lyzard's list: Wrapped in the mists of obscurity in 2023 - Part 2

The Australian corroboree frog is a poisonous ground-dwelling genus unique in the world for its ability to manufacture its own protective toxin rather than absorbing one from its diet. There are two species of this spectacular frog: the southern corroboree frog (left) has distinct yellow and black markings, whereas the northern corroboree frog (right) tends to have a more greenish tinge to its stripes. The former is found only in the Mount Kosciuszko National Park in NSW, and the latter only in the Bridabella and Fiery Ranges across the ACT and surrounding districts.

These highly restricted ranges make the corroboree frog vulnerable and the impact of the 2019 bushfires was disastrous, leaving them critically endangered. Captive breeding programs led by Taronga Zoo in Sydney are underway to preserve and reintroduce these species back into their natural environments.


  

My thread title this year is adapted from a quote from Virginia Woolf: she was talking about the artist rather than the art, but it works for me:

"While fame impedes and constricts, obscurity wraps about a man like a mist; obscurity is dark, ample, and free; obscurity lets the mind take its way unimpeded..."

****



The Mystery Of The Flaming Footprints by M. V. Carey (1971)

2023 reading:

January:

1. The Belton Estate by Anthony Trollope (1865)
2. The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Hanns Heinz Ewers (1910)
3. Old Saint Paul's: A Tale Of The Plague And The Fire by William Harrison Ainsworth (1841)
4. Where's Emily? by Carolyn Wells (1927)
5. The Garden Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine (1935)
6. Man Missing by Mignon G. Eberhart (1954)
7. Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout (1938)
8. The Secret Of The Crooked Cat by William Arden (1970)
9. The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub (1984)
10. Captain Nemesis by Francis van Wyck Mason (1931)
11. Re-Enter Dr Fu Manchu - Sax Rohmer (1957)
12. Sayings And Doings; or, Sketches From Life (First Series) by Theodore Hook (1824)

February:

13. Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol (1835 / 1842)
14. Horizon by Robert Carse (1927)
15. The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo (1831)
16. The Clan Of The Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel (1980)
17. The Mystery Of Swordfish Reef by Arthur Upfield (1939)
18. The Shadow Of The Goat by John Dickson Carr (1926)
19. The Fourth Suspect by John Dickson Carr (1927)
20. The Ends Of Justice by John Dickson Carr (1927)
21. Grand Guignol by John Dickson Carr (1929)

March:

22. Ten Thousand A Year by Samuel Warren (1840)
23. The Valley Of Horses by Jean M. Auel (1982)
24. Alraune by Hanns Heinz Ewers (1911)
25. The Amityville Curse by Hans Holzer (1981)
26. Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout (1940)
27. The Mystery Of The Coughing Dragon by Nick West (1970)
28. The Phantom Carriage by Selma Lagerlöf (1912)
29. The Old Stone House And Other Stories by Anna Katharine Green (1891)

April:

30. Phoebe, Junior by Margaret Oliphant (1876)
31. The Story Of Gösta Berling by Selma Lagerlöf (1891)
32. The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (1968)
33. The Kidnap Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine (1936)
34. The Case Of The Late Pig by Margery Allingham (1937)
35. A Dozen Black Roses by Nancy A. Collins (1996)
36. The Crime In The Crypt by Carolyn Wells (1928)
37. The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel (1985)

May:

38. It by Stephen King (1986)
39. Cut Throat by Christopher Bush (1932)
40. World's End by Upton Sinclair (1940)
41. The Secret Of Amityville by Hans Holzer (1985)

Books in transit:

To borrow:

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

Possible requests:
Sudden Death by Freeman Wills Crofts {ILL}

On loan:

*Gosta Berling's Saga by Selma Lagerlöf (15/07/2023)
*Ten Thousand A Year by Samuel Warren (15/07/2023)
*The Clan Of The Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel (15/07/2023)
The Harlem Cycle Volume 2 by Chester Himes (15/07/2023)
Gains And Losses by Robert Lee Wolff (12/08/2023)
*Cut Throat by Christopher Bush (12/08/2023)
Bushranger Of The Skies by Arthur Upfield (12/08/2023)
*Phoebe Junior by Margaret Oliphant (12/08/2023)
*World's End by Upton Sinclair (19/08/2023)
*The Phantom Carriage by Selma Lagerlöf (19/08/2023)
*The Valley Of Horses by Jean M. Auel (Ross)
*The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel (Ross)

Ongoing reading projects:

Blog reads:
Chronobibliography: The Penitent Hermit by "A Lady" / The Post-Boy Rob'd Of His Mail by Charles Gildon
Authors In Depth:
- Adelaide; or, The Countercharm 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
- Anecdotes Of The Altamont Family by "Gabrielli"
- The Cottage by Margaret Minifie
- The Abbess by Frances Trollope
Reading Roulette: Pique by Frances Notley / Our Mr Wrenn by Sinclair Lewis
Australian fiction: Narrative of the capture, sufferings, and miraculous escape of Mrs. Eliza Fraser by Eliza Fraser
Gothic novel timeline: Anecdotes Of A Convent by Anonymous
Early crime fiction: The Mysteries Of London by G. W. M. Reynolds
Silver-fork novels: Tremaine; or, The Man Of Refinement by Robert Plumer Ward
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 reads:

COMPLETED: The Belton Estate by Anthony Trollope (thread here)
COMPLETED: Phoebe Junior by Margaret Oliphant (thread here)

Next up: The Claverings by Anthony Trollope

General reading challenges:

Virago chronological reading project:
Next up: Curious If True by Elizabeth Gaskell / The Lifted Veil by George Eliot

America's best-selling novels (1895 - ????):
Next up: The Clan Of The Cave Bear / The Valley Of Horses / The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel (1985)

Nobel Prize / fiction challenge:
Next up: The Children Of The World by Paul Heyse (1910 winner)

The C.K. Shorter List of the Best 100 Novels:
Next up: Charles O'Malley by Charles Lever (1841)

A Century Of Reading:
Next up: 1825 - Tremaine; or, The Man Of Refinement by Robert Plumer Ward

Mystery League publications:
Next up: The Hunterstone Outrage by Seldon Truss

Banned In Boston!: (here)
Next up: Horizon by Robert Carse / The Sorrows Of Elsie by Andre Savignon / ???? by Carl Van Vechten

Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe series (shared reads):
Next up: Over My Dead Body (#7)

"The Three Investigators" (shared reads):
Next up: The Mystery Of The Coughing Dragon by Nick West (#14)

The evolution of detective fiction:
Next up: Clement Lorimer by Angus B. Reach

Random reading 1940 - 1969:
Next up: World's End by Upton Sinclair (1940)

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

Completed challenges:
- Georgette Heyer historical romances in chronological order
- Agatha Christie mysteries in chronological order
- Agatha Christie uncollected short stories
- Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver series
- Georgette Heyer historical fiction

Possible future reading projects:
- 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
- "Fifty Best Australian Novels" (here)
- "The Top 100 Crime Novels Of All Time" (here)
- Haycraft Queen Cornerstones (here)

TBR notes:

Rare Books:
Secret Judges by Francis D. Grierson (Sims and Wells #2)
Dead Men At The Folly by John Rhode (Dr Priestley #13)
The Rum Row Murders by Charles Reed Jones
The Torch Murder by Charles Reed Jones (Leighton Swift #2)
The Crooked Lip by Herbert Adams (Jimmie Haswell #2)
Death By Appointment by Francis Bonnamy (Peter Utley Shane #1)
The Inconsistent Villains by N. A. Temple-Ellis {Montrose Arbuthnot #1)
The Unexpected Legacy by E. R. Punshon (Carter and Bell #1)
Rope To Spare by Philip MacDonald (Anthony Gethryn #9)

State Library NSW, held:
The White-Faced Man (aka "The Praying Monkey") by Gavin Holt (Luther Bastion #2)
Pitiful Dust by Vernon Knowles
The Brink (aka "The Swaying Rock") by Arthur J. Rees
The Black Joss by John Gordon Brandon
This Way To Happiness (aka "Janice") by Maysie Greig
The Top Step by Nelle Scanlan

Interlibrary loan:
McLean Investigates by George Goodchild {JFR}
The Solange Stories by F. Tennyson Jesse {JFR}
The Vagrant Heart by Deirdre O'Brien {JFR}
Jinks by Oliver Sandys {JFR}
Storms And Tea-Cups by Cecily Wilhelmine Sidgwick (Mrs Alfred Sidgwick) {JFR}
Pawns & Kings (aka "Pawns And Kings") by Seamark (Austin J. Small) {JFR}
The Agent Outside by Patrick Wynnton {JFR}

Online:
The Wedding March Murder by Monte Barrett (Peter Cardigan #2) {newspapers.com}
The Whisperer by J. M. Walsh {online; possibly abridged? / Mitchell Lbrary}
About The Murder Of A Night Club Lady by Anthony Abbot {serialised}

CARM / National Library / academic loan:
The Black Death by Moray Dalton {CARM}
The Click Of The Gate by Alice Campbell {CARM}
Storm by Charles Rodda {National Library}
The Trail Of The Lotto by Anthony Armstrong {CARM}

Series back-reading:
The Crime In The Crypt by Carolyn Wells {mobilereads}
The Creeping Jenny Mystery by Brian Flynn {Kindle / ZLibrary}
The Net Around Joan Ingilby by A. Fielding {Rare Books}
Corpse In Canonicals (aka "The Corpse In The Constable's Garden") by George and Margaret Cole {Rare Books}
Alias Dr Ely by Lee Thayer {Rare Books}
Murder On The Bus by Cecil Freeman Gregg {Rare Books / Kindle}
The Case Of The Marsden Rubies by Leonard Gribble {Rare Books}
The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen {Rare Books / ILL / Internet Archive / ZLibrary}
A Family That Was by Ernest Raymond {State Library NSW, JFR}
The Cancelled Score Mystery by Gret Lane {Kindle}
Jalna by Mazo de la Roche {State Library NSW, JFR / ILL}

Completist reading:
Thieves' Nights by Harry Stephen Keeler (#5) {Rare Books}
Cynthia Wakeham's Money by Anna Katharine Green (#13) {Project Gutenberg}
Dangerous Days by Mary Roberts Rinehart (#10) {Project Gutenberg}
The White Cockatoo by Mignon Eberhart {Rare Books}

A Century (And A Bit) Of Reading:

At least one 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
1808: The Marquise Of O. by Heinrich Von Kleist
1809: The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter
1810: Forest Of Montalbano by Catherine Cuthbertson / Zastrozzi by Percy Bysshe Shelley / St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian by Percy Bysshe Shelley
1811: Self-Control by Mary Brunton
1812: The Absentee by Maria Edgeworth
1813: The Heroine; or, Adventures Of A Fair Romance Reader by Eaton Stannard Barrett
1814: The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties by Frances Burney
1815: Headlong Hall by Thomas Love Peacock
1816: Glenarvon by Lady Caroline Lamb
1817: Harrington by Maria Edgeworth
1818: Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock
1819: The Vampyre by John William Polidori
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
1823: The Two Broken Hearts by Catherine Gore
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
1828: The Life Of Mansie Wauch, Tailor In Dalkeith by David Moir
1829: Wilhelm Meister's Travels by Johann Goethe / The Collegians by Gerald Griffin / Louisa Egerton; or, Castle Herbert by Mary Leman Grimstone / Richelieu: A Tale Of France by G. P. R. James
1830: Alfred Dudley; or, The Australian Settlers by Sarah Porter
1831: The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
1832: The Refugee In America by Frances Trollope
1833: Tom Cringle's Log by Michael Scott
1836: Mr Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marrat / The Tree And Its Fruits; or, Narratives From Real Life by Phoebe Hinsdale Brown
1837: Rory O'More by Samuel Lover / Jack Brag by Theodore Hook
1839: Fardorougha The Miser; or, The Convicts Of Lisnamona by William Carleton
1840: The Life And Adventures Of Valentine Vox, The Ventriloquist by Henry Cockton / Ten Thousand A Year by Samuel Warren
1841: Old Saint Paul's by William Harrison Ainsworth
1842: Taras Bulba (revised edition) by Nikolai Gogol
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 / The Mysteries Of London: Volume IV by G. W. M. Reynolds
1850: Pique by Frances Notley
1851: The Mother-In-Law; or, The Isle Of Rays by E.D.E.N. Southworth
1856: Recollections Of A Detective Police-Officer by "Waters"
1857: The Three Clerks by Anthony Trollope / Synnøve Solbakken by Bjornstjerne Bjornson
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
1861: The Executor by Margaret Oliphant / The Rector by Margaret Oliphant
1862: Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope / The Struggles Of Brown, Jones, And Robinson by Anthony Trollope
1863: The Doctor's Family by Margaret Oliphant / Marian Grey; or, The Heiress Of Redstone Hall by Mary Jane Holmes / Salem Chapel by Margaret Oliphant
1865: Miss Mackenzie by Anthony Trollope / The Belton Estate 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 / The Autobiography Of Mark Rutherford by William Hale White
1882: Grandmother Elsie by Martha Finley
1883: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson / Elsie's New Relations by Martha Finley / X Y Z: A Detective Story by Anna Katharine Green
1884: Elsie At Nantucket by Martha Finley
1885: The Two Elsies by Martha Finley / Two Broken Hearts by Robert R. Hoes
1886: The Mill Mystery by Anna Katharine Green / Elsie's Kith And Kin by Martha Finley
1887: Elsie's Friends At Woodburn by Martha Finley
1888: Christmas With Grandma Elsie by Martha Finley
1889: Under False Pretences by Adeline Sergeant / Elsie And The Raymonds by Martha Finley
1890: Elsie Yachting With The Raymonds by Martha Finley
1891: Elsie's Vacation And After Events by Martha Finley
1892: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman / Elsie At Viamede by Martha Finley / Blood Royal by Grant Allen
1893: Elsie At Ion by Martha Finley
1894: Martin Hewitt, Investigator by Arthur Morrison / The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen / Elsie At The World's Fair by Martha Finley
1895: Chronicles Of Martin Hewitt by Arthur Morrison / Elsie's Journey On Inland Waters by Martha Finley
1896: The Island Of Dr Moreau by H. G. Wells / Adventures Of Martin Hewitt by Arthur Morrison
1897: Penelope's Progress by Kate Douglas Wiggin
1898: A Man From The North by Arnold Bennett / The Lust Of Hate by Guy Newell Boothby / Elsie On The Hudson And Elsewhere by Martha Finley
1899: Agatha Webb by Anna Katharine Green / Dr Nikola's Experiment by Guy Newell Boothby / Elsie In The South by Martha Finley
1900: The Circular Study by Anna Katharine Green / Elsie's Young Folks In Peace And War by Martha Finley

Timeline of detective fiction:

An examination of the roots of modern crime and mystery 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 by Paul Feval (1844)
The Mysteries Of London by 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 by 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 (1862-1863)
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)
Hagar's Daughter by Pauline Hopkins (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)
Clara Vaughan by R. D. Blackmore (1864)

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 - The Red Triangle (4/4)
(1895 - 1901) **Guy Newell Boothby - Dr Nikola - Farewell, Nikola (5/5)
(1897 - 1900) **Anna Katharine Green - Amelia Butterworth - The Circular Study (3/3)
(1899 - 1917) **Anna Katharine Green - Caleb Sweetwater - The Mystery Of The Hasty Arrow (7/7)
(1899 - 1909) **E. W. Hornung - Raffles - Mr Justice Raffles (4/4)
(1900 - 1974) Ernest Bramah - Kai Lung - Kai Lung: Six / Kai Lung Raises His Voice (7/7)
(1903 - 1904) **Louis Tracy - Reginald Brett - The Albert Gate Mystery (2/2)
(1905 - 1925) **Baroness Orczy - The Old Man In The Corner - Unravelled Knots (3/3)}
(1905 - 1928) **Edgar Wallace - The Just Men - Again The Three Just Men (6/6)
(1907 - 1942) R. Austin Freeman - Dr John Thorndyke - The Jacob Street Mystery (26/26)
(1907 - 1941) *Maurice Leblanc - Arsene Lupin - The Secret Of Sarek (aka "The Island Of Thirty Coffins") (9/25) {Project Gutenberg}
(1909 - 1942) *Carolyn Wells - Fleming Stone - The Crime In The Crypt (24/49) {mobilereads}
(1909 - 1929) *J. S. Fletcher - Inspector Skarratt - Marchester Royal (1/3) {Kindle}
(1910 - 1936) *Arthur B. Reeve - Craig Kennedy - The Film Mystery (14/24) {Project Gutenberg}
(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 India-Rubber Men (5/6) {Roy Glashan's Library}
^^^^^(1910 - 1932) *Thomas, Mary and Hazel Hanshew - Cleek - The Amber Junk (aka Riddle Of The Amber Ship (9/12) {rare, expensive}
(1910 - 1918) **John McIntyre - Ashton-Kirk - Ashton-Kirk: Criminologist (4/4)
^^^(1910 - 1928) **Louis Tracy - Winter and Furneaux - The Black Cat (8/9) {Rare Books}

(1911 - 1935) G. K. Chesterton - Father Brown - The Scandal Of Father Brown (5/5)
^^^(1911 - 1940) Bertram Atkey - Smiler Bunn - Arsenic And Gold (10/11) {Rare Books}
(1912 - 1919) **Gordon Holmes (Louis Tracy) - Steingall and Clancy - The Bartlett Mystery (3/3)
(1913 - 1973) Sax Rohmer - Fu Manchu - Emperor Fu Manchu (13/14) {ILL / Kindle}
(1913 - 1952) Jeffery Farnol - Jasper Shrig - Heritage Perilous (7/9) {owned}
(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 Moving Finger (3/10) {ManyBooks / Kindle}
^^^^^(1916 - 1917) **Nevil Monroe Hopkins - Mason Brant - The Strange Cases Of Mason Brant (1/2) {expensive}
(1918 - 1923) **Carolyn Wells - Pennington Wise - Wheels Within Wheels (8/8)
(1918 - 1939) Valentine Williams - The Okewood Brothers - The Fox Prowls (5/5)
(1918 - 1944) Valentine Williams - Clubfoot - Courier To Marrakesh (7/7)
(1918 - 1950) *Wyndham Martyn - Anthony Trent - The Mysterious Mr Garland (3/26) {Rare Books / CARM}
(1919 - 1966) *Lee Thayer - Peter Clancy - Alias Dr Ely (8/60) {Rare Books}
(1919 - 1922) **Octavus Roy Cohen - David Carroll - Midnight (4/4)

^^^^^ Remainder of series unavailable
^^^ Incompletely available series
** Series complete pre-1931
* Present status pre-1931

Series and sequels, 1920 - 1927:

