)
5. Mignon G. Eberhart – Jury of One (11/13/19)
6. Georges Simenon – Maigret and the Saturday Caller (9/7/19)
7. Michael Crichton – Easy Go (11/18/19)
8. Richard Lockridge – Murder for Art’s Sake (12/27/19)
9. Brett Halliday – The Body Came Back (8/15/19)
10. Marvin H. Albert – Miami Mayhem (8/2/19)

Monthly Key Word 2019 – Wrap Up

Not as productive as last year, but I managed something for every month.

January: Helen Reilly – Mr. Smith’s Hat (1/9/19)
February: Eric Knight – You Play the Black and the Red Comes Up (2/16/19)
John Dickson Carr – He Who Whispers (2/22/19)
March: Lee Floren – Gun Luck (3/14/19)
Ellery Queen – What‘s in the Dark? (3/24/19)
April: Nelson Nye – Gun-Hunt for the Sundance Kid (4/30/19)
May: Clair Huffaker – Rider from Thunder Mountain (5/5/19)
June: Dan Temple – The Man from Idaho (6/23/19)
July: Richard Ellington – Shoot the Works (11/15/19)
August: Neil MacNeil – The Death Ride (9/1/19)
September: Georges Simenon – The Train (9/19/19)
October: Michael Gilbert – The Night of the Twelfth (10/27/19)
November: Helen Reilly – The Day She Died (11/27/19)
December: Robert Leslie Bellem – Roscoes in the Night (12/29/19)

 

Robert van Gulik – The Chinese Maze Murders (1957)

Vintage Golden Age Mystery
Just the Facts Category: When — Set pre-1800
TBR #135 (74e, 61p)
Date Finished: December 31, 2019

On his way to assume the magistrate position in a far northern border town, Judge Dee and entourage are set up by a band of thieves. Quickly dispensing with them, it turns out that the thieves have been driven from their homes by a strongman who controls the border town. Judge Dee soon defeats the strongman and deals with a criminal mastermind planning to sell out the town to a Uigur army, a locked room murder, an abducted young woman, and the secret to an inheritance hidden at the center of a maze.

The only difficulty is keeping some of the very similar names straight, but otherwise this is another engrossing, entertaining Judge Dee mystery.

And that completes the Just the Facts Golden Age Notebook.

Harry Kemelman – Monday the Rabbi Took Off (1972)

Vintage Silver Age Mystery
Just the Facts Category: Who — Vicar/Religious figure
Date Finished: December 31, 2019

Rabbi Small and his wife and son go to Israel on a leave of absence from his Massachusetts parish. A young American attending university in Israel is suspected by the police and secret service as being involved with a series of terrorist bombings. Small figures it all out by looking at a photo.

Another incredibly slow and dull Rabbi Small “mystery” with almost no mystery, but plenty of congregational politics, explanations of Judaism, and travelogue of Israel, with Small incredibly pedantic and the American congregation all businessmen clods. Ugh. For some reason these were best sellers and still receive plenty of five-star reviews on Goodreads.

And that completes the Just the Facts silver age card.

Robert Leslie Bellem – Roscoes in the Night (2003)

Vintage Mystery Pulp collection
TBR #134 (74e, 60p)
Monthly Key Word: Night
Date Finished: December 29, 2019

This collection of Dan Turner pulp stories, originally published between 1934 and 1950, contains 13 adventures that follow a standard pattern: Dan meets a girl, she loses some clothing, he is hit on the head, someone (usually the girl) turns up dead, he is suspected by police but escapes to find real killer before the police get him. The early stories from Spicy Detective Stores are a bit spicier before pressure was put on the publisher to clean things up. Later stories from Hollywood Detective and Speed Detective are longer, but aren’t quite as lively. A good collection but perhaps reading them back-to-back isn’t the best approach.

Richard Lockridge – Murder for Art’s Sake (1967)

Vintage Silver Age Mystery
Just the Facts Category: Why — Read by a fellow challenger
TBR #133 (74e, 59p)
Date Finished: December 27, 2019

Sad sack police lieutenant Nathan Shapiro returns to investigate the apparent suicide of a modernistic painter. When it quickly becomes apparent that it was murder, Shapiro pokes around among the friends and business acquaintances of the painter, with the help of his boss’ wife Dorian Weigand.

The mystery here is okay for a late Lockridge, but Shapiro’s low self-esteem and self-doubt become quickly annoying. Dorian sticks herself into dangerous situations, stumbling upon the criminals in the formulaic manner of Pam North, rather than through any deductive reasoning. Shapiro shows up in time, just as Bill Weigand does in the North series. Still, a good setting in Greenwich Village and the art world that is now long gone with barn-like studio lofts available to rent for $85 per month.

Michael Crichton – The Venom Business (1969)

Vintage Silver Age Mystery
Just the Facts Category: Who — In the Medical Field
TBR #132 (74e, 58p)
Date Finished: December 26, 2019

An exporter of snakes, Charles Raynaud, as well as a smuggler of Mayan artifacts, encounters an old friend/enemy in Paris. The friend’s life is in danger, just as he is about to inherit a fortune, so asks Charles to accompany him and protect him. A scheming stepmother, a scheming doctor uncle, and a scheming young woman interact with the scheming Raynaud and his scheming friend. There are several schemes in this story, as they each try and outwit each other.

Entertaining and fast moving, though I wouldn’t call any of these very admirable characters, other than perhaps the young woman, which may leave a bad aftertaste for some.