Category Archives: crime

South American mysteries: Garcia-Marquez, Vargas Llosa, and Sabato: three great short novels

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Gary Garth McCann

These three books will take you to Columbia, Peru, and Argentine. They’re all short enough for an afternoon’s read, great length for a three-to-five hour flight. Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981) is on my list of all-time favorites. A reporter visits a small … Continue reading →

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Clarence Darrow: “Most men haven’t killed anybody but they have read obituaries with pleasure.”

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Gary Garth McCann

I like to read and write about people implicated in crime. Say you see in your small town weekly that your 60-year-old lesbian mother’s friend Clara, an electrician, died in a work-related accident. You wonder why your mother didn’t tell you when you dropped … Continue reading →

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Double Indemnity: You’ve seen the movie but have you read the book?

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Gary Garth McCann

I recently re-read Double Indemnity, originally published in 1935. It’s a gripping novella not to be missed, whether you’re 15 or 95. In a remarkable twist of morality, Cain has his readers rooting for an anti-hero who really doesn’t deserve the pathos we … Continue reading →

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Unsolved murder–New York Met tenor killed, 1949: John Garris, a singer stilled

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Gary Garth McCann

The Newsweek article read:  Case of the Touring Tenor Backstage at the Fox Theater in Atlanta last week, a Journal photographer, Ed Pierce, was taking routine shots of the Metropolitan Opera touring company. “We always keep pictures of everyone,” reporter … Continue reading →

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Enter the Twilight Zone: on their honeymoon, her husband arrested for her sister’s murder

Posted on September 12, 2013 by Gary Garth McCann

A young man and his bride. It doesn’t matter what their names were. Let sleeping dogs lie. This murky picture is 64 years old. In a late ‘forties Newsweek, it was credited to the Milwaukee Sentinel from International, and the caption … Continue reading →

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