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

Judy’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Ooops, sorry everyone! It slipped my mind that today was the start of February. My excuse is that I've got a stinking cold, but anyway apologies.

Many thanks to Susan for setting up all the threads. Who is reading this one?
The spoiler thread is linked below:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I've started this now and must agree that it is excellent - hard to tear myself away to do some work! The foggy atmosphere is wonderfully done.

Audible and Spotify both seem to have titles that the other doesn't have. With Spotify you can listen to up to 15 hours of audiobooks "free" with a music subscription, though not all the books on the platform are included in this. As my husband has a music subscription and doesn't listen to audiobooks, it's a nice bonus for me!

Sandy wrote: "Without 'spending' a valuable credit on Audible, I am limited to the ebook. Oh well...."

Sandy, the British Library edition of The Theft of the Iron Dogs: A Lancashire Mystery version is also on Kindle in the UK for £2.99. It's quite a recent release though so I don't know if it is out in the US yet.

I'm actually listening to the audiobook on Spotify - a bit weird as they have miscategorised it as an album, with more than 100 tiny tracks, which had me doing a double take, but that's not a problem as they play straight after one another! ;)

Judy wrote: "Susan in NC wrote: Also startedMurderer's Mistake Murderer's Mistake (Robert Macdonald #28) by E.C.R. Lorac by E.C.R. Lorac, one of my favorite GA authors, for our February read. Also have the audiobook under the original title, The Theft of the Iron Dogs A Lancashire Mystery by E.C.R. Lorac . Really enjoying this one, she rarely disappoints! Interesting, finding my ebook seems to be missing text I’m hearing in the audiobook, even though the ebook doesn’t say anything about being abridged...."

Susan, thank you again so much for mentioning this! I've started listening to the audiobook under the original title, and I see what you mean - judging by the opening section where I compared the two, Murderer's Mistake ebook is definitely abridged/edited, with many descriptions of scenery and characters' inner thoughts cut out, sadly meaning that some of Lorac's humour is also lost. Looks as if it has been expertly done, keeping the plot intact.

I would think the changes must have been done at the time of original publication (maybe because of 1940s paper shortages? Did Lorac even make the edits herself for her US publisher?!) as I'm sure the modern publisher of Murderer's Mistake would have scanned in the old book without making changes, except for correcting typos etc. Anyway, I will stick with the 'Iron Dogs' version for my re-read/relisten!

Thanks to everyone, it looks like everything's fine now, so let's move on and enjoy more good reading together. We have plenty of it in store.

Sorry, Keith, but I lost the rest of the post (tried to copy and paste but I must have done something wrong). Thank you for the apology.

I received a weekly newsletter from Joffe Books/Lume Books today, and noticed that To Run a Little Faster by John Gardner, a spy thriller set just before WW2, is free today. Gardner wrote a series of sequels to James Bond and 3 Sherlock Holmes sequels which had many admirers. These offers usually last for a few days but best to pick it up asap if you are interested.

Folly, a Cotswolds murder mystery by Stella Cameron, is also currently free from the same publishers. (This looked a bit grim for me at a quick glance inside despite the cheery cover.)

I have just removed a post due to comments which could potentially cause offence to American members. Please could everyone remember that the rules of the group are to be polite. We have members from all over the world and our policy is zero tolerance for rude or offensive comments. I would ask everyone to bear this in mind. Thank you, let's move on.

Thanks Susan, that looks great to me! :)

Thank you Susan. This is all looking great, lots of goodies in store!

Would it be OK to move the second MacLeod to a slightly earlier date? I was wondering if we could put it in April/May to have a shorter gap from the first book, but no worries if that's going to lead to an overload.

Difficult question about favourite buddy reads! I think Martin Beck, Shardlake, Maigret and Catherine Aird are probably my favourites at the moment. I also like Donna Leon but am a bit ahead (not as far as Pamela though) so will be joining in on those soon.

