Saturday, February 27, 2010

Mystery Bytes: Spies and History

Mystery Bytes for February 27: Spies & History


Rupert Penry-Jones plays Richard Hannay in the “Masterpiece Classic” version of “The 39 Steps.” This new movie, shown in Britain in 2008 and making its PBS debut tomorrow night (2/28/10), goes back to John Buchan’s 1915 novel  and not the Hitchcock 1935 film. Richard Hannay, the accidental hero who foils a German plot on the eve of World War I, is once again a former British spy rather than the somewhat clueless Canadian that Robert Donat played for Hitchcock.

Read the New York Times review HERE. Don't forget that The 39 Steps will be coming to Broadway later this year. Totally different take on the novel. Read the UK Independent Review HERE.

Speaking of Spies, Frederick P. Hitz, former Inspector General of the CIA, rates the Spycraft of his Four Favorite Agents in today's Wall Street Journal.

Rudyard Kipling's Kim
James Bond
George Smiley
The Jackal

Read the article HERE.

In the same Saturday Weekend Journal of the Wall Street Journal, David Rifkin picks his Favorite 5 Historical Mystery Novels that are mixtures of the scholarly and the suspenseful.

Alexandria by Lindsey Davis
A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters
The Emperor's Pearl by Robert Van Gulik
Slayer of Gods by Lynda S. Robinson
The Fire Kimono by Laura Joh Rowland

Read the article HERE.

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