Vintage Mystery Bingo Wrap-up 2015

I am submitting my final golden bingo card after a year of very good reading. I believe that I have 8 lines covered.

Thanks as always to Bev Hankins for all she does. I am looking forward to next year.

 G1  Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon. A book with a color in the title.

G2 Greenmask   by J. Jefferson Farjeon. A book which is not set in England or the US.

G3  The Secret Adversary  by Agatha Christie. A book which features a crime other than murder.

G4 To Wake the Dead  by John Dickson Carr. A locked room mystery.

G5  The Nursing Home Murders by Ngaio Marsh and Dr. H. Jellett. A book with a medical mystery.

G6 The Long Farewell by Michael Innes. A book with a professional detective.

O1 Evidence of Things Seen by Elizabeth Daly. TBR first lines.

O2 The Case of the Seven Sneezes by Anthony Boucher. A book with a number in the title.

O3 The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin. A book with an animal in the title.

O4 The Blotting Book by E. F. Benson. A book by an author whom I have never read before.

O5 Double for Death by Rex Stout. A book with something "spooky" on the cover.

O6 Mrs. Murdock Takes a Case by George Harmon Coxe. A book with a woman in the title.

L1 When the Wind Blows by Cyril Hare. A book set in the entertainment world.

L2  The Glass Key  by Dashiell Hammett. A book which has been made into a movie.

L3  Drury Lane's Last Case  by Ellery Queen. A book with an amateur detective.

L4 Patrick Butler for the Defense  by John Dickson Carr. A book with a man in the title.

L5  Gaudy Night  by Dorothy Sayers. An academic mystery.
  
L6  Nine - and Death Makes Ten by Carter Dickson. A book which involves a mode of transportation.

D1 A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh. A country house mystery.

D2 The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope by C. W. Grafton. A book with a lawyer.

D5 Nine Times Nine by Anthony Boucher. A book that involves clergy or religion.

D5 Heads You Lose by Christianna Brand. A book set in England or the US.

D6  Case with 4 Clowns   by Leo Bruce. An author whose first and last initials are the same as mine.

E1  Murder Comes First  by Richard and Frances Lockridge. A book with a detective team.

E3  Unexpected Night  by Elizabeth Daly. A book published in my birth year.

E2   The Clock Strikes Twelve by Patricia Wentworth. A book with a time in the title.

E4  In the Teeth of the Evidence    by Dorothy Sayers.  A short story collection.

E6  Lord Edgware Dies  by Agatha Christie. A book which I had to borrow.

N1 The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow by Anna Katherine Green. A book with a method of murder in the title.

N2 What Happened at Hazelwood by Michael Innes. A book with a place in the title.

N5 The Black Stage by Anthony Gilbert. A book written by an author with a pseudonym.

N6 Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh. A book featuring a party.

Vintage Mystery Cover Scavenger Hunt 2016

For the year 2016, Bev Hankins of My Reader's Block has come up with a very clever idea. Previous years have challenged readers to complete mystery bingos. In 2016, readers will be challenged to locate objects on the covers of the books which they read. Thus, they will judge a book by its cover.

 Some of the rules read as follows:

"Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to find as many objects on the scavenger hunt list as possible on the covers of the mystery books you read. As has been the case for Vintage Bingo you may play along in either the Golden or Silver Mystery Eras (or, for the more adventurous, both)."

"*Minimum number of items to complete the challenge and to be eligible for the participation prize drawing at the end of the year is six items from the covers of books read from a single Vintage Mystery Era.  If you choose to do both eras, you must use separate checklists. You may not, for example, find three golden age items and three silver age items to claim the minimum six."
 
A  more complete list of rules may be found at Bev's web site.

The list of items to be located for the Golden Challenge are in the graphic below

 The lists of items for the Silver Challenge are in the graphic below

I am looking forward to entering the Golden Scavenger hunt, and I do hope to find more objects that the required six.

My progress:

1. Hag's Nook   by John Dickson Carr. Picture of any other animal (rat)

2. The Lost Gallows   by John Dickson Carr.  Picture of a hangman's noose.

3.   The Santa Klaus Murder  by Mavis Doriel Hay. Picture of a Christmas tree.

4.   Speak No Evil  by Mignon G. Eberhart. Picture of a telephone.

5.    The Deadly Truth  by Helen McCloy. Picture of a drinking glass.

6.    Artists in Crime  by Ngaio Marsh. Picture of Artist/Art Equipment.

7.   The Skeleton in the Clock  by John Dickson Carr. Picture of a clock/timepiece.

8.   The Estate of the Beckoning Lady  by Marjorie Allingham. Picture of a policeman.

9.   No Coffin for the Corpse  by Clayton Rawson. Picture of just one person.

10. And So to Murder   by Carter Dickson. Picture of a typewriter.

11.  The Reader is Warned   by Carter Dickson. Picture of a mask.

12.   Watson's Choice  by Gladys Mitchell. Picture of a skull.

13.   Love Lies Bleeding  by Edmund Crispin. Picture of a revolver.

14.    The Emperor's Snuff Box   by John Dickson Carr. Picture of a broken object.

15.    The Fallen Sparrow  by Dorothy B. Hughes. Picture of a bird.

I have now entered the Silver Cover Scavenger Hunt also.

