Bill Crider’s Holmes stories

Posted on December 14, 2017 by

Bill Crider, lookin’ cool

I first became aware of Bill Crider while browsing the mystery section of a large BookStar store in Southern California, finding the cover of one of his books intriguing and buying it. I was buying a lot of books then, as I still do, and so the book didn’t get read for a while, but I really enjoyed it, and no, I don’t remember now which one it was.

Later, I came across Bill in the pages of Cap’n Bob Napier’s Mystery and Detective Monthly (MDM) and became a contributor thereto. It was his sense of humor that first struck me, and has continued to charm me since. That appreciation grew when I became a member of DAPA-Em, the mystery apa. I always looked forward to reading Bill’s ‘zine, Macavity. and seeing him at the DAPA gatherings at conventions.

I’ve read many of his Truman Smith, Carl Burns and Sheriff Dan Rhodes books, (though there are a few still left to enjoy,) but today I thought I’d talk about his Sherlock Holmes short stories.

I’ve been a fan of Sherlock Holmes since I first read the tales, and am always pleased to come across good pastiches, so I grabbed a copy of Holmes For The Holidays when I spotted it at the bookstore in November 1996. Edited by Anne Perry, it contained 14 stories by a variety of mystery writers, including Loren D. Estleman, Reginald Hill, Edward Hoch and Bill Crider. His story, “The Adventure of the Christmas Ghosts” was a favorite in the collection.

In October 1999 a second volume, More Holmes for the Holidays was published, which included another Bill Crider Holmes pastiche, “The Adventure of the Christmas Bear”, which became another favorite. As much as I’ve enjoyed Bill Crider’s novels, I’ve had a soft sport for those stories ever since. Several other Holmes stories by Bill found their way into other anthologies over the years, but they are not always easy to find.

So I was delighted when recently I discovered the 2017 Crossroads Press Gordian Knot e-book, Eight Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It’s contents:

  • “Adventures of the Young British Soldier”
  • “The Case of the Vanished Vampire”
  • “The Adventure of the St. Marylebone Ghoul”
  • The Adventure of the Christmas Bear”
  • “The Adventure of the Venomous Lizard”
  • “The Case of the Vampire’s Mark”
  • “The Adventure in the White City”
  • “The Adventures of the Christmas Ghosts”
  • “Death Did Not Become Him”.

Let’s face it, Bill Crider, besides being a wonderful person, is an excellent writer, and I recommend all of his novels, whether P.I. Truman Smith, teacher Carl Burns or Sheriff Dan Rhodes or his westerns, especially Outrage at Blanco, or any others. You just can’t go wrong, reading Crider. Even better is knowing him, if you’ve been fortunate enough to. The last time I saw him, he was with Judy at the San Francisco Bouchercon. It was a treat, and is a fond memory. Bill Crider – what a guy.

Today is “Bill Crider Day” at Patti Abbott’s Friday Forgotten Books (pattinase)  So be sure and check there for the many other posts about him.

Posted in At Home in Portland | 6 Comments

Bill Crider

Posted on December 5, 2017 by

If you haven’t already, please read this: https://billcrider.blogspot.com/2017/12/update.html

I am terribly saddened, as, I’m sure, will be all of Bill’s many, many friends and acquaintances. Of course we’ll miss the blog, but not nearly as much as the man.

Our prayers are with you Bill, perhaps there will be an improvement, a turnaround. We sure hope so. God loves you, and so do we.

Posted in At Home in Portland | 8 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on November 23, 2017 by

There is a great deal to be thankful for today, and every day! I’m so thankful to be alive, thankful for my wife, our home and garden, the cat, to be living where we do.

It’s a cool, blustery, rainy day here in Portland, just right for Thanksgiving, it seems to me. It’s just the two of us, (plus the cat) but we make the whole meal, or our version of it, because we enjoy it so and love the leftovers.

The 16-lb. turkey was brined last night, came out of the solution at 6am this morning, and has been drained and will be ready to go in the oven in a few hours.It makes the house smell so good! We’ll also be having mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green beans, cranberry-orange mold, and for dessert there will be Dutch apple pie and ice cream. The fireplace is lit and we’ll have a laid-back day, cooking, watching some football, eating, maybe getting in a walk if the rain lets up some.

I hope your Thanksgiving is wonderful.

Posted in At Home in Portland | 10 Comments

Getting Older

Posted on October 27, 2017 by

Thursday was my birthday, and a very nice one it was, but I did spend some time thinking about the number of years. My goodness. How did I manage to get so old?

