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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. Kate from crossexaminingcrime has suggested 1954 for August.
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 
Well, I’ll plump for Death On The Lawn by (guess who?) John Rhode. Might take a punt at Destination Unknown by Dame Agatha as well, as I haven’t read that before…
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Yes unfortunately 1954 is not a year for a great Christie book. DU is certainly not in Passenger to Frankfurt league but I do not think it is one of Christie’s best thrillers. Thematically a very interesting book though.
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Well, I’ve got a lot to get through next month, so I might not get round to it…
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Will do my best to review Robert Bloch’s SPIDERWEB sometime next month – consider me signed up 🙂
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Didn’t manage the Bloch in time – but instead, I offer HOUSE OF EVIL by Clayre and Michael Lipman, which deserves to be much better known (I think): https://bloodymurder.wordpress.com/2016/08/26/house-of-evil-1954-by-clayre-and-michael-lipman/
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My choice will be D’entre les morts English translation: The Living and the Dead aka Vertigo by.Boileau-Narcejac.
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I’ve got Carr’s short story collection The Third Bullet…seems 1954 was a big short story year for him, as his Holmes tales came out then, too.
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Thanks for letting me choose the year Rich! Did take a few false starts as I went through my TBR pile and when I had two or even four for a one year it always appeared that that year had already been picked before.
I’ll hopefully be reading Welcome Death by Glyn Daniels and Sent to his Account by JJ’s new favourite author, Eillis Dillon.
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Nothing’s leaping off the Wikipedia list and telling me to read it, though I have previously reviewed Mary Stewart’s first published novel, Madam, Will You Talk?.
https://blog.firedrake.org/archive/2014/10/Madam__Will_You_Talk___Mary_Stewart.html
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Wikipedia list? Is there seriously a list of books published for every year in the twentieth century? Oh my. Some people have LOTS of time on their hands.
Here’s a list of American & Canadian writers’ books from 1954:
MEN
Michael Avallone – Dead Game
“Martin Brett”/Douglas Sanderson – Blondes Are My Trouble
(Reprinted with a foreword by someone who sounds vaguely familiar to me. ;^) The reissue is under the author’s real name: Douglas Sanderson)
Edgar Box – Death Likes It Hot (must be an eBook by now, all the Edgar Box books were reissued four years ago)
Jonathan Craig – Alley Girl (aka Renegade Cop)
Erle Stanley Gardner – TCOT Fugitive Nurse, also …Restless Redhead, also …Runaway Corpse
Baynard Kendrick – Blind Allies
Ross Macdonald – Find a Victim
John D MacDonald – All These Condemned, also Area of Suspicion, also Contrary Pleasure
Patrick Quentin – My Son, the Murderer (aka the Wife of Ronald Sheldon)
Ellery Queen – The Glass Village
Hillary Waugh – A Rag and a Bone, also The Case of the Missing Gardener
F & R Lockridge – Death and the Gentle Bull
WOMEN
Charlotte Armstrong – The Better to Eat You (aka Murder’s Nest)
Ursula Curtiss – The Deadly Climate
Mildred Davis – Suicide Hour (1954) **Free online** http://www.mildreddavis.com/suicide.html
Amber Dean – The Devil Threw Dice
Theodora DuBois – Seeing Red
Mignon Eberhart – Man Missing
Patricia Highsmith – The Blunderer
Dolores Hitchens – Beat Back the Tide (aka The Fatal Flirt)
Kathleen Moore Knight – High Rendezvous, also Three of Diamonds
Helen McCloy – Unfinished Crime (aka He Never Came Back)
Helen Nielsen – The Woman on the Roof
Helen Reilly – Tell Her It’s Murder
That’s a good mix, I think, of rather obscure titles and classic titles. Over half of them will be easy to find. Some of these writers are very good and too often overlooked in crime fiction.
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Those are strong lists, John. I’d like to add:
E. Louise Cushing – Murder Without Regret
Bernard Mara [Brian Moore] – French for Murder
Ken McLeod [Kimball McIlroy] – A Body for a Blonde
Margaret Millar – Beast in View
and
Douglas Sanderson’s Hot Freeze, which as published mere months before Blondes Are My Trouble. (Both reprinted with forewords by people who sound vaguely familiar to me!)
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I didn’t include Millar because Beast in View was published in 1955 in the US. That’s the first book publication date. Did it show up in Canada in 1954?
How did I forget HOT FREEZE? A very good private eye novel and of course available from the wonderful Vehicule Press. Bug most of the people who participate in this blog meme don’t read private eye books (from any country) so they’ll miss out.
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Of course, you’re right about Beast in View, John. How did I mess that up? It most certainly didn’t appear in Canada at an earlier date. As I like to point out, Millar has never been published in Canada! Strange, but true… though you know I tried. Can’t begin to tell you how much I’m looking forward to the forthcoming Syndicate omnibus editions.
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Well, I do own a copy of My Son, the Murderer, and since I’m hot to re-read Patrick Quentin, I’ll see if I have time to do this before school starts.
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Is this a good place to start with Quentin, Brad? I just found a copy today, and am mighty curious given he reputation he/they enjoys. If it’s a good one, I might try this, too.
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It most definitely is NOT a good place to start, JJ. If there is any series of classic mysteries meant to be read in order, it’s the Peter Duluth series, as they chronicle the ups and downs of his marriage to Iris. This is a late entry, although Peter is barely in it.
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Ah, shall avoid for the time being, then. Many thanks.
