English Mysteries Club discussion
Archive pre-2020
>
Currently Reading?
message 1851:
by
Jean
(new)
Jan 29, 2015 06:11AM
Mine too, Susan. They are definitely on my A list.
reply
|
flag
I like both series by Charles Todd. I'm still number 8 on the library reserve list for Fine Summer Day. Can't wait.
Just finished The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Not a great mystery, and a bit more improbabilities than I really like in a book, but fun in a lighthearted way.
Like the tactful and prudent review, Everyman! The cute titles and great cover art always get me.
I enjoyed that book, thought it was the best in the series so far.
Everyman wrote: "Just finished The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Not a great mystery, and a bit more improbabilities than I really like in a book, but fun in a lighthearted way."This is just the sort of book I enjoy listening to while driving. Pleasant, light and if I get absorbed in traffic or other thoughts, I haven't really lost anything important.
Not an English mystery but I just finished Voice of the Violin. I think this is #4 in the Inspector Montelbano series -- they are good mysteries but I especially like the various policemen that Montelbano works with & the recurring descriptions of his meals!
Leslie wrote: "Not an English mystery but I just finished Voice of the Violin. I think this is #4 in the Inspector Montelbano series -- they are good mysteries but I especially like the various poli..."I've been listening to the French Inspector Bruno series and really enjoy them, not just because of the enjoyable inspector, but also because of the descriptions of his meals along with the food preparations..
Half- way through Murder at the Vicarage. Really enjoying this book. I've never read Agatha Christie before.
Diane wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Not an English mystery but I just finished Voice of the Violin. I think this is #4 in the Inspector Montelbano series -- they are good mysteries but I especially like t..."I'll have to add those to my long long TBR...
I agree about the Sandy story line - tiresome and uninteresting. I normally like Peter James and his Roy Grace series, but this book seemed interminable. IMO, it would be a better book tightened up by about 50 pages; but I agree that it shouldn't stop you from trying the series.
Many of the current mysteries would benefit from being tightened up by at least 50 pages. I would like to try this series anyway.
You're right, Kay; my husband thinks publishers are pushing writers to hit the 350-page mark. IMO, with exceptions such as the early good Georges, Robinson, Crombie, Barr, Todd, etc., most mysteries would be better at 250 pages or slightly less - but I admit I don't like too much character development and I hate the detectives' personal lives getting in the way of the mystery. It's the puzzle I like.
Speaking of personal lives getting in the way, I'm trying to slog my way through the latest Barbara Cleverly. Usually I like her Sandilands series, but this one is talky and slow to develop, with far too much personal stuff gluing up the plot. I'm trying to make myself finish it, but I have to keep taking a break to read something cleaner and more direct....
I'm not sure that conciseness precludes character development and personal lives. Simenon's Maigret, Camilleri's Montalbano are two from different generations that show this. Maybe bad writers need length to accomplish what others can do more briefly. In my civil service career it was a truism that it was more difficult to write a short minute (ie letter) than a long one!
Oh, I agree, John. As I said, too much character development is what I dislike. I like to get to know my main characters over a series of books - not to get all the tiny details in each book. If it interferes with the puzzle, it's too much. There's a reason I read mysteries rather than mainline novels.
I agree. Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti books are a good example where his wife and two children are in no way obtrusive or irrelevant, but are an intrinsic window on Brunetti's character, help with the solutions, and help to ground the Venetian flavour. Over time we get to know just enough but not too much about the family growing up.
Excellent example, and the same was true for Mme. Maigret and really for Maigret himself. There are a lot of writers who do it well - and I thought Cleverly was one until this last book. The last couple pushed it a bit - as I think back on it - but only this last one was over the top.
Jean, I don't know Cleverly, but see from Wikipedia that there are 11 Sandilands, and now a newer series - Laetitia Talbot. I assume it's best to start at the beginning of the Sandilands series, and that they're worth reading - at least the first few?
Yes, I liked the first few though I didn't expect to. Forget the Talbot series - total dreck.
