Nancy's 2018 book challenge: history of mystery part two

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Picking it up with the 1890s. I'm not putting an end date on my time range this time.

[Skye]

Sounds great!

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

I'm taking a much-needed brain break until after vacation.

[Skye]

:)

[Alondra]

Great idea. I am thinking of a decades challenge maybe next year. Not sure what I want to start with or when, but it is definitely on my agenda

good luck

[Bill]

Have a nice vacation, Nancy. Looking forward to seeing what you choose this year.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Thank you -- two weeks from tomorrow I'll be in Havana again. We love it there.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Alondra wrote: "Great idea. I am thinking of a decades challenge maybe next year. Not sure what I want to start with or when, but it is definitely on my agenda

good luck"

A decades challenge sounds like a good plan.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Here we go (although I have another book to finish before I can start this one):

Starting with the 1890s and The Dorrington Deed-Box: The Adventures of Horace Dorrington, Detective in which the detective is described as a "sociopath." Ought to make for interesting reading.

[Bill]

You are getting to read so many interesting sounding and unfamiliar books / authors with this challenge.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Bill wrote: "You are getting to read so many interesting sounding and unfamiliar books / authors with this challenge."

I know! That's the great thing about it. The more unfamiliar and actually obscure, the better for me.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Next up: The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective, by Catherine Louisa Pirkis

[Bill]

Nancy wrote: "Next up: The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective, by Catherine Louisa Pirkis"

I'll have to check this out. It looks interesting.

[Franky]

Nancy wrote: "Next up: The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective, by Catherine Louisa Pirkis"

Sounds fascinating. I love these vintage mysteries!

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Franky wrote: "Nancy wrote: "Next up: The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective, by Catherine Louisa Pirkis"

Sounds fascinating. I love these vintage mysteries!"

me too.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Yikes -- not even keeping up with my own challenge. I finished The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective, which is a book about a woman detective written by a woman.

Loveday Brooke herself is of great importance not only in the world of crime/mystery fiction, but also in terms of what was happening with women writers at the time this book was written. It was the time of something new in Victorian literature depicting the "New Woman," a sort of pre-feminist movement in which women were writing about independent female characters. As I noted in my post about this book, Loveday Brooke was such a notable figure that she gets her own volume in a series of Routledge studies on New Woman literature.

I'm currently reading Miss Cayley's Adventures by Grant Allen, which is also sort of unique: in Miss Cayley we have a very independent woman who not only has some detection skills, but who's graduated from Girton College at Cambridge University. She has decided that she doesn't want a conventional life but would rather look for adventure. The book is a kind of mix of detective fiction, travel narrative, and New Woman writing all at the same time. And considering it's a Victorian novel, there is never a dull moment.

After this one, I'm probably going to read Prince Zaleski by M.P. Shiel, which combines fin-de-siecle Decadence with crime -- two of my favorite genres.

It's crazy what you can find if you only look hard enough.

[Bill]

You sure have found some unique books. and authors.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Bill wrote: "You sure have found some unique books. and authors."

I live to find unique books and authors. They'll start to become more familiar here in a while, though.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Finished Miss Cayley's Adventures -- I had so much fun reading it that I didn't want it to be over.

I'm reading, as planned, Prince Zaleski ; I'm not sure where I'm going after that one.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Finished Prince Zaleski, by MP Shiel (1895). As I posted, it is for brave and patient readers.

Up next is The Club of Queer Trades, by GK Chesterton, followed by The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart.

[Bill]

I've enjoyed the Chesterton books I've read so far and I've got Reinhart's Circular Staircase on my 'want to get' list.. Both of your choices sound interesting.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Yeah ... the names should start becoming a bit more familiar now as I press on.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Okay - it's been a while but I did finish The Club of Queer Trades then moved on to the ladies:

The Man in Lower Ten, by Mary Roberts Rinehart. I liked it, didn't love it but it is a rollicking adventure. Romance quotient limited, thank goodness. (serialized 1906; novelized 1909).

