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

Judy’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

I went to a talk today by author Vaseem Khan, who was great - a really entertaining speaker.

He mentioned during his talk that he thinks a lot of people really like either Poirot or Miss Marple and aren't so keen on the other one, and for him it's Poirot.

As we have this challenge going on, this has me wondering... which character is everyone's favourite? I really like them both. I used to prefer Miss Marple, but now Poirot has grown on me and might just have edged ahead!

Sandy wrote: "I am 'almost' tempted to continue the series just to see if the author continues with the unlikeable and inept detective. But probably not...."

I might read more by her but would probably prioritise reading any books by her that don't feature Ron Price!

Thank you so much for planning the challenge, Susan. Looks great!

Last call for nominations before the poll goes up this weekend.

So far we have:

Susan: Murder After Christmas by Rupert Latimer

Sandy: The Caxton Manor Murders : Book 1 Alexander Wolfe Series by Karen Baugh Menuhin

Susan in NC: The Case of the Headless Jesuit by George Bellairs

Jackie: Envious Casca aka A Christmas Party by Georgette Heyer

Thanks Jackie! I've just checked and we last read Envious Casca by Georgette Heyer in 2023. We usually say 3 years between reads of the same book, but I'm happy to be a bit flexible as it's a Christmassy title, and it was about 2 1/2 years ago!

In the UK, there are Kindle and paperback editions under the alternative title A Christmas Party - so confusing when the original title is really well known!

I've started rereading this and am enjoying it a lot - I *think* I remember whodunit, but I'll wait to watch the wonderful Joan Hickson version until I've finished. Good to hear that it doesn't mess with the plot, Susan and Jackie!

I found this book quite slow to get going and pretty uneven overall, but in the second half I thought the plot was exciting and cleverly worked out - the second murder came as a total shock.

I was surprised to see that this book was chosen for the Green Penguin series, but then saw there were a couple of great twists later on, which I think must be the reason why it was chosen.

I was also pleased that Bunny turns detective in this part of the book, and pretty much solves the crime, as she is a much more appealing character than Ron Price. There is a lot of snobbishness in this book, with most of the characters looking down on someone else, but Bunny seems to do it less than most of the others. Her husband, Sir Charles, is awful and seems to think he has done her a huge favour by marrying her because she is half-French.

I finished this now and had mixed feelings - I found it a struggle to start with, but then really enjoyed the second half, as the plot got more exciting!

Susan, I think you're right about Price being a satirical portrait of someone supporting the post-War Labour government. There seems to be a lot of satire aimed at most of the characters, but I'm not sure it works to have such an unappealing detective, although he is certainly interesting.

I'll be over to the spoiler thread soon!

Thank you, Susan, The Case of the Headless Jesuit is £4.66 on Kindle in the UK so it's fine to nominate and sounds very interesting, with the New Year's setting.

Sandy's nomination, The Caxton Manor Murders : Book 1 Alexander Wolfe Series, is £3.99 on Kindle and also on Kindle Unlimited in the UK. I remember enjoying a previous book we read here by the same author, Karen Baugh Menuhin. That was in a different series.

Susan's nomination, Murder After Christmas, is also on KU (£2.99).

All three of our nominations look very festive and would be great choices! Does anyone have any more to suggest?

Yes, I think the detective is supposed to be awful - there's quite a bit of humour at his expense. I'm wondering if he will even be the one who solves the case!

Susan, thank you for the suggestion, but we already have a Christie book, They Do It With Mirrors as our challenge read in December (Miss Marple rather than Poirot!) and we will be carrying on with the challenge next year, so please could you pick something else to nominate? Sorry about that.

It's funny, but this evening I've started getting into this book after struggling earlier. I am enjoying the unusual writing style now that I've got used to it, but it's not what I would have expected from a murder mystery!

I'm up to a section about riding, which is obviously something she knew very well, and it's very convincing. I feel as if some of it is almost stream-of consciousness, with the long paragraphs and characters who are just briefly glimpsed.

It's time to nominate for our December group read. Please nominate books which were either written in the Golden Age, or a little earlier or later, or are set in that period. If in doubt whether a title is eligible, just ask. It can be Christmassy if you like but doesn't have to be - we do already have a Christmas-themed buddy read coming up in mid-December, The Night of Fear by Moray Dalton).

Usual rules apply. Only one nomination per group member. 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's fine to re-nominate. Happy nominating!

I haven't started this one yet but am looking forward to my reread. Thanks for opening up the threads, Susan.

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

Susan in NC wrote: "Sorry, I tried this one, just didn’t like the inspector and couldn’t get into it - DNF for me."

Sorry to hear that, Susan. I'm about halfway through and finding it a bit of a struggle, slightly wondering if it was intended as a spoof! There are so many characters that it's hard to keep track of them all, and she also seems to believe in very long paragraphs.

I nominated this one after remembering that another one by her went down well, but I think that was from a different series.

Thank you for opening the threads, Susan. Who is reading this one? Just adding the spoiler thread link:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I've started our next group read, Murder Included by Joanna Cannan - interesting to see that horses feature in this, since she also wrote pony books, as did her daughters, the Pullein-Thompson sisters!

We tried the first two in the Jack Haldean series by Dolores Gordon-Smith as part of our challenge last year. The first 4 books are now available on Kindle as a box set for 99p, The Complete Jack Haldean Murder Mysteries: Books 1-4, although the "complete" title is very misleading as there are 11 books in the series!

Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "There is a similar spam in the Librarians Group, saying they have a suggestion for the Book Club??? & the poster doesn't appear to be the author...."

Oh dear, how strange. There are a lot of odd posts on GR one way and another. But anyway, we've had some good book suggestions in this thread :)

I liked that one, Klowey, Murder at Monk's Barn by Cecil Waye, though I don't remember all that much about it now.