What is this blog about?
Well, to begin with my main focus will be on mystery short stories of the impossible kind.
However, to see whether this is something you'd be interested in, let's first engage in some definition making.
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| Oh, come on. Definitions are fun! |
In the scope of this blog, what is a "mystery"?
I want to immediately make clear that my definition of "mystery" here on the blog will be more limited than what is perhaps featured under this heading in your local bookstore (or, as this is the 21st century, on Amazon).
In Swedish - my native language - we have the wonderful word "pusseldeckare". It is a compound of two words:
- pussel - literally "jigsaw puzzle"
- deckare - short form of "detektiv", which perhaps obviously means "detective," and in turn is a short form of "detektivhistoria"/"detektivroman"/"detektivberättelse", all of which is best translated as "detective story".
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| Hmm... I wonder where that final piece should go. |
Unfortunately, unless I'm mistaken, English has no term for this type of fiction that is wholly appropriate. The usual epithet used is "Golden Age Mysteries", but I think that description is somewhat misleading (and also fairly cumbersome to write, though English has a penchant for abbreviations so I guess that isn't a huge problem).
It is misleading for two reasons:
First, I think it's hard to exactly pinpoint what the "Golden Age" actually is. No two people are agreed on where it starts and where it ends. It usually ends with people saying "Oh, you know it's kinda from the end of WW1 to the late 40s". And then a third person shows up and disagrees...
More importantly it is misleading because even if we could pinpoint the start and end of this Golden Age, you would not find any year within this so called Golden Age where all mysteries are of this particular type - fair play, clues strewn everywhere, you know what I mean.
I mean, Agatha Christie's "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd", Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest" and Kenneth Fearing's "The Big Clock" could all arguably be called Golden Age Mysteries. But I think the dissimilarities between these novels are bigger than their similarities, and really, what's the point with a term that becomes so fuzzy?
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| Are you confused yet? |
Definition of "mystery"
Therefore, I propose to use the term "mystery" here as applied only to fair play mysteries. This means that we will exclude thrillers, adventure stories, spy novels, and more importantly modern style stories about crime and/or serial killer stories. Personally, I'd rather apply a term like "criminous stories" as the umbrella term and reserve "mystery" to stories that actually feature mysteries - solvable ones! If you have any opinions on this, do please let me know.
The upside of this definition is also that I don't have to continuously argue for the inclusion of authors who wrote their material in a time period that was clearly before or after the Golden Age. It defines a style, not a time period.
Excellent! So what's all this about short fiction then?
One of my main projects at the moment is to create some kind of concordance of worthy impossible mystery short stories in Swedish. In order to do that, I have scanned a fairly large amount of stories from Swedish anthologies and short story collections that I own. That resulted in maybe 75-100 stories.
The next part is to translate those stories that I only have in the English language and that I feel should be included in this large collection. This includes reading several collections and anthologies and trying to evaluate whether each story is interesting enough to be included or not. If I am of the opinion that a short story should be included, well, then there's only the small matter of translating them all into Swedish...
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| If only... if only |
However, it was a big help that in a previous folly^H^H^Hproject of mine, I'd already scanned and translated all stories by authors such as Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, John Dickson Carr, Clayton Rawson and Edmund Crispin (and a handful of stories by Edward D. Hoch as well, though unfortunately far from all his impossible crime output). That meant that I could concentrate on all other authors. Not the hugest delimitation, but in a project such as this you take what you get, right?
This is where I am at the moment in this project. I've translated around 100 stories by now, and have around 100 left to translate. If you're quick at counting you've already noticed that that will be around 300 stories.
So which stories have I included? And why those particular stories? Well, that's what this blog will reveal in coming posts. Knowing me, there will probably be posts about other "mysterious" stuff. However, I'm not a particularly great reviewer. I know what I like, but I'm not particularly good at putting in words why. So bear that caveat in mind when you return here.
Watch out for Hillary Applegate. She works with her mother, Valerie Houghton, to hack, harass, threaten, and stalk litigants in Family Court. Ms. Applegate is pretending to operate a tech company with the name Digital HQ. She does not seem to be engaged in any legitimate business. The shell company likely only exists to process payments.
ReplyDeleteHillary Applegate has access to all of her mother’s connections in Santa Clara County. She is making a ton of money working with all the divorce lawyers. Once she gets into your electronic devices, Ms. Applegate exerts almost complete control over her victim’s life. You cannot exist without electronic communication in this day and age. The Houghton’s exploit this.
Once Ms. Applegate clones your phone, she will be reading/writing/deleting emails and text messages. She will also have access to your social contacts, browsing history, GPS locations, and all of your passwords.
This is a modern-day sociopath that gets off on “surreptitious pranks” and ruining other people’s lives. My own kids are being raped because of this animal. Ms. Applegate demands that I let her continue to make money from the sexual abuse and stop trying to protect them. She, herself, is a mother, so I don’t understand how she can be so cold blooded about this.
