Reading the Detectives discussion

Susan in NC wrote: "I guess we’ll never know, but I’ll wonder from now on about those cheaper Kindle versions of her books, from that publisher (I’ve picked up a few, they all have the stylized noir type drawings for covers), and will check for an original uk title!.."

I know what you mean, Susan - I've found one or two of those reissues slightly disappointing, so am now wondering if all the text was there. I've just started reading Crook o' Lune, which I was curious about after our group read of The Theft of the Iron Dogs: A Lancashire Mystery, though Crook o'Lune actually comes first of the two!

I was going to listen to this one, as I bought it with an Audible credit before ending my membership recently, but then found that narrator David Thorpe does a really terrible voice for one of the characters so that I can't understand what they are supposed to be saying, grrr. So I've now bought it on Kindle and will alternate between the two!

Sorry, Crook o' Lune actually comes later than The Theft of the Iron Dogs, I'm getting mixed up. Anyway, enjoying it so far.

I have now started The Dark Monk by Oliver Pötzsch I enjoyed the first in this series so am hopeful for this one.

Judy wrote: "Sorry, Crook o' Lune actually comes later than The Theft of the Iron Dogs, I'm getting mixed up. Anyway, enjoying it so far."

Judy wrote: "Susan in NC wrote: "I guess we’ll never know, but I’ll wonder from now on about those cheaper Kindle versions of her books, from that publisher (I’ve picked up a few, they all have the stylized noi..."

I treated myself to the paperback (BLCC edition) of Crook o' Lune, and the audiobook is available on Everand, that may be my next Lorac even though it’s later in the Macdonald series.

I will be curious when I read Death at Dyke's Corner, which I recently picked up on Kindle - it had what I think is Lorac’s portrait on the cover, not one of the book covers I see here, the inside says “Avarang Books 2023”. Never heard of that publisher, I wonder if it will be abridged?

Judy wrote: "Sorry, Crook o' Lune actually comes later than The Theft of the Iron Dogs, I'm getting mixed up. Anyway, enjoying it so far."

Thanks, they’re being reissued by different publishers in no particular order, so I guess it doesn’t matter!

Hi Susan, I don't think the order matters with Lorac but I was interested to read Crook o'Lune next as it has characters who are also in Iron Dogs and, knowing me, I'll probably forget about them soon! I'll be interested to hear what Death at Dyke's Corner is like, that one isn't available in the UK but I have a few of hers to be going on with. :)

Judy wrote: "Hi Susan, I don't think the order matters with Lorac but I was interested to read Crook o'Lune next as it has characters who are also in Iron Dogs and, knowing me, I'll probably forget about them s..."

You and me both, my memory is a veritable sieve! I don’t which I’ll read next, but I was surprised to see a fairly early mystery (1940) from a publisher I’ve never heard of - no copyright page or anything, so who knows who put it out, if there will be more. Seemed odd, just popped up in kindle recommendations, no cover art, just the author’s photo on the cover. Only three reviews so far, about 3-1/2 stars I think, not her best, etc., so can’t help wondering if they’re abridged, too…will keep you posted!

Susan in NC wrote: "Only three reviews so far, about 3-1/2 stars I think, not her best, etc., so can’t help wondering if they’re abridged, too…will keep you posted!..."

Thanks Susan! Looks like that one is on Faded Page and, once books appear there, unknown publishers sometimes seem to issue them - presumably they must have to get copyright approval?!

I was also excited to see that British Library has just brought out a Carol Carnac title, Impact of Evidence - hopefully you will get this one soon in the US as well. I wish BL would publish her titles a bit quicker, but then again I still have several to go so can't really complain!

Thanks for that title, Judy! Right onto the TBR list, sounds very intriguing from plot summary. I agree, I wish BLCC would publish more - they’re reliably unabridged, and the covers are beautiful! Always happy to make shelf room for them…

Judy wrote: "Susan in NC wrote: "Only three reviews so far, about 3-1/2 stars I think, not her best, etc., so can’t help wondering if they’re abridged, too…will keep you posted!..."

Thanks Susan! Looks like th..."

Got Impact of Evidence day before yesterday. Looking forward to starting it.

I just found the audiobook on Everand, yay! But I don’t like to listen to mysteries without a book or ebook to keep track of clues, suspects, plot points!

