Dear Reader,
An anagram of “The New York Times” is “Monkey’s Light.” Rearranging groups of letters is a low-energy mental game that affects me like a Xanax tablet, with the advantage of being able to create anagrams while manipulating heavy machinery if necessary. Free.
The same is not true for reading, teeth A category of books known to have both calming and entertaining qualities. That category is the subject of today’s newsletter.
Welcome to Mystery Edition!
—molly
You’ve probably come across a book called “The Official Preppy Handbook,” a witty fake ethnography of American Wasp culture published in 1980. When I stumbled upon Murder Ink, a guide to mystery novels released three years ago, I had no idea. Shaking the conviction that the former is a direct ripoff of the latter — it featured all the visual flourishes and fantasies of its predecessor, right down to the font! (Baskerville.) Book publisher and designer My slightest suspicions were dispelled when I realized they were the same.* Not a crime.
But look, this is the book’s fault. Immersion in mystery fiction is a recipe for speculating that life is all about malice. simply) kill you”, “History of the trench coat.”
There is even an explanation of what it means to live When A mystery writer written by his wife, who reports that his wife’s desk is “arranged like a professional carpenter’s workshop” and that he is “obsessed with sex, but I’m not going to talk about it.” The inside of the book’s back cover is a deep red, “just like the color of arterial blood.” This is a must-read, not just for fans of the genre, but for anyone else.
*Workman Publishing and Paul Hanson, respectively. Hats off to Hanson for creating a comfortable and adaptable design.
Please read: Whodunits, howdunits, whydunits, wordplay, list making, keeping secrets.
Available from: Check out libraries and used bookstores.
“O Caledonia” Elspeth Barker
Fiction, 1991
Here’s a novel that has the appearance of a mystery — it starts with a fallen corpse — but turns the reading experience itself into a metamystery, not the temperament of the mystery. is it?”)
Janet, the protagonist and murderer who lives in a damp castle in Scotland. In her childhood, she lied, abused dolls, and buried her baby brother under a pile of damp leaves. Janet’s parents adopt a parenting style that can be described as “almost indifferent”, with occasional outbursts of punishment towards her daughter’s imp.
If you want proof that novels are the best available technique for placing yourself in the consciousness of a fictional character, “Ocaledonia” makes a strong case. Janet goes through the first half, reads Greek, loves the smell of pine trees, and hates dark afternoon tea featuring rock bread “framed over a snowy doily and glistening viciously with the threat of charring.” I can’t help but fuse with. currant. (Have snacks ever been described with such vicious precision? You can actually taste the dried pebbles of fruit!)
Please read: Dodie Smith’s movie “I Capture the Castle”Picnic at Hanging RockWuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, or Kate Bush
Available from: Simon & Schuster
why are you…
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Get “LA Woman” by The Doors. Wandering the town’s lower abdomen, Wipe out poisonous hummingbirds and fast food wrappers to uncover the truth behind a serial killer?
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Discover if you’re in the ‘like’ or ‘hate’ camp when it comes to Martin Amis’s. riff Above detective story? (I love it.)
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to the resort An Underrated Agatha Christie Specimen What if I run out of hits?Hercule Poirot is his small gray cells Up until a murder that happened 16 years ago, the “talk and do nothing” plot is surprisingly compelling!
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