Christmas has come early…

… courtesy of the British Library. Two more sleeps before opening though.

Reading wrap-up for July 2017

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I’ve had a bit of a rest for a couple of months, during which my blog traffic has gone through the roof, which fact should probably teach me something about leaving well alone, but hasn’t. Here I am back with, … Continue reading →

‘…forced to wander through life being referred to vaguely’: #1977books

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Every month on Past Offences a merry band of bloggers read and review the criminous output of a particular year. I call it Crimes of the Century, and this April we were looking at 1977. Fittingly enough, our first entry … Continue reading →

My best of the hundred best crime and mystery stories

(aka Blogger tries clickbait headlines) Earlier in the week I announced that I’d completed reviewing all 106 in the CWA’s list of the 100 best crime and mystery books, and promised to let you know which books I thought genuinely … Continue reading →

John Sladek: Invisible Green

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Where else, Major, might one find a London bobby, a solicitor’s clerk, a baronet, an ex-Army chap, a greengrocer’s daughter and a – a bohemian eccentric, not to mention a chemistry student – all gathered in one room to discuss … Continue reading →

Achievement Unlocked: The CWA top 100

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Since beginning Past Offences I have been quietly working my way through the CWA’s 1990 list of the 100 best crime books, a list which begins or end with The Four Just Men (#100) and ends or begins with The … Continue reading →

Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None

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If this had been an old house, with creaking wood, and dark shadows, and heavily panelled walls, there might have been an eerie feeling. But this house was the essence of modernity. There were no dark corners – no possible sliding panels – … Continue reading →

Stein Riverton: The Iron Chariot

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‘I am, in fact, something of a poet. A poet of fear.’

Lois Austen-Leigh: The Incredible Crime

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Men with brains and ability can be found all over the world, moreover there are always others coming on to fill their places, but such Jacobean rooms as this are not to be found all over the world, nor are … Continue reading →

‘The biggest group of red herrings’: #1937book roundup

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Every month at Past Offences an intrepid band of bloggers proffers their opinions on a particular year on crime fiction. I call it Crimes of the Century. The stakes were high this time. Regular player JJ recently made a case … Continue reading →