The Peacock Feather Murders by Carter Dickson

The Peacock Feather Murders aka The Ten Teacups by Carter Dickson

Mr Vance Keating a prodigal adventurer is on the lookout for his next kick, and it comes in the form of a secret society called the "Ten Teacups". Keating receives a note inviting him to the meeting of the teacups. Chief Inspector Masters also gets a note telling him about the meeting of the Ten Teacups. This makes Masters very nervous, why? because the last time there was a meeting of the ten teacups someone had been murdered under enigmatic circumstances.

Keating visits an abandoned house for the meeting, the police follow Keating and watch the empty house clandestinely. Very soon shots are fired from inside the house and the police found Mr Keating dead, lying next to a table which has ten teacups arranged in a circular manner. Keating has been shot through the back of his head and spine. The Police search the whole house and not a living soul is found. No one came inside the house, no one went out. How did Mr Keating managed to get shot?

The Jackal Man by Kate Ellis

Clare Mayers was walking back home after a few drinks. on the solitary dark road to her house she noticed a belligerent animal, the size of a man running up towards her. The frightened girl turned and ran back but soon she found herself being strangled around the neck with a wire. An approaching car proved to be her life saver as the attacker ran on seeing the headlights. Clare described to the police that the perpetrator of her ordeal was a man wearing a dog mask.

Later, the police found another victim and this time she is not lucky. The enigmatic attacker has succeed where he failed earlier. He strangled the victim and then tore off her clothes, cut out her organs and put them in a pile neatly besides the body, and then wrapping her in linen clothes Prepared her for the afterlife just as the ancient Egyptians would.

Picture Imperfect and other Byomkesh Bakshi Mysteries by Saradindu Bandyopadhyay

Byomkesh Bakshi was a popular TV series in the early 1990's which aired on Doordarshan, having never watched the show and hearing many encomiums about it, I picked up the book on which the show is based. now you might ask why would I not just watch the TV show instead of reading the book? very candidly speaking I have  entered a few reading challenges this year that require me to read a mystery from Asia or your home state/country. Also I thought it would give me the opportunity to analyse Indian mystery writing to its European and American counterparts.

The stories were was originally written in Bengali and have been translated in English. Since the book consists of multiple stories, I'm going to write short capsule reviews of each one. 

The Case of the Crooked Candle by Erle Stanley Gardner

Perry Mason the famous crime lawyer is hired by Carol Burbank to help her father Roger Burbank circumvent the law. Roger Burbank is accused of murdering a business associate abroad his Yacht. The victim is Roger Milfield, a man who superficially seems harmless but had many dirty secrets and had a countless list of enemies. Perry Mason has to get his client extricated, in order to do that he will have to solve the puzzle of the crooked candle.

A candle is found besides the dead body which is little burnt and is 17 degrees from perpendicular. so what about it? This seemingly frivolous candle turns out be the most vital clue in the case.

Review: Erle Stanley Gardner was one of the most prolific writers of his time. Gardner was one of the best selling authors of all time and certainly
the best in the mystery genre. but he also had his detractors like Rex stout, for example, once claimed that the Perry Mason books weren't even novels. so how did Mason and Gardner do in the case of the crooked candle?

The Case of the Constant Suicides by John Dickson Carr

Dr Alan Campbell a Scot, who has never been to Scotland gets a letter inviting him to meet others members of his Clan following the death of a family member. The departed soul is of Angus Campbell, a man who has plunged to his death from the window of a  locked bedroom chamber atop a tower. The insurance agent calls it a suicide but Angus's relatives call it murder. The perplexing question to be asked is how can someone murder a man who is alone in a locked room bolted from inside, and the only window to the room is inaccessible from both below and top. The relatives come up with their own conundrum which is the discovery of a dog carrier bag under the bed of Angus, the relatives contemplate that something could have escaped from the bag that would have led Angus to jump in sheer fright from the soaring high tower.

Meanwhile these questions linger on, there is another suicide attempt off the tower and a third locked room suicide, making this a Case of Constant Suicides for Dr. Gideon Fell.

Review:

The Master of the locked room Returns! For me reading Carr books releases the same endorphins as sex or chocolates. His books have everything which a being like me wants to pass over time in this world full of  otherwise mundane and monotonous sources of leisure. An Impossible Crime, eccentric and aged detectives, hint of the supernatural, mystery and magic. Enough with the Carr encomiums, lets do the book review.

Murder must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers

Mr. Death Bredon has joined the seemingly unobtrusive firm of Pym's Publicity. Pym is an Advertising agency where Bredon has joined as the copy writer. But very soon Mr. Bredon discovers that Pym isn't exactly what it seems to be and the reader finds out even sooner that Mr. Bredon isn't who he says he is.