(1920 - 1948) H. C. Bailey - Reggie Fortune - Black Land, White Land (12/23) {Rare Books}
(1920 - 1975) Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot - Curtain (38/38)
(1920 - 1921) **Natalie Sumner Lincoln - Ferguson - The Unseen Ear (2/2)
(1920 - 1937) *"Sapper" (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)
(1922 - ????) *Armstrong Livingston - Jimmy Traynor - The Doublecross (aka "The Double-Cross") (2/?) {AbeBooks}

(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 - Rope To Spare (8/24) {Rare Books}
(1924 - 1957) Freeman Wills Crofts - Inspector French - Sudden Death (8/30) {Rare Books / ILL}
^^^(1924 - 1935) *Francis D. Grierson - Inspector Sims and Professor Wells - Secret Judges (2/13) {Rare Books}
(1924 - 1940) *Lynn Brock - Colonel Gore - The Mendip Mystery (aka "Murder At The Inn") (5/12) {Kindle}
(1924 - 1933) *Herbert Adams - Jimmie Haswell - The Crooked Lip (2/9) {Rare Books}
(1924 - 1944) *A. Fielding - Inspector Pointer - The Net Around Joan Ingilby (5/23) {Rare Books}
(1924 - 1936) *Hulbert Footner - Madame Storey - The Richest Widow (10/11) {Roy Glashan's Library}
^^^^^(1924 - 1931) R. Francis Foster - Anthony Ravenhill - The Missing Gates (1/7) {unavailable}

(1925 - 1961) ***John Rhode - Dr Priestley - Dead Men At The Folly (13/72) {Rare Books}
(1925 - 1953) *G. D. H. Cole / M. Cole - Superintendent Wilson - Corpse In Canonicals (aka "Corpse In The Constable's Garden") (8/?) {Rare Books}
(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 / Internet Archive}
(1925 - 1950) *Anthony Wynne (Robert McNair Wilson) - Dr Eustace Hailey - The Mystery Of The Ashes (3/27) {Trove}
^^^(1925 - 1939) *Charles Barry (Charles Bryson) - Inspector Lawrence Gilmartin - The Detective's Holiday (2/15) {Rare Books / GooglePlay}
(1925 - 1929) **Will Scott - Will Disher - Disher--Detective (aka "The Black Stamp") (1/5) {HathiTrust}
(1925 - 1927) **Francis Beeding - Professor Kreutzemark - The Hidden Kingdom (2/2)
(1925 - ????) *Livingston Armstrong - Peter Creighton - On The Right Wrists (1/?) {AbeBooks}

(1926 - 1968) Christopher Bush - Ludovic Travers - Cut Throat (7/63) {Kindle / ZLibrary / Fisher Library storage}
(1926 - 1939) S. S. Van Dine - Philo Vance - The Kidnap Murder Case (10/12) {fadedpage.com}
(1926 - 1952) J. Jefferson Farjeon - Ben the Tramp - Detective Ben (6/8) {ILL / Kindle / ZLibrary}
(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 Lonely House (3/27) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(1926 - 1931) *Aidan de Brune - Dr Night - The Green Pearl (2/3) {Roy Glashan's Library}

^^^(1927 - 1933) *Herman Landon - The Picaroon - The Picaroon: Knight Errant (7/8) {State Library NSW, JFR}
(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 - The Creeping Jenny Mystery (7/54) {Kindle / ZLibrary}
(1927 - 1947) J. J. Connington - Sir Clinton Driffield - The Boathouse Riddle (6/17) {Kindle / mobilereads / ZLibrary}
(1927 - 1935) *Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Malleson) - Scott Egerton - Mystery Of The Open Window (4/10) {Rare Books}
^^^^^(1927 - 1932) *William Morton (aka William Blair Morton Ferguson) - Kirker Cameron and Daniel "Biff" Corrigan - Masquerade (1/4) {expensive}
^^^^^(1927 - 1929) **George Dilnot - Inspector Strickland - The Crooks' Game (1/2) {AbeBooks / Amazon}
(1927 - 1949) **Dornford Yates - Richard Chandos - Blood Royal (3/8) {State Library, JFR / Kindle / ZLibrary}

^^^^^ Remainder of series unavailable
^^^ Incompletely available series
** Series complete pre-1931
* Present status pre-1931

Series and sequels, 1928 - 1930:

(1928 - 1961) Patricia Wentworth - Miss Silver - The Girl In The Cellar (32/32)
(1928 - 1936) *Gavin Holt - Luther Bastion - The White-Faced Man (aka "The Praying Monkey") (2/17) {academic loan / State Library NSW, held}
(1928 - 1936) Kay Cleaver Strahan - Lynn MacDonald - The Meriwether Mystery (5/7) {Kindle / ZLibrary}
^^^^^(1928 - 1937) John Alexander Ferguson - Francis McNab - Death Of Mr Dodsley (5/5) {unavailable}
^^^(1928 - 1960) *Cecil Freeman Gregg - Inspector Higgins - Murder On The Bus (3/35) {Rare Books / Kindle}
(1928 - 1959) *John Gordon Brandon - Inspector Patrick Aloysius McCarthy - The Black Joss (2/53) {State Library NSW, held / JFR}
^^^^^(1928 - 1935) *Roland Daniel - Wu Fang / Inspector Saville - The Society Of The Spiders (1/6)
(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 - The Queen's Hall Murder (4/10) {Trove}
(1928 - 1931) **John Stephen Strange (Dorothy Stockbridge Tillet) - Van Dusen Ormsberry - The Clue Of The Second Murder (2/3) {GooglePlay / Rare Books}

(1929 - 1947) Margery Allingham - Albert Campion - The Case Of The Late Pig (8/35) {SMSA / 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 - 1954) Mignon Eberhart - Nurse Sarah Keate - Dead Yesterday And Other Stories (6/8) (NB: multiple Eberhart characters) {expensive / limited edition} / Man Missing (8/8) {Internet Archive}
^^^(1929 - ????) Moray Dalton - Inspector Collier - The Belgrave Manor Crime (5/14) {Kindle}
^^^(1929 - 1930) * / ***Charles Reed Jones - Leighton Swift - The Torch Murder (1/3) {Rare Books}
(1929 - 1931) Carolyn Wells - Kenneth Carlisle - The Skeleton At The Feast (3/3) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1967) *George Goodchild - Inspector McLean - McLean Investigates (2/65) {State Library NSW, JFR}
(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) {Rare Books}
(1929 - 1971) *Ellery Queen - Ellery Queen - The Roman Hat Mystery (1/40) {interlibrary loan / Internet Archive}
(1929 - 1966) *Arthur Upfield - Bony - The Mystery Of Swordfish Reef (7/29) {SMSA}
(1929 - 1937) *Anthony Berkeley - Ambrose Chitterwick - The Piccadilly Murder (2/3) {interlibrary loan / Internet Archive}
^^^^^(1929 - 1940) *Jean Lilly - DA Bruce Perkins - The Seven Sisters (1/3) {rare, expensive}
(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 Necklace Of Death (3/16) {Rare Books}
(1929 - 1930) **J. J. Connington - Superintendent Ross - The Two Tickets Puzzle (2/2)
(1929 - 1941) *H. Maynard Smith - Inspector Frost - Inspector Frost In Crevenna Cove (5/7) {Kindle}
(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) {Rare Books / Kindle / ZLibrary}
(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, JFR}
(1929 - 1934) *Charles J. Dutton - Professor Harley Manners - The Circle Of Death (4/6) {newspapers.com}
(1929 - 1932) Thomas Cobb - Inspector Bedison - Who Closed The Casement? (4/4)
(1929 - ????) * J. C. Lenehan - Inspector Kilby - The Silecroft Case (2/?) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1936) *Robin Forsythe - Anthony "Algernon" Vereker - The Polo Ground Mystery (2/5) {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 - Death At Low Tide (16/57) {Internet Archive}
^^^(1930 - 1960) Miles Burton - Inspector Arnold - Death At Low Tide (16/57) {Internet Archive}
(1930 - 1933) Roger Scarlett - Inspector Kane - Murder Among The Angells (4/5) {expensive}
(1930 - 1941) Harriette Ashbrook - Philip "Spike" Tracy - Murder Comes Back (6/7) {Kindle}
(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) {fadedpage.com}
^^^(1930 - 1933) *Monte Barrett - Peter Cardigan - The Wedding March Murder (2/3) {serialised}
(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 Grip Of The Four (1/53) {Rare Books}
^^^(1930 - 1937) Elaine Hamilton - Inspector Reynolds - Peril At Midnight (6/9) {Kindle}
(1930 - 1932) *J. S. Fletcher - Sergeant Charlesworth - The Borgia Cabinet (1/2) {fadedpage.com / Kindle}
(1930 - ????) *Carolyn Keene - Nancy Drew - The Bungalow Mystery (3/?) {original text unavailable}
(1930 - 1937) John Dickson Carr - Henri Bencolin - The Four False Weapons (5/5) {SMSA / Fisher Library}

^^^^^ Remainder of series unavailable
^^^ Incompletely available series
** Series complete pre-1931
* Present status pre-1931

Series and sequels, 1931 - 1932:

^^^(1931 - 1940) Bruce Graeme - Superintendent Stevens and Pierre Allain - Not Proven (5/8) {Trove}
(1931 - 1951) Phoebe Atwood Taylor - Asey Mayo - The Tinkling Symbol (6/24) {Rare Books / academic loan}
(1931 - 1955) Stuart Palmer - Hildegarde Withers - The Puzzle Of The Silver Persian (5/18) {Kindle / ILL / ZLibrary}
(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 - 1936) Carlton Dawe - Leathermouth - Leathermouth's Luck (5/6) {Trove / State Library NSW, held}
(1931 - 1947) R. L. Goldman - Asaph Clume and Rufus Reed - Death Plays Solitaire (3/6) {Kindle}
^^^(1931 - 1959) E. C. R. Lorac (Edith Caroline Rivett) - Inspector Robert Macdonald - The Affair On Thor's Head (2/46) {State Library NSW, JFR}
(1931 - 1935) Clifton Robbins - Clay Harrison - Methylated Murder (5/5)
(1931 - 1972) Georges Simenon - Inspector Maigret - Le Fou de Bergerac (16/75) {ILL / ZLibrary}
^^^(1931 - 1942) R. A. J. Walling - Garstang - Murder At Midnight (2/3) {Rare Books}
(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 - He Dies And Makes No Sign (3/3)
(1931 - 1935) Valentine Williams - Sergeant Trevor Dene - The Clue Of The Rising Moon (4/4)
(1931 - 1942) Patricia Wentworth - Frank Garrett - Pursuit Of A Parcel (5/5)
(1931 - 1931) Frances Shelley Wees - Michael Forrester and Tuck Torrie - The Mystery Of The Creeping Man (2/2)
(1931 - 1948) Alice Campbell - Tommy Rostetter - The Click Of The Gate (1/?) {CARM}
^^^(1931 - 1939) Roland Daniel - Inspector Walk - The Stool Pigeon (4/8) {Rare Books}

(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 - Mr Tolefree's Reluctant Witnesses (aka "The Corpse In The Coppice") (7/22) {Kindle}
(1932 - 1962) T. Arthur Plummer - Detective-Inspector Andrew Frampton - Frampton Of The Yard! (3/50) {Rare Books}
(1932 - 1946) David Hume - Mick Cardby - Bullets Bite Deep (1/29) {Rare Books}
(1932 - 1936) John Victor Turner (David Hume) - Amos Petrie - Amos Petrie's Puzzle (3/7) {Kindle}
(1932 - 1944) Nicholas Brady (David Hume) - 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)
^^^(1932 - ????) Richard Essex (Richard Harry Starr) - Jack Slade - Slade Scores Again (2/?) {Rare Books}
(1932 - 1933) Gerard Fairlie - Mr Malcolm - Mr Malcolm Presents (2/3) (unavailable?}
(1932 - 1934) Paul McGuire - Superintendent Fillinger - Murder By The Law (2/5) {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}

^^^^^ Remainder of series unavailable
^^^ Incompletely available series

Series and sequels, 1933 onwards:

(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) {fadedpage.com / Internet Archive}
^^^^^(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 (Jacob D. Posner) - 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 - The Denmede Mystery (3/8) {State Library NSW, JFR}

^^^^^(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 - Over My Dead Body (7/?) {ILL / SMSA}
(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) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(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) {HathiTrust}
(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) {ebook? / AbeBooks}
^^^(1935 - 1959) Kathleen Moore Knight - Elisha Macomber - The Tainted Token (6/16) {Rare Books}

(1936 - 1974) Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Malleson) - Arthur Crook - Murder By Experts (1/51) {Kindle / interlibrary loan}
(1936 - 1940) George Bell Dyer - The Catalyst Club - The Catalyst Club (1/3) {Rare Books}
^^^(1936 - 1956) Theodora Du Bois - Anne and Jeffrey McNeil - Death Dines Out (4/19) {Rare Books}
(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 / Internet Archive}
(1938 - 1944) Zelda Popkin - Mary Carner - Time Off For Murder (2/6) {Kindle}
^^^^^(1938 - 1939) D. B. Olsen (Dolores Hitchens) - Lt. Stephen Mayhew - The Clue In The Clay (1/2) {expensive}
(1939 - 1953) Patricia Wentworth - Inspector Lamb - Vanishing Point (11/11)
^^^(1939 - 1940) Clifton Robbins - George Staveley - Death Forms Threes (2/2) {Rare Books}
(1939 - 1956) D. B. Olsen (Dolores Hitchens) - Rachel Murdock (check Stephen Mayhew) - The Cat Saw Murder (1/12) {Kindle / ZLibrary}

^^^(1940 - 1943) Bruce Graeme - Pierre Allain - The Corporal Died In Bed (1/3) {CARM}
(1941 - 1951) Bruce Graeme - Theodore I. Terhune - Seven Clues In Search Of A Crime (1/7) {Kindle / GooglePlay}
(1943 - 1961) Enid Blyton - Five Find-Outers - The Mystery Of The Disappearing Cat (2/15) {fadedpage}
(1945 - 1952) D. B. Olsen (Dolores Hitchens) - Professor Pennyfeather - Bring The Bride A Shroud (aka "A Shroud For The Bride") (1/6) {Rare Books / National Library}
(1947 - 1953) Michael Gilbert - Inspector Hazelrigg - They Never Looked Inside (2/6) {State Library NSW, JFR / ZLibrary}
(1950 - 1956) Sax Rohmer - Sumuru - The Sins Of Sumuru (1/5) {Rare Books / CARM / US KIndle}
(1955 - 1991) Patricia Highsmith - Tom Ripley - Ripley's Game (3/5) {SMSA}
(1957 - 1993) Chester B. Himes - The Harlem Cycle - The Big Gold Dream (4/9) {Fisher Library}
(1957 - 1971) G. G. Fickling (Gloria and Forest Fickling) - Honey West - This Girl For Hire (1/11) {Kindle}
(1961 - 2017) - John le Carré - George Smiley - The Honourable Schoolboy (6/9) {Sutherland Library / Fisher Library / SMSA}
(1964 - 1987) Robert Arthur / William Arden / Nick West - The Three Investigators - The Mystery Of The Coughing Dragon (14/43) {freebooklover / Internet Archive}
(1965 - 1975) Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö - Martin Beck - The Laughing Policeman (4/10) {SMSA}
(1972 - 1998) Lillian O'Donnell - Norah Mulcahaney - The Phone Calls (1/17) {ILL}
(1982 - 2016) Warren Adler - Fiona Fitzgerald - American Quartet (1/9) {AbeBooks}
(1991 - 2011) Lynda La Plante - Jane Tennison - Prime Suspect (1/3) {SMSA}
(1992 - 2000) Barbara Neely - Blanche White - Blanche Passes Go (4/4)
^^^^^(2001 - 2012) Esmahan Aykol - Kati Hirschel - Divorce Turkish Style (3/4)

^^^^^ Remainder of series unavailable
^^^ Incompletely available series

Non-crime series and sequels:

(1861 - 1876) **Margaret Oliphant - Carlingford - Phoebe Junior (7/7) {Fisher storage}
(1867 - 1905) **Martha Finley - Elsie Dinsmore - Elsie And Her Namesakes (28/28)
(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 - Tales Of The Five Towns (3/11) {Fisher storage / Project Gutenberg / Internet Archive}

(1901 - 1919) **Carolyn Wells - Patty Fairfield - Patty And Azalea (17/17)
(1901 - 1927) **George Barr McCutcheon - Graustark - Beverly Of Graustark (2/6) {Project Gutenberg}
(1906 - 1933) John Galsworthy - The Forsyte Saga - Over The River (12/12)
(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}
(1910 - 1921) **Hanns Heinz Ewers - Frank Braun - Alraune (2/3) {Kindle / Zlibrary}

(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)
(1924 - 1928) **Ford Madox Ford - Parade's End - Last Post (4/4)
(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, JFR}

(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)
(1930 - 1937) *Nina Murdoch - Miss Emily - Miss Emily In Black Lace (1/3) {State Library, held}

(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)
(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}
(1989 - ????) Nancy A. Collins - Sonja Blue - A Dozen Black Roses (4/7) {Internet Archive / Kindle / ZLibrary}

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

Unavailable series works (Part 1: series partially available):

Esmahan Aykol - Kati Hirschel
Istanbul Tango (#4) {untranslated}

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

Miles Burton - Desmond Merrion / Inspector Arnold
The Three Crimes (#2 Merrion / #1 Arnold) {rare, expensive}
The Menace On The Downs (#2 Arnold) {rare, expensive}
Fate At The Fair (#4 Merrion / #4 Arnold) {unavailable}
Tragedy At The Thirteenth Hole (#5 Merrion / #5 Arnold) {unavailable}
Death At The Cross-Roads (#6 Merrion / #6 Arnold) {unavailable}
The Charabanc Mystery (#7 Merrion / #7 Arnold) {unavailable}
To Catch A Thief (#8 Merrion / #8 Arnold) {unavailable}
The Devereux Court Mystery (#9 Merrion / #9 Arnold) {unavailable}
Murder Of A Chemist (#11 Merrion / #11 Arnold) {unavailable}
Where Is Barbara Prentice? (aka "The Clue Of The Silver Cellar") (#13 Merrion / #13 Arnold) {rare, expensive}
Death At The Club (aka "The Clue Of The Fourteen Keys") (#14 Merrion/ #14 Arnold) {unavailable}
Murder In Crown Passage (aka "The Man With The Tattoed Face") (#15 Merrion / #15 Arnold) {unavailable}

Natalie Sumner Lincoln - Inspector Mitchell
The Nameless Man (#2) {expensive}

Louis Tracy - Winter and Furneaux
The Park Lane Mystery (#6) {unavailable}

John Alexander Ferguson - Francis McNab
Death Of Mr Dodsley (#5) {unavailable}

Moray Dalton - Inspector Collier
The Harvest Of Tares (#4) {unavailable}

E. C. R. Lorac - Inspector Robert MacDonald
The Murder On The Burrows (#1) {unavailable}
The Greenwell Mystery (#3) {unavailable}

