lyzard's list: Travelling a route obscure and lonely in 2020 - Part 4

Receiving a Highly Commended in the 'Animals In Their Environment' category was this photograph of the nesting colony of the Chatham albatross, which is situated in a cave on Te Tara Koi Koia, one of the Chatham Islands off New Zealand.

With environmental changes, particularly an increasing frequency of violent storms, having only a single nesting site has left this species of albatross vulnerable; and an experimental conservation program is currently underway to establish alternative colonies on some of the other islands.

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.)

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Currently reading:



Miss Marple's Final Cases by Agatha Christie (1979)

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)

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)

July:

75. L'Ombre Chinoise by Georges Simenon (1932)
76. Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope (1860)
77. Exodus by Leon Uris (1958)

Books in transit:

Purchased and shipped:

On interlibrary loan / branch transfer / storage / Rare Book request:

Library books to collect:
Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope
The Life Of Mansie Wauch by David Moir

Upcoming requests:
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}
Close Quarters by Michael Gilbert {JFR}

On loan:
**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

Exodus by Leon Uris (06/08/2020)

^^Baby Cart At The River Styx (14/04/2020)

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:

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

Upcoming: Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope (July)
Upcoming: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (August)

General reading challenges:

America's best-selling novels (1895 - ????):
Next up: Exodus by Leon Uris

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: Homicide by David Simon

The Agatha / Georgette odds and ends challenge:
Next up: ??????

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

Possible future reading projects:
- Agatha Christie uncollected short stories
- 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

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}
Easy To Kill by Hulbert Footner {Roy Glashan's Library}

One-Man Girl by Maisie Greig {Mitchell Library}
Cameos by Octavus Roy Cohen {State Library NSW}
"Seen Unknown..." by Naomi Jacob {State Library NSW}

The Rum Row Murders by Charles Reed Jones {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 Wraith by Philip MacDonald {Rare Books / CARM / JFR}

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}

Completist reading:

Sing Sing Nights by Harry Stephen Keeler (#4) {CARM / Kindle}
Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope (#10) {Fisher Library}
XYZ by Anna Katharine Green (#5) {Project Gutenberg}
When A Man Marries by Mary Roberts Rinehart (#3) {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 Mystery Of The Open Window by Anthony Gilbert (Scott Egerton #4)
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)

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
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: 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
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
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

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

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 - Adventures Of Martin Hewitt (3/4) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(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 Joker (3/6?) {ManyBooks}
(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 Bride Of Fu-Manchu (6/14) {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 Luminous Face (5/8) {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 - The Key (6/60) {expensive / Rare Books}
(1919 - 1922) **Octavus Roy Cohen - David Carroll - The Crimson Alibi (2/4) {Rare Books / HathiTrust}

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

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 - Easy To Kill (7/14) {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 - Poison In A Garden Suburb (6/?) {State Library NSW, JFR}
(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) {Roy Glashan's Library}

(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 - Tragedy At Ravensthorpe (2/17) {Murder Room ebook / Kindle}
(1927 - 1935) *Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Malleson) - Scott Egerton - Mystery Of The Open Window (4/10) {expensive}
(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}

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

Series and sequels, 1928 - 1930:

(1928 - 1961) Patricia Wentworth - Miss Silver - Out Of The Past (23/33) {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 And Lady Brassingham (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) {Kindle / owned}
(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}

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

Series and sequels, 1931 - 1955:

(1931 - 1940) Bruce Graeme - Superintendent Stevens and Pierre Allain - Satan's Mistress (4/8) {expensive}
(1931 - 1951) Phoebe Atwood Taylor - Asey Mayo - Sandbar Sinister (5/24) {AbeBooks, expensive}
(1931 - 1955) Stuart Palmer - Hildegarde Withers - Murder On The Blackboard (3/18) {Kindle}
(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 - L'Affaire Saint-Fiacre (13/75) {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) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(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}
(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

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 Romance (13/17) {Project Gutenberg}
(1901 - 1927) **George Barr McCutcheon - Graustark - Beverly Of Graustark (2/6) {Project Gutenberg}
(1906 - 1930) **John Galsworthy - The Forsyte Saga - The White Monkey (6/11) {Fisher storage / Sutherland stack}
(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}

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)tgfr

Books currently on loan:




        

Reading projects:

Blog:

        

        

Other projects:

        

        

Group read news:

Our next project is scheduled for July, with a group read of Anthony Trollope's Castle Richmond.

After discussion towards the end of the Virago group read of Lady Audley's Secret, there will be a group read of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper in August (to coincide with All Virago, All August).

When we return to the Virago Chronological Read Project, but There is some overlapping of publication dates to confuse matters, but the next work for consideration will mostly likely be Margaret Oliphant's The Rector, the first entry in her 'Carlingford Chronicles'. No date has been set for this yet.

Ruminations:

Well. So much for starting a new thread because I've caught up my reviews.

I have no excuse AT ALL for being so far behind with my reviewing, other than I just haven't been in the mood. Hopefully this new thread will help. I need at least to discipline myself to a minimum of a review a day, just to keep them ticking over.

I'm living in terror that the libraries will suddenly reopen and want all their overdue books back. :D

I also have a couple of more significant blog-posts to get through; though the discussion from the group read of Lady Audley's Secret ought to help me get through that one reasonably easily.

I'm focusing on mysteries and ebooks this month, while things are still disrupted; but if the libraries do reopen and matters get back to something like normal, I will probably have a non-genre / challenge-reading catch-up month in June.

In other words, I won't be able to put Exodus off any longer...

Welcome!

That will do. Please come on in!

Happy new one!

Great topper.

>19 lyzard: Just give me some warning on Exodus....and they're aren't actually any book review police. If there were, they'd have gotten me long ago.

Happy new thread! And I love the picture up at the top.

Happy new thread, Liz!

From your previous thread:
Spelling errors are always annoying, even worse on a cover!
I just started a new thread for the exact same reason.

Happy new thread, Liz!

Happy new thread!

Since we were talking both vintage mysteries and irksome covers in the previous thread, here's the cover from the Project Gutenberg edition of A Strange Disappearance that I read last month:



Lovely, is it not?

Happy new thread!

I've been holding off on discussing The Watersplash until you post your review, but would you rather just dive into that now so you don't feel rushed to produce one?

>21 figsfromthistle:, >22 Dejah_Thoris:, >23 FAMeulstee:, >24 harrygbutler:, >25 casvelyn:, >26 drneutron:, >27 rosalita:

Hello, all - thank you so much for visiting! :)

>21 figsfromthistle:

Glad you like it, Anita!

>22 Dejah_Thoris:

The copy of Exodus at my local library is a stack request, so there will likely be a few days' delay while I request it and get there to pick it up. I'll post here when I place the request.

No, just my OCD... :(

The one at the front smiling into the camera cracks me up!

>23 FAMeulstee:

You make me feel better...at least in a misery 'loves company' sort of way. :D

And see below re: covers...

>24 harrygbutler:

Thanks, Harry!

>25 casvelyn:

Oh, that's shocking!

I also discovered this gem a couple of years ago...and on a real book!---



I absolutely avoid ebook covers when I can even if that is the edition I'm reading; with the INPSECTOR, I was stuck!

>26 drneutron:

Thanks, Jim!

>27 rosalita:

Sigh. I think you should probably just go ahead. Who knows, maybe it will motivate me?? :)

Finished InSPector Bedison Risks It for TIOLI #2.

Now reading October House by Kay Cleaver Strahan.

Happy New Thread, Liz!

That's an interesting Edgar Allan Poe poem. I read the whole thing via your link. Thanks for posting it.

>29 lyzard: Oh, you got it (October House)! where did you find it?

Happy new one, Liz.

I am a stickler for posting the picture of the actual cover I am reading when I review a book and I suspect you are too.

>30 jnwelch:

Hi, Joe, thanks for visiting!

I find it a bit close to the bone, actually. :)

>31 NinieB:

Hi, Ninie! I had some luck: an inexpensive copy turned up at Powell's---though from the listing it looked like one of those recent reproductions. I contacted them and asked if they could possibly check the quality for me, and when they did it turned out to be a first edition! (So I don't know why it was so cheap.)

>32 PaulCranswick:

Thanks, Paul!

Yes and no: I read a lot of old books that have lost their dust-jackets and just have plain boards, so for those I tend to use images of the original cover-art. With more recent books that have a print-on cover, it's a different matter. (With ebooks it depends on how terrible they are!)

Finished October House for TIOLI #5.

Now reading Curtain: Poirot's Last Case by Agatha Christie.

>33 lyzard: I'll look forward to your review!

>34 lyzard: Curtain and Sleeping Murder are very much of their 1940s time.

I am in awe of how you are able to keep track of all those series books, Liz.

Happy new thread, Liz.
I ended up pronouncing the mis-spelling as Imp-sector, as I found Inp difficult to pronounce in any meaningful way. At least it's finished...

>35 NinieB:

Very strange book, though it did all finally make sense.

Sleeping Murder just feels like an old book but the split-vision in Curtain is very uncomfortable. Still, I think the actual mystery is brilliant.

>36 ronincats:

Hi, Roni, thanks for visiting.

And it's not as if I spend unreasonable amounts of time doing it or anything! :D

>37 Helenliz:

Thanks, Helen. Ooh, I like that one too!

It's a much better book than that cover suggests; not that that wouldn't be difficult...

>38 lyzard: The thing I always remember about Sleeping Murder that puts it firmly in the pre-war era is that when Gwenda is house-hunting she hires a car and driver.

>39 NinieB:

Ha! - yes.

As I say, I find it less disconcerting there because like so many of Christie's late books, it's so very much concerned with memory and the past, so you don't notice so much that 'the present' isn't quite right.

Speaking of Agatha---I am currently researching her short stories to discover any gaps in my completist reading; this done in the knowledge that I still have Miss Marple's Final Cases on the horizon.

The difficulty is less the stories themselves than - surprise! - variant UK / US editions and title changes.

However, this project has turned up an interesting fact that I was not previously properly aware of: that Christie herself reworked some of her early short stories into chapters of The Big Four and Partners In Crime. The former, though presented as a novel, is highly episodic with self-contained adventures; the latter is a collection of short stories simultaneously poking fun at and paying homage to some of Christie's contemporaries.

In fact, it seems as if The Big Four originally appeared almost in serialisation form, in the journal The Sketch.

There are a number of other stories that Christie reworked over the years, the difficulty (in completist terms) being when she altered the characters. For example the short story Yellow Iris, featuring Hercule Poirot, was expanded into the novel Sparkling Cyanide, which features Colonel Race.

Likewise, in its original form the story The Regatta Mystery featured Poirot, but was later rewritten to feature Parker Pyne.

From what I can gather, all my current gaps are papered over between the short story collections, The Regatta Mystery, which was only published in the US, in 1939; Problem At Pollensa Bay, which was only published in the UK, in 1991; and While The Light Lasts, which was published in both territories, in 1997.

The stories in The Regatta Mystery were all published in the UK in other collections, including the latter two above.

There are other US-only collections, though all featuring stories published elsewhere in the UK: The Under Dog And Other Stories, published in 1951, and featuring the stories (except for the title story!) later collected as Poirot's Early Cases; Double Sin And Other Stories, published in 1961; and the 1966 collection, 13 For Luck! (or just Thirteen For Luck). The first is a Poirot-only collection and is sometimes included in his series listing; the latter two are "samplers" featuring most or all of Christie's detectives.

