Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge: 2013

The Challenge is to read from 8 or more vintage mystery novels during the year 2013. These books must be from the Scattergories which have been defined by the clever person who issued this challenge. All books must be vintage as defined as having published before 1960.

More information may be found at the My Reader's Block Blog

Vintage Scattergories:

1. Colorful Crime: a book with a color or reference to color in the title
2. Murder by the Numbers: a book with a number, quantity in the title
3. Amateur Night: a book with a "detective" who is not a P.I.; Police Officer; Official Investigator (Nurse Keate, Father Brown, Miss Marple, etc.)
4. Leave It to the Professionals: a book featuring cops, private eyes, secret service, professional spies, etc.
5. Jolly Old England: one mystery set in Britain
6. Yankee Doodle Dandy: one mystery set in the United States
7. World Traveler: one mystery set in any country except the US or Britain
8. Dangerous Beasts: a book with an animal in the title (The Case of the Grinning Gorilla; The Canary Murder Case; etc.)
9. A Calendar of Crime: a mystery with a date/holiday/year/month/etc. in the title (Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Holiday Homicide, etc.)
10. Wicked Women: a book with a woman in the title--either by name (Mrs. McGinty's Dead) or by reference (The Case of the Vagabound Virgin)
11. Malicious Men: a book with a man in the title--either by name (Maigret & the Yellow Dog) or by reference (The Case of the Haunted Husband)
12. Murderous Methods : a book with a means of death in the title (The Noose, 5 Bullets, Deadly Nightshade, etc).
13. Staging the Crime: a mystery set in the entertainment world (the theater, musical event, a pageant, Hollywood, featuring a magician, etc)
14. Scene of the Crime: a book with the location of the crime in the title (The Body in the Library, Murder at the Vicarage, etc.)
15. Cops & Robbers: a book that features a theft rather than murder
16. Locked Rooms: a locked-room mystery
17. Country House Criminals: a standard (or not-so-standard) Golden Age country house murder
18. Murder on the High Seas: a mystery involving water
19. Planes, Trains & Automobiles: a mystery that involves a mode of transportation in a vital way--explicitly in the title (Murder on the Orient Express) or by implication (Death in the Air; Death Under Sail) or perhaps the victim was shoved under a bus....
20. Murder Is Academic: a mystery involving a scholar, teacher, librarian, etc.  OR set at a school, university, library, etc.
21. Things That Go Bump in the Night: a mystery with something spooky, creepy, gothic in the title (The Skeleton in the Clock, Haunted Lady, The Bat, etc.)
22. Repeat Offenders: a mystery featuring your favorite series detective or by your favorite author (the books/authors you'd read over and over again) OR reread an old favorite
23. The Butler Did It...Or Not: a mystery where the butler is the victim, the sleuth....(gasp) the criminal....or is just downright memorable for whatever reason.
24. A Mystery By Any Other Name: any book that has been published under more than one title (Murder Is Easy--aka Easy to Kill [Christie]; Fog of Doubt--aka London Particular [Christianna Brand], etc.)
25. Dynamic Duos: a mystery featuring a detective team--Holmes & Watson, Pam & Jerry North, Wolfe & Goodwin, or....a little-known team that you introduce to us.
26. Size Matters: a book with a size or measurement in the title (Death Has a Small Voice, The Big Four, The Weight of the Evidence, etc.)
27. Psychic Phenomena: a mystery featuring a seance, medium, hypnotism, or other psychic or "supernatural" characters/events
28. Book to Movie: one vintage mystery that has appeared on screen (feature film or TV movie).
29. The Old Bailey: a courtroom drama mystery (Perry Mason, anyone? Witness for the Prosecution...etc.) OR a mystery featuring a judge, lawyer, barrister, D.A., etc.

The books which I have read so far:

The White Cottage Mystery  by Margery Allingham, 1928. Category 1, Colorful Crime.

Four False Weapons  by John Dickson Carr, 1937. Category 2, Murder by the Numbers.

The Long Divorce  by Edmund Crispen, 1951. Category 4, Jolly Old England.

The 12:30 from Croydon  by Freeman Wills Crofts, 1934. Category 5, Leave it to the Professionals. Inspector French investigates.

Octagon House  by Phoebe Atwood Taylor,  1937. Category 6, Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Appointment with Death  by Agatha Christie, 1937. Category 7, World Traveler. This book is set in Palestine and Jordan.

Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy B. Hughes, 1946. Category 8,  Dangerous Beasts.

Spinsters in Jeopardy  by Ngaio Marsh, 1953. Category 10, Wicked Women.

Behold, Here's Poison  by Georgette Heyer, 1936. Category 12, Murderous Method.

The Night at the Vulcan  by Ngaio Marsh, 1951. Category 13, Staging the Crime. The action takes place at the Vulcan Theatre.

Envious Casca  by Georgette Heyer, 1941. Category 16, Locked Room.

The White Priory Murders  by Carter Dickson, 1934. Category 17, Country House Criminals.

The Mystery of the Hansom Cab  by Fergus Hume, 1886. Category 19, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. This book involves a mode of transportation in a very important way.

Holy Disorders by Edmund Crispin, 1945. The mystery is solved by Oxford professor Gervaise Fen. Category 20. Murder is Academic.

Murder within Murder  by Francis and Richard Lockridge, 1946. Category 25, Dynamic Duos.

Seeing is Believing by Carter Dickson, 1941. Category 27, Psychic Phenomena. There is hypnotism involved in the crime.