1.  Sweet Death, Kind Death  by Amanda Cross. Picture of a body of water.

2. No Case for the Police  by V. C. Clinton-Baddeley. Picture of a clock.

3.  Death's Bright Dart  by V. C. Clinton-Baddeley. Picture of a blue object.

4.  A Stitch in Time  by Emma Lathen. Picture of a nurse.

5.  Murder Against the Grain  by Emma Lathen. Picture of two people.

6. Death of a Mystery Writer   by Robert Barnard. Picture of a drinking glass.

7. The Bay Psalm Book Murder by Will Harriss. Picture of a skeletal hand.

8. Banking on Death  by Emma Lathen. Picture of a dead body.

9.  The Longer the Thread  by Emma Lathen. Picture of just one person.

10.   Green Grow the Dollars  by Emma Lathen. Picture of a green object.

Drury Lane's Last Case by Ellery Queen

Drury Lane is a retired actor. Indeed, he was a very affluent retired actor who lives a secluded life at his large estate with a castle and gardens. He, unfortunately, is deaf, but this does not prevent him from taking an active interest in solving challenging crimes. His friend, Inspector Thumm, is a retired police detective who has opened a private detective agency along with his daughter Patience. Thumm is a plain, outspoken man; Patience has been educated in the best of schools.

This book opens when a very peculiar man with a very colorful beard engages Inspector Thumm to safeguard an important document in a sealed envelope. The peculiar man, who is undoubtedly wearing a disguise, says that he will call Thumm once a month. If he does not call at the agreed upon time, Thumm should open the envelope.

Inspector Thumm then takes another case. A security guard at the Britannic Museum, which houses rare and important old English documents, has gone missing and his friend has come to ask for assistance in locating him. Inspector Thumm and his daughter then visit the Britannic Museum which has been closed for renovations. The caretaker refuses them admission so Thumm calls on Drury Lane, who is a patron of the museum, to convince the museum to let them in. This time they are greeted by Alonzo Choate, the aging curator. Here they also meet Gordon Rowe, a young man who is doing research on Shakespeare at the museum. During this visit, they discover that one of the glass exhibition cases is broken although nothing seems to have been taken.

They return to the museum the next day with Drury Lane. Here they meet Hamnet Sedlar who is to become the new curator upon the retirement of Mr. Choate. They all go again to look at the case which had been broken. Drury Lane examines the three copies of The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare which are in the case and announces that one of them has been replaced with another copy of the same book which is a much rarer and priceless edition than the one it replaces.

Here you have the starting points of this mystery. Much will be learned about Shakespeare, and there will be more about disguises, false identities and a coded message before Drury Lane concludes his final case.  I found this book to quite an enjoyable read. It will appeal to both fans of Ellery Queen and of Shakespeare.

Ellery Queen wrote 4 Drury Lane mysteries using the pen name of Barnaby Ross in the years of 1932 and 1933. They have been reprinted by Mysterious Press in e-book format. In my e-book, there were several pages which I assume were supposed to have illustrations but which were blank.

The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett

Ned Beaumont is a gambler and political follower of political boss Paul Madvig in an unnamed city which is run by a corrupt government. Paul Madvig is supporting senator Ralph Henry in his re-election campaign, and he also has his eye on Henry's daughter, Janet Henry. Henry's son, Taylor Henry, is found murdered. At first it is believed that the murder was the result of a robbery, but later suspicion falls on Paul Madvig.

Ned Beaumont sets out to establish that Madvig did not commit the murder. Along the way, he is beaten up by henchman of Shad O'Rory another political boss who is competing with Madvig for control of the city. Mysterious letters are sent to Ned Beaumont and many others involved with this crime and these letters strongly imply that Paul Madvig is the murderer. Ned Beaumont, in time,  will find the author of the letters and the real murderer.

This book is a classic and was said to be Dashiell Hammett's favorite among his own writings. This crime is not solved by a detective but by a private citizen who is certainly not well meaning or above reproach. Ned Beaumont, who is called by his full name throughout the book, is tall, has a mustache, and eyes capable of an incredible gamut of emotions. This book really does not deal with the motivations or emotions of Ned Beaumont or any of the other characters. The book was published in 1930.

I am afraid that this type of hard-boiled mystery novel is not my favorite, and that I have not really read enough of this type of book to make an informed comparison of this book with others. Criticisms and analyses are available on the internet for someone who wants to dig deeper into this.  

This book has twice been made into movies. The first was in 1935 and starred George Raft as Ned Beaumont, and Edward Arnold as Paul Madvig. The second was in 1942 and starred Alan Ladd as Ned Beaumont, Brian Donleavy as Paul Madvig, and Veronica Lake as Janet Henry.