Meanwhile, there remains the problem of the Christie plays. Black Coffee, the Poirot play written by Christie in 1930, was novelised by Charles Osborne in 1998. It was sufficiently well-received for Osborne to novelise two other of Christie's plays, The Unexpected Guest (written in 1958, novelised in 1999) and Spider's Web (written in 1954, novelised in 2000).

And what does all this mean?

Well...chiefly, I think, that it is up to the individual as to what the different Christie series consist of, and where they draw the line.

...which is a typically long-winded way of saying that I have finished Curtain: Poirot's Last Case...and in my opinion, FINISHED A SERIES!!!!

For the record, then (and possibly others may find this useful?), I consider Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot series to consist of the following---which, to the best of my knowledge, represents the original British titles and publication order:

1. The Mysterious Affair At Styles (1920)
2. The Murder On The Links (1923)
3. Poirot Investigates (1924)
4. The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
5. The Big Four (1927)
6. The Mystery Of The Blue Train (1928)
7. Peril At End House (1932)
8. Lord Edgware Dies (1933)
9. Murder On The Orient Express (1934)
10. Three Act Tragedy (1934)

11. Death In The Clouds (1935)
12. The ABC Murders (1936)
13. Murder In Mesopotamia (1936)
14. Cards On The Table (1936)
15. Murder In The Mews And Other Stories (1937)
16. Dumb Witness (1937)
17. Death On The Nile (1937)
18. Appointment With Death (1938)
19. Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1938)
20. Sad Cypress (1940)

21. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (1940)
22. Evil Under The Sun (1941)
23. Five Little Pigs (1942)
24. The Hollow (1946)
25. The Labours Of Hercules (1947)
26. Taken At The Flood (1948)
27. Mrs McGinty's Dead (1952)
28. After The Funeral (1952)
29. Hickory Dickory Dock (1955)
30. Dead Man's Folly (1956)

31. Cat Among The Pigeons (1959)
32. The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding (1960)
33. The Clocks (1963)
34. Third Girl (1966)
35. Hallowe'en Party (1969)
36. Elephants Can Remember (1972)
37. Poirot's Early Cases (1974)
38. Curtain: Poirot's Last Case (1975)

And after all that---just one marmoset isn't going to cut it; so here is a pair of common marmosets with their twin babies:

>42 lyzard: Congratulations!! And some fine high quality reading it was too!

>41 lyzard: A Chess Problem in The Big Four is available in its standalone version in anthologies such as 101 years' entertainment edited by Ellery Queen. It ends differently than in The Big Four.

I don't think any of the others are available.

Well done, Liz! That marmoset family is very cute.

I've been sporadically continuing my chronological Poirot read, not paying much attention to where I was in the series overall. I'm up to The Labours of Hercules, apparently. I was a little surprised to see how close to the end I am. I started the series not liking Poirot much, but the little green-eyed egghead has grown on me over time. Go figure.

Your comprehensive list inspired me to clean up the Hercule Poirot Mystery LT series. Not sure how long it will stay corrected, but we'll see.

>42 lyzard: Congratulations!

>43 lyzard: So adorable - although I'm not sure how they felt about having their picture taken,

>42 lyzard: Oh well done! And, should I ever be mad enough to follow in your footsteps (as I did with Heyer and her romances) I know just where to look.

>43 lyzard: awww.

>44 NinieB:

Thank you, Ninie! Yes, very true indeed. :)

Yes, I gathered that was the case with some of them. There's a very helpful blog-page - here - which is the most comprehensive attempt at sorting out the short fiction I've been able to find anywhere. Some of the original versions are available, as you note, and with the increasing effort to make old magazines and periodicals available as ebooks or online they may all become so eventually.

Mind you, this is one case where I feel I've already complicated matters for myself quite enough!

>45 rosalita:

Thank you, Julia.

Oh, I'd been eyeing that too, but the very fact that there were already two conflicting-ish series listings was off-putting (and the Miss Marple ones look even worse!). I was actually sorely tempted to add another - 'original British publication order', or some such - but if you beat me to it, all I can do is say "Thanks!"

It's so much easier when I'm the only person who knows that a series exists... :D

>46 Dejah_Thoris:

Thanks, Dejah!

I same as me, I suspect.

>47 Helenliz:

Thanks, Helen; it's always nice to know that others are getting some use out of my fixations. :)

Well, dang. Here we go again.

My next read was going to be Octavus Roy Cohen' The Crimson Alibi, but when I started looking into it I discovered - what else? - that there was disagreement over series order. Some people assert that this is the first series entry in book form, with the earlier serialised work, Six Seconds Of Darkness, being the third book.

(The same issue I have with Mary Roberts Rinehart's early works, in other words.)

However, my own research indicates that while the 1921 edition of Six Seconds Of Darkness is the most readily available, there was a 1918 edition too, which makes that the first in the series---

---and means I'll have to find a different book for TIOLI.

Anyway, while I'm pondering that---

Now reading Inspector Frost's Jigsaw by Herbert Maynard Smith.

ETA:

...which is another inexpensive Black Heath Kindle release; and I'm glad to say that this time, they managed to spell 'inspector' correctly. (Of course, this time I've also got an alternative cover image; though only the American one is available.)


  

Mercy, Liz! You do stay busy with books! I admire your, uh, determination to read your series the way that’s best for you.

>48 lyzard: I only had the patience to tackle the "Hercule Poirot Mystery" series. The other one isn't even listed in English language Common Knowledge for most of the books, so I figured it was some country's translations, and who am I to say the books were published in the same order there (wherever there is)?

My proudest moment in the cleanup was removing the book written by Sophie Hannah as a continuation (apparently she's written a few? but only one was in this series). Someone is free to make an entire series for those, and I'm sure they have, but they don't belong with the original books. And especially not listed as number 6.5, presumably because of the timeframe of the setting. Pfft.

>51 Matke:

Very tactfully phrased, Gail, thank you! :D

>52 rosalita:

Yes, all of that is why I didn't tackle it, so thank you. I was debating taking Black Coffee out too, though finally I got distracted by the number of people who list the novelisations of Christie's plays as being by Christie---grr! That little job I might tackle at some point.

I hate continuations...

>53 lyzard: I left Black Coffee but moved it to the bottom and labeled it a novelisation. We'll see if it stays there.

The late RD Wingfield created an Inspector Jack Frost for the screen and in print and he was portrayed very effectively by David Jason.

Have a lovely weekend, Liz.

>52 rosalita: I couldn’t agree more. I found the Sophie Hannah books just meh, and while the (Jill Patterson?) continuations of the Wimsey series are ok, the surely aren’t Dorothy Sayers.

I guess I’m a little possessive and cranky about that sort of thing: don’t mess about with my heroes!

>56 Matke: Jill Paton Walsh. Don't get me started on those. The later ones strike me as almost cruel.

>56 Matke: Agreed! I never continue with series once the original author has moved on.

>54 rosalita:

You've done a sterling job! I was over there myself just now, fixing up some of the canonical titles (you know how I feel about that!). Black Coffee is where it should be but we now have the other Sophie Hannah book, Closed Casket, intruding in the list even though it is *not* marked as part of that particular series! I've tinkered and perhaps the information will propagate and it will go away.

>55 PaulCranswick:

Hi, Paul! Julia and I touched upon that on my previous thread: no, definitely not the same Inspector Frost, though it's fun to think the earlier one might have been an influence. (I don't know what his first name is yet but his initial is 'A.' so definitely not Jack!)

>56 Matke:, >57 Helenliz:, >58 rosalita:

I feel the same way about what I call the 'Jane Austen cottage industry', though I know a lot of people enjoy those books. Can't these people do something of their own and stop leeching off these earlier (and much better) writers?

BTW the first such situation I know of - the first actual continuation, as opposed to pastiches which were *very* early in the game - is with respect to the Bulldog Drummond stories by 'Sapper' (Herman Cyril McNeile): supposedly when he was dying, McNeile asked his friend Gerard Fairlie to take over the series, to "protect Drummond's good name". (Interesting, considering I have Drummond pegged as a homicidal sociopath!) Anyway, that was 1937, proving that there's nothing new under the sun. :)

ETA: There's a thought: with The Crimson Alibi off the table, I need a new 'colour' title for TIOLI; the second Drummond book, The Black Gang, fits the bill.

I'm inclined to say, "Dang"... :D

>59 lyzard: The problem with Closed Casket is that it is listed on some other language's Common Knowledge under this series name, so LT "helpfully" lists it on the English language site, though highlighted in yellow, which is even more jarring. So even though I removed the English language series listing, it still shows up, shoving itself into my eyeballs. Grrr!

>62 rosalita:

Ah, gotcha; hadn't realised it worked like that. How infuriating!

Oh, I feel your pain, Liz. I’ve been reading the George Bellairs mystery series and am most unhappy that #s 1 and 2 are either completely unavailable or way out of my price range.

However, I soldier on, inwardly cursing Amazon which lists two books as #7 in the series...sigh. Research done and private lists made.

Sigh. They’ll never make it easy, Will they?

>62 rosalita: >63 lyzard: You can edit the entries in another language's Common Knowledge. Under the brown Common Knowledge bar, you will see each language that has one or more entries. Click on the language and edit away.

>64 Matke:

That's the Littlejohn series, is it? I gather you don't "do" Kindle? - because they are available that way. (This is why, as I was saying to Ninie, I finally cracked on Kindle!)

Yes, I've learned the hard way never to rely on anyone else's listings.

Is that the old problem of two books being published in the same year? I usually approach those by trying to find original copyright information, but it doesn't always work for British books.

>65 NinieB:

Thanks for that! I don't have much to do with Common Knowledge - I find it too full of spoilers - so I'm not up on how best to approach these listings.

Finished Inspector Frost's Jigsaw for TIOLI #13.

Now reading Six Seconds Of Darkness by Octavus Roy Cohen.

Finally some good library news with a notification that the State Library will be reopening on the 1st June, albeit still with some restrictions in place including a limit on people in the reading rooms and a requirement for a pre-booking to be one of those people.

No sign of anything yet from my academic library.

Meanwhile, for my local libraries there seems to be another complication, in that some of them have taken this opportunity to do refurbishments, which may or may not be finished when they finally get the go-ahead---so they may or may not reopen.

In other words---I still don't know definitely whether I'll be able to get my hands on a copy of Exodus next month... :D

>68 lyzard: LOL - are you sure you need to read it? The universe has thrown up quite a few impediments....

>69 Dejah_Thoris:

I'm...open to the thought of taking another month off the challenge. (Purely for unselfish reasons, of course, so that Steve can catch up a bit more!)

Finished Six Seconds Of Darkness for TIOLI #7.

Now reading The Charteris Mystery by A. Fielding.

>57 Helenliz: , >58 rosalita:, >61 lyzard: Thank you all for your support here. I too think, “For heaven’s sake, think up your own characters!” The one exception is a (very) few Holmes pastiches.

