lyzard's list: Borrowing surcease of sorrow from books in 2022

I've done something like this before, but I've decided it's time to highlight some more Australian wildlife.

Be warned, though: this year it isn't only going to be the cute and cuddly ones...

****

I thought I'd start you off easy, though:

The sugar glider is one of seven* species of Australian volplane possums, or gliders. It is native to a small portion of southeastern Australia, in the regions of southern Queensland and most of New South Wales east of the Great Dividing Range.

(*Recent evidence suggests that the genus Petaurus consists of three separate species, of which the sugar glider is one.)

Sugar gliders are small, distinctly striped, highly social animals that tend to live in colonies. Their patagia allow them to glide between trees in pursuit of food, and they are capable of travelling up to 50 metres in a single leap. They are marsupials, and females give birth to only one or two babies at a time, which allows them to continue gliding while pregnant or nursing.


  

As was the case last time, my thread-title is taken from Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven (the full text of which may be found here).

I was really hoping that by the time 2022 rolled around, this wouldn't be an appropriate quote...but here we are:

    Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
    Eagerly I wished the morrow;---vainly I had sought to borrow
    From my books surcease of sorrow---sorrow for the lost Lenore---
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore---
        Nameless here for evermore...

Welcome!

...as once again I kid myself that a New Year will make all the difference... :)

It is a weird and frustrating contradiction, that having more (enforced) time on my hands has led to less getting done. Partly this is from a sense that anything and everything can "wait until tomorrow", but also from a general and prevailing feeling of frustration and mild (or nor so mild) anxiety that makes it hard to settle into a routine.

I really want to work at this---and I know that it's a...what's the opposite of vicious?...circle, in that I will feel better, and I will get more done, if I can find my rhythm again.

And at last there seems cause for cautious optimism on the library front, after having been cut off from my main source of physical books for the better part of two years.

So what do I want from 2022?---

1. To start out organised, and to stay organised.

2. To be more social: to visit more threads - and comment when I do; to work harder at shared reads; and to participate in more group activities.

3. To keep all my challenges ticking over.

4. To mix up my reading more---even if that just means occasionally reading crime fiction from the 2020s instead of the 1920s.

5. Oh...and of course my poor blog...

Please note: in a desperate effort to get my 2021 reviews finished, I have set up another thread - here - just for that. No-one is obliged to visit or comment there, though of course it would be very motivating... :)

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

Currently reading:



Dangerous Cargo by Hulbert Footner (1934)

2022 reading

January:

1. Tom Cringle's Log by Michael Scott (1833)
2. The Heroine; or, Adventures Of A Fair Romance Reader by Eaton Stannard Barrett (1813)
3. And Now Tomorrow by Rachel Field (1942)
4. The Island Of Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer (1941)
5. The Mystery Of The Fiery Eye by Robert Arthur (1967)
6. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach (1970)
7. Royal Escape by Georgette Heyer (1938)
8. The Gutenberg Murders by Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning (1931)
9. The Box Office Murders by Freeman Wills Crofts (1929)
10. Wheels Within Wheels by Carolyn Wells (1923)
11. The Mystery Of The Burnt Cottage by Enid Blyton (1943)
12. Elsie At The World's Fair by Martha Finley (1894)
13. The Marquis Of Carabas by Elizabeth Brodnax (1991)
14. Hotel Bosphorus by Esmahan Aykol (2001)
15. Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (1965)
16. The Looking-Glass War by John le Carré (1965)

February:

17. The Song Of The Lark by Willa Cather (1915)
18. Glenarvon by Lady Caroline Lamb (1816)
19. Mr Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marrat (1836)
20. Elsie's Journey On Inland Waters by Martha Finley (1895)
21. The Teeth Of The Tiger by Maurice Leblanc (1914)
22. Castle Skull by John Dickson Carr (1931)
23. Dancing Death by Christopher Bush (1931)
24. The Girl In The Cellar by Patricia Wentworth (1961)
25. Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout (1934)

Books in transit:

Possible requests:
From Man To Man by Olive Schreiner {Fisher storage}
Maid In Waiting by John Galsworthy {Fisher storage}
The Crooked Furrow by Jeffery Farnol {Fisher storage}
Blanche Among The Talented Tenth by Barbara Neely {Fisher storage}
Sir John Magill's Last Journey by Freeman Wills Crofts {Fisher storage / JFR}
Mr Fortune Objects by H. C. Bailey {JFR}
The Crime Conductor by Philip MacDonald {JFR}
Le Port des Brumes by Georges Simenon {ILL}

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

On loan:
**The Alington Inheritance by Patricia Wentworth (22/02/2022)
**The Dragon Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine (22/02/2022)
**Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope (22/02/2022)
**The Bone Is Pointed by Arthur Upfield (26/02/2022)
*Ripley Under Ground by Patricia Highsmith (26/02/2022)
*Hotel Bosphorus by Esmahan Aykol (18/03/2022)
*Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (18/03/2022)
*The Looking-Glass War by John le Carré (18/03/2022)
*Fer-De-Lance by Rex Stout (25/03/2022)

Purchased and shipped:

Ongoing reading projects:

Blog reads:
Chronobibliography: Incognita; or, Love And Duty Reconciled by William Congreve
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 Old Engagement by Julia Day
- The Abbess by Frances Trollope
Reading Roulette: Pique by Frances Notley / Our Mr Wrenn by Sinclair Lewis
Australian fiction: Alfred Dudley; or, The Australian Settlers by Sarah Porter
Gothic novel timeline: Anecdotes Of A Convent by Anonymous
Early crime fiction: The Mysteries Of London by G. W. M. Reynolds
Silver-fork novels: Sayings And Doings; or, Sketches From Life (First Series) by Theodore Hook
Related reading: Gains And Losses by Robert Lee Wollf / The Man Of Feeling by Henry Mackenzie / Le Loup Blanc by Paul Féval / Theresa Marchmont; or, The Maid Of Honour by Catherine Gore

Group reads:

Next up: The Perpetual Curate by Margaret Oliphant

General reading challenges:

America's best-selling novels (1895 - ????):
Next up: Centennial by James A. Michener

Georgette Heyer: straight historical fiction:
Next up: My Lord John

Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver series (shared reads):
Next up: The Girl In The Cellar

"The Three Investigators" (shared reads):
Next up: The Mystery Of The Silver Spider

Virago chronological reading project:
Next up: Aurora Floyd by Mary Elizabeth Braddon / The Perpetual Curate by Margaret Oliphant

The C.K. Shorter List of the Best 100 Novels:
Next up: Mr Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marryat

A Century Of Reading:
Next up: 1816 - Glenarvon by Lady Caroline Lamb

Mystery League publications:
Next up: The Tunnel Mystery by J. C. Lenehan

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

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

Random reading 1940 - 1969:
Next up: Rally Round The Flag, Boys! by Max Shulman

Potential decommission / re-shelving:
Next up: The Marquis Of Carabas by Elizabeth Brodnax

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

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

TBR notes:

Currently 'missing' series works:

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

The White-Faced Man (aka "The Praying Monkey") by Gavin Holt (Luther Bastion #2) {State Library NSW, held}

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

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

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

The Black Death by Moray Dalton {CARM}

1931 / 1932 available reading:

The Lost Gallows by John Dickson Carr {Internet Archive / Kindle / ILL}
Dead Man's Music by Christopher Bush {Kindle / Fisher Library}
The Crime Conductor by Philip MacDonald {JFR}
The Grey Rat (aka "The Shuyler Mystery") by Ottwell Binns {mobilereads}
Snowbird by Ottwell Binns {serialised}
Gay Go Up by Anne Hepple {online; possible abridged? / Mitchell Library}
The Mystery Mission And Other Stories by Sydney Horler {Internet Archive}
Pitiful Dust by Vernon Knowles {Mitchell Library}
The Brink (aka "The Swaying Rock") by Arthur J. Rees {Mitchell Library}
The Solange Stories by F. Tennyson Jesse {JFR / Rare Books}
The Whisperer by J. M. Walsh {online; possibly abridged? / Mitchell Lbrary}
Captain Nemesis by F. Van Wyck Mason {JFR}
The Vesper Service Murders by F. Van Wyck Mason {Kindle}
The Vagrant Heart by Deirdre O'Brien {JFR}
The Black Joss by John Gordon Brandon {Mitchell Library}
Jinks by Oliver Sandys {JFR}
About The Murder Of A Night Club Lady by Anthony Abbot {serialised}
This Way To Happiness (aka "Janice") by Maysie Greig {Mitchell Library}
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}
The Top Step by Nelle Scanlan {Mitchell Library}
Murder In Wax by Peter Baron (akaLeonard Worswick Clyde) {HathiTrust}
The Dressing Room Murder by J. S. Fletcher {Kindle / Rare Books}
Poison Case No. 10 by Louis Cornell {HathiTrust}
The Man Who Was Dead by W. Stanley Sykes {HathiTrust}
The Jackanapes Jacket (aka "Murder At Hampton Court") by Edith Murray Keate {Kindle}
****
The Meriwether Mystery by Kay Cleaver Strahan {Kindle / HathiTrust}
(441)

The Matilda Hunter Murder by Harry Stephen Keeler {Kindle}

Storm by Charles Rodda {National Library, ILL?}
The Hangman's Guests by Stuart Martin {NLA / CARM}
The Lap Of Luxury by Berta Ruck {NLA}

NB: Rest of 1931 listed on the Wiki

Series back-reading:

The Red-Haired Girl by Carolyn Wells {Rare Books}
Invisible Death by Brian Flynn {Kindle} / The Creeping Jenny Mystery by Brian Flynn {Kindle}
The Clifford Affair / The Net Around Joan Ingilby by A. Fielding {Rare Books}
Burglars In Bucks by George and Margaret Cole {Fisher Library}
Nemesis At Raynham Parva by J. J. Connington {mobilereads}
Poison by Lee Thayer {AbeBooks / Amazon}
A Family That Was by Ernest Raymond {State Library NSW, JFR}
The Cancelled Score Mystery by Gret Lane {Kindle}
Inspector Frost And Lady Brassingham by H. Maynard Smith {Kindle}
A Man Could Stand Up by Ford Madox Ford {fadedpage.com}
Jalna by Mazo de la Roche {State Library NSW, JFR / ILL}
The Tunnel Mystery by J. C. Lenehan {Kindle}

Completist reading:

Thieves' Nights by Harry Stephen Keeler (#5) {Rare Books}
The Forsaken Inn by Anna Katharine Green (#8) {Project Gutenberg}
The After House by Mary Roberts Rinehart (#8) {Project Gutenberg}
The White Cockatoo by Mignon Eberhart {Rare Books}

Unavailable / expensive:

The Amber Junk (aka The Riddle Of The Amber Ship) by Hazel Phillips Hanshew (Cleek #9)
The Hawkmoor Mystery by W. H. Lane Crauford
The Double Thumb by Francis Grierson (Sims and Wells #3)
The Shadow Of Evil by Charles J. Dutton (Harley Manners #2)
The Seventh Passenger by Alice MacGowan and Perry Newberry (Jerry Boyne #4)
The Hanging Woman by John Rhode (Dr Priestley #11)
The Park Lane Mystery by Louis Tracy (Winter and Furneaux # 6)

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
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
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
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
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
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
1899: Agatha Webb by Anna Katharine Green / Dr Nikola's Experiment by Guy Newell Boothby
1900: The Circular Study by Anna Katharine Green

Timeline of detective fiction:

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)
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 Golden Triangle (8/25) {Project Gutenberg}
(1909 - 1942) *Carolyn Wells - Fleming Stone - The Red-Haired Girl (21/49) {Rare Books}
(1909 - 1929) *J. S. Fletcher - Inspector Skarratt - Marchester Royal (1/3) {Kindle}
(1910 - 1936) *Arthur B. Reeve - Craig Kennedy - The 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 Twister (4/6) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(1910 - 1932) *Thomas, Mary and Hazel Hanshew - Cleek - The Amber Junk (9/12) {AbeBooks}
(1910 - 1918) **John McIntyre - Ashton-Kirk - Ashton-Kirk: Criminologist (4/4)
(1910 - 1928) **Louis Tracy - Winter and Furneaux - The 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 - The Smiler Bunn Brigade (2/10) {rare, expensive}
(1912 - 1919) **Gordon Holmes (Louis Tracy) - Steingall and Clancy - The Bartlett Mystery (3/3)
(1913 - 1973) Sax Rohmer - Fu Manchu - The Shadow Of Fu Manchu (11/14) {Internet Archive}
(1913 - 1952) *Jeffery Farnol - Jasper Shrig - The Crooked Furrow (5/9) {Fisher Library}
(1914 - 1950) Mary Roberts Rinehart - Hilda Adams - Episode Of The Wandering Knife (5/5)
(1914 - 1934) Ernest Bramah - Max Carrados - The Bravo Of London (5/5)
(1915 - 1936) *John Buchan - Richard Hannay - The Thirty-Nine Steps (1/5) {Fisher Library / Project Gutenberg / branch transfer / Kindle}
(1916 - 1917) **Carolyn Wells - Alan Ford - Faulkner's Folly (2/2) {owned}
(1916 - 1927) **Natalie Sumner Lincoln - Inspector Mitchell - The Nameless Man (2/10) {AbeBooks}
(1916 - 1917) **Nevil Monroe Hopkins - Mason Brant - The Strange Cases Of Mason Brant (1/2) {Coachwhip Books}
(1918 - 1923) **Carolyn Wells - Pennington Wise - 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) {CARM}
(1919 - 1966) *Lee Thayer - Peter Clancy - Poison (7/60) {AbeBooks / Amazon}
(1919 - 1922) **Octavus Roy Cohen - David Carroll - Midnight (4/4)

