Every month on Past Offences I gather together blog posts about crime fiction written or filmed in a particular year. I’ve called it Crimes of the Century. Bernadette suggested 1929 for June, so here goes.
If you want to take part, you can! When you’ve written your post, just let me know below. I’ll gather them all together at the end of the month.
Anyone can play, so over to you…
Small print
- Don’t be shy!
- Just comment below to link to your blog post.
- If you want to play but you haven’t got a blog, I’m happy to have you as a guest poster, or to link to Goodreads or Amazon.
- Books, comics, films, plays and TV also welcome.
- Sorry in advance if I miss you in the round-up, although I am getting better at that bit.
Past Offences: Classic crime, thrillers and mystery book reviews 
I’ll be reading The Chimney Murder by E M Channon. New author to me so looking forward to reading it. Quite a lot of books to choose from for this year. Here’s a few I found:
The Seven Dials Mystery and Partners in Crime by Christie
The Piccadilly Murder and The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley
The Dain Curse and Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen
The Scarab Murder Case by S S Van Dine
Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner
The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey
The Crime at Black Dudley and Mystery Mile by Allingham
The Mystery of Cabin Island by Franklin W Dixon
A Speedy Death by Gladys Mitchell
The Barrakee Mystery by Arthur Upfield
The Corpse on the Mat by Milward Kennedy
The Duke of York’s Steps by Henry Wade
The Appointed Date and The 5:18 Mystery J Jefferson Farjeon
The Box Office Murders by Freeman Wills Crofts
The Fourth Finger and The Room with Iron Shutters by Anthony Wynne
Fool Errant by Patricia Wentworth
Mr Fortune Speaking by H C Bailey
Death of My Aunt by C H B Kitchin (Definitely one I would recommend)
The Perfect Murder Case by Christopher Bush
Poison in the Garden Suburb by M and G H D Cole
The Davidson Case and The House on Tollard Ridge by John Rhode
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Kate — Wikipedia has Mystery Mile as 1930.
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Whoops! Well spotted. I think I got both titles from a Goodreads page.
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For those interested in reading American and Canadian writers:
The Black Camel by Earl Derr Biggers (one of the best Chan books!)
**The May Day Mystery by Octavus Roy Cohen – I have this and I’ll read this one**
The Hidden Hand by Carroll John Daly
Streaked with Crimson by Charles J. Dutton
The Patient in Room 18 by Mignon Eberhart
The Murder of an Old Man by David Frome (also: In at the Death )
The Clue of the Clock by Marion Harvey
Miasma by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
The Amazing Web by Harry Stephen Keeler (also: The Fourth King, Thieves’ Nights)
Murder by the Clock by Rufus King
The Fifth Latchkey by Natalie Sumner Lincoln
The Tule Marsh Murder by Nancy Barr Mavity (also: The Body on the Floor)
The Adventures of Jimmie Dale by Frank Packard (also: The Big Shot)
The Bradmoor Murder by Melville Davisson Post (a superb and landmark writer who has been severely neglected on all the vintage mystery blogs, BTW. Including mine!)
Footprints by Kay Cleaver Strahan
Dead Men’s Shoes by Lee Thayer
The Sealed Trunk by Henry Kitchell Webster
Sleeping Dogs by Carolyn Wells (also: Triple Murder, The Tapestry Room Murder)
And I’ll add that the book from which I got my bookselling business name — Pretty Sinister by Francis Beeding — was published in 1929. Also, The Five Flamboys by Beeding came out in the same year. But good luck finding either title.
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Many thanks to Kate and John for their very useful lists!
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I have Death of My Aunt! Definitely a possibility…
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Not sure how much time I’ll have to watch and write about movies during June, but I’m very tempted by the 1929 version of The Letter — something I’ve been looking forward to for a while.
As for books, there’s a very significant one: The Crime at Black Dudley. Yep, I think that’s one for me.
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Ooh, the one Allingham I’ve never managed to finish…
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I remember enjoying it but not much else about it . . . nothing, in fact. It was nearly half a century ago that I read it!