>66 lyzard: Yes, it is the Littlejohn series. But the last time I looked, the first two were still unavailable. Maddening. That said, though, kindle has been superb in my continuous and apparently lifelong search for new-to-me mystery authors who fit my obsessively precise and fussy somewhat narrow requirements.

And no, the books were published in different years from what I can find. I don’t know what happens sometimes; probably people just being in a hurry. And probably few people care except us.

And good news here: I’ve finally learned to relax and just lean into the Mrs. Bradley books, not expecting anything in particular in the way of plotting and just going along for the wild ride.

I hope your libraries open soon and safely. I’ve no idea when they’ll open here.

>65 NinieB: Thanks for that tip! I've now removed the Sophie Hannah book from appearing in the Poirot series, and re-numbered the French omnibuses so they are down with the other omnibuses at the bottom of the list. Very satisfying!

>66 lyzard: and >72 Matke:
Still no first or second volumes, but I did find the source of the duplicate numbering:
Different paperback publishing houses picked and chose which books to release. And those publishers numbered their own releases in the order that they published the books, with no regard for the original publication dates.
It’s enough to drive a girl to drink...

>72 Matke:, >74 Matke:

I would put a pastiche in a different category. I don't always approve of them any more, but at least they show a different mindset and purpose from a straight continuation.

Oh that is an infuriating situation! Also a perfect example of why I always do my own research and never just rely on online lists; even lists that supposedly exist to give the right series order.

I’ve finally learned to relax and just lean into the Mrs. Bradley books

Ha! - yes, preconceived expectations are a waste of time of time and effort, aren't they?? :D

Where are you up to now with those? That's one of the series I've been neglecting for the more obscure stuff. Maybe I'll think up a TIOLI challenge to prod myself into picking it up again.

>73 rosalita:

Well done! And yes, thanks to Ninie for the hint.

Of course I haven't dared look at Miss Marple yet...

Well. Still nothing happening around here, this time because I got distracted into some film-blogging.

First up, I take a look at the third of Toho Studio's kaiju eiga: not one of my personal favourites, but historically important for its introduction of the title monster. I also take a quick look at the changes made in the American version of the film (including a pop-culturally imperative piece of dubbing!):

Rodan (1956)

Keeping with the Japanese theme---I have also taken a look at the second of the series of "Lone Wolf and Cub" films, about the hired assassin, Ogami Itto, and his relationship with his young son.

NB: The screenshots include violence and nudity.

Lone Wolf And Cub: Baby Cart At The River Styx (1972)

And finally...an Italian Jaws rip-off that would be just a bit of stupid fun if not for the mistreatment of the titular creature:

Tentacles (1977)

>76 lyzard: Do you have a solid chronology list for Marple? No promises but I may be able to do it while procrastinating from doing what I should be doing!

>80 rosalita:

I will have when I finish, which will be July. I guess I can put it together now if you're motivated? (Or de-motivated, whichever!)

>81 lyzard: Don't rush on my account — then I'd feel obligated to actually do it!

Catching up with your threads Liz - from you last.... sloth pyjamas!!! :-D

>18 lyzard: Ooh, the Carlingford Chronicles - I've been picking up the Virago editions of that series whenever I come across them in anticipation so I am prepared for at least the first few books.

>42 lyzard:, >43 lyzard: WOO HOO! (on finishing such a long series and marmosets).

>75 lyzard: I’m up to Death at the Opera in order of publication, although I’ve read a couple of outliers inadvertently.
And while I’ve been fiddling around because of a lack of concentration (like so many of us), I realized that there are several series that I’m more or less in the middle of. Which naturally led me to more obsessive list making. I do love a list. Or 10 lists.

>77 lyzard: Rodan! Boy, that brings back memories of cheesy yet classic genre movies from my childhood. One great thing was that we could watch many old gems on the beloved Saturday afternoon horror movie tv show. That program lasted so long that my brother and I watched it as kids, and then my own kids watched it as well. Fun times (no, really; it’s great to share those kinds of silly, scary, amusing memories across generations).

>83 souloftherose:

Lovely to have you back, hon!

I wish I could go to sleep like a sloth! I'm doing that wide awake at two a.m. thing...

I haven't found any of those yet (mind you, it's been quite a while since I visited my main Virago gold veins). With the next few Viragos there is some over-lapping of dates, so the order is debatable; but I thought this would be a nice fresh way of progressing.

Thank you! It's been a very long but enjoyable journey. :)

>84 Matke:

Oh! In that case we're up to almost the same point. (Ahem. *I* don't have any outliers... :D ) Perhaps going forward we could concoct a TIOLI challenge to help with some progress?

(Eep! - I say that realising that we're sliding into Miss Silver month, which had almost slipped my mind...)

Mmmmm...lists...

Me too! Though I think I would have seen most of them on our Friday night Creature Feature. I can't remember when that stopped broadcasting, but I can remember still watching it religiously when I was old enough to know better! That one of these films I remember best and earliest is Destroy All Monsters, by which point they'd got to the "everything but the kitchen sink" stage. :D

Oh, well. Just for Julia.

Actually, it's not that big a job, which is really the point that needs to be made here...

Miss Marple by original British publication date:

1. Murder At The Vicarage (1930)
2. The Thirteen Problems (1932)
3. The Body In The Library (1942)
4. The Moving Finger (1943)
5. A Murder Is Announced (1950)
6. They Do It With Mirrors (1952)
7. A Pocket Full Of Rye (1953)
8. 4.50 From Paddington (1957)
9. The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side (1962)
10. A Caribbean Mystery (1964)
11. At Bertram's Hotel (1965)
12. Nemesis (1971)
13. Sleeping Murder (1976)
14. Miss Marple's Final Cases (1979)

(Noting that The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding, from 1960, which is usually listed as part of the Poirot series, does contain one Miss Marple story, the first British collection of Greenshaw's Folly.)

The first obvious point is how relatively few of these there are (which is why with the TV adaptations, we get that infuriating thing where Jane is shoehorned into the standalones); the second, that they came closer together as Agatha herself grew older.

But what are always the significant points to me - at least the ones I get into arguments over! - is that only one of the Miss Marple novels was published pre-WWII; and it is also the only only set entirely within what tends to be thought of as the "real" St Mary Mead, the quiet, isolated village.

This is why I get furious when ill-informed critics hold these books up as their exemplar cosy series, or insist that Miss Marple is the face of the British village mystery.

If anything, exactly the contrary: if these books have a coherent theme, it is how - and how much - Britain changed post-WWII.

So what this means in practical terms is that I will be drawing a line under my Agatha Christie chronological challenge in July.

BUT - you just knew there would be a "but", right? - that's not going to be quite the end of it.

To satisfy my completist urges, I will be going on to read those collections of stray short stories that I talked about in >41 lyzard:. However, I've decided to intermix these with another tidying up of loose ends, the reading of Georgette Heyer's straight historical novels, which I always meant to get back to after finishing off her historical romances but never did.

So, 'The Odds And Ends Challenge', then...

In other news (NB: Dejah!), I have decided to put off the best-seller challenge for another month, due to the ominous note of foot-dragging in my local library's most recent 'reopening' notice.

I'm not crazy about this from any perspective, including the resulting collision of Exodus with the group read of Castle Richmond in July; but it makes me feel less anxious than sweating on the availability of the former in June.

Much of the rest of my challenge reading also remains library-dependent and therefore uncertain.

However, having gone completely overboard on the mystery reading this month, I do want to mix things up more in June; although of course, I'm still slated for both Sleeping Murder and Ladies' Bane (and possibly my re-read of The Secret Of High Eldersham).

And now...I need to go and think up a different TIOLI challenge...

>89 lyzard: Noted!

I should be able to join you for Ladies' Bane - I don't have a copy, but should be able to get one.

>87 lyzard: Oh, okay okay OKAY!! Sheesh. :-)

>88 lyzard: Right, Miss Silver awaits. I'm going to hold off for a while so I don't forget everything before we discuss. That's a dig at my lousy memory and my own apparent disinterest in writing reviews anymore, not a comment on you!

>90 Dejah_Thoris: Good to hear! Have you finished The Watersplash? I have some thoughts that may only be interesting to myself, but I don't like to chatter on if not everyone has finished.

>91 rosalita: I did finish it - and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

>92 Dejah_Thoris: The first thing that struck me was that we need to get Susan an account on LibraryThing! Either that or organize an LT flash mob to help her catalogue the library at Edward's family home. :-)

>93 rosalita: Lovely idea!

>90 Dejah_Thoris:

Excellent!

>91 rosalita:

That wasn't meant as a shove! I thought you were asking for it?

Uh, that is, requesting it. Not asking for it. :D

>91 rosalita:, >92 Dejah_Thoris:, >93 rosalita:

Please do go ahead and chatter: if you wait for me you'll probably have to re-read it to refresh your memory. :(

Finished The Charteris Mystery for TIOLI #17.

Now reading The Death Of A Celebrity by Hulbert Footner.

Which---

---oh dear, oh dear---

---was released in the UK as "Death Of A Celebrity".

Have at it, Julia!---


  

>96 lyzard: Maybe this book is what Ali Smith meant when she wrote There But For The? :-p

>87 lyzard: Well, I can't clean up Miss Marple just yet, because the series data is locked from editing while they implement a new, improved version. Exciting!

>97 rosalita:

Ha! - yes. :D

Turns out to be not the most appropriate title either way: it's technically true but gives the wrong idea of the book.

Ooooh! I wasn't aware of that. Consider my breath bated...

Finished The Death Of A Celebrity for TIOLI #20.

Now reading The Black Gang by 'Sapper' (H. C. McNeile).

Oh, this is fascinating...

On the left is the British reissue cover of The Black Gang, from 1925; on the right is the American version of the same. Look what they've done: they've made Drummond much younger, and removed his moustache!

The other fascinating thing is that, though presumably designed to promote the book, both covers succeed in conveying exactly how much of an obnoxiously smug jackass Drummond really is... :D


  

Sooo...Exodus, then??---

Due to ongoing building works at Sutherland Shire Libraries branches, libraries will remain temporarily closed after Monday 1 June.

We will be launching a special Click Call & Collect service from Wednesday 3 June to help you get you access new material to read, watch and listen to.

More details coming soon.

>101 lyzard: I rather had the impression you were pleased with the idea of another month off....

But if you read it, I'll join you.

>101 lyzard: and>102 Dejah_Thoris:

I admire you both for being willing to read this one. Not that I didn’t like it back in the day, but there’s no way on earth that I want to revisit it now.

And Liz: have you read Death at the Opera yet? If not, I’ll set it aside until such time as you feel like getting around to it. Well, I’ll set it aside for this year, anyway.

>100 lyzard: I'm fascinated that they used the same design but felt the need to change a few details. Why? Do American readers prefer to read about younger smug men? Are British people more likely to throw both hands in the air when a gun is pointed at them, and Americans more likely to raise those hands clenched into fists? Why is there a woman only on the British cover? Do Americans find it distasteful to point guns at women (I mean, clearly not if you read history or even today's newspaper).

On the other hand, you're right that Bulldog Drummond, whether a Pommy or a Yankee, looks to be an insufferable git.

>102 Dejah_Thoris:

More a case of me knowing that if I made that call, it would provoke them into reopening. :D

My problem is that my academic library, which is my only other potential source, has given no indication of business as usual so I need to nail this one copy.