In my Kindle I have a very gritty and quite true to life story of England in the 1950s and 60s, - 'A Kind of Loving' by Stan Barstow.
It is however, the first of a trilogy , the other two are 'The Watchers on the Shore' and 'The Right True End'.
I'm fortunate that I have all three in paperback. It is rather annoying that Kindle has not made the last two available in e-books as the three make a complete story. I've asked but had no response.
I suppose this is just a moan for what it's worth but it is annoying that Amazon does not seem interested in what its clients may want to read.

Hear, hear!

I shouldhave said that there is a TV adaptation of the three books available on Youtube, I think from the BBC which is pretty close to the story and well worth watching. The title is (surprise, surprise!) ,
'A Kind of Loving'.

Enjoy!!!

I enjoyed Crook o' Lune very much, only my second Lorac

Reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larson. I actually watched some of the movie, but decided since I got the book in a library book sale last year to read the book first then watch the movie.

Fred wrote: "Reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larson. I actually watched some of the movie, but decided since I got the book in a library book sale last year to read the book first then watch ..."

Always a good decision.

I have started Death at Dyke's Corner by E.C.R. Lorac

I'm reading The Framed Women of Ardemore House, one of my new book requests that are coming available with disturbing frequency (disturbing only because they are due back sooner thus creating reading pressure).

So far I am not deeply involved in the book, but liking it enough to continue. Unfortunately (?) when I return it I will have two other new books to pick up. Not the worst problem to have!

I have started We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Apart from her books about her children, I have never really clicked with Jackson, so I'm giving this a try

At present I'm reading Christie's 'Murder on the Links' and not enjoying it at all. Poirot is too Poirot and Hastings more stupid than ever. I'll be glad when I've had enough , perhaps a DNF? we'll see.

I am about to start The Silent Speaker by Rex Stout I do like these books but it is Archie who I like mostly

I just started the upcoming "buddy read" of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö's "Murder at the Savoy." My edition has a very insightful introduction written by Jan Arnald (pen name Arne Dahl), who describes their books as "the actual parents of a literary tradition... an entire genre... the police procedural that has a perspective of social criticism." This is my second time reading the Martin Beck novels, and I like them as much as ever.

I finished Calla Henkel's art world thriller Scrap inventive and entertaining it follows Esther whose hopes for a quiet life are dashed when her girlfriend leaves her and a new project leaves her caught up in a mystery regarding her wealthy patron Naomi. Henkel blends together a range of influences from vintage lesbian/feminist crime to Patricia Highsmith's Ripley to Gillian Flynn.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Enjoyed Death at Dyke's Corner so much, wanted to dive into the Queen - Agatha herself. Listening to Joan Hickson (my favorite Marple) narrating Murder at the Vicarage, it’s a reread, but it’s been years and I’m enjoying it very much - reading along with my tattered old used paperback. I’ve always found it interesting, this is narrated from the vicar’s POV, Miss Marple is in the background for much of it. Christie had a series of short stories with Marple up to this point (Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories, just reread), I always wondered if she toyed with the vicar as her detective…

Susan in NC wrote: "Listening to Joan Hickson (my favorite Marple) narrating Murder at the Vicarage,.. I’ve always found it interesting, this is narrated from the vicar’s POV, Miss Marple is in the background for much of it... I always wondered if she toyed with the vicar as her detective…."

That's an interesting idea! He would have been another good detective. As you say, Christie had written Miss Marple short stories before this so I think she would have been keen to progress with her as a detective, but maybe the vicar could potentially have been an extra detective like one or two of her other characters such as Colonel Race?

I'm reading 2 of our forthcoming buddy reads at the moment - they are very different, so no danger of mixing them up! I'm just over halfway through a paperback edition from the library of Murder on the Oceanic. I'm finding it quite an enjoyable light read, but the various things that always annoy me about this series are annoying me once again - I'll save them for the discussion!

I'm also currently reading our next Cadfael book, The Potter's Field, and enjoying it a lot so far. It has an intriguing and different plot.

The vote for our May group read is now open - please vote for your preferred choice!
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Judy wrote: "Susan in NC wrote: "Listening to Joan Hickson (my favorite Marple) narrating Murder at the Vicarage,.. I’ve always found it interesting, this is narrated from the vicar’s POV, Miss Mar..."

Oh, good point - and comic relief provided by Griselda, his much younger, irreverent wife, and nephew Dennis - I forget him, he’s not in the Joan Hickson televised version I have on DVD.

I reread The Potter's Field and enjoyed visiting Cadfael as always, decided to try our upcoming Servant of Death by Sarah Hawkswood. Didn’t realize it is also set in Stephen/Maud civil war. Promising, but introducing so many characters in first couple chapters, hard to keep them all straight, and figure out who “matters” - could just be first book syndrome, establishing the series.

