Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

I’m at the part in the novel I had learned about from the Bonus Features of the Criterion Collection disc of the film, where they discussed a major plot difference between the movie and the book. I’ve reached a development that was not included in the film…and it’s such a wild shift from everything that had gone before it, that I might be confused for a while. Would have been intriguing to have not been forewarned…

Oh my - the title story, ' The Flaw in the Crystal', was 70 pages long, and marvellous! That creepy cover makes sense now too.

My favourite by this author - and I haven’t read much - is The Human Factor, Brighton Rock was great, too. I’ve seen the Fritz Lang film of Ministry of Fear, and I love it. It’s considered “minor Lang”, and I’ve seen ‘M’, and Metropolis, among others, so I get that. It’s a bit like a Hitchcock film, in terms of what he was doing with spy films, but more Film Noir. I know the book is somewhat different (Good!).

I have a theory about the murderer - based partly on making an assumption that, so far, neither Inspector French (nor Rollo, for that matter) seem to have considered yet. Also, I think I know the kinds of tricks Crofts has pulled before, and I’m thinking of those precious few whodunits by this author where I got suspicious of someone, and somehow turned out to be right. Book is better if I get fooled, of course!

Another winner, from an author I love going to.

Well it was kinda fun to finally go back to this book, just when I’m making a point of reading novels with the word ‘Fear’ in them, and discover that the next story for me in here was ‘The Man Who Never Knew Fear’ by Douglas Hyde. I might even include Night of Fear by Moray Dalton in my focus on ‘Fear’, even though it’s a Mystery set at Christmas. I’m okay with that, but we’ll see.

Cliff’s Dark Gems, on his YouTube channel of same name, is doing a series of videos that passionately discuss his 100 Favourite Books. I’ve decided to pick one book from each of his ten, to acquire and read. Not sure of my own time-line for this, but this will be my first pull from his list. It is not that long, and will be my first look at Fugard, even though I was a Theatre major at uni and read many plays.

I originally planned to read a book that would slightly resemble Devotion of Suspect X, right after it, though a part of me said “It could be TOO samey; switch to something hard-boiled and less about intricate puzzles and clues, or even Espionage.”. But then I thought “Uh, it might be fun to read two Golden Age-style whodunits in a row, to compare.”. Now - love that they are VERY similar! Fascinating, back to back!

My reactions to Mysteries by this author have varied, but have mainly been positive. Sometimes, one of the best loved ones doesn’t impress me as much as it has some readers, like The Crooked Hinge; and other times, some negative reviews of a JDC book have lowered my expectations and yet I have enjoyed the whodunit in question quite a bit, like Deadly Hall. Clever mechanics, and the tension, just need to be there.

Gonna finish it tonight.

I could tell from the synopsis that I was likely getting some kind of Inverted Mystery here, in the style of Freeman Wills Crofts maybe - but this one has some creepy aspects (that just got creepier). It's quite good, and I have no idea how it will wrap up. Meanwhile, I think April will mostly be about Crime & Mystery, but we'll see.

Well, I did a bit more, but that will be it for tonight. I usually have sports on TV as background noise when I read, but a few nights ago, when all Toronto teams sucked, I flipped the channel to women’s college basketball. (I had heard of this Caitlin Clark person, and was curious). Now I’m hooked, and about to unplug and just watch what I hope is a great game…reading prohibited! I’m a Paige Bueckers fan too!

Well, I’m excited - this is supposed to be something special.

I'm much happier reading By Wireless - the second short novel included in this edition of The Murdered City - than I was reading The Murdered City itself. I care about what happens between Patrice, Antoine, and Claudia - not to mention some interesting supporting characters who will also be affected if things go horribly wrong. I also like not knowing if things will go horribly wrong - maybe a happy ending?

Okay. I’ve finished The Murdered City, and also the short story that comes after it, called ‘The Death of the Sun’. All that’s left for me in this book is another short novel that’s also included, and it’s called By Wireless. The Murdered City seemed more horrific to me than Radium Age Science Fiction - some really unsettling stuff. It will be interesting to see if By Wireless also feels like Horror over SF.

I don’t know what I expected, but it was not exactly what I’m getting. The book is 340 pages, I’m on page 105, and the short novel called The Murdered City goes to page 162. Then some kind of 7-page short story, followed by a longer work called By Wireless. The Murdered City feels a bit like H. Rider Haggard meets Angela Carter. The Corrupter, Blasius, who created the City, is seriously messed up.