Check this out: A 1975 Smith & Wesson Model II Identi-Kit.
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. After 1907 in October, which was a bit of a toughie, I’ve decided to zoom forward to 1975.
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’m planning to read Last Bus to Woodstock (Inspector Morse #1)by Colin Dexter first published in 1975.
LikeLiked by 2 people
A couple of other suggestions:
Curtain by Agatha Christie
The Black Tower by P D James
Black Widower by Patricia Moyes
Shake Hands Forever by Ruth Rendell
A Case Of Spirits by Peter Lovesey
None really leap out for me though, so I’d appreciate other suggestions…
LikeLike
Forgot Reginald Hill – I’ll tackle An April Shroud…
LikeLike
I think I’ve An April Shroud as well, so maybe I’“ tackle that one as well at a later stage.
LikeLike
I will tackle that
LikeLike
Oooo, oooo, oooo, I’ve got Jan Ekstrom’s Deadly Reunion burning a hole in my bookshelf, so I’ll give that a go. Plus any others I find. Shall keep you posted…
LikeLike
I’ll try to get to Curtain. I’m sure I won’t be the only one!
LikeLike
I have previously reviewed, and would recommend, James Anderson’s The Affair of the Blood-stained Egg Cosy – country-house murder mystery parody, but by someone who clearly knows and loves the genre.
Others to consider, though they some of them push the edges of the scope of this blog:
Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank
Michael Crichton, The Great Train Robbery
Thomas Harris, Black Sunday
Gerald Seymour, Harry’s Game
Rex Stout, A Family Affair
I’m tempted to dive into Morse, never having read or seen any.
LikeLike
As I missed out in October, I will find a book to read for 1975. I do recommend The Affair of the Blood-stained Egg Cosy and The Great Train Robbery, mentioned in comments above.
LikeLike
I didn’t get around to the October book–just couldn’t fit in one that I didn’t own among my frantic TBR pile reading. I should be able to produce a 1975 book from the stacks, though. I’ll report back once I can give the piles a one-over.
LikeLike
Okay, here are my possibles:
Bored to Death by Michael Delving
Victim by Josephine Bell
Doctor, Lawyer… by Colin Wilcox
Black Widower by Patricia Moyes
The Terrorists by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
The Matter of Paradise by Brown Meggs
Outsider in Amsterdam by Janwillem van de Wetering
Time of Terror by Hugh Pentecost
LikeLike
Thank you, Bev, for giving the author of Outsider in Amsterdam where others were twee. I have several Van de Weterings kicking around the house, but I can’t recall if this is one of them.
LikeLike
Someone should do The Dreadful Lemon Sky by John D. MacDonald. The first John D. I ever read, sometime shortly after it was published.
LikeLike
I will be doing The Dreadful Lemon Sky. I wanted to start my re-reading the Travis McGee series with the first book, The Deep Blue Good-By, but I have been putting it off for a while. So this one will be my re-introduction to the series.
LikeLike
Excellent! I look forward to reading your review. It’s been a long while since I last read it.
LikeLike
I’ll hopefully be reading Patricia Moyes Black Widower.
LikeLike
I’ll be interested to see what you make of it. I’m about half-way through it now…
LikeLike
OUTSIDER IN AMSTERDAM (along with all the rest of the De Gripstra books) was reprinted a few years ago and is also available in an eBook, too. Highly recommended. Someone ought to read that one. If you want to learn about Zen Buddhism via a Dutch cop, then this is the one.
Once again, this is a year during which many prolific writers did *not* publish a book. 1976 would have been better for US writers. Anyway, here’s my monthly list of the American writers who did have a book published in the chosen year.
Danger Money – Mignon Eberhart
The Barclay Place – Rae Foley
Dead Run – Jack Foxx (Bill Pronzini)
A Nun in the Closet – Dorothy Gilman
Heart of Gold – Russell Greenan
Who Killed the Pie Man? – Phillips Lore
Minotaur Country – Helen McCloy
The Dreadful Lemon Sky – John D. MacDonald (Oh, I see Tracy called this one. Good job!)
Fatal Flourishes (short stories ) – S. S. Rafferty
Brothers Keepers – Donald E Westlake
Two Much – Donald E Westlake
Spindrift – Phyllis Whitney
And I’ll throw in one Brit because this was his debut year as a mystery novelist and I remember it being at least very funny, if not a brilliant mystery.
Cast, In Order of Disappearance – Simon Brett
And of course I will stun you all by choosing yet another book that no one will ever read in their lifetime…other than me. :^D
LikeLiked by 1 person
John: I’ve got Outsider in Amsterdam…we’ll see if I get to it.
