Detectives Beyond Borders is five years old
Amid the hubbub of Bouchercon and its aftermath, I forgot to mention that Wednesday was the fifth anniversary of the first Detectives Beyond Borders post.
Here are this blog's first post, and the posts from its first, second, third, and fourth anniversaries. Topics of those posts included war, Peace, hurling, birthdays and, to start things off, in Post #1, a statement of purpose and a list of some of my favorite international crime fiction at the time. Has this blog lived up to that purpose? I haven't the foggiest.
What are your favorite mysteries with five in the title or whose titles are five words?
© Peter Rozovsky 2011
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 4:51 PM
65 Comments:
The blog has more than lived up to its promise. I learned about Irish crime fiction because I was lucky enough to be asked to review quite a bit of it several years ago and got to chat with a few of the principals. My knowledge of the rest of the world came from this blog.
Happy anniversary.
Happy Anniversary, 5+ more great years!
Five word title: Murder in the Palais Royal, by Cara Black.
Thanks, Dana. Nice to know I have opened someone's eyes to the world, minus one country.
Thanks, Jim. If only you'd called your first Billy Boyle Goes to War.
Congratulations. I like blogs which tell me about books beyond my pale.
Congratulations on the anniversary, Peter.
Back in 18th century England the finest thing they could say about a man was that he had bottom, that is, that he was of sound character and had staying power.
You've got bottom, Peter.
'Five Go To Mystery Moor' by Enid Blyton. Back in the 60s when I wasn't much more than five, that one got me going on books.
Peter
Congratulations! Now that Weinmann has more or less retired this is my go to place for all my mystery related needs. I don't always agree with you but I always admire the breadth of your knowledge and your intellect.
I know you like history so can I mention a cracking little book called FIVE DAYS IN LONDON, where John Lukacs argues that World War 2 hung in the balance until Churchill - barely - convinced the cabinet that Halifax and the appeasers were not the men to be trusted with the future of Britain. It has all the tension of a thriller and is a great book...
http://www.amazon.com/Five-Days-London-May-1940/dp/0300084668
Congratulations, Peter, and to many more anniversaries!
I honestly cannot think of a title with the number 5; the mystery section of my book collection has two beloved novels whose titles are five words, but they are both in Italian and not available in English:
- Il gioco delle tre carte by Marco Malvaldi
- Sei donne e un libro by Augusto De Angelis
Thanks, Joe, and thanks to all for tactfully avoiding mention of the two typos (since corrected) in this post.
Solo, I am pleased to have my bottom firmly planted in the century that gave us David Hume, Rousseau, Voltaire, and standardized spelling. Thanks!
Adrian, thanks for that typically interesting book suggestion. Weinman got a real job, the lucky woman.
Simona, thanks for the kind wishes and for submitting titles with the numbers three and six to my five list!
Happy anniversary, Peter! You're always on my list of "go to" blogs (and in my Google Reader, too). I'll bite on the "five" book title -- how about "Five Little Pigs" by Agatha Christie, in which Poirot solves a mystery purely from testimonials of 5 suspects without going to the scene of the crime.
Congrats Peter and wishing you many more years of successs. I remember the 4th anniv post. Doesn't seem like a year has gone by. I'll go with "Slaughterhouse Five". And seeing that it is such a special occasion, I need to tell you something that has been on my conscience for the last year... I really DO like Paperlace. Keep it up, your blog is great!
Muchos thank yous, BV, and thanks for the cool title.
Sean, what's Paperlace's second-best song?
Congrats on the big 5!
I'm telling you, I feel as sprightly as I did at 3. Thanks.
Congrats, Peter! DBB got me reading crime fiction after a decade away from it, and I'm so glad I happened up the site one day.
Comments like that do my old heart good. I'm glad to have brought you back to crime.
Peter,
Congratulations on reaching the Big 5. I'm looking forward to the next 5.
