Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Department of Dead Ends: 14 Detective Stories, by Roy Vickers

 
I've been waiting to get this one for months, maybe a year.  I'd heard about it from either a newspaper, or maybe the magazine The Week, or possibly even an online discussion group.  I can't remember, but those are usually the places I hear about some slightly more obsure books that sound interesting.  This one was really entertaining, so called "inverted" detective stories where you see or have the crime as it happened described to you (similar to a Columbo episode), find out why Scotland Yard couldn't solve it, and then months or so later it ends up at the Department of Dead Ends.  It's from this department that dumb luck (often from another case) leads to clues that solve the original mystery.
 
These stories were short and really fun to read.  I only wish there were more than 14 of them in the rather short collection.

Walking Shadow, by Robert Parker

  • Title:  Walking Shadow
  • Author:  Robert Parker
  • Borrowed from Office Take-one/Leave-one Library
  • Started:  1/20/2012
  • Finished:  2/3/2012
 
Another Spenser book, nothing great but it passed the time. Another guy in my office loves these Spenser books and is always dropping them off at our take-one/leave-one library shelf.  I brought this one out to the beach and read it over a few weekends there.  Entertaining, but forgettable.