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[Carolien]

Jean wrote: "Carolien, I will definitely try that one. I also prefer a good mystery rather than so much of the detective's personal problems."

I'm sure you'll also appreciate the Southern Africa aspect. Some of the observations are absolutely spot on!

[Jean]

I've just read Love Story, with Murders, by Harry Bingham. It's set in Cardiff and features a DC Fiona Griffith. It's a bit different; she is a dedicated and talented cop with a father who, while legit now (probably), has quite a criminal background (but with no convictions and a lot of charm and pure niceness). There's more personal stuff than I really like, but somehow I was willing to put up with it. If you're up for something different and rather quirky, give it a try.

[Susan]

Thanks for the recommendation, I just ordered it from my library. Amazon didn't offer a Kindle edition.

[Jean]

I'm going to order Talking to the Dead; none of the libraries near here has it. I'll be interested in further entries in the series.

[Susan]

I just ordered it and now I'll have the first two. Thanks, Mike for telling us about the first in the series. Luckily my library had both.

[Yvonne]

Kaye, I also have read all of the Shetland Island series and wish there were more. I don't know about any of her other books. Comment, anyone?

My favorite series is the Ruth Galloway series.

[Diane]

@Kaye. I've read all the Ruth Galloway books so far. I think Ruth's personal life is actually as interesting as the mysteries.

[Yvonne]

Diane wrote: "@Kaye. I've read all the Ruth Galloway books so far. I think Ruth's personal life is actually as interesting as the mysteries."

I enjoy reading about her personal life, also. Love little Kate. Didn't like her latest boyfriend (I forgot his name already). Somehow I didn't trust him. Too perfect, maybe?

[Jean]

I like the Shetland Island series and have read all of them, but I didn't know about her other series. None of the local libraries have them, and I hadn't checked with Fantastic Fiction until today. I'd be interested in the opinions of those who have read them. I've read all the Ruth Galloway series, but I don't really like them that much. She's a bit too poor-me for me. I wind up reading a lot of books that I'm not that fond of, simply because I'm a speed reader and run out.

[Diane]

@Yvonne. It's been awhile so I can't remember which boyfriend was the latest. Little Kate and Cathbad are both sweeties.
@Jean. I don't care for some of Ruth's double standards and rather cavalier attitudes.
It is interesting though that every discussion of the Ruth Galloway series is more about her personal life than the actual mysteries.

[Jean]

You're right, Diane - possibly because the mysteries are passable but not inventive or particularly difficult.

[Susan]

I really enjoyed the early books now not so much. Like everyone said more about her personal life. The first in the series had more about the digs and the background of the areas.

[Penny]

Susan wrote: "I would recommend him. This particular book is 20 years old but still enjoyable. My list of favorite authors keeps growing and he's been on it for a very long time."

thanks Susan

[Susan]

Thanks Mike for introducing me to this author.

[Yvonne]

Mike wrote: "Yvonne wrote: "Kaye, I also have read all of the Shetland Island series and wish there were more. I don't know about any of her other books. Comment, anyone?

My favorite series is the Ruth Gallowa..."

Thank you so much for the info about Ann Cleeves other series. I hope my local library has some of them. (I'm in the US). It is always exciting to find new books in my favorite genre.

[Karlyne]

I'm currently reading my first Ruth Rendell, Shake Hands Forever. Oddly compelling!

[Jean]

I envy you, Karlyne, just starting on that great series. I don't like her non-series stuff, but I adore the Wexfords.

[Karlyne]

Jean wrote: "I envy you, Karlyne, just starting on that great series. I don't like her non-series stuff, but I adore the Wexfords."

I just hope that I can find the rest; this one just fell into my hands at a thrift store!

[Susan]

My library carries quite a few of her books, you might want to check.

[Susan]

PS She also writes under the name Barbara Vine.

[Jean]

The Barbara Vine ones are her psychological thrillers; I don't like those.

[Joan]

I'd be shocked if there are any Wexford novels that one cannot borrow from one's local public library, perhaps through interlibrary loan in some cases.

Seconding what Jean said, the pyschological thrillers that she writes under the name of Barbara Vine are about as different as can be from the police-procedural gems that she writes as Ruth Rendell. I don't like the Vine books either, but some people (including some in this group) love them. In any case, don't look to them for the same reader experience that you get from the Wexford series.

I envy all readers who have just discovered Wexford. You have a beautiful journal ahead of you!

