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

Judy’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

I really enjoyed The Second Shot by Berkeley and stayed up late to read to the end - I had some problems with the plot but it was very entertaining.

I noticed that my local library system had an ebook of The Second Shot by Anthony Berkeley, which isn't available on Kindle in the UK, so I've borrowed it and it has an interesting start. I'm also listening to our forthcoming buddy read The Long Divorce on audiobook.

Frances, I did find the bitchy wives grated a bit, as you say, but still enjoyed the humour overall. The narrator reading it on Audible was great so that added to my enjoyment.

What did anyone think of the first book? I may read it before we read the second one too.

I didn't even really understand the murder method, Sandy - it seemed hard to believe it would work, I agree. My 3rd star was really for Macdonald as I enjoyed his character in this book.

The poll is now open:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Please choose your preferred book for our February group read!

Joanne wrote: "I'm wondering if Lorac broke a few Detection Club rules with presentation of false evidence and almost having a twins situation. ..."

Very interesting point! We do see through the killer's eyes at one stage, which is against the first "rule" : "The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow."

The twins rule says: "Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them." I'm not sure if this is broken or not - I think we have heard that the brothers look alike but maybe not that they are alike enough to work as doubles.

Then again, I believe all the Detection Club members happily broke the rules at one time or another!

I've finished rereading this - I remembered the culprit from a previous read but not the whole complicated set-up, which I still find confusing even second time around.

I don't think this is as good as most of the Lorac books have read - as others have said, the constant scanning errors in the etext don't help, but I also don't think the story is as interesting as her plots usually are.

Veronica/Ronnie is a good character though, and I think Lorac lays good red herrings with her deep voice, height etc, making her another possibility to have been disguised as one of her brothers! I also agree that the old house is very atmospheric.

Sarah wrote: "The Poisoned Chocolates Case, by Anthony Berkeley

Thank you, Sarah, great nomination - we have read it previously but I've just checked and it will have been more than 3 years ago (Jan 2021) so it's fine to renominate.

Nominations so far:

Keith: Thrones, Dominations by Dorothy L. Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh

Susan in NC: Murderer's Mistake aka The Theft of the Iron Dogs: A Lancashire Mystery by E.C.R. Lorac

Jan C: The Lyttleton Case by R.A.V. Morris

Susan: Murder Intended: A Golden Age Murder Mystery by Francis Beeding

Any more? I'd like to get the poll up in the next day or so, so this is your last chance to nominate!

I got an email today from Lume Books, which does a lot of cheap reissues, and it has brought out a "box set" of 5 detective novels by Joanna Cannan, THE COMPLETE DETECTIVE PRICE MYSTERIES BOOKS 1–5 five gripping classic British murder mysteries. It's 99p/99c for a limited time. I remember enjoying a book by her a few years ago, so have snapped this up.

Susan in NC wrote: "Thanks for the heads up on Kobo Plus - I currently have Everand (formerly Scribd), and was prepared to chuck it in the new year because they played about with limiting books or pulling them without warning, ..."

Susan, I'm not really sure what I think of Kobo Plus overall yet - I decided to take out a 30-day free trial after noticing that they had a book I'm reading with another group which would otherwise have cost me £8. I then found a couple of other group reads in their selection. Their selection seems to be different from Kindle Unlimited but it is can be a bit difficult to find what they have got available. Anyway I'm enjoying it so far.

Thanks for the info about Macleod - I might try her other series too. I believe lots of her books are on Kindle Unlimited as well.

I think I must have just been reading over the scanning errors- I'm noticing more of them now but not worrying about them so much.

I'm rereading now - I've borrowed it from Kobo Plus, have read about 15% and so far haven't noticed many missing punctuation marks, so possibly this is an updated text - either that or I've just been managing to read over the errors! I'm enjoying it - I think when I first read this book I struggled to remember which brother was which, but I'm doing better with that this time.

Thanks Susan, shame about the Dalton - maybe those books will become available outside the US, fingers crossed.

Murderer's Mistake is an alternative title for The Theft of the Iron Dogs: A Lancashire Mystery which has just been reissued by British Library in the UK and is on Kindle Unlimited here. A bit confusing, but a lot of mysteries seem to have two titles (or more!)

I remember that bad editing from reading the Kindle edition 3 years ago - so infuriating! I wondered if it was available on audio and I could sidestep the lack of punctuation that way, but seems it is cheapo Kindle or nothing. :(

Susan and Susan, I listened to the audiobook this time around, after discovering that even though UK Audible doesn't have it, Spotify does, and I didn't notice any ums and ers -as you say, Susan in NC, that must be a bonus of listening rather than reading it! I thought the reader, John McLain, was great - very clear, and he does good voices for the different characters.

Sorry you didn't enjoy it much, Susan the mod - I do agree that it was quite dated, with all the women swooning over Peter etc, but I still really enjoyed the humour and the campus atmosphere. I will have to try more in the series - I did read the second one but remember not liking that so much. I am currently trying out Kobo Plus and there are lots of this series on there.

I really enjoyed the descriptions of the horrendous illumination at the start and the way Peter is tempted into taking part with a vengeance - though I dread to think of his electricity bills, even without everything else that happens.

Nominations please for our February 2024 group read!

Please only nominate books written and published in the Golden Age period, or a little earlier or later - if in doubt whether a title is eligible, please ask. As usual, just one nomination per group member, and only one book by any individual writer can be nominated per month.

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 is fine to renominate.

Very true, we have a lot of Lorac fans, including me. Many thanks for the introduction, Susan.

Who is reading this one? The spoiler thread is linked below:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...