lyzard's list: Travelling a route obscure and lonely in 2020 - Part 6

Discussions75 Books Challenge for 2020

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lyzard's list: Travelling a route obscure and lonely in 2020 - Part 6

1lyzard
Modifié : Oct 25, 2020, 4:57 pm

The winning photograph in 2019's 'Animals In Their Environment' category was this overhead shot of a herd of chirus taken in the snow-covered Kumukuli Desert on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau by Chinese photographer, Shangzhen Fan.

Chirus are now protected but still endangered; they are hunted for their soft, warm underfur, called shahtoosh.


2lyzard
Modifié : Nov 2, 2020, 12:45 am

My thread title this year is taken from Edgar Allan Poe's poem, Dream-Land: it seemed appropriate considering the nature of my reading plans!

    By a route obscure and lonely,
    Haunted by ill angels only,
    Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
    On a black throne reigns upright,
    I have reached these lands but newly
    From an ultimate dim Thule---
    From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
        Out of SPACE---Out of TIME.


(The complete poem can be found here.)

********************************************************




**************************************************​******

Currently reading:



The Shoes Of The Fisherman by Morris West (1963)

3lyzard
Modifié : Sep 2, 2020, 7:06 pm

2020 reading:

January:

1. The Daughter Of The House by Carolyn Wells (1925)
2. Leandro: or, The Lucky Rescue by J. Smythies (1690)
3. Wilhelm Meister's Travels by Johann Goethe (1821 / 1829)
4. The Bertrams by Anthony Trollope (1859)
5. Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk (1955)
6. Ralph The Bailiff, And Other Tales by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1862)
7. Death Walks In Eastrepps by Francis Beeding (1931)
8. Nemesis by Agatha Christie (1971)
9. Ambrose Holt And Family by Susan Glaspell (1931)
10. The Eye In The Museum by J. J. Connington (1929)
11. The Clock Ticks On by Valentine Williams (1933)
12. Death In The Cup by Moray Dalton (1932)
13. A Jury Of Her Peers (short story) by Susan Glaspell (1917)

February:

14. Disordered Minds by Minette Walters (2003)
15. The Bronze Hand by Carolyn Wells (1926)
16. The Creaking Tree Mystery by Leonard A. Knight (1931)
17. The Last Of The Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper (1826)
18. Reginald du Bray: An Historic Tale by 'A late nobleman' (1779)
19. The Spectacles Of Mr Cagliostro by Harry Stephen Keeler (1926)
20. Don't Go Near The Water by William Brinkley (1956)
21. Patty's Social Season by Carolyn Wells (1913)
22. Murder From Beyond by R. Francis Foster (1930)
23. The Man Who Loved Lions by Ethel Lina White (1943)
24. The Seven Sleepers by Francis Beeding (1925)
25. Anna, Where Are You? by Patricia Wentworth (1951)
26. Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie (1972)
27. The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart (1908)
28. I've Got My Eyes On You by Mary Higgins Clark (2018)

March:

29. Pique by Frances Notley (1850)
30. The Collegians by Gerald Griffin (1829)
31. The Wild Irish Girl by Sydney Owenson (1806)
32. Oil! by Upton Sinclair (1927)
33. By Love Possessed by James Gould Cozzens (1957)
34. Postern Of Fate by Agatha Christie (1973)
35. Murder In The Cellar by Louise Eppley and Rebecca Gayton (1931)
36. The Back-Seat Murder by Herman Landon (1931)
37. Nevertheless, She Persisted by Various (2020)
38. The Two Tickets Puzzle by J. J. Connington (1930)

4lyzard
Modifié : Sep 2, 2020, 7:09 pm

2020 reading:

April:

39. Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1862)
40. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (1957)
41. Poirot's Early Cases by Agatha Christie (1974)
42. The Watersplash by Patricia Wentworth (1951)
43. The Tolliver Case by R. A. J. Walling (1933)
44. Inspector Bedison And The Sunderland Case by Thomas Cobb (1931)
45. The Mystery Of The Creeping Man by Frances Shelley Wees (1931)
46. No Walls Of Jasper by Joanna Cannan (1930)
47. The Five Red Fingers by Brian Flynn (1929)
48. I Can Has Cheezburger? A LOLCat Colleckshun by Eric Nakagawa and Kari Unebasami (2008)
49. The Mill Of Happiness by Jean Barre (1931)
50. The Ipcress File by Len Deighton (1962)

May:

51. The Mysteries Of London: Volume III by George W. M. Reynolds (1847)
52. The Refugee In America by Frances Trollope (1832)
53. The Mayfair Mystery by Henry Holt (1929)
54. The Perfect Murder Case by Christopher Bush (1929)
55. Murder On The Marsh by John Ferguson (1930)
56. Inspector Bedison Risks It by Thomas Cobb (1931)
57. October House by Kay Cleaver Strahan (1931)
58. Curtain: Poirot's Last Case by Agatha Christie (1975)
59. Inspector Frost's Jigsaw by Herbert Maynard Smith (1929)
60. Six Seconds Of Darkness by Octavus Roy Cohen (1918)
61. The Charteris Mystery by A. Fielding (1925)
62. The Death Of A Celebrity by Hulbert Footner (1938)
63. The Black Gang by 'Sapper' (H. C. McNeile) (1922)

June:

64. Faces In The Smoke by Douchan Gersi (1991)
65. Songs Of A Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti (1986)
66. Patty's Suitors by Carolyn Wells (1914)
67. Louisa Egerton; or, Castle Herbert by Mary Leman Grimstone (1829)
68. Sleeping Murder: Miss Marple's Last Case by Agatha Christie (1976)
69. Ladies' Bane by Patricia Wentworth (1952)
70. The Secret Of High Eldersham by Miles Burton (1930)
71. Chronicles Of Martin Hewitt by Arthur Morrison (1895)
72. Masks Off At Midnight by Valentine Williams (1933)
73. Elsie's Friends At Woodburn by Martha Finley (1887)
74. Midnight Murder by Ralph Rodd (1931)

5lyzard
Modifié : Déc 2, 2020, 5:09 pm

July:

75. L'Ombre Chinoise by Georges Simenon (1932)
76. Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope (1860)
77. Exodus by Leon Uris (1958)
78. Miss Marple's Final Cases by Agatha Christie (1979)
79. Easy To Kill by Hulbert Footner (1931)
80. Mischief by Charlotte Armstrong (1950)
81. The Joker by Edgar Wallace (1926)
82. The Luminous Face by Carolyn Wells (1921)
83. Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets by David Simon (1991)
84. The Belfry Murder by Moray Dalton (1933)
85. Marian Grey; or, The Heiress Of Redstone Hall by Mary Jane Holmes (1863)
86. One-Man Girl by Maysie Greig (1931)
87. Dave Darrin's First Year At Annapolis; or, Two Plebe Midshipmen At The United States Naval Academy by H. Irving Hancock (1910)

August:

88. The Postmaster's Daughter by Louis Tracy (1916)
89. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)
90. Tara Road by Maeve Binchy (1998)
91. The Secret River by Kate Grenville (2005)
92. Dick Lester Of Kurrajong by Mary Grant Bruce (1920)
93. The Yellow Wallpaper (short story) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)
94. Advise And Consent by Allen Drury (1959)
95. Out Of The Past by Patricia Wentworth (1953)
96. Poison In The Garden Suburb by G.D.H. and Margaret Cole (1929)
97. Who Closed The Casement? by Thomas Cobb (1932)
98. The Clue Of The Rising Moon by Valentine Williams (1935)

September:

99. Under False Pretences by Adeline Sergeant (1889)
100. Mystery House by J. M. Walsh (1931)
101. Tragedy At Ravensthorpe by J. J. Connington (1927)
102. The Key by Lee Thayer (1924)
103. By Force Of Circumstances by Gordon Holmes (1909)
104. Adventures Of Martin Hewitt by Arthur Morrison (1896)
105. The Agony And The Ecstasy by Irving Stone (1961)
106. Captain Kirk's Guide To Women by John "Bones" Rodriguez (2008)
107. When A Man Marries by Mary Roberts Rinehart (1909)
108. The Hidden Kingdom by Francis Beeding (1927)

6lyzard
Modifié : Déc 2, 2020, 5:11 pm

2020 reading:

October:

109. The White Monkey by John Galsworthy (1924)
110. A Silent Wooing by John Galsworthy (1928)
111. The Flaming Crescent by Ottwell Binns (1931)
112. Patty's Romance by Carolyn Wells (1915)
113. The Bride Of Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer (1933)
114. Ship Of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter (1962)
115. L'Affaire Saint-Fiacre by Georges Simenon (1932)
116. In The Night Room by Peter Straub (2004)
117. Vanishing Point by Patricia Wentworth (1953)
118. The Crimson Alibi by Octavus Roy Cohen (1919)
119. The Red Triangle by Arthur Morrison (1903)
120. Gun In Cheek: A Study Of "Alternative" Crime Fiction by Bill Pronzini (1982)
121. The Idle Hill Of Summer by Julia Hamilton (1988)

November:

122. Sandbar Sinister by Phoebe Atwood Taylor (1934)
123. The Regatta Mystery And Other Stories by Agatha Christie (1939)
124. Problem At Pollensa Bay And Other Stories by Agatha Christie (1991)
125. Black Coffee by Agatha Christie (1930)

7lyzard
Modifié : Nov 4, 2020, 3:50 pm

Books in transit:

On interlibrary loan / branch transfer / storage / Rare Book request:
Mystery At Greycombe Farm by John Rhode

Library books to collect:

On loan:
*The White Monkey by John Galsworthy (15/11/2020)
Anna Of The Five Towns by Arnold Bennett (15/11/2020)
*Ship Of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter (19/11/2020)
The Shoes Of The Fisherman by Morris West (21/11/2020)
*Sandbar Sinister by Phoebe Atwood Taylor (27/11/2020)
*L'Affaire Saint-Fiacre by Georges Simenon (27/11/2020)
**Black Coffee by Agatha Christie (07/12/2020)
**The Regatta Mystery And Other Stories by Agatha Christie (24/12/2020)
**Problem At Pollensa Bay And Other Stories by Agatha Christie

**The Last Of The Mohicans by James Fenimoore Cooper
**Oil! by Upton Sinclair
The Recess by Sophia Lee
**The Collegians by Gerald Griffin
**The Wild Irish Girl by Sydney Morgan
**A Gothic Bibliography by Montague Summers

^^Baby Cart At The River Styx

Upcoming requests:

The Wraith by Philip MacDonald {JFR}
McLean Of Scotland Yard by George Goodchild {JFR}
The Sea Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts {JFR}

Close Quarters by Michael Gilbert {SMSA}
Perishable Goods by Dornford Yates {SMSA}
Wings Above The Diamantina by Arthur Upfield {SMSA}
Lost Boy Lost Girl by Peter Straub {SMSA / Sutherland ebook}

The Marquise Of O., And Other Stories by Heinrich von Kleist {Fisher storage}
Our Mr Wrenn by Sinclair Lewis {Fisher storage}
From Man To Man by Olive Schreiner {Fisher Storage - 2 volumes}

Purchased and shipped:

8lyzard
Modifié : Nov 2, 2020, 5:25 pm

Ongoing reading projects:

Blog reads:
Chronobibliography: The Fugitive Reviv'd by Peter Belon
Authors In Depth:
- Forest Of Montalbano by Catherine Cuthbertson
- Shannondale (aka "The Three Beauties; or, Shannondale: A Novel") by E.D.E.N. Southworth
- Lady Audley's Secret / The White Phantom by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
- Ellesmere by Mrs Meeke
- The Cottage by Margaret Minifie
- The Old Engagement by Julia Day
- The Abbess by Frances Trollope
Reading Roulette: Pique by Frances Notley / Our Mr Wrenn by Sinclair Lewis
Australian fiction: Louisa Egerton by Mary Leman Grimstone / Alfred Dudley; or, The Australian Settlers by ??
Gothic novel timeline: Anecdotes Of A Convent by Anonymous
Early crime fiction: The Mysteries Of London by G. W. M. Reynolds
Silver-fork novels: Sayings And Doings; or, Sketches From Life (First Series) by Theodore Hook
Related reading: Gains And Losses by Robert Lee Wollf / The Man Of Feeling by Henry Mackenzie / Le Loup Blanc by Paul Féval / Theresa Marchmont; or, The Maid Of Honour by Catherine Gore

Group / tutored reads:

NOW: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (thread here)

Completed: The Bertrams by Anthony Trollope (thread here)
Completed: Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (thread here)
Completed: Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope (thread here)

General reading challenges:

America's best-selling novels (1895 - ????):
Next up: The Shoes Of The Fisherman by Morris West

Virago chronological reading project:
Next up: The Rector by Margaret Oliphant

The C.K. Shorter List of Best 100 Novels:
Next up: The Life Of Mansie Wauch by David Moir

Mystery League publications:
Next up: The Gutenberg Murders by Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning

Banned In Boston!: (here)
Next up: From Man To Man by Olive Schreiner

The evolution of detective fiction:
Next up: The Mysteries Of London (Volume III) by G. W. M. Reynolds

Random reading 1940 - 1969:
Next up: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh / Close Quarters by Michael Francis Gilbert

Potential decommission / re-shelving:
Next up: ????

Completed challenges:
- Georgette Heyer historical romances in chronological order
- Agatha Christie mysteries in chronological order
- Agatha Christie uncollected short stories

Possible future reading projects:
- Georgette Heyer's historical fiction
- Nobel Prize winners who won for fiction
- Daily Telegraph's 100 Best Novels, 1899
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize
- Berkeley "Books Of The Century"
- Collins White Circle Crime Club / Green Penguins
- Dell paperbacks
- "El Mundo" 100 best novels of the twentieth century
- 100 Best Books by American Women During the Past 100 Years, 1833-1933
- 50 Classics of Crime Fiction 1900–1950 (Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor)
- The Guardian's 100 Best Novels
- Life Magazine "The 100 Outstanding Books of 1924 - 1944" (Henry Seidel Canby)
- "40 Trashy Novels You Must Read Before You Die" (Flavorwire)
- best-novel lists in Wikipedia article on The Grapes Of Wrath
- Pandora 'Mothers Of The Novel'
- Newark Library list (here)
- "The Story Of Classic Crime In 100 Books" (here)
- Dean's Classics series

9lyzard
Modifié : Oct 25, 2020, 4:59 pm

TBR notes:

Currently 'missing' series works:

Mystery At Greycombe Farm by John Rhode (Dr Priestley #12) {Rare Books}
Dead Men At The Folly by John Rhode (Dr Priestley #13) {Rare Books}
The Robthorne Mystery by John Rhode (Dr Priestley #17) {Rare Books / State Library NSW, held / Internet Archive / Kindle}
Poison For One by John Rhode (Dr Priestley #18) {Rare Books / State Library NSW, held}
Shot At Dawn by John Rhode (Dr Priestley #19) {Rare Books}
The Corpse In The Car by John Rhode (Dr Priestley #20) {CARM}
Hendon's First Case by John Rhode (Dr Priestley #21) {Rare Books}
Mystery At Olympia (aka "Murder At The Motor Show") (Dr Priestley #22) {Kindle / State Library NSW, held / Internet Archive}
In Face Of The Verdict by John Rhode (Dr Priestley #24) {Rare Books / State Library NSW, held / Internet Archive}

Six Minutes Past Twelve by Gavin Holt (Luther Bastion #1) {State Library NSW, held}
The White-Faced Man by Gavin Holt (Luther Bastion #2) {State Library NSW, held}

Secret Judges by Francis D. Grierson (Sims and Wells #2) {Rare Books}

The Platinum Cat by Miles Burton (Desmond Merrion #17 / Inspector Arnold #18) {Rare Books}

The Double-Thirteen Mystery by Anthony Wynne (Dr Eustace Hailey #2) {Rare Books}

The Black Death by Moray Dalton {CARM}

1931:

Murderer's Trail by J. Jefferson Farjeon {Kindle / ILL}
The Midnight Mail by Henry Holt {Kindle / HathiTrust}

The Wraith by Philip MacDonald {State Library NSW, JFR}

Cameos by Octavus Roy Cohen {State Library NSW, held}

The Rum Row Murders by Charles Reed Jones {Rare Books}
The Murder Rehearsal by B. G. Quin {Rare Books}
Unsolved by Bruce Graeme {Rare Books}

The Picaroon Does Justice by Herman Landon {CARM}
The Crooked Lip by Herbert Adams {Rare Books / CARM}

The Matilda Hunter Murder by Harry Stephen Keeler {Kindle}

Death By Appointment by "Francis Bonnamy" (Audrey Walz) (Peter Utley Shane #1) {Rare Books}
The Click Of The Gate by Alice Campbell (Tommy Rostetter #1) {CARM}
The Bell Street Murders by Sydney Fowler (S. Fowler Wright) (Inspector Cambridge and Mr Jellipot #1) {Rare Books}
The Murderer Returns by Edwin Dial Torgerson (Pierre Montigny #1) {Rare Books}

NB: Rest of 1931 listed on the Wiki

Series back-reading:

The Red-Haired Girl by Carolyn Wells {Rare Books}
Invisible Death by Brian Flynn {Kindle}
Murder At Fenwold (aka "The Murder Of Cosmo Revere") by Christopher Bush {Kindle}
The Footsteps That Stopped by A. Fielding {Kindle}
Burglars In Bucks by George and Margaret Cole {Fisher Library}
Mystery At Lynden Sands by J. J. Connington {HathiTrust / Kindle}
Poison by Lee Thayer {AbeBooks / Amazon}

Completist reading:

Sing Sing Nights by Harry Stephen Keeler (#4) {CARM / Kindle}
XYZ by Anna Katharine Green (#5) {Project Gutenberg}
The Window At The White Cat by Mary Roberts Rinehart (#4) {Project Gutenberg}
The White Cockatoo by Mignon Eberhart {Rare Books}

Unavailable / expensive:

The Amber Junk (aka The Riddle Of The Amber Ship) by Hazel Phillips Hanshew (Cleek #9)
The Hawkmoor Mystery by W. H. Lane Crauford
The Double Thumb by Francis Grierson (Sims and Wells #3)
The Shadow Of Evil by Charles J. Dutton (Harley Manners #2)
The Seventh Passenger by Alice MacGowan and Perry Newberry (Jerry Boyne #4)
The Pelham Murder Case by Monte Barrett (Peter Cardigan #1)
The Hanging Woman by John Rhode (Dr Priestley #11)

10lyzard
Modifié : Sep 15, 2020, 6:12 pm

A Century (And A Bit) Of Reading:

A book a year from 1800 - 1900!

1800: Juliania; or, The Affectionate Sisters by Elizabeth Sandham
1801: Belinda by Maria Edgeworth
1802: The Infidel Father by Jane West
1803: Thaddeus Of Warsaw by Jane Porter
1804: The Lake Of Killarney by Anna Maria Porter
1805: The Impenetrable Secret, Find It Out! by Francis Lathom
1806: The Wild Irish Girl by Sydney Owenson
1807: Corinne; ou, l'Italie by Madame de Staël
1809: The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter
1812: The Absentee by Maria Edgeworth
1814: The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties by Frances Burney
1815: Headlong Hall by Thomas Love Peacock
1820: The Sketch Book Of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. by Washington Irving
1821: The Ayrshire Legatees; or, The Pringle Family by John Galt / Valerius: A Roman Story by J. G. Lockhart / Kenilworth by Walter Scott
1822: Bracebridge Hall; or, The Humorists by Washington Irving
1824: The Adventures Of Hajji Baba Of Ispahan by James Justinian Morier
1826: Lichtenstein by Wilhelm Hauff / The Last Of The Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
1827: The Epicurean by Thomas Moore / The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
1829: Wilhelm Meister's Travels by Johann Goethe / The Collegians by Gerald Griffin / Louisa Egerton; or, Castle Herbert by Mary Leman Grimstone
1832: The Refugee In America by Frances Trollope
1836: The Tree And Its Fruits; or, Narratives From Real Life by Phoebe Hinsdale Brown
1845: Zoe: The History Of Two Lives by Geraldine Jewsbury / The Mysteries Of London (Volume I) by G. W. M. Reynolds
1846: The Mysteries Of London (Volume II) by G. W. M. Reynolds
1847: Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë / The Macdermots Of Ballycloran by Anthony Trollope / The Mysteries Of London: Volume III by G. W. M. Reynolds
1848: The Kellys And The O'Kellys by Anthony Trollope
1850: Pique by Sarah Stickney Ellis
1851: The Mother-In-Law; or, The Isle Of Rays by E.D.E.N. Southworth
1857: The Three Clerks by Anthony Trollope
1859: The Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden / The Bertrams by Anthony Trollope
1860: The Semi-Attached Couple by Emily Eden / Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope
1863: Marian Grey; or, The Heiress Of Redstone Hall by Mary Jane Holmes
1869: He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
1873: Had You Been In His Place by Lizzie Bates
1874: Chaste As Ice, Pure As Snow by Charlotte Despard
1877: Elsie's Children by Martha Finley
1880: The Duke's Children: First Complete Edition by Anthony Trollope / Elsie's Widowhood by Martha Finley
1881: Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen / The Beautiful Wretch by William Black
1882: Grandmother Elsie by Martha Finley
1883: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson / Elsie's New Relations by Martha Finley
1884: Elsie At Nantucket by Martha Finley
1885: The Two Elsies by Martha Finley
1886: Elsie's Kith And Kin by Martha Finley
1887: Elsie's Friends At Woodburn by Martha Finley
1889: Under False Pretences by Adeline Sergeant
1892: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
1894: Martin Hewitt, Investigator by Arthur Morrison / The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
1895: Chronicles Of Martin Hewitt by Arthur Morrison
1896: The Island Of Dr Moreau by H. G. Wells / Adventures Of Martin Hewitt by Arthur Morrison
1897: Penelope's Progress by Kate Douglas Wiggin
1898: A Man From The North by Arnold Bennett / The Lust Of Hate by Guy Newell Boothby
1899: Agatha Webb by Anna Katharine Green / Dr Nikola's Experiment by Guy Newell Boothby
1900: The Circular Study by Anna Katharine Green

11lyzard
Modifié : Sep 2, 2020, 7:35 pm

Timeline of detective fiction:

Pre-history:
Things As They Are; or, The Adventures Of Caleb Williams by William Godwin (1794)
Mademoiselle de Scudéri by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1819); Tales Of Hoffmann (1982)
Richmond: Scenes In The Life Of A Bow Street Officer by Anonymous (1827)
Memoirs Of Vidocq by Eugene Francois Vidocq (1828)
Le Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac (1835)
Passages In The Secret History Of An Irish Countess by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1838); The Purcell Papers (1880)
The Murders In The Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales by Edgar Allan Poe (1841, 1842, 1845)

Serials:
The Mysteries Of Paris by Eugene Sue (1842 - 1843)
The Mysteries Of London - Paul Feval (1844)
The Mysteries Of London - George Reynolds (1844 - 1848)
- The Mysteries Of London: Volume I
- The Mysteries Of London: Volume II
- The Mysteries Of London: Volume III
- The Mysteries Of London: Volume IV
The Mysteries Of The Court Of London - George Reynolds (1848 - 1856)
John Devil by Paul Feval (1861)

Early detective novels:
Recollections Of A Detective Police-Officer by "Waters" (William Russell) (1856)
The Widow Lerouge by Emile Gaboriau (1866)
Under Lock And Key by T. W. Speight (1869)
Checkmate by J. Sheridan LeFanu (1871)
Is He The Man? by William Clark Russell (1876)
Devlin The Barber by B. J. Farjeon (1888)
Mr Meeson's Will by H. Rider Haggard (1888)
The Mystery Of A Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume (1889)
The Queen Anne's Gate Mystery by Richard Arkwright (1889)
The Ivory Queen by Norman Hurst (1889) (Check Julius H. Hurst 1899)
The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill (1892)

Female detectives:
The Diary Of Anne Rodway by Wilkie Collins (1856)
Ruth The Betrayer; or, The Female Spy by Edward Ellis (!862-1863)
The Female Detective by Andrew Forrester (1864)
Revelations Of A Lady Detective by William Stephens Hayward (1864)
The Law And The Lady by Wilkie Collins (1875)
Madeline Payne; or, The Detective's Daughter by Lawrence L. Lynch (Emma Murdoch Van Deventer) (1884)
Mr Bazalgette's Agent by Leonard Merrick (1888)
Moina; or, Against The Mighty by Lawrence L. Lynch (Emma Murdoch Van Deventer) (sequel to Madeline Payne?) (1891)
The Experiences Of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective by Catherine Louisa Pirkis (1893)
When The Sea Gives Up Its Dead by Elizaberth Burgoyne Corbett (Mrs George Corbett)
Dorcas Dene, Detective by George Sims (1897)
- Amelia Butterworth series by Anna Katharine Grant (1897 - 1900)
Hagar Of The Pawn-Shop by Fergus Hume (1898)
The Adventures Of A Lady Pearl-Broker by Beatrice Heron-Maxwell (1899)
Miss Cayley's Adventures by Grant Allan (1899)
Hilda Wade by Grant Allan (1900)
Dora Myrl, The Lady Detective by M. McDonnel Bodkin (1900)
The Investigators by J. S. Fletcher (1902)
Lady Molly Of Scotland Yard by Baroness Orczy (1910)
Constance Dunlap, Woman Detective by Arthur B. Reeve (1913)
Miss Madelyn Mack, Detective by Hugh C. Weir (1914)

Related mainstream works:
Adventures Of Susan Hopley by Catherine Crowe (1841)
Men And Women; or, Manorial Rights by Catherine Crowe (1843)
Hargrave by Frances Trollope (1843)
Clement Lorimer by Angus Reach (1849)

True crime:
Clues: or, Leaves from a Chief Constable's Note Book by Sir William Henderson (1889)
Dreadful Deeds And Awful Murders by Joan Lock

12lyzard
Modifié : Oct 26, 2020, 5:03 pm

Series and sequels, 1866 - 1919:

