Golden Age of Detective Fiction

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and is currently revived by Taking on a World of Words. You can participate by answering the three questions below and leaving a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!

What Are You Currently Reading

Goodreads Blurb:

The journey of the Mexico City-bound Pullman seems ill-fated from the outset — what with the engine troubles and the threat of an impending railway strike — but no one aboard expects the terror that will descend upon the luxury train between Laredo and its destination. First a man dies as the vehicle passes through a dark tunnel and then, just as United States Customs Agent Hugh Rennert begins to investigate, the train comes to a screeching halt in the middle of the desert.

More deaths follow as night falls, and when it becomes clear that a murderer is on the loose, the stationary cars transform into an isolated hall of horrors. The varied and intriguing cast of passengers begins to panic, but Rennert remains calm and collected, untangling the web of motives in a desperate search for the culprit. Will he be able to unmask the killer before the voyage ends?

A suspenseful whodunnit that charts a path through the Mexican wilderness, Vultures in the Sky highlights the best aspects of the Golden Age mystery, mixing classical detective work with a tense, closed-circle setting. The third novel in Todd Downing’s Hugh Rennert series (which can be enjoyed in any order), it shows an undeservedly forgotten author working at the top of his craft.

So far I like this train mystery set in the blistering heat of the American Southwest and Mexico.

What did you recently finish reading?

Goodreads Blurb:

In the seeming tranquility of Regency Square in Cheltenham live the diverse inhabitants of its ten houses. One summer’s evening, the square’s rivalries and allegiances are disrupted by a sudden and unusual death – an arrow to the head, shot through an open window at no. 6. Unfortunately for the murderer, an invitation to visit had just been sent by the crime writer Aldous Barnet, staying with his sister at no. 8, to his friend Superintendent Meredith. Three days after his arrival, Meredith finds himself investigating the shocking murder two doors down. Six of the square’s inhabitants are keen members of the Wellington Archery Club, but if Meredith and Long thought that the case was going to be easy to solve, they were wrong…The Cheltenham Square Murder is a classic example of how John Bude builds a drama within a very specific location. Here the Regency splendour of Cheltenham provides the perfect setting for a story in which appearances are certainly deceiving.

A review of this classic John Bude mystery will becoming later this month. If you like impossible crimes this one is a great choice.

Goodreads Blurb:

For an instant the two trains ran together, side by side. In that frozen moment, Elspeth witnessed a murder. Helplessly, she stared out of her carriage window as a man remorselessly tightened his grip around a woman’s throat. The body crumpled. Then the other train drew away.

But who, apart from Miss Marple, would take her story seriously? After all, there were no suspects, no other witnesses…and no corpse.

This title was previously published as What Mrs. McGrillicuddy Saw!

You can read my review here.

Goodreads Blurb:

Lois Williams of Glenville, Connecticut, is going about her business when she’s abruptly asked to bear witness to the signing of a wealthy elderly woman’s will. She is just as quickly rushed out, and is disturbed when she learns that Abigail Montfort died less than thirty minutes after her departure.
 
Lois can’t get the strange incident out of her head and confides her suspicions in newspaperman Bob Oliver, who agrees that something strange is afoot. As they investigate a young woman who may have been posing as Abigail Montfort, their search takes them to New York City and into the path of Det. Nathan Shapiro.
 
While Shapiro doesn’t much like leaving Manhattan, a mugging death in town seems to be linked to the old woman’s death in the country. Soon, he finds himself chasing leads with the two amateur sleuths—and what they discover is a mystery that belongs on the front page . . .

Murder and Blueberry Pie is my first Nathan Shapiro mystery and it was not at all like I expected. A full review will be out soon.

What will you read next?

Goodreads Blurb:

Desperately afraid, Judith Chandler barricades herself in her bedroom. Her sister, detective novelist Lois, has no patience for Judith’s bizarre behavior. However, a real-life mystery unfolds when Judith disappears from her locked room without a trace.

This is my next #20booksofsummer23 read and I am excited for another Mary Robert Rinehart mystery. I bet her locked room mystery will be very twisted.