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

Judy’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Hope the book turns up for you, Anne.

I've listened to 75% of this now and must say I got a bit bogged down in the middle by all the election stuff and the heavy-handed humour about the "lunatics" - slightly wishing I'd chosen to read a physical or ebook as I could have hurried through these sections! As always though, I do like Fen and enjoy the writing style. I don't have a clue how it is all going to work out.

Sorry to hear Chianti Flask isn't on Kindle in Australia, Anne (I'm guessing that's where you are from the Koala?), but sadly it seems to be difficult to find books which are available in all formats in different countries. I suppose it's to do with rights, but it's very frustrating that publishers so often don't issue ebooks everywhere.

Thanks for all the nominations. The list so far:

Jill: The Six Queer Things by Christopher St. John Sprigg

Susan: The Invisible Host by Gwen Bristow

Jan: The Polo Ground Mystery by Robin Forsythe

Icewineanne: Death of a Bookseller by Bernard J. Farmer

Michaela: The Chianti Flask by Marie Belloc Lowndes

Any more before the poll goes up tomorrow?

Susan in NC wrote: "That was one of my problems, keeping track of all the characters, you couldn’t even say, ‘oh, that’s the weird little old lady’, because there were several! ..."

Some of the characters also have strange names, like Miss Sanctuary and the Rev Septimus Blood!

I like Charles, who seems a bit like an earlier version of Freddy in Clara Benson's books, as an upper-crust journalist with a lot of witty banter. I suppose they are both influenced by Lord Peter Wimsey. I also lovd Socrates the tracker cat!

Thanks Rosina!

I've started and am enjoying the humour. A lot of characters to keep track of! Rosina, please could you add spoiler tags to your earlier post? Thank you.

Ah, that makes sense, thank you Sandy and Susan. Do you know why he was going up there?

I didn't really understand why Peter climbs up the tower while the bells are ringing, although it is an incredibly powerful sequence - can anyone shed light on this? I think I must have missed or forgotten something.

I found I remembered the plot of this fairly well from previous reads, but still really enjoyed it because of the quality of the writing and the characterisation. Even though I knew where the emeralds were going to be found, it still somehow feels like a shock! I think Will is seen as making amends for his actions by giving his life for someone else.

Nominations please for our August 2023 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.

Thank you for setting up the threads, Susan. I've read this at least a couple of times in the past and remember it quite well - not sure whether to reread as I'm so behind at the moment!

Josephine Tey is now out of copyright in the UK, as she died in 1952 which is more than 70 years ago, so there are likely to be quite a few cheap editions around - but as you say. Rosina, sometimes the cheap editions have a lot of errors. I believe at least some of her books are also on Project Gutenberg

Thank you for setting up the threads, Susan. I'm looking forward to this one after enjoying our group read of Death of an Airman.

I think Hilary is a great character and there are some good conversations between her and Wimsey. I wonder how similar she is to the young Sayers?

I'm being a lot slower with this than I thought I would - in a bit of a reading slump at the moment. But anyway still enjoying it. The comedy with the villagers reminds me of the villagers in Thomas Hardy's early novels (not so much comedy in his later ones.)

Re all the beautiful women, that reminds me, as he's a Parliamentary candidate, I'm slightly surprised Fen isn't accompanied by his wife. A pity, as she was a great character in the first book in the series.

I've finished this now - I enjoyed it, with all the suspects and theories, though I must agree with Pamela that at times things seemed to go round in circles. I also thought the explanation was rather convoluted, but overall for me this was entertaining and one of the best in the series.

Oh dear, what a shame. I remember I found their audiobooks would only play for a few minutes at a time on my phone, and then after an update their ebooks started displaying so the bottom of each page was missing on my Kindle Fire.

Very true, Susan! It doesn't take much for me to muddle things up...

I've started listening to this on Audible and am enjoying it - the narrator, Paul Panting, speaks very clearly, which helps. A first-time read for me, and I do agree that I don't really see why Fen has decided to stand for Parliament!