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

Series and sequels, 1920 - 1927:

(1920 - 1948) H. C. Bailey - Reggie Fortune - Mr Fortune Objects (10/23) {State Library NSW, JFR}
(1920 - 1975) Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot - Curtain (38/38)
(1920 - 1921) **Natalie Sumner Lincoln - Ferguson - The Unseen Ear (2/2)
(1920 - 1937) *"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)

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

(1924 - 1959) Philip MacDonald - Colonel Anthony Gethryn - The Crime Conductor (8/24) {State Library NSW, JFR}
(1924 - 1957) *Freeman Wills Crofts - Inspector French - Sir John Magill's Last Journey (6/30) {Fisher storage / State Library NSW, JFR / ILL}
(1924 - 1935) * / ***Francis D. Grierson - Inspector Sims and Professor Wells - The Smiling Death (6/13) {AbeBooks, expensive}
(1924 - 1940) *Lynn Brock - Colonel Gore - The Dagwort Coombe Murder (5/12) {Kindle}
(1924 - 1933) *Herbert Adams - Jimmie Haswell - The Crooked Lip (2/9) {Rare Books}
(1924 - 1944) *A. Fielding - Inspector Pointer - The Net Around Joan Ingilby (5/23) {Rare Books}
(1924 - 1936) *Hulbert Footner - Madame Storey - Dangerous Cargo (9/11) {Roy Glashan's Library}

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

(1926 - 1968) *Christopher Bush - Ludovic Travers - Dead Man's Music (6/63) {Kindle / Fisher Library}
(1926 - 1939) S. S. Van Dine - Philo Vance - The Casino Murder Case (8/12) {SMSA / fadedpage.com}
(1926 - 1952) J. Jefferson Farjeon - Ben the Tramp - Ben Sees It Through (4/8) {interlibrary loan / Kindle}
(1926 - ????) *G. D. H. Cole / M. Cole - Everard Blatchington - Burglars In Bucks (aka "The Berkshire Mystery") (2/6) {Fisher Library}
(1926 - ????) *Arthur Gask - Gilbert Larose - The Lonely House (3/27) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(1926 - 1931) *Aidan de Brune - Dr Night - The Green Pearl (2/3) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(1926 - 1931) * / ***R. Francis Foster - Anthony Ravenhill - Anthony Ravenhill, Crime Merchant (1/?) {expensive}

(1927 - 1933) *Herman Landon - The Picaroon - The Picaroon Does Justice (2/7) {Book Searchers / CARM}
(1927 - 1932) *Anthony Armstrong - Jimmie Rezaire - The Trail Of The Lotto (3/5) {CARM / AbeBooks}
(1927 - 1937) *Ronald Knox - Miles Bredon - The Body In The Silo (3/5) {Kindle / Rare Books}
(1927 - 1958) *Brian Flynn - Anthony Bathurst - The Creeping Jenny Mystery (7/54) {Kindle}
(1927 - 1947) *J. J. Connington - Sir Clinton Driffield - Nemesis At Raynham Parva (aka "Grim Vengeance") (5/17) {mobilereads}
(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*}

*** 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 Garden Of Silent Beasts (5/17) {academic loan / State Library NSW, held}
(1928 - 1936) Kay Cleaver Strahan - Lynn MacDonald - The Meriwether Mystery (5/7) {Kindle}
(1928 - 1937) John Alexander Ferguson - Francis McNab - Death Of Mr Dodsley (5/5) {unavailable}
(1928 - 1960) *Cecil Freeman Gregg - Inspector Higgins - The Murdered Manservant (aka "The Body In The Safe") (1/35) {rare, expensive}
(1928 - 1959) *John Gordon Brandon - Inspector Patrick Aloysius McCarthy - The Black Joss (2/53) {State Library NSW, held / JFR}
(1928 - 1935) *Roland Daniel - Wu Fang / Inspector Saville - Wu Fang (2/6) {expensive}
(1928 - 1946) *Francis Beeding - Alistair Granby - Pretty Sinister (2/18) {academic loan}
(1928 - 1930) **Annie Haynes - Inspector Stoddart - The Crystal Beads Murder (4/4)
(1928 - 1930) **Elsa Barker - Dexter Drake and Paul Howard - The Cobra Candlestick (aka "The Cobra Shaped Candlestick") (1/3) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
(1928 - ????) Adam Broome - Denzil Grigson - Crowner's Quest (2/?) {AbeBooks / eBay}
(1928 - 1931) **John Stephen Strange (Dorothy Stockbridge Tillet) - Van Dusen Ormsberry - The Man Who Killed Fortescue (1/3) {Amazon}

(1929 - 1947) Margery Allingham - Albert Campion - The Case Of The Late Pig (8/35) {interlibrary loan / Kindle / fadedpage.com}
(1929 - 1984) Gladys Mitchell - Mrs Bradley - The Devil At Saxon Wall (6/67) {interlibrary loan / Kindle}
(1929 - 1937) Patricia Wentworth - Benbow Smith - Down Under (4/4)
(1929 - ????) Mignon Eberhart - Nurse Sarah Keate - Dead Yesterday And Other Stories (6/8) (NB: multiple Eberhart characters) {expensive / limited edition} / Wolf In Man's Clothing (7/8) {Rare Books / Kindle}
(1929 - ????) Moray Dalton - Inspector Collier - The Belgrave Manor Crime (5/14) {Kindle}
(1929 - ????) * / ***Charles Reed Jones - Leighton Swift - The King Murder (1/?) {AbeBooks}
(1929 - 1931) Carolyn Wells - Kenneth Carlisle - The Skeleton At The Feast (3/3) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1967) *George Goodchild - Inspector McLean - McLean 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) {expensive, omnibus / 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}
(1929 - 1940) *Jean Lilly - DA Bruce Perkins - The Seven Sisters (1/3) {AbeBooks / expensive shipping}
(1929 - 1935) *N. A. Temple-Ellis (Nevile Holdaway) - Montrose Arbuthnot - The Inconsistent Villains (1/4) {Rare Books}
(1929 - 1943) *Gret Lane - Kate Clare Marsh and Inspector Barrin - The Cancelled Score Mystery (1/9) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1961) Henry Holt - Inspector Silver - The 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 And Lady Brassingham (5/7) {Kindle}
(1929 - ????) *Armstrong Livingston - Jimmy Traynor - The Doublecross (1/?) {AbeBooks}
(1929 - 1932) Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson - Sir John Saumarez - Re-Enter Sir John (3/3)
(1929 - 1940) *Rufus King - Lieutenant Valcour - Murder By The Clock (1/11) {AbeBooks, omnibus / Kindle}
(1929 - 1933) *Will Levinrew (Will Levine) - Professor Brierly - For Sale - Murder (4/5) {AbeBooks}
(1929 - 1932) *Nancy Barr Mavity - Peter Piper - The Body On The Floor (1/5) {AbeBooks / Rare Books / State Library NSW, held}
(1929 - 1934) *Charles J. Dutton - Professor Harley Manners - The 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 Tunnel Mystery (1/?) {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 - The Platinum Cat (17/57) {Rare Books}
(1930 - 1960) ***Miles Burton - Inspector Henry Arnold - The Platinum Cat (18/57) {Rare Books}
(1930 - 1933) Roger Scarlett - Inspector Kane - Murder Among The Angells (4/5) {expensive}
(1930 - 1941) Harriette Ashbrook - Philip "Spike" Tracy - Murder Makes Murder (5/7) {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 - Murder Off Stage (2/4) {Amazon}
(1930 - 1931) Vernon Loder - Inspector Brews - Death Of An Editor (2/2)
(1930 - 1931) *Roland Daniel - John Hopkins - The Rosario Murder Case (1/2) {unavailable?}
(1930 - 1961) *Mark Cross ("Valentine", aka Archibald Thomas Pechey) - Daphne Wrayne and her Four Adjusters - The Adjusters (1/53) {rare, expensive}
(1930 - ????) *Elaine Hamilton - Inspector Reynolds - Murder In The Fog (2/8) {unavailable}
(1930 - 1932) *J. S. Fletcher - Sergeant Charlesworth - The Borgia Cabinet (1/2) {fadedpage.com / Kindle}
(1930 - ????) *Carolyn Keene - Nancy Drew - The Bungalow Mystery (3/?) {unavailable?}
(1930 - 1937) *John Dickson Carr - Henri Bencolin - The Lost Gallows (2/5) {Internet Archive}

*** 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 - Satan's Mistress (4/8) {expensive / National Library of Australia, missing??}
(1931 - 1951) Phoebe Atwood Taylor - Asey Mayo - The Tinkling Symbol (6/24) {Rare Books / academic loan}
(1931 - 1955) Stuart Palmer - Hildegarde Withers - The Puzzle Of The Pepper Tree (4/18) {Kindle / ILL}
(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 - ????) Carlton Dawe - Leathermouth - Leathermouth's Luck (4/??) {Trove}
(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 Murder On The Burrows (1/46) {rare, expensive}
(1931 - 1935) Clifton Robbins - Clay Harrison - Methylated Murder (5/5)
(1931 - 1972) Georges Simenon - Inspector Maigret - Le Port des Brumes (15/75) {ILL}
(1931 - 1942) R. A. J. Walling - Garstang - The Stroke Of One (1/3) {Amazon}
(1931 - ????) Francis Bonnamy (Audrey Boyers Walz) - Peter Utley Shane - Death By Appointment (1/8) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
(1931 - 1937) J. S. Fletcher - Ronald Camberwell - Murder In The Squire's Pew (3/11) {Kindle / State Library NSW, held}
(1931 - 1933) Edwin Dial Torgerson - Sergeant Pierre Montigny - The Murderer Returns (1/2) {Rare Books)
(1931 - 1933) Molly Thynne - Dr Constantine and Inspector Arkwright - 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)

(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 - The Cat And The Corpse (aka "The Corpse In The Green Pajamas") (6/22) {Kindle / Internet Archive}
(1932 - 1962) T. Arthur Plummer - Detective-Inspector Andrew Frampton - Shadowed By The C. I. D. (1/50) {unavailable?}
(1932 - 1936) John Victor Turner - Amos Petrie - Who Spoke Last? (2/7) {Kindle}
(1932 - 1944) Nicholas Brady (John Victor Turner) - Ebenezer Buckle - The House Of Strange Guests (1/4) {Kindle}
(1932 - 1933) Barnaby Ross (aka Ellery Queen) - Drury Lane - Drury Lane's Last Case (4/4) {AbeBooks}
(1932 - ????) Richard Essex (Richard Harry Starr) - Jack Slade - Slade Of The Yard (1/?) {AbeBooks}
(1932 - 1933) Gerard Fairlie - Mr Malcolm - Shot In The Dark (1/3) (State Library NSW, held}
(1932 - 1934) Paul McGuire - 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}

*** 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 - Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Simon - The Case Of Marie Corwin (1/3) {AbeBooks / Amazon}
(1933 - 1956) E. R. Punshon - Detective-Sergeant Bobby Owen - Information Received (1/35) {academic loan / State Library NSW, held / Rare Books}
(1933 - 1934) Jackson Gregory - Paul Savoy - A Case For Mr Paul Savoy (1/3) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
(1933 - 1957) John Creasey - Department Z - The Death Miser (1/28) {State Library NSW, held}
(1933 - 1940) Bruce Graeme - Superintendent Stevens - Body Unknown (2/2) {expensive}
(1933 - 1952) Wyndham Martyn - Christopher Bond - Christopher Bond, Adventurer (1/8) {rare}

(1934 - 1949) Richard Goyne - Paul Templeton - Strange Motives (1/13) {unavailable?}
(1934 - 1941) N. A. Temple-Ellis (Nevile Holdaway) - Inspector Wren - Three Went In (1/3) {unavailable?}
(1934 - 1953) Carter Dickson (John Dickson Carr) - Sir Henry Merivale - The Plague Court Murders (1/22) {Fisher Library}
(1934 - 1953) Leslie Ford (Zenith Jones Brown) - Colonel Primrose - The Strangled Witness (1/17) {Rare Books}
(1934 - 1975) Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe - The League Of Frightened Men (2/?) {Rare Books / State Library NSW / Kindle}
(1934 - 1935) Vernon Loder - Inspector Chace - Murder From Three Angles (1/2) {Kindle / ????}

(1935 - 1939) Francis Beeding - Inspector George Martin - The Norwich Victims (1/3) {AbeBooks / Book Depository / State Library NSW, held}
(1935 - 1976) Nigel Morland - Palmyra Pym - The Moon Murders (1/28) {State Library NSW, held}
(1935 - 1941) Clyde Clason - Professor Theocritus Lucius Westborough - The Fifth Tumbler (1/10) {unavailable?}
(1935 - ????) G. D. H. Cole / M. Cole - Dr Tancred - Dr Tancred Begins (1/?) (AbeBooks, expensive / State Library NSW, held / Rare Books}
(1935 - ????) George Harmon Coxe - Kent Murdock - Murder With Pictures (1/22) {AbeBooks}
(1935 - 1959) Kathleen Moore Knight - Elisha Macomber - Death Blew Out The Match (1/16) {AbeBooks / Amazon}

