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

Judy’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Sandy wrote: "Neer wrote: "I have one. The First Time He Died by Ethel Lina White. First published in 1935, the book is available for free download @ Project Gutenberg Australia."

In US: $6 for Kindle..."

I think I just found an edition on US Amazon for $1.99 as well as the $6 one:
https://www.amazon.com/First-Time-He-...

It has a strange description but looks to be the same book from a look inside!

Thanks, Neer! The First Time He Died is also available in cheap Kindle editions on both UK and US Amazon websites.

I know Susan has already mentioned this in another thread, but just thought I'd repeat it! The Shedunnit podcast had a recent episode about The Mysterious Affair at Styles as part of its 'Green Penguin Book Club' series, where Caroline Crampton is looking at all the books originally published under the imprint. I'm just about to listen to this after finishing my reread!

Here's a link to the episode:
https://shedunnitshow.com/themysterio...

Nominations so far:

Susan in NC: Crook o' Lune by E.C.R. Lorac

Susan: Bloody Instructions: An Antony Maitland Mystery by Sara Woods

Jan: Murder Jigsaw by E. Radford

Does anyone have any more nominations to add before the poll goes up tomorrow?

Good to hear you are both joining in, Marcus and Franky - hope you enjoy it. I'm sure you will!

I've just finished this - switched from audio to Kindle halfway as I was impatient to get to the solution. I really enjoyed it and didn't remember the full solution from previous readings/watchings, although I did remember one of the culprits.

I also enjoyed the humour in this - the passage you posted was a highlight for me too, Carol, and I also laughed at the bit where Hastings wrongly deduces that Mary Cavendish may be secretly in love with Hastings himself!

Thank you for the nomination, Jan - Murder Jigsaw is available in the UK too, £2.99 on Kindle here.

That little lot should keep you busy for a day or two, Sandy! Hope you and Susan both enjoy Dead Men Don't Ski.

Susan in NC wrote: "maybe Christie felt he was too much like Watson to Sherlock?..."

I'm just over halfway through and so far, while Poirot is clearly Poirot, he is also reminding me a bit of Holmes at times, when he suddenly deduces something surprising, or picks up something from the floor to analyse! I don't think he is quite so keen on picking up specimens later on in the series?

I think Christie also possibly pays a tribute to Conan Doyle by having Hastings being invalided out of the forces, like Watson in the first Holmes story - but Hastings is much more comic, for instance with all his comments about how poor old Poirot is past it!

I've started reading Dead Men Don't Ski by Patricia Moyes, which is the first in her Inspector Henry Tibbett series and was first published in 1959. Enjoying it so far, as the inspector and his wife Emmy set off for a skiing holiday in the Italian Alps, with a varied group of people at their hotel.

I decided to try a book by Moyes after enjoying a short story by her in the British Library anthology Who Killed Father Christmas?: And Other Seasonal Mysteries.

We now have two confirmed nominations so far:

Susan in NC: Crook o' Lune by E.C.R. Lorac

Susan: Bloody Instructions: An Antony Maitland Mystery by Sara Woods

Thank you, Susan and Susan! :)

Thank you Susan, that sounds great - I do enjoy mysteries featuring characters such as a "temperamental Shakespearean actor!")

Lady Susan seems awful at the start, bullying Millicent, but is great later in the book. I wonder if Berkeley started to like the character more as he got further into writing the book.

I found it quite entertaining, especially Stephen and Bridger at the start, and Stephen's disastrous attempts to be a footman! I was sorry not to see more of Bridger and pleased he helps to solve the case.

But I must agree the mystery plot didn't really hang together, maybe because of the competition element, as you say, Susan.
I also thought they should have called the police much earlier on.

Looks like Bloody Instructions is available in the US for $3.99 on Kindle and Midsummer Murder is also available for $4.99, Susan. Which one would you prefer to nominate?

Thanks, Susan in NC - Crook o'Lune is £2.99 on Kindle and also on Kindle Unlimited in the UK, so that nomination looks fine!

Susan had previously nominated Murder as a Fine Art, published under the Carol Carnac name, but withdrew it because it looks like it won't be available in time in the US. Hopefully we can get to it soon though.

Frances wrote: "I'd like to nominate Family Matters, first published in 1933 and rereleased by BLCC in 2017. ..."

Thank you Frances! Sounds great but the only US ebook I can see is $16.60 which seems a bit pricey - can anyone in the US confirm whether there are other editions as well?

Sorry, we continue to have issues with availability of books on both sides of the Atlantic!

Thanks Susan - did you want to nominate something else?

I've never read Curtain, Frances - but there are lots of Poirots that I haven't read yet, so it may be a while longer until I get to it!

I've started listening to the Audible version read by Hugh Fraser, who does a great job as usual. I'm amused by Hastings' comments early on on how good he is at deducing things - immediately followed by him deducing something all wrong!