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 →

‘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 →

And Zen There Were None

(Well, if H. R. F. Keating can get away with Zen There Was Murder…) News just in from the Agatha Christie Newsletter of another new adaptation of Christie’s classic – this time from Japan. The adaptation is set in the … Continue reading →

“Was she getting sunbonnets on the brain?” #1943book roundup

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Thanks to everyone who submitted a review for the February 2017 Crimes of the Century challenge to review a book or film from 1943. Tracy at Bitter Tea and Mystery celebrated five years of blogging this month, and celebrated by sharing … Continue reading →

‘The admiration that existed for all things American’: 1959 books

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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. Regular player Bernadette of Reactions to Reading chose us 1959 for January. Here’s … Continue reading →

BBC’s The Witness for the Prosecution

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The BBC’s flagship Christie adaptation aired last night. They promised us dark and sexy – but did they deliver? We are certainly a long way from Marple. It doesn’t look like an adaptation of a Golden Age story, and, for example, you … Continue reading →

‘I like young men. I like their company.’ The Witness for the Prosecution

After yesterday’s trailer for Maigret, here’s another Christmas televisual treat – the BBC’s The Witness for the Prosecution, clearly going for ‘brooding and dark’. Nice touch with the cat…

The ‘salivating male audience’: The #1975book round-up

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Every month on Past Offences, we look at a particular year in crime fiction. For November I picked 1975. John at Noirish opened the month with a TV show (we don’t get enough TV shows on here) Too Many Suspects, starring … Continue reading →

‘A full account of how to make a jam omelette’: The #1930book round-up

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Every month here at Past Offences, I round up crime and mystery fiction reviews focusing on a particular year. It’s called Crimes of the Century. In September we were looking at 1930, which proved to be a stonking year in … Continue reading →

Crooked House movie update

I noticed some news items recently about the forthcoming Neil LaBute film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1949 standalone novel Crooked House, which reminded me of reporting a similar story back in 2012. Amazingly that was the same film, which goes … Continue reading →