(1936 - 1974) Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Malleson) - Arthur Crook - Murder By Experts (1/51) {interlibrary loan}
(1936 - 1940) George Bell Dyer - The Catalyst Club - The Catalyst Club (1/3) {AbeBooks}
(1936 - 1956) Theodora Du Bois - Anne and Jeffrey McNeil - Armed With A New Terror (1/19) {unavailable?}
(1936 - 1945) Charles Kingston - Chief Inspector Wake - Murder In Piccadilly (1/7) {Kindle}
(1937 - 1953) Leslie Ford (Zenith Jones Brown) - Grace Latham - Ill Met By Moonlight (1/16) {Kindle}
(1938 - 1944) Zelda Popkin - Mary Carner - 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 - 1942) Patricia Wentworth - Inspector Lamb - The Ivory Dagger (11/?) {fadedpage.com}
(1939 - 1940) Clifton Robbins - George Staveley - Six Sign-Post Murder (1/2) {Biblio / rare}
(1939 - 1956) D. B. Olsen (Dolores Hitchens) - Rachel Murdock - The Cat Saw Murder (1/12) {expensive}

(1940 - 1943) Bruce Graeme - Pierre Allain - The Corporal Died In Bed (1/3) {unavailable?}
(1941 - 1951) Bruce Graeme - Theodore I. Terhune - Seven Clues In Search Of A Crime (1/7) {unavailable?}
(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) {National Library}
(1947 - 1953) Michael Gilbert - Inspector Hazelrigg - They Never Looked Inside (2/6) {State Library NSW, JFR}
(1955 - 1991) Patricia Highsmith - Tom Ripley - Ripley's Game (3/5) {SMSA}
(1957 - 1993) Chester B. Himes - The Harlem Cycle - For Love Of Imabelle (aka "A Rage In Harlem") (1/9) {interlibrary loan* / Kindle}
(1961 - 2017) - John le Carré - George Smiley - A Murder Of Quality (2/9) {Fisher Library / SMSA}
(1964 - 1987) Robert Arthur Jr (and others) - The Three Investigators - The Mystery Of The Silver Spider (8/43) {freebooklover}
(1965 - 1975) Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö - Martin Beck - The Man On The Balcony (2/10) {SMSA}
(1992 - 2000) Barbara Neely - Blanche White - Blanche Among The Talented Tenth (2/4) {Fisher Library / Kindle}
(2001 - 2012) Esmahan Aykol - Kati Hirschel - Baksheesh (2/4) {SMSA}

*** Incompletely available series

Non-crime series and sequels:

(1861 - 1876) **Margaret Oliphant - Carlingford - The Perpetual Curate (5/7) {Project Gutenberg}
(1867 - 1905) **Martha Finley - Elsie Dinsmore - Elsie At Home (22/28) {Project Gutenberg}
(1867 - 1872) **George MacDonald - The Seaboard Parish - Annals Of A Quiet Neighbourhood (1/3) {ManyBooks}
(1893 - 1915) **Kate Douglas Wiggins - Penelope - Penelope's Postscripts (4/4)
(1894 - 1898) **Anthony Hope - Ruritania - Rupert Of Hentzau (3/3)
(1898 - 1918) **Arnold Bennett - Five Towns - 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 - 1930) **John Galsworthy - The Forsyte Saga - Maid In Waiting (10/12) {Fisher Library storage}
(1907 - 1912) **Carolyn Wells - Marjorie - Marjorie's Vacation (1/6) {ManyBooks}
(1908 - 1924) **Margaret Penrose - Dorothy Dale - Dorothy Dale: A Girl Of Today (1/13) {ManyBooks}
(1909 - 1912) **Emerson Hough - Western Trilogy - 54-40 Or Fight (1/3) {Project Gutenberg}
(1910 - 1931) Grace S. Richmond - Red Pepper Burns - Red Pepper Returns (6/6)
(1910 - 1933) Jeffery Farnol - The Vibarts - The Way Beyond (3/3) {Fisher Library storage / fadedpage.com}

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

(1920 - 1939) E. F. Benson - Mapp And Lucia - Trouble For Lucia (6/6)
(1920 - 1952) William McFee - Spenlove - The Adopted - (7/7)
(1920 - 1932) *Alice B. Emerson - Betty Gordon - Betty Gordon At Bramble Farm (1/15) {ManyBooks}
(1923 - 1931) *Agnes Miller - The Linger-Nots - The Linger-Nots And The Secret Maze (5/5) {unavailable}
(1924 - 1928) **Ford Madox Ford - Parade's End - A Man Could Stand Up (3/4) {fadedpage.com}
(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) {HathiTrust}
(1932 - 1952) D. E. Stevenson - Mrs Tim - Mrs Tim Flies Home (5/5) {interlibrary loan}

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

(1947 - 1974) Dennis Wheatley - Roger Brook - The Launching Of Roger Brook (1/12) {Fisher Library storage}
(1948 - 1971) E. V. Timms - The Gubbys - Forever To Remain (1/12) {Fisher Library / interlibrary loan}
(1953 - 1960) Dennis Wheatley - Molly Fountain and Colonel Verney - To The Devil A Daughter (1/2) {Fisher Library storage}
(1955 - 1956) D. E. Stevenson - The Ayrton Family - Summerhills (2/2) {interlibrary loan}
(1989 - ????) Nancy A. Collins - Sonja Blue - Paint It Black (3/7) {AbeBooks* / Kindle}

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

Unavailable series works:

John Rhode - Dr Priestley
The Hanging Woman (#11)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Roger Scarlett - Inspector Kane {NB: Now available in paperback, but expensive}
Murder Among The Angells (#4)
In The First Degree (#5)

Charles J. Dutton - Harley Manners
The Shadow Of Evil (#2)

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

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

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

Books currently on loan:

        

    

Reading projects:

Blog:

        

        

Other projects:

        

        

Group read news:

The next group read will be a continuation of Margaret Olipant's "Carlingford Chronicles": we will be reading The Perpetual Curate in March, through the Virago group.

Our next Trollope read will be his 1865 standalone, Miss Mackenzie. We do not have a settled date for this yet, but probably May or June.

Welcome!

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

Happy new one! You’ve got a great thread going!

Sugar gliders are cute. Why are they "sugar"? Do they eat sugarcane or something? Or do they have particularly winsome personalities?

I'm totally up for seeing some Australian wildlife that isn't so cute and cuddly. All I ask is that you give a heads-up at the bottom of a current thread if the next one is going to feature a spider, so I know to click, close my eyes and scroll. :-)

Hi Liz, happy new year and new thread. Found you and starred you. Looking forward to following along with your reading again.

This group always helps me to read; welcome back, Liz.

Looking forward to seeing all your esoteric reading choices for another year, Liz! :)

>22 drneutron:

Thanks, Jim! - and thank you for all your work for the group! :)

>23 rosalita:

Both! Well, nectar rather than sugarcane.

Buuuuuuuuuuuut...what's if it's a particularly beautiful spider??

>24 Helenliz:

Thanks so much, Helen! :)

>25 PaulCranswick:

Hi, Mickey, thanks for visiting!

Can I request warnings about spiders too?
Happy New Year!

>28 SandDune:

Thanks, Rhian, you too!

Well...I don't promise not to do it, but I will post a warning. :D

I'm OK with spiders but if you have snakes in Australia - and I expect you do - please don't show them to the rest of us!

>30 CDVicarage:

"If"!? :D

I don't promise not to do that either, but I'll try to choose something non-threatening.

Thanks for visiting, Kerry!

Happy reading in 2022, Liz!

As always enjoying your toppers. I have no problems with pictures of spiders or snakes ;-)

Hi!

I figured it was about time for me to start visiting your thread again. :D

Have a safe, healthy and happy New Year, Liz!

>27 lyzard: Well, if you tell me in the warning that it's a beautiful spider, I will probably risk taking a peek (and woe to you if I disagree with your appraisal!) :-D

Now, just to prove that I'm not a complete tyrant, I will say that I find many snakes to be quite lovely. For some reason they've never given me the heebie-jeebies the way spiders do!

Hope you have a great year of reading!

Happy new year, Liz! I look forward to seeing what you read this year, as it’s always a source of inspiration.

And I also look forward to seeing more Australian wildlife, even though I’ll scroll quickly by the snakes and insects.

Happy new year, Liz! I'm hoping that your thread-toppers will inspire me to pull out my stack of Australian Geographic for more of the same!

Happy New Year, Liz! I am looking forward to more group reads this year!

>32 FAMeulstee:

Hi, Anita! Thanks, good to know. :)

>33 SqueakyChu:

Hi, Madeline, great to see you here!

>34 rosalita:

Okay, compromise: I will post a warning at the end of the previous thread, but you have to promise to be brave and take a proper look, deal? :D

>35 thornton37814:

Thanks, Lori, you too!

>36 PawsforThought:

Thanks so much, Paws!

Like Julia, you should give them a chance... :)

>37 NinieB:

Hi, Ninie! Nice, I hope that works for you!

>38 cbl_tn:

Thanks, Carrie! It's been great having you join in.

>39 lyzard: you have to promise to be brave and take a proper look, deal?

OK, I will do my best. But if you hear me screaming all the way on the other side of the world, just know what you've done. ;-)

>40 rosalita:

{*rubs hands in evil glee*}

So anyway...

Tom Cringle's Log is turning out to a longer and more difficult read than I anticipated, so we're unlikely to have actual book content here for a few days yet; so in lieu of that I figured---cat pictures!

Why with all the house to choose from they ended up in my entertainment unit, I couldn't tell you. However, I like this shot for showing their different sizes and shadings: Spike on the left, Chester on the right:

>42 lyzard: I bet whatever electronic device they are lying on (DVD player? Converter box? VCR?) is warm and toasty!

>42 lyzard: Love Spike and Chester!

>42 lyzard: Kittehs! We also have the nearly identical cats (to people who don't know them well) issue but both of ours are black. Very extra tripping hazard delight. :P

>43 rosalita:

Hard drive recorder. :D

Yes, I guess that's the attraction but still...!?

>44 thornton37814:

Thank you, I will pass that on!

>45 MickyFine:

I have polished floorboards so when either of them decides to lie in a shadowy bit it gets...interesting... :D

Happy New Year, Liz! I am blaming all of the lists on my thread as due to your evil influence :)

Happy New Year Liz! Dropping a star to see how that surcease goes.

Love Spike & Chester. They look like such well behaved cats. I assume (knowing cats to actually be evil dictators aiming at world domination with extra treats and tummy tickles laid on) that this is just for show.

Happy New Year, Liz. As usual I am in awe of your lists, projects, intentions, and so forth. I especially love your possible future projects, such as 40 Trashy Novels... Yum.

Happy New Year, Liz. Hope the libraries (and the virus) cooperate this year!

>47 alcottacre:

Thanks, Stasia!

(Mwuh-ha-ha-ha-ha...)

>48 swynn:

Thanks, Steve! A little surcease would be nice... :)

>49 Helenliz:

Ehh, these two don't have the brains for world domination; do a pretty good job dominating me, though!

>50 ffortsa:

Hi, Judy, thanks so much for visiting! Of course the truth is I only look organised... :D

>51 kac522:

Thanks, Kathy! I hope so too, I've run out of fingers and toes to cross.

Happy New Year, Liz! Wishing you a great year of reading in 2022.

>42 lyzard: I like the photo of the cats. Otto is busy helping me on the computer right now; he's probably waiting for another movie. :-)

Happy ‘22, Liz! I love that flying squirrel up there.

>53 harrygbutler:

Hi, Harry - thanks so much, you too!

I'm writing this while I have a rare cat-free keyboard... :D

>54 jnwelch:

Thanks, Joe! Glad you like our little guys. :)

Score! - I just found an ebook copy of The Island Of Fu Manchu, so I can cross that one off my ILL list and get the series moving again.

Though of course the bad news is... :D

Finished Tom Cringle's Log for TIOLI #16.

Quite the start to the year...





Now reading The Heroine; or, The Adventures Of A Fair Romance Reader by Eaton Stannard Barrett.

Publication date: 1833
Genre: Classic
Read for: C. K. Shorter challenge

Tom Cringle's Log - Michael Scott was a Scottish merchant whose connection with a Jamaica-based firm necessitated not only long periods spent in the West Indies, but frequent sea journeys between there and Britain. Though his authorship was not revealed until after his death, in 1829 Scott submitted to Blackwood's Magazine the first of what would become a long-running series of sketches of nautical life and on land in the Caribbean. These were immensely popular, and after the conclusion of their magazine run were reissued as a three-volume novel. Now regarded as the first important work of nautical fiction, Tom Cringle's Log is an intermittently interesting but seriously flawed work---though one whose faults can be traced to its origins. Told in the first person, it follows the young Tom Cringle from his first appointment as a thirteen-year-old midshipman in the wake of Trafalgar, through his baptism of fire during the Napoleonic Wars and his involvement in the War of 1812, to his first command and finally his promotion to captain. Nevertheless, reflecting its author's own experiences, Tom Cringle's Log ultimately spends more time on land than at sea---which is one of its issues. In novel format, this work is fatally overlong, as well as relentless in its detailed descriptions of the landscapes of the Caribbean and the various ways of life of those settled there: it becomes necessary to remind yourself that this material would have been unfamiliar to contemporary readers, and that it was delivered to them in small(er) doses, not all at once. A strange disconnect develops between Scott's lyrical descriptions of the various islands visited by his protagonist, and the pragmatic way in which horrors including warfare, executions, slavery, and various gruesome deaths (and post-deaths) are presented. For the modern reader, perhaps the most the most contentious aspect of this work is its casual - not to say positive - attitude to slavery---though this reflects the confusion of this time, when Britain was readjusting its own attitudes and procedures. The presentation of people of colour overall is contradictory, with several important individuals appearing in the narrative and treated respectfully, and scenes where the naval characters interact with them freely - dining with the men, dancing with the women - yet this is undermined by a general tendency to sneer or mock. In this respect, perhaps the most interesting and important aspect of Tom Cringle's Log is its contemporary portrait of post-revolution Haiti, with the country newly under the command of the self-appointed King Henry and its first black president, Alexandre Pétion---this set against the narrative's regret for the much "tidier" rule of the white planters. This and other interludes keep this novel interesting, but overall it is gruelling rather than enjoyable.