I won't be changing the reading plan, but if I can I will get it and keep hold of it.

>103 Matke:

I have; I'm up to The Devil At Saxon Wall, but I just keep not getting around to it. So please do go ahead with Death At The Opera, and maybe we can work out something shared-read-y going forward (perhaps after I wrap Agatha?).

>104 rosalita:

I know, isn't it bizarre?? And yet neither of them is at all close to these books' description of Drummond: it's a major plot-point that he's basically a gorilla extremely big and physically powerful.

Yes, there is a sense in the American one of people not just giving in when a gun is pointed, though these are meant to be cowardly people (translation: foreigners, Jews, and the working-classes). I suspect the woman is in the process of being rescued but I'm not up to that part yet.

"Insufferable git" would be complimenting him.

But while you're all here, I need to mention that I'm not yet seeing a spot in TIOLI for Ladies' Bane---unless one of you has an alexandrite cover??

It is infuriating how many of my books for this month are set during the winter---including this one! (Particularly since the months involved are my summer!)

So unless a new challenge presents itself, I may need one of you to read it and then recommend it to me! :D

>106 lyzard: Well, there's a website with pictures of 5 dogs named Bane - and the name is included on a site of "Badass Dog Names," as well as several other dog name sites. I suppose that sweet puppy could grow up to be a badass Batman villan with a little encouragement, so Challenge #4 may work.

True! I had sort of thought of trying 'Lady', but not Bane.

Just dropping in to say hello. Have a great weekend!

>105 lyzard: As I was scrolling down just now, I noticed another difference in the two Bulldog Drummond covers: All the men on the UK cover are wearing hats, but only one of the men on the US cover is. More oddness.

>106 lyzard: Now I'm wondering where Exodus is going to go. It seems an...unusual name for a puppy. Any other options?

You could always try Ladie (usually spelt with double D, I admit) as a pet name.

Can you not put Exodus in your own challenge? As in a mass exodus to the seaside for bank holiday monday which usually results is massive traffic jams??

Or claim connection to Russia, both parents were of Russian descent.

>112 Helenliz: I love the mass exodus to the seaside (the Red Sea, I suppose?) - too funny. I did think of the Russian connection - several characters hail from Russia, as I recall.

>113 Dejah_Thoris:, I should have made clear, it's the trip to the seaside I'm missing, not the mass traffic jams! >:-)

The Russian connection might work on more than one level, in that case. The challenge was left quite loose.

>111 Dejah_Thoris:, >112 Helenliz:, >113 Dejah_Thoris:, >114 Helenliz:

No, no, no! - still Exodus in July!

Sorry for the confusion, I was just amused that my library gave me just enough time to decide that I *wasn't* doing it this month before they followed up with, "Well, you know, maybe it's possible after all..."

I do love your challenge suggestions though!

>109 figsfromthistle:

Hi, Anita - thanks for visiting! :)

>110 rosalita:

It just keeps on getting odder the more you study it, doesn't it?

>115 lyzard: Er...I got confused? Gee, I must really want to read Exodus....

>118 Dejah_Thoris:

Just hold your jets, missy! :D

Library update:

They must have gone a bit overboard with the lockdown refurbishments: they are instituting a click and collect system from this Wednesday, but the pick-up locations are the three furthest from their "home" library...and furthest from me. Do-able, but only with an annoying amount of travelling.

Still no sign of my academic library reopening.

However the State Library has reopened its reading rooms, so this is probably a good time for a read-in-the-library selection.

Finished The Black Gang for TIOLI #12, which is a line under May - eep! - and the lead-in to a very disorganised-feeling June...

Having overdosed on mysteries in May, I do feel a need to balance that out with more general reading, but I'm not feeling the books "speaking to me" as they usually do, drawing themselves to my attention.

I think it's that my brain is still stubbornly refusing to accept the library situation. In particular, the loss of an interlibrary loan option is making me go a bit nuts. I'm also resisting reading ebook versions of works I would ordinarily access as a physical book.

Anyway...I'm making a start with something that fits about four different TIOLI challenges (including the 'putting it off forever' one, eep! again):

Now reading Faces In The Smoke by Douchan Gersi.

As I said, with the reopening of the State Library and the continued closure of the others, a read-in-the-library work seems a good choice.

There's no shortage of options but this might be a good time to try to get back to the Inspector Cummings and Superintendent Fillinger mysteries by Paul McGuire, which I stalled on when I discovered that they overlapped (and accidentally started reading them out of order---eep!).

I tried all this out back when I realised the issue (here); my research indicates the following:

Inspector Cummings:

*Murder In Bostall (1931)
*Three Dead Men (1933)
Murder In Haste (1934)
*Daylight Murder (1934)
7.30 Victoria (1935)

Superintendent Fillinger:

The Tower Mystery (1932)
Murder By The Law (1932)
Death Fugue (1933)
There Sits Death (1933)
Murder In Haste (1934)
*Daylight Murder (1934)

Liz, please don't take it the wrong way when I say as soon as I saw this on Twitter I thought of you. It's the peacock spider, and even I am more enchanted than squicked out by this beauty:

https://twitter.com/wonderofscience/status/1268184412216111105

>123 rosalita: I'm torn between "Rather you than me" and "wow, that's an amazing coloured animal". A thought that is very quickly followed by "how on earth does it survive, it must stick out like a sore thumb!"

>124 Helenliz: That ("it must stick out like a sore thumb") also occurred to me. And don't think I didn't notice that the tweet fails to make any mention of its poisonous status! I don't mind looking at it, but I'll pass on having it crawl up my arm, thankyouverymuch.

Oh, my! :)

Just so you know, I am quite as happy to be thought of in this context as in the context of sloths.

And just so you also know...I'm taking this as tacit permission to include insects and spiders in my thread-toppers. :D

Finished Faces In The Smoke for TIOLI #17.

Now reading Songs Of A Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti.

>126 lyzard: Not that you need it, but you have my permission. :-)

That spider is a beauty, even to an arachnophobe.

Pooping in to catch up on all the series discussions, oh, and I see we are back to spiders again!! : ) Okay, well then everything is good and normal here. Carry on.

>128 rosalita:

{Monty Burns fingers} "Excellent!" {/Monty Burns fingers}

>129 Berly:

Okayyy... I'm going to respond to the spirit of that rather than the letter, and just say, "Hi, Kim! Thanks for visiting!" :D

Oh, c'mon. You can do this...

Best-selling books in the United States for 1957:

1. By Love Possessed by James Gould Cozzens
2. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
3. Compulsion by Meyer Levin
4. Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! by Max Shulman
5. Blue Camellia by Frances Parkinson Keyes
6. Eloise in Paris by Kay Thompson
7. The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier
8. On the Beach by Nevil Shute
9. Below the Salt by Thomas B. Costain
10. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

As was the case the previous year, 1957 offers a far more eclectic mix of works in its Top Ten.

The historical novel continues to hang in there, although even Thomas B. Costain seemed to feel the winds of change: Below the Salt is a split-vision work paralleling events in modern and medieval Britain (and America), but also dealing with the signing of the Magna Carta. Frances Parkinson Keyes' Blue Camellia is a more conventional work set post-Civil War, with a northern family moving south to try and build a new life.

Kay Thompson's Eloise in Paris, the sequel to her 1956 Top Tenner, Eloise, finds the eponymous (and heavily illustrated) brat visiting France. Max Shulman's Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! is a comic novel fairly obviously inspired by 1956's #1, Don't Go Near The Water, with a junior officer fighting a transfer to Alaska by involving himself with the PR surrounding a new missile site in Connecticut.

Daphne du Maurier's The Scapegoat is a psychological thriller about an Englishman who finds himself forcibly substituted for his lookalike, an aristocratic Frenchman with dangerous secrets.

Opposing politics inform two of the remaining books: Nevil Shute's On the Beach is a devastatingly bleak tale of, literally, the end of the world, as the fallout from a nuclear war engulfs what is left of humanity. Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged is about a determined industrialist holding onto the noble capitalist dream in the face of America's increasingly damaging socialist tendencies. (In other words, it's far less realistic and far more like science fiction than On the Beach.)

Meyer Levin's Compulsion is an true-crime account of the infamous Leopold / Loeb murder case of the 1920s.

Still unable to crack the top spot, Grace Metalious' scandal-novel, Peyton Place, nevertheless holds on at #2---beaten by a book whose author would, I'm sure, be very offended by me saying that his best-seller is just a better-disguised scandal-novel: James Gould Cozzens' By Love Possessed.

James Gould Cozzens was born in Chicago in 1903, and grew up in an affluent circumstances on Long Island. He began writing while at Harvard, although his early works were unsuccessful. Poor health forced him to drop out, and he spent some time in Cuba teaching the children of the American community. There he began to write the short stories that would first win him critical praise.

In 1927, Cozzens married Sylvia Baumgarten, with whom he also enjoyed a professional partnership: she acted as his editor and agent, helping his writing to reach a broader audience. The two resided quietly in New Jersey, their life interrupted only by Cozzens' WWII service in the air force. He did not see combat, but worked chiefly in the USAAF Office of Information Services as liaison between the military and civilian press services.

Cozzens continued to publish novels on a regular basis, which were praised without ever reaching 'breakthrough' status. Though his books reflected his own privileged upbringing and conservative views, they tended to be experimental in their style of writing.

The breakthrough work did finally come, with Guard Of Honor, Cozzens' 1948 novel which drew heavily upon his war-time experiences, and which won the following year's Pulitzer Prize.

Nevertheless, no-one seemed to be expecting the success of Cozzens' 1957 novel, By Love Possessed, which turned out to be both the alpha and omega of his career. A wave of critical praise carried it rapidly to the top spot on the best-seller lists, and it became that year's #1 best-selling book.

However, a devastating counter-review by the critic Dwight Macdonald eventually damaged the reputation of both that novel and Cozzens himself. His subsequent works were increasingly perceived as reactionary, and he fell out of critical and public favour. He continued to publish up until the failure of 1968's Morning, Noon And Night, after which he effectively retired, writing only one more book during the following decade. After the death of his wife in 1978, Cozzens' own health failed, and he passed away the same year.

