Reading the Detectives discussion
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What mysteries are you reading at the moment? Old thread
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Oct 30, 2016 06:38AM
I just finished Josephine Tey's To Love and Be Wise and now reading Gladys Mitchell's The Mystery of a Butcher Shop. Up next: the seventh Maigret. Because Tey died so young and thus wrote so few (but extremely good) mysteries, I've really taken my time reading her books. In fact, I read the first Inspector Grant novel twice (a year apart) with her incredible The Daughter of Time sandwiched between the two readings.
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Amy wrote: "From Doon to Death. It will be my first Ruth Rendell mystery."
How wonderful that you've begun the Inspector Wexford books...Rendell was such a great writer and we're so lucky that she wrote so many Wexford books, from 1964 until 2013! I trust it will be the beginning of a wonderful friendship for you!
How wonderful that you've begun the Inspector Wexford books...Rendell was such a great writer and we're so lucky that she wrote so many Wexford books, from 1964 until 2013! I trust it will be the beginning of a wonderful friendship for you!
Judy wrote: "I'm currently reading Escort to Adventure by Angus MacVicar, one of the many recent Kindle freebies. Enjoying it so far - it is set in Scotland, so good for my chall..."
Judy, you said "many recent Kindle freebies." Hmm...I'm new to Kindle (I prefer actual books), but I finally gave in, mainly because some of the early 20th-century books I was seeking were not available in print. But now that I have Kindle, I haven't found any freebies...can anyone provide direction/advice/help?
Judy, you said "many recent Kindle freebies." Hmm...I'm new to Kindle (I prefer actual books), but I finally gave in, mainly because some of the early 20th-century books I was seeking were not available in print. But now that I have Kindle, I haven't found any freebies...can anyone provide direction/advice/help?
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Christine, sometimes classic mystery books on Kindle are available on special deals for a limited time, for instance via Kindle daily deals - we have a thread for these offers:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Also, publisher Dean Street Press has recently been announcing freebies every week, usually on Monday or Tuesday - they announce them on Twitter and Facebook and members then post the details on the thread above. Not sure how long they will continue this, but it has been good while it lasts!
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I've found some of these by searching Amazon's Kindle sections for a term like "classic mystery" or for a particular author, and then clicking to sort by "price: low to high". Hope this helps. :)
Christine, there are a lot of free books on Amazon, you can just type Free in the search box on the Kindle home page (I just got over 107,000 as a result.) But you do need to be aware that most are self-published. Nothing wrong with SP, but the quality can vary drastically and you can waste a lot of time sorting. For me, it's more helpful to find trusted sources...like here. : )Two other sources I like a lot:
--on Amazon there is a thread that's been continued for years where customers post price drops (though usually not freebies) for trad pubbed books. Lots of good finds there IMO.
(Link is to end of thread since info is time-sensitive.)
https://smile.amazon.com/forum/kindle...
--the website ereaderiq.com is really useful - you can find recent price drops, free books, and especially, create a watchlist for books you're interested in and they'll email if the price drops within your parameters
Jan C wrote: "Sue Grafton's X is currently available for $3.99 and that's relatively new. I snapped it up."I've read all this series, only series I have stuck with till the end. But I found W a bit...long.
Will read my library's copy some time next year.
Started Margaret Coel's "Night of the White Buffalo" and am liking it. I have read all of hers, in order! I used to live in Riverton, WY and find the series very accurate as to the area and people.
Miss M wrote: "Christine, there are a lot of free books on Amazon, you can just type Free in the search box on the Kindle home page (I just got over 107,000 as a result.) But you do need to be aware that most are..."
Thanks so much for all the information. Now maybe I'll use that Kindle after all!
Thanks so much for all the information. Now maybe I'll use that Kindle after all!
Judy wrote: "A bit more on freebies/special deals... there are quite a lot of public domain books which can be downloaded free on Kindle.
I've found some of these by searching Amazon's Kindle sections for a t..."
Judy, thanks so much for your response and all the ideas. I should be able to take advantage of these opportunities now. I used the Kindle for about a week after I bought it and now it's buried somewhere in the middle of papers and magazines. Happy Halloween!
I've found some of these by searching Amazon's Kindle sections for a t..."
Judy, thanks so much for your response and all the ideas. I should be able to take advantage of these opportunities now. I used the Kindle for about a week after I bought it and now it's buried somewhere in the middle of papers and magazines. Happy Halloween!