    I had seen before I left the deck that an action was now unavoidable, and judging from the disparity of force, I had my own doubts as to the issue. I need scarcely say that I was greatly excited. It was my first command: My future standing in the service depended on my conduct now, and, God help me, I was all this while a mere lad, not more than twenty one years old. A strange indescribable feeling had come over me, and an irresistible desire to disburden my mind to the excellent man before me. I sat down.
    “Hey day,” quoth Bang, as he laid down his coffee cup; “why, Tom, what ails you? You look deuced pale, my boy.”
    “Up all night, sir, and bothered all day,” said I; “wearied enough, I can tell you.”
    I felt a strong tremor pervade my whole frame at this moment; and I was impelled to speak by some unknown impulse, which I could not account for nor analyse.
    “Mr Bang, you are the only friend whom I could count on in these countries; you know all about me and mine, and, I believe, would willingly do a kind action to my father’s son.”
    “What are you at, Tom, my dear boy? come to the point, man.”
    “I will. I am distressed beyond measure at having led you and your excellent friends, Wagtail and Gelid, into this danger; but I could not help it, and I have satisfied my conscience on that point; so I have only to entreat that you will stay below, and not unnecessarily expose yourselves. And if I should fall---may I take this liberty, my dear sir,” and I involuntarily took his hand,---“if I should fall, and I doubt if I shall ever see the sun set again, as we are fearfully overmatched---”
    Bang struck in---
    “Why, if our friend be too big---why not be off then? Pull foot, man, eh?---Havannah under your lee?”
    “A thousand reasons against it, my dear sir. I am a young man and a young officer, my character is to make in the service---No, no, it is impossible---an older and more tried hand might have bore up, but I must fight it out...”

Ha! - no relief in sight:

Tom Cringle's Log was read for the C. K. Shorter challenge: it was the first important work of nautical fiction and, as we see, not slow to inspire others to tackle that form of literature.

Next up---

#40: Mr Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marryat (1836)

Hi Liz! I just finished a Sherlock Holmes short story in which there was fainting, and for some reason it made me think of you! ;-)

Naturally, Holmes saw through it to the truth.

>60 cbl_tn:

!!?? :D

Very glad to see you here for whatever reason!

>61 lyzard: The illustration I found for it was a woman fainting on a couch, because it was a Victorian woman and that's what they do. Somehow I expected Arthur Conan Doyle to be above that, but I was wrong.

>62 cbl_tn:

Victorian women *did* faint, but not because they were so delicate: because their corsets were so tight they hyperventilated! Though of course it was always depicted as an emotional response.

What annoys me is that fainting continued to be presented as "normal" female behaviour right up to WWII (usually in books by male authors, though not always).

I'm trying to catch up on my Miss Silver reading, and just finished The Fingerprint. I'll save most of my comments for when you post your review (I hope that serves more as an incentive than a nag) but there's one non-plot related question I have that I'm sure you can clear up.

Monica Abbott is chatting with her daughter Cicely and Miss Silver, and they are talking about books. Monica says she likes happy-ever-after Cinderella stories more than gloomy ones "which go on for about six hundred pages and end up with someone committing suicide or facing a hopeless dawn. Because really, whatever you feel like, in real life you just have to get on with your job."

To which Cicely replies, "Darling, you needn't tell us you're not Third Programme — we've known it for years!"

What is Third Programme?!

ha! That's a terribly British jibe. The Third programme was a BBC radio network that initially broadcast some fairly high brow (read heavy going by the sounds of it!) stuff. Classical music, plays, poetry, documentary & commentary, that kind of thing. All very popular with the cultural elite, unsurprisingly rather low cross market appeal.

Cicely is, in a sense, telling her mother that they all know she is not intellectual and possibly (depending on the nature of the jibe) a bit common.

>65 Helenliz: Ah, it all makes sense now! Thanks, Helen. Frankly, I'm not sure Cicely has much room to talk, but I reckon giving your mum a hard time is a time-honored tradition everywhere. :-)

>64 rosalita:

Well done! And we both know I need all the incentive I can get. (Though truthfully, the fact that it's a library book is mostly likely to get the job done!)

>65 Helenliz:, >66 rosalita:

Thanks for chiming in, Helen!

I don't know how much of a jibe was intended: I mean, I'm pretty sure Third Programme people didn't approve of detective fiction! Telling someone they're no high-brow might be an insult or it might be a compliment. :D

(I may say that I haven't read enough of the relevant 50s literature to have an opinion.)

>67 lyzard: I don't know how much of a jibe was intended

I read it as more of just a teasing remark from a daughter to her mother. And as I said, Cicely didn't strike me as very Third Programme herself.

>68 rosalita:

Agreed!

Ahem.

Sloth alert

>70 lyzard: Been there, commented on that. :D

>71 rosalita:

Saw and responded! :D

Finished The Heroine for TIOLI #12.

Now reading And Now Tomorrow by Rachel Field.

Publication date: 1813
Genre: Classic / humour
Read for: A Century Of Reading

The Heroine; or, Adventures Of A Fair Romance Reader - Cherry Wilkinson, the daughter of a prosperous farmer, is a passionate consumer of novels. Eventually she becomes convinced that she, having all the qualifications to be a heroine, cannot possibly be the daughter of a mere Mr Wilkinson, but must have a secret romantic past and noble connections. When she learns that Robert Stuart, Mr Wilkinson's former ward and her own old playfellow, is coming to visit, Cherry concludes that she is to be forced into a hateful marriage, and makes up her mind to run away. She is confirmed in her plan by discovering a fragment of an old document which she interprets as identifying her as the daughter of a Lord De Willoughby, and a relative of a Lady Gwynn. Deciding that she has been cheated of her birth and inheritance, Cherry - rechristening herself 'Lady Cherubina' - sets out to fulfill her destiny as a heroine... Eaton Stannard Barrett was primarily a poet and an author of political satires, but in 1813 he wrote The Heroine, a satire of the excesses of the contemporary novel---or rather, the novel as it had been over the preceding few decades. Today, although his burlesque retains quite a lot of its humour, it is certainly a work that will be best appreciated by people well-versed in the Gothic and other romantic novels of the late 18th century, as a number of Barrett's jibes are very specifically directed. Indeed, I hardly knew whether to be delighted or mortified when he took several swipes at my own pet author, Catherine Cuthbertson, and specifically her 1810 novel, Forest Of Montalbano, which I blogged about last year. Still---Barrett mocks Samuel Richardson, Fanny Burney and Ann Radcliffe, too, so at least Cutherbertson is in good company. While some of Barrett's criticisms are well-founded, such as the exaggerated sentiment, and the convoluted language offered up as natural speech, in such works, others are very definitely not---such as his claim that "heroines", though professing religious devotion, are not influenced by it in their actions; that they won't get their hands dirty to help themselves or others, in spite of their exalted principles; and that they consider themselves exempt from the ordinary rules of life: claims both false and unjust. And as always, there is the overriding exasperation of girls being considered foolish and ignorant enough to confuse a novel with real life. The Heroine finally blames Cherry's faults on her faulty (or more correctly, non-existent) education, but utters no criticism of the parent who let her grow up under the care of an equally ill-informed governess. However---perhaps we shouldn't take all this too seriously, as the main purpose of The Heroine was certainly just to amuse. Its narrative follows Cherry Lady Cherubina as she runs away to London; meets her manifest destiny in an actor called Abraham Grundy - or rather, once he takes her measure - and finds out she has ten thousand pounds of her own - "Lord Altamont Mortimer Montmorenci"; is taken for a madwoman on several occasions; arrested no less than three times; and finally occupies a ruin in the grounds of the estate of Lady Gwynn, who she believes has usurped her inheritance, defending her claim with the help of a "feudal army" assembled by her loyal Irish servitor, Jerry Sullivan... The Heroine is fun for the most part, and some of it is very funny indeed; but ultimately it is overlong; with, by what would have been the third volume, too many people buying into Cherry's own delusions. It all ends, of course, with a series of chastening humiliations, and Cherry, with the help of the steadfast Robert Stuart, undoing the damage she has caused in her pursuit of heroine-ism, and settling down to a proper education.

    "Upon my honour," said I, "I would not marry him, if he had five hundred teeth. But you, my friend, you shall marry him, in spite of his teeth."
    "Ah," cried Lady Sympathina, "and see my father torture you to death?"
    "It were not torture," said I, "to save you from it."
    "It were double torture," cried she, "to be saved by your's."
    "Justice," said I, "demands the sacrifice."
    "Generosity," said she, "would spare the victim."
    "Is it generosity," said I, "to wed me with one I hate?"
    "Is it justice," said she, "to wed me with one who hates me?"
    "Ah, my friend," cried I, "you may vanquish me in Antithetical and Gallican repartee, but never shall you conquer me in sentimental magnanimity."
    "Let us then swear an eternal friendship," cried she.
    "I swear!" said I.
    "I swear!" said she.
    We rushed into each other's arms.
    "And now," cried she, when the first transports had subsided, "how do you like being a heroine?"
    "Above all things in the world," said I.
    "And how do you get on at the profession?" asked she.
    "It is not for me to say," replied I. "Only this, that ardour and assiduity are not wanting on my part."

The Heroine was very popular in its day, and one of the people who enjoyed it was Jane Austen---which is interesting for three reasons.

First, Austen had already done something similar - and in my opinion, had done it much better - in Love And Freindship. Writing in 1790, Austen had the advantage of working at the height of the craze for exaggerated sentimental novels, and her own burlesque is dead on target; whereas by the time Eaton Stannard Barrett was making the same point, the tide had really passed, and sentiment was giving way to reality...not least thanks to Jane Austen.

Second - or so I believe - Austen also once took a swipe at Catherine Cuthbertson, although a much more subtle one: something I blogged about here. However---whatever criticisms Austen may have made as an author, it is important to keep in mind that as a reader, she enjoyed Cuthbertson's novels very much.

And third---what struck me while reading The Heroine is how much it seems like a dry run for Emma; or rather, how much Emma seems like a serious, realistic take on some of the same themes. Emma is certainly "the heroine" of her own life, at least in her own mind, and does damage to others and finally herself through her belief in her own infallibility and her attempts to make others play the roles she assigns them. It would not surprise me at all to discover that The Heroine was influential in Austen's shaping of her own novel.

The Heroine was the 1813 work for my 'A Century Of Reading' self-challenge.

My next gap-year is 1816, which was dominated by Walter Scott, who published The Antiquary, The Black Dwarf and Old Mortality within those twelve months.

However, I find myself contemplating Lady Caroline Lamb's Glenarvon---chiefly to see whether I "get" more of it these days than I did during my first reading of it, many years ago.

>75 lyzard: If its only claim to lasting fame is its influence on Jane Austen, that's enough!

>77 cbl_tn:

I think the evidence is pretty good. :)

>58 lyzard: overall it is gruelling rather than enjoyable

That would have been the death knell for the book for me and I would have pitched it, lol.

Happy weekend, Liz!

>79 alcottacre:

My OCD doesn't let me pitch anything, alas!

Thanks, Stasia, you too. :)

Finished And Now Tomorrow for TIOLI #19.

Now reading The Island Of Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer.

YES!!---

    "Barton made the only capture of the night."
    "What?"
    "Doctor Fu Manchu's marmoset! It was for the marmoset that Ardatha came back, Kerrigan."

Well of course it was...

