Exploring Bury Saint Edmunds with M. R. James

If you know me well, and I think you do if you've been reading my tales of mystery, suspense, and horror, you'll not be surprised to learn that after arriving at London Heathrow at five-oh-ridiculous in the morning and catching the Tube to the British Library to explore what I suspect is the most fascinating exhibition ever dedicated to Agatha Christie, I was still hungry for more mystery, atmosphere, and literary tourism. And so, hopping back over to King's Cross Station, I caught a Great Northern train to Cambridge, where I'd booked myself a room for two nights. While waiting for my room to be available at three o'clock, I paid the Fitzwilliam Museum a visit, and didn't regret the decision; mediaeval armoury, Egyptian artefacts, and an art collection including the likes of Canaletto, Constable, Turner, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Monet, and Picasso. That, however, is not the subject of this post. What you see below is.

After a good night's sleep, I got an early train to Bury Saint Edmunds, a town boasting some of England's most important ruins (and that's saying a lot for a land full of the ruins of past glories) as well as one of the haunting grounds of a former director (1893–1908) of the aforementioned museum, but better known as one of the most brilliant mediaevalists and antiquarians of his age, and even better known as the Father of the Modern Ghost Story and arguably of Folk Horror as a modern genre. I am, of course, talking about Montague Rhodes James. Good old M. R. 

I'm not going to get all cheesy by telling you that it felt as though M. R. was right there beside me as I strolled through the ruins, graveyards, and gardens of Bury, but I did catch a couple of passers-by giving me odd looks as though I'd been talking to "myself". One thing's for sure, it's no exaggeration to say that you do get an agreeably eerie chill walking in his footsteps here where he discovered the resting place of five abbots in 1902, after being led to where they lay by studying a manuscript fragment. The man didn't just write ghost stories, he dug them straight out of hallowed ground. 

Not all the bodies have been located, however, and the mystery remains as to what happened to the man Bury is named after; Saint Edmund (Edmund the Martyr), King of East Anglia, who died 869. He was originally buried in a wooden chapel near where he was killed, and later translated to a shrine at Beodricsworth (as Bury was then called) in Suffolk. His shrine in the abbey church was a pilgrimage site throughout the Middle Ages, but the location of his remains following the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536–1541) is unknown.

If you've ever read one of James' ghost stories and you happen to be passing through East Anglia, make sure you pay Bury Saint Edmunds a visit. Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, if you haven't read any of James' work, put that right as soon as possible. Oh, and if you love mediaeval architecture as much as I do, make sure you set a few hours aside to visit the nearby village of Lavenham when you come to Bury. Stay tuned for that post!

Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery

Exhibition ticket in hand, straight off a flight from Hong Kong to London, preceded by one from Brisbane to Hong Kong, I headed from Heathrow Airport to the British Library before the crack of dawn. After a mug of cappuccino and several walks around Saint Pancras, including through the old churchyard, I joined the queue outside the library and awaited the opening of the doors at half past nine on a Wednesday morning. I'd given myself somewhere between an hour and a half and two hours to discover Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery before catching a Great Northern train to Cambridge, where I would visit the Fitzwilliam Museum in the afternoon. The question, therefore, begs an answer... Was it worth it? And the answer? It's a resounding "yes!", you'll be pleased to hear.

This fascinating exhibition takes the visitor on Agatha's journey, unearthing her childhood in Devon (this English author who had an American father and Irish mother) and her wartime service (dabbling in poisons) as a Red Cross nurse. We then have the adventuress crossing continents by train and joining her second husband, Sir Max Mallowan, on archaeological digs. The exhibition concludes with her work as a West End playwright. Her life is on display here...the girl, the woman, the legend. But of course, this exhibition is as much about her characters as herself, with Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple in the limelight, naturellement, but Ariadne Oliver and others also getting some well-deserved attention.

There are letters, notebooks, photographs, personal belongings, early manuscript drafts and many objects on display for the first time, including her passports, Remington Portable typewriter, and camera. My personal favourite was probably was one of David Suchet's costumes from the TV series Poirot. It almost felt like he was there with me, ready to share a crème de menthe. 

