In the 1970s I binged on John Dickson Carr and Carter Dickson mysteries. They’re examples of the Golden Age of the Great Detectives. The plots of Carr’s books were twisty and the clues were mysterious. There was always a hint of the mystical or supernatural luring behind the eventual rational explanations of the crimes. This new book from Ramble House provides the best guide yet to John Dickson Carr and all of his works. James E. Keirans covers all the novels, short tories, radio and Theatrical plays, poems, essays, and book reviews. It’s hard to imagine a more complete package! If you’re a fan of John Dickson Carr this is a must-buy. If you’re a casual fan, you’ll still enjoy all the information provided in this reference book. It will inspire you to read more of John Dickson Carr’s vast oeuvre. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Format
Rules of Engagement
The John Dickson Carr Companion
Index

Patti Abbott is on a book tour promoting Concrete Angel (highly recommended!). But today she appears here on my blog answering questions about books. I met Patti and Phil at a Bouchercon in Indianapolis and later–with Jeff and Jackie Meyerson–we all went to see a play in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada. Patti and Phil are two of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet. Patti’s been hosting Friday’s Forgotten Books for years at http://pattinase.blogspot.com/ and provides great insights into movies and TV shows. I’m sure you’ll find her comments below scintillating!

What books are currently on your nightstand

All of our books are packed so I’m reading on the Kindle. On my Kindle are THIS DARK ROAD TO MERCY, Wiley Cash, BAD FEMINIST, Roxanne Gay, HANGOVER SQUARE, Patrick Hamilton, WADING INTO WAR, Scott Parker, THE DEVIL SHE KNOWS, Bill Loefelm, THE MAGIC OF SHIRLEY JACKSON.

Who is your favorite novelist of all time?

I have read only one novelist who wrote six novels that were each perfect to me: Jane Austen.

What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?

I have thought long and hard about this and I think the only thing that would surprise you is how many books I have bought and not read. I am talking in the hundreds. Always the lure of the new book I don’t have pulls me away from the ones I do.

Who is your favorite fictional hero?

Frankie Addams from THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING. She reminds me so much of the child I was: filled with longing, loneliness, romance, hysteria, hyperbole.

What novel do you return to?

Goodbye Columbus. It reminds me of being young. Of the mistakes you make, of the ardor you harbor.

Patti’s next Book Event is JUNE 18th-New York, Mysterious Bookshop, a conversation with Bryon Quertermous (MURDER BOY)
58 Warren St, New York, NY 10007 7:00 PM

The choice this month for the Wall Street Journal Book Club is Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust. I read this book back in the Sixties when DELL published Waugh’s work in very nice paperback editions. You can join the discussion about A Handful of Dust at http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/06/03/does-evelyn-waugh-care-about-his-characters-wsj-book-club/ A Handful of Dust starts out like a P.G. Wodehouse comedy with a young couple who are having marital problems. But mid-way through the novel a tragedy occurs that changes the tone and trajectory of the book. My favorite Waugh novel is Scoop, but there’s plenty to admire in A Handful of Dust.

I’ve read several of Harold Bloom’s books about literature. Bloom’s new book, The Daemon Knows discusses the 12 American writers Bloom most admires (his two personal favorites are Whitman and Hart Crane). If I were teaching a literature class, I’d mine The Daemon Knows for all the biographical and critical backgrounds on these 12 writers. Bloom discusses each writer’s major works in detail And here is where I had a problem. About a third of A Daemon Knows is quoted material. Yes, of the 500+ pages about 200 pages are quotes from the works of Whitman, Melville, Emerson, Dickinson, Hawthorne, James, Twain, Frost, Stevens, Eliot, Faulkner and Crane. That’s a big chunk of this book. And Bloom rambles from topic to topic. That can be annoying, too. But, if you’re interested in any or all of these classic American writers, A Daemon Knows will enlighten you. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Why These Twelve?
Daemonic Preludium
1: Walt Whitman and Herman Melville
2: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emily Dickinson
3: Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James
4: Mark Twain and Robert Frost
5: Wallace Stevens and T. S. Eliot
6: William Faulkner and Hart Crane
Coda: The Place of the Daemon
Notes
Index

At the end of each semester, I receive Thank You notes from students. Here are a couple that just arrived. You can see why it’s hard for me to think about retirement when I’m teaching students like these.