Publication date: 1942
Genre: Contemporary drama
Read for: Random reading 1940-1969

And Now Tomorrow - Emily Blair is one of the "Blairs of Blairstown", whose forebears built the cotton mill upon which the New England town was founded, and whose family remains the most prominent and wealthy in town. Although conscientious and well-meaning, Emily takes her privileges very much for granted, and for the most part has little contact with the town's largely immigrant working population. The exceptions are the few years that Emily spends at Blairstown's public high school, and her friendship with Jo Kelly, the grandson of the Blairs' elderly gardener. As a young woman, Emily is outshone by her vivacious younger sister, Janice; but just before her twenty-first birthday, Emily falls in love with, and becomes engaged to, Harry Collins, a young man with an administrative position at the mill. Before the wedding, however, Emily is struck down by meningitis---and although she recovers, she is totally deaf... First published in 1942, but set over the earlier decades of the century, And Now Tomorrow is a satisfactory romantic drama with a bifurcated narrative. Told in the first person, half of Emily Blair's story concerns her awakening social conscience and growing concern for that part of Blairstown "over the bridge"---the river that cuts the town in two acting as an obvious metaphor for its social divide. The main action of the novel is set during the time of the Wall Street Crash and the early years of the Depression, with the previously steady and conservative mill becoming the focus of upheaval as orders drop, workers are laid off, and strikes threaten. Emily herself is the product of a rare Blairstown "mixed marriage", her mother having been a factory girl: this, and her dogged friendship with Jo, who becomes active in the workers' movement, leaves her caught between sympathy for the struggling mill-hands and loyalty to her family. The story of this broader struggle is told in parallel with that of Emily's personal tragedy. With the encouragement of her namesake aunt, Emily postpones her wedding and spends two years of crushing disappointment going from specialist to specialist. Finally she gives up and accepts her deafness as permanent---just as Merek Vance takes up a position as assistant to the elderly Dr Weeks. A product of Blairstown - "over the bridge" - Vance is a brilliant young medico with an experimental treatment for nerve regeneration; and he persuades the reluctant Emily to put herself under his care. Having no hope herself and unwilling to raise any, she does so secretly. As time passes with no results, Emily finds herself growing fearful for her future with Harry: less certain of his commitment, afraid that she she becoming a burden to him, she nevertheless clings to him all the more desperately---with Vance's treatments begin to take effect just as she realises that her deafness may be the one weapon in her armoury...

    "I'm through," I told him. "I'm not coming to you for any more treatments."
    Once I had got those words out, I dared to face him again. His whole body had stiffened, and the line of his jaw had grown hard.
    "There's no need for staying here on my account," I went on. "You can go back to that clinic."
    "You don't know what you're saying, Emily. You're not cured yet. We haven't reached a point where those nerves will go on without artificial stimulation. This is the most critical stage of all, and it would be fatal to stop the injections. I wouldn't answer for the consequences."
    "You mean" I went on, "that I'd go back to where I was before. I'd be deaf again?"
    He nodded, and I blundered on.
    "I tell you I can't go on, bargain or no bargain. You proved what you wanted to prove through me. If I choose to stay deaf---well, that's my business whether you understand it or not."
    "I understand all right." He turned from me and walked to the window. He stayed there, quietly staring out between the half-drawn curtains. Then he came back. Once more his hands gripped my shoulders. He forced me to look up, to follow what he was saying. "So you'd rather be weak for Harry Collins than strong for me? That's the answer, isn't it?"
    I felt the scorn behind his clear accusing eyes. I could feel feel myself withering under his contempt...

And Now Tomorrow was part of my Random Reading self-challenge, so it was back to the random number generator.

Its first pick was 1955's Sudden Squall, the penultimate entry in Jeanette Covert Nolan's sporadic series featuring spinster detective, Lace White. As I do in such cases, I shifted to the first work in the series, 1938's Where Secrecy Begins, but this seems impossible to get hold of.

So I spun again---this time landing on Max Shulman's Rally Round The Flag, Boys!, which seemed a very odd thing to be on my wishlist at all; and I could only imagine it got there via the Top Ten lists from the best-seller challenge, which I've been adding.

And yup, it was #4 in 1957.

It is also available free online, so okay.

>84 lyzard: Oh my goodness! I read Rally Round the Flag, Boys at much too young an age to understand what I was reading but still thought it was fairly hilarious (I suspect that means the humor is fairly juvenile). This book was where I first learned in the early 1970s what a ducks-ass haircut was and that certain young men of the 1950s kept a pack of cigarettes rolled up in the short sleeve of their T-shirt, all of which knowledge came in very handy when "Happy Days" hit the airwaves.

Still, I didn't suss out the meaning of frequent exclamation, "Kee-rist!" until years later when I was an adult. I'm sure,you'll figure out much more quickly. :-)

>84 lyzard:

Okay, I'll take that as a recommendation of sorts. :D

Shared (re-)read??

>86 lyzard: That hardcover copy is long gone, but if I can find an ebook version, I'm in! I'll go look now.

ETA: Amazingly, I found a copy at Kobo and was able to redeem some of my rewards points to get it. When are you starting it? I just finished my current book tonight, so I could do it anytime.

>87 rosalita:

I wasn't planning to read it until next month but I guess I could (if it fits TIOLI, of course!).

>88 lyzard: Next month is just fine! Now that I've got it, I can read it any time. :-)

>89 rosalita:

Okay, thanks!

Testing.

Testing2.

>91 lyzard: Roger, hear you loud and clear. 10-4, over and out.

Testing3.

Testing4.

>92 rosalita:

I lost the capacity to post and edit posts this morning, and got bounced out of Bug Collectors when I tried to report it; so I've been emailing with Kristi and testing around. Seems to be fixed now, phew!

>82 lyzard: Ahhhh marmoset!

>94 lyzard: Yeah, there was a whole thread in Bug Collectors about lots of people having problems. I wasn't on LT at the time so only saw the aftermath.

>95 swynn:

Is it wrong that in 1941, with the fate of the world in the balance and Fu Manchu weighing in...

...I was most worried about the marmoset??

(I think this is one of those 'If this is wrong I don't wanna be right' moments!)

>96 rosalita:

At least those people could post about it {*grumble*}. :D

>97 lyzard: On the contrary: with the fate of the world in the balance Peko is even more important. Because even if Evil should win (heaven forfend), at least we'd have marmoset.

>97 lyzard:

On that basis, I'd have to say my current situation is marmoset-worthy...

Anyway---

Finished The Island Of Fu Manchu for TIOLI #18.

Now reading The Mystery Of The Fiery Eye by Robert Arthur.

Finished The Mystery Of The Fiery Eye for TIOLI #1.

Now reading Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach.

Finished Jonathan Livingston Seagull for TIOLI #3.

Now reading Royal Escape by Georgette Heyer.

>102 lyzard: Noted.

>103 Helenliz:

Good luck! :)

And yes, the rumours were true:

Jonathan Livingston Seagull was America's #1 best-seller in 1973 as well as 1972, which means that Steve and I (potentially) get a month off.

This seemed, and seems, to me a most unlikely work for this level of success---however, a couple of the posted reviews for it suggest an explanation:

Probably one of the dumbest books ever written. Well, ever published, then. Unfortunately it was also made a part of my catechetical "formation" in the early 1970s, just like it was for millions of other Catholic kids who suffered through the organized bungling known as "the spirit of Vatican II".

This can be viewed as a story similar to the Unity School of Christianity's version of bible interpretation. Was used in my Sunday school classes as such.

Publication date: 1941
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Dr Fu Manchu #10
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (tagged 'adventure')

The Island Of Fu Manchu - As he recovers from injuries sustained during a wartime assignment in Finland, journalist Bart Kerrigan learns from Sir Denis Nayland Smith and Sir Lionel Barton that their mutual enemy, Dr Fu Manchu, is in England---pursuing a certain map secured by Sir Lionel in the Caribbean. Nayland Smith explains that Fu Manchu has established a secret submarine base in Haiti, in an enormous hidden cavern once described by the country's first black ruler, Christophe: from here he intends to strike at the United States navy, unless the country agrees to a certain pact. The three men travel to the Caribbean, seeking the two women who may give them the means of thwarting Fu Manchu's plans: one is his daughter, now known as Koreâni; the other is Ardatha, the beautiful, helpless minion of Fu Manchu, who Kerrigan loved and lost... The tenth entry in Sax Rohmer's series featuring the Chinese master criminal, Dr Fu Manchu, is (typically) a very mixed bag, though on the whole the verdict is positive. On the negative side we have the series' usual idiotic and offensive views on race, including a more than usually asinine reference to "the future of the white race"---this, at the height of Nazi Germany! On a lower level of annoyance, far too much of the first-person narrative of The Island Of Fu Manchu is given over to Bart Kerrigan's moaning and moping over the thoroughly uninteresting Ardatha. However, this is counterbalanced by the fact that Fu Manchu's marmoset makes a more significant appearance here than it has for many books...and wins even more of my gratitude and affection by biting two of the good guys. The best aspect of The Island Of Fu Manchu is its rather breathless adventure plot, which doesn't make a lot of sense, frankly, but which hardly gives the reader time to think about that, as it whips its protagonists from London to New York to Cuba to Panama to Haiti. Once there, it offers a lengthy and quite interesting description of a voodoo ceremony, albeit one seen through the judgemental (and racist) eyes of Nayland Smith and Kerrigan. In addition, The Island Of Fu Manchu is more than usually loaded with science-fiction touches, which vary from the reasonable (Rohmer makes a good-faith effort to explain Fu Manchu's gadgets) to the surprising (this 1941 novel concurs with the modern scientific view of "zombies") to the bat-shit insane---with all sorts of wacky and gruesome mad science along the way, and the revelation that Fu Manchu has relocated his secret laboratory from the south of France (as per The Bride Of Fu Manchu) to a dormant volcano in Haiti. Once in the Caribbean, Nayland Smith and Barton seek a way of preventing Fu Manchu from carrying out his threats against the US navy; while Kerrigan puruses his far more personal mission of rescuing Ardatha from the clutches of her captor...

    "That member of my staff responsible," Fu Manchu went on, "treated Ardatha psychologically. The injection to which she submitted was harmless; the antidote a mild stimulant. Localised amnesia I induced by hypnosis; I have removed it. There is no finer example of physical fitness in the world than that afforded by Ardatha."
    An emotional wave swept me. Ardatha was not doomed to the living death! Then came the aftermath---a vision of those long months of slavery, horror, fear, which she had endured.
    "Your methods are those of hell!" I blazed. "Yes---I have met members of your 'staff'---men who were once good men, honest men. Now they are zombies, automata, their sense of proportion destroyed---"
    "A simple operation, Mr Kerrigan. The drug used---a discovery of my own---known as 973."
    But I went on, fists clenched, speaking at the top of my voice: "They live in a dreamworld, labouring day and night to achieve some damnable ambition of yours!"
    Dr Fu Manchu stood up---and I prepared for the worst.
    "Must my ambitions necessarily be damnable?" he asked in that low, even tone of his. "I order that any radical change be brought about it is inevitable that thousands shall suffer. Where is the ethical difference between poisoning a man in his sleep and bombing his house at night? You have not angered me. I admire your spirit---although it is so correctly English; as correct as that of your Foreign Office which compelled you to alter certain facts in your account of my previous encounter with Sir Denis Nayland Smith..."

It was one of those weird reading coincidences that served up The Island Of Fu Manchu so soon after Tom Cringle's Log---the latter offering a contemporary view of Haiti under the rule of Christophe Henri, aka King Henry I, and the latter giving us a more "modern" view of the country, and using Christophe's story as a plot-point.

Publication date: 1967
Genre: Young adult
Series: The Three Investigators #7
Read for: Shared read / TIOLI (first and last title words same number of letters)

The Mystery Of The Fiery Eye - Alfred Hitchcock summons The Three Investigators to his office, where he introduces them to an English boy called August August, who has received a mysterious inheritance. Gus, as he prefers to be called, shows the others the cryptic letter he received from his great-uncle, Horatio August, a recluse who died recently in his isolated house in Dial Canyon, in the Hollywood hills. The letter is supposed to lead Gus to his inheritance, but he cannot make head or tail of it. The only clue he can offer is a scene he witnessed years before between his father and a mysterious Indian, which referred to something called "The Fiery Eye"... I thought at the outset that The Mystery Of The Fiery Eye was the first of this series that I hadn't read before. I was wrong about that, as it turned out---though weirdly enough, the only details I remembered were the name "August August" and Jupiter's failed mathematical attempt to get more access to the Rolls-Royce. As for the actual narrative, it's certainly brisk (read: even shorter than usual), with the boys tangling with two separate opponents as they hunt for the proverbial "ruby the size of a pigeon's egg", which was stolen from the even more proverbial "Indian temple" some fifty years before. As is often the case, this series entry deals in some slightly uncomfortable racial stereotyping; but as is also usually the case, the "foreigner" isn't the real bad guy at all; while the overt criminals are all home-grown. The late Horatio August's passion for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle leads the boys and their various antagonists on a hunt for a series of plaster busts that have been scattered across southern California; but these turn out to be only one more clue to the true hiding place of the fabulously valuable Fiery Eye...

    "I say we forget all about The Fiery Eye!" Pete said emphatically. "It's already killed at least fifteen men, and I don't want the score to become fifteen men and four boys."
    "Pete's right," said Gus. "I'm not sure I'd want The Fiery Eye even if we could find it. It does seem rather a risky thing to own."
    "Look at what happened to Black Moustache!" exclaimed Pete. "He had it for less than an hour and---zick! They got him."
    Bob didn't say anything. He was watching Jupe, and Jupe's face had a stubborn look.
    "We haven't found The Fiery Eye yet," Jupe said. "So I don't think we are in danger. At least, not yet."
    "Let's put it to a vote," Pete suggested. "I vote we abandon the case now. All in favour say aye."
    "Aye! Aye! Aye!" The word rang out several times. However, it was spoken by Blackbeard, the trained mynah bird whose cage hung over the desk in Headquarters.
    Nobody but Blackbeard voted with Pete. Gus was silent because he was an outsider and Bob was silent because he had faith in Jupiter. Besides, Jupe was awfully hard to outvote...
    "Dead men tell no tales!" Blackbeard called out and laughed shrilly.
    "Quiet, you!" Pete snapped.

Finished Royal Escape for TIOLI #7.

