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

Judy’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Susan in NC wrote: "That opening scene, with the beating, was very hard to read, but very cinematic, how Brett stayed silent to protect Flavia, and the thugs didn’t realize she was “live” in the apartment..."

I remember that scene all too vividly from reading this book last year, and the sheer level of violence - as you say, hard to read but powerful and yes, definitely cinematic. I could almost see it.

I agree with Sarah that the arguments between Brunetti and Paola where they think differently about issues, such as politics, are an interesting aspect of this series. In real life, families are always arguing about things like this, but it doesn't happen nearly as much in books.

I'm going to get rid of Kindle Unlimited for a while as I'm not using it enough, so am trying to read a few of the books I've got saved before my subscription ends! I'm currently reading The Hog's Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts, which I'm enjoying - he's become one of my favourite GA writers.

Carol, one of the Carol Carnac books has been reissued by British Library, Crossed Skis - there are also Poisoned Pen US editions listed on Goodreads, so hopefully it may be available for you? I thought it was one of the best books by Lorac that I've read so far.

Ah yes, thanks, I'd forgotten that. Then again I couldn't really keep track of the plot!

Good idea Craftyhj, hope you like them. I find them a lot of fun.

Great point about the war work, Rosina, and the same would have applied to Frank, so I think the authorities might have been doing some checking up on whether he existed!

I do agree about the descriptions, Jill - there was too much information about every room's furniture for me!

I've finished this now, and after a great start found it increasingly boring. I think this will be the last Bobby Owen book I read, as I just find I'm not enjoying this series much any more.

I've finished this now - I enjoyed the start but then got rather bogged down and found it rather slow and confusing and disjointed, as Jill said.

I do agree about the treatment of the "yokels", as Abigail said, but I was amused to see that we have a Mrs Marple cropping up, who is nothing like her near-namesake! I think there were nods to some other leading crime writers too among all the literary references, but don't remember them now.

I didn't really care about many of the characters except for Appleby and Lucy, who I felt rather sorry for. I agree this might be a rather hard book to follow as an ebook, so am pleased I was able to borrow a hardback copy from the library reserve.

There's an interesting article here about the background to Heyer's writing of the book - it does include some spoilers, so I've put it in the spoiler thread:
https://jenniferkloester.com/penhallo...

I'd be happy to read the Nigel Strangeways, Susan, as I remember enjoying that one. I own it on Audible but am not sure I want to listen to Kris Dyer's narration again, though I don't think he annoyed me as much as he did you.

Sorry, Craftyhj and Michaela, I've now started this book and can see what the author means, as there have been some spoilers about events in Angela's life. So anyone who wants to read the Marchmont ones completely unspoilt would be best to read those first - though if you are anything like me, if you leave a gap between the books you might forget the spoilers anyway! ;)

And the winner is... Rope’s End, Rogue’s End by E.C.R. Lorac, which will be our December group read.

Full results:
Rope’s End, Rogue’s End 9 votes, 45.0%
Death of Jezebel (Inspector Cockrill #4) 4 votes, 20.0%
The Amethyst Box 4 votes, 20.0%
The Corpse in the Snowman (Nigel Strangeways, #7) 3 votes, 15.0%
20 total votes

Thanks to all who nominated and voted.

Understood! You could still join in the spoiler thread discussion from memory if you want, Susan :)

Susan wrote: "I actually liked this one. It was dark, there were a LOT of suspects (I felt like doing him in myself, he was virtually asking to get bumped off!..."

Ha, I do agree - if ever there was an unsympathetic murder victim! I was somewhat bewildered by the construction of this book - the way we have so much careful build-up, with a long list of people who might do it, but then we see the murder take place and know whodunit. Usually in books where this happens, the tension is seeing how the killer is caught - but in this book they get away with it. I've seen it described as a "WHY done it".

One ironic twist - I noticed that right at the end, Clay isn't sure whether he now wants to go into the lawyers' office after all, after all his protestations over how dreadful it would be to work there served as part of the murder motive.

I would like to discuss the later stages of this book - please join me over in the spoiler thread!
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I read the Angela books first and enjoyed them - Freddy is originally her sidekick before getting his own series, but I don't think it's necessary to have read those books to enjoy the Freddy ones.

Not sure if this one has already been mentioned, but for any fans of Simon Brett, The Complete Mrs Pargeter Crime Mysteries 1–8 a "box set" of 8 books, is currently 99p on Kindle in the UK. It's published by Joffe Books who do a lot of similar offers.

I'm now about halfway through - finding this an easier read than some of the other Innes books we've read, but still very weird!

I found this book very slow to develop, with endless build-up of possible suspects and a lot of repetition. Then the murder happens more than halfway through the novel, and we actually see who does it!

I kept wondering if this would turn out to be a red herring, a murder method that hadn't worked and that someone else had actually killed him.