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

Judy’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Amazon in the UK does have The Calleshire Chronicles Volume Two: A Late Phoenix, His Burial Too, and Slight Mourning which Frances mentioned, for £15.19, which is still expensive.

Sorry Michaela, not much use to you for this read, but just in case it is any help to anyone for future reads, I've also bought a few of this series as old paperbacks via Ebay.

I've just read the 39 Articles of Doubt chapter by Ronald Knox. Although I enjoy his writing style, I think it shows up the problem with so many authors, as they have introduced such a range of clues!

The vote for our February group read is now open, with 4 great titles to choose from - please cast your vote for the one you most want to read:

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

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

Wow, that sounds like an epic last chapter, Michaela. I've just read the Dorothy Sayers chapter, which I enjoyed, but it had a lot of new developments - I may struggle to remember them all!

I've read about 40% now and am getting a bit bogged down - I thought it would be nice to read it slowly and appreciate each author, but I think I'll need to pick up pace to keep up with the story.

I thought the first few authors had a similar style and it all flowed quite smoothly, then Agatha Christie's chapter stood out with some good humour involving the talkative landlady, but John Rhode slowed things down with all the information about the tide times, even though I've enjoyed some of his own books a lot.

While I enjoyed this, and didn't remember the murderer either, I did feel too many people turned out to have a secret identity at the end - both the unknown visitors having stolen other people's identity really is a bit much!

I think it is clever, though, how Christie drops lots of clues about one of the two secret sons - I picked up on these and felt pleased with myself, but totally failed to spot the clues to the other one.

I like the opening of this book with the characters meeting on a train and heading for a family reunion - a very characteristic Christie opening!

Nominations so far:

Susan: The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Michaela: Crossed Skis by Carol Carnac (ECR Lorac)

Jill: The Verdict of 12 by Raymond W. Postgate

Jan: The Rasp by Philip MacDonald

Great nominations so far, thanks everyone. Thanks for looking at the Crossed Skis availability, Sandy - as it is available in various formats I think we could stick with the nomination. Odd about the US Kindle edition - I looked at Nook and Kobo sites and they seem to have ebooks, although I can never be 100% sure when looking at sites outside the UK!

Jackie wrote: "I'm reading the chapter 39 Articles of Doubt and am liking it better - I wonder if it would be so obvious each chapter was written by someone different if I didn't know ahead of time?"

Good question! I've only read the first chapter so far but will be interested to see how much the writers' styles differ.

I've started rereading - I enjoyed the first chapter of the main story, by Victor L. Whitechurch - I think he set up an intriguing mystery for the rest of the authors to develop.

Has anyone read much by him? I've only listened to some abridged stories with his railway detective Thorpe Hazell which Benedict Cumberbatch read on the radio, which were fun.

I also read Simon Brett's introduction, which was very interesting, and Dorothy L. Sayers's little introduction about how the authors worked.

She mentions that Chesterton's "picturesque preface" was added after the mystery was completed - I did quickly read this section but disliked it, as I'd remembered from my previous read. It has a lot of racial stereotypes, and it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the main story

I read this a few years ago but am planning to reread - I'm going to read one section at a time and then am also planning to read The Sinking Admiral by today's members of the Detection Club.

For anyone just starting The Floating Admiral, my memory from last time around is that the introduction by Chesterton is rather off-putting and doesn't really have anything to do with the rest of the story, so if anyone finds that section a struggle I don't think you will lose much if you skim and move on.

It's time to nominate for our February 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. Looking forward to seeing what everyone nominates.

Our December group read and challenge read are now open for discussion - please join in!

The non-spoiler threads are linked below:

The Floating Admiral:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Hercule Poirot's Christmas:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Just opening this read up as December is here - thanks to Susan for setting up the threads.

Who is reading this one? I've just finished and enjoyed it - I had read it before but didn't remember very much.

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

Just opening up our December group read, with thanks to Susan for the introduction.

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

Abigail wrote: "Are we going to continue the once-a-quarter Michael Innes buddy reads or was everyone discouraged by the wartime fantasy books? If we continue, the next one would come up in January I believe, so t..."

Hi Abigail, we do have the next Michael Innes buddy read scheduled for February, The Weight Of The Evidence - I'm looking forward to that one as it sounds as if it is a return to detection and is also in an academic setting. :)

Before that we have an Edmund Crispin title coming up in January, Love Lies Bleeding.

The full list of forthcoming books is linked below:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Sorry to be late with this but Lucy Worsley has made a 3-part TV series for BBC2 (UK) about Agatha Christie's life, called "Agatha Christie: Lucy Worsley on the Mystery Queen".

The first episode was shown on Friday but the series is also available on iPlayer.
Here is a link to an article about it:
https://www.whattowatch.com/watching-...

I'm reading Hercule Poirot's Christmas for our last 2022 challenge read. I've read it before but haven't remembered anything so far.