[Susan]

I liked her very early Barbara Vine now they're just weird.

[Joan]

Just realized that I meant "a beautiful journey." LOL

[Karlyne]

My public library is smaller than my personal one (well, almost!), so I do have to order almost everything. I tend to save it for special occasions.

I laughed today as I finished Shake Hands Forever, because I was well and truly led down the ol' garden path. I had the murder entirely figured out, but, alas! I was so busy enjoying the writing that I completely missed the hid-in-plain-sight clues and, thus, the entire unravelling. Well done, Ms. Rendell, well done!

[Ellen]

Just started the Rough Collier 5th in the Gil Cunningham series by Pat McIntosh. I really like these books. It is really kind of nice to find a series that you have catch up on. Waiting a year or two for the next installment makes me realize how impatient I am.

[Penny]

I have read several 'Vine' books and loads of Rendell I agree they are a very different reader experience and yet some of the Vine books are wonderful. I didnt like A Dark Adapted Eye so much but The Blood Doctor, Grasshopper and Gallowglass were worth reading.

[Jean]

Ellen, I love the Gil Cunningham series too. As for Harry Hole, not so much . . . I've tried three and am not impressed. If we're going to talk about non-Brit mysteries though, have you read the Kerry Greenwood series featuring Phryne Fisher? Set in Australia in the years following WWI, they are good mysteries and great fun. If you haven't, there are 20 of them; so enjoy!

[Jean]

Unfortunately, we don't get that here. Our local PBS stations are relentlessly boring . . . .

[Mara]

Listening to John Grisham's THE CONFESSION.

[Diane]

I never knew just how much our PBS station did not show until joining this book club. Neither does BBC America show the "good" stuff.

[Jean]

Right, Diane - certainly not here in the MidSouth. On a happier note, Alex Grecian has a new one out - Scotland Yard in the 1890s, early days of the Murder Squad. It's called The Devil's Workshop, and I've just started it, but it looks good already.

[Leslie]

Penny wrote: "I have read several 'Vine' books and loads of Rendell I agree they are a very different reader experience and yet some of the Vine books are wonderful. I didnt like A Dark Adapted Eye so much but ..."

Hmmmm... A Dark Adapted Eye and A Fatal Inversion are the only two of her Vine books I have read (and didn't much like). Maybe I should try one more time...

[Leslie]

I recently finished the penultimate Inspector Morse book, Death Is Now My Neighbor, which had a decent mystery but was overall a somewhat melancholy book...

[Karlyne]

I started Carter Dickson's White Priory Murder this morning, but I'm afraid that he's not my cup of tea. I know that he's supposed to be a master of the Golden Age, but, nope, not my style- too swoopy, and the "American" slang just bugs me. Alas, I don't think I'll be adding him to my list of loves.

[Jean]

Karlyne - I read all the Carter Dickson/John Dickson Carr books in my mid-teens, the best time to do that. Any older/more mature, and they tend to be annoying. He was very inventive, a true master of locked-room plots, but the writing - ugh! Soooo silly, and not in a good way. Also, does it bother you as much as it does me when a sleuth claims to know who did it but refuses to reveal it until every last i is dotted - and meantime other characters are murdered? You wouldn't tell the newspapers, of course, but a little hint to the cops to keep a very close watch on X . . . . I think they should all have been charged as accessories before the fact.

[Karlyne]

Jean wrote: "Karlyne - I read all the Carter Dickson/John Dickson Carr books in my mid-teens, the best time to do that. Any older/more mature, and they tend to be annoying. He was very inventive, a true maste..."

Absolutely! There has to be some sort of responsibility taken in order to keep other people from being murdered, right? I have no patience with egomaniacs!

I might have liked him as a teenager, if I'd found him before Christie and Sayers. I'm sure the mysteries themselves were good, but the writing struck me as a cross between Nancy Drew and Dashiell Hammett - and not in a good way!

[Jean]

Oh yes, Christie and Sayers were far better. I loved the Miss Marple series especially - I had a grandmother a lot like that. I love your comparison - I read the Nancy Drew series in elementary school along with the Hardy Boys. Did you ever read the Creaseys? There were a ton; I liked several of his series - the Toff, Inspector West, Gideon. He wrote fast and made many errors - he kept forgetting what color West's eyes were, for example - but they were fun.

