josm

Every time I read a Gladys Mitchell book I lowkey imagine Beatrice Bradley looking like this

TRUE

(i am not going to actually do this because that would require effort but it would be funny)

gonna write a parody of Murder in the House of Omari with the same title but about drag queens instead

done with Greek Coffin. It's better than most other EQ I've read but I think it ends up too convoluted for its own good and EQ-the-character remains annoying IMO - a little too smug and privileged

Right, more rapidfire thoughts on books I've read recently:

The Rynox Murders (Philip MacDonald): Enjoyable! Sort of oddly structured but not in a bad way

The Mystery Train Disappears (Kyotaro Nishimura): Very good concept, but flat in execution

god I love the goodreads algorithm

The bit at the end you discuss was one of my favorite parts of the book, glad it got put in there!

Yep! Fun to see how he originated as a character

Somehow, after reading 40+ Christies, I had never gotten around to Mysterious Affair at Styles, so I just fixed that. It's good! A little rough in some ways, but enjoyable. It uses one of my fave Christie tropes, too

also my copy has Curran's recreation of the original ending, which is cool

Quickfire thoughts about books I read while travelling:

Strange Houses: very fun quick read, looking forward to Strange Buildings

Death of the Living Dead: peak, give me more Yamaguchi in Eng pleaseeeeee

Panic in Box C: better than most late Carrs (not a high bar)

Survived the English translation of The Perfect Insider, which sure is something. I thiiiiiiiiiiink there's a good book buried in there underneath it?

Maybe I should've watched the anime

Finished the first Zaregoto book - pretty fun! The epilogue raises the solution from "decent" to "really good", I think. I wish it delved more into some of the backstory it alluded to, though I suppose that's what the rest of the series is for

I am also at exactly 66 books done 2/3 into the year, so I wonder if I can break 100 by the end of the year hmmmmm

Finished Keigo Higashino's The Name of the Game is Kidnapping - one of his more thriller-y ones a la Journey Under the Midnight Sun. Doesn't quite have the same punch as that one but still enjoyable

(except too hetero for me tbh)

I liked some of James Yaffe's short stories so I read Mom Doth Murder Sleep - it's fun and I like the titular Mom but I think the set-up works better as a short story than a novel. Plus the solution ends up feeling like it's mostly just suppositions without a ton of evidence

This one's just silly tbh

They should make a new Marple adaptation but make them as campy as the Margaret Rutherford ones; it'd be peak

Read You-Jeong Jeong's Seven Years of Darkness - quite good thriller, though I wish the modern day bits were a bit longer. The main villain is one of the more vile dudes I've read for sure

shizuo heiwajima best boy (I've been reading Durarara)

Now if they only remembered Poppy is a Kamen Rider literally ever....

more tokuposting: also been rewatching Ex-Aid recently - it's a lot of fun! Kuroto and Parad are easily the best characters tbh.

Probs the best Takahashi season; man I hope Zeztz is good

Done with The Emperor's Snuff Box. The love triangle in it annoyed me for a while until I realize Carr was intentionally making both the dudes absolutely insufferable. Sometimes it's hard to tell that from his normal misogyny tbh

Also I've been catching up with the Don't Call It Mystery manga which, yes, is a mystery and a quite good one! Totonou is a lot of fun as a protag

Done with The Door to Doom Carr anthology. All the individual bits are pretty good but it's not quite cohesive enough as a collection I feel like? I have this quibble with a lot of anthologies tbh

Read Hickory Dickory Dock (or Hickory Dickory Death as my old hardcover calls it) - it has some good ideas but never really does anything particularly interesting with them. Plus, you know, how ragingly dated it is oof

Finished Death in High Heels - it's good-but-not-great but does display some flashes of brilliance for the kinds of books that Brand would go on to write

continuing my pivot to toku posting: started Ultraman Nexus! love the early 2000 jdrama vibes it has so far

the amount of usually-mediocre BL I have watched in the past week is ridiculous

Also, "I've never had okonomiyaki before. I thought it was something only women ate" is the funniest goddamn piece of gender commentary I've ever read.