Nostalgia City Mysteries

Mark S. Bacon

Tag Archives: Agatha Christie

10:42 am - January 24, 2024 -

Mark Bacon’s Kollege of Noir Knowledge

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Noir II – Advanced Investigation MB-302  Cain Building  T-Th 9 a.m.

Answers for Quiz #2

Here are the answers to the second quiz of this course. Okay, these last two questions were tough, but this is the advanced noir class. Remember your instructor has your best interests at heart.

For your next assignment, write a 300-page noir novel and include the line, “I don’t have to show you any sticking badges” or “Release the Kraken.”

Q 1. Who are the top selling mystery writers today?

Short answer: James Patterson and John Grisham.

Longer answer Extra credit: Finding out who were/are the best selling mystery writers via an internet search is a challenge. Nearly every response to a query about best sellers returned lists of “best” authors—in many persons’ opinions—not top selling mystery writers.  I resorted to Wikipedia’s list of best selling authors, regardless of genre, and picked out the mystery/crime writers.

Agatha Christie, no matter how many billion of her books have been sold, is the undisputed champ. More books by Christie have been sold than anyone in history except Shakespeare. The French detective writer Georges Simenon is certain to be number two, beyond that it’s guesswork. What follows is the Wikipedia listing with the range of books likely sold.

Agatha Christie  2-4 billion

Georges Simenon, author of the French Inspector Maigret series, 500-700 million

Earl Stanley Gardener 100 – 325 million

James Patterson  150-275 million (the magazine Mental Floss says Patterson has sold 300 million books.)

John Grisham  100-250 million

Carter Brown 100-120 million

Mickey Spillane 100-200 million

Q 2.  Where did mystery writer Sue Grafton get the name for her fictional community?

Answer  Grafton’s make-believe community, Santa Teresa, bears the same name as the town that Ross Macdonalds’ detective, Lew Archer, haunts.  She used the name as a salute to Macdonald.

Q 3. Where is the town?

Answer  The town is generally thought to be patterned after Santa Barbara, Calif.

Question 4.   Who wrote, “The butler did it”? Continue Reading →

Categories: Mystery quiz, Noir, noir novels Tags: , , ,
7:05 am - November 30, 2021 -

Agatha Christie and the history of the finger

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If you think writing a novel is challenging, try coming up with a title. Especially one with a finger in it.

The title is critically important to a book, even more than the cover.  I often agonize over my decision. Many years ago, the publisher of my first book changed its title.

My new book, Dark Ride Deception, focuses on the theft of mind-bending technology for theme park dark rides (indoor attractions), but it includes the discovery of a severed finger. It’s not what the story is about. It’s just clue, a loose finger.  But I became enamored with using that in the title, and I remembered an Agatha Christie novel, The Moving Finger.

Christie wasn’t referring to an unattached digit like the one in my book. In fact, she took the title from the translation of Omar Khayyam verse:

“The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”

The moving finger is vaguely referenced in her book, including a clue that anonymous threatening letters were typed by someone using one finger.

Immediately I thought about titling my book, The Unmoving Finger. That’s obviously the state of the finger in my book, and it would be an homage to that most famous mystery writer. But how many people would see the connection? The Moving Finger was published in 1942 and was not one of Christie’s most well-known works.

I thought my literary allusion might be wasted, so I aimed for something slightly less sophisticated. Getting the Finger was my first idea. Then I thought I could attract browsers’ attention even better with Giving the Finger.

References such as—to use the vernacular—flipping the bird, stretch farther back than Christie, even farther back than Omar Khayyam. According to Wikipedia, the middle finger gesture dates to ancient Greece and Rome. Also, there’s a story, probably apocryphal, that flipping the bird came into use at Battle of Agincourt between the British and French in 1415. The French supposedly planned to cut off the middle fingers of British archers so they couldn’t shoot.  When it didn’t happen, the British flipped their middle fingers in contempt.

Regardless of its occasionally obscene history, the finger is a popular word in mystery titles, often referring to, or pointing out, someone’s guilt. That was another of my great title ideas: Finger of Guilt. Author Paul Grossman beat me to it with his 2012 short story. The Amazon description of his Finger of Guilt says that star investigator Hans Fraksa claims the authorities have caught “Kinderfresser, the vicious child eater of Berlin.”

