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

Judy’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Thanks everyone! The poll is currently a draw, so please vote if you haven't yet done so!

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

I've been meaning to say that I quite enjoyed this one, and thought it was an interesting story, but thought some of the twists were too heavily signalled and the motivation of the villain wasn't very convincing.

I also think it's a bit of a cheat when the detective makes a list of possible suspects and just happens to miss somebody off - it's a fair bet that the character who has been missed out is the vilain! I do agree with you, Pamela, about Item Sims having a good name.

Susan in NC wrote: "I think I was thinking of Ariadne Oliver - I just reread Hallowe'en Party and watched the bbc version, and Zoe Wanamaker does a great job showing the author’s frustration with impertinent questions …..."

Oh yes, Zoe Wanamaker is wonderful! I suppose Christie must have been badgered in just that way herself at times over the years.

This has me wondering when book festivals and events started to be so important. I've just done a bit of Googling and I see that the Cheltenham Literary Festival is thought to be the world's oldest, having started in 1949.

Most of the authors I saw at the Ipswich festival had people asking them questions so they didn't just have to give a talk on their own, but even so, I agree it must be very different from writing!

A couple of them did talk about the time they spend doing talks, festivals and social media and how these are completely different skills from writing in a room on your own - I think C.L. Miller (Cara) talked about this.

Susan in NC, the talk about how Penguin books changed the world was very interesting, and there were some slides of wonderful book covers from over the years!

Susan wrote: "He was oddly unaware. I am almost tempted just to see where she goes with him. Would it be another suspect who carried the story?"

Good question! I may be tempted after all now, especially as I've just noticed that I own The Complete Detective Price Mysteries Books 1-5 which are currently 99p on Kindle - I must have picked them up a while ago, and also had a separate Kindle copy of just this first book! Looking at the comments on Amazon, quite a few readers don't care for D.I. Price.

OK, continued. Last week I went to the first Ipswich Book Festival - there were a *lot* of events at venues all over the town, so it was quite hard to know what to book.

I went along to talks by two crime writers. One was Vaseem Khan, whose book The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra we read a while ago. (He was probably my favourite of the weekend, very charming and witty.) The other one was C.L. Miller author of the series starting with The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder.

I also heard a talk by Coralie Bickford-Smith, who designed all the covers for the Clothbound Penguin Classics, and a talk about 'how Penguin books changed the world' by Henry Eliot, who has written a couple of books about the publisher's history.

Plus I also went and heard local author Jenny Knight, who is from my home area and has published a new novel, Wild Moon Rising. All the talks were great and I will hope to go to a lot more book events in the future.

Wow, that's a busy week, Susan. Good to hear you enjoyed it all. I haven't read much by Philippa Gregory but I know she has written lots of novels about the Tudors - I did read one by her about Elizabeth I, The Virgin's Lover, and didn't like the writing style, but maybe I was being grumpy! I hope you have a great time seeing Bob Mortimer and Richard Ayoade tonight.

I'll write a separate post about the Ipswich Book Festival so this doesn't get too long!

I'm also reading our forthcoming buddy read Gently By the Shore. I wish George Gently would stop eating peppermint creams!!

Sandy wrote: "I definitely recommend his series with the "real" Horowitz teamed up with a very private private eye...."

Thank you Sandy, I'll hope to try that series soon - I know Susan is a big fan too.

The ending of The House of Silk didn't quite live up to the rest of it for me, but I still want to read his other Holmes book, Moriarty

Wow, another Alison Weir title for 99p - thanks Susan! Her offers don't last long. I've snapped this one up after buying one about Henry VIII the other day and pre-ordering her short story The Cardinal's Daughter (couldn't resist that one after reading The Cardinal, her novel about Thomas Wolsey.) I just need the time to read them all...

I've nearly finished one of the two "official" Sherlock Holmes sequels by Anthony Horowitz, The House of Silk, and have really enjoyed it - I think he gets very close to the voice of the original stories, although I'm just editing to add that there is some disturbing subject matter.

I've been meaning to read it ever since it was published in 2011, it's only taken me 14 years! The only other books of his I've read are the three Magpie Murders books, which are great. I must read more by him.

Thank you for that, Susan, you've said it much better than I could. Let's move on from this discussion for now.

I suppose Edmund is suddenly transformed into a successful playwright, but that happens rather abruptly and doesn't altogether ring true!

Totally unrelated, just struck me that we have the nicknames Bunny and Bunch in this book, which could have been confusing!

Susan wrote: "Let's remember that these are stressful times, and let's not forget that what we are here for is to enjoy the joy of reading, which brings us together. All our members are welcome, regardless of nationality.."

Thank you, Susan, I agree that is just what we are here for. Times are very tough at the moment, so it is good for us to be able to come together from around the world to discuss books together. As you say, members from around the world are welcome. Let's help each other to enjoy reading and support one another through our group.

I enjoyed the cat in this, but find his long name impossible to remember! I think from the descriptions Christie must have liked cats.

Ooh yes, sounds very interesting. Thanks Susan!

P.S. I'm wondering if the dish 'Death by Chocolate' was invented before or after this book?

Just finished my reread, and I didn't remember whodunnit after all! I did remember that Philippa was Pip - then again, a relation of mine is called Philippa and known as Pip for short, so that was a giveaway!

I think last time around I knocked a star off because Miss Marple doesn't come in enough for my liking, and also there are such a lot of people in disguise! But this time around I couldn't resist giving 5 stars because it is just so cleverly plotted and so enjoyable.

I do agree that people are very unkind to Mitzi. Glad to see that she comes across as an indomitable character despite it all.

And the poll is up... sorry, I meant to put this up at the weekend but got distracted by going to a book festival! ;)
Please vote for your preferred choice.

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

That's good to hear, Carol!