May MysteryKIT - The Golden Age

The Golden Age of mystery writing predominantly refers to books written in the interwar period, mostly in the 1920s and 1930s. However, as many of the writers who began their bodies of work in this timeframe continued writing into the 1970s or so, the definition can be elastic.

The style has been so popular that it is still being replicated now. Kindle Unlimited is chock full of 1920s and 30s style mysteries.

Entirely up to each reader whether they choose to read from the actual Golden Age or to treat it more as a particular style of mystery writing.

Happy mystery reading!
And please update the wiki if you can! https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2024_MysteryKIT

I'm sure I have lots to fit this one. Let me choose...

Planning to read Death from a Top Hat, a 1938 locked-room mystery by Clayton Rawson, the first of his four novels featuring crime-solving magician The Great Merlini.

I probably won't have much unless we can read a mystery set in the 1930s...

But I'll check, anyway.

I am planning on reading The Ginger Cat Mystery by Robin Forsythe. He wrote a series of mysteries during the 1920s and 30s and this one was published in 1935.

I am intermittently working my way through the works of two Golden Age authors, Agatha Christie and Michael Innes, although I have now reached some of their later works.

More strictly Golden Age, I have sitting on my shelves The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey (1929) and Murder At Cambridge by Q. Patrick (1933).

>4 LibraryCin: I think it is fine to read a modern mystery set in the time period - there are so many now being written in the style of that era. And I do love them myself!
I've left it to each reader's discretion as to interpretation.

I will read something by Agatha Christie, and I'm sure I'll get lots of BBs from this thread!

I have yet to read Gladys Mitchell, so I'm going with Death at the Opera. My edition has a remarkable ugly cover!

>7 JayneCM: Thank you! That being the case, I will probably aim for Spanish Fly / Will Ferguson

ETA: Hmmm, the "mystery" tag is pretty small on "Spanish Fly". Will need to be sure there is actually some kind of mystery in the book! I have an alternate picked out: Radio Girls / Sarah-Jane Stratford

Original Post: 04/21/2024:
I've just started It Walks by Night: A Parisian Locked-Room Mystery (Henri Bencolin #1; by John Dickson Carr) - Originally published in 1930 and currently included in the British Library Crimes Classics collection.

Update: 04/29/2024
It Walks by Night: A Parisian Locked-Room Mystery (Henri Bencolin #1; by John Dickson Carr) - Henri Bencolin is a French juge d'instruction (examining magistrate) in the Paris judicial system who is called upon to protect the new husband of a recent divorcée. The groom, Duc de Saligny, has been specifically threatened by the women's first husband-- a dangerous lunatic who has undergone plastic surgery-- so no one knows what he looks like now. At a casino, the Duc is seen to enter a room with two watched/guarded doors-- but though he enters alone, he is soon discovered dead. This is a solid locked-room whodunit with no cheats and some great descriptive passages conveying the time and place of 1920s, jazz-age Paris. There is a second, short story called "The Shadow of the Goat" included in the British Library Crime Classics edition; but it is not nearly as well developed as the main attraction.

I read A Question of Proof by Nicholas Blake

I have found Murder Underground on my shelf which is a happy coincidence.

I have And Then There Were None, the classic by Agatha Christie written in 1939, which has been on my shelves forever and I'm not 100% if I've ever read it, so now would be a good time to see. I also have Georgette Heyer's No Wind of Blame written in 1939 - I'll see if I can get to both.

I’ve also started an Agatha Christie novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot #4). I listened to the audiobook edition (narrated by Robin Bailey) in 2011 so technically this is a re-read. However, James Pritchard (the author’s grandson) and Louise Penny, in their respective introductions, assure me that a re-read is definitely worth the effort!

I finished Lonesome Road by Patricia Wentworth, which reminded me a lot of Dame Agatha mysteries.

I've finished The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey. This is my first Tey and I'm glad to have finally given her a try. Enjoyed this one quite a bit. Looking forward to reading the rest of her work.

Finished Death from a Top Hat by Clayton Rawson, the first of four novels featuring stage magician/amateur detective The Great Merlini. Delightful, and I look forward to reading more Rawson.

COMPLETED The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey (1929)

I skipped Death at the Opera and read another by Mitchell, The Rising of the Moon. This was published in 1945 and is about two young brothers investigating a series of Ripper-like murders in their village. Scotland Yard sends Mrs. Bradley, but she accepts the help and information from the boys, who are trying to make sure their older brother isn't suspected.

COMPLETED Murder at Cambridge by Q. Patrick

I just finished The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot #4; by Agatha Christie) and I am embarrassed to say that even though I had not only listened to the audio a few years ago and considered it my favorite Poirot mystery (though admittedly I have not read many), I was completely taken by surprise! I thought I knew the trick of it but I misremembered… Written in 1926, it still stands up absolutely as a whodunnit: In a small village, one day between the times of 9:30pm and 10:00pm, a man is murdered in his study. Is his death related to a blackmail scheme? Avarice over the household income which he controlled? Upstairs/Downstairs drama? Petty theft? Plenty of motives and suspects but Poirot uses his “little grey cells” to solve the mystery.

June thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/360845

I have finished Murder Underground, and while it is very unusual in describing the solving of the mystery mainly from the point of view of the victim's family and acquaintance, the character of Basil Pongleton was frustrating beyond endurance. I could have willingly slapped him.

I usually read an Agatha Christie book for my Golden Age mystery challenge. I read The Boomerang Clue this year, originally released as Why Didn't They Ask Evans.

I read The Ginger Cat Mystery by Robin Forsythe for this challenge but unfortunately it just didn't work for me.

COMPLETED Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie. A Golden Age author, but a later work

I read Death Comes As The End by Agatha Christie - written in the Golden Age (1944), but set in Ancient Egypt. It wasn't my favourite and I am glad to return to her usual time and settings when I read another one by her.

I read Deadly Nightshade by Elizabeth Daly which has a tag of Golden Age, but the story was somewhat convoluted and along with the number of characters didn't make it as enjoyable as I had hoped.

I have read three Golden Age mysteries this month, all by G. D. H. and Margaret Cole:
The Brooklyn Murders
The Death of a Millionaire
The Blatchington Tangle