I can't come up with a title with 5 in it, so I will substitute five titles with 5 words:
_Death is a Lonely Business_ by Ray Bradbury
_Death of an Expert Witness_ by PD James
_The Murder at the Vicarage_ by Agatha Christie
_The Lady in the Lake_ by Raymond Chandler
_He Who Fears the Wolf_ by Karin Fossum
Thanks, Fred. I may have to award five books as prizes if this keeps up.
Happy 5th Anniversary, Peter! The time just flew by. Where did it all go?
It all went into the piles of books that greatly restrict movement in my house.
Many thanks!
Off the top of my head I suppose any of the Famous Five books; offhand I can't think of any books with five in the title I've read since.
I suppose Jim Thompson's Masterpiece, 'Pop. 1280' might meet the five word requirement if you list the numbers, individually, wouldn't it?
Here's to the next five, Hoss!
Peter,
1) The Night Chicago Died
2) Billy Don't be a Hero
3) Hitchin' A Ride
"Daddy was a cop, on the East side of Chicago, back in the bad old days, back in the USA"
Pop. 1,280 is a bit of a stretch, TCK, but thanks nonetheless. I'm afraid I cannot offer similar thanks for your reminding me of the lyrics to the awful "The Night Chicago Died."
Sean, never let it be said that I don't respect knowledge. I found out during my last bit of research on this unpleasant subject that the same songwriting duo was responsible for "The Night Chicago Died" and "Billy, Don't Be a Hero." Now I have learned that Paperlace recorded both songs and that the same composing due wrote Vanity Fair's pleasantly infectious hit "Hitchin' a Ride," a good recording despite the gratingly self-conscious apostrophe in the title.
You can blame Sean for the latter, Peter.
And for causing me to remember "Billy, don't be a hero, come back to me-ee!"
Not every pop song from my youth was shite, but it does seem that way sometimes.
Peter if you forensically scrutinise the lyrics to Mud's 'Tiger Feet' you might be inclined to dismiss it as shite, but I challenge you not to be enthusiastically repeating the chorus, immediately after hearing it
TCK, I concede the possibility. But the songs I dismiss as shite here are songs that I suffered through on their original release, so I know what I'm talking about.
I mean, Sean seems like an all right guy despite the songs he likes.
Peter,
Congratulations on the anniversary and many happy returns. As I have discovered blogs only recently, I have much history to catch up on.
Five-word title: The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis.
Ah, now there's one that should have been foremost on my mind. Just for fun, I cast my eyes randomly on a book at my desk: The Papers of Tony Veitch by William McIlvanney.
And thanks!
Hearty congratulations, Peter. It's quite an accomplishment.
Congrats! It lives because it's good and because it's author works hard at it.
Title: DEATH ON AN AUTUMN RIVER
:) My new one.
Happy anniversary, Peter. May you have 50 more.
As for the novel, I would have to go with 5 AGAINST THE HOUSE by Jack Finney (1954). It's a well-told story of a group of friends who decide to rob a casino in Reno, Nevada.
Finney, by the way, was also the author of THE BODY SNATCHERS, which Don Siegel transformed into the original classic, THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.
Thanks, Seana! You know you're one of this blog's favorite commenters.
Thanks, I.J. When I get compliments about the blog, especially from authors, I say that I just do what authors do: I write every day.
Mike, I don't know if I want to do this for fifty years, but thanks. And thanks for the information on Finney and Siegel.
Congrats on conquering the big five!
My favorite mystery with a title consisting of five letters: Een lampion voor een blinde by Bertus Aafjes.
Congrats Peter. Our blogs started the same month and Detective Beyond Borders has gone on to fame and fortune.
My own humble blog has remained in the shadows and my apogee was a threat of legal action for libel and breach of copyright. That's life. ;-)
Damn, I've never been threatened that way, Uriah. Cool!
That would never happen in America. We have freedom of the press here!
Dankuwel, Tom, en welkom in Detectives Beyond Borders!
I hope my own experiment in blogging can be as successful and enriching to others as yours has been and continues to be.