Susan Hill, I love your Simon Serrailler series.This is the second book in the series I have read and thoroughly enjoyed. Please read the series in order, otherwise you might be a bit lost as to relationships, etc.
DCI Simon Serrailler is on a painting holiday in Venice when he is called home to the bedside of his dying youngest sister, Martha.
Returning to work early, he is thrust into a case where a little boy disappears from outside his home while waiting to be collected from school.
The Pure in Heart is neither a thriller nor a whodunnit, but a crime novel arising out of character and circumstance. Susan Hill says she is intrigued by the psychology of crime, and this definitely shines through in her writing.
If you like a novel that careers through its plot at 100mph, then this is probably not for you.
But if you like cleverly crafted stories with wonderful character development, you will love this one!
Tried two Hills - definitely too slow for me, too much personal stuff, no real puzzle.
Mod
Oh, and Sanda, you're right about reading them in order. This especially applies to the next one, The Risk of Darkness, which actually completes the plot of one you've just read! Both very nasty ...
JeanG - re the Talbot series. Having looked up 'dreck', I'll give it a miss! Ta.
John - you won't regret it. There are so many better uses for the 3 hours or so reading one of them would take . . . so many better books out there. I take it you like the puzzles too; who are your favorite authors? Are English bookstores crammed with wonderful mysteries?
Jean - LOL! I'm an old fogey really, loving what I would call whodunnits. Lots of old ones, like Margery Allingham (Campion), Ngaio Marsh (Insp Alleyn), Michael Innes (Appleby), Edmund Crispin (Prof Fen), and many others, including Agatha Christie (Marple, Poirot, and others) and Dorothy Sayers (Wimsey), both of which I like a bit less than many others do. My favourite oldie of all is Simenon (Maigret).
Of the above, I have and have read almost all their books, just missing a couple of Maigrets and a couple of Sayers.
Currently, I love Andrea Camilleri (Montalbano), Donna Leon (Brunetti), and McCall Smith (Mma Ramotswe), and I do also get tempted into the glut of retro stuff based in the 1920s and 1930s, such as Corolla Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple series.
But fairly eclectic. Ed McBain, Chandler, Spillane, Ellery Queen, amongst many others, from the USA. Robert Crais.
As so many say, so much to read, so little time, hence I'm grateful for yes/no re Sandilands/Talbot. Yes, go into a bookshop, and there are so many old ones and new ones.
All the Scandinavian writers, too!
Have you come across the Australian, Kerry Greenwood's series, one in the 1920s (Miss Phrynne Fisher), one contemporary? Worth trying.
Also Jaspar Fforde's brilliant and quirky Thursday Weld series?
And ........
Jean wrote: "You're right, Kay; my husband thinks publishers are pushing writers to hit the 350-page mark. IMO, with exceptions such as the early good Georges, Robinson, Crombie, Barr, Todd, etc., most myster..."Hear hear! Publishers & also market pressure in general are pushing writers hard to Produce Product Promptly. I always think of the comment, variously credited to Pascal, Twain, & Shaw: "I'm sorry I wrote you such a long letter; I didn't have time to write a short one."
John - You are obviously my brother from another mother! You read the same people I do, except that I probably like Christie and Sayers more than you and Spillane and Crispin less. Yes, I've read all the Greenwood books in the Fisher series; she also does a couple of other series - the Corinna Chapman ones aren't too bad but I don't care for Delphic women. You mention the Scandinavians - have you read any of Helene Tursten's books? If not, give them a try. She's not as well-known but I like her stuff. Thanks for reminding me about Fforde - the libraries around here never heard of him and I need to buy the ones I don't already have. Are you familiar with Robert Fish's Jose da Silva series? Do you like the ones set in ancient Rome? I like Steven Saylor, Lindsey Davis's Falco series, and John Maddox Roberts. I also like Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma series and P. C. Doherty who pumps out mysteries so often he must never sleep - those are medieval mysteries. There's Reginald Hill, Peter Robinson, Deborah Crombie, Nevada Barr, Charles Todd, Sally Spencer, Ruth Rendell's Wexford series, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles (those have a lot of inside musical humor that I love), Peter Turnbull, Graham Ison. An American writer who's good if you like humor in your mysteries is Donna Andrews - you need to like animals to really enjoy those, but I do so that's OK. Another is Thatcher Robinson - there are only two from him but they're both very entertaining. Laura Joh Rowland wrote some good mysteries in her Sano Ichiro series, though the last few have not been as good.