R. A. J. Walling - Garstang
Stroke Of One (#1) {unavailable}

T. Arthur Plummer - Inspector Frampton
Shadowed By The C.I.D. (#1) {unavailable}
Shot At Night (#2) {unavailable}

Bruce Graeme - Superintendent Stevens
Body Unknown (#?) {unavailable}

Charles Barry (real name: Charles Bryson) - Inspector Gilmartin
The Smaller Penny (#1) {expensive}

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

Cecil Freeman Gregg - Inspector Higgins
The Murdered Manservant (aka "The Body In The Safe") (#1) {HathiTrust/not accessible}
The Three Daggers (#2) {HathiTrust/not accessible}

Charles J. Dutton - Harley Manners
The Shadow Of Evil (#2) {rare, expensive}

Elaine Hamilton - Inspector Reynolds
Murder In The Fog (#2) {unavailable}
The Chelsea Mystery (#3) {unavailable}
The Green Death (Reynolds #4?) {unavailable}
The Silent Bell (Reynolds #5?) {unavailable}

Herman Landon - The Picaroon
The Picaroon Does Justice (#2) {CARM}
Buy My Silence! (#3) {rare, expensive}
The Picaroon Resumes Practice (#5) {unavailable}
The Picaroon In Pursuit (#6) {CARM}

Bertram Atkey - Smiler Bunn
The Smiler Bunn Brigade (#2) {rare, expensive}
Smiler Bunn, Man-Hunter (#3) {unavailable}
Smiler Bunn, Gentleman Crook (#4) {unavailable}
The Man With Yellow Eyes (#5) {unavailable}
Smiler Bunn: Byewayman (#6) {unavailable}
Smiler Bunn, Gentleman-Adventurer (#7) {unavailable}
Smiler Bunn, Crook (#8) {unavailable}
The House Of Clystevill (#11) {unavailable}

Charles Reed Jones - Leighton Swift
The King Murder (#1) {unavailable}
The Van Norton Murders (#3) {Complete Detective Novel Magazine}

Monte Barrett - Peter Cardigan
Murder Off Stage (aka "Knotted Silk") (#2) {expensive shipping}

Roland Daniel - Inspector John Walk
Dead Man's Vengeance (#1) {unavailable}
Ann Turns Detective (#2) {unavailable}
Ruby Of A Thousand Dreams (#3) {Ramble House} (NB: Wu Fang)

George Dilnot - Inspector Strickland
Crooks' Game (#1) {expensive}
The Black Ace (#2) {expensive}

Richard Essex (aka ) - Jack Slade
Slade Of The Yard (#1) {expensive}

Mark Cross aka Archibald Thomas Pechey aka Valentine - Daphne Wrayne and the Four Adjusters
The Shadow Of The Four (#1) {rare, expensive}

Bruce Graeme - Stevens and Allain
Satan's Mistress (#4) {unavailable}

Wyndham Martyn - Christopher Bond
Christopher Bond, Adventurer (#1) {unavailable}
Spies Of Peace (#2) {unavailable}

Clifton Robbins - George Staveley
Six Sign-Post Murder (#1) {expensive}

Unavailable series works (Part 2: series effectively unavailable):

R. Francis Foster - Anthony Ravenhill
The Missing Gates (#1) {unavailable}
Anthony Ravenhill, Crime Merchant (#2) {expensive}
The Music Gallery Murder (#3) {unavailable}
The Moat House Mystery (#4) {unavailable}
The Dark Night (#5) {unavailable}

David Sharp - Professor Fielding
When No Man Pursueth (#1) {unavailable}
I, The Criminal (#4) {rare, expensive}
The Inconvenient Corpse (#5 rare, expensive}
Marriage And Murder (#6) {unavailable}

Adam Broome - Denzil Grigson
Crowner's Quest (#2) {rare, expensive}
The Island Of Death (#3) {rare, expensive}
The Crocodile Club (#5) {unavailable}
The Black Mamba (#6) {rare, expensive}
Snakes And Ladders (#7) {unavailable}
The Red Queen Club (#8) {unavailable}
Flame Of The Forest (#9) {rare, expensive}

Roger Scarlett - Inspector Kane
Murder Among The Angells (#4) {expensive}
In The First Degree (#5) {expensive}

Alice MacGowan and Perry Newberry - Jerry Boyne
The Seventh Passenger (#4) {expensive}
Who Is This Man? (#5) {available, expensive shipping}

Roland Daniel - Wu Fang
The Society Of The Spiders (#1) {Ramble House}
Wu Fang (#2) {unavailable}
Ruby Of A Thousand Dreams (#3) {Ramble House}
Wu Fang's Revenge (#4) {unavailable}
The Son Of Wu Fang (#5) {Ramble House}
The Return Of Wu Fang (#6) {Ramble House}

The Hanshews - Cleek
The Amber Junk (aka "Riddle Of The Amber Ship") (#9) {rare, expensive}
The House Of Seven Keys (#10) {rare, expensive}
The Riddle Of The Winged Death (#11) {unavailable}
Murder In The Hotel (#12) {unavailable}

William Morton (aka William Blair Morton Ferguson) - Daniel "Biff" Corrigan / Police Commissioner Kirker Cameron
Masquerade (#1) {expensive}
The Mystery Of The Human Bookcase (#2) {expensive}
The Murderer (aka "The Pilditch Puzzle") (#3) {expensive}
The Case Of Casper Gault ????

Jean Lilly - DA Bruce Perkins
The Seven Sisters (#1) {rare, expensive}
False Face (#2) {rare, expensive}
Death In B-Minor (#3) {rare, expensive}
Death Thumbs A Ride (#4) {rare, expensive}

David Frome (Zenith Jones Brown) - Major Gregory Lewis
Murder Of An Old Man (#1) {rare, expensive}
In At The Death (#2) {rare, expensive}
The Strange Death Of Martin Green (#3) {rare, expensive}

John Franklin Carter (aka "Diplomat") - Dennis Tyler
Murder In The State Department (#1) {unavailable}
Murder In The Embassy (#2) {unavailable}
Scandal In The Chancery (#3) {unavailable}
The Corpse On The White House Lawn (#4) {unavailable}
Death In The Senate (#5) {unavailable}
Slow Death At Geneva (#6) {unavailable}
Brain Trust Murder (#7) {unavailable}

Murray Thomas - Inspector Wilkins
Buzzards Pick The Bones (#1) {unavailable}
Inspector Wilkins Sees Red (#2) {rare, expensive}
Inspector Wilkins Reads The Proofs (#3) {unavailable}

Roland Daniel - John Hopkins
The Rosario Murder Case (#1) {unavailable}
The Shooting Of Sergius Leroy (#2) {unavailable}

Roland Daniel - Inspector Pearson
The Crackswoman (#1) {unavailable}
The Green Jade God (#2) {unavailable}
White Eagle (#3) {unavailable}
The Crimson Shadow (#4) {expensive}
The Gangster's Last Shot (#5) {unavailable}
Murder At Little Malling (#6) {CARM}

Kathleen Moore Knight - Elisha Macomber
Death Blew Out The Match (#1) {expensive}
The Clue Of The Poor Man's Shilling (aka "The Poor Man's Shilling") (#2) {CARM / expensive}
The Wheel That Turned (#3) {expensive}
Seven Were Veiled (#4) {expensive}
Acts Of Black Night (#5) {expensive}

Peter Hunt (aka George Worthing Yates and Charles Hunt Marshall) - Alan Miller
Murders At Scandal House (#1) {expensive}
Murder For Breakfast (#2) {expensive}
Murder Among The Nudists (#3) {expensive}

Gregory Dean (aka Jacob D. Posner) - Benjamin Simon
The Case Of Marie Corwin (#1) {unavailable}
The Case Of The Fifth Key (#2) {unavailable}
Murder On Stilts (#3) {unavailable}

N. A. Temple-Ellis (aka Nevile Holdaway) - Inspector Wren
Three Went In (#1) {unavailable}
Dead In No Time (aka "Murder In The Ruins") (#2) {expensive}
Death Of A Decent Fellow (#3) {unavailable}

Richard Goyne - Paul Templeton
Strange Motives (#1) {unavailable}
Murder At The Inn (#2) {unavailable}
Produce The Body (#3) {unavailable}
Death By Desire (#4) {expensive}
Hanged I'll Be! (#5) {CARM}
Death In Harbour (#6) {unavailable}
Seven Were Suspect (#7) {unavailable}
The Merrylees Mystery (#8) {unavailable}
Who Killed My Wife? (#9) {unavailable}
Fear Haunts The Fells (#10) {unavailable}
Five Roads Inn (#11) {unavailable}
Murder Made Easy (#12) {unavailable}
Murderer's Moon (#13) {expensive}

Theodora du Bois - Anne and Jeffrey McNeill
Armed With A New Terror (#1) {unavailable}
Death Wears A White Coat (#2) {unavailable}
Death Tears A Comic Strip (#3) {expensive}

D. B. Olsen (aka Dolores Hichens) - Stephen Mayhew (overlaps with Rachel Murdock)
The Clue In The Clay (#1) {expensive}
Death Cuts A Silhouette (#2) {expensive}

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

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

Books currently on loan:

        

      

        

Reading projects:

Blog:

        

        

Other projects:

        

        

Group read news:

There will be a group read of Margaret Oliphant's Phoebe, Junior in April.

This will conclude our readings of Oliphant's 'Chronicles of Carlingford', after which we should be resuming the Virago Chronological Read Project, from which this series has been an extremely lengthy diversion. No firm decision has yet been made here, but theoretically we would be reading Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Aurora Floyd next, potentially in October.

As far as the Anthony Trollope group reads go, we have The Claverings tentatively scheduled for July.

Welcome!

Please come on in and say 'hi'. :)

Apropos of lists, do you know this one https://www.themodernnovel.org/their-lists/other/connolly/? Introduced me to Turbott Wolfe, a masterpiece of which I had literally never heard. Plan to work my way through those works not previously read.

Happy new thread!

Hopping on board to follow you further.
The froggies are interesting, if less cute than kermit.

Happy New thread Liz!

Happy new one, Liz!

>21 booksaplenty1949:

Ooh, no I don't! Thanks for that: you can never have too many lists, of course! :D

>22 NinieB:

Hi, Ninie, Helen, Steve and Jim---thank you!

>23 Helenliz:

Well we can't all be Kermit, can we!? :D

>1 lyzard: These are very handsome critters! The southern corroboree frog would make a fine mascot for my alma mater, if a bit of a cognitive disconnect with the team's Hawkeyes nickname. :-)

2022 #134

Publication date: 1965
Genre: Humour
Read for: Random reading 1940 - 1969

Don't Stop The Carnival - Having reached a point of crisis in his life after suffering a heart attack, Broadway press agent Norman Paperman begins toying with the notion of a complete and utter life-change: of buying a hotel on the Caribbean island of Amerigo; "Kinja" to the locals. Almost before he knows it, Norman finds himself travelling south from an icy New York winter in company with his wife's former boss, businessman Lester Atlas, who has agreed to assess the property. The practical aspects of the situation slip away from Norman as soon as he steps out into the warmth and beauty of the small island: he is only sure he has found something he desperately needs. With the support of his long-suffering wife, Henny, Norman begins negotiation for the purchase of the Gull Reef Club---only to discover that, far from entering into a partnership with him as he envisaged, Lester has brokered a deal that puts the full financial weight on Norman---and expects to be paid for doing so. Though terrified, Norman soothes himself by calculating his expected income, reassured that he will be able to meet his commitments and make a profit---just as long as nothing goes wrong at the hotel... I'm finding it difficult to be fair to Herman Wouk's Don't Stop The Carnival, in that I am very much not this book's target audience. This may be the definitive male-midlife-crisis novel, in which we are supposed to sympathise with the impulse that carries Norman Paperman from Broadway to Amerigo for a new life as a hotel manager and businessman, though he has no experience in either capacity, and makes him risk his entire future - and his wife's - in a reckless financial venture. And naturally, from the moment Norman sets foot in the Gull Reef Club, everything goes wrong... It's all meant to be funny, of course, but it's cringe humour built on top of Jewish humour, neither of which is really my thing---and there are other problems. The attitude of the white residents towards the islanders, and towards Amerigo's gay community, is very much of its time; and while Wouk is indulgent of Norman's history as a serial adulterer, his habit of internally monologuing about how much he loves his wife while trying to get into another woman's panties is hardly the endearing quirk his author seems to think. How the reader responds to Norman will ultimately dictate their response to Don't Stop The Carnival: personally, I could neither like him enough to hope for his success, nor hate him enough to take a schadenfreude-ish pleasure in the rolling disasters that beset his hotel. That said, there are absolutely many effective passages of writing here, particularly in Wouk's overall depiction of island life, and the dangerous gulf between its false sense of simplicity and ease and its far more contentious reality (much of which is beyond Norman's comprehension); and in some of the novel's set-pieces and subplots---such as that involving the mentally unstable, unpredictably violent individual who also just happens to be Norman's most valuable and irreplaceable employee...just as long as nothing upsets him...

    Norman, in swim trunks, lolled in a red leather fighting chair at the stern, taking in the scenery like a tourist. He had not seen this wild, craggy, roadless part of Kinja except in glimpses from a wheeling airplane. It was surpassingly beautiful: red broken cliffs rising out of clear turquoise water, green valleys tufted with palms; and here and there the white smooth scallop of a deserted beach shaded by palms and sea grapes. A strong scent of flowers mingled with the salt wind. He gave a tremendous, luxurious yawn...
    "I have an announcement to make," said Norman. "It's not earth-shaking. Maybe you'll all this it's of no consequence. But I mean to make it."
    Iris put both fists to her mouth and did a fair imitation of a sounding trumpet.
    "Thank you," said Paperman. "Ladies and gentlemen, I am the happiest man in the world."
    "Jesus, you're easily pleased," said Tilson. "Just a little ride on a stinkpot. I wish it did that for me." The Tilsons lounged between Norman and Iris on a couch of bamboo and red leather.
    "This thing you call a stinkpot, which as you know is a snazzy yacht, is all very well," Norman said. "But it's the least part of my happiness. For the first time since I came to the accursed rock called Kinja I see the Caribbean really looking like the Caribbean, and its beauty moves me to tears. Opposite me is a lovely, famous, witty, and sweet woman. We sit in warm sunshine on the gently rolling deck of a private yacht, with a perfumed sea breeze cooling us. Our hosts are clever, unusual, interesting people, who've been everywhere and done everything, and that, too, is what I always expected of the tropics, and never found until today. A Frenchman who is a genius or a maniac is solving all the problems of the Gull Reef Club, so that I can go for a spin in the Tilsons' palatial stinkpot if asked. Last, this is the best rum punch I have ever drunk. I'm the happiest man in the world."
    "He's very nice," said Mrs Tilson to her husband.
    "He's plastered," said Tilson.

>28 rosalita:

Wearing your colours, is he? Go Hawkeyes! :D

Happy new thread, Liz.

>30 lyzard: Indeed; we bleed black and gold around here. :-)

Happy new one!

>18 lyzard: Thats quite a few reading projects there!

Happy new thread, Liz!

>1 lyzard: I always look forward to your next thread, as I will learn about a new (to me) species.
The corroboree frogs look striking, sad the bushfires nearly ended them.

>31 PaulCranswick:

Thanks, Paul, Anita and Anita! :)

>33 figsfromthistle:

That's not even all of them! :D

>34 FAMeulstee:

They were in some trouble before that like most frogs but that was devastating. But we have a number of organisations banding together to recover them, and I guess the good news is that with frogs you can reintroduce hundreds at a time. :)

>35 lyzard: And unlike snakes and spiders, no one doesn't like frogs!

>36 rosalita:

Probably why I left them so long, too obvious! :D

>37 lyzard: Well, you're making it up for it with some lovely specimens now!

>38 rosalita:

I'll have to have lots of threads this year to keep 'em coming. :D

Finished Horizon for TIOLI #15.

Now reading The Hunchback OF Notre Dame by Victor Hugo.

(And again with the tiny, tiny font: why do people keep supplying me with editions with tiny, tiny font!?)

Horizon was read for the Banned In Boston! challenge...with which I have an issue going forward.

The next work on the list is "The Sorrows Of Elsie" (La Tristesse D'Elsie) by André Savignon), which is totally unavailable here, with only a very few, expensive copies out there online. (And it's not currently on LT.)

So I'm going to have to skip this one, which is rather triggering. Steve, however, has managed to find an ILL copy, so at least I'll find out what got it, well, Banned In Boston!

Actually, considering the obscurity of most of the works on this challenge list, we've done very well up to this point in not having to skip...

>36 rosalita: I do. I hate frogs. Not that I want them to go extinct or anything but I want them far away from me at all times. I’d rather snakes than frogs.

>39 lyzard: I think we'll have to hold you to that. :-)

>42 PawsforThought: Well shucks, I was wrong. Sorry, Paws. I don't mind snakes, either, but spiders give me the heebie-jeebies.

2022 #138

Publication date: 1932
Genre: Contemporary drama
Series: The Forsyte Saga #8 / End Of The Chapter #2
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (all title words 4 or more characters)

Flowering Wilderness - In London, Dinny Charwell encounters Wilfred Desert, who she remembers from their very brief encounter at the wedding of Fleur Forsyte and Michael Mont some eight years earlier---she bridesmaid, he best man. The two are immediately attracted, though it is clear to Dinny that Desert, who she knows served all through the war and has been wandering since, has something preying upon his mind. Already a published poet, Desert has returned to London to see his publisher about a new volume. He confides his draft to Dinny, who is startled and moved by its extraordinary conclusion, a lengthy poem dealing with courage and cowardice, doubt and apostasy... After a whirlwind romance, Desert and Dinny get engaged, but their happiness is fleeting: it is soon evident that the secret in Desert's past has made its way to England... The second entry in the concluding trilogy of John Galsworthy's 'Forsyte Saga', Flowering Wilderness is a painful and often exasperating examination of the social mores of the English upper classes between the wars---whether or not that's how it was intended. Having worried, throughout the preceding volume, Maid In Waiting, that she was incapable of really falling in love, Elizabeth "Dinny" Charwell discovers her mistake when she encounters the brooding, unhappy Wilfred Desert, and plunges into a rapid but profound romance. Almost immediately, however, she and Desert must confront the consequences of his past actions---and this is where a gulf may or may not open between the novel and the reader. While wandering in the Middle East, Desert is captured and forced at gunpoint to choose between death and Islam---and that he chose the latter. Modern readers, I suspect, are likely to sympathise with Desert's own sense that dying for a religion he didn't profess anyway would have been rather silly; this in addition to the fact that, having survived WWI - in which, by the way, he served with distinction - he had simply had enough: enough of death; enough of sacrifice. Personally, I was a lot less bothered by this than by Desert's earlier infatuation with Fleur, which sent him out of England in the first place (but then, I'm pretty sure a law was passed that required every man to be infatuated with Fleur {*eye-roll*}); but this of course is not the view of his contemporaries, who one and all believe that to have accepted death without hesitation was the only correct course of action, and that to have done otherwise is a betrayal of his class, his country---and, as is argued with a straight face, of the entire British Empire. How far readers can put themselves into the mindset of the characters with respect to what is called "the idea of the Englishman" will inevitably determine their response to Flowering Wilderness. Though questions about "the Empire", and the sacrifices it demands, and the value of those sacrifices, were raised throughout Maid In Waiting as well as here, there isn't much doubt about how those questions are supposed to be answered. Galsworthy refrains from overt editorialisation, but he gives himself away in Dinny's reaction to the situation: though she understands and sympathises with Desert's actions, as an individual in individual circumstances, in her heart of hearts she agrees with her family and friends when they recoil from what they view as an unforgivable act... As gossip from the Middle East follows Desert home, and as his publisher cynically exploits the naked revelation of his actions and emotions in his poetry, a storm of controversy breaks, in which the newly engaged couple are caught and by which they are battered. In spite of her family's dismay, Dinny is determined to stand by her man; but it is soon evident that they will not be able to stay in England. The question then becomes whether there is anywhere in the world, when "the sun never set upon the Empire", where she and Desert can hide---and in this very need to hide is the truth that must finally be confronted...