The exhibition will run through to June next year, so if you're calling on London any time soon, book your ticket and spend an hour or two with the Queen of Crime! Buy your ticket here.

Review: Thief

Thief: Tales of Rogues and Robber is the debut anthology from Salty Dog Press, and Paulene and Andy Turner have really hit the nail on the head here...or would it be more fitting to say they've managed to pick that lock? In any case, the book itself is a dazzling jewel with an eye-catching cover (by Holly Dunn) and professional internal layout. The editing is top-notch, which is no surprise knowing the Turners, and the stories chosen were more fun than you can shake a lock pick at.

Now, as a fan of puzzle mysteries, I was hoping for a couple of real headscratchers, but that wasn't the point of this anthology. What we have here is a rollicking selection of short stories loosely bound together by theme of thieves, with forays into science-fiction futures and the pioneering past. There's even a spot of time travel, and I have to say that The Mysterious Smile, a tale of art and quantum physics, and the editor's own offering, was my personal favourite. While the anthology as a whole is upbeat and positive, sticking to the glamorous side of thievery or ending the adventures with a human touch and a hint at the real treasures beyond the trinkets, there were some darker escapades as well, particularly the gritty Honor, Thieves, Etc. by Trey Dowell, which adds a bitter shot of noir crime to the anthology... Okay, sorry Paulene, but I'm going to say Dowell's tale gets equal favourite alongside yours.

This is a great anthology to dip in and out of, to keep on your bedside table for those nights when you can't fall asleep for one reason or another... Why is that, by the way? Wait, what was that noise? Didn't it come from downstairs? Should you get out of bed and check it out? No. Never mind. Best ignore it. Stay curled up in your blankets and enjoy these tales of fictitious thieves instead. 

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Review: Colours of Death

I rarely take advantage of the ebook giveaways offered by BookBub, but this one caught my eye, and I'm glad I downloaded it. I hadn't heard of Robert New before (which probably makes sense considering his name) and so the prospect of giving a fellow Australian author of fair-play mystery puzzles a go was one I couldn't let slip by...like an elusive clue! Colours of Death was more than I hoped it would be. Sergeant Thomas is a likeable protagonist who in true Sherlockian tradition bedazzles us with insight into the workings of his brilliant mind. There's also entertaining banter and splashes of wit as he navigates cases with his team of admirable colleagues. These elements, alongside the backstory of his upcoming wedding, give the reader a relatable and human hero we can believe in.

With nine short mysteries adhering to the theme of "colours" in this collection clocking in at just under a hundred and ninety pages in the edition I read, the pacing is spot on. These are stories for fans of the puzzle mystery, particularly those readers with a penchant for forensics. Numerous readers have called my protagonist, Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable, a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, and I think Sergeant Thomas is also worthy of that accolade, perhaps even more so taking into account the nature of the mysteries in this casebook.

I'm looking forward to further glimpses into the workings of Robert New's mischievous mind and cracking more cases alongside the intrepid Sergeant Thomas. My hat is well and truly off, Mister New!

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Review: Death and the Conjuror

Tom Mead has conjured the Golden Age of Crime with this first novel featuring puzzle-solving magician, Joseph Spector. In "Death and the Conjuror", Tom Mead aims to pay homage to John Dickson Carr and Jonathan Creek, but he succeeds in doing a whole lot more than that, because this novel is just as clever and entertaining, earning its spot on the very same podium.

Tom convincingly plunges us into the heart of London society in the thirties with a cast of colourful and quirky characters, headed by the most spellbinding of them all, Joseph Spector. He takes us from the bright lights of the stage to haunted nightmares and from the darkest corners of the Black Pig to the trendiest clubs, all the while keeping the locked study foremost in our minds.

Tom Mead deftly shuffles his pack of playing cards in which plot, cast, setting, and atmosphere are the suits and entices the mystery hounds of the world to pit wits against him.

I was particularly pleased because I identified the murderer and guessed a couple of the tricks put into play. However, I didn't figure out all the ins and outs of the puzzle. This is a complicated mystery, and Tom Mead scatters the pieces far and wide, but the dark tableau is coherent once Spector puts them together for us.

If, like me, you're hooked on locked-room puzzles, you need to read Tom Mead!

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