Kami Garcia's "Agent of Chaos" is one of two X-Files origin novels published in 2017. The story is set in 1979 and follows a 17 year-old Fox Mulder. A soon-to-be High School graduate, Mulder is struggling to negotiate the choppy waters of his parents' recent divorce as a spate of child abductions casts an anxious cloud over the D.C. area. Mulder gr…

Hjalmar Söderberg's compelling novel caused quite a stir in Europe when it was published in 1905. His protagonist - a restless, brooding doctor in Stockholm at the turn of the century - grows obsessive when a patient comes to him with a delicate problem. Written in loose epistolary fashion, the inner monologues of Doctor Glas juxtapose beautiful re…

In this episode we travel to the Land of the Rising Sun where master detective Akechi Kogoro plays a game of cat and mouse with the titular Black Lizard, a femme fatale unlike we’ve encountered so far! Serialized at the height of Imperial Japan, before its ill-fated bid at Pacific supremacy, this twisted tale by Edogawa Rampo (the pseudonym of Taro…

Our final episode of 2023 investigates Celia Fremlin's "The Long Shadow" from 1975. Fremlin's text spins an intricate domestic mystery surrounding the recently-widowed character of Imogen Barnicott. Strange things start happening around her home at Christmastime and her late husband's family arrive to spend the holidays with their own baggage weigh…

In this special episode we polish the dust off our first chat on "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" from 2017 and reintroduce the story just in time for the holidays! As the only Holmes story set firmly within the Christmas season, "Carbuncle" occupies a special place in the hearts of many readers. Published in the January 1892 edition of The St…

1961's "Call for the Dead" was a striking premiere in spy fiction. Not only was it the careful, opening gambit in John le Carré's long and dominating career, it also marked the first appearance of George Smiley, the author's recurring intelligence officer of unlikely composition. Accented by a polite, unassuming conduct, Smiley is slightly overweig…

In this installment, Josh gets behind the wheel of "Detour" and takes listeners through the hairpin turns of Edgar G. Ulmer's "poverty row" production. When it was released in November 1945, "Detour" exceeded expectations, impressing post-war audiences and critics alike with inspired editing, nihilistic storytelling and a standout performance by An…

Batman first appeared in the May 1939 edition of "Detective Comics", the creation of Bill Finger and Bob Kane. Since then, the caped crusader and his story have been re-imagined through myriad themes and variations. Arguably the most compelling of these came In 1987, when artist and writer Frank Miller portrayed the first year of Bruce Wayne's acti…

It's late in 1941. Honolulu basks in Hawaiian warmth and Battleship Row sparkles with military confidence, just weeks before the day that would live in infamy. Downtown, Police Detective Joe McGrady receives a brutal double murder case that's about to change his life. The first victim is the nephew of an Admiral; the second is a young Japanese woma…

Boileau-Narcejac's novel D'entre les morts (The Living and the Dead) was published in 1954 and served as the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's classic psychological thriller. Over the decades, however, the source material with its war-time setting has been largely subsumed by the influence of the Hollywood production. Here, Josh and Scott explore …

A brief crank call transforms into a lengthy nightmare for spinster Helen Clarvoe and her anxious orbit around family and friends in Los Angeles. By turns evasive and compelling, Margaret Millar proffers a unique psychological thriller with Beast in View, her Edgar Award winning novel from 1956. Working the case on behalf of Helen (and readers) is …

Robert Siodmak's gem from 1949 goes under the microscope in this episode. Motivations for this classic plot involve an armoured car heist, an old flame and axes to grind. Good natured sap, Burt Lancaster, is the inside man on the job whilst making time with his ex, turned gangster’s moll, Yvonne De Carlo. Unfortunately for him, head-heavy Dan Durye…

In this episode we hoist, brail and kedge our way through Erskine Childer's 1903 prophetic spy thriller, The Riddle of the Sands. Published in 1903 and foreshadowing the great conflict of nations only a decade away, "Riddle" has held its place among the pantheon of influential spy mysteries for well over a century now. We start our voyage with Josh…

A staple of the first-person confessional, James M Cain's debut novel has really lasted the test of time. Now knocking on 90 years of age, "The Postman Always Rings Twice" delivers a ruthless plot at an unforgiving pace. Frank Chambers is an unemployed rambler possessed of a loose moral compass and an appetite for opportunity. Once he drifts upon t…

LTP Noir returns, this time to the mean streets of Samuel Fuller’s New York City at the height of the McCarthy era. Richard Widmark, Jean Peters and Thelma Ritter star in "Pickup on South Street", a brutish and caustic yarn where common criminals are considered heroes compared to those stinking Reds! Collect your tickets, friends, and hop aboard as…

"The Triumph of the Spider Monkey" is the chaotic narrative of Bobby Gotteson, whose repressive lust and murderous rage reach their fever-pitch following a hubris-led journey to California. All but disowned by its author, Joyce Carol Oates, we crack the covers on a new season of LTP with a look at this stylish, often brutal novel, recently resurrec…

