Category Archives: Mystery

359J: Private Investigator Has Bad Luck With Pulp Fiction Publisher

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Looking for metafictional short story that’s an homage to classic noir (probably published in the last 10 years or so) in which a PI is hired by a pulp fiction publisher to write stories. I think the PI only deals with a woman (secretary?) at first, they pay him a lot of money for his writing, and then maybe he eventually meets the publisher and there’s a twist ending that goes poorly for the PI. The tone was winkingly hardboiled (first-person narrator like classic PI stories). I have exhausted every possible Google keyword variation I can think of, and am just hoping someone in your network may have read this! I seem to think it was in a short story collection with different authors doing takes on mystery stories (similar to an anthology called Tiny Crimes), but could be wrong about that.

356H: Christie-like mystery, solved by time required to dial phone number

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I was sure this was a Tuppence & Tommy book (Christie), but it's not -- and I just finished reading all her books again. No luck; it's not one of hers! This mystery hinges on the time it takes (used to take) to dial a phone number -- the way a 9 on a rotary phone took longer to rotate back, when you dialed, than, say, a 2 would. Someone heard a number being dialed in the next room, at the beginning of the book, and realizes much later the reported phone number had to have been a lie -- didn't fit the sounds actually heard. I read this book around 1975, and it was old then. Thank you!!

355Z: 1940s or 50s U.S. Chapter Mystery – Kids, Summer, a ‘Chateau’, a Diamond Necklace?

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When I was in about 3rd to 6th grade in the early 1970s, my favorite book in my NJ public school library was a hardcover chapter book about kids on summer vacation, possibly in upstate New York, who get involved in some kind of mystery involving a neighboring house they call the Chateau.  I think a diamond necklace came into it, and I’m pretty sure the children of one family joined forces with a boy from another family (maybe living in the Chateau?) to solve the mystery.  Either Chateau or Diamond Necklace might have been in the title, but I’ve had no luck Googling for it.  It was an old-fashioned story at the time, probably could have been written any time from the late 1930s to the mid 60s.  There were illustrations, but a limited number, and I think they might have been listed by caption after the table of contents. I think it was the first time I had heard of a “Porte cochere”, which I had to look up. I think the binding was red, and may have had an imprint illustration of a country house on the cover — but I could be making that up!

I loved it and probably read it four or five times, but these scraps are all I can remember!  I’d dearly love to find a copy.

354D: YA mystery on a farmhouse/orchard? with a secret passage part of the underground railroad

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It may have been published in 1980s/early 1990s, maybe on a Scholastic list, set in the 1800s, a boy visits his ?aunt/uncle one summer, on a farm or apple orchard in New England (maybe Pennsylvania). There is a secret passage used for the underground railroad that is discovered by the boy in the house he is staying at, near the end of the book, when someone is hidden there. Someone may have gotten shot near the end of the book. Boy felt aunt/uncle he was staying with were strict and had a strained relationship with them until their aid to this person near the end of the book changes this. Can't recall the title, but it was long-ish. Cover may have had farmhouse/farm landscape.

351T: Young boy with red/brown hair and glasses solves mysteries using science

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One book cover includes him on the cover with a lab coat and beakers. The cover may have been blue or purple. It was very block cartoonish. He solves mysteries with a girl who is also on the cover with a lab coat on. They may have had a dog. I believe they solved mysteries in their apartment complex or school. It was a series that may have been Scholastic as I believe I got it from a book fair as a child. The book would have been out in the early 2000s.

350D: Shannon’s Job in the Historic House Run by Two Sisters

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Years ago, I read a mystery about a college student named Shannon getting a summer job at an old house run by two old ladies (sisters). Students dress as Gibson girls & do tours through the historic house. Shannon befriends another girl student. There’s a guy that took a summer job there too. He’s a writer, I think his name is Michael. A relative of the Sisters also lives there. She likes caramels. There’s a murder. I think the Sisters names are Cora & Lanie or maybe Lennie.

349O: Children Look for Missing Mother, Who Got in Accident

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A young mother leaves her children to go for a romantic night away with her boyfriend. She realised her mistake and rushes home but is in an accident.
The children are unaware but continue going to school pretending all is OK. They go on a school trip near the location of her night away and look for her. They also have an accident  and all are reunited at the hospital.

349M: The Empty Valley Mystery

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All I remember about this book is that a group of kids (who were maybe related. There were two brothers?) ended up in this absolutely empty valley - there was a plane involved. And they explore this valley - find a cave to live in. And at some point they solve a mystery - a chicken is involved - and they find gold. And then get rescued. This was is the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew genre. All I remember about the cover is that it had a numeral of sorts on it. Also, in another book in the same series one of the brothers finds a rare bird - a great auk or something.