    "He isn't a believer; it must have seemed to him like some sort of monstrous joke."
    "Yes, yes, I've read his verse---scepticism and love of beauty. His type blooms after long national efforts, when the individual's been at a discount, and the State has exacted everything. Ego crops out and wants to kick the State and all its shibboleths. I understand all that. But--- You've never been out of England, Dinny."
    "Only Italy, Paris, and the Pyrenees."
    "They don't count. You've never been where England has to have a certain prestige. For Englishmen in such parts of the world it's all for one and one for all."
    "I don't think he realised that at the time, Uncle."
    Adrian looked at her, and shook his head.
    "I still don't," said Dinny. "And thank God he didn't, or I should never have known him. Ought one to sacrifice oneself for false values?"
    "That's not the point, my dear. In the East, where religion still means everything, you can't exaggerate the importance attached to a change of faith. Nothing could so damage the Oriental's idea of the Englishman as a recantation at the pistol's point. The question before him was: Do I care enough for what is thought of my country and my people to die sooner than lower that conception? Forgive me, Dinny, but that was, brutally, the issue."

>42 PawsforThought:, >44 rosalita:

Wow! I've honestly never come across that before---sorry, Paws!

I'll have to make up for it with more snakes in the future. :D

>46 lyzard: Oh, not on my account! I’m no fan of snakes, I just think they’re an improvement on the worst animal on earth, aka frogs.

2022 #141

Publication date: 1933
Genre: Contemporary drama
Series: The Forsyte Saga #9 / End Of The Chapter #3
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (helps to finish up a personal reading challenge)

Over The River (US title: One More River) - Seventeen months after her marriage to Sir Gerald Corven, Clare Charwell Corven returns to England from Ceylon, informing her dismayed family that she has left her husband for good---but refusing to say why. To her sister Dinny, alone, Clare confides about a shocking act of abuse, but then swears her to secrecy. On the ship coming home, Clare attracts young Tony Croom, who falls in love with her: back in England, he continues to pursue her; and she, though being very clear with him that their relationship can only be platonic, allows his attentions---partly out of loneliness, partly out of defiance. In their enjoyment of each other's company, the two grow reckless; and when Sir Gerald arrives in England demanding that Clare either return to him or face an ugly divorce, it seems there is a case for the latter... Published posthumously, Over The River is a curiously mixed conclusion to John Galsworthy's 'Forsyte Saga': one that in some ways taking his series back to its roots via its examination, some thirty years later, of the state of British marriage---and of the British divorce laws. The perverse and contradictory nature of the latter are held up to scrutiny when Sir Gerald follows through on his threat. Also perverse and contradictory is Clare's response: there's nothing she wants more than to be rid of her husband, and the easiest way to that end is not to contest; but she won't declare herself guilty when she isn't, meaning that her own actions and Tony Croom's must be laid out for public examination---and public scepticism. Though Galsworthy's dissection of the mores of between-the-wars divorce has its own fascination, Clare herself is an unsympathetic protagonist, too much the source of her own troubles. We certainly do not blame her for what happens within her marriage, but rather for walking into that marriage with her eyes open, ignoring her family's concerns, and in the spirit of "taking a risk". However, the most worrying aspect of this novel is Galsworthy's own attitude towards the breaking point of the Corven marriage, which he treats as a matter of Clare's wounded pride, rather than the act of violence that it is; while there is also a disturbing ambiguity about what he calls "the resumption of marital relations" between Corven and Clare (we hope, in this respect, that he is not taking his series full circle, back to the horrifying end to the marriage of Soames and Irene). Meanwhile, the biggest disappointment of Over The River is its reduction to a supporting role of the far more likeable and sympathetic Dinny Charwell who, in trying to help Clare through her crisis, is able to put aside for a time her own unhappy situation. Still reeling from her disastrous love affair with Wilfred Desert, Dinny is left to decide what sort of future she can make for herself... I am bothered, in the way that Galsworthy wraps up this novel and his series, by a certain sense of "retconning": suddenly the young woman who wouldn't settle is contemplating marriage for the sake of children, though she has never considered her options in that light before; and all the other characters are insisting upon how important being a mother has always been to her. It's a false note in an otherwise very complete characterisation. That said--- It is fitting, I suppose, that a series that began with an unsatisfactory (to say the least) relationship, and which offers hardly any other kind on the way through, should conclude with another one; though it is impossible not feel that Dinny, unlike some of Galsworthy's characters, deserved much better.

    At last Dinny got up: "Well, my dears, gloom doesn't help. Let's look on the bright side. They might have been scarlet instead of white as snow."
    The General said, more to himself than in reply: "They must defend. That fellow can't have it all his own way."
    "But, Dad, to have Clare free, with a perfectly clear conscience, would be nice and ironic, and ever so much less fuss!"
    "Lie down under an accusation of that sort?"
    "Her name will go even if she wins. No one can spend a night in a car with a young man with impunity. Can they, Mother?"
    Lady Charwell smiled faintly.
    "I agree with your father, Dinny. It seems to me frevolting that Clare should be divorced when she'd done nothing except been a little foolish. Besides, it would be cheating the law, wouldn't it?"
    "I shouldn't think the law would care, dear. However---!"
    And Dinny was silent, scrutinising their rueful faces, aware that they set some mysterious store by marriage and divorce which she did not, and that nothing she could say would alter it...

>47 PawsforThought:

Nah, on my own, just using you as an excuse. :D

>48 lyzard: Well done on getting to the end. I do agree, Dinny deserves better than that.

>48 lyzard: Perhaps foolishly, I read a continuation, not by Galsworthy, The Forsytes, which in which Dinny is treated even worse. Having married Eustace (?) thier first baby is stillborn and there are no others by the end of the book.

>50 Helenliz:

Thank you! It's a pretty uncomfortable journey, when you stop and think about it. :)

>51 CDVicarage:

Ah, well. I never read continuations and that's a good illustration of why. Honestly, though, it sounds like someone had the same issue I did and decided to be spiteful about it.

2022 #139

Publication date: 1901
Genre: Classic
Read for: Nobel Prize challenge

Kim - The orphaned Kimball O'Hara Jr runs wild on the streets of Lahore, scratching a living by carrying messages, and slipping easily between the different the different populations of the city: a facility that earns him the nickname, "the Friend of all the World". One day Kim is drawn to a Tibetan lama, who has left the mountains to seek "the River of the Arrow", a legendary waterway created by the Buddha which he believes will free him from attachment to the material world. Intrigued, and attracted by the prospect of an adventure, Kim appoints himself the lama's chela. Hearing of the proposed journey, Mahbub Ali, a horse trader for whom Kim has worked before, entrusts him with a message to be carried to an Englishman in Umballa, supposedly about the pedigree of a horse; though Kim knows very well it is a great deal more than that... The journey of Kim and the lama along the Great Trunk Road brings them into contact with the former regiment of Kim's father. To his dismay, the boy is forcibly detained and faced with formal schooling. He submits, because it is the wish of the lama that he should receive an education---and because in parallel with this he is trained by a man named Lurgan with the skills he will need to be an operative for British intelligence... Published in 1901, and set perhaps a decade earlier, Rudyard Kipling's Kim is a fine and gripping adventure novel, and one that offers an extraordinarily complex portrait of India in the late 19th century; but it is also a work that requires the reader to accept, if not buy into, Kipling's own view of the Raj and the British presence in India. Overtly this is taken for granted as a good and right thing, but there is a tinge of dishonesty in the way it is presented. The Indian Mutiny of the 1850s casts its shadow over the action of the book, yet the reader hears from it only via British-loyal Indian soldiers, who condemn the uprising as "madness" and express no understanding or sympathy. Furthermore, the immediate background to Kim's story is "the Great Game", the rising conflict between Britain and Russia which played out across Asia: the narrative is therefore in India but not of India, which feels like Kipling avoiding the real point. Kim himself, for all that he is the product of the streets of Lahore, and though he can pass without question for a native, is constantly reminded - even by the lama, who overtly rejects the Indian caste system - that he is "a Sahib, and the son of a Sahib": that to be "poor white, the poorest of the poor" is still to be superior by virtue of his birth and blood. Kim has lived the entirety of his short life amongst the native population and, during his journey with the lama, displays a passionate interest in all facets of Indian life and his capacity for getting along with people of all walks and standings; but he also attaches himself to the British and their cause at the first opportunity---partly because of the adventures it brings him, but also out of an "instinctive" feeling that this is where he really belongs. However, despite its thematic discomforts, Kim remains in many ways a richly rewarding novel. Kim himself is a wholly engaging protagonist, whose ingenuity we enjoy, for whose success we hope---and for whom we fear during the most dangerous parts of his adventures. It is precisely Kim's chameleon quality that fits him for life as an operative for British intelligence: under the training of Lurgan Sahib he learns a range of skills that prepare him for his first mission into the foothills of the Himalayas, where Russian operatives are beginning to make incursions. Reunited with the lama, whose journey home to his lamasery provides cover for his mission, Kim secretly works in partnership with his intelligence superior, Hurree Chunder Mookherjee, a Bengali in the employ of the British, to ensure that the information gathered by a team of Russian spies never leaves India...

    The frogs were busy in the ditches, and the moon slid to her setting. Some happy servant had gone out to commune with the night and to beat upon a drum. Kim’s next sentence was in the vernacular.
    “How didst thou follow us?”
    “Oah. Thatt was nothing. I know from our mutual friend you go to Saharunpore. So I come on. Red Lamas are not inconspicuous persons. I buy myself my drug-box, and I am very good doctor really. I go to Akrola of the Ford, and hear all about you, and I talk here and talk there. All the common people know what you do. I knew when the hospitable old lady sent the dooli. They have great recollections of the old lama’s visits here. I know old ladies cannot keep their hands from medicines. So I am a doctor, and---you hear my talk? I think it is verree good. My word, Mister O’Hara, they know about you and the lama for fifty miles---the common people. So I come. Do you mind?”
    “Babuji,” said Kim, looking up at the broad, grinning face, “I am a Sahib.”
    “My dear Mister O’Hara---”
    “And I hope to play the Great Game.”
    “You are subordinate to me departmentally at present.”
    “Then why talk like an ape in a tree? Men do not come after one from Simla and change their dress, for the sake of a few sweet words. I am not a child. Talk Hindi and let us get to the yolk of the egg. Thou art here---speaking not one word of truth in ten. Why art thou here? Give a straight answer.”
    “That is so verree disconcerting of the Europeans, Mister O’Hara. You should know a heap better at your time of life.”
    “But I want to know,” said Kim, laughing. “If it is the Game, I may help. How can I do anything if you bukh all round the shop?”
    Hurree Babu reached for the pipe, and sucked it till it gurgled again.
    “Now I will speak vernacular. You sit tight, Mister O’Hara... It concerns the pedigree of a white stallion.”
    “Still? That was finished long ago.”
    “When everyone is dead the Great Game is finished. Not before...”

>53 lyzard: American philistine that I am, I have of course heard of Kim as a classic novel by Kipling but I never knew the plotline until now. I don't feel any more moved to read it myself than I did before, but at least now I will know the general outline of what people are talking about so I can fake it, at least. :-)

>54 rosalita:

As an American philistine you'd probably enjoy it more. :)

>55 lyzard: If you mean as someone with no skin in the game, you are probably right. No guilt trips for us over that particular instance of colonialism, at least.

>56 rosalita:

I didn't do it deliberately, but I ended up having a surfeit of colonialism around this time and was probably a bit over-sensitised to that aspect of Kim. At the same time, as an adventure story or as a Bildungsroman it's everything it should be.

Just back from a photo exhibition of radical street art in Afghanistan where Kim and The Great Game came up, by way of context. Think I should read it.

>58 booksaplenty1949:

Oh cool! You should: it's a good novel, just some of the framework is uncomfortable.

>59 lyzard: Having a discussion about literary POV and cultural appropriation on the Africa Novel Challenge talk thread. Will be interested to see how this relates to Kim, which I have now started.

>60 booksaplenty1949:

I'll be really interested to hear what you make of it.

Best-selling books in the United States for 1983:

1. Return of the Jedi Storybook by Joan D. Vinge
2. Poland by James A. Michener
3. Pet Sematary by Stephen King
4. The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carré
5. Christine by Stephen King
6. Changes by Danielle Steel
7. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
8. White Gold Wielder by Stephen R. Donaldson
9. Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins
10. The Lonesome Gods by Louis L'Amour

1983 gives us a Top Ten that is both odd and familiar.

A bullet was dodged for the second year in a row, with James A. Michener's Poland, dealing with three families across eight (!) centuries of Polish history, coming in at #2. Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose mixes history with murder and literary analysis, in its story of strange doings in a 14th century Italian monastery.

Danielle Steel's Changes is about a TV anchorwoman who marries a leading heart surgeon; the two struggle to reconcile their demanding lives. Jackie Collins' Hollywood Wives is about a disparate group of women fighting for success in the film industry.

Louis L'Amour's The Lonesome Gods is about a man building an empire in the early days of Los Angeles while living in the shadow of a family vendetta.

John le Carré's The Little Drummer Girl is about the battle between an Israeli spymaster and an English double-agent.

Speaking of dodging a bullet, White Gold Wielder is the third book of the second trilogy in what would become Stephen Donaldson's ten-volume high-fantasy series, 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant'. Meanwhile, Stephen King hit the Top Ten twice, with Pet Sematary, the story of a piece of land that can raise the dead, and Christine, about a killer car and the teen whose life it takes over.

At #1, however - and we thank it - was Joan D. Vinge's Return of the Jedi Storybook.

Joan Carol Denison was born in Baltimore in 1948. She began studying art but changed direction to receive a BA in anthropology in 1971. The following year she married science-fiction author, Verner Vinge, and soon began publishing short stories and novellas in various science-fiction magazines as 'Joan D. Vinge', keeping the name after her divorce and remarriage to editor and agent, James Frenkel.

Vinge continued to write science fiction and fantasy, particularly for younger readers. She is best known for her 'Snow Queen Cycle', which draws upon Anderson's fairy-tale but is set on a planet that orbits a black hole and facilitates interstellar travel, and for her 'Cat' trilogy, about a half-human, half-alien telepath.

Vinge won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for Eyes Of Amber in 1977, and the Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Snow Queen in 1980, in addition to other Hugo and Nebula Award nominations. Psion, the first 'Cat' novel, was named a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association.

In 1983, Vinge began writing novelisations and other adaptations of motion pictures. Her first such work, Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi Storybook, became America's best-selling book of 1983.

In 2002, Vinge was seriously injured in a car accident that left her with career-threatening brain damage. However, in 2007 she was able to resume writing, and completed a new novel, Ladysmith.

2022 #140

Publication date: 1983
Genre: Children's fiction
Read for: Best-seller challenge

Star Wars{ Return Of The Jedi Storybook - There's not much to say about this one, and that's as it should be: Joan D. Vingte's storybook version of Return Of The Jedi is a well done adaptation of the movie, simplified in its language and the presentation of the various conflicts, but retaining all the main plot details and the characters' dangers and dilemmas.

    "Never!" Luke cried. His lightsaber flew back to him, and he attacked his father harder than before. Sparks flew and the air crackled with energy. He struck the lightsaber from Vader's hand and it flew into the deep shaft at the center of the room. Luke saw his father's useless, broken mechanical hand. He looked down at his own artificial hand. I'm becoming just like him, he thought. He held his lightsaber at his father's throat.
    "Kill him!" cried the Emperor. "Take your father's place at my side!"
    Luke looked at the Emperor and back at his father. Then he made the decision he had been preparing for all his life...

2022 #142

Publication date: 1928
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Inspector Elk #4
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (by an author whose first name starts with the same letter as your first name)

The Twister - His successes on the stock exchange and the racecourse, seemingly against all odds, win Anthony Braid much enmity and a nickname, "The Twister". Braid is unperturbed by this, but very perturbed by his attraction to the much-younger Ursula Frensham, who he knows thinks of him only as a friend. Also disturbing to him are certain stock-market manipulations, which seem to his experienced eye aimed at Ursula's father, Lord Frensham. Braid takes the risk of trying to warn Frensham against his own nephew, Julian Reef, but is repaid only be disbelief and accusation---and by being turned out of the house; but he does not go without suggesting that Frensham investigate the funds Reef is managing for Ursula's "benefit". The conflict comes to a dramatic conclusion when Lord Frensham is found dead in what looks like suicide, a note by his side declaring him a ruined man---but Tony Braid isn't so sure... The Twister is one of Edgar Wallace's stranger novels, but not in a good way: overtly this is one of his stock-market manipulation thrillers, but it feels like he changed his mind about it halfway through, or maybe just got bored, because it keeps going off on tangents. Case in point is Tony Braid's back story and nickname, which seem to destine him for a much more ambiguous role in proceedings than ever eventuates: instead he turns amateur detective, working to prove not only that Lord Frensham was murdered, but that Julian Reef is the killer. Meanwhile, am almost-mad-science side-plot involving Rex Guelder, a collaborator of Reef's, who is working to develop a means of turning cheap yellow diamonds into valuable white gems, suddenly threatens to subsume the mystery and finance plots: it's all very odd and rather frustrating. The best thing about The Twister is the prominent role that it grants to Elk of Scotland Yard who, after being passed over for promotion many times because of his lack of formal education, has finally reached the rank of inspector. Elk is always a supporting player in his own series, and so it is here; but this time he turns up at all the critical moments, with his encyclopaedic knowledge of crime and criminals in London playing a vital role in the solving of Lord Frensham's murder---and in the rescuing of Ursula Frensham, who finds herself caught between Julian Reef and Rex Guelder, the latter's obsession with the girl driving him to dangerous extremes...

    "Does Lord Frensham usually work so late at his office?" asked Tony.
    "Very often." It was Ursula who spoke. "He has been there night after night lately---I think he's been worrying about the Lulanga Company. I shouldn't have been worried about him being late but he's always so punctual for appointments, and be did ask me to be here at half- past eight. I put off a theatre partly because he said it was important."
    Tony was scratching his chin thoughtfully, his eyes still on Julian Reef's face.
    "I will go down to St. James's Street and see what is delaying him," he said slowly.
    "If you like I'll go with you," volunteered Julian.
    But Tony shook his head. "It isn't necessary; I have a friend in the grounds somewhere---Inspector Elk: you may have heard of him."
    "Elk?" Even Ursula was surprised at the change in the man's tone; it became suddenly harsh and hard. He almost shouted the word. "Elk! That long fellow...oh yes. I know him. Is he here? How odd!" His face had gone from red to white, from white to red again. "Yes, I've met him. A queer Scotland Yard bird who's always talking about education. Then you won't want me."
    When Anthony got out into the drive he found Elk leaning against the car, a cigar between his teeth.
    "Miss Frensham is rather worried about her father's absence. I'm going down to his office."
    "I know," said Elk as he got into the car. "That Reef fellow was awfully cut up about me, but when he says I talk about nothing but education he lies in his boots!"
    "How do you know what he was talking about?" asked the astonished Tony.
    "I was listening at the window," said Mr Elk calmly. "I find that's one of the best ways of collecting information---listening and saying nothing. What's that about the shares and the cheque? Big fellow, that man Reef---thinks in millions, talks in tens of thousands and pays in ha'pennies."

>65 lyzard: Edgar Wallace — isn't that the "life of a potato" guy?

2022 #143

Publication date: 1931
Genre: Contemporary romance
Read for: 1931 reading / TIOLI (multiple 2 letter words in the title)

Gay Go Up - With the help of their hard-working manager, the Heron sisters - Janet, Eliza, Caroline and Rachel - own and operate a farm on the Scottish border, which came to them after the death of their parents. Though they get along well, each of the sisters has her own personality, with Eliza known for a dash of impractical romanticism. This side of her places a barrier between herself and Angus Urwen who, to supplement his slender income from his new horse-breeding business, operates a small shop in the nearest village. When Angus first proposes, Eliza rejects him; but later, realising that the local gossips are busy with Angus and her sister, Caroline, who works for him helping with the horses, she impulsively changes her mind. Though aware that Angus is more serious about her than she is about him, Eliza imagines they can make their marriage work---but everything changes when, one day, she finds a strange young man, exhausted and half-starved, hiding in an abandoned cottage in the woods behind the farm... This 1931 novel by Anne Hepple starts badly but finally settles down into a fair consideration of the nature of romance and the best basis for marriage. The opening chapters, setting up how cute and quirky the four Heron sisters are, are almost unbearable; and Eliza is initially more exasperating than sympathetic. (The novel's title, by the way, is her nickname, taken from the usually overlooked opening line of the nursery song, "Oranges And Lemons": Gay go up and gay go down, To ring the bells of London Town...) Things shift when Eliza discovers the hostile yet vulnerable young man hiding in the woods; and in keeping his secret, and smuggling to him food and other supplies, she finds all the romance lacking in her relationship with Angus. To her credit, Hepple refrains from taking sides, but gives fair consideration to the disparate attractions of the steadiness and reliability of Angus and the glamour associated with "MacNobody", as he calls himself; while also noting, as Eliza herself perhaps does not, the appeal to the girl of being the smarter and stronger one in the latter relationship, as she is not when dealing with Angus. Things take a drastic turn when Eliza learns to her horror that the young man is wanted in the shooting of a policeman, and that the search parties are closing in. Believing his protestations of innocence, Eliza makes a desperate plan to assist his escape; but as the two make their break across the Scottish moors, a shift in the weather and a threatening blizzard puts both their lives in danger...

    A week had passed. MacNobody was still at the cottage, Orion had taken another stride across the heavens, the Plough had made ready for the sewing of other stars across the sky, and Eliza had lost her heart.
    Romance, which Eliza had thought of as belonging to far-off places and the pages of fairy-tales, had come over the Border and into her life---and Eliza was quite undone.
    Angus, busy with the horses, riding down the water-meadows, striding across his fields---Angus, who had called her a goose and told her that she had a smut on her nose, had no chance whatever against this potent charm.
    Mac never told her anything at all of why he had come to the district, of why he was hiding. If he did mention himself, it was always in a half-playful, half-humorous way; a black rock among curling foam. But he was always on guard, and only seldom, for a few minutes when talking to Eliza, did the hunted look leave his eyes.
    They were soon the best of friends. She called him Mac and he called her a hundred different names, but never Eliza, which he said was a name she wore as a disguise...

>66 rosalita:

Goodness me, no! - that was James Corbett, the one-and-only. :D

Edgar Wallace was an insanely prolific British author whose thrillers are usually pretty good (if absurdly plotted) considering the pace he churned them out at. This one was a bit of a disappointment, though.

>68 lyzard: Whew! You can see how thoroughly I've blocked the details of my Mystery League dalliance from my memory. I knew the name was familiar, but couldn't place it.

>69 rosalita:

I don't see how that's possible but okay. :D

You'll have met Wallace here before, and doubtless will again...

>61 lyzard: Just finished Chapter 1 of Kim. Initial impression was that I would need an annotated edition to make any sense of what I was reading, but after about 20 pages I started to get into the scene. Full speed ahead!

Baby lemur alert!!

Conservationists at Chester Zoo become the first in Europe to successfully breed a rare Coquerel’s sifaka lemur

>71 booksaplenty1949:

I know what you mean! :)

>72 rosalita:

Awww, thank you!

That ought to inspire a blog-post, just so I can use it as my lemur shot. :D

>73 lyzard: That thought did cross my mind. :-D

2022 #144

Publication date: 1931
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Inspector Frost #4
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (winter / cold word in the title)

Inspector Frost And The Waverdale Fire - Eighteen months after self-made millionaire Mr Oldroyd purchases the Waverdale estate from the cash-strapped Earl of Lidstone, the Oldroyd family finally moves in---and the next day, the house and all its treasures are destroyed in a fire that is clearly a case of arson. Theories abound as to the target of the crime: Oldroyd is a man whose business dealings have won him many enemies; the hostility of the Mervyn family towards him, particularly the earl's heir, young Ernest Mervyn, is notorious; while conversely, there are hints that an over-extended Oldroyd may have torched the place himself. Meanwhile, a set of valuable emeralds has somehow gone missing in the blaze; and when, on his way to Waverdale, Inspector Frost catches a glimpse of a certain European jeweller with an unsavoury reputation, it suggests yet another possibility. But when investigators discover a body in the wreckage, it seems that to arson and theft might be added murder... After the almost-comedy of Inspector Frost And Lady Brassingham, this fourth entry in the police-procedural series by Herbert Maynard Smith makes an unexpectedly grim contrast---though one still leavened by the wry sense of humour of its protagonist-narrator. There are other disconcerting touches in this mystery, including the slightly offhand way everyone reacts to the discovery of the dead man, and a tendency to treat the missing emeralds as more important; though the latter may perhaps be excused by the fact that, before he has been long on the case, Frost is convinced that the elusive gems are indeed the crux of the matter... When he arrives at the scene of the fire, Inspector Frost finds himself confronted by almost too many suspects and too many theories; as well as having to deal with a hostile local constabulary intent upon seizing any glory associated with the high-profile case. Frost himself, however, assisted by his protégé, godson and soon-to-be son-in-law, the newly promoted Sergeant William Smith, pursues his usual low-key, deceptively casual method of investigation, stirring things up and provoking people into saying more than they mean to---and listening when they do, even when they insist upon a ghost of Waverdale... Inspector Frost is soon certain in his own mind that, whatever its purpose, the fire was an inside job. He discovers that, in addition to the household - Mr and Mrs Oldroyd; William Oldroyd and his young half-brother, George; James Middleton, Oldroyd's secretary; Miss Lamb, George's governess; and the servants - three people were on the scene who should not have been: Ernest Mervyn, who claims he was playing ghost; whoever the housemaid, Euphemia Dawkins, was expecting in her room that night when she saw that "ghost"; and the unidentified man trapped during the fire in a locked box-room---the key in his possession, and found on his body, proving the literal key to the case...

    At Waverdale during this afternoon the charred remains of a man had been discovered. There was nothing by which he could be recognised, and the photographs so far taken struck me as somewhat amateurish. Sergeant Barnet was overjoyed that he had been on the spot, and I had been absent. He said, however---
"I wish I could have persuaded you to come straight to Waverdale. I fear you did not lear much at Hatherick. I rather think I had accumulated all the information there we were likely to obtain."
    "None the less, I am quite satisfied with my afternoon's work. I can't talk to the dead."
    "But you see, Inspector, the immense importance of the discovery."
    "Yes, for the newspapers. Let them have it. I can see the hoardings to-morrow. Waverdale Fire. Strange Developments. Sergeant Barnet's Discovery. The Mysterious Corpse."
    "Well," said Barnet with some temper, "you need not be nasty about it."
    "I'm not. Now that the discovery has been made, I want it broadcasted. I want you to see as many press men as possible. I want your photo to be in all the papers to-morrow. I want you to have all the glory, and I particularly don't want anyone to take any notice of me..."
    "Have you made any progress yourself?"
    "Let me see, I have seen Mr Pontifex, Mr Ernest Mervyn, all the Oldroyds, the governess, their butler, third footman, and one of their maids. Also Mr Middleton, the discreet secretary. Then I have made the acquaintance of the Earl of Lidstone, Lady Susan Mervyn, and Sergeant Grimstone. I have really done rather well."
    "And what have you discovered?" asked Barnet.
    "That they are all interested in the Waverdale Fire, and that most of them have something to conceal."

>74 rosalita:

There's one brewing. First, however---

December (2022) stats:

Works read: 11
TIOLI: 11, in 9 different challenges

Mystery / thriller: 5
Contemporary drama: 2
Contemporary romance: 1
Children's fiction: 1
Humour: 1
Classic: 1

Series works: 7
Re-reads: 0
Blog reads: 0
1932: 1
1931: 2
Virago / Persephone: 0
Potential decommission: 0

Owned: 0
Library: 7
Ebooks: 4

Male authors : female authors: 9 : 3

Oldest work: Kim by Rudyard Kipling (1901)
Newest work: Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi Storybook by Joan D. Vinge (1983)

******

Final 2022 stats:

Works read: 144
TIOLI: 144, in 128 different challenges, with 18 shared reads

Mystery / thriller: 73 (50.7%)
Classic: 19 (13.2%)
Young adult: 15 (10.4%)
Contemporary drama: 10 (6.9%)
Historical drama: 8 (5.6%)
Children's fiction: 4 (2.8%)
Non-fiction: 4 (2.8%)
Humour: 3 (2.1%)
Historical romance: 2 (1.4%)
Short story: 2 (1.4%)
Fantasy: 2 (1.4%)
Contemporary romance: 1 (0.7%)
Horror: 1 (0.7%)

Series works: 91
Re-reads: 14
Blog reads: 2
1932: 7
1931: 16
Virago / Persephone: 4
Potential decommission: 0

Owned: 5
Library: 59
Ebooks: 79
Borrowed: 1

Male authors : female authors: 101 : 50 (including 2 using a male pseudonym)

Oldest work: Incognita; or, Love And Duty Reconcil'd by William Congreve (1692)
Newest work: Divorce Turkish Style by Esmahan Aykol (2007)

I still have to think about my 'Best Of---' choices, but in the meantime I really think this deserves a basket of sloths, don't you?---

>77 lyzard: Yay! That certainly deserves a basket of sloths!!

>72 rosalita: awww.

>78 lyzard: SLOTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I aspire to someday look as comfortable and benignly cheerful as sloths do in any situation.

2022 in review:

2022 was a year that ended up falling just short---number-wise and content-wise.

It was a year dominated and dictated by best-selling chunksters, which in turn kept the numbers lower than hoped: just below the target of 150, though not as low as at one time seemed likely.

It was also a year of reading that was generally good but not great, with less memorable and/or stand-out books than usual (and of course a few stinkers too).

Mystery and thriller reading made up just over 50% of my reading, which is actually below my usual figure. The other half was more of a mix than usual, which is good; though I would still like to lift my non-fiction reading.

Access to books continued to be an issue, so that in the end the only challenges that progressed at a steady rate were the best-seller challenge and the C. K. Shorter challenge (see below).

In brighter news, 2022 finally saw the end of the infuriating Elsie Dinsmore series; more sadly, it also wrapped Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver series, which I had the pleasure of reading with Julia. We have since moved on to Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series, which we are reading bi-monthly; and as of this month, we will be alternating those with Arthur Upfield's Bony books. I am also hoping to re-start Margery Allingham's Albert Campion series in April, reading with Helen.

My main concern with my final figures is that male authors were so dominant---though this is to some extent dictated by the nature of my challenge reading. However, this is something to be conscious of, and to work at improving.

So, going forward, I would like to---

1. Keep all my challenges ticking over
2. Read a higher proportion of books by female authors
3. Read more non-fiction
4. Get more blog-posts written! - it's not the reading that's the problem
5. Perhaps incorporate more recent mysteries into the mix (though I hardly need more series to be going on with! - and on that note---)
6. Work at wrapping up those series that are nearing completion.

2022: the best-seller challenge:

Across the year, Steve and I managed to keep this series moving on a one-per-month basis, except where a book topped the lists twice (NB: the date given is year at the top of the list, not OPD):

- Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach (1972 / 1973)
- Centennial by James A. Michener (1974)
- Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow (1975)
- Trinity by Leon Uris (1976)
- The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien (1977)
- Chesapeake by James A. Michener (1978)
- The Matarese Circle by Robert Ludlum (1979)
- The Covenant by James A. Michener (1980)
- Noble House by James Clavell (1981)
- E.T. The Extraterrestrial Storybook by William Kotzwinkle (1982)
- Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi Storybook by Joan D. Vingte (1983)

Some strange bedfellows on that list! - and too many books that were endurance tests rather than novels (albeit they were offset by the movie storybooks and by the Bach book, which had the virtue of brevity, at least). Of the runners-up I was glad to have read Centennial and The Silmarillion, each in their own disparate way; but in the end there was one clear stand-out---



(Reviewed here)

>82 lyzard: Oh, I love Ragtime! I need to reread it, and soon! It was part of the syllabus when I was at university and is one of a handful of books I was introduced to then and have adored since.

2022: the C. K. Shorter challenge / A Century Of Reading:

I ended up blending these two challenges, working through the 'Best 100 Novels' list of the critic Clement Shorter, but also plugging any gaps left in my 'Century Of Reading'.

The notable thing here is how many of the books on the Shorter list I really hadn't heard of before---which, just to be clear, is for me the interest and the attraction of this challenge!

- Tom Cringle's Log by Michael Scott (1833)
- Mr Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marryat (1836)
- Rory O'More by Samuel Lover (1837)
- Jack Brag by Theodore Hook (1837)
- Fardorougha The Miser; or, The Convicts Of Lisnamona by William Carleton (1839)
- The Life And Adventures Of Valentine Vox, The Ventriloquist by Henry Cockton (1840)

These six works break themselves down into 2 x naval fiction, 2 x Irish fiction, and 2 x social commentary. All of them had something to give, though none of them was entirely satisfactory. The relationship between the protagonist of Marryat's Mr Midshipman Easy and a black crewman is perhaps the single most striking and important development to be extracted from these works.

Much the same might be said of my 'Century Of Reading' works. Particularly important here are Harrington, which is one of the first literary pushbacks against the antisemitism of British society, and (to go to a very different extreme) The Vampyre, which paved the way for the belated development of British fantasy writing.

- The Heroine; or, Adventures Of A Fair Romance Reader by Eaton Stannard Barrett (1813)
- Glenarvon by Lady Caroline Lamb (1816)
- Harrington by Maria Edgeworth (1817)
- Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock (1818)
- The Vampyre by John William Polidori (1819)

The best of 2022:

These are not necessarily "the best" in a five-star rating sense, but rather those books that stood out for giving me something more, something unexpected, something memorable. For series works, I have tried to restrict myself to one pick per series (though I haven't entirely succeeded).

The books are listed in chronological reading order.

General reading:

      

      

      

The Song Of The Lark by Willa Cather (1915)
Mr Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marrat (1836)
The Perpetual Curate by Margaret Oliphant (1864)
Centennial by James A. Michener (1974)
A Man Could Stand Up by Ford Madox Ford (1926)
From Man To Man; or, Perhaps Only... by Olive Schreiner (1926)
Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow (1974)
The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkein (1977)
Miss Marjoribanks by Margaret Oliphant (1866)
Paint It Black by Nancy A. Collins (1995)
With Fire And Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz (1884)
Kim by Rudyard Kipling (1901)

Mystery / thriller:

      

      

      

Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (1965)
The Looking-Glass War by John le Carré (1965)
The Girl In The Cellar by Patricia Wentworth (1961)
Sir John Magill's Last Journey by Freeman Wills Crofts (1930)
Burglars In Bucks by George and Margaret Cole (1930)
Blanche Among The Talented Tenth by Barbara Neely (1994)
Baksheesh by Esmahan Aykol (2003)
For Love Of Imabelle (aka "A Rage In Harlem") by Chester B. Himes (1957)
Death Of Mr Gantley by Miles Burton (1932)
The Cat And The Corpse by R. A. J. Walling (1935)
Too Many Cooks by Rex Stout (1938)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré (1974)

You know what? It's not strictly within the rules (my rules), but I think we've earned a quokka---

>86 lyzard: QUOKKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it's important to break the rules once in a while, just so we all remember what they are. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

>86 lyzard: Yay!

