Tag Archives: crime

Why is so special about Margery Allingham? More work for the Undertaker … and all her other writing

Why do I enjoy reading (and re-reading) Margery Allingham’s novels more than any detective stories I’ve read in the last fifty years? Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Close-up or long view? The Commissario Brunetti Novels Donna Leon

What to re-read after The Darkest Evening? I chose Donna Leon’s books about Commissario Brunetti, a Venetian police inspector, doing his best to circumvent his politically ambitious boss so that he can do his job properly. Continue reading

Posted in book review | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Is a writer’s world basically evil or fundamentally sound? Death at the Dolphin Ngaio Marsh

Some crime writers write as if evil is omnipresent and lurks below the most innocuous surface, everyone is capable of crime, and nearly everyone has a secret in their past that they would commit a crime to conceal. Others write as if they feel the world is fundamentally okay, people of goodwill are in the majority, crimes are unusual and happen as an outcome of unusual circumstances Continue reading

Posted in book review | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment