UK Book Club discussion

1. Scotland: An Inspector's Daughter by Alanna Knight. 19C Edinburgh

Only 79 to go Jacky.....enjoy travelling the world

Jacky
Have you looked back over the year as most people have I am sure my list now complete but a took me a couple of weeks to remember thenm all

2. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. My children gave me this last birthday - they call me "Moomin" because of a passing resemblance to Moominmama (if only I had her kindly wisdom as well!).
As quirky as the Moomins themselves, I thought this a book to dip in & out of, rather than read in one sitting. I loved the accute observation.

3. Thirteenth Night by Alan Gordon.
This is one of those books that would seem impossible to pull off, but Alan Gordon manages it. a "sequel" to 12th Night, Feste is a "Holy Fool" who returns to Illyria to find our who murdered Orsino. All the old characters are there, and there are puns & allusions to delight.
For the purposes of this challenge, Illyria is Italy.

4. have been side-tracked back to Scotland by the new Dandy Gilver, but can add France: Murder in Belleville by Cara Black, who like her detective Aimee Leduc, is French & American

5. The Mobile Library: the case of the missing books by Ian Sansom.
This hilarious book is set in Northern Ireland, beautifully captures both the bleakness & beauty of the lsndscape, & the bizarre humour & warmth of the people.

6. Emerald by Elisabeth Luard. I'm a bit of a sucker for "what-ifs" and this is the story of the daughter of the Duke & Duchess of Windsor. It moves all over the place as she is brought up in secret, but mskes the most of the author's background to sdd authenticity.
for the purposes of this challenge, it adds Mexico.

7. The Bellini Card by Jason Goodwin (#3 Yashim the euncuh series). This is largely set in Venice (where the Polish ambassador is sent to track down a picture of one of the Sultans) but as I have already "ticked" Italy; this one "ticks" Turkey as Yashim is based in Istanbul.
It also exposed my woeful ignorance, as until reading this, I didn't realise that Bellini were a family of painters, just one of my favourite cocktails! (is there a painter called Daiquiri?)

8. Aristotle, Detective by Margaret Doody - set - guess where? Aristotle helps a former student clear his cousin's name of a murder. Details seem good.
About to be side-tracked again as our book club is reading The Woman in White - and having stated it is one of my favourites, I must get the details right (how many days between leaving Hampshire & going to the asylum?)!

9. Murder on the Nile by Agatha Christie.
I'm hoping that I can count this, having listened to it last week on Radio 4extra. It's an old favourite - one of Agatha's famous "twists".
Ticks Egypt (of course)

10. Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden (India)
One of the pleasures of this challenge has not only been new books, but re-visiting books.
I first read this as a teenager, and saw it as the effects of loneliness & being in an enclosed community.
40+ years on, I wonder if it feeds into the old myth about women not being able to get on together, not to be trusted to do tasks properly, too much at the mercy of their emotions?
It remains however, a fascinating study of what happens to a group when their certainties are threatened.

11. Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie (Iraq)
It was called Iraq back when she wrote it, but because it deals with an archaeological dig, she can get away with the title.
An old favourite, although it features Poirot, it is narrated by a nurse. Agatha was nowhere near to Dorothy L. Sayers as a writer, but she wrote nurses much better - probably because she had worked with them and did not consider them the inferior beings that DLS did.
I have also been reading The Stepmother's Diary by Fay Weldon for my village book group and am tempted to regard "Weldonville" as a separate country - they do things differently there.

12. Coming Back by Marcia Muller.
I am a huge fan of the Sharon McCone series which began in 1977 and launched the "female private eye" on the world. I am disapppointed that she is not as well promoted in the UK as other US authors, and isn't available on Kindle!

13. A Piece of Justice by Jill Paton-Walsh
A wonderful writer who has turned her skill to the detective novel, and decided to even up the Varsity body count by setting her mysteries in Cambridge. Imogen Quy is a college nurse - again the detective is a bit of an outsider.
This novel, although set in the present day, has its roots in the fight for women's degrees, and a lovely twist.
Have been going on so much that I forgot to put the country: partly set in Wales.

14. Hostage to Murder by Val McDermid
St. Petersburg, Russia

dear Agatha again: A Caribbean Mystery

16. Still Life by Louise Penny, set in Canada

17. City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris, a detective story set in Saudi Arabia, featuring Katya, a forensic scientist.