Jill wrote: "It seems a lot of people liked the Charlotte MacLeod book so she may be worth bearing in mind"

Sorry, belatedly remembered this comment from Jill from just before Christmas. I'd be happy to read some more of these - the next one in the Peter Shandy series is The Luck Runs Out, should we give that one a try?

Well remembered - I've just checked back and I read this in 2017. I had meant to read book 2 as I enjoyed the first one, but it's one of those series that I somehow never got back to and I would now have to go back and reread this first.

I remember that quite a bit of this first book is set in London, seen through Russian eyes, so you might find that interesting, Susan! So yes, anyway, I'd be up for a buddy read:)

Susan in NC wrote: "No, it seemed mostly descriptive bits, or internal monologues of characters. Kind of odd, because I had to pay attention to not miss anything that fleshed out the characters or situations...."

Thanks Susan. I have access to Murderer's Mistake, the version I read previously, though Kobo Plus, but am thinking I'll treat myself to the "iron dogs" version to get those extra bits :)

I'm struggling with this a bit so far (about 100 pages in) - the writing and characterisation are as good as ever, but it all seems very bleak and dark so far. I'm sure that's true to the period, but am hoping for a bit of light among the darkness along the way.

Sandy wrote: "Judy wrote: "On the subject of alternative titles... I dropped everything to finish Roger Sheringham and the Vane Mystery by Anthony Berkeley when I realised it was ..."

Hope you enjoy it, Sandy.

Just noticed that Last Respects by Catherine Aird, which is number 10 in the Calleshire Chronicles is currently £1.99 on Kindle. (This is also in an omnibus that I nabbed on a previous special offer, Calleshire Chronicles volume 4, so if you grabbed that one you already have it!)

Also, for anyone who has access to Kobo Plus (their answer to Kindle Unlimited), most of Aird's books seem to be included in the service at the moment. I don't think Kobo Plus has anywhere near as many books as KU, but it does have some other goodies like many of the Michael Innes' Appleby books, which used to be on KU but aren't there any more.

On the subject of alternative titles... I dropped everything to finish Roger Sheringham and the Vane Mystery by Anthony Berkeley when I realised it was due back at the library shortly and they wouldn't let me renew because there was a waiting list.

I didn't manage to finish it in time, all my own fault for being disorganised, and the ebook was grabbed back from my tablet (sadly flight mode doesn't seem to stop this any more!) I was slightly panicking as I hadn't managed to find it available anywhere else and was desperate to know the ending - but then luckily discovered that the same book is on Project Gutenberg under a different title, The Mystery at Lovers' Cave.

Anyway, I thought it was a great read even though Roger is just as infuriating as ever, and there are some brilliant twists. I would recommend it to anyone who likes Berkeley - I'm fast becoming a big fan as he is such an entertaining writer.

Susan in NC wrote: Also started Murderer's Mistake (Robert Macdonald #28) by E.C.R. Lorac, one of my favorite GA authors, for our February read. Also have the audiobook under the original title, The Theft of the Iron Dogs A Lancashire Mystery by E.C.R. Lorac . Really enjoying this one, she rarely disappoints! Interesting, finding my ebook seems to be missing text I’m hearing in the audiobook, even though the ebook doesn’t say anything about being abridged.

That's really interesting, Susan, thanks for the info! Is the 'Murderer's Mistake' edition missing much text? I have that one and have read it before in that version, but may switch to Iron Dogs version if there is much difference!

As predicted, the winner is... The Invisible Host by Gwen Bristow, which ran away from the rest this time around.

Full results:
The Invisible Host 12 votes, 50.0%
Death in the Tunnel (Desmond Merrion, #13) 4 votes, 16.7%
The Blind Side (Ernest Lamb #1) 3 votes, 12.5%
The Viaduct Murder 3 votes, 12.5%
The Litmore Snatch (Murder Room Book 675) 2 votes, 8.3%

Thanks to all who nominated and voted.