The finger is popular in titles for many, possibly less gruesome mystery/crime stories, including:

—  Finger Lickin’ Fifteen (2009) by Janet Evanovich
 — Finger Prints (2009) by Barbara Delinski
 — Fingerprint (2011) by Patricia Wentworth
— The Three Fingered Hand (2013) by Edda Brigitte Walsleben
— Fingered For Murder (2013) by Rodney Wilson, and
— The Finger: A Novel of Love & Amputation (2014) by David L. Robbins.

In addition to the publishing world, Hollywood keeps its finger on the pulse of its customers, and thus for decades a variety of crime and mystery films have used digital nomenclature in titles. Among the best known is Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Five Fingers (1952). Based on a true story, James Mason stars as a British spy working for the Nazis and Michael Rennie as a British agent on his trail. Unrelated to the Mankiewicz film, Laurence Fishburne starred in a 2006 thriller called Five Fingers. In addition, a 1959 television series used the same name.

I ran my finger down a long list of similarly-titled films as I struggled to decide what to call my book. A sampling:

— The Beast with Five Fingers (1946) This spooky mystery/horror film takes place in an isolated Italian manor house and stars Robert Alda and Peter Lorre. Based on the trailer, the entire film happens at night.
— Fingers (1978) Harvey Keitel plays Jimmy “Fingers” Angelelli, a talented pianist who is also a part-time collector for his mob-connected father.
— Finger Man (1955) Frank Lovejoy goes undercover to finger a mobster.
— Finger of Guilt (1956) Richard Basehart, a happily married film executive, is stalked by a woman he says he does not know.
— Five Fingers of Death (1972) In the poster for this martial arts movie, a guy has hooked fingers that look like claws.

Probably the most famous movie of the batch was the 1964 film that forever cemented James Bond in the hearts of viewers: Goldfinger.

Finally, after research and rumination, I decided that, because it tells what the book is actually about, Dark Ride Deception would be my best title. Fingers crossed. 

Categories: New mystery book, obscenity in mystery novels, profanity in mystery novels Tags: , , , , , , ,
6:07 am - September 23, 2016 -

Parting the gauzy curtain of misdirection

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Murder mysteries

What is a mystery novel without a puzzle? Guest writer Daniella Bernett explores some of the elements that make up the puzzle.  Bernett’s second mystery in the Emmeline Kirby-Gregory Longdon series, Deadly Legacy, debuts tomorrow, Sept.24, from Black Opal Books. 

Why is the question that my mind whispers when I dip into a deliciously intriguing mystery. For me, it’s always been about the puzzle. A desire to find out how and why a crime was conceived and executed. To figure out who the murderer is before the sleuth.

deadly-legacy-daniella-beDoes it sound cold-blooded and calculating? Perhaps it is. But I rather like to view it as a diverting challenge. I have to be sharp because the author has deliberately set me off on the wrong path. The only way to uncover the right clues that will reveal the truth is to part the gauzy curtain of misdirection. The author is not completely cruel, though. He or she always leaves a strand or two dangling in the wind. It is the reader’s job to grasp it quickly before it drifts away.

Another thing that helps the reader tremendously on this quest for answers is understanding human nature and all its foibles. In my opinion, Agatha Christie was the master at peeling back the layers of the psyche to reveal greed, jealousy and pure, naked evil. Knowledge is power. With knowledge, the reader can navigate the twists and turns of the tale to see justice prevail, as it always must. Continue Reading →

Categories: craft of writing, Mystery novels, New mystery book, writing techniques Tags: , , ,
6:00 am - March 17, 2016 -

Do you hate f***ing profanity in mystery novels?

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A thug the size of an NFL lineman grabs Sam Shamus around the neck and throws him down the stairs. The bad guy follows him, stomps on his face and tells him he’s a low-life private dick and if he ever shows up again he’ll get a real beating.

Somehow Sam manages to get to his feet. He glares at the crook and says, “Pardon me sir, but I object to the way you’re characterizing my profession. And I ask that you refrain from inflicting further physical indignities, you hooligan.”Profanity-balloon

That’s what Sam says, anyway. Your average detective-novel hero might use different words.

Sam’s situation—or a version of it—went through my mind when I started writing mystery short stories and later, my first mystery novel. Should I use profanity? My initial answer: no. We’re slammed with the f-word so often in crime movies that profanity loses its punch. But the more I wrote, and the more I thought about it, studiously avoiding profanity seemed unrealistic. What the hell was I to do?