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Perfect. I will do The Seven Dials Mystery, by Christie. It has been on my To Do list for a while and I have been neglecting Agatha Christie books lately.
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I’ll take a run at The House On Tollard Ridge by (big surprise) John Rhode. Might take a pass at The Seven Dials Mystery as well
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I’m back, baby! I have C.H.B. Kitchin’s Death of My Aunt, so shall contribute my views on that.
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Where did you get the above picture ?
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Just from an internet search.
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Well, it still remains the headquarters of Kolkata Police (previously Calcutta Police) with many alterations, additions and renovations. It is located at Lal Bazar.
I am a resident of Kolkata and hence I was interested !
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Here’s a link to the same building today… http://www.kolkatapolice.gov.in/
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I have to read the same book as armchair reviewer as I bought a re-release recently – it’s the only book from that year I have 🙂
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Ditto! It’ll be interesting to see whether our opinions on it match or differ.
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I’ll go for Red Harvest and maybe a reread of The Poisoned Chocolates Case
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Looks like there’ll be plenty of us doing Seven Dials Mystery – but no harm in that. Will maybe do another one with the help of Kate’s useful list, and maybe Karen will do one too….
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And here is the lovely Seven Dials Mystery… http://clothesinbooks.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/dress-down-sunday-1929-book-very.html
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Pingback: Scapegoats and boars’ heads: #1957book roundup | Past Offences: Classic crime, thrillers and mystery book reviews
Can I do The Man in the Queue? And somebody please do Emil and the Detectives. “Now look here, young Fischbein…” “Tischbein!!!”
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Read that in my first year of secondary school 🙂
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Well, I can’t review films this time, can I??? But I did grab THE BLACK CAMEL and THE DUKE OF YORK’S STEPS from the library and hope to finish them in time to join in. My first Charlie Chan book and my second Henry Wade, who I figure is about to become much discussed with the re-release of his titles!
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Well there is the odd crime related film from 1929, but I can appreciate how hard they would be to get a hold of. Surprised myself when googling 1929 films that I had actually watched one from that year (though not crime related unfortunately) – The Man with the Movie Camera. Not that I watched it of my own volition – it was part of a uni module. Can’t say I would recommend it. Incidentally on that same module I also got to watch Charlie Chaplin films, which were infinitely better than the TMWTMC.
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Well there is the odd crime related film from 1929
The problem is that they tend to be available only in totally dreffle prints. I imagine there’s not much commercial incentive to invest in the restoration of the average 1929 movie, and so in general it doesn’t happen.
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I pressed like,Realthog, but of course I don’t like at all! And I fear for us classic film lovers it will just get worse.
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Yes, but the great thing is that nowadays, thanks to the intertubes and the various public-domain sites (not to mention YouTube and that famous South American city Alphavideo), we can see movies that, however crappy the print quality might be, not so long ago we might never even have hoped to see at all.
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Donde esta Alphavideo?
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I’ve read and reviewed my first of several 1929 books: The Secret of Sea-Dream House by Albert Payson Terhune. Yes, the guy that wrote all those books about collies also wore crime and adventure novels. This one turned out to be a lot of fun even if it was utterly hokey and overflowing in purple prose.
I found seven (!) books on my shelves published in 1929, a mix of US, UK and Canadian writers that I have yet to read so there are many more reviews a-comin’ your way. This may turn out to be a month of nothing but books from 1929 for me.
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Pingback: The Chimney Murder (1929) by E. M. Channon: Where Murder Becomes a Vehicle for Female Empowerment | crossexaminingcrime
Here is my review of E M Channon’s The Chimney Murder. Definitely a good read.
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress.com/2016/06/03/the-chimney-murder-1929-by-e-m-channon-where-murder-becomes-a-vehicle-for-female-empowerment/
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Here’s Josephine Tey’s The Man in the Queue: http://wordcount-richmonde.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/josephine-teys-man-in-queue.html Was Mrs Ratcliffe a red herring?
