Ruth’s Comments (group member since Oct 06, 2015)

Ruth’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Sandy wrote: "Having put the book aside I am curious which two characters will not be continuing, victim and murderer. The ones I met seem integral to the community and thus to the series. Thanks."

I think he's got a habit of killing off characters which appear integral to a series!

Judy wrote: "I've read around 20% and am enjoying it so far, although I'm finding Jane quite annoying! I noticed that the audiobook is on Spotify, which is handy. Rebecca Lacey is the narrator and has a good, clear voice...."

I once read that Rebecca Lacey would be Phil Rickman's ideal casting of Merrily.

I've got the 2 CDs. It's a while since I've listened to them so I'll have to dig them out again. One of the disappointments of the TV adaptation of another book in this series was that they completely removed the music aspect which I felt was so important to the books.

Sandy wrote: "I hope to get to this sometime this month. In the US it is commonly titled The Corpse in the Snowman."

(view spoiler)[ That's a bit of a spoiler! (hide spoiler)]

I always look at the polls and keep an eye on how the voting is going but tend not to vote unless there's a title that I would either read or comment on if it won. It seems unfair to skew the vote otherwise. What do others think - should we all try and vote sometimes just to mix it up a bit?

Thanks Hannah. I've read one of Amanda Flower's books and enjoyed it so I'll add those to my list :)

Sarah wrote: "Elly Griffiths has a great forensic archaeologist/detective Ruth Galloway, digging up skeletons near Norfolk for a..."

Archaeologists fit the bill as well really don't they. I've just started which I'm enjoying so far. The author is an archaeologist herself, but she only seems to have written 2 books in the series.

How exciting Susan. Have you been to any crime festivals before. Was Anthony Horowitz there?

Sorry I haven't responded to recent posts, I had some trouble getting into Goodreads earlier in the week but it seems to be ok now.

I've read all the Elly Griffiths Ruth Galloway books - fantastic series. I felt so sad when it ended but think it was probably the right time. I could just read them all again!

Thanks Rosina and Sandy. I'll take a look at those.

The book I've just finished has a main character who is an ecologist doing a bat survey. This got me wondering if there were any other series with a main character who has a 'green' job - ecologist, botanist, naturalist etc. or horticulturalist, gardener or something similar.

Could be modern or vintage, but preferably set in the UK. I've read a couple of books by Marty Wingate which have a nature/gardening theme, but her books appear to be unavailable now.

Any suggestions welcome.

When I read a vintage novel written in, for example, the 1940s I want to experience through the book what it was like to live in that time in the authentic voice of the author. If books are routinely edited to allow for current sensitivities or because modern readers may not understand pre-decimal coinage or how a party line works on a telephone I will no longer be confident that I am reading the book as it was written.

I'm very uneasy about this trend for 'editing' and censorship. Will we even know whether the latest edition of a book has been edited? Who decides what is or is not acceptable? The only way to be sure is to buy a copy of the book that was published as close to the date of the original edition as you can.

Judy wrote: "Sorry to be late with this but Lucy Worsley has made a 3-part TV series for BBC2 (UK) about Agatha Christie's life, called "Agatha Christie: Lucy Worsley on the Mystery Queen".

The first episode ..."

Lucy Worsley has also been reading from her book Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman on Radio 4 recently https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m...

Judy wrote: "I've just noticed that a new collection of Miss Marple stories by various authors is due out in September next year - here are the details on agathachristie.com
https://www.agathachristie.com/en/ne..."

Three of the stories from this book are being read on Radio 4 at the moment. I've just listened to the Ruth Ware story Miss Marple's Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed it! https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001...

Judy wrote: "On John Christmas's name, I've just remembered that another Detection Club author, Christopher Bush, had the real name "Charlie Christmas Bush" - fantastic name, probably a coincide..."

I have an ancestor from the 1700s who has the first name Christmas.

I kept seeing Catherine Aird's name mentioned in Goodreads groups so tried a couple of her books a while ago but didn't really enjoy them. When this came up as a buddy read I thought I'd give her one more go, and I'm so glad I did as I really enjoyed this one.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Robin Bailey who was excellent.

Judy wrote: "Sadly this is another article behind a paywall, but, for anyone who can read the (London) Times, Hugh Laurie has written a lovely article about his lifelong love of Christie, to promote his new ver..."

We've only just got round to watching Why Didn't They Ask Evans on Britbox. It was excellent - a great cast, with lots of famous faces. The two leads, Lady Frances and Bobby Jones had great chemistry. A small amount of swearing but no trying to make it edgy or put a different spin on it. Lovely period setting.

Judy wrote: "I also plan to read his children's mystery The Otterbury Incident, which was first published in 1948, under his real name - I had a peek at the start of it and it looks like a lot of..."

I read that book several times as a child and loved it. It's one of those books I hesitate to read again in case I don't enjoy it now!

Judy wrote: "Has anyone else been watching Sister Boniface Mysteries? It's a spin-off from the Father Brown TV series and is on the Drama Channel in the UK - I've seen the first couple of episodes and am not qu..."

Yes, we've been watching it Judy and feel much the same as you - not quite as good as Father Brown. But I am enjoying it even though it's got a different feel to it and doesn't really seem like much of a spin-off

A few weeks ago I noticed 12 friend requests had turned up in my notifications on Goodreads and some of them dated back to 2017! I had read of this glitch on the boards so didn't think much of it. But then I went to my friends list and discovered that instead of 131 friends as I had previously I now only had 7. I contacted Goodreads but only received a generic reply saying that they were aware of problems with friends and followers.

I don't usually use the Goodreads app but thought I would check it to see what was going on there, so downloaded it. Although it only shows 8 friends in my list, the home page included notifications from Goodreads friends from my 131 so hope was kindled. If I click on any of these people in the app it shows them as friends although it doesn't on the website. But if I look up a book it doesn't show friends reviews first on either the website or the app.

So I think all my Goodreads friends are still there somewhere and have some hope that they may eventually be restored. I thought I would post about this in the groups where I have Goodreads friends (so you may see this in another group as well) just in case you were wondering why we weren't friends any more. Has anyone else had this sort of thing happen, and did it resolve itself eventually? It's a bit like being out in the Goodreads wilderness. Sorry this is such a long post.