Profanity in literature, a fascinating topic—particularly in the mystery/suspense/thriller genre—varies from author to author. But before we get into that, a few words about four-letter words. While I eventually decided in favor of what’s delicately called swear words in my fiction, I’m still a journalist when I’m writing articles online. My inner AP Stylebook doesn’t permit me to use words you won’t find in your daily paper. Therefore I’m going to resort to f*** and s*** for two words everyone knows. Bear with me.

Not long ago, someone writing on an Amazon discussion page asked about bad language. She wrote: “I am Continue Reading →

Categories: craft of writing, Mystery novels, profanity, short mystery stories, swear words, writing techniques Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
7:05 am - November 9, 2015 -

Whodunit: murder mysteries 101

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Who has sold the most mystery books? Where did the line, “the butler did it” come from? And who wrote the first detective novel?

Begun more than 170 years ago, the detective story is a staple of American literature and equally popular overseas. American writers are joined on best seller lists by mystery authors from the UK, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Italy and other countries. In essence, killing people on paper is popular the world over.

This begins an occasional series on the history, subject matter, authors, techniques and trivia of this genre.

Fedora,-gun-etc.-Sepia--Es-The modern detective story was born in 1841 with the publication of The Murders in the Rue Morgue in Graham’s Magazine in Philadelphia.

First in an occasional series

Edgar Allen Poe’s story describes the analytical power used by detective Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin to solve a series of bizarre murders in Paris. Like the later Sherlock Holmes stories, the tale is narrated by the detective’s roommate. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but a monkey did it. Yes, it is a bizarre twist to have a murderous monkey, but consider who wrote the story.

Following the publication of Poe’s tale, detective short stories and novels gradually became popular. English novelist Wilkie Collins published The Moonstone in 1868, a detective novel that includes several features of the typical modern mystery, including red herrings, false alibis and climactic scenes. Continue Reading →

Categories: Cornell Woolrich, craft of writing, crime novel, Dashiell Hammett, film noir, James M. Cain, Mystery novels, Raymond Chandler Tags: , , , ,
4:53 pm - June 30, 2015 -

The Maltese Falcon reexamined

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“And when you’re slapped, you’ll take it and like it.” Sam Spade to Joel Cairo.

With apologies to Robert B. Parker, Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler and a few others, Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon is the quintessential murder story. Although Sam Spade appeared in only one novel, the cynical, hardboiled detective who bends the rules but still lives by a code, set the standard for all the gumshoes who would follow in the 85 years hence. “I don’t mind a reasonable amount of trouble,” he tells the comely and mysterious Brigid O’Shaughnessy.Bogie-&-Elisha-Cook

Although Spade is such a well-defined and described character, it is difficult for me to separate him from Humphrey Bogart, the actor who portrayed Spade in the 1941 noir film of the same name. Bogart’s height and general appearance don’t match Hammett’s description, but by every other measure, Bogart is Sam Spade.

Recently I reread the novel and, for perhaps the 10th time, watched the film. The similarities and the few differences are worth examining. In fact, there are at least two mysteries within the mystery. And at this point, if you haven’t seen the movie or read the book, do so. Then come back and read the rest of this article. Continue Reading →

Categories: Dashiell Hammett, film noir, New mystery book Tags: , , , , , , ,
8:52 am - April 23, 2015 -

Is it easy for a man to become a woman, on paper?

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By S.B. Redstone

Editor’s note: How difficult is it for male mystery authors to create believable female characters? It is easier for women to create compelling male characters? Examining those questions was the assignment for guest writer, author S.B. Redstone. This column is his response.

I don’t know what the percentage is of male writers creating female detectives and vice versa. I did some research on the web, but did not come up with any definitive statistics.

Certainly, Agatha Christie created well-known male detectives: Hercule Poirot and Inspector Japp. Nancy Drew and Miss Marple may be the most notable female detective characters written by women.

Stieg Larsson wrote The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo with a marvelously imaginative female protagonist. William Moulton Marston created Wonder Woman. Dashiell Hammett wrote The Thin Man with a husband and wife detective team.

Television programs have so many female detectives on the networks, most having to be sexy and beautiful to draw attention to the mundane scripts, which are probably created mostly by men. However, I don’t doubt every writer can create both gender characters in their stories. Based upon all the novels I’ve read, male and female writers do an equally great job in creating memorable characters of the opposite sex. I suppose, as an example, if a male writer couldn’t create notable women characters, which wasn’t the case for Hemmingway or Defoe, they could write such books as The Old Man And The Sea or Robinson Crusoe.

