English Mysteries Club discussion
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VeronicaR
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Apr 25, 2024 12:56PM

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I strongly recommend this book. The author speaks and reads 6 languages, and has consulted sources overlooked by most historians of this period.




Joan, I found it intense in a "can't put it down" way. I just finished but haven't written a review yet. it will be full of spoilers, I think.

[Joan, I found it intense in a "can't put it down” way. I just finished but haven’t written a review yet. It will be full of spoilers, I think.]
Jackie, That is exactly why I just gave it a 5 star rating with no review. I won’t do spoilers. I could only write two sentences - which isn’t a book review. A woman plans her funeral and is killed a few hours later. The book is beautifully written by Anthony Horowitz and I loved reading it! So, I look forward to reading any group members reviews.



The Man Who Tried to Get Away by Stephen R. Donaldson originally published under the pseudonym Reed Stephens




It is about truck driver serial killers, the culture of truck drivers and sex workers which converge at truck stops. My 4 star review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...



It's a cozy mystery set in late 18th century London.
Here is my 4 stars review :
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I liked this book about Easy Rawlins, an unofficial PI in LA. There is violence and racism in the book. My 4 star review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...







[Joan, I found it intense in a "can't put it down” way. I just finished but haven’t written a review yet. It will be full of spoiler..."
I read The Word is Murder at the end of last year and gave it four stars. I certainly liked it and already want to read more Horowitz.
If you want to see my review, here it is: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I've also read [book:Magpie Murders|32075854] and have the Moonflower Murders to read soon.

I've previously read and thoroughly enjoyed Wentworth's The Dower House Mystery and have three other books in my stash.




It is book 2 in the Easy Rawlins series, a black unofficial private investigator in 1950s Los Angeles, California.






I typically spend much of my evenings at the computer, usually on Goodreads. But our Internet connection was down last night, so I started reading a book on my Kindle app. The one I picked was

The Barks and Beans Cafe' mystery series by Heather Day Gilbert is one that I've frequently mentioned here, since Barb and I are following it and have read the first six books together so far. We started on the seventh installment,

Heather's series is consciously "cozy," so falls within the range that we associate with the "English" style. I suspect the Miss Fortune Mysteries will prove to as well, but I'm not stating that as a fact yet. Protagonist Fortune Redding is a CIA assassin who's dispatched quite a few baddies in her career (she's currently hiding out temporarily in the Louisiana bayou country because the brother of her latest victim has put a seven-figure price tag on her head), so not necessarily someone that Miss Marple would be entirely comfortable asking to tea. But my impression is that dealing with the mysteries that arise in small-town Louisiana won't require her to display the more lethal parts of her talents. :-)

I have just finished cataract surgery on both eyes. I now need glasses only for reading, after wearing them since I was 12 years old. Last year I had extensive dental implants. I have not reached Bionic Jean's level, but I am starting to feel that way.




I enjoy history but this is really making me think of the various issues of the times and for Abraham Lincoln. I don't remember having a class where we actually talked about how Dred Scott v. Sandford affected what was going on in the country.


Actually, however, they do (at least in this first series book). My initial impression had been misled; so although I liked the book (I read both the more cerebral and the more violent kinds of mysteries), if you're looking specifically for mystery writers who avoid directly described violence and feature a lot of traditional detecting with an intellectual challenge, Deleon is not in that number! I thought I should probably post a disclaimer, lest my earlier post confuse anybody.

Thanks for the revised opinion, Werner, which does give a wholly different impression of this title.
Thomas, that's great news about your eyesight! I hope it continues to improve 😊
In the mysteries line, I am reading one by a Korean author You-Jeong Jeong called Seven Years of Darkness ... but I'm not enjoyed it as much as the Korean ecothriller I read, The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eun. That one felt Korean, but Seven Years of Darkness feels like a standard American thriller, and I don't care for those (sorry to all the American members! But I don't like Scandi-crime either 😆)
As for English mysteries, well I have just finished our group read of Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie, following The Case of the Gilded Fly by the multi-talented Edmund Crispin. (Did you know for instance that he wrote the music for the Carry On films as well as choral music?! And edited my favourite series of Science Fiction short stories?)
Now I am listening to No Name by Wilkie Collins. I never realised before that it could qualify as a mystery, but then several of his stories do. And it's nicely convoluted 😊
In the mysteries line, I am reading one by a Korean author You-Jeong Jeong called Seven Years of Darkness ... but I'm not enjoyed it as much as the Korean ecothriller I read, The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eun. That one felt Korean, but Seven Years of Darkness feels like a standard American thriller, and I don't care for those (sorry to all the American members! But I don't like Scandi-crime either 😆)
As for English mysteries, well I have just finished our group read of Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie, following The Case of the Gilded Fly by the multi-talented Edmund Crispin. (Did you know for instance that he wrote the music for the Carry On films as well as choral music?! And edited my favourite series of Science Fiction short stories?)
Now I am listening to No Name by Wilkie Collins. I never realised before that it could qualify as a mystery, but then several of his stories do. And it's nicely convoluted 😊


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

In the mysteries line, I am reading one by a Korean author You-Jeong Jeong called [book:Seven Year..."
Thanks BJ. My eyesight will stay the same. I can actually read large print books, my desktop and e reader w/o glasses.
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