When I read all the Cadfael series in the correct order, each episode is also connected in one way or another with the history of the 12th century Anarchy.
In the 'real' history, the Empress is Matilda but for the stories, her second name 'Maud' is used because King Stephen's wife (and Queen) is also Matilda which would be confusing. She was a far better strategist than Stephen as you can see when Stephen is captured at the Battle of York and he is imprisoned in Bristol

Thanks, Keith, and in this series, I read in chapter 2 that referring to her as “Countess” is supposed to signal whether one is pro Matilda! The bad guy is trying to draw out another character, trick him into revealing his allegiance.

I've started another of our upcoming reads, Some Die Eloquent, on audio with a print version alongside. I do like Sloan.

Finished the Rex Stout and am now starting
The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths one of my favourite authors

I did say in another comment which is not shown here yet that I was wrong when I said the battle of York, it was thw battle of Lincoln when Stephen was captured,

I've gone back to Passing Strange by Catherine Aird.

I am now starting The Mystery of the Kneeling Woman by Moray Dalton April's chosen buddy read

Sarah wrote: "I just started the upcoming "buddy read" of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö's "Murder at the Savoy." My edition has a very insightful introduction written by Jan Arnald (pen name Arne Dahl),..."

I've started this one too and have the same introduction. Really enjoying it so far.

Like Judy, I am reading Murder on the Oceanic. Well, likely she is done by now since they are fast reads.
Oddly, I am NOT annoyed by ....I'll save it for the discussion, too.

I'll open the buddy reads up now, while I think of it :)

I'm not sure where to ask this, but both Susan's seemed to think that Murder on the Oceanic was the last book, but I have Murder on the Celtic. Will we be reading this or shall I finish the series alone?

I believe we will be reading Murder on the Celtic, Jill. I think a couple of titles may have previously been missing from the series on Goodreads, but Susan has mentioned in the introduction to the new buddy read that we have Murder on the Celtic still to go.

I plan to read the last one also. might as well!

Judy wrote: "I believe we will be reading Murder on the Celtic, Jill. I think a couple of titles may have previously been missing from the series on Goodreads, but Susan has mentioned in the introduction to the..."

Thanks.

Jackie wrote: "I plan to read the last one also. might as well!"

Good to know. Thanks

Jill wrote: "I'm not sure where to ask this, but both Susan's seemed to think that Murder on the Oceanic was the last book, but I have Murder on the Celtic. Will we be reading this or shall I finis..."

Sorry about any confusion, Jill, I have read other series by this prolific author, and he seemed to do series of six - and I read a review where someone said it was the last, and I couldn’t find any further books through my library or Everand, so thought the series ended.

I’m rereading Miss Marple, currently on The Moving Finger

I am now starting A Nice Class of Corpse by Simon Brett. Liking the start.

Jill wrote: "I am now starting A Nice Class of Corpse by Simon Brett. Liking the start."

Me, too! I’ve only read a few pages, but it seems vaguely familiar…I’ve read some of the author’s “Fethering” and “Charles Paris” series (series's?) many years ago, so may have read Mrs. P. also. If so, I don’t recall, so it will be like new anyway!

Just finished Amy Chua's "The Golden Gate," which takes place right at home.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

I first moved to Berkeley in 1991, when the infamous Berkeley/Oakland hills fire jumped highway 24 and threatened to burn down the Claremont Hotel, scene of the crime in this novel. A mixture of true history (Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, Nob Hill in San Francisco and the beginning of Kaiser wartime shipbuilding in Richmond) and characters based on reality (the victim Walter Wilkinson/Wendell Wilkie. ) What fascinates me is learning about the Bay Area when Albany and El Cerrito, now upscale towns, were once considered "slums," and you had to take a ferry to get to SF– the Bay Bridge didn't exist.
The murder mystery itself uses real history with the Berkeley Chief of Police, August Vollmer, who revolutionized criminal justice by hiring African American and women police officers, and using fingerprinting and other "modern" techniques. The fictional detective in charge of the case sees Vollmer as his rescuer and mentor. The suspects include immigrants, upper class families who should be treated with kid gloves, a whole spectrum of candidates that kept me changing my mind about the identity of the guilty culprit.
Maybe I got more out of this mystery than most because I can walk to Vollmer Peak and see the Golden Gate, but the plot and characters are well developed, with just a few glitches.