Friday, December 10, 2010

December Books, Day 10: "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle"

Juxtaposing a festive holiday season with the bizarre/scary/mysterious/macabre seems to be a well-established literary tradition. I remember reading a Dalziel and Pascoe crime novel of that genre years ago--I think it was Red Christmas (enough said, right?). Then there's the quite nasty Hercule Poirot's Christmas, as well as more contemporary Christmas crime novels like M.C. Beaton's Kissing Christmas Goodbye. [2011: link fixed.]  Those, you want to read (if you want to read them) at some other time of the year, so as not to spoil your holidays.

If you're looking for a tamer type of holiday mystery, there are some classics in the stolen-jewels rather than the corpse department. One is Dorothy L. Sayers' story "The Necklace of Pearls." Another is the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle." Variously recorded, filmed etc. (we like the Jeremy Brett version), it is still fun to read in print as well. And the only nastiness (that I can remember) is a mention or two of what might happen to the suspect if Holmes can't prove his innocence.

What, you were expecting the sequel to Jeanne-Marie today?

P.S. In the black-humour-for-Christmas category (and I'll spoil it by saying that nobody really gets hurt), there's the classic Suspense episode "A Present for Benny," about two gangsters and two--or maybe three--presents that get mixed up--including one that's supposed to go boom. We listened to that one last night on a golden-age-of-radio program. Anyone old enough to listen to it will realize that this one is mostly played for laughs. Anyone younger than that will probably find it too scary.

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