Now reading The Gutenberg Murders by Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning.

After being stalled for the better {sic.} part of two years, I can now move on with the Mystery League challenge thanks to the wonderful people at the Dean Street Press, who resurrected the next book in the series as an inexpensive Kindle release:


#17: The Gutenberg Murders by Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning (first US edition: 1931; first UK edition: 2021)

Another of Gene Thurston's striking minimalist covers for this mystery set in New Orleans, in the world of rare books:

>110 lyzard: What a tragedy to be denied the pleasures of the Mystery League for two years! I'm so glad you are back to living the life of a potato.

>111 rosalita:

I lived the life of a potato *before* there was a pandemic, so you can just imagine... :D

>112 lyzard: Ha! As did I, my friend. In some ways the pandemic hasn't changed much at all about my usual habits. :-)

>106 lyzard: That one was nuts. Not let's-rescue-Hitler nuts, but still and in its own way.

>108 lyzard: Oh yeah I need to get started with those.

>114 swynn:

To put it mildly! It was like 'Bride' with all its wacky science, which for me somewhat offsets the racist and sexist stuff, though of course YMMV. And, hey! - bitey marmoset!!

BTW thank you for your volcano-lair research, I did wonder!

If you start reading now you can be caught up by March, and then you can read along with me and Julia. :)

>114 swynn: >115 lyzard: Yes! The more, the merrier, Steve. They really are still fun reads.

Publication date: 1938
Genre: Historical drama
Read for: Georgette Heyer historical fiction challenge / shared read

Royal Escape - When his smaller forces are crushed by the army of Oliver Cromwell at Worcester, the young King Charles II can only flee. After the poor showing made by his Scottish troops, Charles scorns the idea of returning to Scotland; he also separates himself from the body of his remnant army, retaining only a handful of his most loyal adherents to advise and accompany him. Finding a temporary refuge at the Manor of White-Ladies, the home of the Giffard family, the small band tries to make plans. Charles' first impulse is to make his way to London; his second thought is Wales, where Royalist feeling is strong. Finally he accepts that his only hope of ever regaining his kingdom is to save himself immediately by fleeing the country. To this end, Charles disguises himself as servant, and begins a dangerous journey across a countryside swarming with Parliamentary soldiers... Set in 1651, this historical drama by Georgette Heyer deals with that period of the English Civil Wars between the Battle of Worcester, which took place on the 3rd September, and the escape to France of the young Charles Stuart (spelled Stewart here) on the 15th October. The narrative of Royal Escape is unabashedly Royalist, presenting the Cavaliers as a united group of "honest men" - though women play a significant role too - loyal to their king and devoted to his cause; while the Puritans and Parliamentarians remain a largely faceless "other", people of doubtful or selfish motivation who nevertheless comprise a deadly threat. In telling her story, Heyer is somewhat more constrained than usual by her choice of material, since the movements of Charles and his various companions during that time are very well documented; consequently, she can only reproduce the various incidents, including the famous interlude of Charles finding a refuge in an oak tree, while soldiers searched the woods below. Though it was no doubt relentlessly nerve-wracking for those involved, the repeated thwarting of the Royalists' plans and the necessary movement from house to house, and town to town, has a certain same-ishness for the reader. However, despite its large cast of characters and its shifting geography, the novel is easy enough to read, Heyer having by this time learned her writing lesson: thankfully, she eschews the stiff, artificial language that marred her first such venture, The Great Roxhythe (which is set some twenty years after this). The most enjoyable parts of Royal Escape are those scenes which find Charles trying to pass himself off as a servant, doing some actual work (although not well), getting his hands dirty, and consorting with the real servants of the houses in which he temporarily hides, much to the agonised embarrassment of his companions---particularly the dignified Lord Harry Wilmot (later the Earl of Rochester). Heyer errs a little, I think, in not stressing Charles' youth: he was only twenty-one when these events were transpiring, and so it is not altogether surprising that, in spite of everything, he chose to treat his masquerade as something of a game. And it is not surprising at all that he found two young women willing to put themselves in danger to help him---one, Jane Lane, taking him on as her "servant"; the other, Julia Coningsby, finally posing as his runaway bride. Their hopes of an escape from Bristol dashed, the Royalist party must work its way across the south coast of England, seeking out those loyal enough to risk everything to help the king, and trying to arrange safe passage to France. Each stage of the journey is fraught with danger, both from the enemy soldiers who occupy each town, and those citizens whose eyes have been sharpened by the proclamations describing the fugitive king---and by the thousand-pound reward offered for his capture...

    By good fortune, the smith was able to shoe the horse at once. He glanced indifferently at the King, remarking as he began to blow up his fire: "You'm strange to these parts, bain't you?"
    "I come from Staffordshire, but I was bred in London," replied the King.
    "Ah, I knew you weren't a country-man," said the smith. "London, eh? I warrant that's a rare, sinful city."
    The thought of it seemed to absorb him; he plied the King with questions, shaking his head over the answers, but evidently wishing very much that he could see the sinful city with his own eyes. He picked up the red-hot horse-shoe with a pair of tongs and plunged it hissing and smoking into a tub of water. While he nailed it into place, the King held the horse's foot up for him, asking: "What news is there? I have been sick of an ague these several weeks, and have heard nothing."
    "News?" said the smith. "There's none I know of, since the good news of the beating of those rogues, the Scots."
    "Oh, that!" said the King. "Were there none of the English taken that were with the Scots?"
    The smith drove home another nail. "I haven't heard of that rogue Charles Stewart's being taken," he replied. "They do say some of the others were, but not Charles Stewart."
    "Well, if that rogue were taken he deserves hanging more than all the rest, for bringing in the Scots," remarked the King cheerfully.
    The smith glanced approvingly up at him. "You speak like an honest man," he said.

Royal Escape was serialised unabridged in The Australian Women's Weekly across November and December of 1939; it was also rather lavishly illustrated by Wynne W. Davies, a British-born Australian artist best known for movie posters and pulp-novel covers, and occasional comic-strip work:

I stitch for a charity that makes quilts for children who are ill or have lifelong conditions. I thought you might approve of their latest creation.

>119 Helenliz:

Perfection! :)

Well, that's annoying:

Nearly every edition of the *next* Heyer novel, My Lord John, has "a woman in period costume facing away" on its cover. :D

Finished The Gutenberg Murders for TIOLI #6.

Now reading The Box Office Murders by Freeman Wills Crofts.

Finished The Box Office Murders for TIOLI #10.

Now reading Wheels Within Wheels by Carolyn Wells.

>122 lyzard: You've reminded me that I need to do some more thinking about what our next reading project will be once we bid fair Maudie adieu (pretty sure she would give me The Look for that bit of linguistic affectation — certain Inspector Lamb would chafe at the French). Assuming, of course, that you're still willing to put up with me on a Round 2?

>124 rosalita:

I was thinking about that too. We've been very lucky with Maudie, being able to blend inclination with accessibility; we still need to see if we can get lucky twice.

From my own point of view, I've decided to try and use the same pattern to make headway with Margery Allingham's Albert Campion series and Gladys Mitchell's Mrs Bradley series---alternating them one a month.

I don't know if you have any interest in either of those? - or, as I say, can get access? They have the advantage of being among the better-known series of the era, and so might be generally available.

Both of those are British; but I think when we were talking about this before I mentioned the Hildegarde Withers series, as sort of an American riff on Maudie? She's an amateur spinster detective who is also a schoolteacher.

Those three seem to me to be in the same ballpark as Madie tonally (if I can put it like that).

From closer to my home, I'd be really interested in your take on Arthur Upfield's Bony books, but I appreciate they may not be available to you. There is also Arthur Gask's Gilbert Larose series, which was probably the first important Australian mystery series, and has the advantage of being available as free ebooks.

From a more American-male-crimey perspective, we did touch on Ellery Queen, I think. There's also the Hugh North series by Van Wyck Mason, which have more thriller aspects, and the Lieutenant Valcour series by Rufus King---both of which have been reissued quite lately. (For better or worse, the latter is the shortest series of any of these suggestions.)

Unless of course you feel like re-reading Nero Wolfe from the beginning? :D

And in the meantime we'll just tootle along with The Three Investigators...

Finished Wheels Within Wheels for TIOLI #7...and FINISHED A SERIES!!

This 8-book series by Carolyn Wells featuring private investigator Pennington Wise and his teenage sidekick Zizi started well but then petered out. A quick check tells me I have been reading it since 2016 (!), though in my defence I got stuck on the way through on a (then) unavailable book.

Be that as it may---let's have some marmosets to celebrate! They don't seem very impressed, but that's marmosets for you...

Now reading The Mystery Of The Burnt Cottage by Enid Blyton.

Marmosets!

>128 drneutron:

I know what brings the boys to my yard! :D

>126 lyzard: That's the exact look I have on my face whenever I'm watching someone try to explain the rules of cricket.

>130 rosalita:

:P

The *rules* are easy. The terminology less so. :D

>126 lyzard: I'm more impressed than they are.

>125 lyzard: I made a start on the Campion books, so I will try and tag along if you read those.I have read the first 6. She says, adding yet another book to the need to be read pile...

>132 Helenliz:

Aw, thank you! :D

Love to have you along, of course! {*checks*} Apparently I'm up to #8. I didn't think I'd got that far.

Finished The Mystery Of The Burnt Cottage for TIOLI #11.

Now reading Elsie At The World's Fair by Martha Finley.

Finished Elsie At The World's Fair for TIOLI #12.

Now reading The Marquis Of Carabas by Elizabeth Brodnax.

Seems like you are just marching along through the TIOLI books for the month, Liz! Sorry I could not join you in any of them.

>136 alcottacre:

Hi, Stasia! Well, I've had a few short ones in a row to bump up the numbers. :)

No worries, with my reading patterns if I pick up just one along the way it's a win! :D

>133 lyzard: would you start at the beginning, or pick up where you'd got to?

>138 Helenliz:

I would wait for you to catch me up. :)

Finished The Marquis Of Carabas for TIOLI #5.

Now reading Hotel Bosphorus by Esmahan Aykol.

>119 Helenliz:. Love the sloth quilt!

>139 lyzard: oh.

>119 Helenliz: Not my work, just seemed a theme after Liz's heart.

>141 jnwelch:

Hi, Joe! Gorgeous work, isn't it? :)

>142 Helenliz:

Is that not the right answer? Since I'm only a couple ahead I thought that would be the simplest way. What would you prefer?

Finished Hotel Bosphorus for TIOLI #9.

Now reading Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö.

Publication date: 1931
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Read for: Mystery League challenge

The Gutenberg Murders - When Dr Prentiss, head of the private Sheldon Library in New Orleans, claims that his most recent and precious acquisition, nine leaves from a Gutenberg bible, has been stolen, District Attorney Dan Farrell asks for help from his friend Wade, a reporter with The Morning Creole. Wade knows people and something about everything, and is able to tell Farrell that the Gutenberg fragment was a point of contention between Prentiss and Alfredo Gonzales, the library's trustee, who believed it to be a fake. The matter is further complicated by rumours of a relationship between Gonzales' wife, Winifred, and Quentin Ulman, who Prentiss has obliquely accused of the theft. Before any move can be made, however, Ulman is horribly murdered---with Farrell and Wade soon learning that others beside Prentiss and Gonzales may have wanted him dead... The second mystery by Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning - New Orleans-based reporters who met and married while covering a murder trial - The Gutenberg Murders is interesting but ultimately a bit disappointing, at least to this reader: it has, alas, a lot less to do with libraries and bibliophilia than its title would suggest; and it suffers from a number of the faults common to American mysteries of this time, including endless interrogation scenes in which people are obviously lying and/or (if female) "on the verge of hysterics". (The latter is particularly exasperating given that Bristow herself covered a number of shocking murders without turning a hair.) Furthermore, though we have seen this sort of thing before too, we have to swallow a District Attorney waving aside his entire police force and appointing a special investigator to be in charge---this one a man with no legal training at all. Still, given that the displaced Captain Murphy's idea of investigating a case is simply to give everyone the third degree until someone cracks, perhaps it's not such a bad thing. On the positive side, The Gutenberg Murders offers an evocative sketch of New Orleans and its environs; and it features a grotesque and unusual method of murder---the unravelling of which finally points the investigators in the right direction. Wade (no first name) soon recognises that there are three potential strands to the investigation, each of them featuring the same individuals in (so to speak) different combinations: the longstanding feud between Prentiss and Gonzales, which has come to a head over the legitimacy of the Gutenberg fragment; the peculiar will left by library founder, Michael Sheldon, under which his relatives, Alfredo Gonzales, artist Terry Sheldon and medical student Marie Castillo, may eventually benefit; and the carryings-on of Quentin Ulman, who was using his public pursuit of Marie to cover his affair with Winifred---all the while being engaged to a girl in Boston. When Ulman's still-smouldering body is found in the road near the small country facility where he did binding work for the library, even the hardened investigators are shocked by the brutality of the crime. Pursuing motive and opportunity - and the theory of cherchez la femme - the suspicions of Wade, Farrell and Murphy are soon divided between Marie Castillo and Winifred Gonzales: focusing upon the latter when a violent scene between her and Terry Sheldon is overheard by Wade's colleague, mercurial photographer Wiggins, and when evidence is found that she was involved in several other thefts from the library. But Winifred is soon exonerated in the most horrible way when, after playing a leading role in one of New Orleans glittering social events, her burning body is discovered in her car. And she will not be the last to die...

