From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

They Rang up the Police (Inspector Guy Northeast #1)

Joanna Cannan

Start date: May 1, 2019

Finish date: May 31, 2019

Discussion: Group reads

Why we're reading this: The winner for the poll for our May group read. This is the first in a series.
[close] The winner for the poll for our May group read. This is the first in a series.

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Group reads

* December 2025 group read - Winner!
By Judy · 28 posts · 32 views

last updated Oct 15, 2025 10:39AM

* Oct 25: Murder Included (#1 D.I. Price) by Joanna Cannan
By Susan · 11 posts · 17 views

last updated Oct 02, 2025 10:38AM

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What Members Thought

Dec 05, 2014 Nancy Oakes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-fiction-uk, crime-fiction, classic-mystery-fiction, obscure-women-writer-project

Written in 1939, They Rang Up the Police by Joanna Cannan is quite frankly, unlike any other mystery novel from this period I've read so far in my long mystery/crime-fiction reading career. It has a psychological aspect to it that is just downright chilling, but one which I can't explore by writing about it since basically it would give away the entire show all at once. It's a book where I ended up with nothing but total sympathy for the murderer, something that rarely happens and as I noted on ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

Apr 21, 2019 Judy rated it really liked it

Really 3 1/2 stars, rounded up, as I found this very readable and witty, but had a couple of issues with it, impossible to discuss without giving a lot of the plot away, which I've put in spoiler tags at the end of this review. I enjoyed Inspector Guy Northeast (who is fed up with colleagues saying "I'd rather have South-West") and the whole claustrophobic village atmosphere is very well done.

The story revolves around the mysterious disappearance of one of three unmarried middle-aged sisters li ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Apr 22, 2019 Susan rated it really liked it

This was a pleasant surprise and something a little different from many Golden Age mysteries. We begin with an elderly mother and her three, middle aged, spinster sisters, living at Marley Grange. Horse loving, domineering, Delia, disappears the next morning, as does married Captain Willoughby. Local gossip, of course, suggests that the pair have run away together, but not everyone is convinced and Delia’s mother, Mrs Cathcart, is on the phone to everyone she can think of, until a representative ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Apr 29, 2019 Jan C rated it really liked it

Shelves: tbr-kindle, 2019

Interesting. At first I thought it seemed pretty sappy. The way they called each other "darling" practically every time they opened their mouth.

Story of an old lady living with three middle-aged daughters, the youngest being 38. One of them is sleeping outside. And one day she disappears. Has she run off with a secret lover or has she bumped into misadventure?

It is a Golden Age mystery so it is misadventure (hope that's not a spoiler). Scotland Yard sends out a young inspector who bungled his l ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Apr 21, 2019 Jill rated it really liked it

I've given this 4 stars but really think it is somewhere between 3 and 4. The family featured is so syrupy that I was thinking of giving up on it, but then things picked up with the murder. The local police proved to be incapable of solving the crime so we meet Inspector Northeast ,who is obviously ridiculed for his name, and needs to prove himself, and it was him that lifted the story. There are several suspects involved, which did keep me guessing.
There is a following book about this policeman ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 10, 2018 ShanDizzy rated it really liked it

Wow

This was a very intriguing and cunning mystery. It was interesting to see the flashpoint that caused the murderer to act. There were many red herrings that kept me guessing until the very end. And wow what an ending!

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