When I was a kid, I couldn’t imagine being this age, or for that matter, anyone being this age. That was a long time ago, and people didn’t live quite as long then, but still.

As a man in my twenties and thirties, I didn’t think about age much at all, other than in a very casual way, such as knowing the ages of family, friends, pets, maybe someone famous. I just never thought “When I’m (age), I’ll (be, do…)”.  So yesterday when I woke up and thought “It’s my birthday, I’m … years old. My God.” It’s a shock. I don’t feel that old. I don’t think I look that old. It’s true, I may act that old and I guess the number of visits I have to make to medical people would indicate I’m not in the full flush of my manhood (hmm, was I ever?), but that many decades? Wow.

I was also thinking of all the things that we had when I was growing up that are gone, and all the things we have now that didn’t exist then. Sometimes I think it was a better world without computers, certainly without smart phones and social media. Not that I miss party lines, or rotary dial phones, or having to change the channel on the television by getting up, walking over and manually turning the selector to the channel setting I wanted.

But, gosh. I’m old. I think I’ll go take a walk.

Posted in Books & Reading, Mystery, Short Stories | 17 Comments

Timeless – Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic by Armand Baltazar

Posted on October 14, 2017 by

I know it’s been a long time since I posted anything new here at Tip the Wink, but I had to break my silence after reading this book.

Timeless – Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic by Armand Baltazar [Harper Collins hardcover ISBN: 9780062402363 – Imprint: Katherine Tegen Books] – on sale 10/10/2017, 624 pages

I first heard about this book, under the slightly different title of Diego and the Steam Pirates, over four years ago. My good friend Carl V. Anderson visited the booth of Armand Baltazar at Spectrum Fantasy Art Live 2. I had asked him to pick up some artwork for me, and he got a print from this book along with a ton of other things. [see my blog post on Broken Bullhorn here].

At the time, the book was still partially written and all the artwork was yet to be completed, but I expected – guessed – it would be a graphic novel of a hundred pages or so. How wrong I was, the book is so, so much more.

Nicely bound with heavy stock throughout, filled with beautiful artwork. The story caught my imagination, but it was the artwork that initially pulled me in, all those years ago, and the book exceeds my greatest expectations by far.

The critics say:

“This epic tale from Baltazar, is not only wildly imaginative and attention-grabbing, it’s downright beautiful: more than 150 full-color photorealistic art pieces bring the characters and setting to life. A series opener that conveys a true sense of wonder and excitement on every page.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Intricate illustrations, stunning in their lush coloring and quality, are liberally interspersed. [C]inematic dialogue, glossy plot twists, and movie-ready illustrations will likely make readers feel they’ve had a theatrical experience.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“The stunning artwork is the real star here. Sure to be popular with middle school fantasy readers.” — School Library Journal

The author Armand was born on Chicago’s North Side, not far from the famed Wrigley Field. After attending the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Armand began a visual storytelling career in feature animation as a background artist, visual development artist, and art director for DreamWorks Studios, Walt Disney, and Pixar Animation. He currently resides in Northern California with his family, creating the art and stories for the epic adventure series Timeless. There is a lot of fascinating information about him and his methods at the end of a Google search.

I can’t emphasize enough how terrific this book is. Listed by the publisher as Juvenile Fiction, for my money it’s just fine for adults, too. I loved it. I sincerely hope the promise of a series is fulfilled, and soon. Thank you for this wonderful book, Armand Baltazar.

Posted in At Home in Portland | 15 Comments

Pause

Posted on August 7, 2017 by

pause-buttonLately my energy and productivity are at a low ebb, with heat, health, and other things occupying my mind. So I’ve decided to put the blog on pause for a while. Catch you later.

Posted in At Home in Portland | 10 Comments

H O T !!

Posted on August 2, 2017 by

It is unusually, awful, nastily, horribly, miserably hot here, in the entire Pacific Northwest, from Seattle down through northern California, and we hates it (as Gollum would say). Three more days in triple digits, then several still in the 90s before it drops into the 80s. Even that’s not cool enough for me, but it will be an improvement. It’s been 50 days since we had a drop of rain.

How’s the weather in your neck of the woods?

Posted in At Home in Portland | 14 Comments

Current Reading: M. C. Beaton, Val McDermid

Posted on July 31, 2017 by

It’s been hot and will be getting hotter: in the 90s now and 106 expected in a couple of days. I really hate this kind of heat, and it drains all the energy out of me. I don’t even feel like reading. Nevertheless I did finish a few things.

The Galton Case by Ross Macdonald was, as you would expect, excellent. Though it’s not forgotten in any sense of the word, it’s worthy of a Friday post, which will be upcoming.