>83 PawsforThought:

Though I complain a lot, this is the value of these challenges: I'm not sure it's a book that would have come my way otherwise and I'm so glad it did! :)

>87 rosalita:, >88 Helenliz:

I spoil you people. :D

2023 #6

Publication date: 1954
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Sarah Keate #7
Read for: Series readng / TIOLI (a book related to ending)

Man Missing - Having been denied military nursing service on account of her age, Sarah Keate finds a temporary posting at a naval base in the Californian desert, where she does night-watch duty at the hospital. She has enjoyed her time staying with the C.O., Harry Somers, and his wife, Kitty, who secured her the position; though she is bemused by some of the military procedure, and unnerved by the fact that the base is a Naval Ammunition Depot---though the huge stores of explosives just outside the base don't seem to bother anyone else. Sarah's last night on duty is a strange one, with the power cutting out and requiring an electrician's call, odd noises in the darkness, and an increasing sense that something is wrong. Finally Sarah catches a fleeting glimpse of someone leaving the hospital by the side door at the end of a corridor: a tall man in khaki, with gold braid on his sleeve... Assuming that one of the patients has gone AWOL, possibly to attend the base dance, Sarah is about to do a check when she sees a signal light for that of Sergeant Bill "Buffalo" Brown. When she responds, she is horrified to find him holding his service weapon and insisting that someone was just in his room, in the dark. The two find a knife on the floor; there is also a smell of ether in the air. They follow it to the next room, where they find another patient, Lieutenant Parly, with his throat cut... After a lapse of a decade, Mignon Eberhart brought her amateur detective, Nurse Sarah Keate, back for one last hurrah. Despite the gap in her résumé, Sarah is still Sarah; and when murder happens literally on her watch, she is compelled to action both by a sense that she should know more than she does, and out of fear for the people upon whom suspicion falls. And it is, after all, her own insistence that the man she saw leaving the scene was an officer that points the finger separately at Harry Somers, who had a contentious relationship with the ill-disciplined Parly, and his Executive Officer, Jim Warring. Though with no direct motive, Warring is self-evidently in love with young WAVE, Ensign Sally Wilson, who Sarah knows visited Parly in his room earlier that day---and who has been in a state of fear ever since... Man Missing represents a return to form for Sarah Keate after a couple of slightly disappointing entries. Mignon Eberhart makes a virtue out of her naval-base setting, and plot-points out of military procedure; while in her writing there is an air of understanding and admiration for the naval personnel, and compassion too, with her narrative touching gently on combat experience and its trauma (some of Sarah's patients are just back from Korea). Sarah herself is a fish out of water, though, both bewildered and frustrated by much that everyone else takes for granted on the base---which of course allows her to explain it to the reader. Despite getting on in years, Sarah is recognisably herself here: professional and pugnacious, but with a soft spot for a pair of young lovers, and an intense loyalty towards her friends, that prompts her into her own investigation of the murder. Much is at stake for those involved: the scandal of the murder itself, coupled with the breath of suspicion, may be enough to cost Harry Somers his expected promotion to Rear Admiral; while it becomes increasingly clear that Parly was in possession of a secret that could wreck the lives of Sally Wilson and Jim Warring. It is revealed that Sally is a widow whose husband, a naval aviator, was killed in a plane crash: his body, burned beyond recognition, was found, but the military payroll he was transporting was not. As the investigation proceeds, the fate of Sally's husband and the missing money - and what Parly knew about both - becomes the crux of the matter...

    Kitty eyed me again with that implacable cold look. "Suppose she had to get rid of him!"
    "Kitty!"
    "Don't look at me like that. The girl wasn't telling all the truth. You can't deny that. There are too many loopholes. She says Parly sent for her to tell her something about her husband and then didn't. Does that sound likely?"
    "Well---" I said slowly. "Parly was a liar and a troublemaker. He was petty and mean; I know that myself. Sadistic perhaps in a petty way. Yes---I think it could have happened like that."
    "So Sally Wilson went home and cried all night!" Kitty said scornfully.
    "Yes, I think that could have happened. If for no other reason because she may be in love with Jim and talking to Parly brought Johnny back and reminded her so she felt disloyal to Johnny and---"
    Kitty interrupted. "You're making a case for her. You've always got a soft spot in your heart for someone you like. And you're a sucker for young love."
    Kitty, normally, was a sentimentalist and a matchmaker, bar none. I said tartly, "What about yourself?"
    "If you think I'd let anything or anybody hurt Harry, I won't!"
    "But Sally---"
    "She was there. She was with Parly. He was murdered. And she's scared! You can see that."
    I could. Murder is shocking, yes; even the murder of someone known as slightly as, by her account, Sally knew Parly. It had been painful and difficult for Sally to talk of Johnny, stirring up again the memories and grief that Parly had recalled to her the previous night. Yet did any of it quite add up to the odd effect about Sally about some deep and secret shock, some inner, desperate resolve...?

>90 lyzard: Well now, that sounds interesting! Assuming I could find it, can I read this one without having read the first six? I know, I know, but hypothetically speaking ...

>91 rosalita:

Hypothetically...yes, I suppose you could. The earlier ones need to be read together because the characters recur and they centre on Sarah and her policeman sidekick, but in this one she's out on her own.

Finished The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame for TIOLI #8.

Dear me.




Now reading The Clan Of The Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel.

>93 lyzard: I remember that feeling...

*waves* - very belatedly making my visit

Big congratulations on finishing the Elsie Dinsmore series last year! (and on all the other reading of course)

I don't think I'm up to joining in any of the reading challenges this year but will be here for the sloths, lemurs, quokkas and frogs :-)

>94 Helenliz:

So many WORDS... And the other stuff. But mostly the words.

>95 souloftherose:

Heather!! How lovely to have you here again. :)

Thanks for that: mighty glad to see the back of Elsie; that made the year a success whatever else happened!

You're missed around the challenges of course, but what works best for you is what's important. Meanwhile, if the sloths, lemurs, quokkas and frogs are bringing you to my yard I'll have to see what I can do... :D

2023 #10

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

Captain Nemesis - Though born into a plantation-owning family in South Carolina, Nathaniel Andrews follows his forebears' path and enlists in the British navy, where as "a colonial" he must struggle against prejudice and contempt. Nat is thrilled to be able to escort his fiancée, Molly Lancaster, on a visit to relatives in London, but her dazzled pursuit of social success drives a wedge between them. Personal catastrophe follows when Nat finds himself under arrest and facing court-martial on a charge of selling naval plans to the French: Molly turns against him; his best friend, John Sherbourne, is the man to give false evidence against him; and though the admiral overseeing his trial listens as Nat points out the contradictions in the evidence, in the end all he can do is sentence him to transportation for life rather than hanging. Soon Nat finds chained himself in the belly of a transport ship, where he survives by clinging to a vision of escape and revenge... Francis van Wyck Mason's Captain Nemesis is an erratic and unsatisfactory historical romance, which allows its determination to demonise the British to carry it to rather absurd lengths. This the the kind of book that distracts the reader from its main plot with its questionable minutiae: it is factually wrong at several points about convict transportation, which made me look askance at the rest; it offers a ridiculous portrait of George III; it ties itself in knots on the question of slavery (one wonders why Mason made his American hero a Southerner, if that was going to be an issue); and it depicts the Royal Navy as evil, corrupt and incompetent from top to bottom, leaving the reader to wonder how exactly Britannia ever managed to rule the waves. And of course---the entire might of Britain is hardly adequate to the task when confronted by one righteously angry American... Purely as an adventure novel, however, Captain Nemesis is somewhat more successful. When the transport is beset by cholera and shipwreck, Nat manages to lead a band of survivors to the temporary safety of a longboat, and from there to possession of a slaver off the coast of Africa. Having (after some debate) released the ship's human cargo, Nat and the others pledge themselves to two courses of action: they will turn pirate--against no nation, but rather against the actual pirates roaming the seas; and they will take their revenge upon the British whenever they get the chance. From a base in Madagascar, the crew led by "Captain Nemesis" becomes the scourge of the surrounding waters---until events reunite Nat Andrews with Molly Lancaster, and bring him face-to-face in battle with John Sherbourne, the man who betrayed him...

    "Loose the prisoners?" Trumbull asked. "Now?"
    "Aye, they'll not be able to do any mischief, even if it's in their minds, not in this blow. If they bear a good hand, keep them above deck, parcel them out between your two watches... But don't forget to tell them," Nat added, "that the first one who doesn't pull his weight goes over the side. Tell them Captain Nemesis is a just man but cruel hard---he'd think no more of ditching a malingerer than he would of emptying a bucket of slops over the side."
    A greenish O'Hare peered at Nat as he came back from the rail. "And d'you really mean to fling 'em over the side if they try to make trouble?" he asked.
    The grin widened still further. "So long as they think I mean to, it won't be necessary to prove it one way or another," Nat told the Irishman and turned away again.
    As he went down the companionway that led to the sternmost cabin, it was so dark he had to feel his way. With all lights shielded aboard Santee tonight they should have lost the frigate by morning, barring unnaturally bad luck.
    They had passed their first test, then, and they had given a good account of themselves. Of course this had been flight, not fight, but there would come a day when Santee would carry cannon, her crew would be full-handed and each man trained in what to do. Then the Royal Navy that had wickedly ruined him, thrown him into chains, dexiled him to a lonely, heartbroken death---and for no reason---would find out how well Nathaniel Andrews, Captain Nemesis, had been trained to blow an enemy to Hell...

>85 lyzard: Kim. Oh my. Plot seemed slow-moving and redundant but the larger context was engaging, if bewildering. Planning some further reading to help with that. Actually felt that it was a book one should read, the first time, in childhood, when the context of most novels is pretty mysterious. I read Anne of Green Gables for the first time when I was 8. Pretty sure I couldn’t find PEI on a map.

>98 booksaplenty1949:

That's a very good point! I always read above my age so a lot of what I did read was rather mystifying. :)

I think we're intended to feel the rush and confusion of Kim's environment, for all that he's at home in it; though no doubt there are numerous details that would have been meaningful to contemporary British readers, but which fly a little over our heads.

2023 #7

Publication date: 1938
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Nero Wolfe #6
Read for: Shared read

Some Buried Caesar - Archie Goodwin is chauffeuring Nero Wolfe to an upstate New York agricultural fair, where Wolfe's orchids are in competition, when a blown tyre leaves them stranded with a damaged car. The two finally decide that crossing a field to the nearest house is their most practical option, but have reason to regret their choice when confronted by a dangerous bull. Caroline Pratt, the niece of the bull's owner, drives into the field and manages to rescue them both. Wolfe and Archie are then witness to a scene between Thomas Pratt, a self-made millionaire and owner of a diner franchise, and several local men including Monte McMillan, the bull's previous owner, who was forced to sell him after his herd was decimated by anthrax. The visitors discover that Pratt intends to butcher and barbecue the bull - a champion Guernsey known as Hickory Caesar Grindon - as a publicity stunt. A second scene follows, this one with Clyde Osgood, the son of a neighbour, who bets Pratt $10,000 that he will not carry the stunt through. Wolfe manages to parlay the situation into a comfortable retreat for himself and Archie while the car is being repaired, offering the latter's services as a guard for the bull. Archie's lonely vigil is relieved by Lily Rowan, a visitor to the Pratts, who has taken a shine to him; but the romantic interlude is horrifyingly interrupted when the two discover the body of Clyde Osgood in the field, apparently gored to death by Caesar... For the second book in a row we find Nero Wolfe away from his New York brownstone and well out of his comfort zone---which may account for the fact that Some Buried Caesar also finds him somewhat off his game, or at least too casual about murder for his own good. Wolfe's inspection of the scene convinces him that Clyde Osgood's death was no accident; but deciding that it's no business of his (translation: no-one's paying him), he keeps his deductions to himself and lets the local authorities draw the wrong conclusions---so that by the time a grief-stricken Frederick Osgood does him hire him to investigate, most of the evidence has been destroyed and Wolfe must start over from scratch. Meanwhile, Some Buried Caesar takes a number of diversions, some of which operate to flesh out the details of this series' general milieu, and others which will, I gather, have importance going forward. One of the striking things about this series is the way that Rex Stout manages to integrate all sorts of off-kilter topics and details into his narratives - for example, Wolfe's orchids, ongoingly, and here the conduct of the agricultural fair and matters of cattle breeding and judging - without it ever feeling forced. (This is in distinct contrast to the intrusive lectures that punctuate S. S. Van Dine's contemporaneous Philo Vance novels, which try the same thing to very different effect, and makes me wonder if Stout was provoked by the latter.) While Wolfe is overseeing his champion orchids, and sampling the surprisingly high-quality cuisine of the fair, Archie Goodwin is getting himself thoroughly entangled with Lily Rowan---and if we're inclined to roll our eyes at this rather sparring "romance", at least we can't say that the two aren't well-matched: despite having subjected every woman who has crossed his path since we first met him to a sustained visual dissection, Archie is mortally offended when Lily subjects him to the same meat-market treatment. Diverting as these side-trips are, however, the critical touches here are the display of almost psychic understanding between Wolfe and Archie as they work to outwit the local authorities in order to hold on to vital evidence, and Archie's display of intense loyalty to his employer, which manifests as willingness to undergo a spell in prison - with the threat of the third degree hanging over his head - in order to protect Wolfe's case. In the wake of Clyde Osgood's death, Wolfe is hired by the angry and grief-stricken Frederick Osgood, who argues that Clyde was too experienced a cattleman to have been killed the way it appears. Further, there is the matter of Clyde's startling bet with Pratt, which suggests he knew something about Caesar that no-one else did. Wolfe not only agrees with Osgood, but has already concluded that Clyde was murdered elsewhere and the scene staged to make it look like an accident. His deductions are partly based on the fact that, rather than being liberally splashed all over his face, Caesar had blood only on his horns: smeared there by the killer, in Wolfe's opinion, and evidence of that killer's facility with cattle. However, by the time he needs to prove this, Caesar has been struck down by anthrax and his body destroyed by fire, with Wolfe forced to find a whole new set of evidence in order to prove murder---or, failing that, to stage an almighty bluff...

    "You're very positive, Mr Wolfe. Very."
    "I am."
    "Isn't it possible that the bull withdrew his horn so quickly he escaped the spurt of blood?"
    "No. The spurt is instantaneous and bulls don't gore like that anyway. They stay in to tear. Has the wound been described to you?"
    Waddell nodded. I noticed that he wasn't looking at Osgood. "That's another thing," he said. "That wound. If it wasn't made by the bull, what could possibly have done it? What kind of weapon?"
    "The weapon is right there, not thirty yards from the pasture fence. Or was. I examined it."
    I thought, uh-huh, see the bright little fat boy with all the pretty skyrockets! But I stared at him, and so did the others. Osgood ejaculated something, and Waddell's voice had a crack in it as he demanded, "You what?"
    "I said, I examined it."
    "The weapon that killed him?"
    "Yes. I borrowed a flashlight from Mr Goodwin, because of a slight difficulty in believing that Clyde Osgood would let himself be gored by a bull in the dark. I had heard him remark, in the afternoon, that he knew cattle. Later his father experienced the same difficulty, but didn't know how to resolve it. I did so by borrowing the light and inspecting the bull, and perceived at once that the supposition which already prevailed was false. The bull hadn't killed him. Then what had?"
    Wolfe squirmed in his chair, which was after all eight inches too narrow, and continued, "It is an interesting question whether rapid and accurate brain work results from superior equipment or good training. In my case, whatever my original equipment may have been, it has certainly had the advantage of severe and prolonged training. One result, not always pleasant and rarely profitable, is that I am likely to forget myself and concentrate on problems that are none of my business..."

>99 lyzard: It was probably pretty exotic to most readers even at the time. We are meant to marvel at Kim’s ability to blend in to so many identities—-identities whose distinctions are mostly meaningless to us, although the fact that he is Irish rather than English gives us a hint. I am sure this was not a distinction that meant anything to Indians.

>101 booksaplenty1949:

I think it's hard to judge: a lot of British people had personal and family experience of India, some of it over decades - there were a lot more people there than those directly of the Raj - and of course Kipling himself is the perfect example of how a non-military person could experience the country. And books like Emily Eden's Up The Country, which was hugely popular, were an insight for people who didn't have those connections.

The level of detail in Kim, though, its insider's viewpoint and its boots-on-the-ground sense of a teeming and multi-faceted society, was possibly something new.

But yes, Kim's Irishness is a suggestive pointer. Are we to take it that he was already something of a masquerader, British but not English? As he was of India but not Indian?

BTW I found an article on Raj fiction which argues that Kim was/is a key work for Indian authors, and offers this description:

"Kim is a very odd book weaving together Buddhism and espionage, the colourful life of the bazaar and the Grand Trunk Road. Because it doesn’t exactly lead anywhere, it goes everywhere. It’s a children’s classic for grown-ups who are wide awake enough to get it."

>102 lyzard: Yes, there was a British community in India of several hundred thousand, but for the most part they lived quite separately from the Indian population, remained ignorant of Indian languages, etc. The fact that Kipling’s father was a professor at an Indian college and curator of a museum, and Kipling’s early employment as a reporter in India probably meant that his exposure to Indian society and culture was greater than that of the typical Brit resident there.

>100 lyzard: Very nice, Liz. The opening scene of this one makes me laugh every time, when Archie rattles off the info about the accident and Wolfe's response is more or less, "Whatever, just keep driving." And Archie is like, "You dope, the car is busted."

In general this one is a lot more slapstick than the usual witty but somewhat dignified Archie narrative.

Also, every time I read this book I have to look up "plerophory" in the dictionary all over again.

2023 #8

Publication date: 1970
Genre: Young adult
Series: The Three Investigators #13
Read for: Shared read

The Secret Of The Crooked Cat - Jupiter Jones, along with his friends, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews, delivers some items from the junkyard owned by Jupiter's aunt and uncle to a carnival that has just arrived in Rocky Beach. While there, they are witness to a scene between a man and a boy of their own age who operates one of the booths, which ends with the man snatching a toy cat and running away. He is pursued by the boys and by carnival security, but despite running into a blind alley he somehow disappears---leaving behind, however, the stuffed animal that was the cause of the fracas. The boys return it to Andy Carson, only for Pete to win the cat back by hitting targets at the shooting booth. However, a frightening incident follows when Rajah, the trained lion belonging to the Great Ivan, gets out of his cage---or is released---and when it is over, Pete's cat has gone... I wanted the toy cat at the centre of this story something severe when I first read this book, which possibly accounts for the fact that I had almost perfect recall of every incident involving the stuffed animal, right down to the detail that finally solves the case, but had forgotten pretty much everything else---which is all to the good. Particularly striking on this re-read were the scenes set in and around an abandoned amusement park next to where the carnival is set up, which are atmospheric and rather creepy. The Secret Of The Crooked Cat finds The Three Investigators befriending Andy Carson and trying to solve the mystery of the carnival's recent run of bad luck, which dates from about three weeks before: accidents and failures have the performers and workers frightened, and mean that the carnival may have to close---posing an additional threat to Andy, whose grandmother is trying to remove him from the custody of his father, its owner. Having examined Rajah's cage, Jupiter is convinced that the lion's escape, at least, was no accident: that the lock was picked and the animal released on purpose---but why? An answer of sorts comes in the form of a newspaper ad offering payment for toy cats like the one Pete won and lost---or had stolen. Furthermore, the boys learn that when operating in San Mateo, the carnival became of interest to the police investigating a bank robbery, and that this is where and when the run of accidents began. Jupiter becomes convinced that both are the work of the same man, a criminal hiding in plain sight...

