Sandy’s Comments (group member since Dec 14, 2015)

Sandy’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

I am reading The Silver Bone and loving it. It involves terrible atrocities, but with a light touch. Called #1 in Kyiv Mystery series but at the halfway point a mystery to be solved has finally occurred. There is no silver bone yet. I read the author's earlier work about a man and his penguin years ago and loved it as well.

Interesting article about Lorac by Martin Edwards in CrimeReads:

https://crimereads.com/the-rare-enter...

I agree with the adventure story vibe and that may fit in with the early date of the book.

Sarah wrote: "I'm reading a Judge Dee mystery, "The Emperor's Pearl," part of Robert van Gulik's series. Judge Dee is based on a real statesman and and detective who lived during the Tang Dynasty, though it rema..."

I've read a couple of the Judge Dee stories and they are interesting especially as a view of the culture. I agree about the illustrations. After getting the impression that Dee was old, something convinced me he was actually a young man. Of course, like us all, he was once young and then old, so I may have been reading them out of order.

'So Pretty a Problem' is waiting on my iPod so it would be good to have an incentive.

I quite liked the Vish Puri series and when I ran out of them tried the
The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra series by Vaseem Khan. I didn't care for that series but the author has another that I follow with a young policewoman in a man's world. First book is Midnight at Malabar House

Haven't tried Aunty Lee.

I have read four in the series and enjoyed them all. The different setting and culture are part of the attraction, and Su Lin's family add a bit of color. She seems so young in this book, and I believe she grows more self-confident, but I stopped reading the series once we decided it would be part of our 2024 challenge, so my memory is fading.

Nothing to do with mysteries but I have to share. I took this book out of the library; it was old and worn and I'm glad to see it newly available.

in the US for $2: Motel of the Mysteries, a book of pictures with captions.

My review: This was a fun take off on an archaeology dig, with nods to Howard Carter's discovery of Tut's tomb and Scheillman's photo of his wife wearing Priam's treasure. When in doubt, an artifact has religious significance.

I really enjoyed this book. The freedom given the journalist by Scotland Yard did not seem realistic but made for good reading. I particularly liked that when the three investigators were offered drinks, the young amateurs refused as they had work to do that afternoon, but the Yard man excepted. Rules must have changed at some point (or Fletcher ignored them!).

Susan wrote: "https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/ge...

Sad news :("

Very sad!

I have started The Frangipani Tree Mystery. This is a reread but, as usual, I remember little of the mystery. I just completed Great Classic Mysteries: Unabridged Stories, an Audible freebie that they are discontinuing. Like any collection there are some winners and loser. I wish the recording would give the name of the story and the author after each piece. Now onto volume 2.

I have a couple of new books from my library requests by Elly Griffiths and Anthony Horowitz that will be read very soon. And yet another book that I took out when I thought I had time, The Other Half. Exciting reading ahead.

A non-fiction book I finished discusses gardening in mystery books:Gardening Can Be Murder: How Poisonous Poppies, Sinister Shovels, and Grim Gardens Have Inspired Mystery Writers. It added a few books to my TBR.

Good news about Dean Street Press!

In the US there is a series by Brian Flynn that has twenty books available on kindle for $4 a book. I haven't tried the author but I own two so probably they were free once.

The first book is The Billiard Room Mystery

Abigail wrote: "I’m not very far in but I’m enjoying all the characters and the specificity of local eccentricities."

I agree; the characters are extreme but amusing.

My review:
Much of the sparkle of the (much) earlier books is missing from the final book in the series, but then the author died the next year so he may not have been at his best. There is still a lot of humor and I always like Crispin's ignoring of the wall between author and reader (do you who did it? Fen: no. you must, the book is almost over!). Fen leaves most of the investigating to the police in this book. He, like Crispin, has grown older.

I've finished now. I definitely agree it is not Crispen at his best but I liked it better than many did..

I have started this now but not very far in.

Judy wrote: "I've read Daggers at the Country Fair by Catherine Coles, the second book in the Martha Miller series, set in the 1940s. It was a quick, light read but I didn't thi..."

So much easier decision when it is the first book you don't particularly like.

I have a bunch of new book requests that have become available. I read Neighborhood Watch, which is a lot of fun. Who doesn't fantasize about murdering nasty rich people? I am now listeneing to How to Solve Your Own Murder which is off to a good start.

Upcoming is a mystery-adjacent book: Gardening Can Be Murder: How Poisonous Poppies, Sinister Shovels, and Grim Gardens Have Inspired Mystery Writers.

Finally there is a non-mystery: A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks. I am still, infrequently and slowly, working my way through The World: A Family History of Humanity.

And there are others whose pub dates are very close.

I really enjoyed this. I "suspected" the murderer / thief but mostly because she was such a major character and so very pleasant. Argyll's struggles with his conscience and wavering over decisions endear him to me. His parting gift to the widow was generous.

Loved the meeting with the boss shaming his rival!

I am currently reading this. I really like the characters and so far the plot is interesting. The author is having fun disparaging British transport and summer weather.