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

Tara ’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Frances wrote: "I'd like to nominate Family Matters, republished in the British Library Crime Classics series. The Goodreads blurb says

Robert Arthur Kewdingham is an eccentric failure of a man. I..."

I just recommended this book for another group of mine Frances. So many excellent options for this round, it will be very hard to choose!

Susan in NC wrote: "Tara wrote: "Precocious children often have a tendency of being obnoxious, and if not well-written, are far more like adults in little bodies than intelligent yet immature young people. Josephine i..."

Absolutely Susan, although Sophie seemed to have a constitution that could handle her.

Thom wrote: "Kellie wrote: "Thanks for the research, Judy. Things like that make me wonder, but I hate interrupting my reading to look things up and then by the time I'm done reading I forgotten that I had a qu..."

Luckily neither of you turned into killers (hopefully) ;)

Thom wrote: "Rosina wrote: "I have now finished my re-listen, and confirmed my memory of a piece of nastiness that worries me, as clearly being intended as a good option, to protect the reputation of the Leonid..."

Endless Night is one of my absolute favorites of Christie. I was so shocked by the ending, I had to rewind, to make sure I heard it correctly. I'm excited the group will be reading it as part of this year's challenge. Such great atmosphere too.
Unlike our discussion on the thread for (view spoiler)[Taken at the Flood (hide spoiler)], I feel as though Leonides didn't spoil his children out of a desire to manipulate them, although he very clearly did enjoy being in control.
Josephine doesn't quite fit the mold of evil child to me. Very much a psychopath, but she had a clearly defined motive for the crime, albeit one that makes sense only in a child's mind. Goodness knows people in the real world have been killed for a lot less.

Precocious children often have a tendency of being obnoxious, and if not well-written, are far more like adults in little bodies than intelligent yet immature young people. Josephine is written just right to me, along with the other characters in this book.
I love the scene where Sophia is stage directing her mother's performance for the police by subtly shifting a painting. Just terrific.

Ugh, 2 books I own and am keen to read. How to choose?!

Jan C wrote: "Started Dead Man Inside, the 2nd Walter Ghost story, by Vincent Starrett. Takes place in Chicago (the first story took place on a ship). Starts pretty good. Guy goes ..."

That sounds really interesting Jan. I would have thought that was a gag too. I read another mystery by Starrett, The Great Hotel Murder which was good if not great.

I think there is an element of fantasy to these books. In reality, someone traveling to a foreign country with no money and no plans, particularly a single young woman, would probably end up on the wrong end of things. The idea of finding love, adventure and exotic travel, particularly on whim, has its appeal, especially for those stuck in the doldrums of a hand to mouth existence. Considering how clever Christie was, and how well she seemed to understand human nature, I don't think she ever intended these thrillers to be realistic.

I'm so sorry for your loss Gary. Your father sounds like he was a wonderful man, and that he will be missed.

Michaela wrote: "I liked Victoria too, but otherwise the plot was rather odd, and I´m no fan of the thriller Christies either."

I wouldn't bother reading them if they were written by anyone other than Christie. But if you're willing and able to turn your critical reasoning skills off for a bit, they can be fun.

I enjoyed the fact that Victoria is presented as a flawed person, compulsive liar, subpar typist, but can still be the heroine of the story. I must be honest, I did not suspect Edward until he seemed completely unfazed by her disappearance. Either he was a complete idiot, or something was up. But I supposed the former, since the formula is for the young couple to end up together at the end. With regard to the believability of Victoria falling for Edward and following him to Baghdad: to what extent did they surveil/research about her beforehand? It really was not out of character for her given her impulsive nature.

Well I felt as though there were some similarities to The Man in the Brown Suit and Passenger to Frankfurt, it was fresh and original enough to still be enjoyable. I also appreciated the growth of Victoria throughout the book, as her experiences forced her to mature in order to survive. I hadn't thought about the similarities of the male characters to her husbands, but that does seem like an intriguing thought.

Listening to an audiobook version of The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books by Edward Wilson-Lee. Its the story of the library collection built by Hernando Colon, an illegitimate son of Christopher Columbus.

Just started They Came to Baghdad for the assorted Christie challenge. I generally don't like the thrillers that much, but this one is starting off strong.

Frances wrote: "Tara wrote: "It seemed odd that the "uncle" left all of the money to Rosemary and none to Iris. While neither necessarily deserved the money since they weren't blood relatives, so it wouldn't be fa..."

Thats a good point Frances, I hadn't considered that with the gender reversal. Although Rosemary seemed way too flaky to be a good "heir" to an estate.

It can be tough when an author has such a reputation, where you come in with big expectations. But so far, I can see what the hype is all about.

Enjoying my first foray into Wodehouse with Leave It to Psmith. I can see why his books are so popular--really funny.

Just started The Sanctuary Sparrow by Ellis Peters. I always enjoy my time in Shrewsbury.

I read it as more of a reflection of Rosemary's power over men, as just about every other male character in the book falls in love with her, but that could be another explanation too.

It seemed odd that the "uncle" left all of the money to Rosemary and none to Iris. While neither necessarily deserved the money since they weren't blood relatives, so it wouldn't be fair to expect anything, unless he had a particular dislike for Iris, why not leave her at least a small percentage? It seems like there was enough to go around.