(1866 - 1876) **Emile Gaboriau - Monsieur Lecoq - The Widow Lerouge (1/6) {ManyBooks}
(1878 - 1917) **Anna Katharine Green - Ebenezer Gryce - The Mystery Of The Hasty Arrow (13/13)
(1896 - 1909) **Melville Davisson Post - Randolph Mason - The Corrector Of Destinies (3/3)
(1894 - 1903) **Arthur Morrison - Martin Hewitt - The Red Triangle (4/4)
(1895 - 1901) **Guy Newell Boothby - Dr Nikola - Farewell, Nikola (5/5)
(1897 - 1900) **Anna Katharine Green - Amelia Butterworth - The Circular Study (3/3)
(1899 - 1917) **Anna Katharine Green - Caleb Sweetwater - The Mystery Of The Hasty Arrow (7/7)
(1899 - 1909) **E. W. Hornung - Raffles - Mr Justice Raffles (4/4)
(1900 - 1974) Ernest Bramah - Kai Lung - Kai Lung: Six / Kai Lung Raises His Voice (7/7)

(1903 - 1904) **Louis Tracy - Reginald Brett - The Albert Gate Mystery (2/2)
(1905 - 1925) **Baroness Orczy - The Old Man In The Corner - Unravelled Knots (3/3)}
(1905 - 1928) **Edgar Wallace - The Just Men - Again The Three Just Men (6/6)
(1907 - 1942) R. Austin Freeman - Dr John Thorndyke - The Jacob Street Mystery (26/26)
(1907 - 1941) *Maurice Leblanc - Arsene Lupin - The Hollow Needle (3/21) {ManyBooks}
(1909 - 1942) *Carolyn Wells - Fleming Stone - The Red-Haired Girl (21/49) {Rare Books}
(1909 - 1929) *J. S. Fletcher - Inspector Skarratt - Marchester Royal (1/3) {Kindle}
(1910 - 1936) *Arthur B. Reeve - Craig Kennedy - The Adventuress (10/24) {Kindle}
(1910 - 1946) A. E. W. Mason - Inspector Hanaud - The House In Lordship Lane (7/7)
(1910 - 1917) Edgar Wallace - Inspector Smith - Kate Plus Ten (3/3)
(1910 - 1930) **Edgar Wallace - Inspector Elk - The Twister (4/6) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(1910 - 1932) *Thomas, Mary and Hazel Hanshew - Cleek - The Amber Junk (9/12) {AbeBooks}
(1910 - 1918) **John McIntyre - Ashton-Kirk - Ashton-Kirk: Criminologist (4/4)
(1910 - 1928) **Louis Tracy - Winter and Furneaux - The Postmaster's Daughter (5/9) {Project Gutenberg}

(1911 - 1935) G. K. Chesterton - Father Brown - The Scandal Of Father Brown (5/5)
(1911 - 1940) *Bertram Atkey - Smiler Bunn - The Smiler Bunn Brigade (2/10) {rare, expensive}
(1912 - 1919) **Gordon Holmes (Louis Tracy) - Steingall and Clancy - The Bartlett Mystery (3/3)
(1913 - 1973) Sax Rohmer - Fu-Manchu - The Trail Of Fu Manchu (7/14) {interlibrary loan / Kindle / fadedpage.com}
(1913 - 1952) *Jeffery Farnol - Jasper Shrig - The High Adventure (4/9) {State Library NSW, JFR / Rare Books}
(1914 - 1950) Mary Roberts Rinehart - Hilda Adams - Episode Of The Wandering Knife (5/5)
(1914 - 1934) Ernest Bramah - Max Carrados - The Bravo Of London (5/5)
(1915 - 1936) *John Buchan - Richard Hannay - The Thirty-Nine Steps (1/5) {Fisher Library / Project Gutenberg / branch transfer / Kindle}
(1916 - 1917) **Carolyn Wells - Alan Ford - Faulkner's Folly (2/2) {owned}
(1916 - 1927) **Natalie Sumner Lincoln - Inspector Mitchell - The Nameless Man (2/10) {AbeBooks}
(1916 - 1917) **Nevil Monroe Hopkins - Mason Brant - The Strange Cases Of Mason Brant (1/2) {Coachwhip Books}
(1918 - 1923) **Carolyn Wells - Pennington Wise - The Vanishing Of Betty Varian (6/8) {Project Gutenberg}
(1918 - 1939) Valentine Williams - The Okewood Brothers - The Spider's Touch (6/?) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(1918 - 1944) Valentine Williams - Clubfoot - The Spider's Touch (7/8) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(1918 - 1950) *Wyndham Martyn - Anthony Trent - The Mysterious Mr Garland (3/26) {CARM}
(1919 - 1966) *Lee Thayer - Peter Clancy - Poison (7/60) {AbeBooks / Amazon}
(1919 - 1922) **Octavus Roy Cohen - David Carroll - Gray Dusk (3/4) {ManyBooks}

*** Incompletely available series
** Series complete pre-1931
* Present status pre-1931

13lyzard
Modifié : Oct 1, 2020, 7:58 pm

Series and sequels, 1920 - 1927:

(1920 - 1948) *H. C. Bailey - Reggie Fortune - Case For Mr Fortune (7/23) {State Library NSW, JFR}
(1920 - 1975) Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot - Curtain (38/38)
(1920 - 1921) **Natalie Sumner Lincoln - Ferguson - The Unseen Ear (2/2)
(1920 - 1937) *H. C. McNeile - Bulldog Drummond - The Third Round (3/10 - series continued) {Roy Glashan's Library}

(1921 - 1929) **Charles J. Dutton - John Bartley - Streaked With Crimson (9/9)
(1921 - 1925) **Herman Landon - The Gray Phantom - Gray Magic (5/5)

(1922 - 1973) Agatha Christie - Tommy and Tuppence - Postern Of Fate (5/5)
(1922 - 1927) *Alice MacGowan and Perry Newberry - Jerry Boyne - The Seventh Passenger (4/5) {Amazon}
(1922 - 1931) Valentine Williams - Inspector Manderton - Death Answers The Bell (4/4)

(1923 - 1937) Dorothy L. Sayers - Lord Peter Wimsey - In The Teeth Of The Evidence (14/14)
(1923 - 1924) **Carolyn Wells - Lorimer Lane - The Fourteenth Key (2/2)
(1923 - 1927) Annie Haynes - Inspector Furnival - The Crow's Inn Tragedy (3/3)

(1924 - 1959) Philip MacDonald - Colonel Anthony Gethryn - The Wraith (6/24) {ILL / JFR}
(1924 - 1957) *Freeman Wills Crofts - Inspector French - The Sea Mystery (4/30) {Rare Books / State Library NSW, JFR / ILL / Kindle}
(1924 - 1935) * / ***Francis D. Grierson - Inspector Sims and Professor Wells - The Smiling Death (6/13) {AbeBooks, expensive}
(1924 - 1940) *Lynn Brock - Colonel Gore - The Dagwort Coombe Murder (5/12) {Kindle}
(1924 - 1933) *Herbert Adams - Jimmie Haswell - The Crooked Lip (2/9) {Rare Books}
(1924 - 1944) *A. Fielding - Inspector Pointer - The Footsteps That Stopped (3/23) {Rare Books / Kindle / Project Gutenberg Australia}
(1924 - 1936) *Hulbert Footner - Madame Storey - The Casual Murderer (8/14) {Roy Glashan's Library}

(1925 - 1961) ***John Rhode - Dr Priestley - Death In The Hopfields (25/72) {HathiTrust / State Library NSW, held}
(1925 - 1953) *G. D. H. Cole / M. Cole - Superintendent Wilson - Burglars In Bucks (aka "The Berkshire Mystery") (7/?) {Fisher Library}
(1925 - 1932) Earl Derr Biggers - Charlie Chan - Keeper Of The Keys (6/6)
(1925 - 1944) Agatha Christie - Superintendent Battle - Towards Zero (5/5)
(1925 - 1934) *Anthony Berkeley - Roger Sheringham - The Second Shot (6/10) {academic loan / Rare Books}
(1925 - 1950) *Anthony Wynne (Robert McNair Wilson) - Dr Eustace Hailey - The Double-Thirteen Mystery (2/27) (aka "The Double Thirteen") {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
(1925 - 1939) *Charles Barry (Charles Bryson) - Inspector Lawrence Gilmartin - The Smaller Penny (1/15) {AbeBooks / Amazon}
(1925 - 1929) **Will Scott - Will Disher - Disher--Detective (aka "The Black Stamp") (1/3) {AbeBooks, expensive}
(1925 - 1927) **Francis Beeding - Professor Kreutzemark - The Hidden Kingdom (2/2)

(1926 - 1968) *Christopher Bush - Ludovic Travers - Murder At Fenwold (aka "The Murder Of Cosmo Revere") (3/63) {Kindle / Rare Books}
(1926 - 1939) *S. S. Van Dine - Philo Vance - The Kennel Murder Case (6/12) {fadedpage.com}
(1926 - 1952) *J. Jefferson Farjeon - Ben the Tramp - Murderer's Trail (3/8) {interlibrary loan / Kindle}
(1926 - ????) *G. D. H. Cole / M. Cole - Everard Blatchington - Burglars In Bucks (aka "The Berkshire Mystery") (2/6) {Fisher Library}
(1926 - ????) *Arthur Gask - Gilbert Larose - The Dark Highway (2/27) {University of Adelaide / Project Gutenberg Australia / mobilereads}
(1926 - 1931) *Aidan de Brune - Dr Night - Dr Night (1/3) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(1926 - 1931) * / ***R. Francis Foster - Anthony Ravenhill - Anthony Ravenhill, Crime Merchant (1/?) {expensive}

(1927 - 1933) *Herman Landon - The Picaroon - The Picaroon Does Justice (2/7) {Book Searchers / CARM}
(1927 - 1932) *Anthony Armstrong - Jimmie Rezaire - The Trail Of The Lotto (3/5) {CARM / AbeBooks}
(1927 - 1937) *Ronald Knox - Miles Bredon - The Body In The Silo (3/5) {Kindle / Rare Books}
(1927 - 1958) *Brian Flynn - Anthony Bathurst - Invisible Death (6/54) {Kindle}
(1927 - 1947) *J. J. Connington - Sir Clinton Driffield - Mystery At Lynden Sands (3/17) {HathiTrust / Kindle}
(1927 - 1935) *Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Malleson) - Scott Egerton - Mystery Of The Open Window (4/10) {Rare Books}
(1927 - 1932) *William Morton (aka William Blair Morton Ferguson) - Kirker Cameron and Daniel "Biff" Corrigan - Masquerade (1/4) {expensive}
(1927 - 1929) **George Dilnot - Inspector Strickland - The Crooks' Game (1/2) {AbeBooks / Amazon}
(1927 - 1949) **Dornford Yates - Richard Chandos - Perishable Goods (2/8) {State Library, JFR / Kindle / SMSA}

*** Incompletely available series
** Series complete pre-1931
* Present status pre-1931

14lyzard
Modifié : Oct 21, 2020, 1:56 am

Series and sequels, 1928 - 1930:

(1928 - 1961) Patricia Wentworth - Miss Silver - The Silent Pool (25/33) {fadedpage.com}
(1928 - 1936) *Gavin Holt - Luther Bastion - The Garden Of Silent Beasts (5/17) {academic loan / State Library NSW, held}
(1928 - 1936) Kay Cleaver Strahan - Lynn MacDonald - The Meriwether Mystery (5/7) {Kindle}
(1928 - 1937) John Alexander Ferguson - Francis McNab - The Grouse Moor Murder (3/5) {HathiTrust}
(1928 - 1960) *Cecil Freeman Gregg - Inspector Higgins - The Murdered Manservant (aka "The Body In The Safe") (1/35) {rare, expensive}
(1928 - 1959) *John Gordon Brandon - Inspector Patrick Aloysius McCarthy - The Black Joss (2/53) {State Library NSW, held}
(1928 - 1935) *Roland Daniel - Wu Fang / Inspector Saville - Wu Fang (2/6) {expensive}
(1928 - 1946) *Francis Beeding - Alistair Granby - Pretty Sinister (2/18) {academic loan}
(1928 - 1930) **Annie Haynes - Inspector Stoddart - The Crystal Beads Murder (4/4)
(1928 - 1930) **Elsa Barker - Dexter Drake and Paul Howard - The Cobra Candlestick (aka "The Cobra Shaped Candlestick") (1/3) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
(1928 - ????) Adam Broome - Denzil Grigson - Crowner's Quest (2/?) {AbeBooks / eBay}

(1929 - 1947) Margery Allingham - Albert Campion - The Case Of The Late Pig (8/35) {interlibrary loan / Kindle / fadedpage.com}
(1929 - 1984) Gladys Mitchell - Mrs Bradley - The Devil At Saxon Wall (6/67) {interlibrary loan / Kindle}
(1929 - 1937) Patricia Wentworth - Benbow Smith - Down Under (4/4)
(1929 - ????) Mignon Eberhart - Nurse Sarah Keate - Dead Yesterday And Other Stories (6/8) (NB: multiple Eberhart characters) {expensive / limited edition} / Wolf In Man's Clothing (7/8) {Rare Books / Kindle}
(1929 - ????) Moray Dalton - Inspector Collier - The Belfry Murder (4/?) - {Kindle}
(1929 - ????) * / ***Charles Reed Jones - Leighton Swift - The King Murder (1/?) {AbeBooks}
(1929 - 1931) Carolyn Wells - Kenneth Carlisle - The Skeleton At The Feast (3/3) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1967) *George Goodchild - Inspector McLean - McLean Of Scotland Yard (1/65) {State Library NSW, held}
(1929 - 1979) *Leonard Gribble - Anthony Slade - The Case Of The Marsden Rubies (1/33) {AbeBooks / Rare Books / re-check Kindle}
(1929 - 1932) *E. R. Punshon - Carter and Bell - The Unexpected Legacy (1/5) {expensive, omnibus / Rare Books}
(1929 - 1971) *Ellery Queen - Ellery Queen - The Roman Hat Mystery (1/40) {interlibrary loan}
(1929 - 1966) *Arthur Upfield - Bony - Wings Above The Diamantina (3/29) {Fisher Library}
(1929 - 1937) *Anthony Berkeley - Ambrose Chitterwick - The Piccadilly Murder (2/3) {interlibrary loan}
(1929 - 1940) *Jean Lilly - DA Bruce Perkins - The Seven Sisters (1/3) {AbeBooks / expensive shipping}
(1929 - 1935) *N. A. Temple-Ellis (Nevile Holdaway) - Montrose Arbuthnot - The Inconsistent Villains (1/4) {Rare Books}
(1929 - 1943) *Gret Lane - Kate Clare Marsh and Inspector Barrin - The Cancelled Score Mystery (1/9) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1961) *Henry Holt - Inspector Silver - The Midnight Mail (2/16) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1930) *J. J. Connington - Superintendent Ross - The Two Tickets Puzzle (2/2)
(1929 - 1941) *H. Maynard Smith - Inspector Frost - Inspector Frost In The City (2/7) {Kindle}
(1929 - ????) *Armstrong Livingston - Jimmy Traynor - The Doublecross (1/?) {AbeBooks}
(1929 - 1932) Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson - Sir John Saumarez - Re-Enter Sir John (3/3)
(1929 - 1940) *Rufus King - Lieutenant Valcour - Murder By The Clock (1/11) {AbeBooks, omnibus / Kindle}
(1929 - 1933) *Will Levinrew (Will Levine) - Professor Brierly - For Sale - Murder (4/5) {AbeBooks}
(1929 - 1932) *Nancy Barr Mavity - Peter Piper - The Body On The Floor (1/5) {AbeBooks / Rare Books / State Library NSW, held}
(1929 - 1934) *Charles J. Dutton - Professor Harley Manners - The Shadow Of Evil (2/6) {expensive}
(1929 - 1932) Thomas Cobb - Inspector Bedison - Who Closed The Casement? (4/4)
(1929 - ????) * J. C. Lenehan - Inspector Kilby - The Tunnel Mystery (1/?) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1936) *Robin Forsythe - Anthony Algernon Vereker - Missing Or Murdered (1/5) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1931) */***David Frome (Zenith Jones Brown) - Major Gregory Lewis - The Murder Of An Old Man (1/3) {rare, expensive}

(1930 - ????) Moray Dalton - Hermann Glide - The Strange Case Of Harriet Hall (4/?) {Kindle}
(1930 - 1960) ***Miles Burton - Desmond Merrion - The Platinum Cat (17/57) {Rare Books}
(1930 - 1960) ***Miles Burton - Inspector Henry Arnold - The Platinum Cat (18/57) {Rare Books}
(1930 - 1933) Roger Scarlett - Inspector Kane - In The First Degree (5/5) {expensive}
(1930 - 1941) *Harriette Ashbrook - Philip "Spike" Tracy - The Murder Of Sigurd Sharon (3/7) {Kindle / Rare Books}
(1930 - 1943) Anthony Abbot - Thatcher Colt - About The Murder Of The Night Club Lady (3/8) {AbeBooks / serialised}
(1930 - ????) ***David Sharp - Professor Fielding - I, The Criminal (4/?) {unavailable?}
(1930 - 1950) *H. C. Bailey - Josiah Clunk - Garstons (aka The Garston Murder Case) (1/11) {HathiTrust}
(1930 - 1968) *Francis Van Wyck Mason - Hugh North - The Vesper Service Murders (2/41) {Kindle}
(1930 - 1976) Agatha Christie - Miss Jane Marple - Miss Marple's Final Cases (14/14)
(1930 - 1939) Anne Austin - James "Bonnie" Dundee - Murdered But Not Dead (5/5)
(1930 - 1950) *Leslie Ford (as David Frome) - Mr Pinkerton and Inspector Bull - The Hammersmith Murders (1/11) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
(1930 - 1935) *"Diplomat" (John Franklin Carter) - Dennis Tyler - Murder In The State Department (1/7) {Amazon / Abebooks}
(1930 - 1962) *Helen Reilly - Inspector Christopher McKee - The Diamond Feather (1/31) {Rare Books}
(1930 - 1933) *Mary Plum - John Smith - The Killing Of Judge MacFarlane (1/4) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
(1930 - 1945) *Hulbert Footner - Amos Lee Mappin - The Nation's Missing Guest (3/10) {CARM}
(1930 - 1933) *Monte Barrett - Peter Cardigan - The Pelham Murder Case (1/3) {Amazon}
(1930 - 1931) Vernon Loder - Inspector Brews - Death Of An Editor (2/2)
(1930 - 1931) *Roland Daniel - John Hopkins - The Rosario Murder Case (1/2) {unavailable?}
(1930 - 1961) Mark Cross ("Valentine", aka Archibald Thomas Pechey) - Daphne Wrayne and her Four Adjusters - The Adjusters (1/53) {rare, expensive}
(1930 - ????) Elaine Hamilton - Inspector Reynolds - Some Unknown Hand (aka "The Westminster Mystery") (1/?) {Kindle}
(1930 - 1932) J. S. Fletcher - Sergeant Charlesworth - The Borgia Cabinet (1/2) {fadedpage.com / Kindle}

*** Incompletely available series
** Series complete pre-1931
* Present status pre-1931

15lyzard
Modifié : Nov 1, 2020, 1:00 am

Series and sequels, 1931 - 1955:

(1931 - 1940) Bruce Graeme - Superintendent Stevens and Pierre Allain - Satan's Mistress (4/8) {expensive / National Library of Australia, missing??}
(1931 - 1951) Phoebe Atwood Taylor - Asey Mayo - The Tinkling Symbol (6/24) {Rare Books / academic loan}
(1931 - 1955) Stuart Palmer - Hildegarde Withers - Murder On The Blackboard (3/18) {Kindle / Internet Archive, borrow}
(1931 - 1933) Sydney Fowler - Inspector Cleveland - Arresting Delia (4/4)
(1931 - 1934) J. H. Wallis - Inspector Wilton Jacks - The Capital City Mystery (2/6) {Rare Books}
(1931 - ????) Paul McGuire - Inspector Cummings - Daylight Murder (aka "Murder At High Noon") (3/5) {academic loan / State Library NSW, held}
(1931 - 1937) Carlton Dawe - Leathermouth - The Sign Of The Glove (2/13) {academic loan / State Library NSW, held}
(1931 - 1947) R. L. Goldman - Asaph Clume and Rufus Reed - Murder Without Motive (2/6) {Wildside Press}
(1931 - 1959) ***E. C. R. Lorac (Edith Caroline Rivett) - Inspector Robert Macdonald - The Murder On The Burrows (1/46) {rare, expensive}
(1931 - 1935) Clifton Robbins - Clay Harrison - Methylated Murder (5/5)
(1931 - 1972) Georges Simenon - Inspector Maigret - Chez les Flamands (14/75) {ILL}
(1931 - 1942) R. A. J. Walling - Garstang - The Stroke Of One (1/3) {Amazon}
(1931 - ????) Francis Bonnamy (Audrey Boyers Walz) - Peter Utley Shane - Death By Appointment (1/8) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
(1931 - 1937) J. S. Fletcher - Ronald Camberwell - Murder In The Squire's Pew (3/11) {Kindle / State Library NSW, held}
(1931 - 1933) Edwin Dial Torgerson - Sergeant Pierre Montigny - The Murderer Returns (1/2) {Rare Books)
(1931 - 1933) Molly Thynne - Dr Constantine and Inspector Arkwright - Death In The Dentist's Chair (2/3) {Kindle}
(1931 - 1935) Valentine Williams - Sergeant Trevor Dene - The Clue Of The Rising Moon (4/4)
(1931 - 1942) Patricia Wentworth - Frank Garrett - Pursuit Of A Parcel (5/5)
(1931 - 1931) Frances Shelley Wees - Michael Forrester and Tuck Torrie - The Mystery Of The Creeping Man (2/2)

(1932 - 1954) Sydney Fowler - Inspector Cambridge and Mr Jellipot - The Bell Street Murders (1/11) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
(1932 - 1935) Murray Thomas - Inspector Wilkins - Buzzards Pick The Bones (1/3) {AbeBooks, expensive}
(1932 - ????) R. A. J. Walling - Philip Tolefree - VIII To IX (aka "Eight To Nine" aka "The Bachelor Flat Mystery") (4/22) {Kindle / State Library NSW, held}
(1932 - 1962) T. Arthur Plummer - Detective-Inspector Andrew Frampton - Shadowed By The C. I. D. (1/50) {unavailable?}
(1932 - 1936) John Victor Turner - Amos Petrie - Death Must Have Laughed (1/7) {Kindle / Rare Books}
(1932 - 1944) Nicholas Brady (John Victor Turner) - Ebenezer Buckle - The House Of Strange Guests (1/4) {Kindle}
(1932 - 1933) Barnaby Ross (aka Ellery Queen) - Drury Lane - Drury Lane's Last Case (4/4) {AbeBooks}
(1932 - ????) Richard Essex (Richard Harry Starr) - Jack Slade - Slade Of The Yard (1/?) {AbeBooks}
(1932 - 1933) Gerard Fairlie - Mr Malcolm - Shot In The Dark (1/3) (State Library NSW, held}
(1932 - 1934) Paul McGuire - Inspector Fillinger - The Tower Mystery (aka Death Tolls The Bell) (1/5) {Rare Books / State Library, held}
(1932 - 1946) Roland Daniel - Inspector Pearson - The Crackswoman (1/6) {unavailable?}
(1932 - 1951) Sydney Horler - Tiger Standish - Tiger Standish (1/11) {Rare Books}

(1933 - 1959) John Gordon Brandon - Arthur Stukeley Pennington - West End! (1/?) {AbeBooks / State Library, held}
(1933 - 1940) Lilian Garis - Carol Duncan - The Ghost Of Melody Lane (1/9) {AbeBooks}
(1933 - 1934) Peter Hunt (George Worthing Yates and Charles Hunt Marshall) - Allan Miller - Murders At Scandal House (1/3) {AbeBooks / Amazon}
(1933 - 1968) John Dickson Carr - Gideon Fell - Hag's Nook (1/23) {Better World Books / State Library NSW, interlibrary loan}
(1933 - 1939) Gregory Dean - Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Simon - The Case Of Marie Corwin (1/3) {AbeBooks / Amazon}
(1933 - 1956) E. R. Punshon - Detective-Sergeant Bobby Owen - Information Received (1/35) {academic loan / State Library NSW, held / Rare Books}
(1933 - 1934) Jackson Gregory - Paul Savoy - A Case For Mr Paul Savoy (1/3) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
(1933 - 1957) John Creasey - Department Z - The Death Miser (1/28) {State Library NSW, held}
(1933 - 1940) Bruce Graeme - Superintendent Stevens - Body Unknown (2/2) {expensive}
(1933 - 1952) Wyndham Martyn - Christopher Bond - Christopher Bond, Adventurer (1/8) {rare}
(1934 - 1949) Richard Goyne - Paul Templeton - Strange Motives (1/13) {unavailable?}
(1934 - 1941) N. A. Temple-Ellis (Nevile Holdaway) - Inspector Wren - Three Went In (1/3) {unavailable?}
(1934 - 1953) Carter Dickson (John Dickson Carr) - Sir Henry Merivale - The Plague Court Murders (1/22) {Fisher Library}
(1934 - 1953) Leslie Ford (Zenith Jones Brown) - Colonel Primrose - The Strangled Witness (1/17) {Rare Books}
(1934 - 1975) Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe - Fer-de-Lance (1/?) {Rare Books / State Library NSW, JFR / Kindle}
(1934 - 1935) Vernon Loder - Inspector Chace - Murder From Three Angles (1/2) {Kindle /
(1935 - 1939) Francis Beeding - Inspector George Martin - The Norwich Victims (1/3) {AbeBooks / Book Depository / State Library NSW, held}
(1935 - 1976) Nigel Morland - Palmyra Pym - The Moon Murders (1/28) {State Library NSW, held}
(1935 - 1941) Clyde Clason - Professor Theocritus Lucius Westborough - The Fifth Tumbler (1/10) {unavailable?}
(1935 - ????) G. D. H. Cole / M. Cole - Dr Tancred - Dr Tancred Begins (1/?) (AbeBooks, expensive / State Library NSW, held / Rare Books}
(1935 - ????) George Harmon Coxe - Kent Murdock - Murder With Pictures (1/22) {AbeBooks}
(1935 - 1959) Kathleen Moore Knight - Elisha Macomber - Death Blew Out The Match (1/16) {AbeBooks / Amazon}
(1936 - 1974) Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Malleson) - Arthur Crook - Murder By Experts (1/51) {interlibrary loan}
(1936 - 1940) George Bell Dyer - The Catalyst Club - The Catalyst Club (1/3) {AbeBooks}
(1936 - 1956) Theodora Du Bois - Anne and Jeffrey McNeil - Armed With A New Terror (1/19) {unavailable?}
(1936 - 1945) Charles Kingston - Chief Inspector Wake - Murder In Piccadilly (1/7) {Kindle}
(1937 - 1953) Leslie Ford (Zenith Jones Brown) - Grace Latham - Ill Met By Moonlight (1/16){Kindle}
(1938 - 1944) Zelda Popkin - Mary Carner - Death Wears A White Gardenia (1/6) {Kindle}
(1939 - 1942) Patricia Wentworth - Inspector Lamb - The Ivory Dagger (11/?) {fadedpage.com}
(1939 - 1940) Clifton Robbins - George Staveley - Six Sign-Post Murder (1/2) {Biblio / rare}
(1940 - 1943) Bruce Graeme - Pierre Allain - The Corporal Died In Bed (1/3) {unavailable?}
(1941 - 1951) Bruce Graeme - Theodore I. Terhune - Seven Clues In Search Of A Crime (1/7) {unavailable?}
(1955 - 1991) Patricia Highsmith - Tom Ripley - Ripley Under Ground (2/5) {interlibrary loan / Kindle}
(1957 - 1993) Chester B. Himes - The Harlem Cycle - For Love Of Imabelle (aka "A Rage In Harlem") (1/9) {interlibrary loan / Kindle}

