Why am I passionate about this?
Between humor and pathos, I lean humor. Even the saddest, most shocking eventsâmurder, for instanceâcan be wrapped in kookiness. Combine this outlook with my love of old things (Iâm sitting on a 1920s Chinese wedding bed and drinking from an etched Victorian tumbler at this very moment), and youâll understand why Iâm drawn to vintage screwball detective fiction. Although my mystery novels are cozies, I canât help but infuse them with some of this screwball wackiness. I want readers to laugh, of course, but also to use my stories as springboards to see the hilarity and wonder in their own lives.
Angela's book list on screwball mysteries from the golden age of detection
Why did Angela love this book?
Golden Age mystery aficionados know Phoebe Atwood Taylorâs humorous Cape Cod mysteries, but they may not be familiar with the even more hilariousâin my opinion, anywayâmysteries she wrote as Alice Tilton.
A friend lent me Tilltonâs The Left Leg. As soon as Iâd read its last page, I was on the hunt for the rest of them.
Beginning with a Bash is the first in Tiltonâs series starring Leonidas Witherall, a boysâ school headmaster, radio detective story writer, and dead ringer for William Shakespeare.
These mysteries read more like capers, with Witherall ricocheting around Boston as he stumbles over corpses, eludes gangsters, dons disguises, and deals with impudent children and persistent dogs. Guaranteed to make you laugh out loud.
1 author picked Beginning with a Bash as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Book by Tilton, Alice, Taylor, Phoebe Atwood