I wonder if how recently they've reprinted these - I may need to ghost through the large print section of the mystery/true crime room in the library and see if they've got them. Sir Merrivale sounds intriguing - and hilariously avoidant of the "Sir." I'm tickled that there's a light romance in the first locked room mystery as well. Someone plotted ALL the things!
Plague Court Murders was reprinted last year, and Red Widow Murders is due out 2/21. AMC has reprinted a couple of other Carr titles as well, but from a different series, so I haven't hit them yet. One of the reprints that I snagged on eBay is in large print, so at least some of them should be available in that format. (Entirely different author, though.)
I've started picking them up whenever I see them used, for sure! They've only released the two Henry Merrivale mysteries that I know of, but I did pick up another one by Carr at the same time: The Mad Hatter Mystery, which stars a different detective, Gideon Fell. So I'm excited to fall down that rabbit hole soon.
Do you have any recommendations from the series? I've been leaning towards just pulling up the full list and starting from the beginning, in publication order, but I'd love to hear which ones other folks have really loved.
So far my favorite is Eight Faces at Three by Craig Rice (full name Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig Rice. The mystery is satisfyingly twisty, the wit is often sharp, and the characters are great. Disclaimer: It's of its time in ways good and bad (drunk driving played for comedy, one or two cringey references to rape). Fortunately there aren't a LOT of instances of the bad ways, but they rate a mention beforehand.
Oh, excellent! I'll track it down. Thank you! (And thanks for the heads up on the Not Great things. Obviously stuff like that is somewhat to be expected in these older titles, but it's still nice to know ahead of time what you're in for.)
I've NOT heard of these, but they sound delightful!
I wonder if how recently they've reprinted these - I may need to ghost through the large print section of the mystery/true crime room in the library and see if they've got them. Sir Merrivale sounds intriguing - and hilariously avoidant of the "Sir." I'm tickled that there's a light romance in the first locked room mystery as well. Someone plotted ALL the things!
Plague Court Murders was reprinted last year, and Red Widow Murders is due out 2/21. AMC has reprinted a couple of other Carr titles as well, but from a different series, so I haven't hit them yet. One of the reprints that I snagged on eBay is in large print, so at least some of them should be available in that format. (Entirely different author, though.)
I really like the American Mystery Classics series and always appreciate new recommendations from it! Thanks!
I've started picking them up whenever I see them used, for sure! They've only released the two Henry Merrivale mysteries that I know of, but I did pick up another one by Carr at the same time: The Mad Hatter Mystery, which stars a different detective, Gideon Fell. So I'm excited to fall down that rabbit hole soon.
Do you have any recommendations from the series? I've been leaning towards just pulling up the full list and starting from the beginning, in publication order, but I'd love to hear which ones other folks have really loved.
So far my favorite is Eight Faces at Three by Craig Rice (full name Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig Rice. The mystery is satisfyingly twisty, the wit is often sharp, and the characters are great. Disclaimer: It's of its time in ways good and bad (drunk driving played for comedy, one or two cringey references to rape). Fortunately there aren't a LOT of instances of the bad ways, but they rate a mention beforehand.
Oh, excellent! I'll track it down. Thank you! (And thanks for the heads up on the Not Great things. Obviously stuff like that is somewhat to be expected in these older titles, but it's still nice to know ahead of time what you're in for.)