    "Pretty tired, ain't you?" Murphy suggested.
    "Damn tired." He fingered the bottle of Bushmill's.
    "Sick, too, maybe," Murphy went on.
    "Oh, I'm sick. Sick of everything." Wade dropped his forehead on his hands. "Murphy, you're an old policeman and maybe this thing doesn't get you the way it does me---but every time I think about that Sheldon kid I want to go off some place and cry."
    Murphy smiled a slow smile. "I know how it is, boy."
    Wade poured out a drink of whiskey and threw it savagely down his throat. "They've licked us. I guess we're only half-smart, Murphy."
    "They've done well, whoever they are." Murphy was soberly drinking his his vichy and lemon juice. He paid no attention as Wade took another drink. "I thought we had the whole thing in a bad," he continued, "with that Dancy story. And now Sheldon---poor boy, being dead instead of the murderer we thought he was. The coroner tells me there ain't a chance it was suicide or accident. And not a devil's chance of telling who did it."
    The details slowly made themselves clear in Wade's misty understanding. He rested his elbows on the table and ran his hand through his hair as though to rouse his brain to action. "What about the others?" he asked.
    Murphy answered casually, but he was watching Wade with a keenness which Wade was too befuddled to observe. "Everybody's got a cast-iron alibi furnished by members of the police department."
    "Everybody?" Wade sat up; in spite of himself he was dragging back to sobriety.
    "Sure. Not a chance. Dancy's in jail and there were two detectives at Gonzales' and two more at the library. We got to look for somebody else."

And I will be able to stay on track with the Mystery League challenge (at least in the short term), since the next book in the set is also available in an inexpensive Kindle edition---whoo!!

Next up:

#18: The Tunnel Mystery by J. C. Lenehan (first UK edition: 1929; first US edition: 1931)

This was the first entry in a forgotten series by the British author John Christopher Lenehan featuring Inspector Kilby: it was the only one of the series released in the US.

This is another of Gene Thurston's covers (I like the extra drop to make sure we know it's blood!):

Publication date: 1929
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Inspector French #5
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (woman in period costume, facing away)

The Box Office Murders (US title: The Purple Sickle Murders) - Inspector French of the CID listens patiently as Thurza Darke tells a familiar story of being drawn in to gamble beyond her means; waiting to learn the source of her obvious fear. Finally she tells him of another girl, Eileen Tucker, who recently died in what was ruled a suicide---but not before confiding in Thurza her own, too-similar story, including a man with a purple, sickle-shaped scar on his wrist: a man who is now pressuring Thurza into an illegal scheme connected with her employment in a London box office. French is sufficiently convinced to promise to follow up what he has been told, but before he can act Thurza's body is found in the waters off Portsmouth. Hurrying to the scene, French insists upon an autopsy---which reveals that while Thurza did drown, there is fresh water in her lungs. Taking on the case, French soon learns of another drowned girl, Agatha Frinton, found dead in a river some months before: she, like Eileen and Thurza, having been employed at a box office... The Box Office Murders is an unusual mystery, one offering an almost amusing contrast - the narrative is a bit too brutal for it to be really funny - between the outré scheme cooked up by the ruthless criminal gang at its centre, and the prosaic methods of the determinedly ordinary Inspector French. This series was one of the first that might be described as a "police procedural", and as always we get plenty of French reading reports, conducting interviews, doing surveillance, and other such time-consuming and often dull activities. That said, French is also driven to a couple of calculated break-and-enters here, which garner him much useful information. (He anticipates "trouble", but there is no suggestion he thinks it will really be serious, still less that his case might be thrown out.) The best aspect of The Box Office Murders is the plot at its heart, which totally baffles French. His first thought - it will probably be the reader's, too - is drug trafficking, but he soon realises this is not the explanation of the conspiracy; and nor, giving the gang's willingness to kill, can it be anything as petty as robbing the till. So what on earth do the criminals need with what French learns is a whole squad of London box-office girls...? Having, through a complicated scheme of surveillance, witnessed brief daily meetings between the recruited girls and their "employers", yet coming away none the wiser, French is finally driven to confront one of the girls directly: something he has avoided for fear of alerting the gang. The inspector tries to make Molly Moran understand the danger she stands in, bolstering this with promises of his assistance when it comes to her own activities, and finally she reveals to him the scheme as she understands it. French is exultant---but his satisfaction turns to horror when Molly disappears, and he finds himself in a desperate race to save her life...

    On the footpath in Grosvenor Square stood a young woman. French could not see much of her, but he noticed that she was well dressed and that her bobbed hair was flaming red. The car stopped, she jumped into the back seat, and once again the car swung on.
    More interested than ever, French continued the chase. The grey car passed on down South Audley Street and along South Street into Waverton Street. There it stopped and the girl got out, the car turning on down Charles Street.
    For a moment French hesitated as to which of his two quarries he should follow. He would have given a good deal not to have been playing a lone hand at that moment. Rightly or wrongly he decided on the car.
    Once again to his amazement a similar scene was enacted. From Charles Street the car ran by Berkeley Street, Piccadilly, Grosvenor Place and Vauxhall Bridge Road to Tachbrook Street. There another girl was waiting who in her turn jumped into the back of the car. She was driven through Bessborough Street to Grosvenor Road, and set down at the end of Page Street.
    Still another time French followed the car and still another time the same thing happened. A fourth girl was picked up in Darwin Street, off the Old Kent Road and near Bricklayers' Arms Goods Station. She was taken to Long Lane in Bermondsey and there set down, while the car went to to Newington Causeway.
    French began to wonder if the whole day was to be spent in giving lifts to girls...

Just noting that I really didn't cheat TIOLI: I've given the first-edition cover with my review, but this is the most recent paperback release of The Box Office Murders---the cover image apparently based upon a Vanity Fair cover from 1926:

>147 lyzard: Does that woman have red hair?!

>144 lyzard: I will squeeze that one in, Liz, for a shared TIOLI read if I can.

Have a great Sunday.

>149 cbl_tn:

I think she does, though she's not the red-head mentioned in my quote. They're everywhere! :D

>150 PaulCranswick:

Thanks, and thanks! :)

Publication date: 1923
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Pennington Wise #8
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (author 22+ books)

Wheels Within Wheels - The Howlands have never recovered from the death of their only child, Angela, during an epidemic of sleeping sickness. Ralph continues with his business, though his secretary, Austin Magee, is concerned about his increasingly ill-judged decisions; but Mary remains withdrawn and indifferent, going through the motions of her duties but rarely taking an interest in anything. Mary is cared for by Nurse Lane, who has been with her since before the loss of little Angela, and by her maid, Etta; while Ralph's cousin and heir, Leonard Swift, keeps a close eye on financial matters. The increasingly irascible Ralph reacts badly when a friend, Bob Peters, tries to persuade him to buy into a mine; though he also lashes out at Magee for offering advice. There are bad feelings all around at the end of the evening---and in the morning, Ralph Howland is found dead in his study, with nothing to show how he died. The household has barely recovered from this shock when a greater one occurs: a young woman arrives at the house, claiming to be Angela Howland... The final entry in Carolyn Wells' series featuring private investigator Pennington Wise and his young assistant Zizi offers an interestingly complicated scenario, but suffers from a number of the familiar Wells faults---one of which she certainly never recognised: on the contrary. The main character here, Angela - or "Angela" - or anyway, Ida Holmes Campbell, as she admits be being called to date - is one of the author's favourite types, a fluttery ingenue whose pouting and posing and pertness were obviously supposed to be cute and attractive, but are just teeth-clenchingly irritating---and all the more so because (i) the other characters, or at least the men, do find it attractive; and (ii) there's so much of it. However, this annoyance is off-set and somewhat dissipated by the horrifying central image of Wheels Within Wheels: its suggestion that when the five-year-old Angela, a victim of sleeping sickness (or encephalitis lethargica, to give it its correct name), was placed in her coffin, she wasn't dead. Ralph Howland's own belief that his long-lost daughter was still alive is made clear when his will is read, making Angela his heir should her identity be proved. Baulked in his expected inheritance, Leonard Swift denounces the girl as an imposter, and charges a conspiracy between her and Austin Magee, who admits that Howland had tasked him with the search for his daughter: a charge that seems to have validity when Magee suddenly disappears. Meanwhile, the autopsy on Howland, though inconclusive, suggests death by cyanide poisoning... When private investigator Pennington Wise turns up, claiming to be intrigued by what he has read of the complicated case, he finds a household fraught with tension and suspicion---with the emotionally unstable Mary Howland clinging to the girl she has accepted as her daughter, but Leonard Swift determined to drive the interloper out. Wise, along with his assistant, Zizi, set themselves to the task of proving, or disproving, Angela's identity---and the greater one of finding Ralph Howland's murderer...

    "Will you introduce me to your mother, Miss---Howland?" Wise said, and, though he made a slight pause before the name, yet he spoke it clearly, and with a smile at Ida Campbell.
    "Yes, indeed," she said gayly, and then, "Mother, dear, this is Mr Wise, the great detective who is going to get me my recognition and my rights."
    "It doesn't matter," Mary Howland said, for, as always after a scent of excitement, she was tired and therefore a trifle less clear-minded, "you are my baby,---my darling, and nothing anybody can say or do can make you more so."
    "But we want to make it clear to other people," Wise said, and then, turning to the girl, "Your mother is tired, don't let's bother her. Can you not leave her,---shortly, and go for a walk with me?"
    "Yes, of course; I'll call Etta."
    So Mary Howland was given over to her maid, while Ida Campbell willingly set forth with the detective.
    "It's this way," Wise began, as they strolled across the terrace, down toward the orchard, "I am always attracted by a case with a double mystery. Here we have the death of Ralph Howland and the question of your own personality. I am by no means sure Mr Howland was murdered,---and I am by no means sure you are Angela Howland."
    The big dark eyes turned to him in utter astonishment. "Why," she cried," why--- Mr Wise,---I thought you were going to help me. I thought---"
    "I am going to help you,---but only if you are going to tell me the truth---and all the truth..."

Publication date: 1894
Genre: Young adult
Series: Elsie Dinsmore #20
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (specific woman in title)

Elsie At The World's Fair - This 20th entry in Martha Finley's series is another of her exercises in plagiarism: she gathers almost her entire cast of characters at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, and then spends most of her "narrative" regurgitating two works on the exhibit: the Chicago Record's "History Of The World's Fair"; and The World's "Fine Art Series". Around this with have a flurry of engagements and marriages among the supporting characters---and the reverse amongst our main characters. Two years are supposed to have passed since the last entry, meaning that Lulu Raymond is now seventeen and officially a young lady: an epoch marked by (i) her being referred to by her real name, Lucilla; and (ii) for young men to suddenly get interested in her. The latter is the cue for Levis Raymond to go into full-blown Creepy Daddy mode---becoming more touchy-feely with her than ever, and declaring that he has no intention of letting Lucilla marry for another four - six - eight years at least. Points to Finley for letting her characters recognise that this is a blatant case of Do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do, by pointing out that Violet Travilla was only nineteen when he married her---though of course, that's different... (What's different is that Violet's own father was already dead by then.) However, since Lucilla has already proven herself to be Martha Finley's idea of "a good daughter", by declaring her inability to imagine ever loving any man more than her father, the point seems moot to everyone but Chester Dinsmore and Percy Landreth Jr, both of whom are forbidden to speak to her by Captain Raymond. Meanwhile, the titular Elsie turns up occasionally to hold a bible reading; while Finley gruesomely kills off various random strangers in order to justify a series of speeches about always being "prepared".

    It was late when at last all the Dolphin's passengers were gathered in. The party to which the Raymonds belonged were the first, the young men who had accompanied them in the electric launch bidding good-night at the Peristyle, and all had retired to their respective state-rooms before the coming of the others; all except the captain, who was pacing the deck while awaiting their arrival.
    His thoughts seemed not altogether agreeable, for he walked with drooping head and downcast eyes and sighed rather heavily once or twice.
    "Papa dear, what is the matter? Oh, have I done anything to vex or trouble you?" asked Lucilla's voice close at his side.
    "Why, daughter, are you there?" he exclaimed, turning toward her with a fatherly smile, then taking her hand and drawing her into his arms, stroking her hair, patting her cheeks, and pressing a fond kiss upon her lips. "No, I have no fault to find with my eldest daughter, and yet---" He paused, gazing searchingly and somewhat sadly into the bright young face.
    "Oh, papa, what is it?" she asked, putting her arms about his neck and gazing with ardent affection and questioning anxiety up into his eyes. "You looked at me so strangely two or three times to-night, and I so feared you were displeased with me that I could not go to my bed without first coming to ask you about it, and get a kiss of forgiveness if I have displeased you in any way."
    "No, daughter, you have not displeased me, but---your father is so selfish," he sighed, "that he can scarce brook the thought that someone else may some day oust him from the first place in his dear child's heart."
    "Oh, papa!" she exclaimed in half reproachful tones, "how can you be troubled with any such idea as that? don't you know that I love you ten thousand times better than anybody else in the whole wide world? I just love to belong to you, and I always shall," she added, laying her head on his breast and gazing with ardent affection up into his eyes. "Besides, I am only a little girl yet, as you've told me over and over again, and must not think about beaux and lovers for at least five or six years to come; and I'm sure I don't want to think of them at all so long as I have my own dear father to love and care for me."