    They watched as a solitary boy came out of the house still carrying a blue-and-white stuffed cat. The tattooed man appeared at the front door, looked up and down the quiet street, then went back inside. The sound of the door lock snapping shut carried to the boys.
    "Come on," Jupiter whispered.
    The grey day was growing dark early as they slipped up to the stucco house. At the living-room window they carefully raised their heads to look inside.
    "There he is," Bob whispered.
    The swarthy tattooed man sat at a long table. On the table in front of him were three crooked cats, all exactly like the one Pete had lost. The tattooed man was examining each of them in turn.
    "Look in the corner!" Jupiter said.
    On the floor behind the table were two more cats---the ones that were not like Pete and Andy's.
    Jupiter said, "He's thrown those aside! He does want only your carnival cats, Andy."
    "Shhhhhh!" Bob warned low.
    Jupiter's voice had risen as he realised that the tattooed man was really after the carnival cats. In the room, the man flung down the last cat, and stood up with a long, wicked knife gleaming in his hand...

Speaking of crooked orange cats---how do I break it to them that that's not their new bed?

>106 lyzard: Maybe they are trying to tell you they need a vacation?

>106 lyzard: One of my cats loves to sleep in his carrier. Definitely not breaking the bad news to him any time soon.

>103 booksaplenty1949:

That's true, Kipling's position may have been unique.

>104 rosalita:

I don't think any word was ever better applied. :D

>107 rosalita:, >108 NinieB:

A vacation from sleeping twenty hours a day, eating on demand and being waited on hand and foot? Poor suffering things!

Ugh, Chester has to go in for a check-up: it always traumatises him for days; if I just zip him into that carrier, that will be the end of his bed. :(

Finished The Clan Of The Cave Bear for either TIOLI #6 or #16.

Now reading The Mystery Of Swordfish Reef by Arthur Upfield.

2023 #11

Publication date: 1957
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Dr Fu Manchu #12
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (same letter starts title word / author's name)

Re-Enter Dr Fu Manchu (US title: Re-Enter Fu Manchu) - Brian Merrick, an American in Britain, is recruited by the government for a position that, he is delighted to learn, requires him to work for Sir Denis Nayland Smith, who he knows through his father, a US Senator. Brian is ordered to drop everything and travel to Cairo on command, which leaves him torn between excitement and reluctance to leave his burgeoning romance with Lola Erskine, a designer for a fashion house. Brian is disturbed when he thinks to spots Lola with Peter Wellingham, who interviewed him, and to whom he took an instinctive delight; but his orders to travel come through before he can seek answers. In Cairo, makes contact as instructed with a Mr Ahmad, who gives him a waiting brief, as Sir Denis has not yet arrived. Filling in time, Brian is almost caught in a street riot, and takes refuge in an abandoned building that gives him a view into a neighbouring, high-walled property---where, to his bewilderment, he spots Nayland Smith. When he reveals his knowledge to Mr Ahmad, he is evidently shocked and evasive in his answers---leaving Brian conviced that he is somehow mixed up in a conspiracy, if not caught in a trap... Despite that Fu Manchu-free synopsis, there is more of the good doctor in Re-Enter Dr Fu Manchu than in several recent entries, in addition to a definite attempt by Sax Rohmer to re-capture the spark of the early days of this series: a failed attempt, alas, but at least it's there. We have part of the action set in Egypt, and an emphasis upon an exotic and alien environment; a two-fisted protagonist falling for a woman of questionable motives and loyalties; a plot built on a combination of Fu Manchu's strange powers and mastery of science; and, above all, an appearance by Fu Manchu's marmoset - YES!! - but it's all a bit hollow. Part of the problem is that Brian Merrick, from whose perspective the story is told, is such a complete meathead that being forced into his company becomes more and more exasperating. (No explanation is forthcoming as to what two brilliant and gorgeous women like Lola Erskine and Zoe Montero are supposed to see in this lunk.) On the other hand, the revelation that Merrick is of no personal use, but is merely a conduit to his Senator-father - who in turn has the ear of the President - is rather satisfying. Appearing about a decade after Shadow Of Fu Manchu, this is another awkward attempt to re-fit Fu Manchu for the Cold War; but the philosophical contradiction that has plagued all of this series' recent entries - namely, that Nayland Smith and Fu Manchu ought to be on the same side - is back in full force. Here we have nothing less than Fu Manchu attempting to provide the United States and Britain with the technology that will enable them to ward off any air attack by the Soviets---and Nayland Smith trying to stop him doing it, just out of habit, I guess. There's a threat to the President behind all this, and the long-distance threat of the Si-Fan once the Communists are defeated, but it's all very unconvincing; while frankly, the "battle" between Nayland Smith and Fu Manchu is starting to make me think of Metro Man and Megamind: "We were just going through the motions, little buddy." The novel's one interesting use of Merrick is his growing disappointment with Nayland Smith. There is a suggestion that Sir Denis' career has finally taken its toll; that recent experiences behind the Iron Curtain have finally broken him. Merrick, in dealing with him, finds little evidence of the dynamic individual he remembers: he just doesn't seem to be himself; something which the reader, privy to Dr Fu Manchu's recent experiments with advanced plastic surgery techniques, might be able to explain...

    "Why not let bygones be bygones, if Fu Manchu really has come clean?"
    "Because, to mention one reason, its adoption, while making America, and I suppose the other Western allies, immune to direct air attack, would also give the Si-Fan absolute control of the Near and Far East."
    "But if it's real---"
    "Just so, Merrick." Sir Denis lighted his pipe. "That's why we have to hold the candle to the devil. That's why we have to arrest the two assassins next door, and produce the body that I suppose is hidden there. That's why I don't know what to report."
    Brian was dumbfounded. "You mean that, after what happened tonight, Fu Manchu will still go ahead with his project?"
    Nayland Smith nodded. "It's his master plot. He won't give it up easily."
    The smell of tobacco smoke spurred Brian to light a cigarette; to put himself in the background; to concentrate on these vast issues at stake.
    "This master plot may be clear to you, Sir Denis, but I can't get it. Why would the fact---and I accept your word that it is a fact---that the West was safe from air attack help this amazing man to take over the East?"
    "Because the Reds, helpless to retaliate, could be blasted into submission or unconditional surrender. And the vast underground movement that he has developed throughout the East would seize power. There'd be no holding him. I assure you, Merrick, that Hitler and Stalin were babes and sucklings compared to Dr Fu Manchu."

>111 lyzard: At least it's not Shadow of Fu Manchu. But yeah, exhaustion has long set in.

The best part, of course, is that you're almost there: only one more and I promise it's ... well, not the worst.

>112 swynn:

That's a beautiful thought, though knowing me I'll probably feel compelled on to The Wrath Of Fu Manchu. We'll see. :)

Finished The Mystery Of Swordfish Reef for TIOLI #9.

Now reading The Shadow Of The Goat by John Dickson Carr.

Finished The Shadow Of The Goat for TIOLI #17.

This is the first of the four uncollected Henri Bencolin stories by John Dickson Carr, which I mentioned when I finished / not-finished the series. Wrapping these up seems like a good way to end a short but rough reading month.

Consequently, now reading The Fourth Suspect by John Dickson Carr.

>114 lyzard: I just realized I had not yet bought this one — our first shared Bony! And I got it by redeeming rewards points at Kobo instead of giving them money, which is both awesome and also a terrible indictment of the number of brand-new books I have been "forced" to buy in the last few months from my can't-wait authors. Anyway, I now have it in hand, so all is well.

>116 rosalita:

I thought you'd been a bit quiet! :D

Finished The Fourth Suspect for TIOLI #17 (and moved The Shadow Of The Goat to #10).

Given the date, I think I'm just going to push on with these and, hopefully, get them wrapped up:

Now reading The Ends Of Justice by John Dickson Carr.

Flowers for the Judge complete and I have The Case of the Late Pig ready to go for April. >:-)

This run of short stories is inflating my figures, but in reading terms this February has been both short and rough. Granted, the Hugo was self-inflicted. :D

March is technically an 'A' month, though I have a couple of hangovers I'd also like to get to if possible. (I'm still trying to work out how best to tackle Samuel Warren's Ten Thousand A Year and, heaven help me, I may have to just read this two-columned, tiny-fonted monstrosity.)

I have also shaped a TIOLI challenge to push me through a few other things.

At the moment the line-up looks like this:

The Valley Of Horses by Jean M. Auel {best-seller challenge}
Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout {shared read}
The Mystery Of The Coughing Dragon by Nick West {shared read}
Ten Thousand A Year by Samuel Warren {C. K. Shorter challenge}
The Hunterstone Outrage by Seldon Truss {Mystery League challenge}
Gösta Berling's Saga by Selma Lagerlöf {Nobel Prize challenge}

(Noting that the Rare Book section is still closed, so The Hunterstone Outrage is still off the table, alas.)

While my film-project / TIOLI add-ons are as follows:

Alraune by Hanns Heinz Ewers
Körkarlen by Selma Lagerlöf
The Amityville Curse by Hans Holzer

That ought to keep me occupied.

>119 Helenliz:

Brilliant! :)

I'd better put a hold on that at the library (and on Over My Dead Body too).

Finished The Ends Of Justice for TIOLI #4.

Now reading Grand Guignol by John Dickson Carr.

Finished Grand Guignol for TIOLI #12, and that's a line under February---ulp!

Now reading---

---ULP!!---

---Ten Thousand A Year by Samuel Warren.

(Seriously, this thing is 741 pages long in its tiny-fonted, two-column layout, which I estimate translates to something like 1200 pages - !?)

Reading Quest for Kim to put Kim in more context. Hopkirk begins with the story of a French soldier in WWI whose life was saved when a sniper’s bullet lodged in the copy of Kim he carried in his breast pocket. Later he sent Kipling the book and the Croix de Guerre he was later awarded. After the war Kipling returned these items and became godfather to the soldier’s son, who was named Jean after Kipling’s son who had been killed on the Western Front in 1916. A story typical of the emotional connection that many readers apparently have with this novel. Hopkirk himself mentions re-reading the book “perhaps for the hundredth time” on his flight to Lahore to research Quest for Kim. A staggering thought.

>124 booksaplenty1949:

Yes, I think it's easy for us to miss, or misunderstand, the impact of Kim both as a novel and via this sort of emotional link.

I am reminded by this too of stories of soldiers reading Trollope in the trenches, the same sort of desire to "hold onto England"?

Bottom to top:

Group read, shared read, shared read, shared read.

It's called ORGANISATION, people! :D

...at the same time, I'm worrying that I may have bitten off more than I can chew with Ten Thousand A Year, which is so long, and so dense, and so repetitive (at least so far), that I don't feel like I'm making any headway (and in fact have made very little, purely on a page-number basis).

I'm thinking that I might need to try and find a reading time each day during daylight hours, and have an alternate bedtime book, if I want to make real progress this month.

>125 lyzard: I am sure that the Trollope stories are true, but the soldier whose life was saved by his copy of Kim was French, and his copy was a French translation. Apparently Mark Twain read Kim once a year, and another big fan, growing up in Lahore, was Tariq Ali, the New Leftist. So not just a nostalgia trip for Brits.

>128 booksaplenty1949:

That is interesting. Did they view it as an adventure novel, so that the espionage and disguises were the point, or a coming-of-age story, or was there something else going on?

Hopkirk does not elaborate, but I suspect that on top of the adventure story appeal of Kim there is the element of personal re-invention which makes “orphan” stories like The Secret Garden or Anne of Green Gables appealing to so many. I once met a man who had a huge collection of memorabilia and books related to deposed royalty. Someone to whom I mentioned this noted that this is an area of interest commonly found in people who were adopted—-perhaps deriving from some sense of “I am not who I appear to be.”

>130 booksaplenty1949:

Yes, those are good points.

Finished Ten Thousand A Year for TIOLI #5.





I will go further:

Dear GOD.

Anyway...now reading The Valley Of Horses by Jean M. Auel.

Well. That was quite the week. Ugh.

Anyway---as I keep saying---

Finished The Valley Of Horses for TIOLI #3.

Now reading Alraune by Hanns Heinz Ewers.

>133 lyzard: About halfway through The Valley of Horses, and ... find the series is finally earning its reputation.

>134 swynn:

For being "loaded with sex"? Stick around. :D

Finished Alraune for TIOLI #12.

Now reading The Amityville Curse by Hans Holzer.

Finished The Amityville Curse for TIOLI #9.

Now reading Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout.

>135 lyzard: Her books are 'loaded with sex'? I should revisit them perhaps!!

>138 PaulCranswick:

The second one certainly is, possibly to compensate for the attitude of the first one, which is rather more, um, utilitarian. :)

Hey, Tasmania, we're all looking at you. :D

>135 lyzard: Yeah, that and "prehistoric Mary Sue." I liked the first one, and liked it again on rereading it. Volume 2 is ... well, it turns out I hadn't been missing much all these years.

>141 swynn:

Yes, that's pretty much how I feel. I thought the Neanderthal society was well and believably imagined except for their tolerance of Ms M.S., but I can't say the same for the alleged Cro-Magnons.

Finished Over My Dead Body for TIOLI #2.

Now reading The Mystery Of The Coughing Dragon by Nick West.

Finished The Mystery Of The Coughing Dragon for TIOLI #3.

Now reading The Phantom Carriage by Selma Lagerlöf.

Reminder that there will be a group read of Margaret Oliphant's Phoebe Junior next month, conducted through the Virago group.

I will be setting up the thread over the weekend.

Finished The Phantom Carriage for TIOLI #9.

Now reading The Old Stone House And Other Stories by Anna Katharine Green.

Finished The Old Stone House And Other Stories for TIOLI #7.

Now reading Phoebe, Junior by Margaret Oliphant.

Ugh. Everything is such a mess at the moment.

Enough that I'm not going to try any planning beyond April's essentials, which boil down to this:

Phoebe, Junior by Margaret Oliphant {group read}
The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel {best-seller challenge}
Bushranger Of The Skies by Arthur Upfield {shared read}

Beyond that I have got to spend the time getting re-organised and caught up---and catch up with some people too...

ETA:

OOPS!!

I will also of course be reading The Case Of The Late Pig by Margery Allingham! - beginning shared reads of the Albert Campion series with Helen. :)

While I haven't managed to get any writing down around here, I did finally polish off a mostly-written film review that had been sitting around for ages:

Himmelskibet / A Trip To Mars (1918)

This Danish science-fiction film was cinema's first space opera, with Earthmen encountering peaceful Martians who have left behind them their own war-like ways and learning a few pertinent-in-1918 lessons.

>149 lyzard: I was not aware of Himmelskibet, so your review was a fun discovery. Thanks, Liz!

>149 lyzard: New one to me too, Liz. Fascinating!

Have a splendid weekend.

>150 swynn:, >151 PaulCranswick:

Thank you for the visits, guys! :)

The thread is now up for the group read:

Phoebe, Junior by Margaret Oliphant

All welcome!

Finished Phoebe, Junior for TIOLI #10.

Now reading The Story Of Gösta Berling by Selma Lagerlöf.

Ugh. I am in SUCH a mess. :(

Everything is completely out of control here, though I've been trying to keep the group read ticking. I do have a bit of time today and I need to get SOMETHING written up.

In the meantime---

Finished The Story Of Gösta Berling by Selma Lagerlöf for TIOLI #12.

Finished The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö for TIOLI #13.

Finished The Kidnap Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine for TIOLI #11.

Now reading The Case Of The Late Pig by Margery Allingham.

And in the midst of this mess, I have had two pieces of good news:

First, Rare Books is finally opening up again, as of next week. As I always say at these moments, I really need to visit there more frequently and tackle some of my otherwise inaccessible books. (And I really do.)

Secondly, Black Heath Classics have just made Death Of Mr Dodsley, the final work in John Alexander Ferguson's Francis McNab series, available as an inexpensive ebook: I was previously forced to leave the series hanging when this was impossible to get hold of.

Best-selling books in the United States for 1984:

1. The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
2. The Aquitaine Progression by Robert Ludlum
3. The Sicilian by Mario Puzo
4. Love and War by John Jakes
5. The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss
6. "...And Ladies of the Club" by Helen Hooven Santmyer
7. The Fourth Protocol by Frederick Forsyth
8. Full Circle by Danielle Steel
9. The Life and Hard Times of Heidi Abromowitz by Joan Rivers
10. Lincoln by Gore Vidal

Historical fiction maintains its grip, but the Cold War looms very large.

Our outlier is The Life and Hard Times of Heidi Abromowitz, a pseudo-autobiography dealing with sexual misadventures of Joan Rivers' literary alter-ego.

Meanwhile, The Butter Battle Book is a typical Dr Seuss work except that it deals (indirectly) with the Cold War, nuclear proliferation and mutually assured destruction. (No, really.)

Love and War is the second volume of John Jakes' Civil War trilogy (North and South finished #8 in 1982), and follows its opposed characters through to the conclusion of the conflict. Gore Vidal's Lincoln follows its subject from the beginning of the Civil War through to the assassination. Set between the 1860s and the 1930s, Helen Hooven Santmyer's "...And Ladies of the Club" is about a women's literary club in Ohio which evolves into a powerful community organisation. And weirdly, Danielle Steel's Full Circle is also an historical novel of sorts, following its protagonist through the turmoil of the 1960s.

Our thrillers are historical-ish too: Mario Puzo's The Sicilian is a fictionalised account of the life of post-war Italian crime figure, Salvatore Giuliano. With the Cambridge spy scandal as background, Frederick Forsyth's The Fourth Protocol deals with the theft of secret documents pertaining to the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Robert Ludlum's The Acquitaine Progression is about former generals in a conspiracy for world domination and the Vietnam vet sent to stop them.

The year's best-seller, however, was the Stephen King-Peter Straub collaboration, The Talisman.

Do I really need to introduce these gentlemen?

Briefly, then---

Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine, in 1947. He attended the University of Maine and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, working subsequently as a teacher; however, by then he had already started publishing short stories, and in 1973 he published his first novel, Carrie. Since then he has gone on to become one of the all-time best-selling authors of horror and fantasy fiction (though he has also published straight fiction of various kinds), and has won numerous awards including the 2004 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and, in 2015, a National Medal of Arts from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts.

Peter Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1943. He earned a Bachelor of Arts with honours from the University of Wisconsin (Madison), and a Masters from Columbia. He then relocated to Ireland where he began to write in earnest. He began writing "straight" fiction, but found his first success in 1975 with the supernatural novel, Julia. His later novels, though often in a fantasy context, deal increasingly with real-world horror and the impact of trauma, and often feature an unreliable narrator. He was the recipient of a number of literary honours including the Bram Stoker Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the International Horror Guild Award. Sadly, Peter Straub died in 2022, of complications following a broken hip.

Stephen King and Peter Straub became friends when the former moved briefly to London in 1977. A mutual admiration society developed, and the two discussed a potential collaboration, but this did not happen until Straub returned to the US in the early 1980s. The result was The Talisman, a fantasy-horror work about parallel worlds and a boy's quest, which became the best-selling book of 1984.