*** Incompletely available series

16lyzard
Modifié : Oct 7, 2020, 1:30 am

Non-crime series and sequels:

(1867 - 1905) **Martha Finley - Elsie Dinsmore - Christmas With Grandma Elsie (14/28) {Project Gutenberg}
(1867 - 1872) **George MacDonald - The Seaboard Parish - Annals Of A Quiet Neighbourhood (1/3) {ManyBooks}
(1893 - 1915) **Kate Douglas Wiggins - Penelope - Penelope's Postscripts (4/4)
(1894 - 1898) **Anthony Hope - Ruritania - Rupert Of Hentzau (3/3)
(1898 - 1918) **Arnold Bennett - Five Towns - Anna Of The Five Towns (2/11) {Sutherland Library}

(1901 - 1919) **Carolyn Wells - Patty Fairfield - Patty's Fortune (14/17) {Project Gutenberg}
(1901 - 1927) **George Barr McCutcheon - Graustark - Beverly Of Graustark (2/6) {Project Gutenberg}
(1906 - 1930) **John Galsworthy - The Forsyte Saga - The Silver Spoon (8/12) {Sutherland stack / fadedpage.com}
(1907 - 1912) **Carolyn Wells - Marjorie - Marjorie's Vacation (1/6) {ManyBooks}
(1908 - 1924) **Margaret Penrose - Dorothy Dale - Dorothy Dale: A Girl Of Today (1/13) {ManyBooks}
(1909 - 1912) **Emerson Hough - Western Trilogy - 54-40 Or Fight (1/3) {Project Gutenberg}
(1910 - 1931) Grace S. Richmond - Red Pepper Burns - Red Pepper Returns (6/6)
(1910 - 1933) Jeffery Farnol - The Vibarts - The Way Beyond (3/3) {Fisher Library storage / fadedpage.com}

(1911 - 1937) Mary Roberts Rinehart - Letitia Carberry - Tish Marches On (5/5)
(1911 - 1919) **Alfred Bishop Mason - Tom Strong - Tom Strong, Lincoln's Scout (5/5)
(1913 - 1934) *Alice B. Emerson - Ruth Fielding - Ruth Fielding In The Far North (20/30) {expensive}
(1916 - 1941) John Buchan - Edward Leithen - Sick Heart River (5/5)
(1915 - 1923) **Booth Tarkington - Growth - The Magnificent Ambersons (2/3) {Project Gutenberg / Fisher Library / Kindle}
(1917 - 1929) **Henry Handel Richardson - Dr Richard Mahony - Australia Felix (1/3) {Fisher Library / Kindle}

(1920 - 1939) E. F. Benson - Mapp And Lucia - Trouble For Lucia (6/6)
(1920 - 1952) William McFee - Spenlove - The Adopted - (7/7)
(1920 - 1932) *Alice B. Emerson - Betty Gordon - Betty Gordon At Bramble Farm (1/15) {ManyBooks}
(1923 - 1931) *Agnes Miller - The Linger-Nots - The Linger-Nots And The Secret Maze (5/5) {unavailable}
(1924 - 1928) **Ford Madox Ford - Parade's End - No More Parades (2/4) {ebook}
(1926 - 1936) *Margery Lawrence - The Round Table - Nights Of The Round Table (1/2) {Kindle}
(1927 - 1960) **Mazo de la Roche - Jalna - Jalna (1/16) {State Library NSW, JFR / fadedpage.com}

(1928 - ????) Trygve Lund - Weston of the Royal North-West Mounted Police - The Vanished Prospector (6/9) {AbeBooks}
(1929 - 1931) *Ernest Raymond - Once In England - A Family That Was (1/3) {State Library NSW, interlibrary loan}

(1930 - 1932) Hugh Walpole - The Herries Chronicles - Vanessa (4/4)
(1930 - 1932) Faith Baldwin - The Girls Of Divine Corners - Myra: A Story Of Divine Corners (4/4)
(1930 - 1940) *E. M. Delafield - The Provincial Lady - The Provincial Lady In Wartime (4/4)

(1931 - 1951) Olive Higgins Prouty - The Vale Novels - Fabia (5/5)
(1931 - 1934) T. S. Stribling - The Vaiden Trilogy - The Store (2/3) {Internet Archive / academic loan / State Library, held}
(1931 - 1935) Pearl S. Buck - The House Of Earth - A House Divided (3/3)
(1932 - 1932) Lizette M. Edholm - The Merriweather Girls - The Merriweather Girls At Good Old Rockhill (4/4) {HathiTrust}
(1932 - 1952) D. E. Stevenson - Mrs Tim - Mrs Tim Flies Home (5/5) {interlibrary loan}

(1933 - 1970) Dennis Wheatley - Duke de Richlieu - The Forbidden Territory (1/11) {Fisher Library}
(1934 - 1936) Storm Jameson - The Mirror In Darkness - Company Parade (1/3) {Fisher Library}
(1934 - 1968) Dennis Wheatley - Gregory Sallust - Black August (1/11) {interlibrary loan / omnibus}
(1936 - 1952) Helen Dore Boylston - Sue Barton - Sue Barton, Student Nurse (1/7) {interlibrary loan}

(1947 - 1974) Dennis Wheatley - Roger Brook - The Launching Of Roger Brook (1/12) {Fisher Library storage}
(1948 - 1971) E. V. Timms - The Gubbys - Forever To Remain (1/12) {Fisher Library / interlibrary loan}
(1953 - 1960) Dennis Wheatley - Molly Fountain and Colonel Verney - To The Devil A Daughter (1/2) {Fisher Library storage}
(1955 - 1956) D. E. Stevenson - The Ayrton Family - Summerhills (2/2) {interlibrary loan}

17lyzard
Modifié : Sep 2, 2020, 8:01 pm

Unavailable series works:

John Rhode - Dr Priestley
The Hanging Woman (#11) {rare, expensive}

Miles Burton - Desmond Merrion / Inspector Arnold
>everything from #2 - #11 inclusive

David Sharp - Professor Fielding
When No Man Pursueth (#1)

Francis D. Grierson - Inspector Sims and Professor Wells
The Double Thumb (#3) {expensive}

Roger Scarlett - Inspector Kane {NB: Now available in paperback, but expensive}
>#4 onwards (to end of series)

Alfred Bishop Mason - Tom Strong
Tom Strong, Boy-Captain (#2)
Tom Strong, Junior (#3)
Tom Strong, Third (#4)

Roland Daniel - Wu Fang
The Society Of The Spiders (#1)

Agnes Miller - The Linger-Nots
The Linger-Nots And The Secret Maze (#5)

18lyzard
Modifié : Nov 1, 2020, 1:01 am

Books currently on loan:

  


      

  

19lyzard
Modifié : Oct 14, 2020, 6:03 pm

Reading projects:

Blog:

        

        

Other projects:

        

        

20lyzard
Modifié : Sep 2, 2020, 8:05 pm

Group read news:

Though no firm plans have yet been made, the next two likely group reads are:

- Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope for the 'gap-plugging' series

- The Rector by Magaret Oliphant for the 'Virago chronological challenge'

We have had a preliminary suggestion of next month (October) for Orley Farm. If this would suit you (or not), or if you are generally interested in either of these projects, please check in below!

21lyzard
Modifié : Sep 2, 2020, 8:11 pm

Ruminations:

As I discussed at the conclusion of my prior thread, my ongoing library difficulties are causing me grief when it comes to trying to organise my reading. I suppose I should be grateful - and I am, really - to have my ILL capacity restored, but the inability to really plan ahead is making me uncomfortable and rather panicky.

I don't want to fall back into the soft option of just mystery / series reading, and I am going to try to mix things up a bit more, going forward. I have some options for my non-crime and 1931 self-challenges that should help me do that, while still giving me the satisfaction of ticking things off lists.

Meanwhile---well, I don't really have to bang on about the state of my writing, do I...??

22lyzard
Modifié : Sep 2, 2020, 8:12 pm

...and the touchstones fought me every inch of the way; ugh.

But anyway, we are finally open for business: please come on in! :)

(Well! Pushy, aren't you?? :D )

23drneutron
Sep 2, 2020, 7:12 pm

Happy new thread!

24rosalita
Sep 2, 2020, 8:07 pm

Goodness gracious, I've never heard of the lovely chirus! That is a gorgeously composed photo, certainly prize-worthy.

25lyzard
Sep 2, 2020, 8:19 pm

>23 drneutron:

Thank you, Jim!

>24 rosalita:

...aka the Tibetan antelope; here's a close-up for you:

26NinieB
Sep 2, 2020, 8:32 pm

>20 lyzard: Orley Farm, I have read, but I did enjoy Trollope in Dickensian mode.

I would be quite eager to group-read The Rector.

27lyzard
Sep 2, 2020, 10:12 pm

>26 NinieB:

Thanks for checking in, Ninie. I've read Orley Farm too but not for ages, so I'm quite looking forward to a re-read; I haven't yet read any Oliphant, which needs fixing. :)

28lyzard
Sep 2, 2020, 10:16 pm

Oh! - and as I completely forgot to mention anywhere---

Now reading Under False Pretences by Adeline Sergeant.

29figsfromthistle
Sep 2, 2020, 10:17 pm

Happy new one!

30kac522
Modifié : Sep 2, 2020, 10:33 pm

I'm in for Orley Farm, whenever.

Also I have a library copy of The Doctor's Family and Other Stories, (OUP) which includes "The Executor" (about 30 pages) and "The Rector" (also about 30 pages). I think both stories are in the Carlingford series and precede "The Doctor's Family" (about 140 pages), according to the blurb on my book.

31lyzard
Sep 2, 2020, 11:01 pm

>29 figsfromthistle:

Thanks, Anita!

>30 kac522:

Excellent!

Yes, I need to look into the proper ordering of the Carlingford series and whether we might want to try more than one story at once. Obviously I got the idea that The Rector came first from somewhere but I'll do some better research and make certain.

32NinieB
Modifié : Sep 3, 2020, 12:20 am

>31 lyzard: The Executor was the first story set in Carlingford. Then The Rector and The Doctor's Family were published together in book form and that is what Virago reprinted.

There's an excellent 100-page fiction bibliography available that gives a very helpful overview: https://archive.org/details/Margaret_Oliphant_Fiction_Bibliography/.

I got very excited about Mrs. Oliphant when I read Zaidee last year but have not gotten around to actually reading any more by her.

33lyzard
Sep 3, 2020, 12:46 am

>32 NinieB:

Thanks, that's really helpful!

34kac522
Sep 3, 2020, 12:58 am

>32 NinieB: Yes, thank you!

35PaulCranswick
Sep 3, 2020, 3:10 am

Happy new thread, Liz.

36Helenliz
Sep 3, 2020, 4:26 am

Happy new thread, Liz.
I'm loving the variety of pictures you've chosen.

37FAMeulstee
Sep 3, 2020, 10:46 am

Happy new thread, Liz!

>1 lyzard: Lovely picture, I had to look up chirus.
>25 lyzard: Should have looked here before searching ;-)

38jnwelch
Sep 3, 2020, 12:59 pm

Happy New Thread, Liz!

What an interesting photo up top. I hadn't heard of chirus before. I went and looked at images of them before seeing the >25 lyzard: photo, and thought they kinda looked like stocky gazelles. Antelope makes sense.

39lyzard
Modifié : Sep 3, 2020, 6:07 pm

>34 kac522:

I hope that means 'in', Kathy!

>35 PaulCranswick:, >36 Helenliz:, >37 FAMeulstee:, >38 jnwelch:

Thank you, Paul, Helen, Anita and Joe!

>36 Helenliz:

I'm glad you like them. :)

>37 FAMeulstee:

You know me, any excuse for an animal pic!

>37 FAMeulstee:, >38 jnwelch:

I love that i could introduce you to a new kind of animal.

40lyzard
Sep 3, 2020, 6:26 pm

Finished Under False Pretences for TIOLI #2.

Now reading Mystery House by J. M. Walsh.

41lyzard
Sep 3, 2020, 6:34 pm

Okay---

This woman's eyes are starting to freak me out:





42rosalita
Sep 3, 2020, 7:36 pm

>41 lyzard: 🎶"Jeepers, creepers, where'd you get those peepers?"🎶

43lyzard
Sep 3, 2020, 10:39 pm

>42 rosalita:

Mostly creepers! :D

44lyzard
Modifié : Sep 5, 2020, 5:49 pm



Publication date: 1860
Genre: Classic
Read for: Group read

Castle Richmond - Despite the contemporary failure of his first two novels, Anthony Trollope continued to be drawn to Irish themes over the course of his career; and with this 1860 novel, he became the only writer of his time to even attempt to address the horrors of the Irish famine of the late 1840s. While we commend his courage, we have to wish that the results were more worthy. Writing with over a decade's hindsight, Trollope presents the famine not merely as God's will, but literally as God's mercy---speaking of the devastation in a calm, Panglossian way that makes the blood run cold. And while we might bring ourselves to understand that this was Trollope's way of dealing with the devastation that he witnessed first-hand, when he carries it so far as to praise the British government's inaction as "wisdom" rather than admitting the selfish economic pragmatism behind it, the effect is enraging. This overarching callousness, however, sits very oddly beside Trollope's immediate, heartfelt descriptions of the extreme physical suffering of the Irish people and the well-meant but ineffectual efforts to help by those in charge---which in turn are strangely blended into one of the author's familiar love-triangle plots. With occasional interruptions from the horrors unfolding around them, Castle Richmond keeps its focus upon two families of the upper classes: the Desmonds of Desmond Court, and the Fitzgeralds of Castle Richmond. The widowed Countess of Desmond is as proud as she is poor; and when Owen Fitzgerald, a second cousin of the wealthy landowners, has the temerity to force an admission of love from sixteen-year-old Clara Desmond, she ruthlessly intervenes. There is, however, a secondary motive for the countess's actions: having sold herself for a title when only a girl, she has now fallen in love with the handsome, passionate Owen... Obedient to her mother's commands, Clara tries to cut Owen out of her heart and, after a long struggle, believes that she has done so. In time she even brings herself to listen to the proposals of Herbert Fitzgerald, the only son and heir of Sir Thomas Fitzgerald of Castle Richmond and the district's most eligible bachelor. Though Sir Thomas seems dismayed rather than pleased by Herbert's engagement, the Countess of Desmond is exultant at her daughter's social success---until a terrible secret from Lady Fitzgerald's past rises up to devastate both families, and strip Herbert of his wealth and position, and even his name... Though there are, of course, many effective stretches of writing in Castle Richmond, it is hard not to feel that Trollope's heart wasn't really in it---or rather, that though he had been driven to write about the famine, he knew that he wasn't doing justice to his subject matter. This is an uncomfortable novel from start to finish, full of incompatible elements; and though Trollope handles the emotional and psychological fallout from the revelation of Lady Fitzgerald's secret with his usual insight, his love-plot in contrast feels perfunctory and a bit shallow. Owen's fixation with Clara comes across as creepy rather than romantic or tragic; while Trollope's evident discomfort with Clara's change of heart ("nice" girls didn't love more than once) keeps him from attempting the close dissection of motives and feelings at which he usually excelled, and which we expect from him. All in all this is an unsatisfactory novel; a cruelly unbalanced novel, in which the personal problems of the upper classes are given more weight than the slow, agonising deaths of a million or more people of the working-classes. The only saving grace here is our sense of Trollope's awareness that he was not writing the book that he should have been writing---as those too-few passages when he lets himself describe the reality of the famine make only too painfully evident.

    Squatting in the middle of the cabin, seated on her legs crossed under her, with nothing between her and the wet earth, there crouched a woman with a child in her arms. At first, so dark was the place, Herbert hardly thought that the object before him was a human being. She did not move when he entered, or speak to him, or in any way show sign of surprise that he should have come there. There was room for him and his horse without pushing her from her place; and, as it seemed, he might have stayed there and taken his departure without any sign having been made by her.
    But as his eyes became used to the light he saw her eyes gleaming brightly through the gloom. They were very large and bright as they turned round upon him while he moved---large and bright, but with a dull, unwholesome brightness,---a brightness that had in it none of the light of life.
    And then he looked at her more closely. She had on her some rag of clothing which barely sufficed to cover her nakedness, and the baby which she held in her arms was covered in some sort; but he could see, as he came to stand close over her, that these garments were but loose rags which were hardly fastened round her body. Her rough short hair hung down upon her back, clotted with dirt, and the head and face of the child which she held was covered with dirt and sores. On no more wretched object, in its desolate solitude, did the eye of man ever fall.
    In those days there was a form of face which came upon the sufferers when their state of misery was far advanced, and which was a sure sign that their last stage of misery was nearly run. The mouth would fall and seem to hang, the lips at the two ends of the mouth would be dragged down, and the lower parts of the cheeks would fall as though they had been dragged and pulled. There were no signs of acute agony when this phasis of countenance was to be seen, none of the horrid symptoms of gnawing hunger by which one generally supposes that famine is accompanied. The look is one of apathy, desolation, and death...


45Matke
Sep 5, 2020, 11:35 am

>1 lyzard: and >25 lyzard: Ooooh, lovely. And a new creature for me.

>20 lyzard: Of course I am in for any Trollope at any time. And I *think* I have a Collected Works ebook for Margaret Oliphant hanging about waiting to be read.

>21 lyzard: “the soft option of just mystery/series reading”; indeed. I’m struggling with that myself but for different reasons. I seem to be making a tiny bit of progress though...

>44 lyzard: My goodness: a perfect review (from my viewpoint, so excellently expressed by you) of Castle Richmond. A difficult book indeed.

46lyzard
Sep 5, 2020, 5:48 pm

>45 Matke:

Hi, Gail! I'm so glad to be introducing a new animal to so many people. :)

The spirit is willing but when it comes to really mixing up my reading I just don't have the access; and I don't want to let my Kindle spending get away from me, particularly as I'm contemplating a handful of more expensive mysteries. (I've been spoilt by the good people at Black Heath with their $1.50-ish releases!)

Great to hear! I will post a note to the group read / Castle Richmond threads and see if we have a consensus over a time for Orley Farm.

Thank you! It's a necessary book but a frustrating one.

47lyzard
Modifié : Sep 5, 2020, 6:22 pm

Best-selling books in the United States for 1959:

1. Exodus by Leon Uris
2. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
3. Hawaii by James A. Michener
4. Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
5. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
6. The Ugly American by William J. Lederer and Eugene L. Burdick
7. Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell
8. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
9. Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico
10. Poor No More by Robert Ruark

Two things strike us about 1959: (i) American readers were pushing back against censorship; and (ii) they apparently had a crap-load of reading-time on their hands that year, with no less than four massive chunksters fighting it out for the top spot.

The clear outlier here is Paul Gallico's Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris (published in the UK as Flowers For Mrs Harris), the first in his mostly comic series about the unlikely adventures of a London charwoman.

Taylor Caldwell's Dear and Glorious Physician is a fictional biography of Luke that attempts to explain how he came by the knowledge to write his biblical book(s). James A. Michener's Hawaii is a more conventional piece of historical writing, tracing the history of the islands literally from their volcanic birth to statehood. Meanwhile, Boris Pasternak's novel of the Russian revolution and its aftermath, Doctor Zhivago, which was #1 in 1958, holds onto the #2 spot.

Robert Ruark's Poor No More is a depressingly prescient novel about a ruthless financial manipulator and his journey to the top on the back of other people's money.

Allen Drury's Advise and Consent is a political drama about the struggle between the President and the US Senate over the appointment of a Secretary of State (we'll be hearing more about this one anon); while Lederer and Burdick's The Ugly American is a bitter exposé of American foreign policy in Asia and the arrogance and blunders that led to first the Korean War, then Vietnam.

D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, about the ramifications of a cross-class sexual affair, was first published in 1928, but after being banned and/or existing only in heavily expurgated versions, a series of legal battles in the US and the UK across 1959-1960 resulted in the release of the uncensored text. Having already fought its own such battles and after making it to #3 in 1958, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita held on to the #8 spot in 1959.

The year's best-selling book was Exodus by Leon Uris, his account of the founding of the State of Israel.

48lyzard
Modifié : Sep 5, 2020, 7:10 pm



Leon Uris was born in Baltimore in 1924, the son of a Polish immigrant father and a Russian-American mother. His father spent a year in Palestine before entering the United States, and upon doing so created the name 'Uris' for himself, deriving it from "Yerushalmi", meaning "man of Jerusalem".

Uris did relatively poorly in school, failing English and never graduating---although the latter because, at the age of 17, he dropped out to join the Marines after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He served in the South Pacific from 1942 - 1944, before being invalided home; while his unit went on to fight the brutal Battle of Saipan.

After marrying in 1945 (his first wife, Betty, was also in the Marine Corp), Uris found work as a journalist; he also began writing fiction in his spare time. Haunted by his medical escape from Saipan, Uris began work on the novel, Battle Cry, a tribute to the Marines which drew upon his own experiences in Guadalcanal and Tarawa. The book was turned into a film by Warners, with Uris invited to Hollywood to write the screenplay.

Uris would continue to write novels of war, struggle and nationalism throughout his career, including QB VII, about a Polish doctor in a German concentration camp; Mila 18, about the Warsaw ghetto uprising; The Haj, an historical novel set in the Middle East; and the paired works, Trinity and Redemption, about Ireland during the first decades of the 20th century.

However, Uris's best-known and most successful work remains Exodus, his 1958 novel about the founding of the State of Israel. Some controversy remains over the genesis of the book. Though Uris himself was passionately pro-Israel, and spent two years travelling and researching material for his novel, it is also accepted that the book was a commissioned piece of propaganda intended to win American sympathy for the newly-established Jewish state.

Regardless, the novel achieved what it was intended to, becoming not only the United States' best-selling novel of 1959, but the country's best-selling book since Gone With The Wind. Inevitably, it was transferred to the screen in 1960, by Otto Preminger.

49lyzard
Modifié : Sep 6, 2020, 7:15 pm



Publication date: 1958
Genre: Historical drama, contemporary drama
Read for: Best-seller challenge

Exodus - Leon Uris's 1958 novel about the struggle to establish a Jewish state in Palestine is an often powerful, frequently uneven and ultimately worrying piece of writing. It opens in Cyprus in 1946, where the British occupying forces are maintaining detention camps for Jewish refugees, and actively preventing Jewish emigration to Palestine as part of their compact with the Arab nations---with a view to maintaining their oil supply. As the time draws near for a United Nations vote upon the partitioning of Palestine, Jewish freedom fighter Ari Ben Canaan hatches a daring plan to draw the eyes of the world to Cyprus and to win sympathy for the Jewish cause. Using the British forces' own procedures against them, Ari outfits a cargo ship - renamed the Exodus - and smuggles onboard hundreds of refugees, many of them children; warning the British that the ship is loaded with dynamite and that, should they attempt to board, it will be blown up. A state of siege develops, with the passengers retaliating against the blockade of the harbour first with a hunger strike, then with threats of mass suicide. With the eyes of the world upon them, the British are forced to relent; and the Exodus sails triumphantly for Palestine---its human cargo only too well aware, however, that this is merely the first step in what is to be a long and bitter struggle for statehood and independence... The majority of Jewish settlers in Palestine establish themselves in a series of kibbutzim and begin to work the land; at they same time, they begin military training for the conflict they are grimly certain lies ahead. However, a handful separate themselves into an underground movement called "the Maccabees", which carries out a terror campaign against British installations. When the United Nations vote is for the partitioning of Palestine and the establishment of the Jewish State of Israel, the settlers' celebration is heartfelt but brief: immediately, there is a declaration of war from the Arab nations... As a piece of propaganda, which it was certainly intended to be, Exodus is a shrewd and effective work. We can sympathise with Leon Uris's desire to create a positive piece of Jewish fiction, and his parallel rejection of the majority of Jewish-themed fiction written to that time---which, he argued, chiefly featured Jewish people feeling bad about / apologising for being Jewish. There's certainly none of that in Exodus, which describes a proud, passionate and courageous people, one of whose main advantages in their struggle is that Gentile and Arab alike underestimate them and their commitment. The main Jewish characters are, indeed, almost absurdly idealised: all as physically impressive as they are brave and strong; although this, too, we can forgive as a pushback against centuries of fiction featuring ugly Jewish stereotypes. It is noticeable, however - perhaps with an eye to this book's intended American readership - that Judaisim is presented throughout in terms of a national and cultural identity, never as a religion; in fact, those who practice it most devoutly tend to be dismissed as "fanatics". Ultimately, Leon Uris's positive Jewish fiction ends up committing many of the same sins as the negative works he set out to counter, only in the other direction. As a work of historical fiction, it is actively dangerous---which is to say, it tells the truth up to a point; and because the truth it is telling, the history of the persecution of the Jews through to the end of WWII, is so appalling, as readers we do not not necessarily notice when the narrative parts ways with that truth. To give only the most obvious example of this, in the real-life incident upon which the story of the Exodus is based, the ship did not reach Palestine but was forced back to Europe; to (of all places) Germany: it was this that roused worldwide sympathy with the refugees and forced a change in British policy. Purely as a novel, Exodus's main fault is positioning the character of American nurse, Kitty Fremont, as the "outsider eye". Though Kitty is doubtless meant to represent typical Gentile (read: American) ignorance about the Jews, and to illustrate the justice of the Jewish cause as she is drawn for a variety of reasons into their battle for a homeland, she is a poorly written character believable neither as an individual nor as an identification figure. Kitty's motives make little sense; while her appropriation of the young Jewish girl, Karen Hansen, who reminds her of her own dead daughter, is just creepy. She is also an exasperating example of the "informed attribute": we're constantly told about all the marvellous work she does amongst the Jewish children and those in need of medical care, but one impromptu piece of surgery aside, we never see any of it. Nor is the relationship that develops between her and Ari credible for a moment, except perhaps on the basic physical level. Ari's insistence that he loves Kitty more than his early lost love, Dafna, a fellow freedom-fighter who was tortured, raped and murdered by the Arabs, is just insulting. And this brings us to the other truly worrying thing about Exodus: its anti-Arab rhetoric is unrelenting and vicious; quite as much as or even more so than the language of the antisemitic works that this novel was intended to counter. For the most part, the Arabs are presented as barely even human; while the novel's very few "good Arabs" are those that admire the Jews and aspire to be like them. Their position as a result of partition is barely glanced at; nor is any consideration given to the justice or otherwise of the imposition of partition by outside forces. The narrative, perhaps more forgivably, also demonises the British---while excusing overt acts of terrorism by the Jews. (As always, one man's terrorist is another man's patriot.) However---for all of its faults and deliberate inaccuracies, Exodus is still capable for long stretches of drawing the reader into its plot and its cause. Uris's descriptions of Palestine, his grasp of the various forces in play during this critical point in history, and his own passion for his subject matter carry this work at a rush over its more questionable aspects. As a piece of propaganda, Exodus is exemplary; as a novel, it needs to be approached with caution.

