End of Chapter - Nicholas Blake (Feb/March 2020)

[Susan]

Welcome to our buddy read of End of Chapter - the twelfth in the Nigel Strangeways series by Nicholas Blake and first published in 1957.

This mystery sees Strangeways investigating a libel case at a prestigious London publishing firm and unearthing secrets which end in murder...

Please do not post spoilers in this thread. Thank you.

[Judy]

Thank you for opening the threads, Susan - who is joining on on this one?

I am about halfway through and enjoying it - fun seeing behind the scenes of a publishing house, a setting that Blake/Day-Lewis must have known well!

[Susan]

I really enjoyed this one. I think there have been some odd reads, but Blake seems back in his stride here. Yes, Day-Lewis worked in a publishing house, so this has an interesting setting too.

[Sandy]

And Blake / Day-Lewis has drawn a very sympathetic and interesting character in the poet.

[Pamela]

I've just started this, I'm enjoying the publishing house setting and the characters. Strangeways seems more bright and breezy in this one too, nice change from the bitter gloomy Nigel!

[Susan]

I think a certain sculptress might have something to do with it :)

[Judy]

I was a bit surprised to see Nigel complaining that Clare is too untidy, though - in earlier books he was spectacularly untidy himself, for instance throwing cigarette ash all over someone's floor! :)

[Susan]

Ha ha! Yes, that's true. Obviously, you have to be more careful who you marry, later in the GA era, once the lack of servants becomes a problem :)

[Judy]

Susan wrote: "Ha ha! Yes, that's true. Obviously, you have to be more careful who you marry, later in the GA era, once the lack of servants becomes a problem :)"

Very true! ;)

[Leslie]

Judy wrote: "Thank you for opening the threads, Susan - who is joining on on this one?

I am about halfway through and enjoying it - fun seeing behind the scenes of a publishing house, a setting that Blake/Day-..."

I have read several of this series but haven't gotten up to this one. Can I jump right to it or should I read the series in order? (I am up to Head of a Traveller which I am having trouble finding).

[Judy]

I think you would be fine to jump to this one, Leslie - do others agree? I'd also have to say that Head of a Traveller isn't as good as most of the Strangeways books imo.

[Susan]

Head of a Traveller is fairly dreadful. I would say you are fine to jump ahead, Leslie. Strangeways meets a new love interest in the book previous to this, but that's really the only 'series' event to be aware of.

[Leslie]

Thanks Judy & Susan!

[Susan]

By the time Day-Lewis had written this, he had dissolved his, unhappy, first marriage. However, rather than marrying Rosamond Lehmann, with whom he had a long affair, he married actress Jill Balcon. That was in 1951, when he not only ended his marriage but left Lehmann, after 9 years. I suspect that by now (1957) he was, emotionally, in a better place and that shows in his writing. Certainly the books around that unhappy period - Head of a Traveller in particular, in 1949 - is quite bitter.

[Jason]

I'm hoping to start End of Chapter very soon. I got sidetracked by requesting a NetGalley advance copy of a book that turned out to be 740 pages (and is rough going). I now know to peek at the page count before committing to a review!

[Susan]

Goodness, that is long! What book is it, just out of interest?

[Jason]

Susan wrote: "Goodness, that is long! What book is it, just out of interest?"

It's called Antkind by Charlie Kaufmann. Very meta, lots of wheel-spinning and in-joke references without really going anywhere. I've read my share of Kafka and Thomas Pynchon, but neither tried my patience like this one, a sort-of endless stream-of-consciousness monologue featuring a neurotic and unlikable narrator.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

[Susan]

I shall make sure to avoid it on NetGalley, Jason!

[Sandy]

Thank you for the warning Jason!