Piyangie’s Comments (group member since May 03, 2020)

Piyangie’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

I started Rope’s End, Rogue’s End, but just couldn't get on with it. Now I'm reading Murder by Matchlight.

Pamela wrote: "I enjoyed this a lot, it was definitely one of James’ better books. I didn’t mind the ‘confession from culprit’ letter trope, it was just a bit too elaborate and long winded in its style (even for ..."

I didn't like the ending either, Pamela. Apprehending Venetia's murderer was important on two points. First to do justice to her of course, but also to do justice to all the rest of the victims. Had he not killed Venetia, the entire machination would have rolled differently.

I finished this a few days ago. It is the one I enjoyed the most in the series so far. I could never go for more than three stars for her books and was pleased that I could go one rate higher here.

I too didn't like everyone's low opinion of the two dead children. It was so cruel. They ought to have more consideration for the dead and their parents.

Judy wrote: "Piyangie, just in case you are not aware, this is the spoiler thread so you may prefer to post in the general thread until you finish if you are concerned about spoilers.

Glad you are enjoying it...."

Well, I thought since I was refering to the victim, I should post it here. Sorry. But no harm's done, I made it a point not to read the other comments here yet. :)

I've just started and am enjoying it so far. I have observed that in the preceding two novels and in this one, James makes her victims quite dislikable before she kills them off so that it makes it hard to sympathise with their deaths. It sounds terrible, I know, but it has been the effect with me so far!

I'm reading Death Came Softly at present. This is my third read of Lorac and enjoying it more than the previous two reads.

Susan wrote: "I think I prefer Fraser reading the Poirot books to David Suchet! As you say, he does an excellent imitation of the different voices; including Poirot."

The only book I listened to narrated by David Suchet is Dead Man's Folly, and I have to say that I prefer Hugh Fraser to him. Fraser does a very good job of voicing the different characters.

Tara wrote: "I love anything that Hugh Fraser narrates, but his rendition of Endless Night by Agatha Christie was particularly excellent. He gets the mood just right.
..."

Me too. I've been listening to his narrative on the Poirot series that reading them on my own is quite unthinkable! :)

Judy wrote: "It was mentioned in another group that it is also possible to pay for Audible annually and save money that way - in the UK this option is in the small print and is not promoted, but I think in the ..."

An annual subscription would be easy I think if you can get one. That's what I have for Scribd. But lately, there is an issue with the availability of audiobooks in Scribd. Some are available only for a day or two. I'm at present reading the Poirot series by Agatha Christie and Adam Dalgliesh series by P.D. James, and it is very disappointing to find that they are unavailable when you want to read them.

I too enjoy audiobooks very much. It's a very convenient way of reading while doing your day to day chores. In the beginning, I was a bit skeptical about them, but now, I can't do without them. :)

Susan wrote: "Hi Piyangie. I know this varies around the world, but, in the UK, you subscribe and you get either one audiobook, or two, each month. I get two books each month, however, if I use my credits, there..."

Thank you very much for taking the time to explain it all, Susan. I'll check out again and will seek help from them. It is really nice if I can have a two-book option a month instead of just one.

I want to register with Audible, but I'm a bit confused about how it works. I think I get one audiobook free for the month or something like that. But I don't understand how to listen to any more of my choosing.

I'm reading Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie. I have missed some in my Poirot journey and now carefully going through the list and catching up.

Just finished reading and thought that it was comparatively a good book in the series. I agree with the comments made about Daniel. He is first and foremost a police officer, not just a citizen. He owes to his job and to his oath to arrest a man who has committed three murders, whatever personal sympathy he may feel. He failed in his police duty.

I finished reading. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it towards the end. But there were certain lose ends I thought. Mr. Drake's death as Doris pointed out, and Mrs. Llewellyn-Smith's death was left unexplained. Their deaths were considered suspicious at some point, if I understood properly, and the doubt raised was not cleared.

Frances wrote: "This was one of my least favourite Poirot's so far-I felt there was too much strange Psychologizing, Mrs Oliver just started to grate on my nerves after a while with her inability to get to the poi..."

I too wondered where the two young men Donald and Nicholas appeared from? It must be Poirot's doing of of course, but it wasn't made clear. Were they the ones that passed Micheal's car when he was taking Miranda away?

This was my first Lorac, and I liked it. But there were some lose threads which weren't tied at the end, for example the fall of the buttler and the cause of the break failure.

Judy wrote: "The CrimeReads site has a great article today, 100 Years of the Mysterious Affair at Styles, with loads of book covers if you scroll down - some are great, some hilariously bad, particularly the on..."

Thanks for sharing the article, Judy. Many of those covers grossly misrepresent the story. Anyone bought the book going by the cover would have been very disappointed. 😊

This particularly Poirot novel seems a bit of a bore. I've read only about one-third of the book yet and nothing seriously happening except Poirot going on collecting background information. I'm also getting a bit of tired (I think Poirot is too) of everybody's harping that the murder was committed by a "psychologically affected" person.