[Karlyne]

I don't remember the Creaseys, but I was a fan of the Trixie Belden mysteries (they were written for a younger audience, pre-pre teen), although I think it was mostly because I loved all the food she and her brothers ate- I was a hungry 9 year old!

[Lorraine]

I loved the Trixie Belden stories, and re-read the first 5 or 6 last year. They're still fun.

[Karlyne]

Lorraine wrote: "I loved the Trixie Belden stories, and re-read the first 5 or 6 last year. They're still fun."

Am I remembering right, Lorraine? Didn't they always have cook-outs and great food? My daughter has the complete collection (her sister scoured thrift store everywhere to find the ones she didn't have for Christmas one year), so I may have to do some re-reading, too.

[Ellen]

Jean wrote: "Ellen, I love the Gil Cunningham series too. As for Harry Hole, not so much . . . I've tried three and am not impressed. If we're going to talk about non-Brit mysteries though, have you read the ..."

I have not read the Fisher Series. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Ellen]

Karlyne wrote: "I don't remember the Creaseys, but I was a fan of the Trixie Belden mysteries (they were written for a younger audience, pre-pre teen), although I think it was mostly because I loved all the food s..."
When I was a teen in the early 60's I read several in a series featuring Donna Parker. The covers were sort of a thick cardboard. I really liked them.

[Karlyne]

Ellen wrote: "Karlyne wrote: "I don't remember the Creaseys, but I was a fan of the Trixie Belden mysteries (they were written for a younger audience, pre-pre teen), although I think it was mostly because I love..."

I have a Donna Parker in my kids' bookcase! My favorite Louisa May Alcott, Rose in Bloom, has one of those covers, too, of a laughing Rose, and I still love it. That one is, however, disintegrating...

[Ellen]

Karlyne wrote: "Ellen wrote: "Karlyne wrote: "I don't remember the Creaseys, but I was a fan of the Trixie Belden mysteries (they were written for a younger audience, pre-pre teen), although I think it was mostly ..."
Yes I have 2 Donna Parker's on the shelf with my childhood books neither are in good shape but bring back good memories.

[Karlyne]

Nostalgia!

[Jean]

I read Trixie Belden mysteries, though I was only able to find a few - I had ALL the Drew and Hardy books published up until I was 7 or 8 - I zeroed in on mysteries early. There was also a series featuring twins - a boy and girl - who solved mysteries of the childlike sort, like what happened to Mother's favorite thimble or who stole the pie the nice neighbor baked for the Primary School bake sale (turned out to be a friendly bear cub who got lost and was hungry; the twins and the friendly ranger took him back to the forest to his friendly mother - yes, everyone was friendly and there were never any actual bad guys). I clearly remember the last page, showing the bears waving bye as the ranger and the twins drove away. I've forgotten the twins' names, but that was my very
first mystery series. I had a tiny allowance for things like candy or going to the movies, but I could spend as much as I liked on books.

[C.J.]

Mike wrote: "Just finished Children of the Revolution by Peter Robinson

Another solid, well writt..."

I was inspired by this thread to read In a Dry Season, since I've never read any Peter Robinson, & I'm having a hard time with it. First, I'm SO TIRED of the cliche of the troubled but brilliant detective (usually an unappealing middle-aged babe magnet) being pushed out by his PR-obsessed desk-bound superior. Second, why on earth name a major character Jimmy Riddle? = rhyming slang for piddle, i.e. piss! Are we truly to believe that neither he nor any of the other characters are aware of this?!?

[Kaye]

Just started The Kill Call by Stephen Booth. Have read most of the others in the series and really enjoyed it so far.

[Joan]

Carol wrote: "... I was inspired by this thread to read In a Dry Season, since I've never read any Peter Robinson, & I'm having a hard time with it. First, I'm SO TIRED of the cliche of the troubled but brilliant detective (usually an unappealing middle-aged babe magnet) being pushed out by his PR-obsessed desk-bound superior. Second, why on earth name a major character Jimmy Riddle? = rhyming slang for piddle, i.e. piss! Are we truly to believe that neither he nor any of the other characters are aware of this?!? "

I encourage you to persevere. In a Dry Season is a really good mystery above all else. For what it's worth, I don't think Banks comes across as a "babe magnet" in this or subsequent books; if anything, those of us who've read the whole series wish he had more of a love life (or at least a sex life) and spent less of his time drinking alone with his jazz CDs.