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

Sandy’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Susan in NC wrote: "Susan wrote: "We are coming to the end of a couple of series soon. I have updated the buddy read list and was wondering whether anyone has any ideas of a good Christmas buddy read?"

The list above..."

try the master list at the top of the threads: Curent and upcoming reads.

I am reading A Deadly Covenant, the latest prequel to the authors' series set in Botswana. It is a writing team of two men and the style is a bit stilted. The stories are interesting and the description of "a darker #1 Ladies" is accurate (but not too dark for me).

Rosina wrote: "His return to the UK - using his passport, presumably - makes the explanation 'that it was for his wife's sake' a bit iffy. Were she to remarry (and since her boyfriend is dead, and she is pregnant..."

When I said for the wife's benefit, I meant that he wanted to impress her with how much he loved her. My mis-use of benefit.

Abigail wrote: "Hard not to! We had a wonderful lot of children’s books that had been through several generations—original editions of Robert Louis Stevenson stories with the Wyeth illustrations, first-edition Kip..."

I hope they at least went to a home that appreciated them!

Pamela wrote: "I’ve just started this and I’m enjoying it too, particularly this murky world of book collectors and buyers.

We had some ancient GA Henty books at home when I was young, I assume they went to a j..."

Regarding missing out on that fortune, it is better not to think about it!

Rosina wrote: "I've finished it too, and am rather puzzled about the murder.

I think Meredith's explanation is that Dillon faked his suicide, using his victim's body as a substitute, to avoid being prosecuted f..."

I thought the fake suicide was mainly for his wife's benefit, a final dramatic gesture. I think he was not of stable mind at that point.

Sandy wrote: "I just read The Alarm of the Black Cat, an American GA mystery reprint. I think this is the second in the series and I plan to read (eventually) the ones I can find easily. A 70-yea..."

P.S. While the title mentions a black cat her cat is described, repeatedly, as marmalade colored. I wonder if the publisher insisted on a traditionally scary cat.

I just read The Alarm of the Black Cat, an American GA mystery reprint. I think this is the second in the series and I plan to read (eventually) the ones I can find easily. A 70-year-old 'spinster' detective with more pluck, and luck, than reasonable. She has rented a house that seems to be open to anyone who wants to wander in and leave bodies in her cellar.

Carissa wrote: "The hollow rocks were a clever innovation! I was a thrown off by the description of them as "boulders." In my mind, a boulder is about the size of an adult human, not something you can put in your ..."

I agree that happening to have a witness to the fatal fall, watching through binoculars, the body turning to show his face and then the witness incommunicado for a time is more than a bit unlikely.

Excellent observation of how much the war had changed everyone: the women were accustomed to working and the freedom that allowed them; the men had led adventurous, if unpleasant and dangerous, lives. It must have been hard to resume as if nothing changed.

Were there any hints to the ending? I wondered if the bookseller who solved the mystery had information that was not shared with the reader, nor Wigan, or if he was a good reader of character and recognized a villain.

In the US, Have His Carcase is $3, one of the nominations for October.

I loved the incident when Meredith tried using his tourist phrase book to translate 'move body from car to morgue'. So annoying.

I enjoyed the book but agree the two cases were disjointed and there were a lot of coincidences. I thought it portrayed the ups and down of the investigation quite well. Like Pamela, I liked the hollow rocks and moveable water tank though I have less faith in the short drop parachute.

The two detectives and their French counterparts were fun characters and worked together very well.

Was the fake artist ever caught?

I'm approaching the half-way mark without a murder but there are a couple of characters I want to bump off.

I thought the tension of the execution date was well done and I worried, with good reason as it turned out, about Charlie. He was a very sympathetic character, as was the wrongly accused man, even though he was basically unlikeable. His gift to Wigam was touching.

This book has just been published, at least in the US, so availably may be a problem. It is $3 on kindle in US.

Murder While You Work

Judy sat staring out of the railway carriage window. Of course there was a war on, but could any train that was trying at all really dawdle the way this one was doing? On the way to her new munitions work in the village of Pinlock, Judy Rest meets handsome, dynamic Nick Parsons, who turns out (after the two engage in some extremely careless talk) to be engaged in top secret work at the same factory. Nick warns her about suspicious goings-on at her new billet, wherein a suspicious death has recently occurred, but Judy is unphased. As she adapts to her work and learns to maintain the proper rhythm with her lathe ("The girls in this group say that 'White Christmas' just swings it nicely"), more deaths occur at home-with even a dog as victim!-and despite Nick's protection, Judy just might be next. First published in 1944 and Noel Streatfeild's only foray into the mystery genre, this novel features not only suspense and romance, but vivid scenes of wartime factory life, some potent psychology, and an array of wonderfully likeable (and loathable) characters. Murder While You Work is the ninth of twelve charming, page-turning romances published under the pseudonym "Susan Scarlett" by none other than beloved children's author and novelist Noel Streatfeild. Out of print for decades, they were rediscovered by Greyladies Books in the early 2010s, and Dean Street Press and Furrowed Middlebrow are delighted now to make all twelve available to a wider audience. "A writer who shows a rich experience in her writing and a charm" Nottingham Journal

Interesting insight into 'book runners'.

I'm also about a third in and entirely agree about the country house feel. This time we have unlikely guests instead of warring relatives.

I am slowly working my through Dr. Sam Johnson, Detector, a collection of short stories written in the style of Boswell. Interesting concept and the stories are fine though a bit predictable.

Rosina wrote: "My problem with this is that most of the 'evidence' on which we are meant to work out who dun what to whom is the fictionaled imaginings of Sheringham. We know some of the incidents - the kiss, for..."

Regarding framing another for the murder, I got the impression that he did not frame a specific crook but only some unknown, unsavory person from her past.