Reading the Detectives discussion

Hi, I love British (commonwealth lol) mysteries. Been dipping into Golden Age beyond A. Christie. Just been reading Green for Danger by Christianna Brand. Great read and riveting writing.

Judy wrote: "Welcome to the group! Please introduce yourself and say a little about your favourite classic detectives, authors and series."

I’ve been signed up for this group but I’m just now wanting to get involved. But I noticed that you were advertising for different books to start in January. Are we supposed to be at all for this month or can we pick which one?

Hi Mitzy. One thing we are not short of in this group is choice! However, please get involved with as many, or as few, books as you wish.

We always have a main read and a challenge read:

January
The Religious Body by Catherine Aird
The Hollow Man - John Dickson Carr (Challenge Title)

These start at the beginning of the month.

In addition, mid-month, we have buddy reads. These tend to be series that we are meandering through. So, mid-Jan we are finishing Christianna Brand and have the last Campion book. We are also starting the Freddy Pilkington-Soames books and are in book 3 of the Maigret series.

Jan/Feb
Death in High Heels by Christianna Brand
Cargo of Eagles by Margery Allingham
A Case of Blackmail in Belgravia (Freddy Pilkington-Soames #1) - Clara Benson
The Death of Monsieur Gallet (Maigret #3) by Georges Simenon

Please take your pick of which books you wish to join in with. We also have lots of discussion threads that don't require you to have read particular books, so please feel free to just dive in to whatever interests you.

Welcome, Mitzy! As Susan says, we have several book discussions in January and you are welcome to join in with any you like.

The full list of books we are currently planning to discuss is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Hello, and thanks for having me.

I’m a somewhat elderly gent in his late 60s living in London. Circumstances mean that I have some time for reading each day and manage roughly a couple of books a week. I doubt whether I’ll keep up all that well here, but I’m looking forward to reading at least some books together with you all. By coincidence, I’ve almost finished The Red Thumb Mark which is coming up in July, so that’s one I’ll be able to join in with at least.

Some favourite crime authors? For vintage crime probably Raymond Chandler and Dorothy L. Sayers plus some of Simenon, Margery Allingham, Edmund Crispin and Michael Innes...and a lot of others that I can’t think of at the moment. More recently, Colin Watson (if they count as crime here) and Hugh McIlvaney spring to mind.

(And current writers include Ian Rankin, Adrian McKinty, Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie series, Chris Brookmyre’s Parlabane series (not keen on his Ambrose Parry ones), Susie Steiner...etc. etc.)

I hope that’s what you had in mind for this thread. Looking forward to joining you.

Hi Sid. Welcome to the group - so nice to have you join (and not sure late 60s is elderly!).

Well, it certainly feels it this morning... :o)

Thanks for the welcome, Susan!

Hope you find some titles that will interest you.

Welcome Sid, glad you've joined us and are hoping to join in with some of the books. That's a great selection of favourite authors. :)

Thanks, Judy. Glad you approve! :o)

Hi Sid, lovely to see you here! {waves excitedly}

Welcome Sid. I'm a Colin Watson fan and am, sadly, approaching the end of his Flaxborough series. I refuse to think of 60, early or late, as elderly!

Welcome Sid. I'm in my 70s so I don't think of 60s as elderly. Although some people age differently than others, I remember reading a book/series by Phoebe Atwood Taylor and she was going on about this elderly woman - turned out she was in her 50s - and I was older than she was. You're only as old as you feel. Current cool spell (we don't really get what I call cold in Western North Carolina, sure can't compare to Chicago!) is affecting my arthritis.

Chandler is great.

And a cheery wave back, RC! This is All Your Fault, mind you, for blabbing about this group...

Thanks for the welcome, Sandy - and I withdraw the word "elderly", with apologies for such gross discourtesy to a lady. :o) Isn't Miss Lucy Teatime a wonderful character, btw?

Hi, Jan, and thanks for the welcome. Yes - Chandler is truly great, I think. I re-read The Lady In The Lake every so often, just for the pleasure of meeting Constable Jim Patton again!