Publication date: 1957
Genre: Contemporary drama
Read for: Best-seller challenge

By Love Possessed - James Gould Cozzens' 1957 novel takes place over a period of precisely 49 hours, and very much within the consciousness of its protagonist, New England lawyer, Arthur Winner Jr. Born and bred in privilege, Winner is the backbone of his community: a man to whom responsibility comes naturally, and upon whom others rely, instinctively turning to him in their troubles, both legal and personal. However, over the course of a single weekend, Winner will find himself confronted by a series of challenges and crises, which will force him to reassess many of the beliefs upon which his life has always rested, and above all, his conception of himself---as a lawyer, as a husband and father, as a man, and as his father's son... Compared with a number of its 1950s best-selling ilk, By Love Possessed is an accessible and even gripping novel, with a strong narrative and a clear sense of where it is going and how it is going to get there. It also has a genuine sense of place, with the town of Brocton and its surrounds deftly and convincingly sketched, as well as an understanding of the rippling effects of wealth, class, sex and race in the interactions of the residents of this community. That's the good news. The bad news is that By Love Possessed simultaneously shares many of the faults of its 1950s confrères (including needing an editor who wasn't married to the author!), as well as a few unique to James Gould Cozzens. It is ironic to me that this is the novel that beat the much-criticised Peyton Place out of the #1 spot on the charts, and that while that book was being critically pilloried, this one was being critically praised---because By Love Possessed relies every bit as much on prurience for its effect as does its despised rival. Sex is a major theme of this novel, which (among other things) offers perhaps the most explicit sex-scene of its era; however, it also displays one of the 1950s more distasteful tendencies (seen also in the following year's Anatomy Of A Murder), in that a frank discussion of sexual matters is most likely to be found in the context of a (possible) rape. The narrative backbone of By Love Possessed is an accusation brought against Ralph Detweiler, the young brother of the executive secretary of the legal firm in which Arthur Winner is a partner, by a girl of working-class origin: Winner's representation of the feckless young man allows Cozzens to dissect out the tangled threads of Brocton's social, legal and class issues. While handling this matter with his usual tact and acumen, Winner must deal simultaneously with an unfolding financial crisis within his own law firm, and his inability to go on repressing his guilty memories of a tawdry affair with his law-partner's wife; until at length, he finds his conception of himself and everything upon which he has based his life being challenged... With these twin-plots, Cozzens examines both the outer and inner lives of his protagonist as he tries to decide which of his many faces is the "real" Arthur Winner---and here, the author's experimentation begins to subsume his narrative. In conveying the tension between his outwardly normal conduct and his increasingly dismayed self-examination, Cozzens uses a "fractured" style of writing, full of repetitions and overlaps and deliberately chosen archaic terms as a vehicle for Winner's doubts and turmoil. He also resorts to a form of inner monologue that relies upon sentences so lengthy, so full of clauses and interjections, and built on so many commas, semi-colons and dashes, that it is literally possible to get to the end of any given one and discover that you've forgotten what point was being made at the outset. (Occasionally it is clear that Cozzens is having Winner think in "legal-ese", though realising this doesn't help.) And in addition to this, we have an authorial tic that I found more and more irritating: Cozzens' habit of referring to his protagonist by his full name - rarely "Arthur" or "Winner", but nearly always "Arthur Winner" - and using that repeatedly where a pronoun would do. Now...you may consider that an overly petty reason for finally condemning a book, so I'll offer a more cogent one: that while posing as open-minded and progressive, this novel in fact champions a white-male-privilege viewpoint that made my hackles rise, particularly with respect to its female and working-class characters...and heaven help anyone who happens to be both. While the novel's classist aspects are probably most objectionable in reality, I admit that I was most exasperated by its sexism---in particular, Cozzens' smug psychoanalysing, via Arthur Winner, of his female characters' sexual hang-ups...and they've all got one, in one direction or the other, every single one...

    For the time being! Ah, there was the crux of the revulsive, today inscrutable, vexed, vexatious question that those ugly souvenirs, now winced at, kept posing. The business done upstairs in the garage, life's other business would, must, go on. In all (and, having, and and in quest to have), here passed at most, at best, only a trifling fraction of a day's time. How did that man spend the remainder---the long parts before, the long parts after? Could the rest of a day proceed, detached from, unconcerned about, those occasions (past and future) of the athlete of the swaying bedstead? Could thoughts and feelings of other hours come and go forgetful of the uncleanly exploits of the worn mattress's careening courser?...
    Yes; what of those several other (and how different!) Arthur Winners who had been obliged, while this went on, to allow that clandestine lecher with his sullies and spots to be numbered among them? For example; the one who politely breakfasted, more or less the model son of riper years, with his mother... For example; the man who entered his office, spoke, with no difference of affable manner, his good mornings to Helen Detweiler and the girls; who got efficiently busy at his desk, or, Noah having waddled in without ceremony, listened, attentive, to the old man's long-winded but worth-listening-to declamation on some point of law. For example; the man who publicly, in open court, taking his turn among colleagues of the bar, few or none of whom failed to regard him with high respect and friendly liking, arose with calm of use to ordinary business... How did these co-existing characters come to tolerate their low companion's turpitude? All, all honorable men, couldn't they find means to rule, or at least check a little, the furtive fornicator, the base meddler with a valued-friend-and-partner's wife?
    No; they could not! Men of honor, men of principle, men of integrity, they must have acted if they could have acted. This underhand fellow, sprung up importune among them, defied the only restraints they knew, the restraining theorum that had always seemed so sufficient. Whatsoever things are false, whatsoever things are not honest, whatsoever things are unjust, whatsoever things are impure, whatsoever things are ugly, whatsoever things are of bad report---why, one simply didn't do them!...

And before anyone says anything---I'm very well aware that I have a nerve criticising anyone else's discursive writing style. Trust me, compared to James Gould Cozzens, I'm the soul of brevity. :D

“the furtive fornicator”
“the athlete of the swaying bedstead”

Good grief, Liz! This is a Bad Book, a very Bad Book indeed. How on earth did you get through it? And did it seem to you that Cozzens is kind of pantingly enjoying what he decries at so much wearying length?

However, I did thoroughly enjoy Below the Salt, a kind of time-travel story that intrigued me. Costain was an expert on that historical era, and I thought he made the scene very immediate to the reader.

Blue Camellia was just so-so, and Peyton Place is its own self.

Obviously, Mr and Mrs America purchased By Love Possessed and checked Peyton Place out of the library.

Not that I know that Peyton Place was stylistically any less annoying.

>134 lyzard: Oh Liz, it really does sound dreadful!

Liz, I don't know if you'll be able to access this, but it is the CUTEST baby sloth with mama:

https://www.facebook.com/WFXLTV/videos/1659681244195087/

>136 Matke:

Well, it's two books at once: I could have quoted the other, fairly interesting book about an honest lawyer accidentally discovering a lot of secrets and then having to decide what to do about them; but instead I quoted the inner turmoil / midlife crisis novel that Cozzens clearly wanted to write and the rest is just a framework for.

Just be thankful I spared you the passage about him destroying the stained mattress. :D

I'm sure he thought he was just being frank. I'm sure it had nothing to do with polite pornography for the middle-classes...

Anyway---we can certainly agree that 1957 gave us an interesting mix of books.

>137 NinieB:

I think probably Mr and Mrs America proudly bought By Love Possessed at their local bookstore, but obtained Peyton Place by mail order in a plain brown wrapper. :D

From memory a lot less - perhaps if anything rather lacking in style - and I think less graphic too; though dealing with a lot more outré behaviour, to make up for it.

>138 Dejah_Thoris:

Truly, only parts of it; though those parts are very dreadful!

>139 ronincats:

Aw, thank you, Roni! Just the palette-cleanser we all needed. :)

Oh, c'mon: you can do this, too...

Publication date: 1973
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Tommy and Tuppence Beresford
Read for: Chronological challenge

Postern Of Fate - It is with great reluctance, and even greater sadness, that I attempt to review the final novel to feature Agatha Christie's married amateur detectives, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford: this is easily the worst book Agatha ever wrote; worse even than the embarrassing Passenger To Frankfurt, which at least has a plot; whereas Postern Of Fate consists almost entirely of the now-elderly Tommy and Tuppence having the same conversations over and over (during which, they spoil all of their earlier novels, so be warned), and even repeating themselves within their conversations; with occasional interruptions consisting of Tuppence doing things her age wouldn't allow for, and which would leave her with two broken hips if she tried. The story, such as it is, concerns the Beresfords buying and moving into a house in the country. Having chosen to retain the previous owner's books, Tuppence is sorting them out when she comes across a message in code in a child's hand which, when cracked, suggests that a murder was once committed in the house. From there matters unfold as usual, with Tommy using his secret-service connections (which realistically would have evaporated during the Cambridge Five scandal a decade earlier) to hunt down information, while Tuppence sticks her nose places she shouldn't. The mystery, such as it is, is solved by someone else entirely, while the Beresfords talk, and talk, and talk... The only thing that at all rescues Postern Of Fate is its early book-sorting scenes, which invariably turn into book discussions and book memories - and book reading - and do evoke a sympathetic smile.

    "This book didn't belong to her. In the beginning it says in a rather silly, childish-looking writing, it says 'Alexander'. Alexander Parkinson, I think."
    "Oh well. Does it really matter?"
    "Of course it matters," said Tuppence.
    "Come on, I'm hungry," said Tommy.
    "Restrain yourself," said Tuppence, "I'm only going to read you the next bit, until the writing stops... The letters are picked from odd places on various pages. They don't run in sequence - there can't be anything in the words that matter - it's just the letters... That's all. Can't find anything else. But it is rather exciting, isn't it?"
    "Look here, Tuppence," said Tommy, "you're not going to get a thing about this, are you?"
    "What do you mean, a thing about this?"
    "Well, I mean working up a sort of mystery."
    "Well, it's a mystery to me," said Tuppence. "Mary Jordan did not die naturally. It was one of us. I think I know which one. Oh, Tommy, you must say it is very intriguing..."

I was late to the party, noticing the discussion of the new 'Series' arrangements, and have not attempted to weigh in with my own thoughts.

However---I would like to say a sincere 'thank you' to those who did, and took up the cudgels on several issues dear to my heart.

This is directed towards a number of you, but I do feel the need for a special shout-out to Julia, for raising the dreaded issue of continuations. :)

I'm actually quite nervous about this, especially as I am the main adder / fixer for a number of series that include short stories and novellas in their series order; I get the feeling I'm about to be undone and rearranged...

>143 lyzard: well at least you've got that done and it;s not now hanging over you. Shame to finish on a low note, though.

>145 Helenliz:

Very sad, yes. I suppose between her track record and the fact that she wanted to write in spite of her health situation, no-one felt that they could intervene, but it's a pity to have this the last book she wrote. (Not published, of course.

>146 lyzard: We can all say, thank goodness for Curtain and Sleeping Murder.

>143 lyzard: Is that the one that makes mention of Leda and the Swan and also the Oxbridge rowing competition (I'm quite sure there's a name for it that isn't that)? If so, I remember reading that one when I was quite young, never having read any other Christie except some Miss Marple, I think. I was completely lost, having no knowledge of Leda, the Swan, or what the hell Oxbridge was (I did say I was very young, didn't I?) And I had no idea it was part of a series, let alone the last and worst one in the lot! Ah, memories...

>144 lyzard: I think the new series pages are an improvement, but there is going to be some nipping and biting as the various factions attempt to assert their one true vision over how things should be ordered. I'm disappointed that Tim, the owner of LT, is not being more assertive in the conversation; while I understand wanting members to hash things out amongst themselves, certain minimum rules need to be set so everyone is coming from a similar frame of reference. And if you saw me fighting the battle against continuations, you probably also saw that I lost! Ah, well. Perhaps when the dust clears, I might go in and try to do some cleanup on the ones I really care about.

>147 NinieB:

Yes, they have their problems but they definitely have their compensations too!

>148 rosalita:

There are some references so obscure in that one that even I was lost, and I'm usually pretty good at that sort of trivial knowledge.

I must have read Postern Of Fate before but I had very little memory of it, which was probably a combination of what it deserved and blocking it out. :(

I was particularly grateful to you because I briefly thought about wading in myself, and then beat a cowardly retreat. We'll have to continue fighting the good fight as the new arrangements allow. As long as the continuations / novelisations can be excluded from the main series listing I suppose I can live with it. (Please tell me we got that??)