    The entire top of Tabor was a large, rounded plateau. The south edge of the plateau opened the entire Jezeel Valley to their eyes. It was a staggering sight. Kitty could follow the Jezeel, the square-cut fields, the splashes of green around the Jewish settlements, and the white clusters of Arab villages all the way to Mount Carmel and the Mediterranean. In the other direction was the Sea of Galilee, so that the entire width of Palestine was below them. Through field glasses Kitty had followed Ari's pointing out of Ein Dor where Saul met the witch and the bald top of Mount Gilboa where Gideon was buried and Saul and Jonathan fell in battle to the Philistines.
    "Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast aside, the shield of Saul..."
    Kitty lowered the glasses. "Why Ari, you are poetic."
    "It is the altitude. Everything is so removed from up here. Look over there---Beth Shean Valley. Beth Shean tel holds the oldest civilised city in the world. David knows more about these things than I do. There are hundreds of tels around Palestine. He says that if we were to start excavating them now our modern cities would be ruins by the time we are finished. You see, Palestine is the bridge of history here and you are standing on the centre of the bridge. Tabor has been a battleground since men made axes out of stone. The Hebrews stood against the Romans here and between the Crusaders and the Arabs it changed hands fifty times. Deborah hid here with her army and swooped down on the Canaanites. The battleground of the ages...
    "You know what we say?...that Moses should have walked the tribes for another forty years and found a decent place."


50lyzard
Sep 6, 2020, 10:38 pm

Finished Mystery House for TIOLI #1...and that is #100 for the year.

I only wish it had been better.

Hmm. I was hoping to start on The Agony And The Ecstasy next, but it looks like I won't be getting to the library for a day or two, so---maybe Tragedy At Ravensthorpe?

Lemme have a think about it...

51Helenliz
Sep 7, 2020, 3:10 am

Well done on 100, Liz.

52rosalita
Modifié : Sep 7, 2020, 10:56 am

Happy 100th book, Liz! Sorry it was a bit of a dud, though.

I've started Out of the Past at last. Still early days, but I can already tell who's going to get killed, since every other character in the book seems to have a motive to do him in! (And if ever a villain deserved the "Orient Express" treatment it's this one.)

53rosalita
Modifié : Sep 8, 2020, 7:02 am

And proof that I should wait to post until I drink my tea in the morning, I have additional comments about the Miss Silver that I meant to make above.

1. The use of "p.g.'s" to mean "paying guests" as in taking in roomers without formally running a boarding house, is unknown as far as I am aware in American English (we would say "taking in lodgers" or taking in boarders" mostly, I think). Was this such a common occurrence and term in postwar England that everyone knew what it meant without explanation? I know it came up in Ladies Bane as well, and was not even cursorily explained as far as I can remember, so I was at a loss for a bit until the story made it more clear.

2. Now I can't remember what the other comment was! Maybe I need more tea ...

54lyzard
Sep 7, 2020, 5:40 pm

>51 Helenliz:, >52 rosalita:

Thank you, ladies!

>52 rosalita:, >53 rosalita:

Yes, there's asking for it, and then there's ASKING FOR IT. :D

It's a class-language thing. You need to remember that this is Austerity Britain, where investments had died, servants barely existed any more, and a lot of people who had never dreamed of such a thing were forced to earn (or at least supplement) their income. Conversely a lot of people also had to give up their houses and move into rooms.

If you kept lodgings or a rooming- or boarding-house, you were a working person; but if you took in a paying guest you were still a nice middle-class person---and usually, so was your p.g. Even the expression 'p.g.' was a way of not saying 'paying' out loud.

This isn't to say that there was any actually difference between lodgers and paying guests, it was just a way of sparing the feelings on both sides.

55lyzard
Sep 7, 2020, 5:46 pm

So, yeah---

Now reading Tragedy At Ravensthorpe by J. J. Connington.

I found this a bit freaky:

I ended up having to buy a Kindle copy but while I was hunting around to see if I could find it online anywhere, I came across this clipping from a Western Australian newspaper from 1921, 6 years before the Connington novel was published. Just a weird coincidence, or did Connington somehow see and remember this phrase?---

56lyzard
Modifié : Sep 7, 2020, 6:31 pm

You know what's annoying?

1. When nearly all of an author's books are available, but not the one you're chasing.

2. When a book doesn't come up in a catalogue search under the author's name but does if you search by title (or vice-versa).

3. When a library is listed as 'not open to the public', when what they really mean is 'open to members only'.

But anyway---

I have discovered some potential sources for a few of the "missing" books on my lists. I don't dare hope that all of them will pan out but at least a few are looking good.

57NinieB
Sep 7, 2020, 10:38 pm

>53 rosalita: >54 lyzard: The expression "p.g." is used in Mrs McGinty's Dead—I had to look it up. So I think in Britain at least everyone knew what it meant.

58lyzard
Sep 7, 2020, 11:52 pm

>57 NinieB:

That's a perfect example. The Summerhayes-es are an old family, "gentry", but they can't afford their house any more so they have to take a p.g.

Maud seems to have better luck with this sort of thing than poor Hercule. :D

59rosalita
Sep 8, 2020, 7:04 am

>54 lyzard: >57 NinieB: >58 lyzard: Thanks to both of you! As an American, I was missing the "genteel poverty" aspect of it to explain why people would want to use euphemisms to cover taking in lodgers out of need. Shame on me, because I've read (and loved) Austerity Britain.

>56 lyzard: That does sound vexing, Liz. I hope you can sort it all out and get the books you want in the order you want them.

60swynn
Modifié : Sep 8, 2020, 12:36 pm

When a book doesn't come up in a catalogue search under the author's name but does if you search by title (or vice-versa).

Grrr. The google-ification of search tools so that everything's a grumble grumble keyword search instead of a properly indexed one. Hate that.

61lyzard
Sep 8, 2020, 5:03 pm

>59 rosalita:

Glad to help! Did you remember your second point? Or not enough tea yet??

>60 swynn:

So you would understand why I spend so much time re-searching (as opposed to researching) my missing books. There's always the tantalising prospect that I just haven't found the right search string yet.

There seems to be something else, or additional, going on with my local Amazon, where sometimes a book will come up if you search titletitleauthor but not if you search authortitletitle.

My favourite catalogue glitch is purely human, though I'm not sure if it indicates pedantry or just ignorance: my academic library holds copies of Benjamin Disraeli's first novel, Vivian Grey, but they only come up in the catalogue if you search for it by title only or as by 'the Earl of Beaconsfield', because strictly it was never published as by Benjamin Disraeli (anonymous to late-career reissue).

62lyzard
Modifié : Sep 8, 2020, 5:49 pm

HOWEVER---

In good cataloguing news, it looks as if people have been using the lockdown to do some overhauling, because three books I had previously listed as rare and expensive or outright unavailable have now shown up in the same academic library's Rare Books section...and two of them those always elusive 'firsts':

- The Diamond Feather by Helen Reilly, first in her Inspector Christopher McKee series
- The Case Of The Marsden Rubies by Leonard Gribble, first in his Anthony Slade series
- The Mystery Of The Open Window by "Anthony Gilbert" (Lucy Malleson), #4 in her Scott Egerton series

I'm extra excited about the last: the Egerton series doesn't attract much notice these days compared to Gilbert's later works but I was really enjoying it and being stalled halfway through was driving me nuts.

Of course the library is still in partial lockdown with no immediate prospect of Rare Books being opened up to the public again, but at least I know they're THERE...

Furthermore---some more re-searching has revealed that the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts Library is not a private research library as I had assumed from the way it is generally described, but does let the public become members for a reasonable yearly fee. Super excited about this too because it seems to hold a good selection of old mysteries including at least another couple I've been stalled on.

So glitch-bitching aside, yesterday was a GOOD day...

63rosalita
Sep 8, 2020, 5:38 pm

>61 lyzard: Did you remember your second point?

I haven't been able to get back to it since, but I'm hoping once I pick it back up the other penny/shoe will drop. Hope springs eternal!

64lyzard
Sep 8, 2020, 10:18 pm

>63 rosalita:

Clearly another cuppa is in order!

65lyzard
Sep 8, 2020, 10:20 pm

Ooh, this *has* been a good week!

I've just discovered that another sticking-point, Lee Thayer's The Key (#6 in her Peter Clancy series), is now available at the Internet Archive; whoo!

I think we've settled what the rest of my September reading is going to look like...

66NinieB
Sep 8, 2020, 10:37 pm

>58 lyzard: Ha ha, yes, Hercule's experience with the Summerhayes ménage was pretty uncomfortable (and funny).

>59 rosalita: Happy to help! According to the OED, the use of the initials dates from the 1920s.

67lyzard
Sep 8, 2020, 11:20 pm

>66 NinieB:

I love the callback in Cat Among The Pigeons!

Ah, that's interesting: so it was a post-WWI thing originally. Thanks!

68lyzard
Modifié : Sep 9, 2020, 6:59 am

Finished Tragedy At Ravensthorpe for TIOLI #4.

Time to celebrate this week's discoveries, I think: now reading The Key by Lee Thayer.

69rosalita
Sep 9, 2020, 6:44 am

>66 NinieB: Ah, earlier than I thought but that makes sense, as things must have quite dire economically after WWI for many formerly comfortable families. All those young widows left behind with children — dire.

70lyzard
Modifié : Sep 9, 2020, 8:17 pm



Publication date: 1979
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Miss Marple #14
Read for: Chronological challenge

Miss Marple's Final Cases; and Two Other Stories - Published three years after the death of Agatha Christie, this volume collects six short stories featuring Miss Marple that were originally published between 1935 - 1954. In Sanctuary, a dying man takes refuge in a church---and sets in motion the hunt for a stolen emerald necklace... In Strange Jest, when a man with a peculiar sense of humour dies he makes things as difficult as possible for his heirs... In Tape-Measure Murder, when a dressmaker is found strangled suspicion falls upon her husband, who inherits a tidy sum... In The Case Of The Care-Taker, a newly married couple's happiness is shattered by murder... In The Case Of The Perfect Maid, an apparent paragon of a domestic disappears, leaving a wave of jewel thefts in her wake... In Miss Marple Tells A Story, a man is in danger of his life when his wife is murdered in their suite of rooms at a hotel... Oddly enough arranged more or less in reverse chronological order, these "final" six stories are a treat for fans of Jane inasmuch as they simultaneously serve as callbacks for most of her career. Sanctuary is explicitly set in the wake of A Murder Is Announced, and features Inspector Craddock and the Reverend Julian Harmon and his wife, Diana, known as "Bunch" (and of course mentions their cat, Tiglath Pileser). In Strange Jest, the actress Jane Helier, who forms one of the discussion party in The Thirteen Problems, brings her friends' difficulty with a tricky will to Miss Marple. Tape-Measure Murder and The Case Of The Perfect Maid are both set in St Mary Mead and feature much the same supporting cast as The Murder At The Vicarage; while The Case Of The Care-Taker finds Dr Haydock offering a bedridden Jane a mystery story by way of a "mental tonic". (This story is also a dry run for the later Christie standalone, Endless Night, so beware spoilers if you haven't read that.) Finally, Miss Marple Tells A Story - the only first-person narrative in the whole Jane canon - was originally written for radio, where it was read by Dame Agatha herself. As promised in its subtitle, this collection also includes two non-Miss Marple, supernatural-themed stories: The Dressmaker's Doll, about a toy with a mind of its own; and In A Glass Darkly, in which a fortune-teller's prediction of murder begins to come true...

    "I suppose, really, that I'm better," Miss Marple admitted, "but I feel so terribly depressed. I can't help feeling how much better it would have been if I had died. After all, I'm an old woman. Nobody wants me or cares about me."
    Doctor Haydock interrupted with his usual brusqueness. "Yes, yes, typical after-reaction to this type of flu. What you need is something to take you out of yourself. A mental tonic... And what's more," he continued, "I've brought my medicine with me!"
    He tossed a long envelope on to the bed. "Just the thing for you. The kind of puzzle that is right up your street."
    "A puzzle?" Miss Marple looked interested.
    "Literary effort of mine," said the doctor, blushing a little. "Tried to make a regular story out of it. 'He said', 'she said', 'the girl thought', etc. Facts of the story are true."
    "But why a puzzle?" asked Miss Marple.
    Doctor Haydock grinned. "Because the interpretation is up to you. I want to see if you're as clever as you always make out."

71lyzard
Sep 10, 2020, 7:12 pm

Finished The Key for TIOLI #6...

...and having gotten Lee Thayer's Peter Clancy series rolling again, it immediately stalls again...on a book only available via purchase with overseas shipping.

Sigh.

Anyway---now reading By Force Of Circumstances by "Gordon Holmes" (Louis Tracy).

72lyzard
Sep 10, 2020, 8:00 pm



Publication date: 1931
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Madame Rosika Storey #7
Read for: Series reading / 1931 reading

Easy To Kill - Madame Rosika Storey is summoned to Newport, where she finds the elderly but ostentatiously wealthy Van Tassels in an evident state of extreme fear. The couple reveal that for some time, they have been paying an extortionist who has been threatening Mr Van Tassel's life in a series of ominous letters that spell out just how easy it is to kill an old man like him. The letters did not go through the post, but have been found at different places around the house, emphasising the writer's threat of being able to get at Mr Van Tassel whenever he chooses; while the most recent mentions the death of another elderly millionaire, supposedly from natural causes... The Van Tassels' plan to pay the extortionist with marked money so that he may be identified and "confronted", and their horror of the police, tells Madame Storey that they suspect who is behind the scheme. Reluctantly, they accuse Nicholas Van Tassel, the old man's nephew, who through adverse events was left penniless by his father's death, but somehow lives a life of luxury amongst the elite of Newport. Madame Storey accepts the case, arranging for a friend to introduce her into Newport society---and to Nicholas Van Tassel. She is soon sure that the Van Tassels are correct in their suspicions, but sees that proving it - and putting an end to the cruel scheme - will take all of her cunning... This seventh entry in Hulbert Footner's series about private investigator (she prefers "psychologist") Madame Storey is a thriller rather than a mystery: a case of crime prevented rather than crime solved. It uses one of Footner's favourite situations, with detective and criminal, both posing as someone other than they are, recognising each other and conducting an elaborate game of cat-and-mouse. In Nicholas Van Tassel, Madame Storey has an adversary worthy of her steel, one who uses all the resources at his disposal - including his social standing in Newport - to thwart her. Their battle is shot through with a sense of sexual tension; though Footner's attempts to suggest Nicholas's deadly attractiveness, by having Bella Brickley, Madame Storey's staid but loyal assistant, fall for him against her will, are awkward and overdone. On the other hand, Nicholas's successful efforts to damage Madame Storey's reputation and force her out of Newport society set up the two best aspects of this novel. Displaying her ability to sympathise and connect with individuals of all walks of life (as was also the best thing about the first series work, The Under Dogs), Madame Storey forms an odd partnership with a couple of young criminals, who turn out to be more loyal and dependable than most of the members of the Newport elite. One exception to the latter generalisation is the eccentric recluse, Miss Betsy Pryor, who takes in the detective and her sidekick after, having failed in a first attempt upon their lives, Nicholas goes so far as to burn down the old hotel in which they are staying. After escaping by the skin of their teeth, Madame Storey and Bella discover that they are presumed dead---with the detective quick to seize upon this unique opportunity to work from cover...

    "I fell for you!" Pete went on, almost weeping in his rage. "God! what a fool I was. You're the first and the last I'll ever fall for. I thought you was a swell girl, game like a fella, and on the level! And you're on'y a bull! You got all our business out of us, didn't ya?"
    "I didn't ask you for it," said Madame Storey. "You told me as a friend and I listened as a friend."
    "Yeah? Well, I had enough of such a friend. You and she can get the hell out of here, see? I don't care if you do bring a cop back with you. You're lucky we don't beat you up first."
    "Wait a minute!"
    "Aah!" he snarled, sticking out his jaw. "Don't you think I'm man enough to put you out?"
    "Sure," she answered, coolly. "And I wouldn't bring a cop back, neither. But just answer me one question first."
    "What's that?" he demanded.
    "Which do you hate the worst, a bull like me, or a high muckamuck like Nick Van Tassel?"
    "I hate you all!" he said, with a violent gesture.
    "Sure! But you got to decide, see? Because Nick Van Tassel is my mark. If you put us out of here I'll fail. If you help me like you agreed to do, I'll get him."
    "Aah! What could you get on a man like Nick Van Tassel?" Pete sneered.
    "I've got enough on him for him to want to kill me," said Madame Storey.


73lyzard
Modifié : Sep 11, 2020, 1:02 am



Publication date: 1950
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Read for: TIOLI (a 7th book)

Mischief - A few chapters into this psychological thriller by Charlotte Armstrong I got a sense of recognition; and this was indeed the basis for the film, Don't Bother To Knock, about a mentally unstable babysitter: one of Marilyn Monroe's efforts to break stereotype. The film and the character are very much softened from the book, however, in which Nell Munro is an outright psychopath, her behaviour enabled by the relatives with whom she lives, who refuse to see what she is or that she means the harm she does: they cling to the belief that it's all just "mischief"... Peter Jones travels to New York with his wife, Ruth, and their young daughter, Bunny, where he is to give an important speech at a gathering of newspapermen. At the last moment, Peter's feckless sister, Betty, pulls out of her offer to babysit Bunny while Ruth accompanies Peter to the dinner. After hesitating very much over her conflicting duties, Ruth accepts the offer made by the hotel lift-operator, who hears about her plight, that his niece should watch Bunny for the evening; assuming, incorrectly, that this Nell Munro is vouched for by the hotel. Nell listens meekly to Ruth's list of instructions, but as soon as she and Peter have departed, the girl sets about organising her evening to her own liking... After a furious argument with his girlfriend, Jed Towers spends his last night in New York not as he had planned, by getting engaged, but alone in a hotel room. Still smarting from Lyn's strictures on his lack of character, Jed decides savagely to prove her right; and when, from a window across the hotel courtyard, he receives a clear come-on from a young woman, he decides to accept---and walks into a nightmare... Mischief is a novel with several agendas, some of which work better than others. It is most successful as a novel of suspense, with a threatened child at its heart, and a slow reveal of exactly how much danger Bunny is in. The gradually revealed back-story of Nell, including the reasons why she is now living with her Uncle Eddie, is also horrifying; while there is an attempt, unusual for fiction of this era, to try and explain the workings of Nell's psychopathy. The other aspects of Mischief are more of their time, particularly Ruth's thought processes as she finds herself torn between being "a good wife" and "a good mother". The role played by Jed Towers is most problematic of all, as the narrative increasingly becomes a question of exactly how wide the gap actually is between the unbalanced Nell and his eminently sane self, and of his potential for redemption---or otherwise. A seemingly trivial incident - Jed's refusal to "spare some change" - escalates into a possibly permanent rift between himself and Lyn Lesley, as the consequent argument reveals to each of them their irreconcilably opposed philosophies of life: her impractical idealism, as he views it; his dog-eat-dog cynicism, as she views it. Angry and resentful at Lyn's abrupt rejection and the collapse of all his plans, Jed sets out to punish her by proving her right about him---even if he's the only one who ever knows it. He accepts Nell's tacit invitation into "her" hotel room seeking a few drinks and whatever might follow, only to find himself caught in a bewildering net of game-playing, emotional and physical blackmail, and violence. As the situation escalates, Jed's only thought is to escape in a way that will keep his own involvement in the incident concealed---while knowing that doing so means leaving Bunny to her fate...

    He knelt in the crevice between the beds. He felt, blindly. Something threshed. He wanted light but he didn't dare. His fingers found a thin chilly little...what? Shoulder? Yes, for he touched a soft braid. He felt for the face, the warm lips, and the breath, but touched, instead, fabric.
    God damn her to hell, the God-damned bitch, she'd bound and gagged the little thing. Oh, damn and blast her rotten soul! Aw, the poor little...
    "Bunny!" he whispered. "Bunny Jones? Aw, Bunny, poor kid. Listen, sweetheart, I wouldn't hurt you for a million dollars." His fingers verified. Yes, her ankles were tied together. Wrists, too. And that cruel---stocking, he guessed it was, in and over the mouth!
    "You fall off the bed, honey? Aw, I'm sorry. I'm sorry about this. Musn't make a noise, though."
    Oh, Lord, how could the child not! If he ungagged her. It was not possible for her not to cry! He knew this. It would not be in her control. She must cry out, must make sound as soon as she was able.
    But she musn't! Or Towers would never get away...

74lyzard
Sep 12, 2020, 6:10 pm

Finished By Force Of Circumstances for TIOLI #7.

And now...I had planned to start on The Agony And The Ecstasy, but realised just in the nick of time yesterday that my local library has altered its opening hours, so I won't be picking that up until tomorrow; grr!

In the meantime---now reading Adventures Of Martin Hewitt by Arthur Morrison.

75lyzard
Modifié : Sep 12, 2020, 6:27 pm

Wrapping up By Force Of Circumstances presents me with something of a dilemma.

This work by Louis Tracy, published under his "Gordon Holmes" pseudonym, features Inspector Furneaux of Scotland Yard before Tracy teamed him up with Superintendent Winter. Interestingly, the Furneaux we get here is the same character we meet again later on, which is not the case with his future series partner. Winter at the time was condemned to playing thick-headed copper / straight man to arrogant amateur detective, Reginald Brett, in a different (and understandably short-lived) series. Tracy retooled him into a phlegmatic but much shrewder individual when he paired him with the energetic and rather eccentric Furneaux.

I know I've said this before, but I think now I've sorted out all the early permutations of this erratically developed series, which unfortunately leaves me with something of a personal dilemma. When I skip back to the series proper, I am confronted by The House Of Peril / The Park Lane Mystery, two versions of the same story - both featuring Winter and Furneaux - but one published in the US and set in New York, the other published in the UK and set in London.

The latter is obviously "correct" as far as its detectives are concerned, BUT---The Park Lane Mystery is nearly impossible to get hold of, while The House Of Peril is readily available online.

I'm currently trying to convince my brain that under the circumstances, reading The House Of Peril is an acceptable way of moving on with this series...

76lyzard
Sep 12, 2020, 6:54 pm

...and here's another weird detail:

Apparently Edgar Wallace's 1926 thriller, The Joker, was retitled "The Park Lane Mystery" for a later reissue.

77NinieB
Modifié : Sep 12, 2020, 7:00 pm

>75 lyzard: I actually have, in print, both of the Reginald Brett mysteries. Louis Tracy seems to have been quite popular in his day, since the books still show up.

78lyzard
Modifié : Sep 12, 2020, 8:45 pm



Publication date: 1926
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Sergeant / Inspector Elk #3
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (cheerful title)

The Joker (US title: The Colossus; reissue title: The Park Lane Mystery) - The activities of millionaire financier, Stratford Harlow, have long attracted the attention of the police---in particular, Inspector Jim Carlton, who divides his time between Scotland Yard and a secondment to the Foreign Office. As the battle between the two men intensifies, its focus becomes Arthur Ingle, a former actor convicted of forgery and fraud, and who now carries a furious grudge against the establishment, and Ingle's beautiful niece, Aileen Rivers, who reluctantly handles Ingle's affairs while he serves his sentence---and who, for very different reasons, attracts the attention of both Harlow and Carlton. While Harlow plots an unprecedented financial coup, one which depends upon Europe being brought literally to the brink of war, Carlton is put on the track of the weak spot in his adversary's armour by an incident tragic in itself, but seemingly trivial in the overall scheme of things: the death of Arthur Ingle's charwoman... While The Joker forms part of Edgar Wallace's odd and sporadic series featuring the lugubrious though hard-working Elk of Scotland Yard (finally promoted through sheer doggedness, in spite of his educational shortcomings), as usual the man himself is found playing second fiddle - albeit a valuable second fiddle - to a flashier colleague, in this case Jim Carlton, who combines a sharp intelligence with a willingness to bend the rules not often found in the heroes of British crime fiction. However, this is one of what we might call Wallace's "amoral" works of fiction, in which he takes an enormous and obvious pleasure in the elaborate criminal machinations of Stratford Harlow: a pleasure as great as that of Harlow himself, who derives much satisfaction and entertainment from the contemplation of his own mental superiority, his ability to outwit the forces of the law, and above all in the complicated financial manoeuvring that he thinks of to himself as his "jokes". Indeed, Wallace takes this aspect of the book so far, Harlow could almost be regarded as the hero of The Joker, rather than the man trying to stop him. He also has some unnerving fun with Aileen, who finds herself caught between the two men at the narrative's centre: falling for Carlton, in a sparring-with-the-enemy sort of way, while developing an involuntary admiration for the brilliant, unscrupulous Harlow that is entirely reciprocated. Wallace carries this subplot so far as to have Aileen keeping a vitally important secret from Carlton, one which allows for the final resolution of the plot... Overall The Joker is typical Wallace, with several seemingly unrelated plot-threads eventually coming together as Harlow weaves his elaborate scheme. Jim Carlton's investigation takes on a painful personal aspect when his superior at the Foreign Office, Sir Joseph Layton, commits an extraordinary piece of folly - dangerous folly - in his mishandling what ought to have been a trivial diplomatic incident, but which instead blows up into an escalating state of tension between England and France, one which shows every likelihood of carrying with it the threat of war. The impact of the situation is felt worldwide---not least in the international stock markets... Meanwhile, Carlton continues to look into the ambiguous death of Mrs Gibbons, growing increasingly certain that somehow, this obscure and inoffensive woman is the key to linking Stratford Harlow equally to Arthur Ingle and Sir Joseph Layton, and to bringing his extraordinary scheme crashing to the ground...

