From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Murder's a Swine (Agnes Sidebotham & Andrew Kinghof, #2)

Nap Lombard,

Martin Edwards (Introduction)

Start date: July 1, 2022

Finish date: July 31, 2022

Discussion: Group reads

Why we're reading this: Winner of our July group read poll
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What Members Thought

Aug 22, 2021 Tania rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, london

Nap Lombard is the pseudonym of husband and wife writing team, Pamela Hansford Johnson and Gordon Neil Stewart. I must admit that I'd never heard of him, but I recently read and enjoyed 'An Error of Judgement ' by her, so when I heard this was coming out I was keen to get hold of a copy.

Set during the 'phoney war'speriod of WW2, when air-raids were still thought funny. Agnes and Clem find a dead body in an air-raid shelter, so she and her husband Andrew set about trying to solve the mystery. The ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

Jul 18, 2022 Michaela rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-library-crime-classics

Liked the investigating couple, but the mystery dragged after a while, and the story was often scary.

6 likes · Like · see review

Jun 24, 2022 Jill rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Really liked this book. The relationship between the married couple was so good. I loved some of the comments they made about each other which were very humorous, but also taken in a light-hearted way. Agnes, the wife was very good at spinning a yarn, which she did right at the beginning, when her and one of the young ARP's discovered a dead body among the sandbags of the community air-raid shelter. This being set before the war proper had begun, a dead body was not a common occurrence, and so t ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jun 28, 2022 Sandy rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery-detective-grp, mystery-classic, rread-2022

I quite liked the start of the book, then it seemed to go on for too long, and I found the resolution unsatisfying. The setting of early wartime London was excellent. The married couple who led the investigation were witty and likeable (think Myrna Loy and William Powell in "The Thin Man" movies), but I got tired of spending time with them. ...more

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Jan 04, 2023 Suzanne Robertson Moutis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-classic

Kind of a weird story, frankly, but I loved the relationship between Agnes and Andrew and the witty banter that's a characteristic of classic mystery novels. Too bad Nap Lombard wasn't more prolific. 😏 ...more

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