Martin Edwards’ marvelous The Golden Age of Murder: The Mystery of the Writers Who Invented the Modern Detective Story presents a fascinating cast of characters. Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Anthony Berkeley, G. K. Chesterton, Gladys Mitchell, Margery Allingham, John Dickson Carr, Christianna Brand, Michael Innes, and a dozen more now obscure mystery writers were members of the Detection Club. Edwards weaves the aspects of their individual stories around the activities of the Club. I had no idea these writers were so quirky! I wanted to drop everything and read some Anthony Berkeley when I learned how snarky he was. The Golden Age of Murder will energize readers and trigger a renewed interest in Golden Age detective novels. And, The Golden Age of Murder should win every mystery award in sight! Don’t miss this extraordinary book!
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction
Members of the Detection Club elected 1930-49
Part One: The Unusual Suspects
The Ritual in the Dark
A Bitter Sin
Conversations about a Hanged Woman
The Mystery of the Silent Pool
A Bolshevik Soul in a Fabian Muzzle
Wearing Their Criminological Spurs
The Art of Self-Tormenting
Part Two: The Rules of the Game
Setting a Good Example to the Mafia
The Fungus-Story and the Meaning of Life
Wistful Plans for Killing Off Wives
The Least Likely Person
The Best Advertisement in the World
Part Three: Looking to Escape
“Human Life’s the Cheapest Thing There Is”
Echoes of War
Murder, Transvestism and Suicide During a Trapeze Act
A Severed Head in a Fish-Bag
“Have You Heard of Sexual Perversions?”
Clearning Up the Mess
What It Means to Be Stuck for Money
Neglecting Demosthenes in Favour of Freud
Part Four: Taking on the Police
Playing Games with Scotland Yard
Why was the Shift Put in the Boiler-Hole?
Trent’s Very Last Case
A Coffin Entombed in a Crypt of Granite
Part Five: Justifying Murder
Knives Engraved with ‘Blood and Honour’
Touching with a Fingertip the Fringe of the Great Events
Collecting Murderers
No Judge or Jury but My Own Conscience
Part Six: The End Game
Playing the Grandest Game in the World
The Work of a Pestilential Creature
Frank to the Point of Indecency
Shocked by the Brethren
Part Seven: Unraveling the Mysteries
Murder Goes One Forever
Appendices
Constitution and Rules of the Detectives Club
Bibliography
Index
Index of Titles

Just in time to kick off their “Zip Code Tour,” The Rolling Stones released this new, remastered version of their classic album, Sticky Fingers. These songs never sounded so good! The Rolling Stones are performing in Western New York at Ralph Wilson Stadium (where the Buffalo Bills play) on July 11. Of course, the concert is completely sold out. The ticket prices ranged from $400 to $10,000. I won’t be at the concert, but I’m listening to this classic Stones album as I write this.
SET LIST:
Disc 1
1 Brown Sugar (3:49)
2 Sway (3:53)
3 Wild Horses (5:44)
4 Can’t You Hear Me Knocking (7:15)
5 You Gotta Move (2:33)
6 Bitch (3:37)
7 I Got The Blues (3:54)
8 Sister Morphine (5:34)
9 Dead Flowers (4:05)
10 Moonlight Mile (5:57)
Disc 2
1 Brown Sugar (with Eric Clapton) (4:07)
2 Wild Horses (Acoustic) (5:47)
3 Can’t You Hear Me Knocking (Alternate version) (3:24)
4 Bitch (Extended version) (5:52)
5 Dead Flowers (Alternate version) (4:17)
6 Live With Me (Live version) (4:22)
7 Stray Cat Blues (Live version) (3:48)
8 Love In Vain (Live version) (6:41)
9 Midnight Rambler (Live version) (11:26)
10 Honky Tonk Women (Live version) (4:14)

“Ingredients You Can See & Pronounce” says the Kind granola packaging. And, it’s true! I’m always on the lookout for healthy snacks that are low-carb. Kind granola bars fit the bill. Each of the two bars I sampled only had 8 grams of carbohydrate. These bars are Gluten Free (isn’t almost everything) and non-GMO. The Dark Chocolate Chunk bar and the Oats & Honey were only 150 calories. Kind offers granola bars in dozens of flavors, many of them much higher in carbohydrates especially the fruit ones. But, if you’re looking for a tasty snack, I’d reach for a Kind granola bar. Yum!

I rarely watch a movie twice in two weeks, but my sister from Florida was visiting and wanted to see Jurassic World in 3D. When I reviewed Jurassic World a couple weeks ago (you can check it out here) I pretty much said that it was a perfect Summer pop-corn movie. After seeing it again in 3D, I can report the 3D version of Jurassic World is Superior to the 2D version. That’s not always the case. I’m not a big fan of 3D because most 3D movies aren’t executed very well. But Jurassic World is. Check it out!