    "I bear you no malice that you do not trust me!" said Harlow. "My theory is that it is much better for a dozen innocent men to come under police surveillance than for a guilty man to escape detection. Only it is sometimes a little unnerving, the knowledge that I am being watched. I could stop it at once, of course. The Courier is in the market---I could buy a newspaper and make your lives very unpleasant indeed. I could raise a dozen men up in Parliament to ask what the devil you meant by it. In fact, my dear Carlton, there are so many ways of breaking you and your immediate superior that I cannot carry them in my head!"
    And Jim had an uncomfortable feeling that this was no vain boast.
    "I really don't mind,' Harlow went on; 'it annoys me a little, but amuses me more. I am almost above the law! How stupid that sounds!" He slapped his knee and his rich laughter filled the room. "Of course I am; you know that! Unless I do something very stupid and so trivial that even the police can understand that I am breaking the law, you can never touch me!"
    He waited for some comment here, but Jim was content to let his host do most of the talking... "I am a rich man," Harlow went on. "Yet I need the very help you can give to me. You are not well off, Mr Carlton? I believe you have an income of four hundred a year or thereabouts, apart from your salary, and that is very little for one who sooner or later must feel the need of a home of his own, a wife and a family---"
    Again he paused suggestively, and this time Jim spoke. "What do you suggest to remedy this state of affairs?" he asked.
    Mr Harlow smiled. "You are being sarcastic. There is sarcasm in your voice! You feel that you are superior to the question of money. You can afford to laugh at it. But, my friend, money is a very serious thing. I offer you five thousand pounds a year."
    He rose to his feet the better to emphasise the offer, Jim thought. "And my duties?" he said quietly.
    Harlow shrugged his big shoulders; and put his hands deep into his trousers pockets. "To watch my interests." He almost snapped the words. "To employ that clever brain of yours in furthering my cause, in protecting me when I go---joking! I love a joke---a practical joke. To see the right man squirming makes me laugh. Five thousand a year, and all your expenses paid to the utmost limit. You like play-going? I'll show you a play that will set you rolling with joy! What do you say?"
    "No,' said Jim simply; "I'm not keen on jokes."

79lyzard
Sep 12, 2020, 8:43 pm

>77 NinieB:

Tracy was very popular in America, which has actually created some of my difficulties: he tended to publish there first and/or more often than in the UK, and his books are much are much more easily found there.

He writes a pretty good thriller, though in the works you mention Brett himself is pretty obnoxious. He did better in his later series.

80lyzard
Modifié : Sep 12, 2020, 11:18 pm



Publication date: 1921
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Pennington Wise #5
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (published in the 1920s)

The Luminous Face - Robert Gleason, a westerner, tends to rub the wrong way the elite New York social group into which his relationship with his sister, Millicent Lindsay, has introduced him. But though he is widely disliked, everyone is shocked when Gleason is found dead in his apartment in what looks like a suicide. Dr Davenport, summoned to the scene by a desperate call to his office apparently from Gleason himself, discovers that he was shot twice, once in the shoulder, once in the head; and while the investigators agree, though doubtfully, that Gleason may have made the call for some reason, the medical evidence proves that the fatal head shot was fired first. So who called Dr Davenport's office, and why? - and who fired the second shot...? This is one of the weakest of Carolyn Wells' mysteries, featuring all of the faults at once that tend to plague her writing. It falls into three predictable acts, with first the police getting nowhere; then connections of the case taking it upon themselves to play amateur detective---and getting nowhere; then the actual detective, in this case Pennington "Penny" Wise, showing up late and wrapping up the case in minimum time. Meanwhile, all the supporting characters go around suspecting one another, and conversely acting as suspiciously as possible, but rarely doing anything in a way that strikes us as credible human behaviour. However, what amounts to a whole lot of exasperating time-wasting is somewhat salvaged by the fact that, though Penny Wise is the official detective on the case, he doesn't really want the assignment, nor is it he who is chiefly responsible for solving it. It is instead his teenage sidekick, Zizi, who persuades him to take it on---and Zizi who does most of the work, via her usual mix of intuition and brisk action. Furthermore we have the amusing touch - after pretty much male character in the narrative has tried and failed to solve the mystery - of the female conspiracy that brings Zizi on the scene, with socialite Phyllis Lindsay forming an unlikely partnership with chorus-girl Ivy Hayes. Although the investigation into Gleason's death has focused upon the social group with which he interacted - and where he made enemies, either personal or because of he pretensions to Phyllis - it is Zizi who sees that something in Gleason's past might have come back to bite him. Leaving Wise to pursue leads in New York, Zizi travels to the small New England town where Gleason spent his youth---and makes a discovery that turns the case on its head...

    “How do they know so positively the exact time he left?” asked Zizi.
    “That’s a coincidence. The doorman happened to catch sight of his wrist watch as he got into the cab. It has a luminous face---I’ve seen him wear it---and the doorman noticed it was just twenty-five minutes after seven.”
    “What! Oh, oh, Penny! That explains it all! Oh, me, oh, my! To think of the simple solution! Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive! Oh, gracious goodness sakes! Be sure your sin will find you out!”
    “For heaven’s sake, Zizi, don’t act like a wild woman! When you begin to quote things I know you’re luny! Sit down and tell me what you’re talking about!”
    “Is this a dagger that I see before me? Oh, what a noble mind was here o’erthrown!”
    “Don’t get your Shakespeare mixed up...”
    The girl was dancing up and down the room like a veritable witch-elf. She flung her long, thin arms about, and was really excited, her brain teeming with the sudden revelation that had come to her. “Do you remember the Macbeth witches?” she demanded, pausing before him, poised on one foot, and looking like a Sibyl herself.
    “Of course I do! Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble!”
    “That’s it---that’s the answer! Oh, Penny Wise, it’s as plain as day---as Day! I see it all---all---all!”
    “Might I inquire what enlightened you?”
    “The radium watch! The luminous face!”

81rosalita
Sep 13, 2020, 9:42 am

Hello, Liz! I've remembered the other thing about Out of the Past. It was that we finally get to meet Maudie's niece, Ethel Burkett — she of the prodigious offspring in constant need of coatees and booties. That was a delight even if her role was small.

And now that I've finished it, one more non-spoilery observation about the romance. There isn't one! I mean, I guess there is an already existing one but there aren't two star-crossed lovers who are brought together by murder. I'm interested to see if this trend of downplaying the romance angle continues in the rest of the series. Perhaps Wentworth felt she had gotten to the point where she didn't need that to sell the books?

82lyzard
Sep 13, 2020, 5:38 pm

>81 rosalita:

I thought that too! :D

Agree with your second point too (and frankly, yay!). I wonder if it was her own idea or her publishers finally told her to tone it down??

In fact my only complaint here is that the killer is a bit too obvious. Not obvious obvious, but in that "we and Maud know something the police don't" way. Though in that respect, I thought it was interesting that only we as readers know about the baby; everyone else thinks it's just "woman scorned".

83rosalita
Sep 13, 2020, 5:48 pm

>82 lyzard: I'd like to think that by this point the series was selling well enough that she felt she didn't need the romance angle to draw in readers. Of course, I always hope it's the author who has agency in how their book unfolds, even though I know in the real world it doesn't always work that way.

And agreed on your spoiler. The way it was set up that the killer couldn't possibly be the killer just made it more obvious that the killer was the killer, if you know what I mean. And I also thought it was odd that the notion of the baby never came out, though I'm glad for Miss Anning. Almost seemed as if Wentworth wasn't sure her motive was strong enough if she had only suffered a broken engagement. Or maybe that seemed too similar to what had happened to Cremona (wait, is that her name? I keep thinking she's the heiress to a non-dairy creamer fortune.)

84lyzard
Modifié : Sep 13, 2020, 5:53 pm

“My book has been a great success in the United States which is upsetting because I thought it in good taste before and now I know it can’t be.”
---Evelyn Waugh on the popular success of Brideshead Revisted in America.

I am revisiting the question of which edition of Waugh's 1945 novel is the "right" edition---which I suspect I'm making too much of a fuss over. (No! they gasped in astonishment.) Waugh made small revisions to succeeding releases from the time of the book's first publication, but revised it to some extent in 1959---with the 1960 edition now considered the standard text.

Of course the temptation was to chase the much rarer original text, to see what Waugh wrote before criticisms of the novel (and, worse, its popularity) made him get cold feet. Still, analysts seem to feel that the changes aren't that significant. Apparently Waugh cut and toned down some of the more flowery language and speech-making in the 1960 version; though on the other hand he also restored a sex scene that was cut to the point of obscurity in 1945.

The issue has raised itself again for me because I've discovered online access to the 1945 version, which previously was almost impossible to get. Yet it might be this that pushes me the other way, since reading 350 pages of tiny font online might be too much even for my OCD.

85lyzard
Sep 13, 2020, 6:04 pm

>83 rosalita:

Carmona. :)

For the reader there's a motive-gap; but the investigators never realise it. But yeah, if she managed to keep her secret in those surroundings, all power to her!

Was it drawing people in? I guess I can't believe you and I were the only to readers to complain about the romance getting in the way of the mystery plot; but that might just be my hard old heart talking. :D

86rosalita
Modifié : Sep 13, 2020, 6:37 pm

>85 lyzard: Right, CARmona. The automobile heiress, not the creamer family at all. :-)

You would know better than I whether women writers of the era were encouraged to throw in a little hoochie-koo because after all, isn't that what women know best? *eyeroll*. But it also could have just been Wentworth's self-imposed rule based on what she thought would sell.

Also (more or less) on the topic of what people expect, the little scene where Mrs. Field ruminates about the ways that mourning clothes rules had loosened up over the years wasn't anything I didn't already know, but my goodness seeing those Victorian strictures laid out really hammered home how stifling it all was!

Edited to add: We certainly weren't the only readers to complain — that's how we lost Harry!

87lyzard
Sep 13, 2020, 6:50 pm

>86 rosalita:

:D

And you were expected to go into full mourning even if you couldn't afford it: black clothes first, feeding your family second. Ridiculous AND horrifying.

It does occur to me that it was around this time that the gothic-romance started to gain popularity---as we say, the "will-he-kiss-her-or-kill-her" school of writing. Perhaps straight mysteries like Wentworth's were encouraged to tone down the romance to distinguish them?

Maybe not though, because as we've seen a bunch of old mysteries got reissued with covers that made them look gothicky; so maybe it was Wentworth's own reaction.

And maybe this was an aberration and in the very next Miss Silver, the romance will be back front and centre! :D

88lyzard
Sep 15, 2020, 6:14 pm

Finished Adventures Of Martin Hewitt for TIOLI #11.

Now reading The Agony And The Ecstasy by Irving Stone.

89PaulCranswick
Sep 19, 2020, 9:08 am

Wishing you a glorious weekend, Liz.

90lyzard
Sep 21, 2020, 6:45 pm

>89 PaulCranswick:

Well...it was a weekend, anyway... :D

91lyzard
Sep 21, 2020, 7:32 pm



Publication date: 1991
Genre: Non-fiction / true crime
Read for: Potential decommission

Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets - In 1988, journalist David Simon, then with the Baltimore Sun, spent a year attached to the Baltimore Police Department's homicide unit---finally producing this warts-and-all account of the realities of police work in a city where poverty and drugs conspire to produce an epidemic of violent crime, including murder. No punches are pulled regarding either the ugly details of the crimes or the sometimes questionable (though often necessary) behaviours of the detectives themselves, as they deal with the politics and manoeuvring of their administration and the justice system, the pressures surrounding case closure regardless of the nature of the crimes in question, personal and racial tensions both in the office and on the street, and the conspiracy of silence amongst potential witnesses. The necessarily piecemeal narrative is held together by ongoing reportage of three major cases: the rape and murder of a young girl, with the lead investigator painfully aware that initial mismanagement may mean it is never solved; the shooting of a police officer, which almost killed him and did leave him blind; and conversely, a killing in which the perpetrator may himself have been a police officer... David Simon walks an almost incredibly thin line in Homicide, never intruding himself upon the narrative, and displaying his sympathy and admiration for the officers who permitted his scrutiny without soft-pedalling their moments of anger, frustration, conflict and bad taste. At this distance, however, two things about these descriptions of police work in the late 1980s strike us most forcibly: the almost total absence of any scientific analysis of the evidence, other than standard post-mortem and ballistic techniques---even granting that, with such a preponderance of unpremeditated and often anonymous killing, its usefulness may have been limited; and the almost total absence of women. Indeed, Simon's detectives are blunt about not wanting women in police work at all, least of all as detectives: there was only one female detective in the Baltimore squad at this time; she does not form a part of the narrative; and though her male colleagues admit her competence, they also treat her as the exception that proves the rule. This is, self-evidently, an often difficult read, but worthwhile for those with any interest in real, as opposed to fictional, police work and crime investigation---though also one that leaves us with an overarching irony. The constant litany of this work is that "it's not like on TV"...except that Homicide later became the basis for the TV series, The Wire, written and produced by David Simon.

    A Baltimore detective handles about nine or ten homicides a year as the primary investigator and another half dozen as the secondary detective, although FBI guidelines suggest half that workload. He handles fifty to sixty serious shootings, stabbings and bludgeonings. He investigates any questionable or suspicious death not readily explained by a victim's age or medical condition. Overdoses, seizures, suicides, accidental falls, drownings, crib deaths, autoerotic strangulations---all receive the attention of the same detective who has, at any given moment, case files for three open homicides on his desk. In Baltimore, all shootings involving police officers are conducted by homicide detectives rather than internal affairs men; a sergeant and a squad of detectives are assigned to probe every such incident and present a comprehensive report to the departmental brass and the state's attorney's office the following morning. Any threat on any police officer, state's attorney or public official is channeled through the homicide unit, as is any report of an attempt to intimidate a state's witness.
    And there is more. The homicide unit's proven ability to investigate any incident and then document that investigation means that it is likely to be called on to handle politically sensitive investigations: a drowning at a city swimming pool where civil liability might result, a series of harassing phone calls to the mayor's chief of staff, a lengthy probe of a state legislator's bizarre claim that he was abducted by mysterious enemies. In Baltimore, the general rule is that if something looks like a shitstorm, smells like a shitstorm and tastes like a shitstorm, it goes to homicide...

92NinieB
Sep 21, 2020, 7:53 pm

I was starting to worry about you. Glad you're back.

93lyzard
Sep 21, 2020, 8:48 pm



Publication date: 1933
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Inspector Collier #3
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (151+ pages)

The Belfry Murder - In the backstreets of London, John Borlase runs an antique business with his daughter. Out of the blue, a woman begins asking questions about Anne's Aunt Mary, who died years before after returning suddenly to England from Russia. Anne is prompted to search her aunt's meagre stored possessions, and finds a letter undelivered for fourteen years... After carrying the letter to the crippled Colonel Stephen Drury, and meeting his younger brother, Martin, Anne returns to her work as her father's buyer---only to be decoyed away and held prisoner; her father meets a grimmer fate... When Anne does not meet him as promised, Martin Drury visits her father's shop and finds an alarming scene. He carries the matter to Inspector Collier of Scotland Yard, an old friend of his brother; but when Collier cannot convince his superiors that the Borlases have not disappeared voluntarily, Martin takes the matter on himself. More by accident than intention, he discovers that an acquaintance of his, Bertie Vaste, is involved in certain criminal activities---and that it is his associates who are responsible for Anne's disappearance... Meanwhile, Stephen Drury must face the fact that his letter from the Countess Nadine Sariatinskaya, regarding her attempt to smuggle her jewels out of Russia, may mean that he is in danger of his life... Though this is the third entry in the series by "Moray Dalton" (Katherine Renoir) featuring Inspector Collier, it is more of a thriller than a mystery: one with a shifting narrative perspective, characters that come and go, several overlapping subplots, and a continual question of what the novel is really "about". The Belfry Murder actually starts out by threatening to be one of my less favourite subsets of crime thriller, though one popular at this time, the treasure-hunt; but while jewels smuggled out of Russia during the Revolution do form an important aspect of the narrative, ultimately this novel is more about identifying and exposing the head of an unusual and dangerous criminal gang. As is usually the case with the works of Moray Dalton, the material that surrounds her mystery plot is of unusual interest---pushing back against the snobbery and bigotry that taints much of the British fiction of this time. For example, the Drurys are "gentry", but also broke---and without kicking, Martin has turned himself into a chicken farmer in order to support himself and his wheelchair-bound brother. Still more striking, and welcome, is this novel's positive attitude to its Jewish characters, wealthy art dealer Israel Kafka, and his son, Maurice, who is employed as secretary by the arrogant but powerful politician, Lord Bember, and engaged to his daughter, Lady Jocelyn Vaste; and if Maurice is finally a rather ambiguous character, it his not Jewishness that is the issue. Overall, though, The Belfry Murder is a strangely structured book, never quite playing out as we expect. Collier must in effect defy Scotland Yard in carrying out his investigation; what looks at the outset like a conventional romance between Anne and Martin turns very dark, and indeed is finally left unresolved; while even the book's title is misleading. A dead body is indeed found in the belfry of the church in the village of Ladebrook, near where both the Drurys and Lord Bember live; but the case seems a clear one of suicide. It is the motive behind this act that raises the question of murder...

    Martin stood, switching the light of his torch over the time-worn pavement with its threadbare strip of matting, the Norman arches, the lancet windows. There was no sound but his breathing and that of his companion. He spoke suddenly, so suddenly that Loftus jumped.
    "Is there anybody here?"
    There was no answer.
    Loftus touched his sleeve timidly. "It was the bell," he murmured.
    "I know." Martin walked steadily if rather slowly down the aisle to the back of the church. The lower part of the tower in which the bells hung was creened from the nave by faded curtains of dark red baize. Martin, parting them, entered the enclosed space in which, on one evening during the week and twice on Sundays, the village ringers pealed the five bells. He heard a thin cry from Loftus and the lanthorn crashed on the stone pavement. He steadied his own hand with an effort and kept the light on the grotesque puppet-like figure that swung from one of the ropes, its dangling feet nearly touching an overturned chair...


94Matke
Sep 21, 2020, 9:22 pm

>93 lyzard: That sounds interesting, Liz.

95lyzard
Modifié : Sep 21, 2020, 10:01 pm

>92 NinieB:

Thanks! It's one of those weeks...after one of those weekends... :)

>93 lyzard:

It's odd; kind of all over the place, though intentionally, and never quite giving you what you expect.

Helen read it recently so there's a second opinion on her thread if you want one.

96lyzard
Modifié : Sep 22, 2020, 1:30 am



Publication date: 1863
Genre: Classic
Read for: A Century Of Reading / TIOLI ('surah' first words)

Marian Grey; or, The Heiress Of Redstone Hall - This is a very peculiar novel, and one that seems to be Mary Jane Holmes' attempt to take Ellen Wood's notorious 1861 sensation novel, East Lynne, and twist it around so that it could have a happy ending. The results, as we might imagine, are not entirely convincing. Set in the pre-Civil War South (which also lends itself to a measure of discomfort), this is the story of Marian Grey, who is raised by her guardian, Colonel Raymond. Though very young, Marian loves Frederic, her guardian's son, but he dismisses her slightingly on the grounds of her plainness and particularly her red hair. When Colonel Raymond knows himself dying, he tells Marian that he has done falsely by her. To Frederic he is more forthcoming: he admits that the house they live in and the fortune that goes with it are rightfully Marian's; he makes it his dying request that Frederic marry her, to set things right; otherwise, all must be given up to her. Frederic is appalled, not least because he is in love with his distant cousin, the beautiful Isabella Huntington; but after wrestling with himself, Frederic he to the marriage---as much because he is unwilling to face a life of poverty as to redress Marian's wrongs. She, in her innocence, thinks only that Frederic has learned to love her---but after the ceremony, she comes across a letter written by Frederic to his father, in which he poured out his disgust over the marriage and his distaste for Marian. Broken-hearted, Marian's only thought is to flee Redstone Hall... From my East Lynne allusion, those familiar with Mrs Wood's novel will deduce that Marian and Frederic will meet again at some point, although not until after Marian has undergone such a physical and intellectual transformation that her husband won't even recognise her. Pre-dating Anne Shirley's extreme makeover by some fifty years, Marian effectively turns into a completely different person---right down to the colour of her hair, which grows back more chestnut than red after a severe illness. The infuriating thing is that, while she is educating herself and learning accomplishments, Marian puts it always in terms of being "worthy" of Frederic, who she hopes might deign to love her if she is pretty much perfect. Frederic himself, meanwhile, is also undergoing a transformation, though more on the moral level. The circumstances of Marian's disappearance from Redstone Hall suggest that she may have drowned herself in the river; and it is with this burden of guilt that Frederic must build a new life. Yet he does not know that Marian is dead; he may still be a married man; and if so, he must find her and make restitution for his father's sins and his own... Marian Grey drags out the separation of Marian and Frederic to absurd lengths, deploying every single trick in the sensation-novel book in the process: misunderstandings and cross-purposes, forged letters, plots against both parties, people dying without speaking, and false identities assumed for a variety of purposes; though my personal favourite is the way they keep just missing each other on the streets of New York...though once or twice, they do not miss... Through it all Marian loves Frederic, though there's no earthly reason why she should; he, in turn, has learned to think very differently of the girl whose life he has, at least, ruined; but while he has ceased to love the treacherous Isabella, he has also become obsessed with a young woman he encountered briefly in New York, though she was always veiled, or met only in darkness...until the question of whether he is a married man or not again raises its head. Matters reach a climax when Frederic must hire a governess for his blind young ward, Alice---and thinks himself fortunate in securing the services of a Miss Lindsey, an accomplished young woman with glorious chestnut hair...

    Frederic asked abruptly: ‘'Miss Lindsey, did you never ride in the cars with me in New York?”
    The question was a startling one, but Marian's face was turned from him, and he could not see the effort she made to answer him calmly. "I think it very probable. I have been in the cars a great many times, and with a great many different people.”
    “Yes, but one rainy night, more than three years ago, did not I offer you a seat between myself and the door? You wore a brown veil, and carried a willow basket, if it were you. Something about your appearance has puzzled me all the evening, and I think I must have met you before. It was on the Third Avenue cars.”
    Marian trembled violently, but by constantly turning the leaves of her music book she managed to conceal her agitation, and when Frederic ceased speaking she answered in her natural tone: “Now that you recall the circumstances, I believe I do remember something about it, though you do not look as that man did. I imagined he had been sick, or was in trouble,” and Marian's blue eyes turned sideways to witness, if possible, the effect of her words. But she was disappointed, for she could not see how white Frederic was for a single instant, but she felt it in his voice, as he replied:
    “You are right. I had been sick, and I was in great trouble.”
    “Wasn't that when you were looking for Marian?” Alice asked, and again the blue eyes sought Frederic's face, turning this time so that they could see it.
    “Yes, I was hunting for Marian,” was the answer, and the deep sigh which accompanied the words brought a thrill of joy to the Marian hunted for, and she knew now, and from his own lips, too, that he had sought for her, nay, that he was looking for her even then, when in her anger she censured him for not recognising her.
    Little by little she was learning the truth just as it was; and when, at a late hour, she bade Frederic good-night, and went to her own chamber, her heart was almost too full for utterance, for she felt that the long, dark night was over, and the dawn she had waited for so long was breaking at last around her...


97lyzard
Modifié : Sep 22, 2020, 5:31 pm



Publication date: 1910
Genre: Young adult
Read for: TIOLI (naval academy)

Dave Darrin's First Year At Annapolis; or, Two Plebe Midshipmen At The Naval Academy - During the early years of the 20th century, H. Irving Hancock wrote a series about six young schoolfriends and their adventures---and then, when perforce they graduated, he wrote three different sub-series about them---despatching two to study engineering in the west, two to West Point and the remaining two - steady, purposeful Dave Darrin and his more impulsive friend, Dan Dalzell - to Annapolis. What's on the label is what's in the box, as Irving takes the reader step by step through the teaching and training that constitute the young men's first year at the academy---as well as through side-issues such as following the rules (or not) and learning the service's strict code of honour. The latter aspect is sometimes exasperating, as Hancock takes pains to explain seeming contradictions such as the tolerance of hazing, which though against the rules supposedly teaches young recruits to "follow orders without question", and the "honourable" settling of quarrels via duel-like boxing bouts, also against the rules. There's not much actual plot here, but such as it is, it involves Darrin attracting the enmity of some of his fellow-students, who believe (incorrectly, it goes without saying) that he snitched on their out-of-bounds expedition. One of them, after verbal and finally physical confrontations with Dave, brings himself to admit he was wrong and apologise, eventually becoming Dave's friend; but another sets in motion a scheme to get Dave kicked out of Annapolis...

    "Dave, old chum," cried Dan tossing his cap on the bed as they entered their room. "Are you going to turn greaser, and stay greaser?"
    "What do you mean?" asked Darrin quietly.
    "You told me to shut up in the ranks."
    "That was right, wasn't it? I am under orders to see that there is no talking in the section when marching."
    "Not even a solitary, teeny little word, eh?"
    "Not if I can stop it," replied Dave.
    "And what if you can't stop it?"
    "Then I am obliged to direct the offender to put himself on the report."
    "Great Scott! Would you tell your chum to frap the pap for a little thing like that, and take demerits unto himself?"
    "If I had to," nodded Dave. "You see, Dan, we're here trying to learn to be Naval officers and to hold command. Now, it's my belief that a man who can't take orders, and stick to them, isn't fit to give orders at any period in his life."
    "This sort of thing is getting on my nerves a bit," grumbled Dan. "Just think of all the freedom we had in the good old days back at Gridley!"
    "This is a new life, Dan---a different one and a better one."