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As ever, I will definitely be participating, but I have no idea what yet….
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Patricia Wentworth again, The Benevent Treasure http://clothesinbooks.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/book-of-1954-benevent-treasure-by.html
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I’m also in, but will need to see what’s hanging out on the TBR pile….
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Okay, I’ve looked over the piles and, after removing those already mentioned, here are my possibilities:
Death Against Venus – Dana Chambers
Death of a Lake OR Sinister Stones by Arthur W. Upfield
The Riddle of Samson by Andrew Garve
Murder on Trial – Michael Underwood
I’ll Kill You Next – Adam Knight
Murder Every Monday – Pamela Branch
The Body in the Basket – George Bagby
The Evil of Time – Evelyn Berckman
Invitation to Murder by Leslie Ford
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bother…I thought I was all set with Cake in a Hatbox by Arthur Upfield – but that was published in 55. Will try to track down a copy of Death of a Lake/Sinister Stones
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Hmmm…well, according to my online sources Sinister Stones is Cake in a Hatbox, but it was listed as published in 54.
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I’ve been double-checking–most of the sites list the first pub date as 1954 for Sinister Stones which was re-issued as Cake in a Hatbox in 1955.
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Cake in a Hatbox is a *much* better title. Does that mean something?
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Pingback: ‘Stop reading NOW’: The #1944book reviews | Past Offences: Classic crime, thrillers and mystery book reviews
Happy August, everyone! This is one of the first blog posts I ever did, but any chance I can get to showcase and promote Hitchcock’s best film and one of the best films of all time, I’m gonna take! https://ahsweetmysteryblog.wordpress.com/2015/09/25/worst-question-ever-what-is-your-favorite-anything/
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Pingback: Books of the month: July 2016 | Reactions to Reading
Pingback: Welcome Death (1954) by Glyn Daniel | crossexaminingcrime
Here is my review of Welcome Death by Glyn Daniel:
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Here is my second review, Sent to his account by Eilís Dillon:
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Hello everyone —
I’m very happy to have recently found the Past Offences site through links from other readers. The Crimes of the Century project is a great idea, and because of it, I dusted off a book that had been waiting patiently on my shelf: the copyright page had the magic number 1954. Thanks for a great website and for offering this challenge!
Here’s a link to my review of SHARK AMONG HERRINGS by George Milner:
http://www.jasonhalf.com/blog/book-review-shark-among-herrings-1954-by-george-milner
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Hi Jason, glad to meet you and thanks for playing. I do a round-up at the end of the month so look out for a link then.
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Thanks, Rich, and congratulations again on such an enjoyable GAD site! I hope to have one more 1954 title for review before the time is up…. — Jason
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First one: Murder on Trial by Michael Underwood
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My submission for 1954 is The Case of the Restless Redhead by Erle Stanley Gardner. At Bitter Tea and Mystery on August 10, 2016.
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Tracy’s link is… http://bitterteaandmystery.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/the-case-of-restless-redhead-erle.html
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Thanks, Rich.
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Pingback: #127: ‘The Third Bullet’ and Other Stories [ss] (1954) by John Dickson Carr | The Invisible Event
Here is The Third Bullet and Other Stories by John Dickson Carr. Totally counts for 1954 even though all the stories are actually from before then…
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Here’s my second one: Invitation to Murder by Leslie Ford
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And a third installment: Murder Every Monday by Pamela Branch
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Gong to do either Venus Unarmed or Murder Is My Mistress by Carter Brown
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Went with Murder Is My Mistress by Carter Brown
http://suspenseandmystery.blogspot.com/2016/08/murder-is-my-mistress-by-carter-brown.html
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Here’s the first. I veered away temporarily from the US writers I prefer to read/write about.
The Cat and Fiddle Murders by E.B. Ronald
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So glad I found this. I do love mysteries. I read Death Likes It Hot by Edgar Box. It seemed perfect for summer.
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Here’s number 2: The Woman on the Roof by Helen Nielsen. Excellent detective novel with a compassionate portrait of a mentally ill woman who sees too much and doesn’t know how to deal with it all.
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My review of GOLD WAS OUR GRAVE by Henry Wade — the first title of this author that I have read — is posted. Thanks again for providing this great incentive to discover neglected books!
http://www.jasonhalf.com/blog/book-review-gold-was-our-grave-1954-by-henry-wade
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My review of Vertigo (1954) by Pierre Boileau & Thomas Narcejac (Trans. by Geoffrey Sainsbury) is available at
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#3 is a brief overview of the November 1954 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Among the many reprinted stories it includes the first short story by Levinson & Link who later created the Columbo TV series.
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Pingback: DESTINATION UNKNOWN (a.k.a. “Taking a Bullet for Rich”) | ahsweetmysteryblog
I wanted to make sure that Destination Unknown got covered. Maybe it should have been covered UP!!! https://ahsweetmysteryblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/25/destination-unknown-a-k-a-taking-a-bullet-for-rich/
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Am I allowed one more? As Old As Cain by M.E. Chaber I read six books (including the EQMM issue) from 1954, but I’ll stop with this fourth one. This is a very good detective novel with an insurance investigator as the lead. It aspires to be hardboiled but comes off more of a traditional mystery.
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Pingback: #135: Something About The Nothing Man (1954) by Jim Thompson | The Invisible Event
Another from me: The Nothing Man by Jim Thompson as I’ve neglected him despite claiming he’s one of the four most important male crime writers to emerge in the 1930s/1940s.
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