“I keep paying his cell phone bill for a year and a half afterwards, because I don’t want to lose the text messages, but I don’t have the heart to read and transfer them. The phone goes dead and gets lost somewhere in the house.” The “afterwards” is the sudden death of Elizabeth Alexander’s husband at the age of 50. The Light of the World–Alexander’s world–was her husband, Ficre. Ficre was a chef and a painter. He loved books and bookstores. He loved his two sons. But Ficre really, really loved Elizabeth Alexander. His love for her springs off the pages of this book. Alexander falls in love with Ficre at first sight. I’ve read Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking and Joyce Carol Oates’ A Widow’s Story, two moving memoirs of the loss of a spouse. The Light of the World may well be the most heart-felt of them all. Diane recommended this book to me after she read it. I’m glad she did.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
I
“Last Night on Earth”
II
Honeycomb
III
“The Edges of Me in the Hands of My Wife”
IV
Ghost of All Bookstores
V
The Plum Blossom

The third season of Orphan Black concludes tonight. I loved the first season of Orphan Black. I was lukewarm about Season Two. I’m very dissatisfied with Season Three. The cast is terrific especially Tatiana Maslany who plays the roles of all the clones. These season the writing has declined with silly plots like Alison selling drugs and running for the School Board. Really? The killing off of a Major Character, while shocking, took one of the more intriguing plots off the board. I don’t know if I’ll watch Season Four. All I know is that the writing needs a major upgrade. And Tatiana Maslany deserves an Emmy Award.

I picked up this little gem at a Library Sale. I SPY: Message From Moscow is in great shape for a book published in 1966. These Whitman books were aimed at the youth market. This book was part of the TV series where popular TV programs provided the raw material for these novels. I found another Whitman, Bonanza, a couple years ago. I had never seen this I Spy book before. Do you remember I Spy? Have you found any of these Whitman books?

I submitted an article to our local newspaper, the Buffalo News. They published my article yesterday and you can read it here or cast your eyes below.

THE FUTURE OF COLLEGE

By George Kelley

Freshman college students and their parents will experience sticker shock when the costs of a college education arrive in the form of tuition bills and dormitory fees.

Parents might wonder why college has become so expensive. Some students will graduate with student loans in the $100,000 range. Around 1989, most of the states started to cut their funding to higher education. While college costs increased, the states paid less and less of their share. State funding of colleges and universities has been cut by half since 1989. And who got stuck making up the difference? The students and their parents.

College used to be affordable a generation ago. Now, many students will be paying tuition equivalent to buying a new car every year for four years. And that’s assuming the student graduates in four years. An increasing number of students find graduating in four years impossible because of funding issues and the unavailability of required courses.

Although most new students look forward to entering college, the sad truth is that over 40 percent of the students who begin their education this fall semester will still be struggling to graduate six years from now. That’s a statistic that won’t be mentioned at college orientation.

There are many reasons why students don’t graduate on time. But the reason I see time and again is that some students are not academically prepared for college, but they go anyway.

Colleges and universities offer extensive remedial courses to provide the learning students didn’t acquire in high school. Many students spend their first year at college grappling with algebra and basic reading and writing courses to learn the reading, writing and math skills required to do college-level work. That delays graduation, since remedial courses don’t satisfy college graduation course requirements.

So the college experience for many students will mean struggling in remedial courses and coping with the grind of retaking required courses until they finally pass them. Meanwhile, college costs will increase (Erie Community College is raising its tuition $300) and graduation may prove elusive for many students.

Higher education is facing the same diminishment of quality that the K-12 grades experience. The educational bureaucracy proliferates while fewer and fewer resources reach the students in the classroom. Art and music programs are eliminated, but more administrators are hired.

Affordable quality education needs to be a priority if we want a growing, vibrant economy. Too many children face a jobless future because their dumbed-down “education” is bogus and access to higher education costs too much.

George Kelley, of North Tonawanda, is a professor of business administration at Erie Community College’s City Campus.

I have no recollection of how Vivan Swift’s incredible book, When Wanderer’s Cease to Roam came into my house. Usually, I can remember fairly accurately where and when I bought a book. But not this one. Diane was “decluttering” our living room and said: “I’m getting very tired of dusting this book. When are you going to read it?” I picked up When Wanderers Cease to Roam and told Diane, “I don’t remember this book at all. How long has it been here?” “I’ve been dusting it for years,” Diane replied. When Wanderers Cease to Roam was published in 2008 so it’s been in our house for seven years utterly forgotten by me. And, I confess, this is not the type of book I usually buy and read. It’s a journal of a woman who’s traveled and captures her adventures in an astonishing book with drawings and watercolor paintings. I’m including a sample of the pages below. This is a browsers delight and a very artful book and a visual feast. After reading it, When Wanderers Cease to Roam is unforgettable. GRADE: A