Reading the Detectives discussion

Another London crime classic with a nice cover, Murder Underground - one of three in the series by Mavis Doriel Hay.



The writing's not bad, but it was her first book and I'm not sure that she'd quite got the hang of detective novels. I think some degree of mystery should have been involved. Ah well... My review at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

At the moment I'm trying to decide between two audiobooks on Audible Death on the Cherwell or The Hog's Back Mystery: A British Library Crime Classic. I was browsing around reading some of the reviews and started to look at one of Mavis Doriel Hay's other books Murder Underground and one of the bad reviews actually made me want to read the book! All the points the reviewer made against the book were things that I thought I might rather enjoy - has that ever happened to you?

I think some people just don't 'get' Golden Age detective fiction, Ruth. They want realism and forensics and don't realise that so many of these books were written after WWI, when people wanted escapism; and also the popularity of puzzles, such as crosswords, meant that readers wanted to try to solve the crime. I have read reviews of 1930's detective mysteries, where they have been called 'dated' and I think, well, yes, they would be...

Susan wrote: "I think some people just don't 'get' Golden Age detective fiction, Ruth. They want realism and forensics and don't realise that so many of these books were written after WWI, when people wanted esc..."

Yes that's just what occurred to me Susan. Were they somehow expecting a new book!

Ruth, I've just finished 'Death on the Cherwell' and enjoyed it - the Oxford atmosphere is well done and there's a lot of fun dialogue. Must confess I managed to unravel part of the mystery, which means it must be easier than some as I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but I still enjoyed it. And I totally agree with both you and Susan - old books are bound to be dated, but that's really not a problem!

I have a copy of that book. Look forward to reading it.

It wasn't until I read a couple of histories about crime fiction in that era, including the recent The Golden Age of Murder that I really appreciated the impact of WWI on writing and why American and British crime fiction diverged so much. Readers in America preferred gritty noir, but the British readers wanted escapism and something gentler after WWI. Both are good, but I can see why British readers had had enough violence and just wanted a more cerebral puzzle.

As an interesting aside, I am reading The Jazz Files and the heroine, Poppy Denby, is reading a book by a new author on the train - The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which I thought was a nice little nod to Agatha.

Judy wrote: "Ruth, I've just finished 'Death on the Cherwell' and enjoyed it - the Oxford atmosphere is well done and there's a lot of fun dialogue. Must confess I managed to unravel part of the mystery, which ..."

That's the one I decided on. I'm always torn between wanting to work out who the murderer is before the end, and not knowing til the denouement. On the one hand you get a glow of satisfaction from having worked it out, but knowing can sometimes make the story start to seem a bit tedious if they keep just going over the scenario.

I think the best thing is to be able to narrow it down to 2 or 3 suspects to keep the suspense going.

I've been doing a free trial of Kindle Unlimited and have decided to pay for a further month, as they do have a few more British Library titles available and I'm hoping to get to two or three - I've downloaded our December read, The Santa Klaus Murder , plus Capital Crimes: London Mysteries: A British Library Crime Classic, a collection of short stories, and The Sussex Downs Murder.

I'm unlikely to continue the Kindle Unlimited service after that, though, as the selection is so poor - the handful of British Library Crime Classics in the scheme are almost the only titles I'd ever heard of that they offer (well, that I've managed to find, anyway!).

I think all the kindle singles are also available on unlimited, Judy. There are some interesting reads on there; but otherwise I agree the choice is poor.

Thanks, Susan - I'll investigate the Kindle Singles.

I thought the price seemed to high - okay while it is free. I figured it was just another way to separate people from their money. Especially since many would just forget about putting the charge on. I only realized lately that I've been paying money for streaming service and I have barely been watching those channels. So I haven't wanted Kindle Unlimited to be another one of those services that I totally forget about it, despite paying for it every month.

We're so lucky to have all these reissues aren't we! At the time they were written I suppose they would only have been available in hardback as Penguin didn't start until 1935 and they only produced about 250 fiction titles between 1935 and 1940.

Were lending libraries available for the general population then? If not, reading detective fiction must have been an expensive business so did class and social standing come into the equation with people's reading habits?

I believe there used to be a lot of private lending libraries which you had to pay for, but were still much cheaper than buying all the books.

I've just looked up and discovered that public libraries were already around in the UK from the mid-19th century onwards, although they only became a legal requirement in all areas from the 1960s.

http://www.politics.co.uk/reference/p...

However, there were also popular private libraries such as Boots library:

http://usvsth3m.com/post/did-you-know...

So it looks as if a lot of people could read the latest detective stories without having to buy them all.

I remember reading that one of the reasons why publishers began to target women readers, was because it tended to be the daughters and wives in the household who chose the books from libraries. I know the Bronte sisters took their reading choices very seriously, when I read their biography,

Judy wrote: "I've just looked up and discovered that public libraries were already around in the UK from the mid-19th century onwards, although they only became a legal requirement in all areas from the 1960s.
..."

