Mark Pghfan’s Comments (group member since Mar 06, 2014)

Mark Pghfan’s comments from the The Parlor PI's group.

Good questions. I’m thinking the dart was inserted manually. And perhaps two people were involved, to carry/drag Ken.

I noted that about Ace as well, and thought if ever there was a least-likely person to end up being the murderer, he would be it. On the other hand, given that the victims were probably drunk, overpowering them could easily have been done with a woman.

Not much in the present exchange here. Most of the time, my friends and I go out to a special dinner with one another. Works every time!

Part two of our discussion!

We find the bodies of Ken and Catronia Fraser, recent new neighbors of Rex's and owners of a nearby castle, ripe for renovation. Each has been apparently poisoned with a dart, presumably loaded with curare. Given the close quarters and the outside storm, it seems perfectly clear that the culprit is one of the many people present for the Hogmamay party this New Year's Eve. Making matters worse, the power is out in Rex's house.

Oh, well. Some minor investigations take place before the authorities arrive (quite late, it seems to me) and the darts are found, and the Professor seems quite certain about curare being the poison. They look for something that may have propelled the darts, but do not find them (at least to the point I am at, near the end of chapter 10.)

They reference the "film" Death in the Clouds", a TV version of the Christie novel where a poison dart was used to murder someone. They mention that in that, the dart was NOT propelled by a blowgun of any sort, but was manually inserted. And yet they don't consider that here--I wonder why?

It looks like we are ready to go onto the next section. Starting it now.

My edition of this book has a whole lot of excerpts from reviews of past Rex Graves books, including the two I mentioned, which reference how Christie-like the books are. I don't know whether I agree with that exactly, but they are enjoyable, as is this one.

I'm a bit further on now, into the next section. And things are speeding up, detection-wise.

Good point, about the red haired woman!

Hello, all!

Our first January book is Murder at Midnight, by C.S. Challinor. I hadn't realized this at first that at least Tina and I, probably when we were in the chat group at the old A&E site, read the first book in the series, Christmas is Murder, many Christmasses ago. And then I read the second one, Murder in the Raw (took place at a clothing-optional resort), though not sure if we read it in our group.

Anyway, this is now the sixth in the Rex Graves series. Rex is about to marry Helen and just purchased Gleneagle Lodge in Scotland. An interesting band of people are assembled to celebrate Hogmanay, a traditional New Year's Eve tradition in Scotland.

The liquor is flowing and midnight approaches as we learn some things about the relationships between the people present, As midnight approaches, the storm outside picks up, and then a power outage occurs. In the dark, there is a noise at the door. Could it be a tall, dark handsome stranger (for good luck) or a red-headed woman (worst luck)?

Turns out it is neither, but actually bad luck!

Like Tina, I found the character list at the front indispensable, with all these characters showing up right in the beginning!

Sorry to be late getting this started. I've had a bit of a cold and have been sleeping and babying myself! Will start it today, though.

I got the book and started reading. Chapters 1-5 seem to be roughly the first third of the book, so I will go with that.

It always seems to be a challenge for me to read all of one section but not get too much further, and then forget what happens in what section!

I'll start the discussion officially on the first!

Happy New Year, all!

Sounds like a plan! I just picked up the book.

Do we have a volunteer for hosting M@M? I will do it if no one wants.

I just got the message that M@M just came in, via my library, so I can start that up pretty quickly.

I LOVE the Peter Wimsey books and TV adaptations. I've seen the one for Strong Poison many times and love Edward P as LPW. And the scene with the model is hilarious. Too bad for Marjorie who brought him there, and is pining unsuccessfully for Peter.

Sounds great. I'll order "Murder" from the library!

(Almost done with Away in a Manger.)

I am about 3/4th of the way through and should be done soon!

I'd go for Murder at Midnight. I've heard of this series and think it would be worth a try.

Sounds good!

I'm sure there will be a pretty happy ending, at least for Molly and family. Since the beggars aren't living with Gus and Sid in the book we read earlier (or were even mentioned), I expect that perhaps the grandfather's cold, cold heart melted a bit that Christmas and took them in.

I doubt I could manage three, but I'll go for any one of them. (I'm reading Aunt Dimity's Christmas, along with Away, right now.)

Merry Christmas, all. I am into this second section, but not terribly far into it. As Tina noted, there is just the mystery of the two children, though Molly seems intent on fixing that. I can't say I blame her. Their situation does really touch me! (I hope Sid and Gus take care of them, though in the book we just finished, the children aren't mentioned, so I assume the problem gets solved another way!)