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

Judy’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Yes, I felt there wasn't much mystery but I did like the characters and I agree the descriptions of landscapes are lovely. I just wish Ellis Peters would drop the romantic storylines as I think they are getting a bit boring and the young lovers tend to be very similar, although at least the love story in this one was rather different.

This sounds great, thank you Susan and Susan! :)

Sandy and Anissa, must admit I forgot about the fake artist - but yes, it's a storyline that just seems to be dropped!

Sandy wrote: "Were there any hints to the ending? I wondered if the bookseller who solved the mystery had information that was not shared with the reader, nor Wigan..."

I thought it all seemed to come out of nowhere and didn't think we had received any hints - I also found the way the killer confesses everything unbelievable, and agree with comments that the whole black magic storyline was ludicrous. I also couldn't believe in Ruth going round cutting people with a razor!

All the same, despite the problems with the plot, I really enjoyed the book for the writing style and the characters, and all the details about the rare book trade, so I have to give it 4 stars and would read more by this author.

I've started this (a bit later to get to it than I planned) and am enjoying it so far - I like Sergeant Wigan and the bookish atmosphere.

I was a bit surprised there was so much interest by collectors in this book in finding works by G.A. Henty who wrote boys' adventure stories. Has anyone in the group read anything by him? I did a quick Google and found an article from 2002, published on the centenary of his death, which says: "At book fairs all over the country, Henty first editions change hands at ridiculous prices."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...

PS Must also agree there are a lot of coincidences - at first I thought that witness to the "suicide" might be an accomplice being paid to lie, as it seemed so convenient when he suddenly turned up!

I've finished this now and enjoyed the Riviera setting and the relationship between Inspector Meredith and Sergeant Strang. However, I must agree with others' comments that the book seems oddly constructed - such a lot of time is spent searching for Chalky Cobbett and then the murder and investigation are crammed into a fairly short section of the book (although we did have some build-up earlier). I'd have preferred more murder mystery and less about counterfeit currency.

Thanks for all the nominations - it's going to be very hard for people to choose this month!

The poll is now open - please vote for your top choice.
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Sandy wrote: "I'm approaching the half-way mark without a murder but there are a couple of characters I want to bump off."

I agree with that comment!

I agree with comments that the plot wasn't as complicated as some of the others and it was pretty evident that one of the couple was the killer - the "shadow puppet" title chosen for the Penguin edition also pointed to this.

Pamela, I do agree that the hearing about the money in the water while on the tram was a bit of a weak plot twist, and I also found it a bit unlikely that so many of the characters lived in the same building! But I also agree that the book was enjoyable for its atmosphere and characters. Like Sandy, I listened to it on Audible and found it good to listen to.

Jill wrote: "I loved the part where he had been out for a great length of time, and all his wife said was "Have you eaten?". She is a very understanding wife."

I agree - I think she's great. I was just wondering if Madame Maigret had a first name. I googled it and apparently it is Louise, although I haven't noticed it being mentioned unless I forgot it - then again I haven't noticed anyone calling Maigret Jules!

Nominations please for our October group read. Hallowe'en themes are welcome but not a must! We already have a book by E.C.R. Lorac, Shroud of Darkness coming up in October as our challenge read, so no Lorac nominations this time round please,

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.

Yes, we will be carrying on with the buddy reads - I'm definitely up for more too. The next book is The Bernini Bust - I'll provisionally add that one for mid-September, but if that is too soon for people shout and we can shift it back :)

Thank you for setting up the threads and posting the introduction, Susan. I've been looking forward to this one with its book collector theme, but haven't started as yet - will do so in the next day or two.

Who else is reading this one? It's on Kindle Unlimited in the UK if that tempts anyone...

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

Thank you for the introduction and opening up the thread, Susan. I'm about a third of the way through this one and finding it has something of a country house mystery feel, except that the country house is on the Riviera!

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

Susan wrote: "Although I did not like the ending, I did really enjoy reading this and I do applaud the fact that Berkeley played with the format of the detective novel...."

That's just how I felt about it as well - for me this was a book where the overall story was much better than the ending! I do like the way Berkeley is so inventive with the format.

Susan wrote: "He had a very successful legal career and he died young, in fact the year he wrote this book, so I don't think he was that indolent. He suffered from tuberculosis and so I suspect he was in poor health..."

Ah, thank you for posting that, Susan, I had missed this post and was just speculating over in the spoiler thread about why Pettigrew seems to feel so old in this. That explanation of Hare's own health starting to fail makes sense. Very sad.

Ellen, thank you for the story of the link between Hare and James and Faber - very interesting.

Thank you Carolien, good to know that I probably didn't miss anything. I also liked that twist at the end - I'd never thought of the other death being a murder.

I was wondering how old Pettigrew is supposed to be in this book - there's clearly a big age gap between him and Eleanor, but I suspect he isn't quite as ancient as he sometimes feels.

I've finished this now and enjoyed the beautifully flowing writing style, but must agree that the solution to the plot was all too obvious.

I was surprised that we learn so little about the actual murder - we never even find out for certain who did it! I also find aspects of the plot a bit unlikely, especially the behaviour of the younger Haluin in just handing over the poison rather than leaving the monastery and heading back to see his true love and make sure she won't marry him. The older Haluin is so determined that he must have changed a lot.

Welcome Gary, happy reading!