Five great five word titles in crime fiction:
Have Mercy on Us All by Fred Vargas
Murder in the Central Committee by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
A Not So Perfect Crime by Teresa Solana
The Fire Engine that Disappeared by Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöo
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada
I'd like to mention many excellent foreign language books but all their titles are too short.
Thanks. Vargas' English titles are not generally translations of the original French titles, but the original of Have Mercy on Us All also qualifies: Pars vite et reviens tard.
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders: Is a word missing?
Jack Finney is also the author of my
all-time favorite No. 1 time travel story--_Time and Again_.
WV: audglawn Now that's got to mean something.
Thanks, Peter. As I'm sure you know, this blog is right up there with the very top of my blog list.
I couldn't put my head together enough to think of titles this morning--because it was only just before FIVE A.m., but in a marginally more conscious state, I will respond with a very apt High Five, by Janet Evanovich, and Five Bells and a Bladebone by Martha Grimes. I know I read and liked the first one, and I have a mind to track down the second, because Grimes' Richard Jury novels were favorites of my mom's.
Fred, audglawn hovers just beyond the threshold of meaning. What could it be? The first name of a Welsh eccentric, perhaps?
My v-word, on the other hand, is from Bulgaria or Central Asia: tudikzv
Seana: in re Evanovich, I'd forgotten about series whose titles dictate a title that includes five between the ones that include four and six: The Fifth Deadly Sin, for instance.
Congratulation Peter.
Fred Vargas has some titles:
- Seeking Whom He May Devour,
- Have Mercy on Us All, (Pars vite et reviens tard),and
- Sous les vents de Neptune, but not the English translation.
RJ Ellory
- A Quiet Belief in Angels.
- A Simple Act of Violence
Phillip Kerr
- If the Dead Rise Not.
Just came across this toast to you:
http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2011/09/playing-catch-up.html
Well done, Peter. I hope this is just the beginning. And in another five years, you will still be going strong. International crime fiction owes a lot to your timely reviews and comments.
Thanks, Jose. In an idle moment I should do a rough survey on this subject and see if certain types of books tend to have briefer titles, whether trends have changed over time, and so on. Leisurely titles are appropriate to Vargas, for examples, or at least to Adamsberg.
Liz, I'll check that link now. Thanks.
Many thanks, Chris. If I had a glass of wine or beer handy, I'd raise it in a toast to beginnings.
Hi Peter,
I've been out of the loop lately, but I'm glad I checked in time to wish you a (belated) Happy Anniversary! (I still don't know how you do it!)
I vaguely recall reading that Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series all had titles with 5 words in them. I had a look and found that that was true until 1994. My favorite title is When the Sacred Ginmill Closes. Cheers!
Thanks, Pat. I was about to correct you on the the Scudder title you named on the ground that gin mill was two words, but it looks like you’ve done your homework on that.
Felicitazioni and Saluti da Mantova, Peter!
Too tired to think of books with / of five. But best wishes on (at least) the next five years and thanks for drawing my (and many others') attention to so many good books. Like Adrian, I don't agree with all your likes and dislikes but that is far outweighed by the many authors who you, and some of your many commenters drawn to the discussions at your lively blog, have led me to.
Just finished reading a book by an author I heard about first at your blog, Anne Zouroudi's The Messenger of Athens. I loved it! Atmospheric, hypnotizing, spellbinding, in the old-fashioned sense of the word.
Oh, and please don't make me buy your tape... Why did she call her detective, "the fat man"?
Ha! "Mantua" is one of Phiadelphia's more dangerous areas. But thanks!
You mentioned Il giocco delle tre carte elsewhere; one commenter here offered it as one of her five-word choiced.
The Messenger of Athens was probably my biggest surprise among this year's Bouchercon reading. I thought it would me some insufferable piece about finding one's self. Instead it was everything you say.
Anne Zouroudi called her messenger the fat man bec—
Damned technical glitches!
Because in her book, he's really human, and humans, after all, are mortal.
Bon anniversaire! Thanks for helping to keep my 'To Read' list long!
Thanks, and may your list always be long!
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