Finished Songs Of A Dead Dreamer for TIOLI #14.

This also marks the finish of something else: several years ago I rounded up a significant chunk of my book collection into boxes and bags with the thought of sorting through it and possibly doing some pruning...though I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that this devolved into having to read each book first. These are the works I have been listing in my projects as 'potential decommission'.

Well...Songs Of A Dead Dreamer represents the last book out of the first bag---from which I have been picking books by keeping it closed and reaching in my hand without looking.

The question now is where to go next? I have a few more non-fiction works on a shelf to get through, but now it looks like a future of ongoing horror, so to speak. I'm thinking of putting some of these books into another bag or a box with a lid to introduce some randomisation, but it also occurs to me that I have some series in the pile, so that's not going to work...

I think in the short term I'll focus on finishing the non-fiction, if only to clear a shelf. (So, serial killers ahoy!)

Anyhoo---

Now reading Patty's Suitors by Carolyn Wells.

Film-blogging:

This time around we have a drama produced for the Playhouse 90 television program of the 1950s. Featuring a cast of familiar faces, this is an odd little disaster movie that plays games with the tropes of its genre:

No Time At All (1958)

Finished Patty's Suitors for TIOLI #2.

Now reading Louisa Egerton; or, Castle Herbert by Mary Leman Grimstone.

And now I really have to get some writing done here...

(I know, I know: I keep saying that...)

Finished Louisa Egerton; or, Castle Herbert for TIOLI #12.

Well. I'm feeling...not crushed by a book, but rather battered by the way I had to read it. Tiny, smeary font, oh my poor eyes!

Time to lean back with the obvious, I think---

Now reading Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie.

Ahem. You may have noticed that I have not in fact gotten any writing done here.

Surprise, I've been fiddling with my film-blog instead, this time copying over a couple of old reviews:

Seven Footprints To Satan (1929), a silent, old dark house horror-comedy, full of bizarre characters and amazing production design, but which unfortunately exists only in battered, unrestored prints:



---and---

Claws (1977), a rip-off of Grizzly, which was of course a rip-off of Jaws; the law of diminishing returns applies:

And in library news:

Things remain static at my local library, with the three branches farthest away from me basically operational now, but the three closest still closed due, not to the lockdown, but the refurbishments they used the time to undertake.

On the other hand, the State Library has lifted more of its restrictions; though numbers are still limited within its reading-rooms, and a pre-booking is still required.

Best of all, though, my academic library has reopened! - and I got a free gift here, as they have responded to the difficulties of account management by simply extending everyone's membership to the end of the year. As my account expired during the lockdown, this basically means I get six months of free services! (As community borrower, I have to pay a yearly - and not inexpensive - subscription.)

And what the latter also means is...Exodus ahoy! :D

And what the latter also means is...Exodus ahoy! :D

Oh ... goody?

In happier news: Rhode Island Zoo Welcomes Baby Two-Toed Sloth After Difficult Delivery includes photos of said baby sloth in a scale basket. Totes adorbs, as the kids probably no longer say.

Perhaps not 'goody' so much as 'good riddance'?? :D

Oh YAY!!!! Thanks for that!

Checking in on you, Liz, as it has been a while. I do hope that the 'new thread' helped with the mood.

>160 alcottacre:

Thanks, Stasia! My general mood, but not my reviewing mood---obviously! :D

>161 lyzard: Ah, well. Maybe I should drag out the impatient cat again? You know which I mean?

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

(Do I know, I mean, really!?)

Finished Sleeping Murder for TIOLI #14.

Now reading Ladies' Bane by Patricia Wentworth.

I was wondering where you had been! So glad to hear your library access is gradually being restored. My public library recently reopened with curbside/walkthrough but I still can't access my academic library.

>156 lyzard: Claws. Wow.

>165 NinieB:

Hi, Ninie! I was thinking about you too, re: your comments about Sleeping Murder in >39 NinieB: The thing that caught my eye in dating it is the calm assertion that New Zealanders call England 'home'. Not so much, in my experience! :D

I'm trying to think what I need to do, it's been so long since I had a library! I need to place some storage requests in advance and work out my general borrowing...and of course, round up my returns!

And trust me, Claws is every bit as terrible as it sounds, although not unamusing. :)

My husband loves those goofy horror movies like Claws, and I enjoy them when I'm in the right mood. I'm surprised we haven't run across Claws yet.

>167 NinieB:

Say hi to your husband for me! :D

It was independently produced and is rather obscure these days: not something you're likely to come across unless you go looking for it.

Finished Ladies' Bane for TIOLI #4.

Note to self (and others):

The correct series order for the next three Miss Silver books is:
- Out Of The Past (#23)
- Vanishing Point (#24)
- The Silent Pool (#25)

Now (re-)reading The Secret Of High Eldersham by "Miles Burton" (John Rhode).

AAARRGGHH!!!!!!!!!!

Closer reading of the fine print reveals that only staff and students are as yet being admitted to my academic library, so all my immediate plans are back out the window. :(

(Yes, yes...including Exodus...)

Speaking of plans---

Group read news:

We have / had? a group read of Anthony Trollope's Castle Richmond scheduled for July.

If you are / were planning to participate, please check in and indicate whether this arrangement is still viable, or whether you would prefer to postpone the group read (possibly to September?).

Please also indicate whether you are likely to have any difficulty in obtaining a copy of the book, in the event that we go ahead.

I will post ebook / online availability here for those who may need it. (She said, praying that this isn't yet another instance of variant editions...)

>169 lyzard: Duly noted, and LT series updated.

>171 lyzard: I could be ok to join in September.

>171 lyzard: Any time will be fine with me, Liz.

>171 lyzard: any time OK with me, too.

>173 PaulCranswick:, >174 Matke:, >175 kac522:

Thank you for checking in. I have put a note on the thread from The Bertrams and hopefully we will have a consensus soon.

Hey Julia, if you're there---

What's the dealio with locked series at the moment? I can't bring myself to read through the related threads so am picking your brain instead. :)

>177 lyzard: Are these new-style series? I know the previous series field in Common Knowledge was locked, but I don't think I've heard of new ones being that way. Can you point me to an example?

>176 lyzard: forgot to mention that I have an OUP edition (reprint) from 1992, original edition 1989. Per the notes from the editor (Mary Hamer), this edition is based on an 1873 Chapman & Hall edition. She also states that there were 2 previous editions, 1860 (3 vols) and 1866 (1 vol), both published by C&H.

>177 lyzard: Series are redesigned, you can find series now just above the Common Knowledge fields.

>179 kac522:

Thanks, Kathy! Not surprisingly, the OUP edition seems the best option. It seems that there has been some tampering in the different editions with the chapter numbering and where the volumes divide, but I haven't so far found any suggestion of tampering with the text.

Everyone who has checked in so far has said they are okay to go ahead now, but I will give it another couple of days before making a definite call.

>178 rosalita:, >180 FAMeulstee:

Yes, I see now; I was still baulking at the lock symbol on the old version.

Trust me: I've found a mistake in a 60-book-long series that needs correction. I suppose it will be a good learning exercise!

Finished The Secret Of High Eldersham for TIOLI #12.

Now reading Chronicles Of Martin Hewitt by Arthur Morrison.

Finished Chronicles Of Martin Hewitt for TIOLI #4.

Now reading Elsie's Friends At Woodburn by Martha Finley; but since I may have to read that online (and therefore can't read it in the bath), also reading Masks Off At Midnight by Valentine Williams.

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

The Mill Of Happiness - Anne Quayne is only relieved when her cruel, controlling husband is killed during WWI; but he has left one more blow for her to cope with, tying up custody of their young twins so that she may only have the children one month in each year. Seeking war-work while staying with friends, Anne is thrown together with Captain James Gallon, the rifle instructor of a nearby military base. The two are strongly attracted, but Gallon is married to a woman who struggles with drug addiction and a Catholic, so divorce is out of the question. Frightened that they may be led into an affair, Anne leaves for London, where her connections find her an unexpected position as confidential secretary to Paolo Gianforte, an Italian film actor. Almost before she knows it, Anne is on her way to Hollywood---but Jim Gallon is never out of her thoughts... This 1931 romance by "Jean Barre" (Eda Bridgman) is fairly typical of its era, in that it is strange and uncomfortable, and if anything anti-romantic; though I suppose Barre herself may not have seen it that way. But how else to classify a work that deals predominantly with three miserable marriages, and in which the most significant relationship (or at least, the one dealt with in most detail) is the mutually supportive, platonic friendship that develops between Anne and Paolo? Though it has a number of unexpected touches going for it, The Mill Of Happiness eventually grows tiresome, and then creepy. Far too much of it is devoted to Anne's perfections, which are relentlessly sung by every other character in the book---with the exception of Sadie Gianforte, Paolo's American actress-wife, who resents her. Theirs is one of the book's unhappy marriages, and its final stretch, alas, deals with Anne "fixing" it---via the suggestion that Paulo is too gentle and considerate with Sadie, when he should be "masterful"; and though it doesn't eventuate, there's a whiff here of threatened marital rape. It can only be a relief when the artificial separation between Anne and Jim Gallon is finally overcome, if only because it allows Barre to wrap up her increasingly dismaying narrative.

    Paolo nodded reflectively. "You think Sadie is attract' by Power?"
    "Not quite that. But I think there is a lot of the cave-man in him and he is making her interested, in spite of herself. I don't think Mrs Gianforte has ever been fully awake to the fact that a man can be all of everything to a woman. Can make her life a heaven or purgatory, in fact."
    Gianforte turned his eyes to hers gravely. "No. As you say, she is not awake, but I fear she will be very sharply awaken' some day. Perhaps quite soon. If it is through Power, I do not think she will be happy. Anne, will you tell me something I would like to know?"
    "Certainly, if I can."
    "Well, to use your own words, a man can make a woman's life heaven or purgatory. Which has happen' to you?"
    She hesitated and he saw the colour drain from her sensitive face.
    "I have been in purgatory and have seen heaven a long way off," she said, with a visible effort at steadiness.

>185 lyzard: Good golly. How can you stand to read these things? Just ew...

>185 lyzard: tying up custody of their young twins so that she may only have the children one month in each year.

OK, I know this is not the point but what the hell? The notion that such a thing was even possible at one time is appalling.

>186 Matke:

Trust me, it's not intentional! But yeah, I've read a bunch of these alleged romances from around this time that I found just plain icky. Not sure what was going on. I mean, I'm all for shaking up a formula but not like this!

>187 rosalita:

Honestly, I'm not sure it was legally possible, even though the book is set about 15 years before it was written---though it was not until 1973 in Britain that mothers gained equal custody rights in the event of divorce or separation, so there may have been some archaic statute still on the books in 1915 regarding guardianship of children.

Either way, this touch serves the dual purpose of martyring Anne a bit more and freeing her up for both romance and travel. :)

Finished Masks Off At Midnight for TIOLI #6.

Now reading Midnight Murder by Ralph Rodd; still reading Elsie's Friends At Woodburn by Martha Finley.

I'm still hoping to get to Ladies' Bane, but I'll take a pass on The Mill of Happiness - ick.

