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

Judy’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Good to hear a few of us are reading this! I'll be interested to hear what people think.

I've just finished this, after finding it a fun and exciting read. I've read quite a few GA novels set at a seaside hotel or boarding house, but this one has a different feel to it because of being set in war time. It feels up to the minute, with mentions of Dunkirk, which was very recent.

I've read about 2/3 now - in this last book, it's interesting to get a closer-up view of the Stephen/Maud conflict, with Empress Maud as a character, after it has been quite distant through the rest of the series.

And the winner is... One by One They Disappeared by Moray Dalton, which will be our May group read.

Full results:
One by One They Disappeared 6 votes, 42.9%
To Love and Be Wise (Inspector Alan Grant, #4) 4 votes, 28.6%
Murder While You Work 3 votes, 21.4%
The Missing Link: A Golden Age Murder Mystery 1 vote, 7.1%

Just a reminder that our new buddy reads are now open for discussion, please take a look!

Who's reading this one? Fun to get back to Tommy and Tuppence, and interesting that they have aged in real time, unlike Poirot and Miss Marple who stay the same age!

I've started, not very far in as yet but enjoying it so far.

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

Who is reading this one? I'd say it's more of a thriller than a mystery, as with many of the Innes books - I found this one a compelling read.

Must say I think the original title, Appleby Plays Chicken, is far more memorable - I keep forgetting the Death on a Quiet Day title!

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

Who is reading this one? I enjoyed getting back to Edgar and Max, although some of the subject matter is quite grim.

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

Thanks to Susan for opening up our new buddy threads. Who is reading this one? I'm under way with it but slightly struggling to keep track of all the characters!

Sorry, didn't explain that comment properly - I'm on my phone! Meant to say good to hear that the play Witness for the Prosecution was good.

Oh good! I think that one would be hard to mess up!

Susan, I'm also bewildered as to who these dark and dull Christie adaptations are aimed at - they definitely don't do it for me.

Our May group read poll is currently tied - please vote if you haven't done yet!

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...

It's a tie at the moment, please vote if you haven't done yet!

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...

I don't think the TV Towards Zero is much good, having watched 2 of the 3 episodes so far. It's very slow and dark, with loads of (in my opinion) unnecessary changes to the book and extra characters, when the book already has lots of them to keep track of. I must stop watching new Christie adaptations!

I'm also reading Brother Cadfael's Penance - the last in the series!

Sandy wrote: "I wonder if one of Christie's reasons for dropping Hasting so soon was that she could then include scenes where neither H nor P were present. Having a first-person narrator is limiting...."

Great point, it is limiting even though I do enjoy first-person narrators and Hastings is a lot of fun. This isn't one of my favourites either, but I enjoyed it more on second reading for some reason - maybe I've mellowed.

The poll is now open - please vote for your preferred choice!

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...

Susan wrote: "Lost the link of the book with no cover sorry - Between Two Worlds if any librarians can give the poor book a cover that would be good."

I've done that now, hopefully - there were other editions with the cover, but weirdly the first edition in the list didn't have one!

I'm reading Towards Zero by Agatha Christie, after watching the first part of the new TV adaptation and finding it a bit confusing. I'm enjoying the book - I will finish it and then watch the rest of the TV version.