In 1943, Alfred Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt" delivered a sinister sucker-punch of a conundrum to naïve North American audiences: What happens when the sleepy, mundane routine of a secure society unwittingly welcomes in maniacal, chaotic forces? Playing on one of Hitchcock's favourite themes, this microcosm of a film has aged exceptionally well. …

“Dark Passage” is one of Film Noir's most unique thrillers. The 1947 film boasts an all-star cast, innovative use of first-person subjective camerawork and some remarkable on-location shooting. What's more, it was the inspiration for "The Fugitive" TV series of the 1960s as well as its 1993 feature film remake (...minus the plastic surgery of cours…

Our first Agatha Christie read takes us to Gossington Hall where the body of a young woman is found, dead and spread, upon the floor of Colonel Bantry's library. Invited to snoop and sleuth by the Colonel's wife, the quiet and calculating Miss Marple lends her expertise when the investigation moves from country manor to seaside hotel. Published in …

In this episode Josh discusses the troubled and time-pressed production of George Marshall's "The Blue Dahlia". Penned by hard-boiled novelist, Raymond Chandler, and starring Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake and William Bendix, the story behind this gritty man-on-the-run thriller is as compelling as the adventure itself.…

Better know, perhaps, for his writing in the expanded universes of Star Wars, Star Trek and Blade Runner, K W Jeter is nevertheless one of the pioneers of cyberpunk fiction. The sub-genre's gritty, challenging tropes are equal parts prophetic and perplexing for readers. Into its tech-heavy milieu of corrupt appetites and dispossessed culture, Jeter…

Otto Preminger's "Laura" from 1944 is considered a classic of the noir genre. Expertly cast and masterfully directed, "Laura" has remained among cinema's most stylistic of psychological thrillers for nearly 80 years. So set your clocks and hide your shotguns - in the second feature of this intriguing side-series, Josh explores the context behind La…

Ten years after propelling his protagonist off the page via Reichenbach in "The Final Problem", Arthur Conan Doyle returns Holmes to his adoring public. Published in Autumn of 1903, "The Empty House" gave eager readers what they'd been seeking for a decade - key answers to the past, a wild villain of the present and much hope for the future. First …

Good news, Sherlock fans! Summer has arrived (in the northern hemisphere at least) and that means the return of our world-famous "Sherlock Selects" Summer Series! Last year, we featured four classic stand-alone installments. This season we're tackling the Holmesian mythology with revamped presentations of "The Final Problem" and "The Empty House". …

Inspired by real events, Robert Traver's 1958 novel was the first of its kind - a true "courtroom thriller". Showcasing the genial narrative perspective of every-man defense attorney, Paul Biegler, "Anatomy" couldn't be better named as it guides readers through the crooks and crevices of the legal corpus of a murder trial. Groundbreaking and contro…

In this pint-sized episode, we reach into the archives and present a conversation from July 2016 on Ian Fleming's "Quantum of Solace". A divisive short story that had James Bond fans scratching their heads, Fleming's narrative experiment positions 007 as after-dinner audience to a morality tale of greed, revenge and marital conflict. It's a curious…

In this engaging side-series, Josh flies solo in exploring the production, features and influences of Film Noir. Taking the shape of compact film reviews, the first of these complementary capsule episodes sets the stage for the genre's American premiere by looking at its European origins. Informative context then gives way to review as John Huston'…

Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" wastes no time cutting shapes and setting angles in its pursuit of modelling the hard-boiled genre. The opening sentence alone produces enough sharp edge to slice through a striploin at Herbert's on Powell Street: "Samuel Spade's jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting V under the more flexible V of his mou…

"The Moonstone" is regarded by many as the progenitor of the detective novel in English. Published in 1868, it marks, perhaps, the peak of Wilkie Collins's career as a novelist and emerged onto the scene at a time of great change for Scotland Yard and the British Empire at large. Steeped in foreign intrigue and trapped within a casing of disguise, …

In 1955 Patricia Highsmith introduced the world to Tom Ripley, a young and ambitious con-man who gets the break of a lifetime when serendipity (in the form of an acquaintance's rich father) sends him to Italy on a rescue mission. Haunted by insecurities and struggling against his own ego, Tom "fakes it till he makes it", drawing on deep reservoirs …

Edgar Allan Poe's contributions to literary form can hardly be overstated. Among many accomplishments, he is widely regarded as the progenitor of the detective story. His character, C. Auguste Dupin first appeared in 1841's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and returned the following year for "The Mystery of Marie Roget" and again in 1844's "The Purloine…

In Michael Connelly's debut novel, readers meet Detective Harry Bosch of the LAPD. Bosch is haunted by several demons from his past, each of which comes out to play in "The Black Echo". First, there's the tragedy of his mother's murder and the childhood wounds of growing up in the system. Then there's his time as "tunnel-rat" in Vietnam as part of …

What do you get when an adventurous British writer combines suspension of disbelief, war-time propaganda and a patriotic dose of daring-do? John Buchan's "The 39 Steps", of course, a "shocker" that pleased troops and arm-chair generals alike and introduced the literary world to the character of Richard Hannay. In 1915, this novella seemed to strike…