What a great bit of research Judy. That article about Boots Lending Library is fascinating. I've seen books with a Boots label on and a hole in the top of the spine, but I didn't know it was for the membership card - what a lovely piece of ephemera that would be!

Now that information has made such a difference to our understanding of reading habits at that time. And the reasons for the decline of the Boots libraries put things into context and make you realise that knowing the whole picture is so important in the understanding of social history.

Judy wrote: "I've just looked up and discovered that public libraries were already around in the UK from the mid-19th century onwards, although they only became a legal requirement in all areas from the 1960s.
..."

And there's a battle currently going on over that legal requirement - http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015...

Ruth wrote: " That article about Boots Lending Library is fascinating. I've seen books with a Boots label on and a hole in the top of the spine, but I didn't know it was for the membership card - what a lovely piece of ephemera that would be!"

Thanks, Ruth! I'm rather sad that I never went to a Boots library - I was born in 1960, so I suppose there were still a few left when I was a small child, but I only remember the ordinary public libraries.

Thanks also for the link to the disquieting article about the danger of many libraries closing.

Judy wrote: "I've just looked up and discovered that public libraries were already around in the UK from the mid-19th century onwards, although they only became a legal requirement in all areas from the 1960s.
..."

Chicago got a free library thanks to Queen Victoria. When they had the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 she felt so sorry that now the people of Chicago wouldn't have a library. Little did she know that there was no library before the fire. Thus was the Chicago Public Library born.

I'm now reading another British Library Crime Classic, a collection of short stories, Capital Crimes: London Mysteries: A British Library Crime Classic, edited by Martin Edwards.



Enjoying it so far, but the first story, a non-Holmes tale by the great Arthur Conan Doyle is very scary - more horror than straight detection, so I rather wished I hadn't read that one at bed time! A brilliant story, however.

This kind of collection is a great way to discover authors to explore further. I do just wish the original publication date of each story was given at the start, as well as the great mini-bio of each author by Martin Edwards.

We were in Waterstones in Cheltenham on Monday and there was a lovely big display of the British Library Crime Classics on one of the tables - they looked so beautiful all laid out together.

Ruth wrote: "We were in Waterstones in Cheltenham on Monday and there was a lovely big display of the British Library Crime Classics on one of the tables - they looked so beautiful all laid out together."

And of course you used your Christmas gift card to buy them all, right?

[g]

I was just listening to the Guardian Books Podcast and they mentioned that Waterstones made a profit for the first time in many years. It will be a great thing if we manage to keep some bookshops, even if they are a chain and not independents. I know that France has done a lot to protect their independent bookshops and I realised, when in Paris last summer, how many more bookshops there were generally.

I've just finished one of the BLCC collections, Capital Crimes: London Mysteries: A British Library Crime Classic, and really enjoyed it.



Here's my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I just got Murder of a Lady and Death on the Riviera. Now I just need time to read them :)

Will look forward to hearing what you think when you get to them, Susan!

And just because I enjoyed my first John Bude so much, I've bought The Lake District Murder and Sussex Downs Murder

I do wish my library would buy the British Library Crime Classics series though.

I would think they would be popular, Ella's Gran. My library does have them, but I will admit to getting the ones I have read from NetGalley or kindle unlimited.

I did see quite a few on kindle unlimited so that is how I will be getting them.
A few people have mentioned NetGalley, I have wondered about looking at that but as I don't often write reviews I thought that I wouldn't be able to take advantage of the site.

Like Jay-Me I don't regularly write reviews so I don't think Netgalley is an option for me, and KU isn't available for myself country. Amazon are still saying to watch this space. My eyes are almost glued to the screen I've been watching that long!

I will hope, for the sake of your eyesight, that they appear soon, Ella's Gran :)

Just came across this interview with Rob Davies of the British Library about the success of the Crime Classics, on the Past Offences blog which looks like a great resource. This piece is from last April, so quite a few more BLCC books have been published since, but still very interesting.

https://pastoffences.wordpress.com/20...

I've just been spending a Waterstones token from Christmas and picked up a copy of a new BLCC title, Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries. This is short country house detective stories.



One reason I couldn't resist it is that the cover is a painting of Christchurch Mansion, which stands in a park in the centre of Ipswich, where I live - not exactly the countryside, but certainly a grand building! The painting is actually taken from an old railway poster - we have a print of it on the wall at home.

Judy wrote: "I've just been spending a Waterstones token from Christmas and picked up a copy of a new BLCC title, Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries. This is short country house detect..."

That's one I've been tempted by Judy, so I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.

Resurrecting this thread because I've just seen a post on what looks to be a great book blog, Random Jottings, where Martin Edwards reveals the 30 bestselling British Library Crime Classics titles from the past year:

http://randomjottings.typepad.com/ran...

I've read 10 of these, so a lot still to go!

I have just been auto approved with Poisoned Pen Press on NetGalley, so perhaps I will be reading more of the British Library Crime Classics in future :)

Well done, Susan. :) I believe a few of them are also available on Prime Reading and Kindle Unlimited.

Yes, there are lots of good books on Prime and Kindle Unlimited.