Professor Kelley

With great thanks,
(name withheld)

And then there’s this one from a student who emigrated from Yemen:

Dr. Kelley,

(name withheld)

Melissa McCarthy plays a mousy clerical worker at the CIA who volunteers for a secret mission. During the silliness of Spy we see Melissa McCarthy develop into an action hero. Jude Law plays a suave spy and Jason Statham portrays a tough-as-nails spy (a spoof of the character Statham usually plays in action movies). Directed and written by Paul Feig (who directed Bridesmaids and The Heat), Spy will entertain you and make you laugh. If you liked Bridesmaids and The Heat you’ll like Spy. GRADE: B

Michael Shea wrote convincing pastiches of Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth. This collection of Nifft the Lean stories blends Jack Vance and Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser to produce heroic fantasies mixed with magic and action. Nifft and his partner, Barnar Hammer-Hand, use guile and sorcery to pull off their grand enterprises. With plenty of exotic locales, fabulous creatures, weird magic, and chatty demons these stories will captivate you. This edition is an omnibus edition of Nifft the Lean (1982) and The Mines of Behemoth (1997) which were published separately. Whether you read the individual volumes or this combined package, you’ll find wonders waiting for you.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Nifft the Lean
Come Then, Mortal, We Will Seek Her Soul… 13
The Pearls of the Vampire Queen… 77
The Fishing of the Demon Sea… 125
The Goddess in Glass… 273
The Mines of Behemoth… 345

Because of a wardrobe malfunction, the Barden Bellas–national champion Collegiate A Cappella group–is suspended.
the only way they can defend their title is to enter the World Championship in Copenhagen…and win it. The problem: no American A Cappella group has ever won the world title (as one commentator says, “The world hates us.”). Many of the women from Perfect Pitch return to sing their hearts out. Of course, problems abound: romantic problems, relationship problems, work problems, future problems, etc. The audience for the Perfect Pitch movies is twenty-something women. Perfect Pitch 2 is already the third highest grossing comedy ($150 million and still growing) ever (the first is The Hangover at $467 million and the second is Austin Powers in Goldmember at $297 million). I’m sure the success of Pitch Perfect 2 will produce a Pitch Perfect 3 in a couple years. GRADE: B

My favorite essays in Sometimes An Art are “History and the Creative Imagination” and “The Search for Perfection.” In “History and the Creative Imagination” Bernard Bailyn writes about his favorite contemporary historians: Perry Miller, Charles McLean Andrews, Lewis Namier, and Ronald Syme. After reading this essay, I wanted to drop everything and read the books that Bailyn discusses. “The Search for Perfection” starts with a discussion of one of my favorite writers: Isaiah Berlin. Berlin shows how the imposition of “Utopias” leads to disaster: “the repressive power of the Soviet state, the annihilatory power of the Nazi regime, the mind-blinding power of Maoist gangs, the suffocating power of Islamic fundamentalism”. If you’re in the mood for some brilliant history written by multiple Pulitzer Prize winner Bernard Bailyn, Sometimes An Art will delight you. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Preface

PART ONE
On History and the Struggle to Get It Right

1. Considering the Slave Trade: History and Memory
2. Context in History
3. Three Trends in Modern History
4. History and the Creative Imagination
5. The Losers

PART TWO
Peripheries of the Early British Empire

6. Thomas Hutchinson in Context: The Ordeal Revisited
7. England’s Cultural Provinces: Scotland and America
(co-authored with John Clive)
8. Peopling the Peripheries
9. The Search for Perfection: Atlantic Dimensions

Appendix
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index