Saturday, November 24, 2012

Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge


This looks like loads of fun! The goal is to read eight books from eight of the categories. I will post my list here:
1. Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer (1/11/2013) 1933 (Category 23)
2.  The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (Perry Mason) by Erle Stanley Gardner (1/20/2013) 1936 ( Category 29)
3. The Man Who Knew Too Much by G.K. Chesterton (3/4/2013) 1922 (Category 28)
4. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (3/25/2013) (Category 8) 
5. The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie (4/4/2013) 1941 (Category 14)
6. Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey  (5/25/2013) 1949 (Category 11)
7. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (9/4/2013) 1951  (Category 5)
 8. The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham (9/19/2013)(Category 17)



General Rules: (Abridged)

*All novels must have been originally written before 1960 and be from the mystery category (crime fiction, detective fiction, espionage, etc.).  Short story collections (whether published pre-1960 or not) are permissible provided all of the stories included in the collection were originally written pre-1960.  Please remember that some of our Vintage authors wrote well after 1959--so keep an eye on the original publish date


Vintage Categories:


1. Colorful Crime: a book with a color or reference to color in the title
2. Murder by the Numbers: a book with a number, quantity in the title
3. Amateur Night: a book with a "detective" who is not a P.I.; Police Officer; Official Investigator (Nurse Keate, Father Brown, Miss Marple, etc.)
4. Leave It to the Professionals: a book featuring cops, private eyes, secret service, professional spies, etc.
5. Jolly Old England: one mystery set in Britain
6.
Yankee Doodle Dandy: one mystery set in the United States
7.
World Traveler: one mystery set in any country except the US or Britain
8. Dangerous Beasts: a book with an animal in the title (The Case of the Grinning Gorilla; The Canary Murder Case; etc.)
9.
A Calendar of Crime: a mystery with a date/holiday/year/month/etc. in the title (Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Holiday Homicide, etc.)
10.
Wicked Women: a book with a woman in the title--either by name (Mrs. McGinty's Dead) or by reference (The Case of the Vagabound Virgin)
11. Malicious Men: a book with a man in the title--either by name (Maigret & the Yellow Dog) or by reference (The Case of the Haunted Husband)
12. Murderous Methods : a book with a means of death in the title (The Noose, 5 Bullets, Deadly Nightshade, etc).
13.
Staging the Crime: a mystery set in the entertainment world (the theater, musical event, a pageant, Hollywood, featuring a magician, etc)
14.
Scene of the Crime: a book with the location of the crime in the title (The Body in the Library, Murder at the Vicarage, etc.)
15.
Cops & Robbers: a book that features a theft rather than murder
16.
Locked Rooms: a locked-room mystery
17.
Country House Criminals: a standard (or not-so-standard) Golden Age country house murder
18.
Murder on the High Seas: a mystery involving water
19.
Planes, Trains & Automobiles: a mystery that involves a mode of transportation in a vital way--explicitly in the title (Murder on the Orient Express) or by implication (Death in the Air; Death Under Sail) or perhaps the victim was shoved under a bus....
20.
Murder Is Academic: a mystery involving a scholar, teacher, librarian, etc.  OR set at a school, university, library, etc.
21.
Things That Go Bump in the Night: a mystery with something spooky, creepy, gothic in the title (The Skeleton in the Clock, Haunted Lady, The Bat, etc.)
22.
Repeat Offenders: a mystery featuring your favorite series detective or by your favorite author (the books/authors you'd read over and over again) OR reread an old favorite
23.
The Butler Did It...Or Not: a mystery where the butler is the victim, the sleuth....(gasp) the criminal....or is just downright memorable for whatever reason.
24.
A Mystery By Any Other Name: any book that has been published under more than one title (Murder Is Easy--aka Easy to Kill [Christie]; Fog of Doubt--aka London Particular [Christianna Brand], etc.)
25.
Dynamic Duos: a mystery featuring a detective team--Holmes & Watson, Pam & Jerry North, Wolfe & Goodwin, or....a little-known team that you introduce to us.
26.
Size Matters: a book with a size or measurement in the title (Death Has a Small Voice, The Big Four, The Weight of the Evidence, etc.)
27.
Psychic Phenomena: a mystery featuring a seance, medium, hypnotism, or other psychic or "supernatural" characters/events
28.
Book to Movie: one vintage mystery that has appeared on screen (feature film or TV movie).
29.
The Old Bailey: a courtroom drama mystery (Perry Mason, anyone? Witness for the Prosecution...etc.) OR a mystery featuring a judge, lawyer, barrister, D.A., etc.
30.
Get Out of Jail Free: This is a freebie category.  One per customer.  You tell me what special category the book fits ("It's got an awesome cover!"..."First book I grabbed off my shelf") and it counts.  Only thing I won't take is "It's a Vintage Mystery!"--that's a given. :-)

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for joining! I'll be interested to see what books/categories you choose.

    ReplyDelete