THE OBSERVER CRIME

It was one of Holmes's less endearing qualities and one which frankly got on my pip. Here he was telling me the self same thing I'd only just mentioned to him but he, as was usual these days, ignored me.

'It says here on The Tainted Archive,' he said, staring at the new fangled PC thing Mrs Hudson had won as a prize at Gala Bingo. 'That the Observer newspaper, sister publication to the Guardian, are giving away a booklet about the best crime novels with today's paper.'

'How do they do it?' I asked.

'Because,' Holmes said. 'Given the current slide in the popularity of the printed medium due to the incredible surge in digital media, the newspapers are forced to give away these interesting gifts in order to entice folk to buy their papers.'

'Incredible,'I said. 'How did you deduce that?'

'Elementary, Watson.' Holmes said and steepled his fingers to his lips. 'I simply Googled it.'

After yesterday's Romance book, this is more like it for me.

The book, as does any list of great crime novels, features all the usual classics - Chandler, Hammett, James M. Cain, Agatha Christie and of course the great Conan Doyle. And each book listed contains an interesting potted review. But what is of most interest to the crime buffs is the preponderance of articles featuring luminaries of the genre

It's well worth picking up the paper for this booklet which will serve as a great reference piece.