Lynne wrote: "Started Margaret Coel's "Night of the White Buffalo" and am liking it. I have read all of hers, in order! I used to live in Riverton, WY and find the series very accurate as to the area and people."I enjoy her mysteries too. Usually get the audio on Overdrive and listen while driving.
Christine wrote: "I just finished Josephine Tey's To Love and Be Wise and now reading Gladys Mitchell's The Mystery of a Butcher Shop. Up next: the seventh Maigret. Because Tey died so young and thus wrote so few (..."I also am a great fan of Tey and your post induced me to put her back on my TBR pile!
Christine wrote: "Amy wrote: "From Doon to Death. It will be my first Ruth Rendell mystery."How wonderful that you've begun the Inspector Wexford books...Rendell was such a great writer and we're so lucky that she..."
I think I must have been snoozing in a cave----how could I have missed the Wexford books? Thanks to this post, I have checked on Rendell (I was not terribly enamored of the movies made of her books, so maybe that was the problem?) and think I must add Wexford to the TBR pile!
Jan C wrote: "Lynne wrote: "Started Margaret Coel's "Night of the White Buffalo" and am liking it. I have read all of hers, in order! I used to live in Riverton, WY and find the series very accurate as to the ar..."I can see where her books would make a good "listen". I have had people recommend Hillerman since I like Coel. Anyone have any input on Hillerman? Thanks in advance!
I don’t know about the other Hillerman, but Tony Hillerman’s books are wonderful, steeped in Navajo and Pueblo culture and ways of life on the tribal lands. I reread several of them last year and was as impressed as I had been the first time around, though I would add a warning about graphic violence.It’s a good idea to read them in order because the detectives grow and develop over the course of the books. The stories are very much about the inner lives of the detectives, not just the puzzle of the crime.
Abigail wrote: "I don’t know about the other Hillerman, but Tony Hillerman’s books are wonderful, steeped in Navajo and Pueblo culture and ways of life on the tribal lands. I reread several of them last year and w..."Thank you, Abigail!
I'm on the second Anne Hillerman book. She's not bad. But she's also not her father. But she notes that her father often worked with her, she was one of the first to read and provide feedback on his books. I think she may have notes at the beginning and the end of the book.
Jan C wrote: "I'm on the second Anne Hillerman book. She's not bad. But she's also not her father. But she notes that her father often worked with her, she was one of the first to read and provid..."Since I have a penchant for reading series in order, I will start with Tony and will get to his daughter in.........(fill-in-the-blank years!)
Lynne wrote: "I also am a great fan of Tey and your post induced me to put her back on my TBR pile! " and she also wrote, "I think I must have been snoozing in a cave----how could I have missed the Wexford books? Thanks to this post, I have checked on Rendell ...and think I must add Wexford to the TBR pile."
I'm so pleased that I've inspired you to read and re-read these two great authors. Hope you post your reactions here, too. Grant and Wexford are both such interesting, well-rounded characters.
I'm so pleased that I've inspired you to read and re-read these two great authors. Hope you post your reactions here, too. Grant and Wexford are both such interesting, well-rounded characters.
I have just finished the second Lew Archer book - The Drowning Pool. It was good but not as compelling as The Chill. Next up is our BoTM :)
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Judy wrote: "I'm reading one of the early Patricia Wentworth books republished by Dean Street Press, Touch and Go: A Golden Age Mystery - really enjoying it so far. I read too man..."Lots of series get "samey" if you do too many too close together, even authors or "detectives" you really like. It is a challenge to me to read series books close enough so I remember recurring characters and certain situations, and far enough apart so as not to get ho-hum. A few authors seem to escape such dilemmas---I find P.D. James and Dalgleish to be one of those.
Leslie wrote: "I have just finished the second Lew Archer book - The Drowning Pool. It was good but not as compelling as The Chill. Next up is our BoTM :)"
I love Ross Macdonald! I'm reading the Archer series in order also. But I was temporarily off track when a couple years back a new book came out with four of his best fifties stories. I had to read that. It was fantastic, with essays by others included. As I'm chronologically reading all the detective/mystery writers who interest me, I'm also reading Margaret Millar's books. I just finished her Fire Will Freeze, which was a very enjoyable seriocomic mystery from 1944. Her writing differs vastly from her husband's, but she's wonderful in her own way. I consider Ross Macdonald one of the best writers in or out of the genre. Sometimes, when I read his books, I have to stop and just let the impact of his words really soak through. His writing was stunning at times.
