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

Judy’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

News of a couple of TV/film adaptations. I've just seen a story in the Guardian that three of the four leads have been cast for the film of The Thursday Murder Club - they are Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren and Ben Kingsley.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024...

Also, the TV series based on the Shardlake books will be available on Disney+ from Wednesday next week in the UK, according to Radio Times. The stars are Arthur Hughes as Shardlake, Anthony Boyle as Jack Barak (they've obviously decided against including Mark from the book and brought Barak in early instead), and Sean Bean as Thomas Cromwell. It's a four-part series based on the first book, Dissolution. I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

I've just checked the Mrs Pargeter series and looks like there are 9 books altogether (so far, as Simon Brett is a prolific writer!) They are the 8 in the box set that some of us own and a 9th book, Mrs Pargeter's Patio, which was published in 2023.

Susan, I don't think Dean Street Press will be closing down after all. Its founder sadly died suddenly, but his sister has taken over running it, all their titles are still available, and she is very dedicated, running active social media feeds etc. I think from a post she put up a while ago that she may start publishing new titles again once her brother's estate is sorted out.

A post has been removed in case it causes offence, in line with our group rules. Thanks everyone.

Susan in NC wrote: "Judy wrote: "P.S. For anyone who listened to it on Audible, did you think the narrator gave the game away by making the bad guy sound too evil?... I didn’t think so, he just had a typical American accent for someone who did that kind of work..."

Thanks Susan! I remember thinking he sounded somehow evil, which I don't think was to do with his accent, more his tone of voice, if that makes sense. But anyway I enjoyed this book more when reading it on Kindle, although I liked Rest You Merry on audio - not sure why!

P.S. For anyone who listened to it on Audible, did you think the narrator gave the game away by making the bad guy sound too evil? I thought that when I listened to it first time around - this time I read it on Kindle, but sadly remembered whodunit, although I often manage to forget the villains when rereading.

Yes I thought there was more humour in the first book with all the crazy Christmas lights and decorations - Shandy has calmed down a bit in this one now that he is happy with Helen! I've read the first two books twice now, so am looking forward to reading further in the series and finding out what happens next.

One improvement in this book was that we didn't have all the women on campus making advances to Peter, now that he is a married man!

We've slipped the next Mrs Pargeter book in for May-June as many of us probably have the Kindle book with several of them - but the threads will stay open for anyone who prefers to read it a little later. :)

Lots of good ideas! Jill, the first Tommy and Tuppence is scheduled for July.

Shall we do the second Mrs Pargeter soon as that was popular, and if we get through those soon we could then get on to the Fethering books, also by Simon Brett? The Pargeters are very quick reads, judging by the first book.

I'd also like to do the next Charlotte MacLeod Shandy book if there's enough interest, but am happy to read them on my own if not.

I've started this now and am enjoying it so far - not very far in as yet. My only gripe is that I ordered a paperback from Amazon, who seemed to be the only people with copies, and discovered why when they sent me a print on demand copy with a slight fuzziness to it. Ah well, at least I've got it.

Sandy wrote: "So much easier decision when it is the first book you don't particularly like...."

Very true! It's sometimes quite hard to give up on a series when you're, say, 10 books or more in and they're not living up to the early ones... you just keep hoping.

I'm about two thirds of the way through now and agree with you, Susan, about it having a comfort read feel to it. Must be interesting for you after working at a college.

I was amused to find that this book features a pig-napping after just reading a P.G. Wodehouse book with a similar plot element - and even more amused when one of the characters in this one says it's just like Wodehouse!

I've read Daggers at the Country Fair by Catherine Coles, the second book in the Martha Miller series, set in the 1940s. It was a quick, light read but I didn't think it was as good as the first in the series. I expect I'll still read the third book though.

I've just had a look and the complete Crispin short stories are now available in a new edition, ‘We Know You’re Busy Writing…’: The Collected Short Stories of Edmund Crispin, published last September in the UK.

This contains all 46 Crispin short stories (I'm not sure how many are about Fen), including the recently rediscovered Gervase Fen novella The Hours of Darkness, but it's £9.99 on Kindle, very expensive for a Kindle book, and indeed a few pence more than the paperback version! Worth watching out for offers.

Alternatively there are two earlier collections, as Susan mentioned in a previous post. We could always choose a few specific stories?

And the winner is... Murder in Blue by Clifford Witting, which will be our June group read.

Full results:

Murder in Blue 6 votes, 42.9%
This Delicate Murder: A Golden Age Mystery 4 votes, 28.6%
The Belfry Murder 2 votes, 14.3%
The Blind Side 2 votes, 14.3%

Just adding a link to the spoiler thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I was surprised to find that this isn't on Kindle, in the UK anyway, so I've ordered a paperback which should be with me soon. Looking forward to meeting Jonathan and Flavia again.

I don't think you're missing much, Rosina. I had to force myself to finish this one.

For anyone who wants a better Fen story, there's a previously unpublished novella, The Hours of Darkness (written in 1948), which I think is about 100 pages long, in the anthology Bodies from the Library 2: Forgotten Stories of Mystery and Suspense by the Queens of Crime and other Masters of Golden Age Detection. I really enjoyed it and Fen's wife actually makes a brief appearance in this one! I believe this story has now also now been published in a Crispin short story collection.

Hi Abigail, yes, I think he must have felt he had written too many of those themes by now. He makes the grumpy fictional composer someone who keeps writing for horror films, but it's clear that he's inspired by his own experience.