Testing the Detectives

[callmemadam]

Goodness, I'm hard to please at the moment; I keep starting books and not finishing them. Failures first. Several people have recommended the Lakeland series by Martin Edwards and they sound so promising: lovely setting and lots about gardening. So I started The Cipher Garden and after one chapter was so confused by the number of characters and the difficulty of working out who was speaking to whom that I gave up. Worth another try, perhaps. Completely different is Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn. This has a nineteenth century setting and I can see that in a different mood I might find it fun but for now it just doesn't grip. I've enjoyed Simon Brett's Fethering mysteries and read Death on the Downs in bed, only to find that I didn't like it as much as the others.

The Fethering novels are set in Sussex, in an area I know well. The female sleuths are neighbours in their fifties: divorced, buttoned-up Carol, prematurely retired from her Very Important Job in the Home Office and Jude, outgoing and sexy. Gossip and nosiness lead them on the right trail, though it's highly unlikely any police force would tolerate their goings-on.

Hurrah for something completely reliable: Lilies That Fester by Hazel Holt. This is the earliest title I’ve read, with son Michael still living at home. It’s full of literary references (to the Mapp & Lucia Books, for instance) and I particularly enjoyed Sheila Malory’s visit to a second hand bookshop in search of The Three Brides and Beechcroft at Rockstone (I've got them!) and her explanation as to why she enjoys C M Yonge’s novels so much. I'm rather disappointed that as the series goes on, there's less about Sheila's literary life.

The library has supplied me with another Simon Brett novel, The Torso in the Town and the latest Camilleri, The Paper Moon, both of which I expect to enjoy. It has also yielded up two more 10p books: State of Happiness by Stella Duffy (like new) and a well read paperback copy of Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage. Bad luck on anyone wanting to read either of these books once I've bought them. People worried about the state of our libraries might be interested in this article in the Guardian. If you're a regular reader of Private Eye don't bother, as you know it all already.

On my library trip I trawled the charity shops for books and came home with Green Grass by Raffaella Barker, which I'm enjoying. Are other people finding that charity shops just don't have children's books any more? It's certainly true here.

Comments

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Heh!
I only ever go to three libraries, all small. The problem is knowing when they're open. :-(

[vintagereads.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

I've not found much for children in second-hand shops. I'd love to find some Noel Streatfeild or Rumer Godden.

Testing the Detectives

[(Anonymous)]

I have read each and every one of the Sheila Malory series by Hazel Holt, herself an academic like Mrs Malaory. For myself they're head and shoulders above the rest in the cozy crime gentre and I feel proud that when I once reviewed Hazel's books for a magazine I gave her the soubriquet Queen of the Cosy Crime. I have tried the Fethering mysteries and thought them a load of tosh, ditto Agatha Raisin, so I won't be reading any more of those. However, I am enjoying the first Liberty Lane novel by Caro Peacock (aka Gillian Linscott) titled Death at Dawn. Having said that (sorry, cliche!) I prefer the Nell Bray novels by Gillian Linscott. I have also been recommended the new Edwardian mystery, Consequences of Sin (which introduces Ursula Marlow) by Clare Langley-Hawthorne, so that's next on my TBR list.
Margaret Powling

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

It used to be possible, even if it was only a Gemma book. Now, nothing.

It's a mystery

[(Anonymous)]

Of all the genres, I am most particular and choosy about mysteries. A mystery has to be just right for me to read it, and there's no rhyme or reason why one time I happily read one and another time I won't read that same sort of one. Ah, the Fethering girls. They drive me nuts. They never change. The artsy one (Jude?) is always a mystery. Yet I've read five or six of them. They draw me in while I realize at the same time that I don't really like them. Go figure. And I've wanted so much to read and enjoy M. Edwards because I like him, I like his blog, but I just don't care for the main characters so much, and I'm not in the mood for gross back histories of the murdered people. I'm a real sensitive-plant when it comes to grisly. My imagination is way too good. So, Mrs. Malory is my perfect, perfect mystery series right now. Though in a day or a week or a month I could be reading something with quite horrible details. There's just no understanding it. :<)

Re: It's a mystery

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Almost all of this fits me! I keep reading the Fethering books in spite of their silliness. I'm looking for new crime fiction, that's the trouble. I love Dorothy L Sayers and Margery Allingham and can read them over and over again. I want a modern series to do the same for me and Mrs Malory is the best bet.

Testing the Detectives

[(Anonymous)]

For those who want a 'new' crime series to try, might I recommend the Cornwall-set series by the late Janie Bolitho. Janie sadly died of breast cancer a few years ago but she wrote a series about a photographer/amateur sleuth who lives in Newlyn, Cornwall. She wrote some stand-alone titles, but it is her detective series which I have enjoyed the most.
Margaret Powling

Re: Testing the Detectives

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

They sound interesting, thank you.

[feather-ghyll.livejournal.com]

Are other people finding that charity shops just don't have children's books any more? It's certainly true here.

Hmm, I suppose so, but I find that most charity shops don't have that many 'old' books anymore period. I've thought for a few years that there are fewer children's books in charity shops - except of course for Oxfam bookshops.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Lack of old books lamented on all sides. I found a couple of children's books today but in a junk shop. One was Laura's Summer Ballet which I once had but gave away. Do you know it?

[feather-ghyll.livejournal.com]

Yes, it feels as if the 'best' finds are now in not-so-obvious places.

Laura's Summer Ballet rings a bell. I own a copy (Th Children's Press I think) although I don't remember anything about the story.