Tara ’s Comments (group member since Jul 12, 2017)

Tara ’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Michaela wrote: "As an Austrian who has read Stefan Zweig at school (and we all loved him!), I can highly recommend him!"

I have his book Marie-Antoinette. Has anyone read it?

Robin wrote: "Rosina wrote: "Robin wrote: "The snippets of romance in the detective novels are usually quite pleasant enough"

I find Christie's 'romances' in the detective stories are often quite unpleasant, wi..."

I haven't read them either, but I intend to eventually. From what I gather from reading some synopses, these aren't romances per se, but are very character driven. The Burden centers around a toxic sister relationship (which is has a pseudo mother-daughter dynamic.) Given how strong her character development is in some of her books (such as Sad Cypress and The Hollow), I'm optimistic.

Carolien wrote: "I'm reading Y is for Yesterday, the final instalment in the series. Not the best one of the lot, but I'm feeling nostalgic as I have been reading the series since the early 1990s. I..."

Definitely bittersweet Carolien. And I'm sad to think she came so close to completing the alphabet, but wasn't given that time.

I love any book that much more when Mrs. Oliver makes the scene, although my favorite thus far is still Mrs. McGinty's Dead. I was not a huge fan of the Suchet episode, but mainly because they make him so grumpy, it is unlikeable.
She published this the same year as The Burden (under pseudonym Mary Westmacott). Perhaps she was focused on that book, which made this one more perfunctory?

I have never quite understood the return of a person that people knew from years before, that somehow are now unrecognizable. Does this kind of thing really happen? Besides major physical transformations (such as significant weight loss or extensive plastic surgery), generally you can tell its the same person, despite superficial changes. I think it was elements like this, jammed in towards the end of the book, that caused me not to like this one as much as others.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Susan wrote: "The Widening Stain is not on kindle in the UK yet. It will be mid-month - but very expensive at over £12. Looks fun, but will have to see who the publisher is - is it expensive where ..."

TBH, I recently got a copy as part of a subscription I get from The Mysterious Bookshop, so I did not look at Kindle pricing. Maybe it will go down by October? If not, I understand if people don't want to pay that much to read it.

I would like to nominate The Widening Stain :

For the staff of the library at the center of The Widening Stain, it’s easy enough to dismiss the death of a woman who fell from a rolling ladder as nothing more than an unfortunate accident. It’s more difficult, however, to explain away the strangled corpse of a man found inside a locked room, surrounded by rare and obscure erotica. And that’s not all—a valuable manuscript has vanished from the stacks, which means that both a killer and a thief are loose in the facility’s hallowed halls. It’s up to chief cataloger Gilda Gorham to solve the crimes but, unless she’s careful, the next death in the library might just be her own...


A humorous and literary Golden Age mystery, The Widening Stain is adorned with as many playful limericks as it is with bibliographic details. The book, which offers a satirical glimpse of academic life at an institution strongly resembling Cornell University, is one of the most beloved bibliomysteries (mysteries involving books) of all time.

Judy wrote: "PS the book has faded in my mind surpisingly fast, as I gave it four stars! But I remember enjoying several of the stories, which involved Alleyn, and finding some of the others seemed a bit like f..."

Short stories are so hit or miss--and I find that mysteries are difficult in short form because there isn't a lot of time to build up your suspect list or red herrings. But as I already own the book (purchased at a book fair a year or so back), I'll be reading, as the completionist in me wouldn't let me do otherwise.

I really enjoyed this one, and I hope that the last book ends things on this level. While her writing has been uneven, there is enough good stuff there to have made reading these books over the last few years worth the time and effort. Any thoughts on also reading The Collected Short Fiction of Ngaio Marsh? I read one of the stories that was referenced in an earlier book and enjoyed it.
An interesting element in this book was that fact that for once, Alleyn operating in a foreign country, rather than giving free reign, was a big hinderance to how he could proceed in the investigation. He knew what to do, but didn't have the authority or resources to do so. It seemed fairly realistic in that regard.
Doesn't it seem like every fashionable person has a Troy? She does appear to be a household name, so bringing her to NZ, especially for someone to whom money is no object, would be a trifle.