ETA: And I presume you've fixed the Exodus problem?

{...drumroll...}





Alas, the die is cast! :D

>190 Dejah_Thoris:

Please do if you can, but don't stress.

Uh, yeah: I'm prepared to force Exodus on you, but not that. :D

Meanwhile---

It looks like the Castle Richmond group read is ON.

However, I am going to delay the start, to give participants a few more days to secure a copy of the book (and also because I now realise it's the 4th July over next weekend and our American readers may be busy).

I will set up the thread during the week of the 6th - 10th July, so that a proper start can be made on the weekend of 11th - 12th.

Please let me know if this suits, or if it is a problem for anyone. I will copy this message onto The Bertrams thread.

>188 lyzard:
I’m sorry, what did you just say? I’m amazed, shocked, and appalled by that information regarding child custody. You know I spend a lot of time immersed in Victorian lit; even so, that bit of legality is surprising.

>191 lyzard: I hope you find that Exodus is interesting enough to move quickly for you. Honestly it not a bad book at all , and does tell a compelling if lengthy story.

>193 lyzard: Yay on Castle Richmond! I’m deep into The Claverings right now. It’s very enjoyable, if long.

Have a peaceful and enjoyable weekend, Liz.

>194 Matke:

The double-standard in the British divorce laws was technically abolished in the 1930s but this little gem remained on the books to punish any woman deemed "at fault". (I'm still not convinced such laws applied to guardianship by faultless widows, but anyhoo...)

It's more the thought of YET ANOTHER CHUNKSTER that has me quaking, rather than this book per se. :D

The Claverings is another I'll be getting around to (say it with me!) sooner or later...

Thanks, Gail!

Finished Elsie's Friends At Woodburn for TIOLI #8...and sorely tempted to trot out the 'crushed by a book' logo. :(

Still reading Midnight Murder by Ralph Rodd.

>193 lyzard: I will try to join in Liz.

>197 PaulCranswick:

It would be great to have you there, Paul!

Finished Midnight Murder for TIOLI #13, which wraps up June.

Eep.

Now reading Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope.

Publication date: 1931
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Read for: 1931 reading

Murder In The Cellar - Ted Smith and his wife, Elizabeth, usually known as 'Mouse', drive out to the isolated home of Cartier and Felice Cadel for a weekend party. Ted ad Cartier are old and firm friends, though their wives have not met before. The Williamses have already arrived; the last to reach the house are the Dows. From the arrival of the latter, the party becomes strained and tense, with the lovely Gypsy Dow monopolising the attention of the men and Felice revealing and angry, jealous streak. Things get worse after dinner, as Cartier insists on showing home movies not only of his time stationed in Honolulu, but of the war itself. There is a general scattering after this, though Ted and Cartier stay downstairs in the latter's spacious den to practise target-shooting. It is not until some time later that Felice makes a horrifying discovery: that Cartier has been shot dead, and Ted is missing... This mystery co-authored by Louise Eppley and Rebecca Gayton is unsatisfactory for a variety of reasons, though not all of them can be placed at the authors' feet. Very much a product of its time, Murder In The Cellar turns very much upon contemporary radio - both in the entertainment and the technical sense - and it can be difficult for modern readers (or at least, it was for this one) to wrap their heads around the critical details. It also needs to be understood at the outset that "cellar" is a most misleading term in this context, referring to Cartier Cadel's spacious underground retreat: an arrangement that today we would call a "man-cave". However, even aside from these points the novel is seriously flawed, stretching probability with regard to the circumstances of Cartier's murder, the eventual explanation for Ted Smith's subsequent disappearance, and even the secrets that keep the members of the house-party behaving so suspiciously. Official investigation of the crime falls to the local sheriff and a brusque, irritating detective called, appropriately enough, Stingley; but with suspicion resting heavily upon Ted, with little inquiry in any other direction, the loyal Mouse (who also narrates) turns amateur detective, trying to identify other suspects, and to discover the real reason for Ted's disappearance. At length it is determined that there are those with motive for Cartier's murder both within his house, and associated with the mine owned by his father, and which he managed with a firm hand. Mouse is only too eager to follow up on these leads---but in doing so, she finds her own life in danger...

    It seemed to me that everyone was evading the issue. So much had not been touched upon that was really important, that led to so many closed doors. For instance, who could have known the exact moment that the boys would be alone, in the basement? Why had Gypsy seemed so inordinately excited at the sight of the gory war films; why had Mr Williams turned pale, and his wife been as calm as though she were at a church bazaar? Above all, why had Ted disappeared? That question had been avoided as carefully as the plague, due, no doubt, to my feelings. It was probably discussed enough when I was not present...
    Why had Mrs Williams been confused about the respective times when she and her husband left the living room during the bridge game? What difference did it make? Why was it that Gordon had rushed past us to discover Felice when she had fainted, and yet made no attempt to go for help, leaving that more dangerous office to Walter? Why was it that I, only, and that, when I was busy with a radio, had been the one to feel sure when the firing had stopped? No-one believed me, but I knew I was right, and I couldn't understand it myself. But I was positive that the firing had ceased about fifteen minutes or less before Felice joined me in the hall. I should set the time, roughly guessing, at twelve-fifteen or twelve-twenty. That would place the murder after or during the first snowfall. Yet there were no footprints...

>200 lyzard: Good glory - Mouse? After that, I know you must be looking forward to Exodus.

>201 Dejah_Thoris:

Because she's small and plain, as she delights in telling us, in between deprecating her own intelligence; that sort. :D

>202 lyzard: Ah, what a joy that must have been.

I've started Exodus, btw. I think I'll be reading it in chunks, with time off for good behavior.

Publication date: 1931
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Read for: 1931 reading

The Back-Seat Murder - In the dead of night, as he is carefully raking through the ash-pile in the cellar of the country house of his employer, Christopher Marsh, Leonard Harrington is caught by Theresa Lanyard, Mrs Marsh's young nurse. She does not seem surprised at his doings, and astonishes him further by mentioning the murder of David Mooreland... The next day, having resumed his secretarial duties, Harrington is horrified when Marsh dictates a letter accusing him and Theresa of obtaining their positions under false pretences, and conspiring against his life. He demands three copies: one for himself, and two for Mr Whittaker, the prosecuting attorney---one to be delivered by Harrington in person... Left with little choice, Harrington sets out on his mission, further obeying his sardonic employer by stopping on his way into town to have the battery of the car seen to. As he drives off again in the dusk, suddenly, inexplicably, he finds Marsh sitting in the back seat---and with murder on his mind. At gun-point, he orders Harrington to turn off up a lonely road that leads to an abandoned hotel. Trying to create a diversion that will allow him to escape, Harrington suddenly accuses Marsh of David Mooreland's murder. Marsh's response is to collapse with a gurgling cry. He is dead - shot dead - in a closed car, and with no sound of gunfire... As with many of Hulbert Footner's thrillers, The Back-Seat Murder is more entertaining than probable; though to its credit, it finally manages to play fair with respect to both Christopher Marsh's sudden appearance in the back seat of his own car, and the variant of the locked-room murder that follows it. Prior to this, however, the narrative escalates into a convoluted story of criminal conspiracies and false identities, with much creeping around in the dark and secret spying---and some black humour, with Theresa and Harrington becoming the targets of an infuriatingly persistent blackmailer called Tarkin. And inevitably, there's romance, with Harrington falling for Theresa and wanting desperately to believe in her, in spite of her lies and shifting agenda, and though he knows very well her name isn't really "Theresa Lanyard". However, he can hardly object to that---since his name isn't "Leonard Harrington". And of course, he's not without an agenda of his own... Having steeled himself to report Marsh's murder, in spite of the unlikely (to say the least) story he must then tell, Harrington finds himself enduring the tender mercies of the aforementioned Mr Whittaker and his pet detective, Storm---and it is another of this novel's pleasant surprises that, most unusually for an American mystery, officialdom is both smart and competent. The detectives, amateur and professional, must then work together to unravel a bewildering tale of theft, conspiracy, betrayal and murder...

    "There's a million dollars' worth of shiners in that pretty little box, and they don't belong to anybody in particular. No, sir, they don't belong to anybody."
    Harrington stared into his sallow face. The blackmailer appeared in great earnest, but his shifty eyes were constantly alert.
    "Oh, rot, Tarkin! You can't tell me that a million dollars' worth of jewels are kicking around without an owner. Didn't they belong to Marsh?"
    "They did not! Not any more than they belong to you or me or Carstairs. They did belong to Mooreland, but he's dead."
    "Nonsense, Tarkin. Mooreland was a poor man."
    "Was he? Well, that's what most people thought, and it suited Mooreland to have them think so. He wasn't advertising his wealth. Even some of his heirs didn't know that he was worth over a million. By the way," and Tarkin's shifty eyes narrowed shrewdly, "aren't you one of his heirs?"
    Harrington started. Much as he loathed the blackmailer, he was growing interested. Tarkin was talking as a man who knew.
    "I never saw the will," he declared, "and I never heard of it. I doubt if there was one."
    "There was. A funny kind of will, and you were named in it along with several others. You see," with a knowing chuckle, "I know your real name---the name that appeared in the will..."

>203 Dejah_Thoris:

Yes, I had a lot more fun with >204 lyzard:

:D

>204 lyzard: The Backseat Murder actually sounds rather appealing - and I can see how it would have been much more fun.

Well. This hasn't exactly gone to plan, however...

Still reading Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope, but also completed L'Ombre Chinoise ("The Shadow Puppet") by Georges Simenon, which turns out to be #75 for the year!

Congratulations on reaching 75, Liz!

Happy 75th, Liz!

Woohoo for 75! Go Liz!

>208 FAMeulstee: Anita, you are so on top of the numbers - I salute you!

Publication date: 2020
Genre: Science fiction / fantasy
Read for: TIOLI

Nevertheless, She Persisted - Taking its title from the notorious rebuke aimed at Senator Elizabeth Warren, this 'Flash Fiction Project' from Tor.books is a collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories by female authors---dealing, appropriately enough, with women of all sorts persisting in all sorts of settings, futuristic, imaginary or allegorical. As with any such anthology, the results are a mixed bag; but there is enough variation among the eleven collected stories, and enough humour and sly wit built around the title quote, to offer a fairly broad appeal. The editors have, too, done a good job in assembling authors from a range of backgrounds, with contributions from Charlie Jane Anders, Brooke Bolander, Amal El-Mohtar, Maria Dahvana Headley, Kameron Hurley Seanan McGuire, Nisi Shawl, Catherynne M. Valente, Carrie Vaughan, Jo Walton and Alyssa Wong (and links to their other work).

    She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
    ...was an epigraph engraved at the bases of statues around the city meant to dissuade women from fighting monsters. But to Moira, the epigraph inspired. We all fight monsters, she knew. There was no shame in losing.

>208 FAMeulstee:, >209 rosalita:, >210 Dejah_Thoris:

Thank you, ladies!

