REVIEWED BY MIKE TOONEY:
(Give Me That) OLD-TIME DETECTION. Autumn 2024. Issue #67. Editor: Arthur Vidro. Old-Time Detection Special Interest Group of American Mensa, Ltd. 36 pages (including covers). Cover image: J. Jefferson Farjeon’s Mystery in White.
ARTHUR VIDRO unfailingly produces a high-quality print mag for people like us who just can’t get enough of detective fiction. In Old-Time Detection, he preserves fugitive information that would have been lost to us except for his diligence. This issue features:
(1) A 1981 EQMM interview with Jack Ritchie: “I suspect that the basic trouble with writers of humor is that nobody takes them seriously.”
(2) Francis M. Nevins continues his 2010 series about Erle Stanley Gardner: “The last ten or twelve years’ worth of Mason novels are as chaotic as most of the episodes of the TV shows.”
(3) Martin Edwards’s introduction to the 2014 British Library reprint of J. Jefferson Farjeon’s Mystery in White: A CHRISTMAS CRIME STORY, with a 2024 postscript: “The cozy yet spooky setting of a country house, cut off from the outside world by deep snow, is a superbly atmospheric backdrop for a murder story, and Farjeon uses it to good effect.”
(4) “The Non-Fiction World of Ed Hoch” this time features “A Mirror to Our Crimes,” from 1979, with Hoch offering up a nice survey of true crime books, which often were inspired by or served as the inspiration for detecfic: “The business of mirroring actual crimes through the fiction writer’s art is as old as Edgar Allan Poe. In fact, it’s older than Poe.”
(5) Dr. John Curran, Agatha Christie Expert Extraordinaire, gives us the latest in Christiedom, including an audience vote on the best Agatha film versions: “Is it at all significant that three ‘old’ adaptations fared best? Think about it . . .”
(6) Charles Shibuk’s “The Paperback Revolution” from 1974 keeps rolling along, as he notes that among the new books is a veritable explosion of classic reprints, one of which you might recognize: “This novel should be familiar to many from its 1945 film version with Joan Crawford that is frequently revived today.”
(7) “Nobody Tells Me Anything” by Jack Ritchie from EQMM, October 1976, is the fiction selection: “How can anybody expect me to solve anything if I’m kept in the dark?”
(8) A lot of detective fiction fans can relate to an article on collecting classic detecfic items: “In issue #65 (Spring 2024), we test-ran a column on Collecting. It somehow struck a chord with many of our readers, and so the subject will continue to appear in our pages.”
(9) ‘Tis the season, and therefore we have Michael Dirda’s 2023 column, “Restore Ye Olde Holiday Spirit with These Olde Mystery Novels”: “Old tales are best for winter, especially when they appear in shiny and inviting new editions.”
(10) “The Readers Write”: “Thank goodness you have a print edition, which is preferred by us dinosaurs.”
(11) “This Issue’s Puzzle”: “What future mystery writer was interviewed for a 1979 episode of ‘In Search Of’?”
As always, OTD is worth a look.
Subscription information:
– Published three times a year: Spring, summer, and autumn. – Sample copy: $6.00 in U.S.; $10.00 anywhere else. – One-year U.S.: $18.00. – One-year overseas: $40.00 (or 30 pounds sterling or 40 euros). – Payment: Checks payable to Arthur Vidro, or cash from any nation, or U.S. postage stamps or PayPal. Mailing address:
Arthur Vidro, editor
Old-Time Detection
2 Ellery Street
Claremont, New Hampshire 03743
Web address: vidro@myfairpoint.net