Is Ms. Applegate a sick pedophile? Does she get sexual enjoyment from doing this?
Furthermore, Ms. Applegate employs a gang of thugs to physically stalk and assault me. I cannot go anywhere without these degenerates following me.
Valerie Houghton says that she “lost a lot of business” because I complained. Since Ms. Applegate had her “aha” moment to work with other lawyers, you will likely never know that she is hacking you.
https://wwwcrossx.blogspot.com/2013/12/ted-bundy-case-cross-examination.html?sc=1760470230588#c1568869710827664061
The Digital HQ con is nothing new. Hillary Applegate and her mother previously used to embezzle money using a different company, Metaview. The Houghton’s are a family of con artists. Ms. Applegate used the ill-gotten money to treat her friends to fancy meals, pay for her college education and get a brand-new Porsche. Her mother was eventually indicted, but he charges soon went away. This is because the Houghton’s are connected to the District Attorney. They operate without fear. That’s why they are so violent and feel entitled to take your health.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6981163-HoughtonIndictment-Docket/
There is much more information here:
https://forum.legaljunkies.com/forum/attorneys-courts-litigation/civil-litigation/69836-austin-family-court-corruption/page16
https://thefamilycourtcircus.com/2025/05/02/family-court-injustice/
Hillary Applegate actually has 11 properties. She also owns her own home.
ReplyDeleteJust scroll down to Hillary Applegate’s profile and click on the “more about Hillary” tab.
https://dgtlhq.com/about
Then click on the “Polk Ranch property” (the four-bedroom house in Scottsdale)
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/579139738887750177?source_impression_id=p3_1711741088_ktc6VxUzW4NaWAei
Then click on the “host profile” and scroll down to see all the properties.
https://www.airbnb.com/users/profile/1467292151561484715?previous_page_name=PdpHomeMarketplace
Why even list this on her website? What is the association? Is Ms. Applegate mocking all the people that she hacked? Did she liquidate their assets and buy homes with the money?
I’ve filed a complaint with the IRS regarding Hillary Applegate. I believe that she is using Digital HQ to launder money from her hacking business. There doesn’t seem to be any evidence that her company does anything legitimate. It is likely just a shell company to declare an income and pay her “contractors”.
ReplyDeleteWith the number of properties that she has, Ms. Applegate has to be one of most notorious hackers out there. Her Scottsdale property alone must be worth at least $1,500,000.
Applegate cut her teeth working with Ruth Patrick at WomenSV. There have been numerous reports that victims of domestic violence were tricked into leaving their electronic devices behind for hacking. This is the type of grifting that you can expect from the Houghton’s.
Things are different now that they work with a street gang. No physical access to the device is even needed. All they need to do is capture the device’s WIFI or Bluetooth signal for a moment. Then Applegate will send the device a text message with a link and remotely open the link. Your phone will be cloned at that point, giving Ms. Applegate complete control over the phone.
Ms. Applegate is much like her mother. They have no boundaries. Everything is theirs to violate and destroy. This duo will enter your private life like a cancer. Nothing will ever be the same. They are MONSTERS! Even your health is not off limits.
They will even force your children (as young as two) to have sexual experiences. Then the Houghton’s will falsely claim to be involved in philanthropy related to child protection and the promotion of the wellbeing of youth.
I hope that the IRS will conduct an audit. I believe that Ms. Applegate will have a difficult time proving that monies were legally earned.
Forget about resetting your phone. Hillary Applegate has a whole team of thugs that will follow her target and re-hack any device. She is relentless like her mother. Ms. Applegate hasn’t earned millions of dollars being a nice person.
ReplyDeleteWhat she requests will never be something small. Applegate has the nerve to demand that your kids be raped. She is callous and self-centered.
How can she even parent her own child with zero empathy for others? I imagine coldness, cruelty and emotional neglect. Perhaps there is also physical abuse. She certainly gets off on assaulting people and causing great bodily harm.
I can’t imagine anyone enjoying life around her. In my experience, she focuses taking away things that make you happy. You are not allowed to experience joy until she gets what you want. The problem is that what she asks for is bound cause misery.
I just don’t understand how dense someone could be to demand that you let your kids be raped. I believe that the veracity of her demands indicates mental illness. Applegate and her mother cannot see that they are crazy to punish a parent for not wanting their children raped. They believe that this is all normal behavior.
Houghton and Applegate believe themselves to be superior to everyone else. They are effectively pissing on the rest of the world to feel better about themselves. Nothing good ever emanates from them. If the Houghton’s are not causing harm to you, they cannot feel the superiority.
The most dangerous thing is to say “no” to them. It will infuriate them. The Houghton’s are your masters. How dare you!
And because they use a street gang as proxies, the Houghton’s will have plausible deniability. That fuels their vile behavior. They believe that they can get away with anything.
If you can, stay away from them. Hide. Don’t let them near you or your children.