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I never found a 1957 example, but thanks to whoever pointed to fadedpage, I have already obtained three 1929 books that are also my introduction (in two cases) to important writers I haven’t read, while the third is a previously unread item by an old favorite author. These are: P. Wentworth’s first Miss Silver, GREY MASK, which has a ’29 pub date on my source; Van Dine’s BISHOP MURDERS; and Tey’s MAN IN THE QUEUE, joining Richmonde above. I’ll let you know when the posts are up. And many thanks for the helpful lists. Maybe I can even find more!
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I’m in….Haven’t had a chance to see what I’ve got lurking on the TBR stacks (and stacks and stacks…) yet. Will report back.
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Pingback: The House On Tollard Ridge by John Rhode – In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel
Pingback: Film Notes: Pandora’s Box (1929) directed by G W Pabst – A Crime is Afoot
I’ve given an account of Margery Allingham’s The Crime at Black Dudley here.
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Here’s #2 in what is proving to be a veritable explosion of 1929 books for me: The May Day Mystery by Octavus Roy Cohen Another American writer no one ever writes about on the blogs. Very entertaining, quite a likable and unusual detective, too.
In looking for one 1929 title that I knew I had and I definitely wanted to write about this month I found four more from 1929! This is truly insane. Please don’t do this to me again in July. ;^)
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And #3: The Medbury Fort Murder by George Limnelius Highly recommended. Good news for all you digital book fanatics: there is a version available at Hathi Digital Trust!
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Guess I missed a crucial quotation mark in the HTML. Let me try again with the link: Medbury Fort Murder
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Here’s a writeup of the movie Painted Faces (1929).
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Pingback: Film Notes: Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) directed by G W Pabst – A Crime is Afoot
And here’s mine: The Mystery Woman by J. U. Giesy & Junius B. Smith. Not sure if I’ll get another 1929 done or not….
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Thanks Bev!
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Pingback: Review: Red Harvest (1929) by Dashiell Hammett – A Crime is Afoot
I’ve just posted notes about Gladys Mitchell’s A Speedy Death (1929) here. Not a favorite, alas.
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And here are notes on the 1929 movie The Letter — the precursor to the more famous 1940 Bette Davis vehicle.
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Apologies, I could not bring myself to wade though the increasingly execrable Death of My Aunt and so am unable to contribute anything beyond me simply mashing my keyboard in frustration. However, by chance…I, er, mean design, TomCat has reviewed it this month and probably won’t mind me submitting it in lieu of my own thoughts. He quite liked it, too, which will make for better reading…
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I already caught that one – I like finding reviews in the wild.
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I already caught that one – I like catching reviews in the wild. (I was definitely one of the people who assumed this was the other aunt book.)
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Imgae of you, cammo-painted, with a net, stalking through the woodland on the lookout for stray reviews…why are you shirtless, Rich? Put your shirt on, man!!!
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JJ has now put that image in all our minds….
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Swamped in reading as I am, the first summer goal that had to go was my commitment to the 1929 page! Can we have a hint at some point as to next month’s year? I’d really like to stay involved.
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That’s OK Brad, we’ll all still talk to you 🙂
As always, I’m open to suggestions for years.
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A bunch of my favorite authors wrote books in both 1944 and 1948, if either year grabs everyone. You could always do another “minute mystery” Rich if you want someone to earn naming the year.
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Pingback: Phantom in the House, The (1929) | Noirish
And finally for me this month, the 1929 movie The Phantom in the House.
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I’m not going to get to another 1929 book this year…but if you have a fancy for one I read previously, I have this to offer from my 2014 review list: The Clue of the Leather Noose by Donald Bayne Hobart.
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Pingback: Patricia Wentworth: Fool Errant | Past Offences: Classic crime, thrillers and mystery book reviews
Sorry to be late in letting you know, but I posted my review of The Seven Dials Mystery by Christie on June 22nd at Bitter Tea and Mystery.
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