My detective, Aubrey McKenzie, wasn’t designed to be Sherlock Holmes, analyzing clues to catch a killer. She was designed toSinister-obsession be an obsessed detective who would pursue a criminal to the ends of the Earth. With so many different detectives in print and on television, I wasn’t about to create the ordinary.

I chose a woman detective who would have a unique personality and temperament, and stand out from the crowd. Aubrey doesn’t solve crimes with just her intellect and intuition, she has a paranormal ability, which enables her to solve unsolvable crimes, but at the same time it causes a disaster for her social life.

With Aubrey, she brings a powerful emotional response in her pursuit of a most elusive and heinous killer. I paired Aubrey with a male detective, Joshua Diamond, who is her opposite. By having a romance occur between them, I could playfully show how a paranormal ability would affect their relationship. Since I grew up watching 1930’s and 1940’s detective stories with male and female detective teams, which I still love to watch on television, I made the dialogue between them witty, contentious, and heartfelt.

Author S.B. Redstone

Author S.B. Redstone

In my novel, A Sinister Obsession, the challenge of writing female characters was to think like a woman. Be a woman. Now if you were Tarzan, and grew up in the jungle with only ape parents, writing about women would be quite challenging. Simply stated, I become my characters. I enjoy that. It’s a real fun thing to do, especially in my novel when I am dressing Aubrey in designer clothing.

I also enjoyed creating several other women characters with equally fascinating and dynamic personalities. Fortunately for me, I grew up in a household of females, worked with females, had female patients in my therapy practice, have many female friends, have a wife, and daughter.

As a therapist, it’s been my professional business to study people and the truth is, men and women don’t live on different planets. Many women characters I’ve developed through the years have come from women I knew. Based upon my therapeutic training, I’ve been able to develop unique insights into the human mind that has enabled me to create accurate personalities that leap off the pages. Lastly, what I do not know about women, which is still quite extensive, I ask my wife.

Biography, S. B. Redstone

After attaining master’s degrees in Social Work and School Psychology, and then completing a post-graduate education in Psychoanalytic Therapy, I became a School Psychologist and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. I wrote a personal improvement book, Taming Your Inner & Outer Bullies: Confronting Life’s Stressors And Winning. I have written articles on the web about human nature and relationships, given lectures, and appeared on radio shows. Always having a vivid imagination, I wrote short stories before tackling novels. My mystery thriller, A Sinister Obsession, was published by Black Opal Books. As an expert in the field of human psychology, I have been able to develop realistic characters from the dark side of human nature where my villains don’t aspire for happiness through personal achievement, but rather from their demented narcissistic schemes. I am a member of International Thriller Writers and Romance Writers of America. I reside in New York and Florida with my wife, computer, and golf clubs.

S.B. Redstone Website – http://sbredstoneauthor.com

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/steven.rosenstein1

Amazon – http://goo.gl/jHEHbs

Category: New mystery book Tags: , , ,
8:30 am - January 22, 2014 -

Writing advice from mystery authors

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Some years ago (but not as many as you might think) when I was in grad school, I enrolled in a summer seminar, part of the National Writing Project.  One of the other students, who was a high school English teacher, gave me a marvelous little book of quotations.  I’ve treasured it ever since.  It’s one of those few books that’s always on the top of my desk along with a dictionary, AP Stylebook and a few others.

Today I thought I would share some of my favorite bits of writing advice from mystery writers.  You can do a Google or Yahoo search forWriters quote book sml 5061 “writer quotations” and possibly find some of these quotes but not all of them and not in the same place.  My quote book is wonderful.   I turn to it for inspiration, a laugh or both.  See availability notes below.

“My purpose is to entertain myself first and other people secondly.”  John D. MacDonald

“Those big shot writers…could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar.”   Mickey Spillane

“At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.”   Raymond Chandler

“I try to leave out the parts that people skip.”   Elmore Leonard

“The best time for planning a book is when you’re doing the dishes.”                 Agatha Christie

References

The book I have is “The Writer’s Quotation Book; A Literary Companion, Third Edition,” James Charlton, editor.  It’s certainly out of print, but used copies are available in several places online, including Powell’s.   Used copies of the fourth (and presumably last) edition are available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Categories: craft of writing, mystery writers, New mystery book, quotations Tags: , , , , , , ,
8:08 am - May 29, 2013 -

Christie, Conan Doyle and 38 more     cook up crime and puzzlement

Masterpieces of Mystery and Suspense
Compiled by Martin H. Greenberg
International Collectors Library
651 pages
1988
See below for prices and availability

 

It’s the late 1950s, Ginger works in a dime-a-dance joint in a rundown part of town, and someone is killing taxi dancers.