Then I wanted something different from hard-boiled, so, having read a review of one of M. C. Beation’s Hamish Macbeth novels, I decided to try one. I wanted to start with the first book, but it wasn’t available from the library, so I got Death of An Outsider , the third in the series. Macbeth is a Scottish Constable, happy in his small village of Lochdubh, leading a simple life living among people he knows and for the most part likes. However, he is sent to a neighboring village of Cnothan to cover for the Constable there, who is going on vacation for 2 weeks. Naturally, a murder occurs, and Macbeth is thrown into the middle of the investigation. I liked it a lot, then got the first in the series, Death of An Outsider, then the fourth in the series, Death of A Perfect Wife. I’m waiting for the second in the series to arrive from the library.

Barbara finished Chaos by Patricia Cornwell. She liked it well enough, but said it wasn’t one of the better ones.

She also finished Val McDermid’s Out of Bounds. It’s the lasted in the Karen Pirie series. She always enjoys McDermid, though this time she said there was more Scottish “lingo” than she prefers.

She’s now waiting for A Game of Ghosts, the new Charlie Parker Thriller by John Connolly to show up from the library.

So how about you?
What have you been reading?

Posted in current reading, Mystery | 15 Comments

Current Reading: Dunstall, Macdonald, Cornwell

Posted on July 23, 2017 by

After finishing the Patricia Moyes mystery, I was in the mood for some science fiction, so I decided to read Linesman by S. K. Dunstall, a mass market paperback I bought last year. I liked it quite a lot, both for the characters and the interesting idea of lines of energy that control various aspects of ship controls, including the ability to make jumps through the void (and thus faster than light travel throughout the galaxy).

Ean Lambert is a Linesman Ten, (the highest level) but gets no respect from the other Linesmen (of any level or gender). He “hears” the lines, and sings his communications to them, whereas other Linesmen “feel” them with their minds, an uncertain process. But Ean’s abilities surpass most others, as long as he can sing. When as alien spaceship is discovered in a mostly-deserted corner of the galaxy, Ean is brought to examine it, and discovers an eleventh line, one that speaks only to him.

I’ve just gotten the next two books in the trilogy and will start it after I finish another novel, namely The Galton Case by Ross Macdonald. After Bill Crider posted on a book about Macdonald, I thought it was time to read another of his that I still hadn’t gotten to. This was the choice. I’m about 50 pages in.

Barbara finished John Sandford’s current Prey series novel, Golden Prey, and as usual with these books, enjoyed it.  She’s now about 3/4 of the way through Patricia Cornwell’s latest, Chaos. 

So how about you?
What have you been reading?

Posted in current reading, Mystery, Science Fiction | 21 Comments

Friday Forgotten: A Six-Letter Word For Death by Patricia Moyes

Posted on July 20, 2017 by

This is the 262nd in my series of forgotten or seldom read books

A Six-Letter Word For Death by Patricia Moyes, Henry Holt (an Owl Book) 1985 mass market paperback

I have long been a fan of the mystery novels of Patricia Moyes. Her series featuring Chief Inspector Henry Tibbett (and occasionally his wife Emmy) is excellent, and I’ve read most of them and can now add this one to that number.

This is the 17th in the series, and takes place on the Isle of Wight. Henry has been invited to speak to a small group of authors on Scotland Yard CID procedures, and has a successful talk. Before he arrived, Tibbett had been sent a crossword puzzle to solve, and it turns out that the solution included the names of the authors and other information which the group intended Tibbett to solve, or, embarrassingly, fail to solve. Thus the books titular reference to crossword.

The crossword hints at foul play in past deaths, each clue referencing one of the six authors in the group. The mystery writers all use pen names, keeping their identities secret, but Henry has little difficulty deducing who they are. He presents his police procedure talk, then reveals he solved the crossword, knew which writer designed it, and has investigated the events referenced by crossword clues.

One of the guests makes an appointment, heard by all, to see Henry later in the afternoon but then dies of an apparent accidental death before he can keep it. Henry is suspicious, and does his own unofficial investigation. When the crime scene and evidence are  tampered with, Henry is certain the death was no accident.

He and Emmy extend their vacation, in order to remain in the area and keep investigating. He ultimately stages a re-enactment of a decades-old crime to resolve all mysteries and obtain justice.

Though I found the plot in this one to be more convoluted than usual, I was happy with the conclusion, and as always Henry and Emmy are delightful. Well worth reading

Posted in Books & Reading, Mystery | 8 Comments