Jean, thank you for so many leads, which I will follow up. I know Lindsey Davis (but have avoided other Ancient Rome ones just to avoid getting 'typecast'!), Hill, Robinson (not very keen), Rendell. Just got into Crombie via Louise Penny's Facebook page saying her husband was enjoying a Combie! I imagine you know the Louise Penny Insp Gamanche Three Pines Canadian books?In particular, I'll have a look at Fish, Barr, Todd(others have mentioned him), Spencer, H-Eagles, Turnbull, Ison, Andrews, Thatcher Robinson, Rowland.
What about Georgette Heyer's crime novels, much underrated, Sansom's brilliant Shardlake Henry VIII series?
Do you know Patricia Wentworth's 30 and more Miss Silver books? A bit like Miss Marple. An old lady private detective either side of WWII, in England. She knits as she listens. Quite a rebirth in her popularity.
One of my absolute favourites is Robert van Gulik's series about the Chinese magistrate Judge Dee, based on real chinese tales, based around 670AD. Brilliant. About a dozen of them.
There is a Nordic group on Goodreads. I love Scadanavian mysteries
about 1/3 of the way through - an absolutely riveting read. 8:D
John wrote: "Jean, thank you for so many leads, which I will follow up. I know Lindsey Davis (but have avoided other Ancient Rome ones just to avoid getting 'typecast'!), Hill, Robinson (not very keen), Rendell..."Simply love reading all of your lists, John and Jean! And, yes, I have a nice collection of Wentworth and all of Heyer's mysteries. Has anyone mentioned Ellis Peters?
But, no, I've never heard of Shardlake!
Love all of these suggestions! Thanks to all of you.
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan BradleyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love Flavia De Luce! If I could choose a daughter from fiction, I would want it to be her..
I had not read any of the previous six titles in the series (which I am now going to rectify!) but this in no way diminished my enjoyment of this lovely cosy.
Flavia De Luce, at the age of twelve, is banished from her home of Bucklands, England, to Miss Bodycotes Academy for Girls in Toronto, Canada.
No sooner does she arrive than a body is dislodged from the chimney of her room, setting off an investigation into a string of mysterious disappearances from the school.
Who can Flavia trust?
And why is everyone preoccupied with pheasant sandwiches?
I would like to thank NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Bantam Dell, and author Alan Bradley for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book.
View all my reviews
Re C J Sansom's Matthew Shardlake series (six so far): in Dissolution (2003), the first, Shardlake works for Thomas Cromwell, who has sent commissioners to various monasteries looking for irregularities to justify their dissolution. One commissioner has been found dead, his head severed from his body, with other equally sacreligious acts, in the monastery of Scarnsea, on the Sussex coast. Shardlake is sent to investigate. Almost a closed site mystery, there is a lovely map of the monastery at the beginning of the book, to show where entrances and exits were possible, and the book is a first person narrative, a little unusually. High quality writing and exposition of the life and times of the turbulent period, too. No, I'm not being paid to puff this book up! It's worth reading!
John, it sounds like a great premise, not to mention I'm a sucker for good maps! I'll try to find them.
John wrote: "Re C J Sansom's Matthew Shardlake series (six so far): in Dissolution (2003), the first, Shardlake works for Thomas Cromwell, who has sent commissioners to various monasteries looking for irregular..."My library doesn't have any so I just put it on my Amazon wish list. I think $2.72 on your recommendation is a good buy...
Karlyne - I'll get some $s in case you ask for a refund!