LikeLike
Pingback: ‘International intrigue, mysterious murders, and headstrong damsels’: #1907book round-up | Past Offences: Classic crime, thrillers and mystery book reviews
Pingback: Too Many Suspects (1975 TVM) | Noirish
Just for fun, here’s the 1975 pilot, Too Many Suspects, for the single-season 1975-6 Ellery Queen TV series starring Jim Hutton as Ellery.
LikeLike
When this first came out, I rejoiced and enjoyed it utterly. The earlier TV-movie based on Cat of Many Tails aged badly due to modernization, but this one was smart and snappy, a great harbinger of the series! I’m glad that I can revisit it occasionally on YouTube. Thanks for sharing, John!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad to know you enjoyed it too! The earlier TVM is on the pile somewhere — I recall seeing it a long long long time ago and being unimpressed, but there’s every possibility I might like it if I saw it anew.
LikeLike
I can’t find the series on YouTube, aside from a couple of episodes in which, bizarrely, the solution seems to have been spliced onto the episode’s start.
*user has an idea*
Yes, the series is on DailyMotion: http://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x4eabd_lfenrick_ellery-queen-complete/1#video=x4gcaaw
LikeLike
I own the series on DVD, but it’s also on Hulu. Can you get Hulu?
LikeLike
Yes, but I’m not particularly fashed to watch the rest of the series. I dug out the URL in case anyone else might be interested.
LikeLike
OMG I’m so excited…I actually own two books published in 1975 that I haven’t read and they’re both by Australian crime writers. I usually have to go visiting the library or ordering books online for this challenge 🙂
LikeLike
I’m going to try to “get with the program” this month. I’ll plan to review Catherine Aird’s “Slight Mourning.” I think I’ve read it before, but so long ago that not even the back-cover blurb brings any of it back to me.
LikeLike
You probably won’t see this, Les, but I love the structure of Slight Mourning. Will be interested to see what you make of it…
LikeLike
I did see it, JJ – I’ve long been a fan of Aird. Her plotting and her characters are remarkably close to GA standards, I think, which is worth noting in someone who began her mystery career in the 1960s and has continued ever since.
LikeLike
First offering: Black Widower by Patricia Moyes
LikeLiked by 1 person
Here’s a discussion on Agatha Christie’s Curtain: https://ahsweetmysteryblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/08/a-bientot-poirot-agatha-christies-curtain/
LikeLike
Pingback: Black Widower (1975) by Patricia Moyes | crossexaminingcrime
Here is my review of Moyes’ Black Widower:
LikeLike
My first review for this month: Cast, in Order of Disappearance by Simon Brett.
LikeLike
I looked at Joseph Hone’s The Sixth Directorate, and it was fabulous. http://clothesinbooks.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/dress-down-sunday-book-of-1975.html
LikeLike
I will do The Jerusalem File by Linda Stewart
LikeLike
http://suspenseandmystery.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-jerusalem-file-by-linda-stewart.html
LikeLike
Second review for the month: Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter.
LikeLike
My first of three: A Country Kind of Death by Mary McMullen
What a relief it was only 167 pages. My first real slam of a book in a very long time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have done a post for The Dreadful Lemon Sky by John D. MacDonald, on November 16, 2016 at Bitter Tea and Mystery.
LikeLike
Thanks Tracy, here’s your link: http://bitterteaandmystery.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/the-dreadful-lemon-sky-john-d-macdonald.html
LikeLike
Thanks so much.
LikeLike
Pingback: #164: On Failing to Engage with “the Swedish John Dickson Carr” – Deadly Reunion (1975) by Jan Ekström [trans. Joan Tate 1983] | The Invisible Event
Here is Deadly Reunion as promised.
LikeLike
Pingback: Review: Last Bus to Woodstock (1975) by Colin Dexter | A Crime is Afoot
My review of Catherine Aird’s “Slight Mourning” is live at http://www.classicmysteries.net/2016/11/slight-mourning.html
Thanks1
LikeLike
My own Slight Mourning review here: https://blog.firedrake.org/archive/2016/11/Slight_Mourning__Catherine_Aird.html
Probably just one more to post before the end of the month.
LikeLike
Pingback: An April Shroud by Reginald Hill – In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel
An April Shroud is up at classicmystery.wordpress.com. Brace yourself…
After that, I might try and squeeze in Black Widower… let’s see
LikeLike
Pingback: Mary Higgins Clark: Where are the Children? | Past Offences: Classic crime, thrillers and mystery book reviews
Probably my last for this month: A Case of Spirits by Peter Lovesey, in which it is assumed the reader doesn’t know the tricks of spiritualism (probably more plausible in 1975 than now).
LikeLike
Nuts! One day late with my last post. Hope I make it into your monthly round-up because these two books were very good. Here’s the link for a combined post I did on both:
The Topless Tulip Caper by Lawrence Block and The Snake by James McClure
LikeLike
No probs John, doing the roundup now.
LikeLike