98Helenliz
Sep 22, 2020, 12:51 pm

>95 lyzard: Indeed I did. On my previous thread, starting here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/319749#7226366
My review is less, um, structured than Liz's - which might be why I'm up to date on reviews and she usually isn't! >;-)

99Helenliz
Sep 22, 2020, 12:53 pm

BTW - Liz, can you help. I'm after a book by a female author published in 1920 or 1820. Any ideas? If possible easy to get hold of without resorting to e-book or oodles of wonga...

100NinieB
Sep 22, 2020, 5:15 pm

>96 lyzard: I have read Lena Rivers, an incredibly popular book by Holmes that I think was single-handedly responsible for the popularity of the name Lena. It is also a sensation novel with a happy ending.

101lyzard
Sep 22, 2020, 5:59 pm

>98 Helenliz:

That's very kind of you but it's not actually why. :D

>99 Helenliz:

I have already looked into that, so you might as well have the benefit of my note-taking. :)

It's not easy, in fact 1820 is pretty much a bust. The two most obvious suggestions for 1920 (The Mysterious Affair At Styles and The Age Of Innocence) were made on-thread; there were also lesser-known works published that year by Vita Sackville-West (The Dragon In Shallow Waters), Elizabeth Von Arnim (In The Mountains), E. M. Delafield (Tension), Storm Jameson (The Happy Highways), Sheila Kaye Smith (Green Apple Harvest) and Edna Ferber (Half Portions).

On the less high- (or rather, middle-!) brow side of things there were two by Mary Roberts Rinehart (A Poor Wise Man and The Truce Of God) that year, and two from Isabel Ostrander (Unseen Hands and How Many Cards?; and some series works by Carolyn Wells.

Some of these are available as ebooks but I don't know how much luck you'll have finding them otherwise. Good hunting!

102lyzard
Sep 22, 2020, 6:00 pm

>100 NinieB:

Hi, Ninie; interesting, thanks! It's not that I think sensation novels shouldn't have happy endings, just that they shouldn't be as contrived as this one was! :D

103lyzard
Modifié : Sep 22, 2020, 7:32 pm



Publication date: 1931
Genre: Contemporary romance
Read for: 1931 reading

One-Man Girl - The moment Jeanette Gerry - 'Gin' to her friends - lays eyes on Stenson Clay, when he ventures into the shop she runs with her friend, Ann Hemingway, she is smitten. The fact that Clay is looking for a present for the girl he is almost engaged to is a check; but Gin's good nature makes her take pity on him, persuading him that a decorative bag would be appropriate, and even agreeing to take a selection to Rose Lymington-Smith's hotel, so that she can choose for herself. Once there, however, being considered merely a "shop-girl", Gin sees a side of Rose she is quite sure Clay never has; moreover, she overhears a conversation between Rose and her step-father that makes her certain they are using Clay to get information about a gem deposit in the Shah Hills of Burma, from where Clay, a mining engineer, has just returned. This is enough to make up Gin's mind: always impulsive, she decides that Clay must be rescued from Rose, whether he likes it or not... This 1931 romance by Maysie Greig is for the most part an amusing take on contemporary mores and expectations---and how people sometimes have terrible trouble seeing what is directly under their noses. Exasperated as she is over what she thinks of as Clay's masculine blindness when it comes to Rose and her wiles, Gin is oblivious to the fact that her own infatuation with him is every bit as ill-founded: she seeing all sorts of marvellous qualities behind his tall, handsome, clean-cut facade that just don't exist. In her own blindness, she sets about her pursuit of Clay with the help of her best friend, the aristocratically connected Lionel Barrington. In fact, Lionel wants to be much more than friends with Gin, but blundered in his handling of their relationship. Some years before, he was involved in an ugly divorce scandal; but though the version of the story made public was not the real one, foolishly Lionel decided that he wanted Gin to care for him "in spite of everything", rather than tell her the truth---only to have her withdraw from him in disappointment and disgust. Forced to put up with being "just good friends" - and knowing that the situation is his own fault - Lionel becomes Gin's partner in crime as she devotes herself to opening Clay's eyes, whatever it takes... For the most part a work of wry humour, One-Man Girl takes an unexpected and very dark turn over its final stretch, when Gin does succeed in exposing Rose---but ruins herself in Clay's eyes in the process. He, in his rage and disillusionment, takes his revenge on revenge upon both young women by doing exactly what Gin thought she wanted: he marries her...

    Lion selected the record. An old one. It had been Gin's favourite. Yet somehow, this morning, she felt that the smooth voice of the singer seemed to mock her.
          'I'm a One-Man Girl
          'Who's looking for a One-Girl Man...'
    "Well, you've found your One-Girl Man, haven't you?" said Lion, as they danced, raising his voice so as to drown out the singer.
    Gin's face coloured. Was he making fun of her? Insinuating that because of Rose... She took up the challenge. But really, it had only existed in her own thoughts.
    "Stenson is that really, Lion. I'm sure it was only infatuation about Rose. And inexperience. He couldn't see, for a long time, what she really was. But, directly he did..." She broke off, awkwardly. Resuming, after a tiny pause, "And in every other way, he's wonderful. Just what I've always dreamt a man should be."
    Her voice trailed away. Lion said nothing. They continued dancing in silence...


104lyzard
Modifié : Sep 22, 2020, 7:54 pm

July stats:

(...I think we just won't talk about my blog...)

Works read: 13
TIOLI: 13, in 11 different challenges, with 2 shared reads

Mystery / thriller: 7
Classic: 2
Contemporary romance: 1
Contemporary drama: 1
Young adult: 1
Non-fiction: 1

Series works: 6
Re-reads: 1
Blog reads: 0
1932: 1
1931: 2
Virago / Persephone: 0
Potential decommission: 1

Owned: 3
Library: 3
Ebooks: 7

Male authors : female authors: 7 : 6

Oldest work: Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope (1860)
Newest work: Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets by David Simon (1991)

**********

YTD stats:

Works read: 87
TIOLI: 87, in 67 different challenges, with 13 shared reads

Mystery / thriller: 53
Classic: 15
Contemporary drama: 5
Young adult: 4
Contemporary romance: 2
Short stories: 2
Non-fiction: 2
Humour: 2
Historical drama: 1
Horror: 1

Series works: 43
Re-reads: 15
Blog reads: 5
1932: 2
1931: 13
Virago / Persephone: 1
Potential decommission: 5

Owned: 18
Library: 17
Ebooks: 52

Male authors : female authors: 49 (including 4 men using a single male pseudonym) : 52

Oldest work: Leandro: or, The Lucky Rescue by J. Smythies (1690)
Newest work: Nevertheless, She Persisted by Various (2020)

105lyzard
Modifié : Sep 22, 2020, 7:54 pm

Well! - after that rush of reviewing, I am completely exhausted...


106rosalita
Sep 22, 2020, 8:36 pm

>105 lyzard: That is a mighty yawn! Poor sloth must have gotten worn out hanging about in the tree all day. Although ... is it just me or does Sloth appear to be hanging in a laundry basket strung up in the treetops from ropes?

107lyzard
Modifié : Sep 22, 2020, 9:22 pm



Publication date: 1929
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Superintendent Wilson #6
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (First word > second word)

Poison In The Garden Suburb (US title: Poison In A Garden Suburb) - During a lecture given by the scientist, Sir Arthur Dawlish, at the Literary Institute of Medstead Garden Suburb, Harold Cayley suddenly collapses in agony. There is a brief, unprofessional brawl between Dr Shorthouse and Dr Midhurst over which of them is his practitioner, but neither can do anything: Cayley dies of what appears at first glance - and is subsequently confirmed to be - strychnine poisoning. The case falls to Detective-Inspector Calcott of Scotland Yard, who soon identifies two suspects: Dr Shorthouse, who was seen to hand Cayley a pill just before his collapse, and whose behaviour since has been erratic; and Martin Delahaye, who is discovered to be obsessed with Cayley's beautiful wife, Leah, despite being engaged to Rachel Redford. When arrest for Delahaye seems imminent, Ravhel's brother, Tony, sees a chance to send for his hero: the ex-Scotland Yard private investigator, Henry Wilson... As is usual with the mysteries of George and Margaret Cole, the entertainment of Poison In The Garden Suburb is found as much in the surrounding material as it is in the murder plot. The novel opens with almost shockingly casual references to eugenics, abortion and lesbianism, before moving on to poke fun at the politics and pretensions of the residents of this new "Garden Suburb" (and to their credit, the Coles poke as much fun at those who share their own political leanings as those who don't). Henry Wilson's entrance here is a nice call-back to the previous book in this series, Superintendent Wilson's Holiday, in which one of the short stories has young Tony Redford encountering Wilson and contracting a bad case of hero-worship. That said, this novel's murder plot is shot through with cynicism, with neither Inspector Calcott nor Wilson exactly covering himself in glory: the latter is repeatedly led astray by false leads, while the former wavers indecisively between his two suspects, sequentially arresting and releasing them---chiefly because the evidence against each seems equally strong, though their putative motives are so different. Leah Cayley is explicitly compared here to Helen of Troy: she cuts a swathe through the male population of Medstead via her astonishing beauty; though those few who get the chance to see her "behind the scenes" have a very different opinion of her. Did one of her many admirers - Martin Delahaye or another - decide to free her from her querulous, hyperchondriacal husband? On the other hand, while Cayley's known faddishness and obsessive self-dosing with tonics and pills open up the possibility of a tragic accident, it also means that it would not have been too difficult for someone to slip him something. In terms of both access and proximity, Dr Shorthouse seems the most likely person---and when it is discovered that he, or rather his assistant, Marion Baddeley, faked his poison-log to cover the absence of as much strychnine as he should have in his possession, Inspector Calcott pounces. But there are many more twists to come in this case...

    No detective can expect a uniform record of successes in his cases; but few detectives can ever have been so chagrined or so little in conceit with themselves as Wlson as he made his way from Scotland Yard to Queen Anne's Gate. For anything he had achieved in this case, he bitterly reflected, he might as well have not been there at all. He had done little more than follow the Scotland Yard officers around and pick up the information which they had already gathered, a day or so later. He had not cleared Martin Delahaye; he had not found an alternative suspect; and the new information, as the result of which the young man had been released, had been discovered by nine of his doing, but through the observation of a large, pompous doctor, who had lectured him, Wilson, on his own business. And not without reason---that was where the shoe pinched...
    In this mood, prepared, if necessary, to eat any amount of humble pie, he arrived at Miss Lydia's flat. Here, however, he found not a resentful, but a very perturbed employer, holding a kind of indignation meeting with her great-niece...
    "What does it mean, Mr Wilson?" Rachel asked. "Does it mean that---you've proved Martin innocent?"
    "No, I'm afraid it doesn't," Wilson said, inwardly making a wry face. "I haven't proved anything. It only means that the police now think it more likely that some one else is guilty."
    "You mean Dr Shorthouse?" Wilson nodded. "But why? How can he be?"
    Wilson hesitated a moment.
    "I should like you to tell me if you can" said Miss Lydia, who had gone rather white, "what exactly the evidence against him now is."
    Using a certain amount of discretion, Wilson gave them a brief résumé of the case against Shorthouse as it now stood... "But---" Rachel said when he had finished, "it can't be true! It's---it's awful!" Obviously the possibility of securing Martin's release at the price of another man's arrest had never really occurred to her; and she was appalled when it happened. "They---some of them---must be telling lies!"


108lyzard
Sep 22, 2020, 9:20 pm

>106 rosalita:

He is doing exactly that, yes. I think he's a rescue being encouraged to start climbing again.

109Helenliz
Modifié : Sep 23, 2020, 3:37 am

>105 lyzard: Poor love!
>108 lyzard: even more awwwws!
and thank you for >101 lyzard:. Something to look out for, at least.

110lyzard
Sep 23, 2020, 3:51 am

>109 Helenliz:

Good luck with it! At the moment I'm refusing to look past the end of the at least halfway correctly named The Agony And The Ecstasy but I still hope to squeeze in a couple more reads before the end of the month.

111Matke
Sep 23, 2020, 7:21 am

>95 lyzard: and >98 Helenliz: Thank you both for pointing me toward that review. On the list it goes.

>97 lyzard: Oh, Ugh. When I was younger I found some of that amusing. And when very young, I may have found slightly less sappy stuff inspiring. Now it’s just a big fat nope, and then no.

>118 kac522: I take it you’re finding The Agony and the Ecstacy heavy going?

112lyzard
Sep 23, 2020, 5:25 pm

>111 Matke:

As the stuff from that time goes - much of which I finally literally horrifying, in what it thinks constitutes "romance" - this one isn't bad; but it does turn unexpectedly serious / nasty.

Would it sound silly if I said IT HAS TOO MANY WORDS!!!!-?

113lyzard
Sep 23, 2020, 6:01 pm

Best-selling books in the United States for 1960:

1. Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
2. Hawaii by James A. Michener
3. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
4. The Chapman Report by Irving Wallace
5. Ourselves to Know by John O'Hara
6. The Constant Image by Marcia Davenport
7. The Lovely Ambition by Mary Ellen Chase
8. The Listener by Taylor Caldwell
9. Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute
10. Sermons and Soda-Water by John O'Hara

The first best-sellers list of the 1960s offers a strange mix of books; although a taste for chunksters is still evident, with three of them at the top of the charts, including two holdovers from 1959.

John O'Hara achieved two books on the list---which he worked upon alternately. Ourselves to Know uses, not an unsolved, but an unaddressed murder as the fulcrum of a study of small-town life and the repercussions of choices made. Sermons and Soda-Water consists of three novellas, as three successful writers from the same town look back to incidents in their youth in the time of Prohibition.

Taylor Caldwell's The Listener is a collection of short stories involving a sanctuary within a garden, where anyone may go and tell their story and be sure of being heard. Mary Ellen Chase's The Lovely Ambition is the story of a Wesleyan minister, his wife and their daughter, who move from England to New England with visions of Waldon in their heads, but become involved with the inmates of a mental hospital. Nevil Shute's Trustee from the Toolroom is the story of a quiet but skilled mechanic and designer, who goes to extraordinary lengths to secure the lost inheritance of his orphan niece.

Marcia Davenport's The Constant Image is about an American divorcee who spends time in Milan as she puts her life together, and begins a passionate affair with a married man.

Exploiting the scandal around the Masters and Johnson reports into American sexual behaviour, Irving Wallace's The Chapman Report is about three male investigators involved in studying the sexual histories of married women.

Although a number of 1960's books deal with "the past", only only true historical novel is Guiseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard, which uses the downfall of an aristocratic Silicilian family as the focus of a story about the formation of the Kingdom of Italy during the 19th century.

James A. Michener's massive Hawaii made it from #3 in 1959 to #2 in 1960, but couldn't crack the top spot---being beaten out by the previous year's #4, Allen Drury's Advise and Consent.

114lyzard
Modifié : Sep 23, 2020, 6:31 pm



Allen Drury was born in Texas in 1918, but grew up in California where he attended Stannford and worked on student newspapers. After graduating, he worked as reporter and editor on several country papers before enlisting in the army in 1942.

A back injury ended Drury's military service. He moved to Washington and resumed work as a journalist, becoming the United States Senate correspondent for United Press; he also kept a series of detailed journals in which he recorded his impressions of the functioning of the Senate and of individual senators. In this position he observed the often contentious relationship between Franklin Roosevelt and the Senate, and the rise of Harry S. Tryman from junior senator to President.

After leaving United Press, Drury worked for several more papers. He also began writing the novel which would become Advise and Consent, which drew heavily upon his Washington experiences, but which he always vigorously denied was a roman à clef.

Published in 1959, Advise and Consent achieved an extraordinary success which culminated in the winning of the 1960 Pulitzer Prize.

Subsequently, Drury wrote many more novels, most of them with political themes, including five that act as sequels to Advise and Consent; but also works of historical fiction, others that drew upon his youth at Standford, and even a romance. However, though many of them sold well, none of them achieved anything near the success of his first work. Drury's final novel, Public Men, was completed only two weeks before his death in 1998, at the age of 80.

115lyzard
Modifié : Déc 27, 2020, 9:05 pm



Publication date: 1959
Genre" Contemporary drama
Read for: Best-seller challenge

Advise And Consent - The first thing that has to be understood about Allen Drury's 1959 political novel is that it is, in effect, science fiction. Conceived and written in the wake of the launch of Sputnik, it envisages a world in which the Russians reach the moon first - or say that they have - with the consequence being a shift in world power and a loss of American prestige. It is against this backdrop that Advise and Consent unfolds, as the United States Senate must consider the (unnamed) President's nomination for the post of Secretary of State. Robert A. Leffingwell is a man with a fine reputation as a public servant and who is popular with Americans at large; but those who know him better, who have worked with him, have their doubts about his character; even about his patriotism. One of these people is Bob Munsen, Majority Leader of the Senate; but whatever his own feelings, Munsen pledges himself to securing Leffingwell's appointment---not least because of his secret fears over the President's health, and his awareness that the appointment may be the last act of the current presidency. Despite Munsen's efforts, it is soon clear that there will be no rubber-stamping of Leffingwell: resistance comes from both sides of the Senate, even as Leffingwell's outraged supporters launch furious attacks upon those who oppose him. Finally, there is the compromise of a Senate subcommittee to inquire into Leffingwell's past and politics. Brigham Anderson, the well-respected young senior senator from Utah, is appointed to chair it. Anderson soon finds himself in the spotlight as much as Leffingwell, placed under intolerable pressure---and then confronted by a secret from his past that threatens to rise up and destroy him... Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Advise And Consent is how very readable it is, and how much suspense it manages to generate, considering its focus upon political process and the functioning of the Senate. Much of its success can be attributed to the way in which Allen Drury handles its politics. Drury's later novels swung so far to the right that they read like something dreamed up by Fox News; but here, in his first work, though his own political leanings are obvious throughout this is not a novel of party: it is, instead, about the good and honourable people on both sides of the political fence getting together to do what is right and best for the nation; even if that means defying the President. (What was I saying about science fiction? Sigh...) The body of the novel is divided into four main sections, each with a different focus character: Bob Munsen, who must walk the line between serving his President and serving his country; Seab Cooley, the bigger-than-life senior senator from South Carolina, who is bitterly opposed to Leffingwell and determined to block his appointment; Brigham Anderson, whose meteoric rise in the Senate suddenly hits an appalling roadblock; and Orrin Knox, the senior senator from Illinois, who bears a unique reputation as a scrupulously honest politician, but whose weak spot is his burning presidential ambition. The other critical character is Harley Hudson, the Vice-President. Everyone likes Harley---but no-one thinks he's up to the job of being President, still less of dealing with the Russians; yet with the President's health failing, that is the very real possibility lurking behind the escalating brawl over Robert Leffingwell... Though very much a novel of its time, so that there are attitudes that might make you clench your teeth, even aside from some of the actual politics, Advise And Consent is for the most part a gripping work of fiction. It is a novel of character as well as a novel of politics, and despite the preponderance of the latter it works because it succeeds in drawing the reader into the battles between conscience, duty and ambition that afflict its "few good men"---and makes it possible to believe in their determination to do right no matter what the personal cost. Whatever became of it later, at this point Drury's faith in the American political process generally and the Senate in particular (a few bad apples notwithstanding) is almost hurtfully clear; and it is precisely this that underpins the final section of his novel. After some 600 pages of political manoeuvring, Advise And Consent climaxes in a moment so clever, and so satisfying - and in its way, so funny - that we can only admire Drury's consummate handling of his material.

    "Mr President," Brig said finally, "i won't buy it. I just won't buy it."
    "Won't buy it?" the President said, swivelling back. "Won't buy it? You have a better argument, perhaps?... Which of us is so perfect he can judge? Are you, Brigham? You never did anything dishonourable yourself? You never did anything you might be ashamed of now, that might ruin your career if it could be proven against you now, even though it may be utterly immaterial in judging the kind of man you have become and the kind of public servant you are? Are you that perfect?"
    He stared at him challengingly, and there flashed through the Majority Leader's mind the sickening thought, He knows.
    "Are you that perfect?" he repeated. "Maybe so, but by God, I'm not. And I don't pretend I am, either, my self-righteous young friend."
    "I don't mean to sound self-righteous," Brig said finally in a lonely voice. "I've thought of all the things you say. I know I'm not perfect. But somebody has to judge in this world, and I've been elected to do it."
    "We've all been elected to do it," the President told him bluntly, "and I most of all. My charter runs from Hawaii to Cape Cod and the Gulf to Alaska. Yours is bounded by the state of Utah. Are you saying your right to judge is superior to mine, or that your judgement is superior to mine?"
    "No," Brig said with a kind of desperate quietness, "I'm not saying that. You're trapping me in words, now, and you're clever enough to do it, I expect. All I know is that you have named to conduct and in large measure influence our foreign policy in a time of great peril a man who is demonstrably untrustworthy and dishonest. There is proof of this available, and I happen to have it. I know you've been a lot more your own Secretary of State than many Presidents have been, but there are still a lot of day-to-day things he'd be deciding that you wouldn't know about. How could we ever trust him? For the sake of the country I can't let you go through with it. I must ask that this nomination be withdrawn."
    "For the sake of the country," the President said with equal quietness," I must say that this nomination stands and must be confirmed."

116lyzard
Sep 24, 2020, 5:44 pm

Finished The Agony And The Ecstasy for TIOLI #8...

...and I have NO IDEA what I'm reading next: my brain won't function to the point of making a coherent decision...

117lyzard
Sep 25, 2020, 1:34 am

Ahem. Okay.

I'm not exactly calling this a "coherent decision" either but I have read and finished Captain Kirk's Guide To Women by John Rodriguez for TIOLI #10.

And to go from one extreme to the other---now reading When A Man Marries by Mary Roberts Rinehart.

118kac522
Sep 25, 2020, 2:23 am

>116 lyzard: bit more Agony than Ecstasy, I take it.

119lyzard
Sep 25, 2020, 6:59 am

>118 kac522:

I appreciate it as an accomplishment but there's just too much of it (something that afflicts too many of these best-sellers).

120rosalita
Sep 25, 2020, 9:06 am

>115 lyzard: OK, you've convinced me to pull this one out soon and give it a go. I was somewhat hesitant given what I know of Drury's personal politics, but it sounds like this one, at least, is much more even-handed, which is all I ask.

Congratulations on pushing through the Agony and if not exactly reaching the Ecstasy at least having the book in the rearview mirror.

121SummerSpencer0
Sep 25, 2020, 9:15 am

Cet utilisateur a été supprimé en tant que polluposteur.

122lyzard
Modifié : Sep 25, 2020, 6:39 pm

>120 rosalita:

Yeah. I read one of Drury's later novels a couple of years after I read this the first time and was really disappointed; but this one keeps its balance, to the point of not identifying which party its characters belong to. Of course you can generally work it out, but it emphasises that party is not the point.

I'm sort of tempted now to read the immediate sequels and see where they go.

It's interesting to me that Republicans have apparently always thought America was going to hell in a hand-basket at the present moment; though they never seem to be able to pinpoint exactly when the "good old days" were. Drury is critical of the post-WWII rush to consumerism and me-me-me---which is interesting given how often the 50s are regarded as some sort of 'golden age'. (I guess they are if you think consumerism and me-me-me is a good thing.)

Anyway, the bottom line is that Advise And Consent is the first best-seller in ages that I have actually enjoyed; which alas includes The Agony And The Ecstasy, for reasons I will presently expound to equally unnecessary length. :D

123lyzard
Sep 27, 2020, 7:00 pm

Finished When A Man Marries for TIOLI #9.

Now reading The Hidden Kingdom by Francis Beeding.

124lyzard
Modifié : Oct 1, 2020, 7:24 pm

Best-selling books in the United states for 1961:

1. The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone
2. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4. Mila 18 by Leon Uris
5. The Carpetbaggers by Harold Robbins
6. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
7. Winnie Ille Pu by Alexander Lenard (Latin translation of Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne)
8. Daughter of Silence by Morris West
9. The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor
10. The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

1961 perhaps gives us the first real sign of quantity overtaking quality (which, BTW, is why there are no comparable British best-seller lists: there was strong industry resistance to rewarding 'quantity').

It's an odd list altogether, including as it does Alexander Lenard's rendering of Winnie The Pooh into Latin.

Likewise, following up the 1959 listings of Lady Chatterley's Lover and Lolita, we find another widely banned book, Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer; plus (Peyton Place notwithstanding) perhaps the first real - well, what term should I use? - beach book? airport novel? trash? - in Harold Robbins' The Carpetbaggers.

Morris West's Daughter of Silence is an Italian-set crime / legal novel that follows a young woman's assassination of a politician and the subsequent efforts of her defense team.

Things sober up from there. Franny and Zooey comprises two short works by J. D. Salinger about members of his recurrent Glass family as Franny undergoes a spiritual crisis / breakdown. John Steinbeck's The Winter of Our Discontent, his last novel, is about an aristocratic Long Island family fallen on hard times. Edwin O'Connor's The Edge of Sadness, which won the 1962 Pulitzer Prize, is about a priest, a recovering alcoholic, who returns to his New England home to rebuild his life and faith.

To Kill a Mockingbird is Harper Lee's semi-autobiographical novel about racial tensions in a small Southern town; while Leon Uris' Mila 18 is about the Warsaw Uprising.

The year's best-seller was the only outright work of historical fiction on the list: Irving Stone's biographical novel about Michelangelo, The Agony and the Ecstasy.

125lyzard
Modifié : Oct 1, 2020, 7:43 pm



Irving Tennenbaum was born in San Francisco in 1903. His parents divorced when he was seven and, when his mother remarried, he took his step-father's name, Stone. He graduated with a Masters degree from Berkeley, and married his first wife, Jean: the couple subsequently became part of the American colony in Paris during the 1920s.

However, Stone also used his time in Europe to research the life of Vincent Van Gogh, which became the basis of his first novel, Lust For Life---but only after seventeen rejections across three years; it was finally published in 1934.

The rest of Stone's writing career was chiefly divided between biographical novels and outright biography. Among the former were Sailor On Horseback, about Jack London; The President's Lady, about Andrew Jackson and his wife, Rachel; Those Who Love, about John and Amy Adams; and The Passions Of The Mind, about Sigmund Freud. Among the latter were Clarence Darrow For The Defense and the simply titled Earl Warren.

