Reading the Detectives discussion

Welcome, Gee - good to hear you will be joining us.

Welcome, Gee, glad you've joined us!

I found this group while searching for Agatha Christie.

My favorites are Arthur Conan Doyle, Chandler, Hammett, Josephine Tey, and Agatha Christie.

Welcome to the group, Bruce. Agatha Christie is my favourite author, and you are in good company here!

Welcome Bruce, that's a great list of favourites. Glad you found us.

Welcome Bruce. Join our 2018 challenge and see if you want to add Naigo Marsh to your list of favorites.

I just joined. Ngaio Marsh is on of my favorites, but I've only read 6 of her first 12, so I'll be reading the other 6 for the challenge. Another favorite is Agatha Christie, of course. I also read Francis Duncan and Josephine Tey for the first time last year and really enjoyed them.

Welcome, Carol, great that you will be joining in the Ngaio Marsh challenge. I also really like Josephine Tey - I have only read one Francis Duncan book so far, but really enjoyed that and have another one on the pile beside my bed waiting for its turn!

Welcome to the group, Carol :)

Hi, my name is Katie and I'm a huge fan of classic mysteries. Right now, I'm on a Nero Wolfe kick. I'm excited to see that you are all reading Ngaio Marsh - it's been a few years since I've read her works, so I'm excited to pick her up again!

I was lucky enough to marry into a mystery-loving family. My dear Father-in-Law, who passed away a few years ago, had a lovely library full of 1st edition mysteries (Arthur Conan Doyle, Peter Lovesey, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Rex Stout...basically, all the great mystery writers, too numerous to mention!) My Mother-in-Law is not a reader, but has been kind enough to keep his library intact for all of us to enjoy.

Excited to find this group. Thank you!

Welcome, Katie, glad you have joined us. That's a wonderful library that your father-in-law built up and sounds like a great resource for all the family.

Great to hear that you are keen to join in the Ngaio Marsh challenge. We also have some enthusiastic Rex Stout fans here and have just had a buddy read of Black Orchids, which I really enjoyed.

Welcome, Katie. I'm one of the Nero Wolfe fans and have been listening to them, when possible. Lucky you with a private library at your disposal.

Welcome, Katie. Great that you found us!

Hello everyone, I'm Kirsten McKenzie, an author from Auckland, New Zealand.
I'm currently working my way through the Agatha Christie books. I have a standing order with a bookshop in the UK to send me any Penguin edition copies of all her books - crazy I know, but I don't smoke or do drugs, so I spend my money on books! I'm slowly building up my collection, and I love them. They are all slightly bruised and battered, but that makes them even more enjoyable to read.
I'm reading Murder in Mesopotamia right now, which of course is set on an archaeological dig. Later this year I will travel back to the UK to volunteer at Vindolanda for two weeks, digging on the Roman Fort there. This will be my third time volunteering there. It's probably the one thing I love as much as reading (outside of my family that is!).

Hello Kirsten! Good to see you join us. I am always so envious of your annual pilgrimage to the archaeological dig and look forward to your report on returning home.

Looking forward to your latest book too. Is there going to be any more in The Old Curiosity Shop series?

Lesley~aka Ella's Gran wrote: "Hello Kirsten! Good to see you join us. I am always so envious of your annual pilgrimage to the archaeological dig and look forward to your report on returning home.

Looking forward to your latest..."

There is! Telegram Home is scheduled for publication on 1st November. It has to be on my publishers desk by the 1st August. So its nose to the grindstone here!

Welcome to the group, Kirsten. Christie is my favourite author and one of our buddy reads this month, organised by a member of the group, is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Welcome Kirsten, glad you’ve joined us! We’re also just reading a Ngaio Marsh book set in New Zealand, Vintage Murder.

Susan wrote: "Welcome to the group, Kirsten. Christie is my favourite author and one of our buddy reads this month, organised by a member of the group, is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd"

That one arrived today in the post! Perfect timing. I'll try and find the Buddy Reads section.

Judy wrote: "Welcome Kirsten, glad you’ve joined us! We’re also just reading a Ngaio Marsh book set in New Zealand, Vintage Murder."

Thank you Judy. My MIL just gave me some Ngaio Marsh books, so I'll read her next after I've made a dent in the Agatha Christies!

Hi all, just found this group a couple of days ago and had to join. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a household where we had bookcases of classic crime fiction, so as far back as I can remember I have been lucky enough to read all of Christie, Marsh, Sayers etc. That was a while ago (!) and whilst I try to balance out my passions for modern literary fiction, literature in translation and general mysteries, I find that it has been too easy to then miss out on the pleasure that comes from re-visiting the classic Golden Age writers.

So I'm hoping that this will stimulate me into doing just that - I may not always be able to keep up with what the whole group is reading, given everything else going on with work and life, but I will do my utmost and will try to chip in with comments along the way!!

Welcome to the group, Alan. Glad you found us :)

Susan wrote: "Welcome to the group, Alan. Glad you found us :)"

Thank you Susan!

Welcome, Alan, great that you have joined. I hope you enjoy revisiting the Golden Age classics.

Hi. I joined a few months ago but life got in the way and I didn't introduce myself. I am an avid reader of vintage fiction, and mystery and detective novels are my favorites by far. Before I realized that there really was such a difference between vintage and modern fiction, I had already read some Christie, Sayers, Marsh, Tey and a few other well known Golden Age authors. Once I got an e-reader I discovered public domain books and tried some of those out. Pretty soon I was hooked. I can’t begin to name all the authors I have tried, both well known and relatively obscure. I’m looking forward to discussing vintage mysteries and hopefully finding some new authors to try.