I tend to re-read The Little Sister.

Oh - I'm not so keen on that one. He was drinking again when he wrote it and it shows, I think. Rather more bitter and vicious than earlier ones, with less real wit and rather lacking Marlowe's innate morality. But that's just me. :o;

I think what got me to re-read it was a review Michael Connelly wrote about it. I think it was in a book where authors were talking about their favorite books and why.

Hi! I’m Elsa from Sweden. I’m a big fan of classic crime novels since my tender years - Agatha Christie started it all when I read my first Christie at age eight; I’m now 50. Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey, some whacky JD Carrs are part of my coming of age. Besides golden age cozy crime I also love women’s noir (domestic noir) and older police procedurals, as well as classic true crime. My goal in joining this group is to get some tips to put on my TBR list, as well as staying sane during lockdown by joining in some group reads.

Welcome Elsa, glad you joined us. I also love Sayers, Tey and Marsh and am just starting to get into Carr.

Welcome, Elsa. Glad you found the group and we hope to keep you company if you are still in lockdown.

My name is Karen and I'm from NJ. I grew up reading mysteries, Margery Allingham (I love Albert Campion), Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, John Creasey, Dorothy L. Sayers, and the more current Caroline Graham, P.D. James, Elizabeth Peters to name some of my favorites. I believe Agatha Christie was my first mystery author, even before Caroline Keene's Nancy Drew.

I was lucky enough to have a Mother who would take me to the library every Saturday and we would pick out books. Later when we had a Summer home our main occupation was reading, in a chair, in the hammock or out in the row boat.

Welcome, Karen, glad you joined us. That's a great list of favourite authors!

Welcome to the group, Karen. Great to hear about your library visits - I adored doing the same with my mother.

Welcome Karen. I lived down the street from a branch library. My father would take me to my suburb's main library on Saturday.

Sid wrote: "Hi, Jan, and thanks for the welcome. Yes - Chandler is truly great, I think. I re-read The Lady In The Lake every so often, just for the pleasure of meeting Constable Jim Patton again!"

Welcome Sid! I've never read Lady in the Lake, but recently watched the movie, whose male lead and director was Robert Montgomery. It was an interesting stylistic choice to shoot the film from the POV of the audience, which didn't really work for me. I'm curious if you've seen it, and if you have, what your thoughts were about it.

Karen M wrote: "My name is Karen and I'm from NJ. I grew up reading mysteries, Margery Allingham (I love Albert Campion), Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, John Creasey, Dorothy L. Sayers, and the more current Carolin..."

Welcome Karen! Some of my favorite books as an adult are the ones I fondly remember taking out from my local library as a kid. Those early reading memories really stick with you.

Susan wrote: "Welcome to the group, Karen. Great to hear about your library visits - I adored doing the same with my mother."

Me, too! Loved the library, bringing home a big stack of books, staying up much too late reading at night in the summer!

A warm welcome to all new members, enjoy this lovely group and be prepared for your “to be read” to explode, mine did!

Tara wrote: "Welcome Sid! I've never read Lady in the Lake, but recently watched the movie, whose male lead and director was Robert Montgomery. It was an interesting stylistic choice to shoot the film from the POV of the audience, which didn't really work for me. I'm curious if you've seen it, and if you have, what your thoughts were about it."

Thanks, Tara. Yes I did see The Lady In The Lake many, many years ago and wasn't very impressed. It being shot from Marlowe's (i.e. Montgomery's) POV is a clever idea, but it's not a patch on the book. I don't really like any of the Marlowe films (even Bogart!) because I don't think anyone really catches the spirit of Marlowe - and anyway it's Chandler's prose and those occasional meditative paragraphs rather than his plots which make the books so brilliant, I think.

I'd definitely recommend reading TLITL - and any of the other truly great novels you may have missed: The Long Goodbye, The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely and The High Window. Personally, I wouldn't recommend The Little Sister or Playback - in my view they're nothing like as good. Nor would I recommend a couple of fairly recent "continuations" by other authors, by the way: I thought The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black (i.e. John Banville) was a truly terrible, clumsy pastiche and Only To Sleep by Lawrence Osborne was very dull.