In the mid-50s, Stone relocated to Italy and spent several years researching the life and works of Michelangelo---taking his research so far as learning himself to work in marble. He also gained access to the artist's surviving correspondence, translating it into English and publishing it as I, Michelangelo, Sculptor.

However, the primary result of Stone's immersion in the artist's life and the Renaissance was the biographical novel, The Agony And The Ecstasy, which became America's best-selling novel of 1961.

126lyzard
Modifié : Sep 30, 2020, 7:46 pm



Publication date: 1961
Genre: Historical drama
read for: Best-seller challenge

The Agony And The Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel Of Michelangelo - Michelangelo di Buonarroti-Simoni is born in Florence, of a family once prominent but on the decline. His father, whose focus is the restoration of the family's fortunes, has no time or patience for anything that does not earn money or increase prestige---least of all art. Yet even as a child, Michelangelo feels an intense drive to create. Though his passion is for stone, his dream to work in marble, at thirteen he is taken on as an apprentice in the studio of the artist, Domenico Ghirlandaio, where he learns the fundamental skills of painting and fresco work, so valued in his time. Michelangelo's dream begins to come true when he is invited to train in the new "sculpture garden" founded by Lorenzo de' Medici, Il Magnifico, the cultured and ambitious ruler of Florence who strives to raise his people through art and literature. Taken in to live in the Medici palace, training under Bertoldo di Giovanni - who was himself a pupil of Donatello - Michelangelo immerses himself in the life of creation: a life in which his passionate drive to express all that is best in man through the medium of stone will be interrupted, diverted and even threatened by the dangerous currents of religion and politics which swirl about him... Irving Stone's biographical novel about Michelangelo offers perhaps as comprehensive an examination of its subject's life and times as can well be imagined---which is both its greatest achievement and main hindrance. Stone prepared for his novel not only by years of travel and research in Italy, but by translating into English Michelangelo's own surviving correspondence - almost 500 letters - drawing upon these documents to give verisimilitude to the artist's thoughts and attitude, and to his often contentious relationships with his contemporaries and rivals. The results are vivid and credible, painting Michelangelo as his own sometimes his own worst enemy in his single-mindedness---and the thinness of his skin. The main problem here is Michelangelo himself: his childhood training in the stone quarries of Florence notwithstanding, his talent is presented as literally God-given, perfect, whether his art be sculpture, painting, architecture, wartime fortifications or even road-building. This makes him an inflexible protagonist: he doesn't really grow; he doesn't change; he doesn't learn---certainly not to stop arguing with the Pope. There is a certain repetitiveness about the episodes of his life, and even more so with respect to his expression of his rhapsodic and intimate feeling for marble as the medium of his artistic passion, that stretch out this novel beyond the requirements of its narrative. In fact, what The Agony And The Ecstasy needed was a bit more history and a bit less Michelangelo. He himself may not have changed, but his life was lived in times of upheaval, danger and violence---with wars between the Italian states, and between the Church and the State, and no fewer than ten popes to make the artist's life miserable. (I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I knew more about this period in history than I had realised, possibly courtesy of George Eliot's Romola.) Though he has longed to set free in his work by patronage, Michelangelo's career is one of frustration, interruption, poverty and misunderstanding, as he becomes the tool of the papacy, with pope after pope seeking from his art personal aggrandisement rather than the glory of God. Nevertheless, it is through papal patronage that Michelangelo is able to create his two greatest legacies to the world; and we follow in detail both the agony of his years spent in painting the Sistine Chapel, and the ecstasy of the carving of his David.

    To mark the frontal projections, David's left foot, left knee, right wrist, the left elbow and hand at the shoulder, he affixed nailheads in the marble. With these fixed points established he was able to carve the upsurging line through the knee through the thigh and chest, delineating David's hard physical stamina; the flesh of the belly in which David was feeling quiverings of anxiety; the left hand holding the sling-shot, the great right hand standing cocked, rock at the ready. To protect himself he had left half again as much marble at the rear as he would ultimately need, keeping in mind the fact that there were forty views of a statue as one walked around it.
    He had designed David as an independent man, standing clear of all space around him. The statue must never be fitted into a niche, stood against a wall, used to decorate a facade or soften the harsh corner of a building. David must always be free. The world was a battlefield, man forever under strain, precarious on his perch. David was a fighter; not a brutal, senseless ravager, but capable of achieving freedom.
    Now the figure became aggressive, began to push out of its mass, striving to define itself in space. His own pace matched the drive of the material, so that Sangello and Sansovino, visiting with him on a Sunday afternoon, were staggered by his passion...
    Michelangelo stopped work, turned and faced his friends.
    "Once marble is out of its quarry, it is no longer a mountain, it is a river. It can flow, change its course. That's what I'm doing, helping this marble river change its course."
    When the others had returned to their homes, Michelangelo sat at David's feet and gazed up at him. He thought, "It takes as long for a marble column to bear, as does a fruit tree."


127lyzard
Oct 1, 2020, 7:44 pm

You know what I hate?

Long novels on short-term interlibrary loan. :D

128lyzard
Oct 1, 2020, 7:48 pm

Finished The Hidden Kingdom for (September) TIOLI #9...which means that I HAVE FINISHED---well, a book and its sequel, anyway.

Which means you get a baby pygmy marmoset:


129lyzard
Oct 1, 2020, 7:49 pm

Now reading The White Monkey by John Galsworthy.

130rosalita
Oct 1, 2020, 8:41 pm

Cute, cute, cute!

Well done on surviving the Agony.

131Matke
Oct 1, 2020, 10:11 pm

>128 lyzard: Echoing Rosalita: Cute!

>126 lyzard: I read The A and the E what seems like a hundred years ago now. I was more interested in the art processes than anything else in the book. And I was Young then and didn’t know as much about books as I do now.

Well, I *think* that’s true.

132lyzard
Oct 1, 2020, 10:34 pm

>130 rosalita:

Yes and thank you. :)

>131 Matke:

Oh yes, he did his research---even to collaborating with a professional sculptor to work out what M.'s tools would have been like, I gather. The art going right and wrong and why (like the failure of da Vinci's fresco, or the huge marble block with the vein that has to be worked around) are some of the most accessible passages in the novel, unexpectedly enough.

133rosalita
Oct 2, 2020, 5:40 pm

Liz, I thought of you when I got an email recently from the Iowa Bibliophiles, which is a group sponsored by the library at the university where I work. They are having a livestream presentation on a topic that may be right up your alley: Pulp America: The Mass Market Paperback as Cultural Artifact.

It's being held at October 14 at 7 p.m. CDT, which as near as I can work would be 11 a.m. October 15 for you. It's free and open to the public. And it looks like they are going to make the video available on YouTube after the fact for people who can't attend the livestream.

I'm going to try to attend this one, as it looks interesting. Maybe they will finally answer the question once and for all, "Why are the women on pulp covers almost always redheads?"

134Matke
Oct 3, 2020, 9:24 am

I don’t know how I missed it, but I was happy to locate the old He Knew He Was Right Group Read thread. It’s next up on my list (The Claverings having been temporarily laid aside). It’s long and perhaps complex, so I’m glad to have you as my guide, even at this late stage.

>133 rosalita: I’ve often wondered about that. (Redheads, I mean.)

135lyzard
Oct 4, 2020, 7:37 pm

>133 rosalita:

I certainly hope the answer isn't anything so dull as, "They look good." :D

Thanks for the heads up!

>134 Matke:

Thanks for letting me know, Gail, I hope you enjoy it (though it's quite a dark book).

136lyzard
Oct 4, 2020, 7:39 pm

Finished The White Monkey for TIOLI #4; and accidentally also finished the succeeding "interlude", A Silent Wooing, for TIOLI #13.

Now reading The Flaming Crescent by Ottwell Binns...and a score there, as i started reading it online via newspaper scans, before discovering a free ebook; so, whoo!

137lyzard
Oct 4, 2020, 7:44 pm

Some good and bad news this week.

First the good: I have discovered - and now joined - a new library, the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts Library, which I only recently learned was open to the public and not a private collection. They have a few things I've been chasing forever and some others I've been cut off from due to the closure of my academic library; I'll be making my first visit tomorrow. Unfortunately they're only doing click & collect at the moment, so no browsing, but I'll be picking up Sandbar Sinister by Phoebe Atwood Taylor, #4 in her Asey Mayo series, which I've been stuck on for literally years, and the next Maigret, The Saint-Fiacre Affair.

I also have John Rhode's Mystery At Greycombe Farm on hold; and most indignant I was when I discovered someone else had borrowed it! I'm not used to having to compete for the books I read. :D

138lyzard
Modifié : Oct 4, 2020, 8:00 pm

As for the bad news, my cat Chester is likely to have to undergo some major jaw surgery.

When he was rescued his mouth was in terrible condition, so that the decision was made to extract all of his teeth but his canines; he has since been on medication for inflammation of the gums. That has now flared up badly, to the point where they are considering managing it by removing his four remaining teeth. He also, it turns out, has a small piece of remaining root wedged inside his jaw, only accessible by drilling.

Complicating all this is that he has a fragile lower jaw, almost like an osteoporosis condition, so that removing his teeth and the root without breaking his jaw is going to be extremely difficult---so much so, his vet has decided we need to consult a specialist dental vet.

I'm trying not to think how much this is going to cost, even aside from just the unavoidable bad timing of any major expense this year; though of course I can't not do it if his health demands it. I keep reminding myself that if he hadn't been rescued, and if he hadn't been treated, he would have starved to death by now.

Here is a recent shot of my boys: that's Chester on the left, Spike on the right:


139Matke
Oct 4, 2020, 8:53 pm

>137 lyzard: Marvelous

>138 lyzard: Oh, I’m so sorry, Liz. I’ll be keeping you and Chester (and Spike, too) in my loving thoughts.

Such handsome boys.

140NinieB
Oct 4, 2020, 10:15 pm

>138 lyzard: So sorry to hear about Chester's dental problems. When I was a kid our cat was a very pale orange tabby. My mother sometimes called him Handsome Morris O'Malley (although he answered to Kitty).

141Helenliz
Oct 5, 2020, 2:57 am

Poor Chester, hope his toofy pegs are sorted out to your and his satisfaction.
And hurrah on the library access news. Although your mild indignation at the idea that there's someone else in the area reading the same books as you did make me laugh.

142lyzard
Oct 5, 2020, 7:16 pm

>139 Matke:

Thank you, Gail!

>140 NinieB:

I'm given to greeting Chester with, "Hiya, Handsome."

Spike (as I often tell him) is more pretty than handsome. :)

>140 NinieB:

He has to go back in for follow-up on Friday, when they will presumably let me know the worst.

"WHADDYA MEAN MY BOOK'S NOT AVAILABLE!!??" :D

Seriously, it happens infrequently enough to completely throw me when it does!

143lyzard
Modifié : Oct 5, 2020, 11:36 pm

Finished The Flaming Crescent for TIOLI #3.

Now reading Patty's Romance by Carolyn Wells (or will be when search / touchstones are working again and I can tidy up my details, sigh).

ETA: That's better!

144lyzard
Modifié : Oct 6, 2020, 6:16 pm

Hmm...

It turns out that in its early days, the Australian Women's Weekly magazine included a literary supplement offering what it called, rather mysteriously, "a complete book-length novel". While this might be a complicated way of saying "unabridged", the very over-emphasis makes me suspicious.

When I have to read books online in newspapers I always do prefer to access Australian papers where possible, as as a rule they did not abridge their serials, but simply let their stories run until finished.

However, whether this would apply in the case of a magazine supplement trying to offer an entire novel at once is debatable.

These particular supplements consisted of a 64-page mini-magazine printed in small, tight-columned font. I'm now trying to calculate how (according to the State Library catalogue) a 307-page, standard-bound novel might translate:


145lyzard
Oct 7, 2020, 1:49 am

Finished Patty's Romance for TIOLI #14.

Now reading The Bride Of Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer.

146rosalita
Oct 7, 2020, 7:55 am

>144 lyzard: hmm, I think you are right to be suspicious. Although that certainly is some tiny type! It could be a complete shortish novel, but certainly nothing along the lines of The Agony and the Ecstasy! So you've got that going for you, which is nice.

147lyzard
Oct 7, 2020, 4:27 pm

>146 rosalita:

Or to quote Steve, "At least it isn't Anthony Adverse!" :D

I've read one of Hepple's other books and it was a pretty standard contemporary romance in content and length so I would judge that it isn't out of the question for this presentation to be complete; but I don't like what was obviously a pre-determined maximum length (as opposed to our newspaper serials, which just ran until they were done).

148lyzard
Oct 7, 2020, 11:39 pm

Well! - another light, breezy read for the best-seller challenge this month:


  


Nothing I enjoy more than a book that opens with a three-page-long character list...

On the other hand, I finally made it in to my new library to pick up these (very excited about the first, which I have been hunting for - checks notes - three years!):


  

149Helenliz
Oct 8, 2020, 4:56 am

I really like the left hand cover. Yes, I do judge a book by its cover...

150PaulCranswick
Oct 8, 2020, 5:31 am

>149 Helenliz: Couldn't agree more, Helen - I also like the Simenon series covers in fairness.

>91 lyzard: Almost missed the fact that you actually read a book that was first published in my lifetime!

151lyzard
Modifié : Oct 8, 2020, 4:11 pm

>149 Helenliz:

So do I, inasmuch as that's not the cover of my actual copy, which is rather plain and dull, but the first-edition cover from 1933. :)

>150 PaulCranswick:

I don't mind the Penguins, though for those I generally use the French reissue series with the original-language titles; like this one:




I does happen occasionally! Just occasionally... :D

152lyzard
Modifié : Oct 8, 2020, 4:10 pm

Speaking of covers, I think this is the first time I haven't been able to find a decent reproduction of the first-edition, Hodder & Stoughton cover for this month's Miss Silver, Vanishing Point. I've got one that's too small, one that's on a weird angle, and one that's lost its dust-jacket.

Most of the alternatives are rather dull and unimaginative (I hope this doesn't prefigure the contents: you know, covers, judging...) so I think I'll go with this one:



153rosalita
Oct 8, 2020, 4:18 pm

>152 lyzard: Oh, is it that time again already? I'd best get cracking!

154NinieB
Oct 8, 2020, 5:13 pm

>152 lyzard: Hey! I own that edition!

155lyzard
Oct 8, 2020, 6:21 pm

>153 rosalita:

It is!

I need to get through Ship Of Fools first, though, and that won't be starting until I've wrapped up the wonderful tangle of racism and sexism that is The Bride Of Fu Manchu. :D

>154 NinieB:

Score! What edition is that?

156NinieB
Oct 8, 2020, 6:36 pm

>155 lyzard: It's the American first, published by Lippincott.

On The Bride of Fu Manchu and Sax Rohmer generally, I recall that Bill Pronzini had some pretty scathing comments in Gun in Cheek. Scared me right off Rohmer.

157lyzard
Oct 8, 2020, 6:57 pm

>156 NinieB:

Ah well, at least it's a first edition; thanks!

No, definitely not for everyone, but weirdly interesting as pulp fiction if you can stomach it.

158NinieB
Oct 9, 2020, 8:25 am

By the way, Liz, in my last American mystery of the 30s (The Transatlantic Ghost), the local sheriff was incompetent, drunk, and corrupt.

159lyzard
Oct 9, 2020, 5:41 pm

>158 NinieB:

HA!!

To be fair, they're not usually drunk... :D

I don't know that one, who is it by?

160lyzard
Oct 9, 2020, 6:05 pm

Finished The Bride Of Fu Manchu for TIOLI #8.

Now reading Ship Of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter.

161NinieB
Modifié : Oct 9, 2020, 6:06 pm

>159 lyzard: Dorothy Gardiner, an American who also wrote historical fiction and history of the American west. It was fun to read.

162lyzard
Oct 9, 2020, 6:07 pm

>161 NinieB:

I'm not familiar with her; thanks, I'll keep an eye out! :)

163lyzard
Modifié : Oct 9, 2020, 6:20 pm

Oh dear.

Chester was back at the vet for his follow-up yesterday, and the verdict was that he needs his remaining four teeth removed, and that because of the complications involved, he needs a specialist dental vet to do the surgery---so that the operation will be done faster and safer.

Just not cheaper.

Needless to say, this is not an expense I need at the moment, but whaddya gunna do?

And as always when dealing with specialists, it's about when it's convenient for them, not us; requiring a midweek, cross-town trip early in the morning, then the same in the evening for the pick-up.

In other words, great fun for all concerned.

Oh dear.

Anyway...here is a shot of Chester keeping me company at the computer, with one of the offending teeth in evidence. I guess I need more shots like these while I can still take them (and before he is converted into a permanent blepper, as I gather is likely to be the case):




164NinieB
Oct 9, 2020, 6:23 pm

>163 lyzard: What is a blepper? Hopefully this surgery means that Chester will be around to keep you and Spike company for many years.

165lyzard
Oct 9, 2020, 9:04 pm

>163 lyzard:

It means his tongue might be hanging out on a regular (or permanent) basis, with no teeth to keep it back. From the noun 'blep'. :P

Of course this is necessary and for the best in the long run but it is difficult and stressful for all concerned at the moment.

166rosalita
Modifié : Oct 10, 2020, 7:10 pm

Poor Chester - and poor Liz, too! At least it sounds like he won't have to be kept overnight? Is there anywhere close to the vets' place where you could hang out instead of having to go all the way home and back again?

Please give him some ear scratches from me. And for his brother, too.

167NinieB
Oct 9, 2020, 10:39 pm

My cat (turned 17 this summer) is in remission from lymphoma. We have had to stuff pills down her throat daily, take her to the vet monthly, all of which she hates and doesn't understand. And the bills are expensive. All of this to say that I sympathize with how hard it is.

168SandDune
Oct 10, 2020, 9:37 am

Poor Chester! Daisy had to have a root canal filling on her canine tooth a couple of years ago (with a specialist vet, of course) so I sympathise with you about the cost. It was far more than root canal treatment for me!

169lyzard
Oct 10, 2020, 5:18 pm

>166 rosalita:

Not if all goes well, but I won't know until late the same day, so it's all very awkward. We're talking eight to nine hours in a industrial-ish area so hanging around isn't really on, no.

I will. :)

>167 NinieB:

That's horrible, I'm so sorry! - though glad to hear about the remission. Chester is on liquid meds which fortunately I'm able to mix into some wet food.

>168 SandDune:

Hi, Rhian! Aw, poor Daisy!

Yes, but then we're only human, so really, who cares?? :D

170Matke
Oct 12, 2020, 8:32 am

I’m so sorry for all the stress and worry about Chester, and the expense, of course. Poor wee boy. Sending as much love and healing energy as I can.

Ship of Fools has been on the radar for literally years but I’m afraid. Not of the length, but that it will be unbearably sad.

171lyzard
Oct 14, 2020, 12:53 am

>170 Matke:

Thank you, Gail!

Not sad so much as nasty. :(

172lyzard
Modifié : Oct 14, 2020, 12:57 am

So, yeah---





Finished Ship Of Fools for TIOLI #11.

Now reading L'Affaire Saint-Fiacre by Georges Simenon.

173lyzard
Oct 14, 2020, 1:24 am

Aww, holy crap, Best-Seller Challenge, will ya GIMME A BREAK!? :(

174lyzard
Oct 14, 2020, 6:06 pm

Oh, fabulous...

So now my overlong reviews not only look overlong, they look OVERLONG. :(

And where may I ask have my ticks gone??

175NinieB
Oct 14, 2020, 6:11 pm

>174 lyzard: What do you mean by ticks, Liz?

176lyzard
Oct 14, 2020, 6:45 pm

>175 NinieB:

The coloured ticks that categorise your books, which show up in the list of touchstones or on author pages: they seem to have lost the one I use for 'ebooks or PDFs', so it looks like those books aren't in my collections.

177NinieB
Oct 14, 2020, 7:06 pm

>176 lyzard: I am seeing the green ones. Did we used to see the other colors as well? I have been looking past those so long I didn't notice!

178FAMeulstee
Modifié : Oct 14, 2020, 7:07 pm

>176 lyzard: I have the same with books in my collections "to read" and "reading". They used to be grey.

179NinieB
Oct 14, 2020, 7:11 pm

I take it back. I am not seeing just green; I'm also seeing blue (read but unowned) and purple (wishlist). But I don't think I'm seeing any grey icons.

180lyzard
Oct 15, 2020, 4:41 pm

>176 lyzard:, >177 NinieB:, >178 FAMeulstee:, >179 NinieB:

I'm finding the colours less distinct overall in this design, but yes, some ticks definitely missing. Hopefully that will be addressed going forward.

181lyzard
Oct 15, 2020, 5:01 pm

Finished L'Affaire Saint-Fiacre for TIOLI #9.

Now reading In The Night Room by Peter Straub.

182lyzard
Oct 15, 2020, 5:02 pm

Hmm...

Also, am I the only one finding the images a bit blurry? (I say that fully aware it *could* just be my eyes!)

183NinieB
Oct 15, 2020, 5:35 pm

>182 lyzard: I'm not seeing a difference. But it does seem like the new pages are loading a little bit slower.

184rosalita
Oct 15, 2020, 7:29 pm

Hallo, Liz! I thought I would report back on the Iowa Bibliophiles programs about pulp paperbacks, which was Wednesday evening. I thought it was great — the presenter was a professor who collects pulp fiction paperbacks, so he was showing off his collection and talking about the history of mass market paperbacks in general.

Two things made me think of you especially. The first was when he mentioned the tendency of publishers to change the title of a book and re-publish it, with the original title barely mentioned in tiny type and leading people to think they were buying a brand new book.

And the other time was when he held up a copy of an early book by Erle Stanley Gardener writing under a pseudonym, A. A. Fair. The book was Fools Die on Friday and this was the cover:



REDHEAD ALERT!! Also, he showed both this cover and a very similar one where her shirt was more buttoned up and you couldn't see her knickers, saying that often the more salacious books were forced to print less provocative covers in order to be stocked in "respectable" outlets.

Anyway, I think you would have enjoyed it, although you likely would have already known more of the history bits than I did. They said they would be posting the Zoom recording but it isn't up yet. I'll keep an eye out for it if you think you'd like to see it sometime.

185Berly
Oct 16, 2020, 4:31 pm

>163 lyzard: Best of luck with Chester. : (

>172 lyzard: LOL! That's me with so many of the books I have attempted lately, but I think I have found my groove again.

And I am still adjusting to the LT changes...hadn't checked out my "ticks" yet, so off I go...

186lyzard
Modifié : Oct 16, 2020, 5:05 pm

>184 rosalita:

HA!!!! I have that cover in my redheads collection! :D

Thanks for the update, that sounds great!

187lyzard
Oct 16, 2020, 5:06 pm

>185 Berly:

Hi, Kim! - thank you.

There are times I worry that the Best-Seller Challenge will literally kill me, rather than just crushing my spirits. :D

Yes, I have to say I'm not crazy about the changes, particularly since I'm not someone who uses the site on a device, just my poor old laptop.

188lyzard
Modifié : Oct 18, 2020, 6:31 pm



Publication date: 1916
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Winter and Furneaux #5
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (word starting with 'P')

The Postmaster's Daughter - Having been startled the night before by a glimpse of a woman's face, apparently watching him through a ground-floor window of his country house, writer John Maxwell Grant is horrified to discover a body in the river at the edge of his property---bound in ropes and attached to a staple in a manner that, rather than conceal it, ensures that the body is found. He is stunned to recogise the victim as Adelaide Melhuish, an actress with whom Grant was involved some three years earlier, but from whom he parted upon discovering that she was married. Though the shrewd Superintendent Fowler moves cautiously, his subordinate, PC Robinson, determined to cover himself in glory in this, his first serious case, leaps to the conclusion of Grant's guilt. Matters are further complicated when Isidor Ingerman, Adelaide's husband, arrives, obviously intending to make as much trouble as possible; while Grant discovers to his dismay that his friendship with Doris Martin, the lovely daughter of the local postmaster, has earned him the enmity of a number of men in the village. It is perhaps fortunate for Grant that Scotland Yard, in the form of Inspector Furneaux, decides to take a hand... Though the burly Chief Inspector Winter puts in an important appearance, it is the quicksilver Inspector Furneaux who dominates this fifth entry in Louis Tracy's series. The Postmaster's Daughter turns out to be a much more complicated mystery than its initial set-up, with its focus upon the ugly end of Grant's love affair with Adelaide Melhuish, would suggest. It is also more of a novel of character than is often the case in this genre---and most unexpectedly, its most interesting character may be PC Robinson, whose officious and tunnel-visioned pursuit of Grant seems to position him as a subsidiary villain, but who has the sense to watch and learn once Furneaux appears on the scene, and emerges from the narrative as one of the good guys. Though Grant's history with Adelaide is at first assumed to be behind the murder, Furneaux is quick to see that the actress's grim end is almost incidental, and that the crux of the case is actually Grant's friendship with Doris Martin: a friendship that inevitably blossoms into romance under the stress of the investigation. Mr Martin, the postmaster, is an intelligent, self-educated man, and has encouraged his daughter in the same direction. Bright, beautiful and cultured, Doris has become an object of desire for a number of local men---and this means that, without intending it or even realising it, Grant has made himself some deadly enemies...

    Grant struck the table till things rattled. “Keep her name out of it,” he cried fiercely. “You are a man of the world, not a suspicious idiot of the Robinson type. You heard to-day the full and true explanation of her presence here on Monday night. It was a sheer accident. Why harp on Doris Martin rather than any member of the Bates family?”
    “Who, may I ask, is Doris Martin?” put in Hart.
    “The Steynholme postmaster’s daughter,” said Furneaux. “A remarkably pretty and intelligent girl. If her father was a peer she would be the belle of a London season. As it is, her good looks seem to have put a maggot in more than one nut in this village...
    “Now, stifle your romantic frenzy, Mr Grant, and listen to me. If you were minded to instruct me in the art of writing good English, I would sit at your feet an attentive disciple. When I, Furneaux, of the Yard, lay down a first principle in the investigation of crime, I expect deference on your part. I tell you unhesitatingly that if Doris Martin didn’t exist, Adelaide Melhuish would be alive now. That, as a thesis, is nearly as certain a thing as that the sun will rise to-morrow. I go farther, and hazard the guess, not the fixed belief, though my guesses are usually borne out by events, that if Doris Martin had not been in this garden at half past ten on Monday night, Adelaide Melhuish would not have been killed some twenty minutes later. It is useless for you to fume and rage in vain effort to disprove either of these presumptive facts. You are simply beating the air. This mystery centres in and around the postmaster’s daughter...”

