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

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

I haven't finished yet, so I don't know, but it seems either the husband, Torrington, or the maid to Lady E, Daphne. My money right now is on Daphne.

In reality, there aren't that many, are there?

Found the dog, the snake is also found, but in the next section.

Folks. I thought I'd continue the discussion but leave the spoilers to another thread, since a number of us are not yet finished.

Cecily is still trying to find out who wrote the note to Lady E, and lured her to the roof to her demise. In the previous section Keith Torrington seemed a likely villain, but now that role has shifted back to Mr. Danbury, the possibly grieving widower, who has not been arrested. Daphne (the companion) certainly has it in for Danbury and tells a particularly damning story to Cecily, and presumable to the police. (It involves the missing brooch.)

Meanwhile Henry finally show up to disrupt Phoebe's tableau. Fortunately, no one was harmed in the situation.

The snake has been gone a suspiciously long time, for something that sized. Last I noted, it was about 11:30 and the tableau was about to start at midnight. I'd already be in bed.

If you haven't caught up yet, take your time. I won't go on to the next section until Wednesday!

Well, lots of thing are happening in this section. We still don't know about the mysterious person in Suite 3, still haven't found Henry, and now the sign Cecily put up to warn people about the unsafe wall is found in a closet, hidden away. And is that wasn't enough, there is an old acquaintance of Lady E, who was apparently cheating on his fiance, a friend of Lady E, and whom might get ratted out. Could it be he who lured Lady E to meet on the roof?

Moving on, we find that the odious Lady Elinor, having been found dead, has caused some of our people to consider that it wasn't an accident. Her widower, Robert does seem to be acting oddly, for an apparently bereaved husband. And Henry, the python, is still on the loose. (Really, how can you NOT find a 10 foot long snake in a house?) Could he have grabbed Lady E and tossed her over the damaged wall? Could Gertie 'hav done 'er in for complaining that she stole her brooch? Did Madeline the psychic willed her to her death by her strange powers? (Well, probably not that one.) We'll find out!

Those of us who have read later books in this series may recognize some characters which will show up in later books, but let's keep that to ourselves for now.

I suppose we are ready to move on. Section 2 starts today!

J, I agree. Too obvious.

Nicole, that was my thought as well. I wonder if he would kill to shut that up, though.

I have started reading the next section. Are any of you ready to move on to part two?

I certainly agree that Robert is acting "fishy". And there may be an affair going on. I wonder if this is related to what the maids were talking about--someone who was at the hotel who was apparently well known?

Yes, Allison, I made a note of that as well. I found that very odd, but perhaps secret smoking was the thing at the time. (When I host a discussion, I take notes as I go along. Anal retentive, I guess!)

Nicole, I also commute to work by bus. Though they are often so packed that I really can't read easily.

After we met Robert, I thought maybe he pawned the brooch for his gambling. Perhaps I still do, though I also thought maybe Henry ate it.

I'm near the end of this first section (I'm trying not to get too far ahead of the discussion) and, as you will soon find, Lady Elinor is dead, apparently fallen through the unsafe wall that was blocked off as a hazard. But of course, she must have been pushed. Otherwise, well, this is a murder mystery!

I agree about Annis and Warwick being a good age to film the others. I wonder if it had been pursued at all.

Nicole, like you, my (very large) library system did not have this first book, though it had lots of the later ones. I got it on Kindle at $3.99. A small price to pay for my peeps at the Parlor!

I saw N or M, but didn't care for it at all. David Wallum (as was noted) is not at all like Tommy and a total buffoon. The dynamic between T & T was not even remotely there. And the plot changes were terrible. I haven't even bothered to watch Secret Adversary yet, since I was so disappointed with N or M.

Well, let's all get started with May's selection. I know not everyone has the book yet, but at this early stage, we do not have much in the way of spoilers to worry about.

This is the first in a, by now, long series of mysteries set in the Pennyfoot Hotel, run by our heroine, Cecily Sinclair. We have read in the past, later books in the series, particularly the Christmas ones, which occur every year, so we know a bit about how our main characters turn out, but I won't give any of that away either, if this is your first of the series.

Cecily is the owner of the hotel, a very recent widow. The setting is England, 1906. The hotel manager is a man named Baxter. There are also two ladies who are into the picture early on, and whom are on each other's nerves: Phoebe Carter-Holmes, and Madeline Pengrath. Madeline has "powers", oooh, Spooky! Also there is Gertie, a spunky maid. An aristocratic lady has lost a brooch and Gertie is suspected. And now Henry, the python, is missing. (I can't say we've read a lot of books with pythons in them.)