Then it was on to The Clue, by Carolyn Wells (1909). This is crime light that would be perfect for cozy readers. Introduces a detective who will appear in 70+ more novels. In the debut, he makes his appearance at the end, looks around and solves everything. Hmmm. Not the best book but it's her first novel and it made it on the list of the Haycraft-Queen Definitive Library of Crime, Detective and Mystery Fiction, although I can't for the life of me figure out why.

http://www.crimesegments.com/2018/05/...

[Bill]

I've just received Rinehart's The Circular Staircase. I'm looking forward to trying it.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

My favorite Rinehart book is and always will be The Album.

[Bill]

I've added it to my list. I'm heading down to Victoria in a week or so and will be visiting my book stores.. :0)

[Carol]

Nancy wrote: "My favorite Rinehart book is and always will be The Album."

Do you recommend it? I read Circular Staircase when I was 15 or so and disliked her writing—not internally, but I expected more from it. I wouldn’t have thought her novels would hold up well, but my opinion is based on nothing but an old impression.

Is The Album worth buying? Or just checking out if the library has it?

[Carol]

Bill wrote: "I've added it to my list. I'm heading down to Victoria in a week or so and will be visiting my book stores.. :0)"

What a wonderful thing to anticipate.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Carol wrote: "Nancy wrote: "My favorite Rinehart book is and always will be The Album."

Do you recommend it? I read Circular Staircase when I was 15 or so and disliked her writing—not internally,..."

Yeah... I'd go for library if you haven't liked her before.

[Carol]

Nancy wrote: "Carol wrote: "Nancy wrote: "My favorite Rinehart book is and always will be The Album."

Do you recommend it? I read Circular Staircase when I was 15 or so and disliked her writing—n..."

Thanks!

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

I've finished another delightful book The Sorceress of the Strand and Other Stories, byL.T. Meade, a woman whose work ran alongside Conan Doyle's Holmes stories in The Strand. Sadly her work has been allowed to fade into obscurity, but now I'm a true-blue, dedicated fan.

[Bill]

It sounds interesting, Nancy.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Bill wrote: "It sounds interesting, Nancy."

She has the most evil female villains in her stories. Very different from the norm.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Currently reading two volumes of stories (1910) written by Augusta Groner

http://www.unless-women.eu/biography-...

Finished Volume 1; Detective Muller: Imperial Austrian Police-Volume 1-The Man with the Black Cord, the Pocket Diary Found in the Snow, the Case of the Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study & the Case of the Registered Letter; starting volume 2 tonight.

Next I think it's That Mainwaring Affair (1900), by A.M. Barbour, but we'll see.

[Donna, Co-Moderator]

I've just downloaded a few Mary Roberts Rinehart books for my upcoming business trip. I think I've read some of them many moons ago so I am anxious to revisit them and see how I feel about then now.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Donna wrote: "I've just downloaded a few Mary Roberts Rinehart books for my upcoming business trip. I think I've read some of them many moons ago so I am anxious to revisit them and see how I feel about then now."

She's sort of hit and miss, I think, but her mysteries are fun.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

I actually continued the second volume of Detective Muller stories by Auguste Groner and I'm so glad I did. The editors included one story that actually reads like an old adventure pulp set among archaeologists on their way to the ruins of Babylon so that one of their number can test out a new invention. I love this stuff! Then again, I read all manner of weird stuff.

No clue yet where I'm going now; maybe some scientific detectives a la R. Austin Freeman. Not quite sure.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

I am having a great time with the scientific detectives. First, I reread The Red Thumb Mark by R. Austin Freeman (1909 -- which I'll repost about since I haven't read it in 12 years); currently reading and on the edge of finishing The Achievements of Luther Trant (1910) by Edwin Balmer and William MacHarg. Luther Trant is the first "detective" to use scientific psychology as a crime-solving method; pure pulpy goodness; and next up is Craig Kennedy-Scientific Detective: Volume 1-The Poisoned Pen & the Silent Bullet, 1910.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

It's taken me this long to have time to post about the books I listed above, but they're up on the blog now:

http://www.crimesegments.com/2018/07/...

I read so quickly, but finding time to just sit and think about what I've read seems to be challenging.