189PaulCranswick
Oct 17, 2020, 9:40 pm

Wishing you a splendid and book filled Sunday, Liz.

190lyzard
Oct 17, 2020, 10:20 pm

>189 PaulCranswick:

Batch cooking day today! - but I'm hoping to finish In The Night Room tonight. :)

191PaulCranswick
Oct 18, 2020, 12:15 am

No cooking here as it is Kyran's birthday and we will have to find a way to celebrate partial lockdown or not.

192lyzard
Oct 18, 2020, 2:40 am

>191 PaulCranswick:

Oh wow, congratulations! I'm sure you'll figure out an appropriate way to party. :)

193PaulCranswick
Oct 18, 2020, 2:56 am

>192 lyzard: Probably and almost certain to be stuffed full of calories.

194lyzard
Oct 18, 2020, 5:49 pm

>193 PaulCranswick:

Sounds good to me! :D

195lyzard
Oct 18, 2020, 6:22 pm

Finished In The Night Room for TIOLI #1.

Now reading Vanishing Point by Patricia Wentworth.

196lyzard
Modifié : Oct 19, 2020, 4:51 pm



Publication date: 1883
Genre: Historical romance / adventure
Read for: TIOLI (750+ conversations)

Treasure Island - When their lodger at the 'Admiral Benbow' Inn, an old sea-dog, dies, the widowed Mrs Hawkins and her young son, Jim, steel themselves to break open his chest. After securing the money owed and a mysterious oilskin packet, almost immediately the two are beset by the dead sailor's former shipmates and barely escape with their lives. The arrival on the scene of a squad of revenue officers saves them; the men's captain accompanies Jim to the home of Squire Trelawney, where he is dining with Dr Livesey. The boy tells a jumbled tale of the evening's terrors and of the old sea-dog's fears and warnings, in which someone called 'Flint' and a one-legged man figure prominently. It is Dr Livesey who interprets this: Flint was one of the most notorious of all pirates, and the oilskin packet contains a map to the secret location of his buried treasure. The squire proposes that they seek the treasure themselves, and both Livesey and Jim agree eagerly to the journey. However, in their ignorance, the men must trust to others for the purchasing and outfitting of their vessel; and Livesey becomes worried when he learns that the garrulous squire may have said too much about their destination. The Hispaniola sets out under the command of Captain Smollet, a rough-mannered, suspicious individual who knows his business but rubs his employers the wrong way; while Jim finds himself drawn to the ship's cook, a one-legged man called 'Long John' Silver... First published in 1883, though set perhaps a century earlier, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island remains a rollicking tale of seafaring and adventure, albeit one which today we might classify as "young adult", in that it keeps young Jim Hawkins at the forefront of its narrative. It is from Jim's perspective that most of the story is told, and it is he who always manages to be in just the right spot to see or hear something that saves his own life and those of his companions (the 'gentlemen', anyway; not so much the working men), and keeps their quest on the right track. This focus does, however, introduce a queasy note into the narrative: the level of violence is high throughout, and Jim must play his part in the fighting and killing that marks the struggle to be first to the treasure hidden on the mysterious island. (That said, I was more bothered by Jim's casual abandonment of his newly widowed mother, though I guess that accords with both the vintage of the tale and its genre.) Long John Silver remains a compelling character: dangerous yet oddly charismatic, and in his own way honest. Stevenson keeps the tension high in Treasure Island, once Jim has overheard a conversation amongst the ship's crew that makes it all too clear that the Squire has unwittingly hired a number of Captain Flint's former comrades. The narrative then unfolds in a series of set-pieces, as the Squire, Dr Livesey, Jim and those few onboard loyal to them must fight for their lives and outfit their enemies, in order to be the first to the hidden cache. Yet even then, finding the treasure is only the first step: with the ship's crew in revolt, how are they to escape the island...?

    The red glare of the torch lighting up the interior of the blockhouse showed me the worst of my apprehensions realised. The pirates were in possession of the house and stores; there was the cask of cognac, there were the pork and bread, as before; and, what tenfold increased my horror, not a sign of any prisoner. I could only judge that all had perished, and my heart smote me sorely that I had not been there to perish with them. There were six of the buccaneers, all told; not another man was left alive...
    The parrot sat, preening her plumage, on Long John's shoulder. He himself, I thought, looked somewhat paler and more stern than I was used to. He still wore his fine broadcloth suit in which he had fulfilled his mission, but it was bitterly the worse for wear, daubed with clay and torn with sharp briers of the wood.
    "So," said he, "here's Jim Hawkins, shiver my timbers! dropped in, like, eh? Well, come, I take that friendly."
    And thereupon he sat down across the brandy-cask, and began to fill a pipe.
    "Give me the loan of a link, Dick," said he; and then, when he had a good light, "That'll do, my lad," he added, "stick the glim in the wood heap; and you, gentlemen, bring yourselves to!---you needn't stand up for Mr Hawkins; he'll excuse you, you may lay to that. And so, Jim"---stopping the tobacco---"here you are, and quite a pleasant surprise for poor old John. I see you were smart when first I set my eyes on you, but this here gets away from me clean, it do."
    To all this, as may be well supposed, I made no answer. They had set me with my back against the wall, and I stood there, looking Silver in the face, pluckily enough, I hope, to all outward appearance, but with black despair in my heart...

197lyzard
Oct 19, 2020, 6:21 pm



Publication date: 1999
Genre: Contemporary drama
Read for: TIOLI (green cover)

Tara Road - Tara Road, Dublin, is an odd jumble of a street, with shabby old houses, smart new developments and burgeoning businesses side-by-side, and residents who are immersed in each other's lives. It is the home of Ria and Danny Lynch and their two children, Annie and Brian. Ria loves their rambling Victorian house and has turned it into the heart of the neighbourhood, with friends and family in and out in a constant stream. Absorbed in domesticity, Ria is oblivious to the currents swirling around her until Danny devastates her with the announcement that he is leaving her for his much younger girlfriend, who is pregnant. Ria is still in shock when she intercepts a phone-call intended for real-estate agent Danny: it is from a woman called Marilyn Vine, who lives in Connecticut, but is seeking a house-swap for the summer. On impulse, Ria offers her own house in Tara Road---seeking escape from her nightmare in a flight to the US. She does not know that Marilyn, too, is running from a tragedy she cannot face... One of Maeve Binchy's interconnected Dublin novels, Tara Road is very much a mixed bag. Its inescapable fault is that it is far too long, dwelling to quite unnecessary length upon the Lynch marriage and Ria's relationships with her mother, sister and friends---none of which is interesting enough to sustain so many pages in spite of the unintentional snapshot of 1980s Ireland. Too many of the characters are written in overbroad strokes, particularly the cenral "friendship" triangle of domestic Ria, abused Gertie and independent Rosemary; while the Lynch marriage, despite its pivotal function, is never convincing. Binchy does better with some of the novel's supporting roles, including local restaurateur and general shoulder-to-cry-on, Colm Barry, and the Lynch's thin-skinned teenage daughter, Annie (though naturally I was most engaged by Clement the ginger cat). However, Tara Road picks up when it finally comes to the point of the house-swap, with the character of Marilyn introducing an astringent quality to the narrative that it sorely needs. Over the novel's last third it offers a split-vision of Ria living independently for the first time in her life as she comes to terms with the implosion of her marriage, and conversely of the thawing of Marilyn's frozen grief after the death of her teenage son, as against her will she is drawn into the lives of her new neighbours, including the Lynch children---and while Binchy makes Marilyn's emotional transformation credible, I have to say that my introvert's soul ran cold at the novel's tacit suggestion of the healing power of LOTS OF PEOPLE...

    Marilyn could not take in the degree of involvement and indeed interference that these people felt confident to have in everyone else's life. They thought nothing of discussing the motives and private sorrows of their friend with Marilyn who was after all a complete stranger, here purely because of an accidental home-exchange. While she felt sympathy for Ria and all that had happened to her, she also felt a sense of annoyance.
    Why had she not kept her dignity, and refused to allow these people into her life?... Marilyn got out of bed and looked down at the messy garden and the other large red-brick houses of the neighbourhood. She felt very lost and alone in this place where garrulous people wanted to know everything about you and expected you to need the details of their lives too. She ached for the cool house and beautiful garden in Westville. If she were there now she could go and swim lengths of her pool safe in the knowledge that no one would call and burden her with post mortems about last night.
    Clement the cat who slept on her bed every night woke up and stretched and came over to her hopefully. He was purring loudly. The day was about to begin, he was expecting a game and a bowl of something.
    Marilyn looked at him sadly. "I don't usually talk to animals, Clement, but I'm making an exception in your case. I made the wrong decision coming here. It was the worst decision I ever made in my life..."


198figsfromthistle
Oct 19, 2020, 8:21 pm

>197 lyzard: That brings me back to when I used to read that series in my pre teen years. I enjoyed it then, however, not sure how much I would enjoy it now.

199NinieB
Oct 19, 2020, 8:23 pm

>197 lyzard: Go Clement!

When is Chester's surgery?

200lyzard
Modifié : Oct 20, 2020, 4:26 pm

>198 figsfromthistle:

Hi, Anita! It's obvious that Binchy was very invested in her conception of the community but I just didn't find that section of the book (or, frankly, Ria) compelling enough to justify its length. As so much of what I've read lately, there's just too much of it. :)

>199 NinieB:

Clement is actually the biggest winner out of the house-swap: he's not usually allowed to sleep on the bed. :D

Not for another month, poor love! You know what specialist appointments are like...

201lyzard
Oct 21, 2020, 1:57 am

Finished Vanishing Point for TIOLI #7.

Now reading The Crimson Alibi by Roy Octavus Cohen.

202rosalita
Modifié : Oct 21, 2020, 8:41 pm

>197 lyzard: I've always loved Binchy — I think I've read them all — and I remember loving this one, although your review reminds me that mostly what I loved was the fantasy of doing a house swap with someone in Ireland, and also the fish-out-of-water aspect of the Irish living in America. I do think the interconnectedness of some of the Dublin novels gets a bit much, though I enjoy reading about the same events from different viewpoints in her "cast of millions" works..

203lyzard
Oct 21, 2020, 6:25 pm

>202 rosalita:

Yes, it's quite possible I'd've felt differently if I had a better grounding in the community aspects. I liked it once the house-swap kicked in but the lead-up just took forever.

204lyzard
Oct 23, 2020, 6:13 pm

Finished The Crimson Alibi for TIOLI #4.

Now reading The Red Triangle by Arthur Morrison.

205lyzard
Oct 26, 2020, 5:19 pm

Finished The Red Triangle for TIOLI #4, and FINISHED A SERIES!!

A short series, but long enough to warrant a marmoset!

This is the black-tailed marmoset, which has one of the broadest species distributions, being found from the Amazon down to Paraguay, and because of this thankfully not considered endangered:


206lyzard
Oct 26, 2020, 5:20 pm

Now (re-)reading Gun In Cheek: A Study Of "Alternative" Crime Fiction by Bill Pronzini.

207rosalita
Oct 26, 2020, 6:19 pm

>205 lyzard: Short series, long tail! Well done to both of you. :-)

208lyzard
Oct 26, 2020, 6:44 pm

>207 rosalita:

:D

Thank you!

209NinieB
Oct 26, 2020, 7:19 pm

210Helenliz
Oct 27, 2020, 3:57 am

Excellent series finish! And nice Marmosetting there.

211lyzard
Modifié : Oct 28, 2020, 5:16 pm

>208 lyzard:

Ha! I've read that too, but I don't own it.

With GIC, you will appreciate my amusement overPronzini's take on the difference between British and American attitudes to the police!

>210 Helenliz:

Thank you, my dear!

212lyzard
Oct 28, 2020, 5:36 pm

Finished Gun In Cheek for TIOLI #12.

Now reading The Idle Hill Of Summer by Julia Hamilton.

213NinieB
Oct 28, 2020, 5:52 pm

>211 lyzard: I read GIC long, long ago and would like to reread, along with 1000 other books.

214swynn
Oct 28, 2020, 6:09 pm

Adding Gun in Cheek to the list. When I finish this Fu Manchu read-through I want to find a historical/critical work or to that puts it in context. GIC sounds like an entertaining option.

215lyzard
Oct 29, 2020, 6:25 am

>213 NinieB:

Awkward, ain't it?? :)

>214 swynn:

I don't know that's your best source: Pronzini talks about Rohmer a bit but basically tags him as the best of the bunch in that particularly branch of, uh, "literature", and then goes on to talk more about the worst of the bunch. :D

216swynn
Oct 29, 2020, 9:24 am

Nevertheless, sounds interesting. My library has some volumes on Asian representation in literature, and at least one on Fu Manchu specifically, though they'll tend to be more academic. Pronzini's sounds like it might actually be fun.

217lyzard
Oct 29, 2020, 4:21 pm

>216 swynn:

Oh yes, for that, certainly. :)

218rosalita
Oct 30, 2020, 1:16 pm

Liz, I don't know if you are on the Twitter machine, but I just discovered a fabulous user there that I think you would enjoy: @PulpLibrarian posts lots of covers and inside spreads from old pulp books and magazines. This one in particular made me think of you and Heather (souloftherose):



There are lots of other great ones, but I couldn't resist sharing this one. :-)

219lyzard
Oct 30, 2020, 4:10 pm

>218 rosalita:

Oh, that's hilarious (and true!); thank you!

I have a very neglected Twitter account that's mostly for film stuff, but this would be right at home there.

220lyzard
Oct 30, 2020, 4:18 pm

Finished The Idle Hill Of Summer for TIOLI #12.

Now reading Sandbar Sinister by Phoebe Atwood Taylor.

221rosalita
Oct 30, 2020, 5:43 pm

>219 lyzard: Heh. I thought you'd like it.

222lyzard
Modifié : Oct 31, 2020, 5:28 pm

Some good news / bad news - or perhaps more correctly, exasperating news - on the book front:

This month's best-seller is The Shoes Of The Fisherman by Morris West. The good news is that it was available at my local library, so for once I'm not on pins and needles wondering when my ILL will arrive.

However--- The Shoes Of The Fisherman is only {checks} 257 pages long. Now, obviously, in best-seller land THIS SHALL NOT STAND; so to compensate, what my library actually has is "The Vatican Trilogy", an omnibus that binds The Shoes Of The Fisherman with The Clowns Of God and Lazarus: 886 pages altogether...and in hardback, of course; my poor wrists.

Yeah, that looks more like it...


  

223lyzard
Oct 31, 2020, 5:37 pm

...though to be fair, there is more good news: I have rounded up the last components of my self-imposed Agatha Christie challenge(s)---not just the "missing" short stories but a copy of the play, Black Coffee, which for some reason was held by a library up on the Gold Coast (the only public library in the country to hold a copy!).

So I'll be giving myself a big tick this month!---


    

224ronincats
Oct 31, 2020, 10:00 pm

>223 lyzard: Harper Collins sent out an email today stating that they are publishing a Christie collection titled Midwinter Murder.

"An all-new collection of winter-themed stories from the Queen of Mystery, just in time for the holidays—including the original version of “Christmas Adventure,” never before released in the United States!

There’s a chill in the air and the days are growing shorter... It’s the perfect time to curl up in front of a crackling fire with these wintry whodunits from the legendary Agatha Christie. But beware of deadly snowdrifts and dangerous gifts, poisoned meals and mysterious guests. This chilling compendium of short stories—some featuring beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple—is an essential omnibus for Christie fans and the perfect holiday gift for mystery lovers."

225lyzard
Oct 31, 2020, 10:25 pm

>224 ronincats:

I presume that means a new collection, and not a new collection??

226ronincats
Oct 31, 2020, 10:41 pm

>225 lyzard: That's what I assumed also, with the exception of the story they say hasn't been printed in the US before, as that would be new to those of us here.

227NinieB
Oct 31, 2020, 10:58 pm

>223 lyzard: Did I miss you reading her other plays?

228lyzard
Modifié : Nov 1, 2020, 12:22 am

>226 ronincats:

Ah! Please let me know which story that is, if / when you find out.

>227 NinieB:

No, I wasn't planning on doing those (anyway, not in this context; nor her Mary Westmacott novels): Black Coffee is her Poirot play and there has been argument over whether it's a series work or not; neatly solved by the 'collections and selections' add-on in the new series arrangement, in my opinion. :)

229NinieB
Nov 1, 2020, 10:05 am

>228 lyzard: There was a late Harley Quin story, "The Harlequin Tea Set" published in one of the Winter's Crimes anthologies. Maybe?

Ah, that makes sense. I read the first two Westmacott novels but never moved on to the third. The second one was rather autobiographical.

230lyzard
Nov 1, 2020, 3:33 pm

>229 NinieB:

The Harlequin Tea Set is in Problem At Pollensa Bay And Other Stories. There is a lot of overlap between these collections - favourite example: Problem At Pollensa Bay is in The Regatta Mystery And Other Stories, so why would you make it the title story of a second collection? - but I'm hoping that together they plug my few remaining gaps.

I read a couple of the Westmacotts many years ago and only remember that I did read them.

231lyzard
Modifié : Nov 1, 2020, 11:50 pm

Well! - that was fun...

A power outage due to works but without any warning, which effectively scuppered everything I planned to do today.

So instead I lay on the bed with my cats and had a Christie session, which is about to be the basis for a rambling post or two (or three).

First of all---a couple of threads ago (here, in fact) I posted about the difficulties involved in trying to be "completist" with regard to Christie's short stories, given that a number of them were rewritten over the years and published at different times, in different forums or different countries.

However, I decided I was going to try as far as I could to wrap up her stories featuring Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

To this end I hunted down copies of The Regatta Mystery And Other Stories and Problem At Pollensa Bay And Other Stories.

I'm not going to review these two, but I will just run over the contents. These collections illustrate the issue perfectly (as does, as it turns out, the "new" collection mentioned by Roni in >224 ronincats:).

232lyzard
Modifié : Nov 1, 2020, 11:24 pm

The Regatta Mystery And Other Stories was published in the US only in 1939 (probably because events in Europe disrupted the publishing routine, not surprisingly). This collection was not published anywhere else in the world until it was revived unaltered in 2012. However, some of the stories in the collection had in the meantime been included in different volumes.

The Regatta Mystery was first published in the UK and the US in 1936, as Poirot And The Regatta Mystery. However, it was rewritten for its inclusion in the 1939 collection to make the detective figure Mr Parker Pyne, and at that time had its title changed too. The 2012 reissue was the first time the story appeared in book form outside the US. The Poirot version has never been collected. (The story involves the theft of a diamond and actually has nothing to do with a regatta, which is just backdrop.)

The Poirot story, The Mystery Of The Baghdad Chest, was first published in 1932; it was later revised and somewhat expanded, and included in the 1960 release, The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding, as The Mystery Of The Spanish Chest. The story in its original form was also published in the 1997 Christie short story collection, While The Light Lasts And Other Stories.

How Does Your Garden Grow? was first published in 1935; it was included in the 1974 collection, Poirot's Early Cases.

Problem At Pollensa Bay is a Parker Pyne Story first published in 1935; for some reason it was included in, and made the title story of, the subsequent Christie collection.

Yellow Iris started life as a Poirot story in 1937, but was later revised and expanded into the 1943 novel, Sparkling Cyanide, only with Colonel Race instead of Poirot.

Miss Marple Tells A Story was written for radio in 1934, and read on air by Christie herself; it is the only Miss Marple story written in the first person. It first appeared in print in 1935 as Behind Closed Doors, and was included in the posthumous, 1979 collection, Miss Marple's Final Cases.

The Poirot story, The Dream, was first published in 1938 and was also included in The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding.

In A Glass Darkly is a non-detective story first published in 1934, and one of the two "add on" stories in Miss Marple's Final Cases.

Problem At Sea was first published in 1936 as Poirot And The Crime In Cabin 66; it was also included in Poirot's Early Cases.

233lyzard
Modifié : Nov 1, 2020, 11:41 pm

Problem At Pollensa Bay And Other Stories was first published as a collection in 1991.

Problem At Pollensa Bay itself is dealt with above (again, why would you make this the title story?).

The Second Gong is a Poirot story first published in 1932; it was almost immediately revised and somewhat expanded into Dead Man's Mirror, which was included in Murder In The Mews And Other Stories in 1934.

Yellow Iris is also included in this collection.

The Harlequin Tea Set features - duh! - Mr Harley Quin and his sidekick /muse, Mr Satterthwaite. There is no record of it ever having been published in a magazine or newspaper; its first print appearance seems to be the 1971 anthology, Winter's Crimes #3.

The Regatta Mystery (Parker Pyne version) is also included in this collection.

The Love Detectives is also a Harley Quin story; its first print appearance was the US only collection, Three Blind Mice And Other stories, published in 1950*. This story turns on a situation also used in Murder At The Vicarage (which might be why it wasn't separately published at first writing).

The remaining two stories are non-detective works: Next To A Dog (1929) is a depressing story about a young woman whose elderly dog prevents her from finding work; Magnolia Blossom (1926) is a melodramatic story of a woman's loyalty to her untrustworthy husband.

(*All the stories in Three Blind Mice were included in The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding, Poirot's Early Cases or Miss Marple's Final Cases, except for The Love Detectives.)

234lyzard
Nov 1, 2020, 11:49 pm

I also had time to read Christie's 1930 play, Black Coffee.

Based upon what we take to be contemporary general knowledge about atomic bomb research, this involves a stolen "formula", the theft of which crosses paths with the blackmailing of the wife of the scientist's son, who is himself badly in debt.

Poirot (Hastings in tow) is summoned to deal with the theft of the formula. However, the scientist offers to give the thief a chance to return it while the lights are turned off, and to send Poirot away if this is done. It isn't---and as it turns out, the scientist has already been slipped something nasty via his coffee.

This was a bit disappointing, a short story-ish situation expanded via lots of cross-purposes and people slipping in and out of a single room / set. It also finds Christie indulging in a shameless piece of self-plagiarism, reusing a key point from The Mysterious Affair At Styles; did she really think people wouldn't remember? (I wonder how that's handled in Charles Osborne's novelisation?...though not enough to read it and find out.)

235lyzard
Nov 2, 2020, 12:00 am

While doing all this, I also looked into the "new" Christie collection mentioned in >224 ronincats:, and found that there's nothing very new about it...but once again it dabbles in the original versions of some of the stories.

Midwinter Murder includes:
- The Chocolate Box
- A Christmas Tragedy
- The Coming of Mr Quin
- The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest
- The Clergyman’s Daughter
- The Plymouth Express
- Problem at Pollensa Bay
- Sanctuary
- The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge
- The World’s End
- The Manhood of Edward Robinson
- Christmas Adventure

Most of these are familiar enough: Christmas Adventure was the original (1923) title of The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding; while The Clergyman's Daughter was included as part of the Tommy and Tuppence entry, Partners In Crime, under the title, The Red House.

236lyzard
Nov 2, 2020, 12:06 am

So! - where does all that leave me?

I'm pretty certain now that while I have not read all of Christie's short stories, I have read all of those involving her series characters.

That being the case, I now consider my "Agatha Christie odds and ends challenge" COMPLETED.

All I have to do now is tidy up my LibraryThing-ing and TIOLI-ing for these books, and figure out what the heck I'm going to read next...

237rosalita
Nov 2, 2020, 8:02 am

Well done, you! Just reading those posts made me so confused that I've resolved not to worry about being a Marple-Poirot completist. I just don't have your stamina, Liz!

238lyzard
Nov 2, 2020, 3:57 pm

>237 rosalita:

Now, you know I can't help it! :D

But no, one of the outcomes of this is a general assurance that this really isn't necessary...

What worries me about these collections is the sense that they're being sold to people not as obsessive as me as "new" when really they're makeovers.

239lyzard
Nov 2, 2020, 3:59 pm

Anyhoo---

Finished The Regatta Mystery And Other Stories and Problem At Pollensa Bay And Other Stories for TIOLI # 9, and Black Coffee for TIOLI #7.

Now reading The Shoes Of The Fisherman by Morris West.

240lyzard
Nov 2, 2020, 4:08 pm

Now...

My reviewing (as you may have noticed) has fallen off a cliff lately, so that I find myself pondering the usual expedient of starting a new thread in the hopes of motivating myself to get it moving.

And I've just found a secondary motivation of sorts, in that the 2020 Wildlife Photography awards have just been announced.

I'm still debating with myself whether I'll continue using those pictures as headers next year (OMG do you believe it's November!? - that is terrifying) or whether I'll choose a different theme; but it was one more sorely needed prod.

241rosalita
Nov 2, 2020, 5:18 pm

>238 lyzard: What worries me about these collections is the sense that they're being sold to people not as obsessive as me as "new" when really they're makeovers

Yes, and I think it's really shabby of the publishers, too. I'm so glad you have the ... fortitude ... to sleuth it all out, but it's not reasonable to expect that less hardy readers will do that sort of legwork!

242Helenliz
Nov 3, 2020, 2:33 am

I'm just wondering what kind of creature we get for finishing a huge series like that. >:-)
Ought to be quite a zoo.

243rosalita
Nov 3, 2020, 8:56 am

>242 Helenliz: Oooh, good point! A whole menagerie seems appropriate.

244lyzard
Modifié : Nov 3, 2020, 3:18 pm

>242 Helenliz:, >243 rosalita:

Ha! - no, I shot off my big guns when I finished the main Christie challenge (here.).

I'll have to find a smaller follow-up for this one...

ETA: Here you go; Julia may already be familiar with this one: it's a green anole, native to the southeastern US; not as spectacular as the fan-throated lizard I use as my main blowing of trumpets, but appropriate for this!---


245lyzard
Nov 3, 2020, 3:19 pm

(BTW may I just register my annoyance at how the site overhaul has thrown all the image dimensions out of whack??)

246rosalita
Modifié : Nov 3, 2020, 5:20 pm

>244 lyzard: I've never seen an anole lizard in person but I'm familiar with their ilk. That throat bellows is spectacular, even if not quite as spectacular as the Indian fella you used previously.

247lyzard
Nov 4, 2020, 6:26 pm

>246 rosalita:

It is pretty cool, so I will keep that shot in the roster; and I've also just found another lizard in a mood while researching my new thread-topper.

So now all I have to do is get some challenges finished! :D

248lyzard
Nov 4, 2020, 6:26 pm

Speaking of which---

My new thread is open for business, hope to see you there!

Part 7