2023 #9
Publication date: 1984
Genre: Fantasy
Read for: Best-seller challenge

The Talisman - Abruptly, twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer is transported by his mother, former B-movie actress, Lily Cavanaugh Sawyer, from California to a resort on the New Hampshire coast: a summer hotel, it is almost entirely deserted as autumn bites. Jack understands that his mother is trying to avoid her late husband's business partner, Morgan Sloat; but beneath this is a great fear that Lily is running unavailingly from something else: that she is terminally ill... Left entirely to his own devices, Jack finds himself wandering the lonely seaside town and confronting certain experiences and memories which previously he had fought to keep buried: his dim awareness of another world, with which his father - and Sloat - were somehow involved. Then, one day, Jack's encounter with former blues musician Lester "Speedy" Parker brings everything into sharp focus. To his astonishment, Parker shows himself aware of much of Jack's life---and also of the strange other world that he calls "the Territories": a place where, the boy suddenly recalls overhearing his father say, They have magic like we have physics. Desperately frightened, Jack initially tries to resist Parker's quiet insistence that he has a terrible task ahead of him; but when he learns of the existence of the mysterious Talisman, and understands that this quest may be the saving of his mother - and a great deal more - he accepts his destiny... This first collaboration between Stephen King and Peter Straub is, fittingly, a blending of fantasy and horror, but built upon a more traditional framework of a coming-of-age story and a boy's quest. Overtly, the novel draws upon Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn; in its detail, it offers the unavoidable question of which author was responsible for what. It is not difficult to tell when King was charge---not least because his main faults as a writer are well on display in The Talisman: it is overlong, replete with overused catch-phrases, pop cultural references and casual profanity, and King's obsession with the male genitalia continues unabated; though all that said, the novel features most of his strengths, too, including remaining intensely readable in spite of all its shortcomings. Straub's quieter contribution is harder to pin down, though I suspect we see his hand in the concept of the Territories itself (King wasn't writing this sort of fantasy at that time), and perhaps in the two intense friendships upon which the second half of the narrative is built: that between Jack Sawyer and his polar-opposite best friend, Richard Sloat; and the earlier one between Jack and Wolf, a reluctant transplant from the Territories to "reality"; though I have no doubt that it is to King we owe the novel's amusingly thoughtful consideration of the peculiar difficulties of travelling with a werewolf. The Territories are presented as, simultaneously, utterly different from our own world yet replete with parallels: a medieval world lacking technology, but filled with strange beasts and not-quite humans, where magic is commonplace. The two worlds are intricately linked, so that what happens in one will impact the other---often with unpredictable consequences. Certain people, just a few, have the ability to "flip" between worlds: Jack does, as did his father. At the same time, most people in Jack's reality have a "Twinner" in the Territories, a version of themselves replicating their lives in a manner adjusted for their own reality. The Twinner of Jack's mother, Lily, is nothing less than Queen of the Territories---but she is dying there, too... The body of The Talisman is gripping and frustrating in turn. Having created the Territories, King and Straub nevertheless (and granted, for cogent plot purposes) have Jack spending much of his journey in his own reality---forcing the reader to cope with long stretches of the ugliest face of Middle America, circa the early 80s. Homophobia and the threat of sexual violence are pervasive in this section of the book, in a manner that inevitably forces the reader to question how the later relationship of Jack and Richard is to be viewed. (Though given the boys' ages and the vintage of the novel, I don't think we are necessarily intended to go there.) For myself, I found the boys' later familiarity and facility with high-powered weaponry, and their unflinching slaughter of the mutated creatures that track them through the Blasted Lands of the Territories (the Nevada atomic testing grounds in our world), and of the people in charge of them, the most disturbing aspect of the narrative. But for all its faults and dubious touches, The Talisman still a rousing adventure story and a quality piece of fantasy writing. Jack's quest carries him coast-to-coast, through terrifying experiences in this world and the other. He finds help along the way, but acquires many deadly enemies too---the most dangerous being Morgan Sloat / Morgan of Orris, in this world the father of Jack's best friend, Richard. It was an attempt to exploit the Territories by Morgan that set disaster in motion---a disaster that will reverberate across a myriad of parallel worlds if Jack cannot reach the Talisman first...

    "This lady..." Jack began.
    "Yep," Speedy said. "You got it."
    "She's the Queen."
    "You take a good look at her, Jack. You see what you sees when you see her. You see what she is, understand? Then you hit out for the west." Speedy stood examining him gravely, almost as if he were just now doubting that he'd ever see Jack Sawyer again, and then the lines on his face twitched and he said, "Steer clear of Ole Bloat. Watch for his trail---his and his Twinner's. Ole Bloat can find out where you went if you're not careful, and if he finds out he's gonna be after you like a fox after a goose." Speedy shoved his hands in his pockets and regarded Jack again, looking very much as though he wished he could think of more to say. "Get the Talisman, son," he concluded. "Get it and bring it back safe. It gonna be your burden but you got to be bigger than your burden."
    Jack was concentrating so hard on what Speedy was telling him that he squinted into the man's seamed face. Scarred man. Captain of the Outer Guards. The Queen. Morgan Sloat, after him like a predator. In an evil place on the other side of the country. A burden...
    Jack nodded, blinked, and raised the neck of the bottle to his mouth...
    Long seconds before Jack opened his eyes, he knew from the richness and clarity of the smells about him that he had flipped into the Territories. Horses, grass, a dizzying scent of raw meat; dust; the clear air itself...

To paraphrase Sideshow Bob:

I'm aware of the irony of decrying an overlong novel in an overlong review, so don't bother pointing that out. :D

>160 lyzard: I don't think your review is overlong, or maybe you are just as intensely readable as Mr. King? :-)

I read this so many years ago I have few concrete memories of it, other than its being where I was first introduced to the concept of boys playing "pocket pool," as practiced incessantly by Wolf.

>161 rosalita:

:P

Yes, that sounds about right. :D

BTW I do have catching up with you properly on my 42-page 'to do' list...

Finished The Case Of The Late Pig for TIOLI #7.

Now reading A Dozen Black Roses by Nancy A. Collins.

>159 lyzard: Yes, "gripping and frustrating" nails it for me. Thematically and tonally it's kind of a mess, but still an engaging story.

>163 lyzard: Looking forward to your review of the Allingham. It was very different.

>164 swynn:

In spite of everything the bottom line is that I never struggled with pushing on as I have been doing with some of our / my chunksters; never had the feeling of having to make myself pick it up.

You're another person I need to do a lot of catching up with but I want to do some personal catching up before I venture out.

>165 Helenliz:

AND another one! :D

Yes, sorry, Helen---as with Julia I feel like I've left you hanging on our new project. I'm glad we were both able to make a start. It *is* a strange book, very tonally different from the earlier ones.

Finished A Dozen Black Roses for TIOLI #2.

Now reading The Crime In The Crypt by Carolyn Wells.

Finished The Crime In The Crypt for TIOLI #13.

Now reading The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel.

Finished The Mammoth Hunters for TIOLI #10.

Not so much this particular book, but the one-two-three punch---

Now what?

I am in such a mess.

Part of that 'in a mess' has led to Julia and myself postponing our shared reads for a bit, maybe just a single two-month cycle; we'll see.

Another part is that I'm not committing to anything beyond May's best-seller (which I own! and I know where it is!! it's just over there in a box!!!). Other than that I will just let TIOLI pick my next few reads.

Having dealt with at least a few of the issues currently on my plate, I now need to knuckle down and do some serious catching up. I've got that horrible panicky feeling for which the only cure is getting stuff done, but which itself actively prevents stuff getting done. Sigh.

But I need to push through.

So anyway---

Now reading It by Stephen King.

Hello, hello, hello!

I've been meaning to check in with you for a while, just to see how you're doing and if your reading mess has improved any since we last chatted. I seem to have gotten my reading mojo back this month but I don't want you to think that means you must force yourself to resume our shared reads — I'm happy to re-assess when you're ready to do it.

The reason I suddenly realized today that I hadn't seen you around is that someone posted an article about Tina Turner in light of her passing yesterday that talked about how she did some promotions for the New South Wales Rugby League in 1989-1995. Here's a link to the article, though I make no assertions about its accuracy in regards to her impact on the sport:

Tina Turner's association with Australian rugby credited for rise in sport's popularity

Take care, and if the reason you've been absent is because Stephen King's It has you hiding under the bed, let us know and we'll send a rescue unit down under. :-)

I did see you blog post, Liz, so that made me feel better. But we’ve been missing you here.

Hi Liz, Are you up for our Allingham read in June? I have Dancers in Mourning and a fabulous TIOLI challenge for it. Happy to postpone both if you're not up for it quite yet.
Hope you & the cats are all doing OK.

>172 rosalita:, >173 Matke:, >174 Helenliz:

Thanks for checking in, guys. Just pulling myself out of messy family situation (not me personally but the flow-on effect). The cats are okay though and that's what really matters, right? :)

I will try to catch up with you properly over the next day or so...and maybe even get something done around here??

Maybe????

>175 lyzard: Hope all is well, and maybe this will help:

"Air pour charmer un lezard" (Air to Charm a Lizard) by Rudolf Escher (1953):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kewK1Iokp0

(Pure coincidence--this was playing on the radio as I was reading your post!)

>176 kac522:

Aww, thank you! :D

Yeah, I'm okay, just overwhelmed.

Yes...'overwhelmed' is the word for it. In fact I think if I let myself look squarely at exactly how much of a mess I'm in, I'd probably have a panic attack. So---quick glances and baby steps:

Finished---
- It by Stephen King for TIOLI #11
- Cut Throat by Christopher Bush for TIOLI #10
- World's End by Upton Sinclair for TIOLI #13

Now reading The Secret Of Amityville by Hans Holzer.

(This will be my lowest month's tally ever, which speaks to how things have been going.)

...but as Gail noted up-thread, over the past few days I have managed to lock myself away and (of all things!) get a little blogging done:

I have written up Sayings And Doings. A Series Of Sketches From Life by Theodore Hook, from 1824, a collection of four novellas set in contemporary British society that supposedly illustrate certain maxims (but not really).

Sayings And Doings

...which also allows me to share with you this understandably shocked lemur:

Just popping in to say please take care of yourself Liz! If you need to postpone June's bestseller just say the word

>181 swynn:

I haven't even looked to see what it is yet. :D

Thanks, you're on my catch-up list of course!

>175 lyzard: I'm so sorry you've had real-life messiness to deal with, Liz. I hope you come out on the other side soon, and more or less intact. Reassuring that Chester and Spike endure, which does seem to be a feline superpower. :-)

So glad to see you feeling well enough to post, Liz. Families are just so difficult.

Finishing off any (later) Stephen King is a major accomplishment!

And the lemur: he’s shocked, shocked, I tell you. ;-)

Sorry to hear that life has been inconvenient. Glad the cats are OK. >:-)
Hear from you soon about Campion. Happy to postpone for a month, if that suits you better.

>172 rosalita:, >183 rosalita:

Julia---

No, nothing so easy to cope with as a demonic clown!

Great to hear that things are going better for you, though. I should be good to go with Bushranger Of The Skies in June, if that suits you? Hopefully after that we can settle back down into our alternating reads.

Thank you for that link: yes, all that's true; our game is in mourning at the moment. Those campaigns were very important in lifting league's profile and making people look at it differently. Now, you hit anyone of the right age with 'Simply The Best' and the response is almost Pavlovian. :)

I know I have a lot of catching up to do on your threads and hope to be there properly in the next day or two.

>173 Matke:

Thank you for stopping in, Gail, and for checking up on my poor neglected blog! I have an ongoing vision of regular updates but somehow it never quite happens...

It seems that there's more King on the horizons so I'd better gird my loins!

That lemur has every reason to be shocked. :D

>174 Helenliz:, >185 Helenliz:

I should be able to join you for Dancers In Mourning in June, Helen, so feel free to go ahead and list that for TIOLI.

(Another thing I haven't yet looked at, shocking!)

>181 swynn:

AAAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!

Yeah. :D

I own a copy of that too so I'm good to go; but I'm also good with taking a break if you'd rather put a bit more space between the two King chunksters: let me know what works best for you.

I also need to touch base with you about our next banned book---which as you probably know is a bit...well...though unlike The Sorrows Of Elsie, it's available here: I hardly know whether to be pleased or horrified! (But definitely relieved to be able to access it via a storage request and not be required to look anyone in the face while I'm borrowing it.)

Sayings And Doings was - ulp! - #12 for the year; which means that I am - ULP!! - now done with January...

January stats:

Works read: 12
TIOLI: 12, in 12 different challenges, with 2 shared reads

Mystery / thriller: 5
Classic: 3
Historical romance: 1
Young adult: 1
Fantasy: 1
Horror: 1

Series works: 7
Re-reads: 2
Blog reads: 1
1932: 0
1931: 1
Virago / Persephone: 0
Potential decommission: 0

Owned: 0
Library: 4
Ebooks: 8

Male authors : female authors: 11 : 2

Oldest work: Sayings And Doings; or, Sketches From Life (First Series) by Theodore Hook (1824)
Newest work: The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub (1984)

A surprised sloth seemed in order, too...

So. June.

So far my commitments extend only to the following (and even that with a 'maybe'):

The Tommyknockers by Stephen King {best-seller challenge} (maybe)
Bushranger of The Skies by Arthur Upfield {shared read}
Dancers In Mourning by Margery Allingham {shared read}

I don't think I want to take it any further than that. Though it would be nice to get something read via Rare Books, which is now reopen and with extended hours: I should be taking advantage of that.

What I need to do most is nail myself down to at least one review per day. The other thing I'm contemplating is the re-read of one or more past blog-reads, where I've left it too long to get the books written up just by skimming.

>175 lyzard: I must admit that your relative absence did have me worried for you Liz.

Glad that you are back and that the cats, at least, are in good form.

>186 lyzard: June for the next Bony sounds good to me, Liz. I've been missing my visits to the 20th century Australian outback. :-)

I love the connection between Tina Turner and league rugby. The commercials that were linked in the article were a lot of fun to watch even without knowing who anyone besides Tina was.

>191 lyzard: SLOTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is he surprised, though? He definitely looks contemplative; perhaps more of a "I wasn't sure the old girl still had it in her" kind of vibe? :-D

And belatedly because I missed it earlier, LEMUR!!!!!!!!! That one is definitely surprised.

>189 lyzard: I'm good with reading The Tommyknockers in June.

Carl Van Vechten's book is available to me also, but I wasn't looking forward to it for the same kind of reasons you describe -- checking it out, and leaving it on a table or shelf in view of others in the house would feel ick. Not that I haven't felt ick before for the sake of literature, but I'm good with skipping it if you prefer. Or we could just tell ourselves we're postponing it for last.

Update: oh, wait. There's a digital version available on Kindle for $0.99. If we decide to proceed with it, that's the route I'll probably take.

Carl Van Vechten’s title was considered controversial even at the time, if that’s any help. But I think that it is a must-read for anyone interested in the Harlem Renaissance. Van Vechten is portrayed in Nella Larsen’s Passing, BTW, of which an excellent movie version was made in 2021.

>188 lyzard: Done. Challenge 15 added.

Since you guys keep bringing them up... :D

>193 PaulCranswick:

Hi, Paul! Thank you for checking in. :)

>194 rosalita:, >195 rosalita:

Yep, good to go. I don't know if you're TIOLIing at the moment but anyway I have added Bushranger Of The Skies to June's #9.

It was a strange advertising campaign, really: the sport's administrators weren't really known for thinking outside the box, let alone that far outside the box (still aren't); but it worked brilliantly: it raised the game's profile and made people look at it differently---and as you say, made it fun.

And of course around the same time she made Mad Max III and was in with all the local film people, so between the two she was pretty thoroughly adopted as "one of ours".

I though that sloth looked a little gobsmacked---perhaps for the reason you suggest. :P

>196 swynn:

Okay then {*girds loins*}.

>196 swynn:, >197 booksaplenty1949:

I'm up for reading the Van Vechten but like you I'm not sure how to handle it. No reading on the train, that's for sure! :D

Thank you for that information: I didn't know that and haven't yet read Passing (though I should have: more Harlem Renaissance generally, in fact). Yes, I got the impression when I was researching this that Van Vechten actually "meant well" (damning phrase!), but obviously there are going to be some issues dealing with this book.

>198 Helenliz:

Excellent, see you there!

>201 lyzard: I can't remember if it was in the article I linked or another one that I saw her manager at the time was an Australian, so presumably that had something to with it as well. But regardless, an inspired marketing campaign for sure. I love that the rugby league folks still remember it and honor her. Very cool!

The sloth may also have been startled to see me talking smack when I was also far behind in my reviews — though unlike you I succumbed to the temptation to write some quickies instead of my usual dissertations. :-)

Finished The Secret Of Amityville for TIOLI #1.

Now reading The Mystery Of The Flaming Footprints by M. V. Carey...

...both because I think I can squeeze it in before the end of the month, and because we're all behind on these shared reads too, though we haven't discussed it. :)

I'm disturbed to note that along with another new series author, they seem to have changed cover artist at this point and the boys just look wrong. (Though whoever it is has taken onboard Jupe's canon passion for Hawaiian shirts...)

>203 lyzard:

Oh yes, there were links already in place or it never would have happened, but still... We've been having tributes all over the place for the last week including our league broadcasts using her music as their intro / outro themes. :)

Speaking of talking smack, see >205 lyzard: :D

>206 lyzard: Egads, that cover is terrible! Is that supposed to be Pete in the middle? When did he become a redhead? For that matter, if it's meant to be Bob (which was my first thought because I think Pete was always the blond one, but then Bob should be the one wearing glasses) Bob also is not meant to be a redhead.

>207 rosalita:

Bob is blond, Pete has a sandy crewcut; both of those are wrong. :(

ETA: Hmm, okay: Pete is shown as a bit reddish on some of the early covers, presumably for contrast.

>208 lyzard: I'm going to have to go back and look at my covers tomorrow, but I think it's safe to say none of them look like themselves here!

So which of these variant Jupes do you like better: angry thug Jupe, skinny Goth Jupe or replaced-by-Alfred-Hitchcock Jupe? :D


    

>210 lyzard: Those are all terrible (especially the one that disappears Jupiter altogether wtf) but the first one wins if only by being slightly less ridiculous than the other two!

>211 rosalita: I'm with Julia on the cover pick.

The French cover is bizarre for more reasons than a missing investigator. Did they really change the title to "The Eagle That Had Only One Head" ?? Or is that a translation of a different mystery?

>212 swynn:

That retitling is a reasonable interpretation of the text, but it gives away an important plot-point; don't know what they had against flaming footprints, though.

The more I look at that second cover, the more I wonder if it's Jupe cowering in the background and that the skinny Goth is Pete...which might make it even worse!

>213 lyzard: Jupiter Jones does not cower! (Also, I think you might be right about who is who.)

>214 rosalita:

There oughta be a law against it! :D

As always when I get myself into a horrible mess, I set up a new thread where all of my issues will miraculously solve themselves---

See you there!