I shall be wearing this today!---

>212 lyzard: That's a good-looking pin. ;-)

Publication date: 1931
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Superintendent Ross
Read for: Series reading / 1931 reading

The Two Tickets Puzzle (US title: The Two Ticket Puzzle) - When a country train terminates at Kempsford Junction, a body is found under the seat in one of the first-class carriages. When the call goes through to Inspector Campden, he is in consultation with his colleague, Superintendent Ross of Horston, who accompanies him to the scene. The victim has been shot several times, and the detectives' search of the compartment recovers two bullets, apparently fired from a .38; they also find some paper fragments and ash, and what seems to be a broken glasses-lens. The dead man is identified as Oswald Preston, a local businessman, who boarded the train a Horston; while the circumstances of the crime indicate that it was premeditated, committed in the brief minutes between stations. Investigation of the victim then turns up, if anything, too many motives: he was a rigid, controlling man with many fads, who insisted upon his own way; he was unhappily married to a much younger woman, who gossip linked to another man; and he insisted upon carrying the payroll for his business himself---yet no money was found upon his body... This is the second and last mystery by "J. J. Connington" (Alfred Stewart) to feature Superintendent Ross---a pity, since Ross is quite an appealing protagonist: a painstaking man, yet one not without imagination; and just as well, in this case. The Two Tickets Puzzle falls into what was still a fairly rare category of mysteries at the time, the police procedural, with much weight given to realistic detective work and the often tiresome minutiae of day-to-day police work, even in the investigation of a murder. Connington makes this engaging enough, however; the real problem here for modern readers is that this is one of the era's many "railway mysteries", and relies heavily upon an understanding of the contemporary layout and arrangement of train carriages, and in particular (as the title indicates) the details of the rather rigid ticketing system. Meanwhile, unusually, The Two Tickets Puzzle reveals to the reader quite early who the guilty party is, with most of the second half of its narrative concerning Ross's efforts to clear away the confusion involving involving false identities, stolen cars and planted evidence, to build a case against a clever and dangerous individual. Before he can do so, however, Ross must grasp the significance of two odd details: the death of a local farmer's prize ram, and ticket stub found in the pocket of a pawned suit...

    "I took the hint," agreed the Superintendent... "Why should I ignore evidence because there seems to be animus behind it? It might be sound, in spite of the animus. But, as a matter of fact, some things cropped up before I went to see you.
    "First, there was the bank information, from which I learned that Preston had a packet of marked notes with him, in addition to the normal cash for the factory wages. Naturally we took steps to get these marked notes reported, if they turned up in circulation.
    "Then there was the whole railway side of the case. One of my men---you saw him, Mornington---took that over and managed to identify fifty-two passengers on the 10.35. He also proved that fifty-two tickets were surrendered up the line at various stations. That meant that if the murderer surrendered a ticket, he must be among these fifty-two individuals. But, unfortunately, there was that fog on the line; and the murderer might have left the train under cover of it, in which case he would not have given up his ticket. But as Mornington accounted for all of the tickets sold that morning before the 10.35 left, the murderer didn't buy a ticket before getting into the train. And yet, since this was a carefully prearranged crime, it was evident that the murderer must have had a ticket of some sort. He couldn't afford to draw attention to himself by being caught ticketless..."

And that is - oh, dear! - March.

(Remember when I was bragging about starting a new thread because I'd "caught up my reviewing? And I still have an uncompleted blog-post to get through here...)

March stats:

Works read: 10
TIOLI: 10, in 8 different challenges, with 2 shared reads

Mystery / thriller: 4
Classic: 3
Contemporary drama: 2
Short stories: 1

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

Owned: 1
Library: 4
Ebooks: 5

Male authors : female authors: 5 : 16 (short stories!)

Oldest work: The Wild Irish Girl by Sydney Owenson (1806)
Newest work: Nevertheless, She Persisted by Various (2020)

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

YTD stats:

Works read: 38
TIOLI: 38, in 25 different challenges, with 7 shared reads

Mystery / thriller: 21
Classic: 9
Contemporary drama: 4
Short stories: 2
Young adult: 1
Humour: 1

Series works: 13
Re-reads: 6
Blog reads: 4
1932: 1
1931: 5
Virago / Persephone: 0
Potential decommission: 1

Owned: 6
Library: 12
Ebooks: 20

Male authors : female authors: 21 (including 4 men using a single male pseudonym) : 30

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

I feel like I only deserve one little one...

>213 rosalita:

It is! :D

>216 lyzard: SLOTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have completely given up on writing even short reviews of my reads in the Bad Times. I'm trying to make sure they have adequate tags and calling it a day. So I think you deserve kudos for making it through your March reviews!

>218 rosalita:

Thanks! I can't bring myself to just leave it, though I am trying to be a little less blathery.

Finished Castle Richmond for TIOLI #3.

Now reading---

{*girds loins*}

---Exodus by Leon Uris.

>220 lyzard: ...now that theme song is going to be playing in my head all day... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEPZ1ef2g_A

>221 kac522:

Ah, yes! Well, there are worse things to have stuck there. :)

I am struggling to find a copy of Castle Richmond, Liz. Just realised mine is in West Yorkshire and I am two oceans away!
Will see whether I can turn one up very soon.

Congratulations on passing 75 books by the way!

Just dropping by to say hello, Liz!

75 books! March reviews completed!

SLOTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well done you, both on finishing your March reviews and on hitting 75 books read! Considering some of the doorstoppers you've tackled this year, that's quite a feat. I am languishing far behind with only 47 completed so far in 2020. Though I did read an entire book yesterday, so perhaps my reading slump is starting to lift a bit.

>223 PaulCranswick:

I ended up having to read the Project Gutenberg version; it was that or read it online, and I abuse my poor eyes enough as it is. I was horrified to realise we don't have the Kindle version of the OUP edition here.

Good luck with your search! I hope you are still able / willing to join us.

And thank you!

>225 SandDune:

Thanks, Rhian, lovely to have you here! :)

>226 ronincats:

Aw, thanks, Roni; I think you're spoiling me more than I deserve!

>227 rosalita:

You shouldn't encourage me to make excuses, not that I need much encouragement. (I'm dragging my feet again because next up is Doctor Zhivago...)

Well done! I'm just over halfway through Exodus (it feels like I've read more than that, but there you go.)

Finished Exodus for TIOLI #3.

Let's see...am I feeling crushed? Not as crushed as I have done, I guess...

Sad, isn't it, when you've read so many crushers that you can stop and measure the exact degree of damage done by the latest??

I will say this though: it took some courage to peek and see what's a head for 1960.

Truthfully, I was hoping that Exodus stayed at #1 for another year.

It didn't, though.

Sigh.

And I'm not going to tell you yet what *is* up next. I will just say that (i) it's another chunkster - OH SURPRISE!!!! - and (ii) it's one of the three works guessed by Dejah when I was playing this game the last time!

Smarty-pants! :D

Anyhoo---

Now reading Miss Marple's Final Cases by Agatha Christie.

Oh no! From Exodus to another long slog. If it’s the book I think it is, I wish you fortitude.

I’m well into Castle Richmond and loving it so far. I know that my, um, familiarity with Trollope’s style (I’ve read a *lot* of his work) helps, but honestly, ever since I read The Warden a long, long time ago I’ve just loved him. I can enjoy Dickens and there are one or two childhood favorites that I still love, but Anthony is my Main Man.

>231 Matke:

From that, it likely isn't: it's a book I've read before and actually - gasp! - enjoy. :D

(Unless of course we have very different ideas operating there!!)

That's great to hear, Gail! I am hoping to get the thread set up today (but certainly by tomorrow).

Not rushing you.

No, really! Just wanted you to know that I think it’s great.

>231 Matke: He is my favorite male Victorian too, Gail! He stole my heart with the The Eustace Diamonds.

>233 Matke:, >234 NinieB:

Excellent! :)

Finished Miss Marple's Final Cases for TIOLI #5...

...which of course means that I have FINISHED A SERIES!!!!

I think this particular accomplishment requires a special celebration, so please enjoy these baby marmosets!---

BUT---

Finishing this particular series also means something much more:

It means that I have COMPLETED A CHALLENGE!!!!

It is, I think, a measure of how ridiculously I overload myself with challenges that the Agatha Christie chronological challenge is only the second I have ever completed!

Checking back, I was both amused and horrified to realise that this particular challenge has been running since January of 2013 (!!!!); although it was not formalised as a challenge for some months after that. (When it started it was me taking the longest possible route to cataloguing my Christie collection.) I was further amused at being reminded that when it started, it was on a one-book-every-two-months basis, so it could have been going for a lot longer!

But here I am at last; and since I'm feeling quite full of myself just now, I offer the following as a further celebration---


  

>236 lyzard: Oh! Adorable!

>234 NinieB: He should have a wee fan club.

>236 lyzard: that is most certainly cause for celebration! and >237 lyzard: is certainly wearing his party outfit!

The marmosets are so excited for you to finish a series!

And I don't know who that lovely fella is below them, but why he's not the grand marshal for every Pride Month parade is beyond me.

>240 rosalita: What she said.

>239 Helenliz:, >240 rosalita:, >241 Matke:

Thank you, ladies!

That is an Indian fan-throated lizard and yes, I don't know how he hasn't become someone's logo. :D

Of course, when I say "finished"...

I should never say anything as a joke because I always end up taking myself seriously (see also: the 'Banned in Boston' challenge). In this case my threatened 'odds and ends' challenge is probably going to become reality, though (no, I mean it!) without any particular urgency or pressure.

What I mean by this is, I want to tidy up the loose ends of both my Agatha Christie reading and my Georgette Heyer reading; the latter of which I intended way back when, but you know...

For Agatha this means chasing up those stray short stories, as mentioned in :
- The Regatta Mystery And Other Stories
- Problem At Pollensa Bay And Other Stories
- While The Light Lasts And Other Stories

For Georgette it means chasing up her straight historical novels (noting that An Infamous Army forms the bridge between her romances and her histories):
- The Great Roxhythe
- Simon The Coldheart
- Beauvallet
- The Conqueror
- Royal Escape
- My Lord John

There are other possibilities here: both ladies wrote contemporary novels (including Agatha's 'Mary Westmacott' books), which I may or may not chase up; while Georgette's other mysteries should roll onto my agenda under their own steam.

And I'm thinking of reading Agatha's plays. There are published versions out there, but they're quite rare, and with our libraries still disrupted they may not be immediately accessible.

I will probably not bother with the Charles Osborne novelisations of the plays...and definitely not with Sophie Hannah's Poirot continuations.

>228 lyzard: Certainly willing to join, Liz. I will keep looking for a usable copy.

>243 lyzard: I remember reading Beauvallet fairly soon after you first introduced me to La Heyer. I didn't know then that she had written anything other than Regency romances, so I was a bit confused by it, but I also remember liking it well enough that it didn't deter me from reading all the other Heyers I could get my hands on. :-)

I haven't read any of her other historical novels, but I'll have to keep an eye out for them.

>244 PaulCranswick:

Good luck!

>245 rosalita:

I've read it too, though memories are vague (it likewise would have been during my initial encounter). Perhaps it was the most readily available of this subset of books? I don't recall reading any of the others, even though I'm pretty sure I have a copy of My Lord John around somewhere...

>237 lyzard: Congratulations!
>243 lyzard: ... well, mostly.

>247 swynn:

Well, it wouldn't be me if I wasn't making things as difficult as possible, now, would it?? :D

Thanks!

The thread for the group read of Anthony Trollope's Castle Richmond is now up!

Here

Hope to see you there!