A Christmas Robbery

It's Christmas movie time of year again, and if a movie ties Christmas to crime, so much the better. One in this vein I like that I first saw only a few years ago, a good neo-noir film capturing a dark but thoroughly holiday spirit, is the British film Cash on Demand. It's from 1961 and directed by Quentin Lawrence. Lawrence is not a household name, but during his career in the 1960s and 70s, he did a few films and a lot of TV work, including an episode of The Avengers. This is a film he did for Hammer Films, and as such, it's a great reminder that during their heyday, Hammer didn't turn out only horror movies. With a tight running time of 80 minutes, Cash on Demand is crisply shot black and white bank robbery film. Hammer stalwarts Peter Cushing and Andre Morrell, who played Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in Hammer’s 1959 production of The Hound of the Baskervilles, star in it, and they’re as sharp and effective here as they are in the many period films they each did.

We’re in a small British town, two days before Christmas.  Morrell, posing as an insurance investigator, enters the bank Cushing manages and proceeds to calmly convince him that his cohorts are holding Cushing’s wife and son hostage at their home.  He then walks Cushing through how the two of them will open the bank’s vault and take the money inside and how Cushing will help him get the loot out of the bank in suitcases Morrell has brought.  The interesting thing is that Morrell’s professional thief, erudite and droll, a warm personality despite the menace he conveys, is more likable than Cushing’s manager.  From the moment we first see Cushing enter the bank in the morning, we know he’s a cold and unyielding man.  He’s obsessed with efficiency, mean to his conscientious head clerk, and aloof from the rest of his staff.  In no time at all, with a few simple movements as he arranges things, we get the sense that he may be an obsessive-compulsive type. Everything has to be just so.   Imagine how it must make his skin prickle, how it must upset his entire system, to have to subordinate himself to someone who has the upper hand on him.

In the numerous films I’ve seen Peter Cushing in, I can’t recall him giving a bad performance. He’s always so focused and believable, even when the script is weak. He always gives his characters layers. In Cash on Demand, he has a strong script to work with and a well-developed person to embody, and he makes the most of it. The movie unfolds in real time, on a few indoor sets, and it doesn’t take place during Christmas season for nothing.  By its end, in a most unexpected way, the story has revealed itself as a variation on A Christmas Carol.  It’s low budget filmmaking quite well-done, the Hammer pros delivering the goods again.

You want Christmas and crime in a movie, if you haven't seen it, give Cash on Demand a shot. You can find it on Amazon Prime, and there's an excellent print of it on You Tube.

An Advent Calendar of Stories for 2024

by

Scott D. Parker

As of today, we have only eighteen days until Christmas. How's that for a late Thanksgiving?

In our entryway, we have an Advent calendar. Ours is a homemade one where each day, we get to place an ornament on the tree. There are a myriad of other Advent calendars: Legos, chocolate, wine, you name it.

One of the most unique calendars I've enjoyed for the past few years focuses on stories.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith have, for the sixth year in a row, created an "Advent"-type Calendar of Stories. For a mere $25, you will receive a new short story every day, from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day. Yes, it's now about eight days and eight stories in, but you can easily catch up.

After you sign up, you’ll get an email every day. In the email, Rusch writes an introduction and then gives you a link. From there, you can download the story onto the device of your choice. I use my Kobo reader and it works seamlessly.

Rusch curates the stories, pairing up holidays with stories written for that holiday...and a few made-up ones. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading these stories this year and I look forward to each new story every day.

So, if you are in the mood to get a story a day this Christmas season, head on over to the webpage and sign up. It’ll make each day of this month fly by.

COVER REVEAL - Tricks of Fortune by Lina Chern

One of the highlights of Bouchercon 2024 was meeting and getting to know Lina Chern. The author of the Edgar winning (not to mention Anthony nominated) PLAY THE FOOL. Lina's novels, featuring her Tarot card reading amateur sleuth Katie True, are the perfect combination of mystery, humor, and edge. 

Everyone I know who has read PLAY THE FOOL has loved it, and, since dropping last year, they've all been waiting for Lina's follow up. 

And it's finally here. Or, will be soon. But in the meantime, we have the cover reveal right here on DSD. Let's take a look below: 

What an incredible cover. The tarot deck is obviously present, as it wouldn't be a Katie True story without tarot, but what I really love are the half-glimpsed daggers and the open hands framing the cards, images that, when taken together, suggest that as soon as Katie offers her help, she'll be placing herself in a very true (ahem) sense of danger. 

But what is TRICKS OF FORTUNE about? Well, we've also got the cover copy right here:

Tarot card reader extraordinaire Katie True gets embroiled in another local murder when her best friend becomes the prime suspect in this exciting mystery from the Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author of Play the Fool.

Katie True has finally gotten her crap together… sort of. With the wild events of the past year winding down, Katie now has her own reading room. The small space might be her sister’s unused real estate office, but it’s a start. Katie is just starting to get her ducks in a row when the murder of a veteran police officer shakes her and her small community to the core.

Katie is torn. The murdered officer had saved her life as a child and holds a special place in her past. At the same time, her closest friend Gina — who knows Katie better than she knows herself– is arrested for the murder. Katie can’t sit idly by, but as the investigation unfolds, the details surrounding the officer’s death become murky, as does Gina’s innocence. Following her gut has gotten Katie this far, but will her trusty tarot deck help her when the truth about the people she loves is too terrible to face?  

If you think this sounds as awesome as I do, make sure to pre-order TRICKS OF FORTUNE before it drops on July 1st, 2025. And, if that sounds like too long of a wait for you, the good news is you've got plenty of time to get caught up with Katie, Lina, and this awesome series by grabbing a copy of PLAY THE FOOL, which you can start reading over your lunch break. Or while waiting for your cards to be read.