In 1955, Graham Greene published "The Quiet American", part character confession and part political allegory, set amidst the changing of the colonial guard in Southeast Asia. As the French powers puff their last breaths in Vietnam the American agenda starts making its strident moves and there, observing all from the inside, is cynical British journ…

Our "Sherlock Selects" summer series concludes here with a real show-stopper! "The Copper Beeches" is one of Conan Doyle's most atmospheric and engaging mysteries, featuring a female client with moxie and a country manse full of fear. We had a great time talking over this story back in May of 2017 and proudly re-present it here today in wrapping up…

When old age hands you lemons... it's time to take monkey gland injections from a quack Czech doctor! Or, at least, that's what Professor Presbury might have once suggested. This curious tale is as close as Conan Doyle ever gets to showcasing the hardships of graceful aging to the love-struck pensioner. Yes, "The Adventure of the Creeping Man" is f…

In this gritty crime thriller, Detective Sergeant John Rebus makes his literary debut. Ian Rankin draws on rich material from the city of Edinburgh and his native Scotland in sculpting his protagonist's first adventure. From the dank alleyways of Auld Reekie to the spirited influence of Stevenson's "Jekyll and Hyde", Rankin works hard with his firs…

A grizzly harpoon murder and a protégé inspector lure Sherlock and Watson out of London and into the remote Weald of East Sussex in this atmospheric adventure. Originally published in 1904, this yarn was collected and re-published a year later in "The Return of Sherlock Holmes". Our "Sherlock Selects" Summer mini-series continues here with a return…

Our "Sherlock Selects" mini-series continues to buffer the Summer's bigger reads, this time with a conversation on "The Bruce Partington Plans" from May 2018. Originally published in 1908 (and featured in the later collection "His Last Bow") this story of stolen government plans in a fog-draped London overflows with intrigue and eventually ranked a…

Published in 1977, "A Morbid Taste For Bones" introduced Brother Cadfael to the world, a Welsh Benedictine monk of the 12th Century with a penchant for solving crimes. Although Ellis Peters establishes a dynamic back-story for her protagonist, set amidst the turmoil of the First Crusade, the vibe of his first adventure is decidedly more "crofter in…

Second in our series of "Sherlock Selects" for the Summer is "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box". Originally published in January of 1893 (and first covered on LTP in June of 2017), Conan Doyle himself ruled against anthologizing this tale due to its controversial subject matter. But you can't keep a good story down and "The Cardboard Box" would s…

This season, we'll be buffering new episodes with re-introduced and smaller story reviews. For these selections, we reach back into our first season vaults and renew our love for some favourite Sherlock pieces and chats. First up is "The Abbey Grange", one of Josh's choices from The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Originally published in March of 2018, …

"Later" marks the third and most recent crime story written by Stephen King for the Hard Case Crime label. Offering readers a predictable mix of the supernatural and police procedural, the horror master's latest tale continues his career penchant for coming-of-age narratives with soul-searching themes. Josh and Scott break down the narrative and we…

Josh and Scott kick off a new series of crime story explorations with a trip to Lindsey Davis's Ancient Rome, guided by Imperial Informant, Marcus Didius Falco. "The Silver Pigs" is set in AD 70, during the rule of Vespasian, and travels from the Aventine to Roman Britain where a conspiracy involving the trade of silver ingots propels Falco further…

For their series finale on the Philip Marlowe novels, Scott and Josh reflect on their reading of the canonical sweep and rank the stories and features of Raymond Chandler's enduring collection.By Lighting the Pipes

Chandler's final complete Marlowe novel was written at a time of deteriorating health and tumultuous circumstances for the author. Not surprisingly, some of these conflicts from 1958 find their way into the story. Marlowe is different here and the narrative is markedly unique, in ways both satisfying and off-putting to readers. Josh and Scott compl…

1953 saw the publication of Raymond Chandler's sixth Philip Marlowe novel, "The Long Goodbye". Chandler himself regarded it as his best work and many fans agree. Nevertheless, behind the scenes it was getting harder for Chandler to find peace. Personal issues and professional conflicts continued to grow, marring his sense of contentment. Josh and S…

Driven by amphetamine, Graham Greene knocked out this thriller in only 6 weeks of 1939 in a rented room of a Bloomsbury flat. He wrote fervently as premonitions of a second world war grew more tangible around him. Josh and Scott take a break from their Raymond Chandler campaign to investigate and weigh the merits of this compelling espionage advent…

After a five-year hiatus, Raymond Chandler returns to the world of Philip Marlowe with "The Little Sister". His small-town client brings big-city trouble as the investigation into her missing brother turns up a lot of Tinseltown intrigue, including ice-pick murders and sexual betrayal. Coloured by Chandler's own experiences within the studio system…

For his fourth novel, Raymond Chandler sends detective Philip Marlowe away from the steamy tumult of Los Angeles and up into the fresh mountain air in search of a client's missing wife. The investigation starts simply enough but soon careens along a grotty path of quick-fire hunches and deadly secrets that take no prisoners. Josh and Scott drag the…