Sorry - that's probably far more than you wanted to know.

Hello! Glad to have found this group as vintage mysteries are my favourite reads. I blog about books but sometimes you really want to chat about the books you have read, spoilers and all, so very happy to see two threads for all books. As I am not too versed in this thing, could somebody plz explain the concept of buddy-reads? Thanks in advance.

Welcome Neer. Buddy reads are books that appeal to a subset of the members, often continuation of a series started in either our yearly challenge (determined by the moderators) or our monthly read. The monthly reads are nominated and voted in by the members. The vote for the April read is currently active. Sometimes none of the moderators are participating in a buddy read, though they set up the threads and keep track of up-coming reads: challenge, monthly and buddy. Clear as mud? (As my great aunt would say)

Hope you enjoy whichever reads you participate in.

Welcome to the group, Neer!

Thanks Sandy and Susan for the warm welcome and the explanation.

Welcome Neer! Glad you have joined us.

welcome Neer!

Thanks Judy and Jackie. It's wonderful to be here.

Ellen wrote: "Jan C wrote: "I am a big fan ofJohn Dickson Carr, master of the locked room mystery. Although American, he did live and write for many years in England. He wrote under both his own na..."

Hi and I'm very excited about this group. I am a big fan of Phyllis Atwood Taylor's Asey Mayo series and John Dickson Carr's Dr. Fell series. They are both from the Golden Age of Mysteries.
Lately I've been reading Scottish Swedish, Icelandic and British authors.
Looking forward to learn about recommendations.

Leslie wrote: "Judy wrote: "Welcome to the group! Please introduce yourself and say a little about your favourite classic detectives, authors and series."

Hi, my name is Leslie & I am a big fan of Golden Age det..."

Hi Leslie. I've read several Patricia Wentworth books. They're good old fashioned mysteries.

Hi Ellen, welcome to the group! I am sure we can add to your TBR list ;)

Jan C wrote: "I am a big fan ofJohn Dickson Carr, master of the locked room mystery. Although American, he did live and write for many years in England. He wrote under both his own name and multipl..."
I've enjoyed several John Dickson Carr's books and found them at Clearwater Public Library. Dr. Fell's a favorite.

Welcome Ellen, glad you joined. I don't think I've read anything by Phoebe Atwood Taylor as yet - they sound interesting.

Yes, welcome Ellen - always good to hear from another Carr fan.

Judy, American Mystery Classics are republishing Phoebe Atwood Taylor's The Cape Cod Mystery in a characteristically attractive edition this May.

Judy wrote: "Welcome Ellen, glad you joined. I don't think I've read anything by Phoebe Atwood Taylor as yet - they sound interesting."

I think she was one of those writers who made me feel like I must be old, although I don't feel it. One of her big characters was moaning about how old she was. Then I found out that I was older than this woman. I think she was like 54 or something. Not what we would call old now at any rate.

I've added The Cape Cod Mystery to my TBR but not sure when I will get to it! Colin, that forthcoming American Mystery Classics edition has a great cover.

Welcome Adam. We read Marsh's series as a group and all the threads are still available if you are interested in our comments or want to add your own. Hope you enjoy Alleyn.

Hi Adam, welcome to the group. We read the Inspector Alleyn series a while back, so you will find the threads if you search for the books.

Welcome, Adam, good that you found the group.

Hello I am Ian a retired teacher in the UK. I have been looking to read read or re read the Agatha Christie books and others from the Golden Age This looks like an ideal group to join for me and I hope to join in your group reads

Hi Ian. Welcome to the group. Agatha Christie is my favourite author and we have lots of other Golden Age choices. We have group reads, challenge reads and a host of buddy reads, so feel free to pick and choose :)

Welcome Ian, glad you found us! We have an Agatha Christie book coming up in January as the start of our new challenge, The Body in the Library. As Susan said, there are also lots of other reads to choose from :)