Welcome to the group, Gardener. I hope you find a lot to interest you.

Welcome, Gardener - I'm sure you will find even more authors to explore here!

Hi,
I'm Nicky.
I love Agatha Christie (I have collected all her books inc the autobiographies - took me a long time but it was worth it) I've read all her books several times.
I also love Margery Allingham, Josephine Tey & Ngaio Marsh among others.
I'm a big fan of modern crime/mystery/thrillers too

Nicky wrote: "Hi,
I'm Nicky.
I love Agatha Christie (I have collected all her books inc the autobiographies - took me a long time but it was worth it) I've read all her books several times.
I also love Margery A..."

You fit right in! Check out our August read. Its perfect for a Christie junkie.

Welcome, Nicky.

Welcome to the group, Nicky. You should find lots to interest you here. We have a list of all the books we are planning to read in the future near the top of the page. Plus we have a Christie read, The Pale Horse, as our main read this month.

Thanks girls, I'll check it out. If I remember it's the one about witchcraft?

Hi, just joined. I apologize for not going back and reading all of the posts in this thread to become familiar with some of you. Hopefully I'll be able to "back fill" information as time goes on.

Although I don't read them exclusively, I like the Golden Age mysteries. I'm fascinated with your Poirot challenge, and although I can't hope to keep up, I hope to read some that I haven't read before. You're reading one now and I may try to juggle my schedule to read it and drop in on the discussion. I'm doomed if you start a Georges Simenon challenge. ;-)

Welcome Elizabeth.

Hi Elizabeth, welcome to the group - hope you find a lot to interest you :)

Welcome Elizabeth. I've never tried Georges Simenon, but have heard good things about his Maigret series.

Welcome, Elizabeth - do you like Ngaio Marsh? We also have a Marsh challenge on the go :)

Thank you for the welcome!

Sandy wrote: "Welcome Elizabeth. I've never tried Georges Simenon, but have heard good things about his Maigret series."

I keep meaning to read more of him and somehow other things get in first.

Judy wrote: "Welcome, Elizabeth - do you like Ngaio Marsh? We also have a Marsh challenge on the go :)"

I have not yet dipped my toe in her waters.

Haha Marsh/waters love it! Welcome Elizabeth

Hello Everyone, I am Balaji and I love reading crime fiction, but I have not read a lot, and I hope to read more. My favorites include Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle and I recently started reading Clare Benson. I love these books because, I get a chance to solve the mysteries myself, trying to connect various clues and create my own theories, go back pages to check for subtle clues that I missed-It is so much fun doing this kind of stuff. Sometimes I go overboard and take down possible clues and hints, time the events, write other interesting stuff in my notebook and try to solve it before it is revealed-I actually did this kind of thing while reading Sad Cypress. And I hope to enjoy many more books as part of the group and I'm hoping to read from many new writers that I have not read before.

Hi Balaji - welcome to the group. I am sure you will find lots of books, and authors, to entice you here :)

By the way, I see you are currently reading The Mystery of Underwood House, which is a group buddy read in the middle of this month, so you will be able to join in with that one.

Welcome, Balaji! We have lots of Christie and Conan Doyle fans here, and as Susan mentioned we have a Clara Benson book coming up - I really like her too.

Welcome Balaji. You put a lot of effort into your reading! I'm not avid enough to play 'beat the detective', and just try to note as the clues flow by.

That said, I am reading an historical mystery, The Last Kashmiri Rose, where the detective thinks he knows the villain with a third of the book to go. So I am about to reread the first chapter, which is a flash back, figuring the author must have introduced these characters for a reason.

Sandy wrote: "Welcome Balaji. You put a lot of effort into your reading! I'm not avid enough to play 'beat the detective', and just try to note as the clues flow by.

That said, I am reading an historical myste..."

I don't do that with all my books. Usually when I have figured out some hints (at least If I think I did), I get excited and get this false hope that I could solve the mystery, which blows up in my face more often than not. I love it when the author has provided enough clues for you to solve the case without concealing many critical clues (which are absolutely needed to solve the mystery) till the very end.
I checked out your book too, it sounds interesting. I have not read any historical crime fiction till now, so maybe I'll start with this one. I hope you figure out who the murderer is and have fun doing it.

Hi Elizabeth & Balaji
I'm a recent new member too

Nicky wrote: "Hi Elizabeth & Balaji
I'm a recent new member too"
Hi Nicky! I am sure we'll have fun reading, as part of the group

A belated welcome from me, Nicky - glad you have joined.

Hi I'm an adult librarian from New York and my favorite author is Agatha Christie. I am currently reading all her books in chronological order according to their publication as suggested from her website and then watching all the television / movie adaptations. I have listened to other golden age authors on audiobook and seem to be drawn to them more than more current fiction. While I might not participate in and Agatha discussions for books I haven't read yet, I look forward to trying other challenges!

I am Mara and I am a big crime and detective fan. I follow several, well more than several series, at any one time.

Right now my two favorite series are the Kim Stone series written by Angela Marsons and the Erika Foster series written by Robert Bryndza. I love Michael Connelly, J.D. Robb, J.A. Jance, and many of the authors who wrote Historical mysteries.