Few chapters in the book and you don't have to be Henry Merrivale(god help you if you don't know who he is) to deduce that Mr. Bredon is actually the Aristocrat Lord Peter Wimsey, who is also an amateur sleuth and has joined Pym in the garb of an overtly curious copy writer to investigate the death of Victor Dean and to bust a smuggling racket.

Review:

Dorothy Sayers along with Agatha Christie forms the female mystery authors duo of the Golden Age of detective fiction. Lord Peter Wimsey was to Sayers what Poirot was to Christie.  Sayers wrote a number of mystery novels involving Wimsey. so now lets get down to the book review.

Best Agatha Christie Books

On recently completing the 25th post of my blog, I thought of doing something special. Since Dame Christie is probably the most popular author in the Mystery Genre and the most popular on my blog, I decided to do a double treat a best of Agatha Christie from all her books and another Best of Hercule Poirot. later on I will do a best of Miss Marple because I'm still to go through a few Marple's. So lets start with the best Agatha Christie books.

Top 5 Agatha Christie Books:

Some buried Caesar by Rex Stout

Nero Wolfe, the famous New York Detective is travelling with his assistant Archie Goodwin to an Agricultural fair north of NY. In the way the meet with an accident and the Stout Wolfe somehow ends up in the path of Caesar, no not the man who created the Roman Empire from the Republic but a prized bull who is also the focal point of a great controversy in the region.

Caesar is owned by Mr. Pratt, who is a wealthy restaurateur and plans to BBQ the prized bull for publicity. This is vehemently opposed by the Guernsey League and Mr. Pratt's neighbor Osgood who thinks that this is a ploy by Pratt to humiliate the Osgood's. Clyde Osgood makes a 10 grand bet with Pratt that he won't be able to barbecue Caesar. A worried Pratt seeks the service of Wolfe to have Archie protect the bull from any malevolent machinations, which Wolfe agrees to.

Something goes wrong the same night Clyde Osgood is found dead in the Pasture and apparently he has been gored to death by Caesar. The case is simple enough Clyde went in to steal Caesar in order to win the bet but instead got Gored to death. Two people don't believe this Clyde's father and Nero Wofle. Osgood Senior hires  Wolfe to find out what really happened.

Review:

Mystery book sellers voted Some buried Caesar as one of the top 100 favorite mystery books of the 20th century. Why not? It has everything a gripping plot which is also comical. A hardboiled Detective and his eager and impetuous Assistant, beautiful women and a decent mystery. so did it work for me?

Last bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter

A beautiful, young blonde is found raped and murdered outside a bar in Woodstock. It is discovered that the victim and a friend had earlier hitched hike to the bar in Woodstock in a red car. but neither her friend nor the
person who gave the ride are to be found, and with no witnesses to the crime The murder in Woodstock becomes an enigma.

The case is handled by the eccentric Inspector Morse and the scrupulous Sergeant Lewis. The two work meticulously to uncover modicum clues and secrets and found out that the murder could have been committed by a perverted voyeur, a cheating husband, a depressed house wife or even by one of the staff at the office where she worked.

Review:
After hearing a lot about Inspector Morse and the writing prowess of Colin Dexter, I decided to give this one a try and I chose the first book in the series. There are in total 13 books in the Inspector Morse series and a very popular and successful TV show which its acolytes swear by.

How did I find the book?

The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie

The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie

A pair of siblings move to a sleepy English Town to find peace and solace in the country side. but the city slickers dream turn sour very soon. The town's folk are the victims of malicious machinations by a crazed lunatic who sends anonymous hate letters to these people, very soon one of these letters proves to be fatal as the wife of a lawyer takes her own life after being accused of adultery in one of the letters. The police start a hunt for the person responsible but Miss Marple thinks that this might not have been a suicide after all.

With a truck load of suspects and with endless Red Herrings. We get a classic Agatha Christie.

Review:

This is one of the best Miss Marple's I have ever read. Without a doubt this one would feature among the best Agatha Christie novel's of all time. Like all Miss Marple's this is a light read, it's enjoyable and has an excellent red herring.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

The moonstone is a beautiful yellow diamond the size of a tangerine. It is the symbol of the moon god. The Moonstone is protected by Hindu Brahmins who for generations have been guarding it from invaders and thieves. The Diamond is said to be cursed, whoever lands up with it gets involved in terrible predicaments.

It gets stolen from Tipu Sultan's Palace in India by a an officer of the invading British Army and then lands up in Yorkshire in the lap of the beautiful Miss Verinder who is celebrating her birthday. under curious and mysterious circumstances the diamond is stolen from Miss Verinder's room. Thus starts the hunt for the diamond.


Review:
The name of the blog is Classic Mystery Hunt, and this one is truly a classic. It was written in 1868 and since I'm writing this blog in 2012 that makes this book 144 years old. The Moonstone is generally regarded as the first Detective mystery novel. and folks like Dorothy Sayers call it as the "finest detective story ever written".

So is all the hype well deserved?