by Eric Years ago I purchased a Dover trade paperback edition of C. Daly King's 1935 novel Obelists Fly High. Dover's catalog fe...

by Mary When I was in my mid-teens my favourite teacher was the fellow who taught the English class. Given our age group, my classmates ...

by Mary Speaking of Macbeth, on being informed Birnam Wood was on the move he must have been horrified, recalling the prophecy he would n...

by Eric Shakespeare's Macbeth isn't out of place in this newsletter. While not a mystery it can certainly be classified as a crim...

by Eric So, let me talk about a new cozy mystery series. Meteor Right, Murder Wrong is the first of the Ye Olde Meteor Shoppe Mysteries...

by Mary We spent the first week of August pacing up and down the battlements of Maywrite Towers, staring hopefully down the road and, it mu...

by Mary We now return to our continuing series titled When Household Machinery Goes Rogue. In Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Lord Byron ...

by Eric Recently a friend emailed some jpgs of old toy advertisements he'd dug up on the Internet. I remembered seeing similar ads on...

by Mary As with all readers, bookcases have been a constant presence in my living spaces. The first graced a Victorian terraced house, ...

by Eric It's mid-afternoon and the cafe in downtown Manhattan is brightly lit but the actor who goes by the name A. Mann is only a fl...

by Mary Dining by candlelight sounds romantic but not when there's been no power for almost a week. Such was the case when the 1978...

by Eric Out here in the Pennsylvania mountains winter comes down like old age. Everything creaks: the walls at night; the stairs as I car...

by Mary Years ago, a friend who lived in the Middle East at the time mentioned she had met another expat who worked for the BBC. who obse...

by Eric Dreams are funny things. Or maybe not. I never wake up laughing. Screaming is another matter. I'm not sure why I never have fu...

by Mary When I mentioned my intent was to talk about "tubbies" this time round, Mr Maywrite asked me if the word was a Britishi...

by Eric Last month I visited the library for the first time in a year to make copies of our tax forms. Years ago a week wouldn't have ...

by Mary We are not two to boast, but a few years ago we outdid Herman Melville in that Three For A Letter features not one but two whales...

by Eric The pandemic has forced kids all over the country to learn from home, something technologically impossible when I went to school....

At The Southwest Armchair Traveler Mary writes about memorable cinematic scenes she's seen.

We know we've neglected our blog recently. Ruined Stones , the second Grace Baxter mystery set in the UK during World War Two, was publ...