John wrote: "Karlyne - I'll get some $s in case you ask for a refund!"I'd rather have a check instead of pennies, ok? (thanks for the chuckle!)
Check = chequePennies = coins, or small change
??
Divided by a common language!
John wrote: "Check = chequePennies = coins, or small change
??
Divided by a common language!"
Another chuckle! Wait, is "chuckle" an Americanization?
No, we even have a comedy duo called The Chuckle Brothers. Trouble is, there're not very funny!
And I just remembered that to be called a "chuckle-head" is not exactly a compliment (at least in English novels)!
John wrote: "Jean, thank you for so many leads, which I will follow up. I know Lindsey Davis (but have avoided other Ancient Rome ones just to avoid getting 'typecast'!), Hill, Robinson (not very keen), Rendell..."John - my husband and I also love Gulik and have all the books. I've read Sansom and liked them pretty well, and I liked Louise Penny until the last couple. They're getting a bit . . . strange. I'll probably read any others she writes, but I won't buy them unless she gets back on track. I read all the Wentworths when I was in my teens and loved Miss Silver. Heyer has too much romance and not enough puzzle for me - I have a perfectly good husband for the romance. I don't mind a bit, but too much . . . well, yawn. I just don't think love is a spectator sport. Robinson's last 3 or 4 have not been up to the earlier ones, but I suppose I'm fond of the characters. Have you read any of the Charles Finch ones? Those are good late Victorian mysteries, especially the first 5 or 6. Anne Perry started off well in both her Monk and Pitt series, but her later books have suffered from the pervasive padding we see so much of - books that would have been much better at a shorter length. Cassandra Chan has a short series - only 4 books, but they're quite entertaining. She's American, but they're set in England. There's also C. S. Harris: there's too much personal stuff in her books and I should not like them at all, but I do. ??
In American mysteries, try Tony Hillerman and - if you like forensics - Kathy Reichs. There's a TV series based on her characters, but the books are totally different and vastly superior.
Reading (or more accurately listening to) Macdonald's The Chill. Slow paced, but good. Macdonald's work is layered and contemplative, but still a good mystery (though more in the hardboiled than the English tradition).
Just finished A Share in Death, the first in the Kincaid and James mysteries by Deborah Crombie. I really enjoyed it. I will definitely be reading more in this series.
I'm working on She Shall Have Murder. Enjoying that one as well.
I'm working on She Shall Have Murder. Enjoying that one as well.
You are in for such a treat. Although not an English mystery I just finished "The Forgotten Girls, very good read.
Christina wrote: "Just finished A Share in Death, the first in the Kincaid and James mysteries by Deborah Crombie. I really enjoyed it. I will definitely be reading more in this series.I'm working on She Shall Have Murder. Enjoying that one as well."
Crombie gets substantially better as the series goes on. I thought that the first few were good but not great; some of the later ones are really great.
I agree, Joan. She steadily improved. It's good to read them in the correct sequence though. Are you familiar with Cynthia Harrod-Eagle's Bill Crider series? If not, give that a try. Again, try to do it in sequence but know that they also steadily improve.
Joan wrote: "Christina wrote: "Just finished A Share in Death, the first in the Kincaid and James mysteries by Deborah Crombie. I really enjoyed it. I will definitely be reading more in this seri..."One thing I've really enjoyed about the Crombie books is that in the more recent titles she's started to focus in on specific London neighborhoods, and their local attractions. That's what brought my attention to the Columbia Road flower market, which I really enjoyed on my last trip,and wasn't really aware of before...
Great way to keep a long-running series fresh, IMO.
English Mysteries Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The Taken (other topics)Sherlock Holmes: Murder at the Savoy & Other Stories (other topics)
Wicked Autumn (other topics)
Cover Her Face (other topics)
A Mind to Murder (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Alice Clark-Platts (other topics)Chris Ould (other topics)
Adrian McKinty (other topics)
Will Thomas (other topics)
Anna Katharine Green (other topics)
More...