I also did not pick up on the swearing, but I agree Lesley that as we get older, you change less, and become more out of sync with the modern time. Personally I don't want her books to be more modern, I enjoy them as they are.
I was a bit confused by the romance between Rupert and Sylvia. Were we to suppose that that had been going on awhile (despite Rupert only recently realizing how Bella was not who he supposed her to be?) Or did it just progress very quickly?
In retrospect, the killer seems a bit obvious. His icy cold demeanor was off-putting from the beginning, and explains why he would accept La Sommita as a trophy, but was okay with her sleeping with other men.

Susan in NC wrote: "Tara wrote: "Susan in NC wrote: "That’s what I wondered, did it matter if Valerie was Mrs. N’s daughter? Did I miss clues about this?"

The only clue I can remember was at some point Valerie was sa..."

I agree its a tenuous clue for sure, but its the only one I could think of that pointed in that direction. Another reasoning for including that element might also have been a motive for Valerie to turn on Nigel. Clearly she didn't feel too badly about him knocking off Celia, as she was totally okay with manipulating her into turning into a thief.

Susan in NC wrote: "That’s what I wondered, did it matter if Valerie was Mrs. N’s daughter? Did I miss clues about this?"

The only clue I can remember was at some point Valerie was saying nice things about Mrs. Nicoletis, and someone (maybe Poirot?) commented that she was fond of her. Valerie played it off as though it was because she had lived there a long time, and that Mrs. N was nicer before she started drinking (which probably had a grain of truth.) You would think she should would have felt more guilty about turning her mother into a nervous alcoholic and a murder victim, but she seemed rather unfazed for the most part. The only reason behind it that I can see would be 1. it explains why Mrs. N would have been her accomplice, and 2. its a reason why Valerie wouldn't have killed her.

Jessica wrote: "Every time I start a new one I think to myself: 'well this one cannot possibly be just as enjoyable as the previous one which surely must be my favorite'

Seems like there is a new favorite on the ..."

You just made me think about her name being Felicity, and how that doesn't seem to match her personality at all! Perhaps that is the point.

Just started Photo Finish for our July Marsh read, and its just delicious! All of her over-the-top characters on full parade. And we get to go to a remote island in New Zealand.

Miss Lemon is certainly the perfect secretary for Poirot, with his order and method proclivities. I particularly liked her in The Nemean Lion, from The Labor of Hercules.

I honestly could not keep track of all of the characters--she easily could have eliminated half of them and it would have been a better story. But I do love Miss Lemon! According to the All About Agatha podcast (which I would highly recommend), Christie initially considered having a retired Miss Lemon as the character working in the hostel, but I think it works better this way.

Jill wrote: "Tara wrote: "Susan wrote: "Free

The Dark Garden (book 16) Book 18, 19 and 21 in the series also free

[book:M..."

Awesome! I'll tentatively plan on joining in, because otherwise I might never get to them!

Susan wrote: "Free

The Dark Garden (book 16) Book 18, 19 and 21 in the series also free

Mystic Falls (book..."

Have we read any of the Punshon books in the group? I've picked up so many freebies, but haven't read them yet.

Leslie wrote: "I have been remiss in updating my mysteries here...

This month I have reread several: Sayers' The Five Red Herrings (4*) & Asimov's The Caves of Steel (4*) and [book:T..."

Quite the eclectic list Leslie. I'm interested to try the Asimov books.

Judy wrote: "Tara wrote: "I just picked up the British Library Crime Classics Foreign Bodies, which is a collection of mystery short stories from around the world, some of which were translated ..."

Its definitely a different grouping from other anthologies. So far I've read stories by Anton Chekhov (Russia), Palle Rosenkrantz (Denmark), and Balduin Groller (Hungary). Additional stories are from Mexico, Japan, and India, to name a few. Of course they can never be as good as they would be in the original language, but still cool to read about the mystery genre from so many different cultures.