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

Judy’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Yes, of course, nothing is set in stone!

Thank you very much, Susan, that all looks good.

Hi Numi, welcome to the group. We have lots of Christie fans here :)

It's time to nominate for our July group read! We have a change this month, as we're now allowing books which were either written in the Golden Age, or a little earlier or later, or are set in that period (ie historicals set in the GA are now OK to nominate.) If in doubt whether a title is eligible, just ask.

Only one nomination per group member, and only one book by any individual writer, can be nominated per month, and authors can't nominate their own books. If you aren't sure whether we have read something, the group bookshelves may help, or just ask. If it was at least 3 years ago that we read it, it is fine to re-nominate.

Thanks for letting us know about Peter Lovesey, Jan. That's sad news.

Thank you for the info about the podcast, Susan, I will give it a listen!

Looking forward to rereading this one.

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

Thank you for opening up the threads, Susan. I read this a few years ago and remember enjoying it, but don't remember much else about it.

I've enjoyed other books by this author since, and am looking forward to a reread. Who is joining in on this one?

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

I use both my phone and laptop but agree the app isn't much use! A little while ago, I did find the app kept asking me to sign in, but I was actually signed in already and could get to the groups etc without doing so.

That's interesting that he hasn't changed much, thanks, Sandy. I haven't stayed with this series but am interested to hear about the short stories revisiting young Bobby - I'm tempted to give those a look.

Thank you, Susan! Looking forward to the new discussions.

Frances, that's an interesting question about the killer. Given just how cold-blooded she is, I do think it's worth stopping her, as she might kill anyone else who gets in her way - plus the fact that she deserves justice. I do wonder if it might be possible for her to be arrested earlier in the story though, to stop the further deaths. Wouldn't there be anything she has definitely done that she could be held for?

Thanks for mentioning that episode of Shedunnit about gay-coding in GA mysteries, which I remember being very interesting. As you say, I think Peter is definitely supposed to be irresistible to women in general, something which becomes more the case as the series goes on!

Susan in NC wrote: "I loved meeting Miss Climpson, and seeing the results of her investigative efforts-she reminded me of Miss Marple, playing the “invisible spinster” role to gather information...."

Definitely, Miss Climpson is a great character! I was just wondering who came first out of her and Miss Marple and it seems as if they both appeared at almost exactly the same time - Unnatural Death was first published in 1927 and the first Miss Marple short story was published in December the same year, with a few more appearing in 1928.

Christie had already created a similar character, Caroline, in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, published in 1926, which we're just about to read for our latest challenge. Maybe there was just something in the air at that time as regards older 'spinsters' in detective stories. Patricia Wentworth brought out her first Miss Silver novel in 1928 so all very similar timing, and they must have all been working on these characters at once.

Will do, Susan, thank you.

Thank you Susan! Lots of good books coming up.

I've just noticed that the next Michael Innes book, The Long Farewell, is listed twice, in July and November - I think this is my fault because I moved this series around a while back to get rid of short story collections!

I'm actually wondering if it's worth carrying on with Innes at the moment as I think I was the only person who posted on the previous title. Please could anyone who wants to carry on with them post to say so? Otherwise perhaps we should pause those reads for now.

Jackie, I hope you enjoy the Carmichael versions, - I like him although I must agree that he is too old for the part. Jan, I'm impressed that you've read this seven times!

I've think I've read it at least twice in the past - I'm about halfway and am enjoying it a lot so far. I definitely wouldn't fancy having a lift with Wimsey, though - his driving sounds terrifying, even though it's played for laughs!

Ah ha, I see! Sorry, Sandy - I hope you are soon top of the list for St Cyr then. I haven't tried that series but have heard good things about it.

Hope you get to the top of the wait list for The Life of Crime soon, Sandy! It's a lot of fun.

Reading The Night of Fear at Christmas sounds good to me, Susan! Thank you for suggesting it. I have read it in the past and gave it 4 stars, but don't remember much about it now.

Shaina, thank you for the kind words and for the recommendations of more BLCC books - they certainly do issue a lot of goodies. I like the mix of familiar and less familiar names, even though I'd love to see them bring out a lot more by Lorac!

Sandy wrote: "If you got to the end of the book you would know why you don't hear about the plant now. ..."

Ah ha, I had a peep and I see what you mean!