I love Ross Macdonald! I'm reading the Archer series in order also. But I was temporarily off track when a couple years back a new book came out with four of his best fifties stories. I had to read that. It was fantastic, with essays by others included. As I'm chronologically reading all the detective/mystery writers who interest me, I'm also reading Margaret Millar's books. I just finished her Fire Will Freeze, which was a very enjoyable seriocomic mystery from 1944. Her writing differs vastly from her husband's, but she's wonderful in her own way. I consider Ross Macdonald one of the best writers in or out of the genre. Sometimes, when I read his books, I have to stop and just let the impact of his words really soak through. His writing was stunning at times.
Christine wrote: "Leslie wrote: "I have just finished the second Lew Archer book - The Drowning Pool. It was good but not as compelling as The Chill. Next up is our BoTM :)"I love Ross Macdonald! ..."
I just started reading him this year. I have a few Millar books on my shelf too :)
I read Ross years ago. I have a couple of Millar's but haven't read them yet.
I totally agree lots of series get samey. But I think it's a mark of great writing that DLS Lord P's series didn't. I read them all quite quickly, not all back to back, but pretty quickly, and I didn't get bored at all or think they were samey. I then needed more so read in quick succession the four LPW books by Jill Paton-Walsh.
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I read my first P.D James five years ago ( Shroud for a Nightingale ) and then sort of forgot about her. Last year I picked up some of her books and decided to work my way through them in order. So far only read the first ( Cover her Face ) as I have a lot of series on the go, but look forward to continuing. I try to space books out so I don't feel they are samey, but reading a DLS one once a month has been fine and I don't tire of P W.
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Susan wrote: "I am (slowly) re-reading the P D James novels and really enjoying Dalgliesh as a character."Which P.D. James book would you recommend for a first-time reader?
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That's so true! There are a few series where I've picked up the next book after several years and found myself struggling to remember the details of the detective's private life - it's handy if the writer includes a few brief recaps for those who aren't coming to the book straight from the previous one!
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Sandy wrote: "I've read the first two, of four, stories in The Mistletoe Murder: And Other Stories by P.D.James. Both had interesting twists that got me thinking. I believe the next two are early..."I find PD James' books to be more than mysteries---they definitely are good mysteries, but also good solid fiction. Many mysteries are such quick reads, a person can whiz through them. But I never whiz through PD James.
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Just finished The Complaints by Ian Rankin, which I found to be very good. I liked the character Fox , and think he is every bit as likeable as Rebus.
Hello! I've just finished reading Death at Delphi by Edward Turbeville . It's not set in the 1920s etc era but it is definitely in the vein of a classic golden age whodunnit. I'd highly recommend it and Murder on the Strike of Five by M.P. Peacock. Both had me guessing to the very end and I loved them both!
I just started Towards Zero by Agatha Christie- after a long long time. I found, I don;t actually remember very many of the details which is making it all the more fun to read.
I have a confession to make----I started too many lengthy books (like Middlemarch for the Victorians Group and Barnaby Rudge for my periodic Dickens fix) and haven't even got a mystery going at the moment. I can't remember the last time that happened! I am truly ashamed and hope all here will take it for only the lapse that it is. Actually I am chipping away at the Hercule Poirot Complete Short Stories, and also I think PC Doherty's Hawk Amongst Doves may count, sort of. Most of his are historical mysteries. Confession over and I shall try to do better in the future!
Susan wrote: "I just started Rattle. Quite creepy!"Is Rattle a mystery? Horror? What exactly? Trying to decide if it needs to go on my TBR pile?
Lady Clementina wrote: "I just started Towards Zero by Agatha Christie- after a long long time. I found, I don;t actually remember very many of the details which is making it all the more fun to read."I read Towards Zero a long time ago and also cannot remember what it is about. I generally like most Christie's, but definitely not all. My favorites are definitely Poirot and Marple, but I remember liking some of her non-series too.
Susan wrote: "I am enjoying Good Me, Bad Me - promising debut if anyone likes psychological thrillers."I tend to like psych thrillers so will look up more about Good Me, Bad Me. Seems to me I have heard about or read something about it somewhere.......
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I am also reading Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars: A Novel, which is set in Sixties London.
Susan wrote: "Lynne "Good Me, Bad Me," was really good. "Rattle," is a crime novel. I hardly think you need to be ashamed of your reading matter, when it is choc full of classics :)I am also reading [book:Miss..."
Thanks Susan!
Guys I need some advice, I've read all the Roy grace books I've read all the rebus books, I've read most of the d.i. Banks novels but have found the last few a little boring, I need someone new to start, someone modern that is going to keep me turning pages like Peter James managed with Roy grace, please guys, suggestions and a reason would be much appreciated
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