Tracey’s Comments (group member since Nov 08, 2017)

Tracey’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

For anyone in the UK, you may be interested to know that Hitchcock's 1938 version of The Lady Vanishes, is available on BBC iplayer for the next 12 days.

I finished this today, wishing it was twice as long to tie up the loose ends. Does anyone think Hannah had been recruited by Dieter?

Egg's detective work was great to read. The Dacres sounded like an awful pair. I had a real fondness for Egg.

A real 'kick yourself' solution, obvious in hindsight, but I didn't suspect Charles at all.

I think Poirot was satisfied with suicide as an outcome for a murderer, rather than facing trial, in the murder of Roger Ackroyd. So he does have some history of not following the legal system.

I really enjoyed this, even though I knew the solution (from the most recent film). It was lovely to read Christie weave all the clues in. And as an English woman, I found Poirot's comments on the nature of the English rather amusing!

I'm a bit of a newbie to this book, having never read it before, and have only seen the most recent film version. Am thoroughly enjoying picking up all the clues as I read, even though the outcome is not going to be a surprise. And have brought the Albert Finney version of the film to watch, once I've finished the book.

Sandy wrote: "Did anyone connect the title with the solution? I didn't and was surprised that color blindness turned puce to blue. (I just goggled puce and found, while the name is terrible, its one of my favori..."

I've only just understood the title now you have explained it! I think I must have been having a very slow day, or just happy to finish the book and move on to something else!

Certainly not a favourite for me. I enjoy how Alleyn interacts with Troy, Fox & Bathgate. I missed them in this book!

I agree that the murder was too late in the book. The murderer wasn't a central enough character for my liking. Dikon annoyed me. He was in love with Barbara, but spoke to her appallingly, with his 'silly child' put downs.

I'm about two thirds through. Really enjoyed the descriptions of the scenery, though not sure I'd want to be walking around the thermal pools in the dark with only small flags to guide the way! There are a lot of loose ends to tie up, and I'm not sure that I actually like any of the characters.

The paraffin wax treatments sound terrible, the fact that they would slowly migrate southwards, to give such looks described as 'a witches chin'! I found quite a bit of information about Gladys Deacon, the Duchess of Marlborough, who apparently was beautiful and had paraffin wax treatment to her nose, but later became a recluse as the wax moved.

I've brought The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories for my festive reading this year. Looking forward to dipping into this.

Frances wrote: "I was left under the impression that Sid might have survived-there was no trace left one way or another so she might have been "disappeared"."

Good thinking Frances! I'd not considered that option. I do think that Judd (the Boris Johnson like politican) must have had something to with Robert's accident. He did seem quite furious that Robert had visited him at home disturbing his dinner party.

I picked up this book at the weekend at a second hand stall for a bargain price of 20 pence! Once I started I couldn't put it down, really enjoyed the quick pace of the action and will certainly join in for the next reads.

It certainly takes a while for Alleyn to appear in this one, not least because of the perilous journey in the snow to fetch him.

I have a loose end... Was Lord Edgware's butler related to Bryan Martin? Or was it just the fact he was a good looking man like the film star? Are we meant to think that butler in a relationship with Edgware, hence the potential scandel causing him to change his mind on divorce?

With the exception of Aubrey, Chloris and Hersey, the characters were all horrors.

It was quite an elaborate method of murder, not quite sure how realistic that was. It was nice that Marsh included a Maori artifact though

I am enjoying the build up to the murder too. I'm trying to guess who will be killed, though with this many enemies, it's proving difficult!

I enjoyed this, though the tone was markedly different from most other GA books. There was sex, lesbians and swearing! Like others I was disappointed by the ending, would have much preferred Mr Bowling to get his comeuppance.

Mr Bowling reminded me of Bruce from Filth. Thoroughly dislikable, self important, without morals, and actually quite entertaining to read!

Judy wrote: "If anyone has been wondering what lampreys look like, I've found a Daily Telegraph article about their return to English rivers - however, they are a protected species, so we Brits won't be finding..."

I admit to looking them up when I started the book. Quite gruesome looking IMHO!

Ahh, that makes more sense now - thank you!

Annabel wrote: "Just finished another old Perry Mason paperback. The fact that I can often make no sense at all of the white-collar fraud plot in these books doesn't make me love them any the less. (And as I've sa..."

Enjoy the sleeper! The Case of the Constant Suicides involves a train to Scotland (though not the sleeper I'm afraid) should you want some further reading?