Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Repeat Performance: The Return of William O'Farrell (1904-1962), Midcentury Crime Fiction Noirist

›
William O'Farrell in his late thirties (!) How many crime writers publish their first novel when pushing forty?  PD James was 42.  Raym...
Saturday, May 2, 2026

More on That Member Mystery: A Note on the Origin of the Story of the Uncircumcised Corpse in the Bath in Dorothy L. Sayers' Whose Body?

›
Two posts ago , you may recall, I discussed the matter of whether the bathtub corpse in Dorothy L. Sayers ' debut mystery, Whose Body? ,...
4 comments:
Tuesday, April 28, 2026

5 million views and the Hugh Wheeler/Richard Webb (Patrick Quentin) Critical Biography

›
As the Passing Tramp blog achieved fifteen years of existence late last november, its views also starting shooting upward.  In December the...
23 comments:
Monday, April 20, 2026

The Mystery of the Member: Identifying a Corpse in Whose Body? (1923), by Dorothy L. Sayers

›
Dorothy L. Sayers began writing Whose Body? , her first Lord Peter Wimsey detective novel, in London in January 1921, when she was was 27 y...
3 comments:
Saturday, April 4, 2026

Enduring Young Harmers: Scandal at High Chimneys (1959), by John Dickson Carr

›
"Would you care to marry the daughter of a vicious murderess?" "You are concerned with sensationalism, Mr. Strickland."...
Thursday, April 2, 2026

Some Porlock Pickings: Two additional thoughts on Philip MacDonald's "Martin Porlock"

›
Whence did our prolific lad  Philip MacDonald derive the pen name " Martin Porlock "?  My theory: he got the name by combining two...

Dead Cat Bounce: The Wraith (1931), by Philip MacDonald

›
One more Philip MacDonald detective fiction review and then on to something else.  This one's of The Wraith , the sixth Anthony Gethryn...