August MysteryKIT - Past and future

August's challenge is mysteries set anytime but the present, regardless of when they were written. For past, I'd say that anything set before widespread cell/smart phone or internet access is different enough to qualify, but feel free to interpret however works for you!

Past - Lots of options here, whether classics or historicals

Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers, Ellis Peters

Some historical series:
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear, set in 1910s England
Veronica Speedwell by Deanna Raybourn, set in 1880s England
Brother Cadfael by Ellis Peters, set in 12th century England
Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen, set in 1930s England
Siri Paiboun by Colin Cotteril, set in 1970s Laos
The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra, set in 1920s India

Future - Fewer options here, but still some good ones

Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
In Death series by J. D. Robb
Minority Report by Philip K. Dick
Death of a Clone by Alex Thomson
Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty
Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
Lock In by John Scalzi

Enjoy, and let us know what you're reading here and on the wiki.

Oooh, I loved the Brother Cadfael TV series with the incomparable Derek Jacobi, but I've never read the books. Perhaps it's time...

Bodies Politic by David Wishart (1st century Rome) seems to be ticking various feline boxes and will also work here.

I might try The Disappeared by Kristine Kathryn Rusch as a mystery set in the future.

Since 2015 I have had Goliath on my shelf about the mysterious disappearance of an airship in 1931. It's time!

I am planning on reading Blood And Circuses by Kerry Greenwood. These mysteries are set in Australia during the 1920s.

I have quite a few historical. A couple that jump out at me right now:
- The Lost Girls of Paris / Pam Jenoff
- The Book of Cold Cases / Simone St. James (I think this would also fit ScaredyKIT for me)

Future:
- Rapture in Death / J.D. Robb (and this would also fit SeriesCAT for me)

I have a busy month in August, so I'm going to read Gone Before Christmas by Charles Finch which is one of those ".5" in-between books and more of a short story. This series is set in Victorian England.

>3 Robertgreaves: I really enjoyed the Kristine Kathryn Rusch series which I read up to book 7 quite a while ago. I recently picked up most of the later books in the series on an Audible sale, so maybe will try to get to one next month.

I'm going to begin the Brother Cadfael series with A Morbid Taste for Bones.

I am planning to read something by Anne Perry. I just found out that she passed away in April 2023.

>9 PlatinumWarlock: I love the Cadfael series! Hope you enjoy it!

>2 PlatinumWarlock: yes! Yes! Do it!

I finally finished the series, last year?

Be sure to read them in order.

>9 PlatinumWarlock: not the strongest in the series, but best to start at the beginning.

>12 fuzzi: >9 PlatinumWarlock: I think I did read somewhere that A Morbid Taste for Bones was originally written as a stand alone - it was only afterwards she realised Cadfael had the potential for a series, the main arc of which she planned before continuing.

>13 Robertgreaves: interesting, thanks. I really enjoyed the Cadfael series.

I'm actually not much of a mystery reader, but I occasionally find new stuff that I like. I've read several of the "Cat Who" series but I lost interest at some point. A friend of mine recommended the Laurie R. King series about Holmes and Russell, which I adore. I don't recall who recommended the Stuart Kaminsky Soviet series but I'm glad they did. I don't care much for Kaminsky's Toby Peters series based upon one book I attempted. I'm giving PI Toby another try in August, we'll see how it goes.

>11 christina_reads: & >12 fuzzi: (& >13 Robertgreaves:, if you know): I also picked up A Rare Benedictine, which appears to be the last published but comprises several prequel stories. I thought it might be fun to read this first to get his backstory... do any of you know if that's necessary or even useful? Fuzzi, I saw your review, which sounded mildly positive... thoughts?

>15 PlatinumWarlock: There are 3 stories, one is a prequel about how Cadfael became a monk, but as far as I remember the others don't fit anywhere in particular in the timeline. There is also an introduction which tells how she came to write about Cadfael.

>15 PlatinumWarlock: I checked, I gave it 3 1/2 stars, definitely worth reading. Most of the Brother Cadfael books were either 3 or 3 1/2 stars for me.

Try to read them in order, and DON'T read the last book until the end. Very, very important. I kept my copy of the final book on the shelves for a few years until I got the others read.

>16 Robertgreaves: & >17 fuzzi: Thank you both! Will follow the rules. 😀

In order to fit other challenges, I've switched out Blood and Circuses and instead, I am now planning on reading The Winter Garden Mystery number 2 of the Daisy Dalrymple series set in the 1920s.

I read The Fourth Enemy by Anne Perry and also am finishing Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens (set in the 1930's).

I'm planning to read The Pigeon Pie Mystery by Julia Stuart set at Hampton Court Palace.

I'm going to count anything written or set before I was born as the past for this challenge. I am currently reading Agatha Christie's They Do It With Mirrors from 1952.