When two police detectives show up at the dance hall one night, Ginger falls for the taller one.  “…if I’d had any dreams left, he coulda moved right into them.”

The cops only know the killer’s favorite song, the kind of ring he has on one finger and the bizarre way he leaves the dancers’ bodies.  With nothing more to go on, they try a stake out.   Luckily, Ginger is one sharp cookie and a step ahead of the police.  Question is, will she be a step ahead of the serial killer?

This carefully crafted tale, The Dancing Detective, is classic noir by Cornell Woolrich and it’s one of 40 short stories in Masterpieces of Mystery and Suspense, a must for the library of every mystery and short story lover.  The stories are short–10-20 pages–and not quite short enough to qualify as flash fiction.   But they clearly demonstrate how a skilled mystery/suspense writer can weave a tale, create characters with depth and have you guessing right up to the end–all in a tiny package.masterpieces of mystery

Woolrich’s story is a good example, combing rich characters and dialog with a snappy plot.   Aspiring mystery writers: read this story.  See how Woolrich creates a thick, gloomy atmosphere and tells us so much about his characters through the way they talk in addition to what they talk about.  Woolrich, like many of the authors in the anthology, were or are known as much for novels as well as short stories.  And again, like other authors, many of Woolrich’s stories became movies.  One of his most famous was Hitchcock’s 1954 Rear Window.

I discovered this collection of gems in a used book store.   It can be found easily online.  See the note at the end of this review.

Writers from Poe to Sue Grafton and Lawrence Block are represented here.  Stories of suspense, mystery and those featuring hard boiled detectives fill the pages.  The collection’s anthologist, Martin Greenberg, introduces each story with a brief biographical sketch of the author and a few words about the selection.

The usual suspects are all here: Dorothy Sayers, Earl Stanley Gardner, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, P.D. James, Ross Macdonald, Ellery Queen, Dick Francis and John Dickson Carr.  A few writers not known for mysteries also provide fascinating stories.  Greenberg included Mark Twain, Ray Bradbury and Stephen King in the collection.

King’s Quitters, Inc. has Dick Morrison run into an old friend in an airport lounge, back when you could smoke in an airport.  The friend has quit the habit for good, he tells Morrison, with the help of an organization that guarantees its results.  In this suspenseful story, the method is the mystery and Morrison’s trials trying to stay off cigarettes can be most appreciated by ex-smokers.

In Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Copper Beeches, Holmes and Watson are approached by a  governess who lives in a country house and works for an eccentric gentleman.  She becomes fearful when her employers ask her to pose for them in certain ways.

Frederick Forsyth’s contribution is, There Are No Snakes In Ireland, a creepy tale of revenge set in Ireland and India.

Rex Stout offers, Help Wanted, Male.  One of the longest entries in the collection, the story begins with a man who has received an anonymous letter saying he is about to die.  He goes to Nero Wolfe for help.  Archie Goodwin figures the man would need to look elsewhere:

“In the years I had been living in Nero Wolfe’s house…I had heard him tell at least fifty scared people, of all conditions and ages, that if someone had determined to kill them and was going to be stubborn about it, he would probably succeed.”

The next day, of course, the man is killed and the police want to know what Wolfe and Goodwin know about it.

If you’re looking for a collection of new crime and detection stories, obviously this isn’t it.  The book is 25 years old and many of the stories are decades older than that.  If, however, you want to be challenged and entertained by some of the best mystery and suspense writers who ever pounded a typewriter, this is the collection for you, if you can find it.

Note on availability:  The book is out of print, but used copies are available from many online sellers.   I purchased my hardbound copy (International Collectors Library edition, listed above) from our local library’s  used book store.   A check of listings for the book at Amazon and other online stores yielded the names of three other publishers and page lengths.  Most common was an edition from St. Martin’s Press at 672 pages.  Minotaur and Doubleday are also listed as the publisher on some sites.   Most available copies are paperback going for $1 or less; shipping charges vary.

Categories: New mystery book, previews, Reviews of mystery/suspense books, short stories Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,