My July-Aug 2026 EQMM column.

My new Jury Box column w/reviews of mystery short story collections and classic reprints is now posted at Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, featuring works that focus on the impossible crime (Elsa Barker, Christianna Brand, Charles Chadwick, Mary Collins, Celia Fremlin, Peter Lovesey, T.S. Stribling).

Mystery tropes of the Golden Age.

On the latest episode of the podcast In GAD We Trust, James Scott Byrnside and the podcast host discuss mystery tropes of the Golden Age such as "the dying message," "the false solution," and "the seance." Authors singled out for particular praise include Christianna Brand and Anthony Berkeley Cox, whereas G. K. Chesterton and Ellery Queen come in for some criticism.

Finding Golden Age gems.

The In GAD We Trust podcast chats with short story sleuth Tony Medawar, who has uncovered unknown or neglected works by authors such as Christianna Brand, John Dickson Carr, Agatha Christie, Anthony Berkeley Cox, Edmund Crispin, Ngaio Marsh, and Dorothy L. Sayers. Medawar talks about his favorite mystery finds and other discoveries he has made. A new volume in Medawar's Bodies from the Library series will be out in October in the United States.

10 great whodunnit films.

On BFI's website, Pamela Hutchinson selects and discusses 10 great whodunnit films such as The Last Warning (1928), which deals with the unsolved murder of an actor onstage, and Green for Danger (1946), which examines murder in a wartime hospital.

Ads for The Last Warning

Dorothy B. Hughes picks, best mysteries of 1953.

Glenn Ford in
The Big Heat (1953,
dir. Fritz Lang)

Calling 1953 "not ... the best year in mystery writing," author-critic Dorothy B. Hughes selected her favorite mysteries of the year in a December 6, 1953, column for the Washington Post. They were:

• Christianna Brand, Fog of Doubt. "Artful puzzle."

• Leslie Ford, Washington Whispers Murder."Tells, with the bite of intelligent scorn, a terrifying story."

• Max Franklin [Richard Deming], Justice Has No Sword. "This one has the professional touch of a star reporter."

• Michael Gilbert, Fear to Tread. "Another great Michael Gilbert novel."

• Charlotte Jay, Beat Not the Bones. "The first important mystery of the year."

• Ira Levin, A Kiss before Dying. "Another big first, written by a 23-year-old."

• René Masson, Green Oranges. "Masson is one of the great discoveries of this decade."

• William McGivern, The Big Heat. "Today's first-ranking novelist of the hard-hitting mystery."

• Josephine Tey, The Singing Sands. "Her noted blend of detecting excitement and beautiful writing."

The return of Christianna Brand.

FaberFinds has put back into print the country-house mystery Heads You Lose (1941) and Cat and Mouse (1950) by Mary Christianna Brand Lewis (best known for the superb World War II hospital nail-biter Green for Danger, 1944, and the Nurse Matilda children's stories).

About the image: Trevor Howard in Green for Danger (dir. Sidney Gilliat, 1946)