I have re-read Mord und Brand to re-acquaint myself with the series. It is set in 1911 Vienna.

I finished the next in my Vienna series: Der Henker von Wien which takes place in 1916.

COMPLETED They Do It With Mirrors and After the Funeral, both by Agatha Christie and set in the early 1950s.

Starting Bodies Politic by David Wishart, set in 1st Century AD Rome

The Rose Code / Kate Quinn
4.5 stars

Osla, Mab and Beth are recruited to work at Bletchley Park in 1940. It’s very secret and they are not allowed to talk about their work decoding German messages to help the soldiers at the front (even amongst themselves, as they work in different areas). They all have very different backgrounds, but with Osla and Mab boarding at Beth’s house, they become fast friends. Osla, a well-off debutante, has been dating Prince Philip of Greece; Mab is looking for a husband; Beth is very quiet and shy and will not say a peep to her overbearing mother who takes her for granted.

But something happens. One of the girls ends up in an asylum, and in 1947, she sends a note to the other two to come, even though things ended with bad blood between them all.

Probably the only thing I didn’t like was the convenience of the timing of an event near the end. Thinking more about it, they likely would still have figured it out (in a different way) before the very end. And wow! I was surprised at how much in this story was real! The characters, some based wholly on a real person and some on a mix of people. But even the events… so many of them really happened.

COMPLETED 3 stories from David Wishart's Marcus Corvinus Mysteries series set in Rome in the 30s AD:

Bodies Politic
No Cause for Concern
Solid Citizens

I read Miriam Grace Monfredo's North Star Conspiracy, set in 1854.

I'm reading the latest Molly Murphy Mystery, All That Is Hidden by Rhys Bowen and her daughter Clare Broyles. This is the second book in the series which Ms. Broyles has helped write. It is set in New York City in 1907.

I just finished A Purely Private Matter by Darcie Wilde, a historical mystery set in Regency England. It's book #2 of a series that I'm enjoying so far, but I don't think it's destined to become a favorite.

I've read a past and a future:

The Sanctuary Sparrow by Ellis Peters, 4*, 12th century Enlgland
Anniversary Day by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, 4*, not sure when exactly this is set, but it is sometime in the future and takes place on the Moon

COMPLETED 3 novels and 1 novella:

The Disappeared
Extremes
Consequences
The Retrieval Artist

all by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. They are noir-ish PI stories set in a lunar colony where Miles Flint looks for people who have Disappeared to evade alien justice in cases of interstellar cultural misunderstandings.

I read Snobbery with Violence by Marion Chesney set in the past.

The snobbery and upper-crustiness was hilarious! And the cure for syphilis was obviously invented by a man. This Edwardian mystery from the creator of Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin was more fun than I expected and now I'm looking forward to more.

I have finished Der blaue Tod, set during the cholera epidemic of 1892 in Hamburg.

I've had A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters in audio for a while now, so this seemed like a good time to listen to it. I'll have to get the next one, too... I like Brother Cadfael.

>35 antqueen: I'm reading that one too. I'm having a little trouble getting into it - remembering how much easier it was to watch the television series! But I think if I stick with it, I'll get sucked in.

Sorry for the delay in posting the September thread. I planned it, but I lost track of the days. https://www.librarything.com/topic/353050

Well, just can't get into Brother Cadfael, so switching to one of my favorite standbys, Eve Dallas! Dark in Death

For this challenge I read The Tale of Hill Top Farm by Susan Wittig Albert which takes place in 1905.

>39 lowelibrary: That is a book I enjoyed, as well as the others related to it.

>40 LadyoftheLodge: I liked the story, but it took me a while to get into the flow of the writing style. I do have the next one on my wish list.

I completed my read of The Winter Garden Mystery by Carola Dunn. This is the second book in her Daisy Dalrymple series.

Finished Dark in Death, by J. D. Robb and loved it, as expected.

Currently reading: The Abbot's Gibbet by Michael Jecks, part of a series set in 1320s England.

I read a new collection of short stories starring Jane Marple: Marple: Twelve New Stories

Sometimes short story collections can be really uneven, but I felt these stories were all good and there were no clunkers at all!

>45 soelo: I am glad to hear it! I have this book sitting next to my computer and it is begging to be read.

I just finished The Red Lamp by Mary Roberts Rinehart, which was both written and published in the 1920s. Lots of then-modern ideas about spiritualism!

COMPLETED

The Abbot's Gibbet
The Leper's Return

and starting:

Squire Throwleigh's Heir

All by Michael Jecks and set in 1320s England

I'm sticking Gone Before Christmas by Charles Finch here because I'm planning on finishing it this morning - where did August go?

I read two more Brother Cadfael books for this one:
The Devil's Novice & Dead Man's Ransom