Judy’s Comments (group member since Oct 01, 2015)

Judy’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

We haven't read Death on the Oxford Road, Jan - I don't think there are many copies around. In the UK it's not on Kindle and there's a paperback on Amazon for £108! Anyway hope you enjoy it, I'll be interested to hear what you think.

I'm reading 2 of our forthcoming buddy reads, The Corpse in Oozak's Pond and White Nights - they are very different so I shouldn't mix them up. I was nearly halfway through Oozak's, then realised White Nights is due back at the library soon!

Ah that makes sense, thanks Sandy.

I think I've read that it was a sort of insurance policy for her family - she wrote a Poirot and a Marple book during WW2 and kept them unpublished so her husband and daughter could publish them if she died. I'm not sure of the details though.

Good news that you're joining in, Frances, and no worries, Sandy - the reading order is a bit confusing because of this book being stored in a vault for 30 years...

I think Stephanie Cole does a brilliant job, Susan - will be interested to hear if you agree.

Susan, I thought it feels like a bit of a latter-day country house mystery, with the house having been converted into flats!

Sandy wrote: "I am halfway through and not finding it as interesting as the other Griffith's I have read. Like Judy I find Max more interesting than Edgar."

Sorry you aren't liking it as much, I actually preferred this to the earlier two because it is a bit lighter in tone. I haven't read any of her other crime books apart from this series, but may try them.

I was interested in a note at the end where the author says she wrote a story about Edgar when she was a child - so he's obviously a character she has been thinking about for many years, but he does seem rather bland compared to Max!

I've just opened up the discussions on our new monthly read, Calamity at Harwood by George Bellairs and our challenge read, Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie. Please pop by and join in!

Hope you enjoy the 'queens', Saba -I think they are all great. I think Sayers is my favourite too although I love the early Allinghams.

Many thanks to Susan for posting the introductions to our new month's books. The introduction above is very useful in explaining why this book comes earlier in the series than its publication date suggests!

Who is reading this one? I really enjoyed it - one of my favourites by Christie.

The spoiler thread is linked below:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Just opening up our new month's reads a day early as I'll be away tomorrow without computer access (though I should be around on my phone).

Who is reading this one? I found it quite entertaining and enjoyed the character of Littlejohn, although I had some issues with the plot, but I'll talk about those in the spoiler thread.

Spoiler thread linked below:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I've just finished a John Bude book published by British Library with 2 novels in it.

I thought the first one, Death in White Pyjamas, was very slow and became a bit of a chore to read, but I really enjoyed the second novel, Death Knows No Calendar. That one has an entertaining detective, Major Boddy - I think he is a one-off, which is a shame as he's a great character.

Good to hear that your friend says the series gets better, Carolien. Also good point about the police working well together.

Interesting selection of books, Sandy - I'm also wary of getting sucked into too many series at the moment! I'd like to get on better with a couple of those I'm reading.

Susan in NC wrote: "I’ve got the same audiobook of Sleeping Murder from my library-I love Hugh Fraser also, but Stephanie Cole is pretty good!..."

I decided she's fantastic - I ended up listening to it almost like a radio play! I'll watch out for anything else she narrates.

I finished Calamity at Harwood, which I found enjoyable though far-fetched - looking forward to our discussion.

I'm now nearly halfway through the audio version of our next challenge read, Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie - enjoying it a lot. Stephanie Cole narrates and I think she does a great job, even though I was hoping for Hugh Fraser! So far I haven't remembered the solution from my previous read, so hoping that continues to be the case.

I've also just read the first mystery in the British Library Crime Classics book Death in White Pyjamas / Death Knows No Calendar, which has been waiting on my shelf for years! I found Death in White Pyjamas a fairly good read with some interesting characters, but very slow, which has also been the case with one or two others by John Bude that I've read. Anyway, I'll hope to read the second mystery before too long.

I thought the atmosphere of 1930s Berlin seemed convincing, with all the fear and distrust and the shortages of just about everything.

However, I found the book a bit slow and hard to follow, jumping between so many characters and storylines. I also thought at times the author followed Raymond Chandler's writing style so closely that it became slightly distracting. (To be fair, Chandler's plots are also hard to follow, for me anyway!)

Something I did think worked really well was the disappearance of Gunther's new assistant/lover, Inge, at the end, where he can't find out anything and she has just vanished without trace - this seems all too true to the period and makes a good contrast with how he has managed to solve the main mysteries of the novel.

Hope it transits through to you soon, Sandy!

That's very true about war overshadowing the novel, Susan, and thank you for mentioning Mrs Dalloway. I remember the character of Septimus Smith, whose life has been wrecked by WWI. I hadn't realised it was the 100th anniversary of the novel, very interesting.