Publication date: 1943
Genre: Children's fiction
Series: Five Find-Outers---and Dog #1
Read for: TIOLI (British children's book pre-1980)

The Mystery Of The Burnt Cottage - One night in the village of Peterswood, a fire breaks out in the cottage owned by Mr Hicks: a small building in his garden, where he keeps his scholarly papers. Their parents being out, Larry Daykin and his sister, Daisy, slip out to see what is happening, and find at the scene their friend Pip Hilton and his young sister, Bets. There is no fire service in the village, though one is summoned, and buckets of water are unable to stop the destruction. When Mr Hicks arrives, having been collected from the train station by his chauffeur, he howls over the loss of his papers. The next day, when Pip tells the others that the cottage was set on fire deliberately, according to the expert hired by the insurance company, they realise there is a mystery to be solved... The Mystery Of The Burnt Cottage was the first entry in the first of Enid Blyton' various mystery series for children: a series I now realise I read several of, at least, back when they were age-appropriate; though I can't say I remembered that the children call themselves "the Find-Outers" (though they say it often enough). This is an interesting work: pitched carefully at its age target, yet featuring a real mystery about a serious crime, and with, in some respects, an unexpectedly rough edge. This applies to the fifth member of the group, a newcomer to the village called Frederick Algernon Trotteville, and inevitably dubbed "Fatty" by the others. (Daisy is right, parents should be more careful.) Fatty is a boastful, sometimes unpleasant boy, and the others don't really want him---but they do want his dog, Buster, so they agree to put up with him. Parts of the narrative are devoted to the children learning to get along - Fatty to stop bragging, the others to understanding his quirks - while behind this is the suggestion of a lonely boy with indifferent parents; plus the detail that Fatty is much kinder to young Bets than any of the others, certainly her brother. The other eyebrow-raiser here is the children's healthy disrespect for authority, as represented by local policeman Sergeant Goon (who they call "old Clear-Orf", since that is 95% of what he says to them); nor do they baulk at a little break-and-entering, if required. Agreeing to tackle the mystery of the fire, the children set out to discover who might have had a grudge against Mr Hicks---and soon learn that the answer is "almost everyone": the bad-tempered man seems to have spent the day before the fire quarrelling. Fatty's contribution is news of a tramp seen in the vicinity just before, who was chased away after trying to steal eggs; while Hicks also sacked his valet, Horace Peeks; insulted his housekeeper, Mrs Minns; and had a standing feud with rival scholar, Mr Smellie (the latter name being treated, effectively, as the 1940s equivalent of a fart joke). Did one of these people set fire to the cottage? - or did Mr Hicks have yet another enemy...?

    “I went for a walk with Buster, as you know,” said Bets, sinking down on the grass, tired out with running. “He’s a lovely dog to take for a walk, because he’s so interested in everything. Well, we went down the lane and into the fields, and along by the river, ever so far. We came to a field where sheep and lambs were, and there was a hay-rick nearby.”
    Buster barked a little, as if he wanted to tell about it all too. Bets put her arm round him. “It was Buster who found the tramp---wasn’t it, darling? You see, I was walking along---and suddenly Buster went all stiff---and the hairs rose up along the back of his neck---and he growled.”
    “Ur-r-r-r-rrr!” said Buster obligingly.
    “He honestly understands every word, doesn’t he?” said Bets. “Well, Buster went all funny, like that, and then he began to walk stiffly towards the hay-rick---you know, just as if he had bad rheumatism or something.”
    “Animals always walk like that when they are suspicious, or frightened or angry,” said Fatty, grinning at Bets. “Go on. Don’t be so long-winded.”
    “I went with Buster,” said Bets, “as quietly as I could, thinking there might be a cat or something the other side of the rick. But it was the tramp!”
    “Golly!” said Larry, and Pip whistled.
    “You’re a very good Find-Outer,” said Fatty warmly.

Finished Roseanna for TIOLI #8.

Now reading The Looking-Glass War by John le Carré.

Liz, I can't find Royal Escape in TIOLI. Am I being dense?

>156 Helenliz:

#13, no article in the title, hope that's okay?

>157 lyzard: Yup. Have added. Not sure why I couldn't find it.

Finished The Looking-Glass War for TIOLI #2.

Now reading The Song Of The Lark by Willa Cather.

Meanwhile---

Circumstances here have snatched away my brief hope of library access: my local library and the private one downtown are still operating cautiously, but the State Library and, alas, my long-lost academic library are both back to discouraging physical attendance at the moment.

So likewise, my fleeting dream of February reading based on regained access has evaporated; I will back to ebooks from my fantasy of the physical page.

February will also be lacking a best-seller, since (more than a little to my bemusement) Jonathan Livingston Seagull topped the charts in 1973 as well: consequently, Steve and I have agreed to a month off---conserving our energies for another Michener in March.

The month will, however, be notable for bringing to a conclusion Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver series---and also (temporarily, I hope!) my fabulous shared reads with Julia, which have made a great series even more enjoyable.

But at the moment, the rest of my plans are still up in the air. A little more thought, a little studying of TIOLI, and I will make myself a list...

>160 lyzard: I'm sorry you've again lost access to some of your libraries, Liz. Here's hoping it's a shorter interval than last time before you're allowed back through the doors.

And you're not getting rid of me so easily! I'm still trying to figure out which series to pick. I was thinking of the Freeman Wills Crofts, but you're so far ahead I don't want to make you wait so long until I catch up. I'll keep thinking ...

Oh Blow.

>161 rosalita:, >162 Helenliz:

Disappointing but not surprising: things have been so mismanaged here that most people have retreated into a kind of voluntary lockdown. It hurts, though.

>161 rosalita:

Well, there's no hurry about it---and we are still doing the Three Investigators. If you want to spend a bit of time finding out what you might like, that's fine: I've got plenty to be going on with in the meantime!

The Crofts are an interesting choice, though noting that it takes a couple of books for the series to hit its stride, I think. (While I would never, of course, suggest reading out of order, I think Inspector French And The Starvel Tragedy is a good example of the series' blending of odd plots with sensible policing.)

So, February---

The big one here, as noted, is Patricia Wentworth's The Girl In The Cellar, the final Miss Silver book: this will be a shared read with Julia.

With the library situation noted above, the question now is whether I want to - and whether I *can* - try to restart the Banned in Boston challenge by reading Olive Schreiner's From Man To Man onsite at the State Library. It's a long book that will probably take three trips into the city to finish, but it could be done that way.

Meanwhile, I guess I'm back to ebooks for the rest:

- Mr Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marryat {C. K. Shorter challenge}
- Glenarvon by Caroline Lamb {A Century Of Reading}
- Rally Round The Flag, Boys! by Max Shulman {random reading / shared read??}
- The Tunnel Mystery by J. C. Lenehan {Mystery League challenge}

TIOLI this month looks like books bunching in a few challenges rather than anything sweepy, but I can see spots for progressing a number of series, so it's all good.

Best-selling books in the United States for 1972:

1. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
2. August 1914 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
3. The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth
4. The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
5. The Word by Irving Wallace
6. The Winds of War by Herman Wouk
7. Captains and the Kings by Taylor Caldwell
8. Two from Galilee by Marjorie Holmes
9. My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
10. Semi-Tough by Dan Jenkins

It is tempting to see 1972 as a pushback against 1971's distinctly secular best-sellers list.

There are two holdovers here: Herman Wouk's The Winds of War, and Frederick Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal. Forsyth has a second book in the Top Ten, The Odessa File, a political thriller about a German reporter trying to track down the former commander of a concentration camp.

The real outlier here is Dan Jenkins' Semi-Tough, a semi-comic novel about an NFL player keeping a journal in the lead-up to the Super Bowl.

Historical fiction makes a return: Taylor Caldwell's Captains and the Kings is about the rise to power of an Irish immigrant, and an exposé of the ruthlessness of the world's wealthiest people; while Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's August 1914 is a brutal work about the Eastern Front during the first two weeks of WWI.

Religion is prominent in the remaining works, though in very different ways. Marjorie Holmes' Two from Galilee is a biographical novel about Mary and Joseph. Irving Wallace's The Word is about a new translation of the New Testament, which incorporates a recently-discovered gospel that contradicts existing accounts. Chaim Potok's My Name is Asher Lev is about a young man born into a prominent Hasidic family, who is drawn to art rather than religion.

However, the year's rather unlikely best-seller was Richard Bach's allegorical Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Richard David Bach was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1936. His first and most abiding passion was flying: as a young man he served in the New Jersey Air National Guard's 108th Fighter Wing and later the USAF reserve, being deployed to France in 1960. Afterwards he worked as a barnstormer, as well as holding a variety of other jobs connected with aviation, including with respect to his writing. He became a technical writer for the Douglas Aircraft company, and was a contributing editor for Flying magazine.

Subsequently, Back turned more and more to writing---in a vein he considers "philosophical" rather than "fictional". His works often deal with flight in and of itself, but also as a metaphor. Some of his works deal with religion, or at least with faith, including his two most successful books: Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which was America's best-selling book for 1972 and 1973, and Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, about a modern-day messiah who decides to quit his job.

In 2012, Bach crashed his plane when a landing went wrong and was critically injured, but survived. His near-death experience prompted him to write a fourth part of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which has been included in the most recent editions of the book.

Richard Bach has the distinction of being the first author considered in this best-seller challenge who is still with us. (We just missed John le Carré, alas!)

Publication date: 1970
Genre: Allegory
Read for: Best-seller challenge

Jonathan Livingston Seagull - While the rest of his flock spends its time fighting for food and focused upon the narrowest form of survival, Jonathan Livingston Seagull becomes obsessed with the potential of flight: with the possibility of going higher, faster, and further. His idiosyncratic behaviour causes him to be exiled from the flock. Regardless, Jonathan continues to hone his flying skills---until they carry him further than he ever dreamed, to an unseen world existing beyond every day reality... Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a short, copiously illustrated book that, in the first instance, uses flight as a symbol of striving for better. The first section of Bach's allegory, which encourages self-improvement, the rejection of materialism, and the pursuit of your dreams, is an acceptable if obvious piece of allegorical writing; but things take a turn when Jonathan finds himself in a parallel world of gulls like himself, who have also "gone beyond"; and by the time we have a transfigured, all-white, glowing Jonathan, who comes equipped with a small flock of disciples, well... (All-male disciples: only male gulls get to ascend, apparently, while female gulls exist only to be mothers; I'm not sure how that fits the broader allegory.) I may say that Jonathan Livingston Seagull presents a particular challenge for Australian readers, since---well, let's just say we don't romanticise seagulls here, exactly; but this is just one more complication in a metaphor that, rather like Jonathan's flying, eventually spins out of control. We've had some unlikely best-sellers in this challenge, but this one might take the cake. However, it seems that the explanation might lie in that fact that the book's message was sufficiently non-denominational as to appeal to several churches at once; so that it was pushed from the pulpit, used as a Sunday school text, and became a prize book of choice---which probably explains how it managed to top the charts in 1972 and 1973.

    "...for his reckless irresponsibility," the solemn voice intoned, "violating the dignity and tradition of the Gull Family..."
    To be centred for shame meant that he would be cast out of gull society, banished to a solitary life on the Far Cliffs.
    "...one day, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, you shall learn that irresponsibility does not pay. Life is the unknown and the unknowable, except what we are put into this world to eat, to stay alive as long as we possibly can."
    A seagull never speaks back to the Council Flock, but it was Jonathan's voice raised. "Irresponsibility? My brothers!" he cried. "Who is more responsible than a gull who finds and follows a meaning, a higher purpose for life? For a thousand years we have scrabbled after fish heads, but now we have a reason to live---to learn, to discover, to be free! Give me one chance, let me show you what I've found..."
    The Flock might as well have been stone.
    "The Brotherhood is broken," the gulls intoned together, and with one accord they solemnly closed their eyes and turned their backs upon him...

Hi Liz--just popping over here to say, I'd like Song of the Lark to be my first book of February instead of my last book of January. No reason to rush, right?

>169 AnneDC:

No problem - and no, none at all! Thanks for letting me know. :)

>168 lyzard: ... yeah. There's not enough of it to make me hate it, but the little that's there is a bit *much* isn't it? I didn't know about it being promoted from pulpits, and am pretty confident that it wouldn't have been promoted from the church I was raised in: I don't know whether the "New Age" label had been invented yet, but my evangelical congregation would certainly have found it, let's say, heterodox. But I can see it being a gift of choice for those events where "Oh the Places You'll Go" later became a standard.

>171 swynn:

It was short. :D

There's someone in the LT reviews blaming it on Vatican II, but reading around I found a bunch of other "We had that in Sunday school" and "We were given that in church" reactions, so apparently it was perceived as all-purpose "spirituality". Or different churches doing the dreaded "relevance" thing?

>168 lyzard: While I have heard of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, mostly as a butt of jokes, I actually had no idea until I read your review that it was about an anthropomorphized Actual Seagull. That is ... weird.

>164 lyzard: OK, here are some thoughts:

1. Kobo sells all 11 of the Lt. Valcour series by Rufus King. Kobo also sells all 29 of the Inspector Bonaparte series by Arthur Upfield. I believe both of these were among the ones we talked about when we first started looking for a follow-up for Miss Silver.

Re: Crofts, Kobo has the first 6 or 7 available, and there seems to be an ongoing effort to gradually roll out ebooks of the entire series, but it doesn't seem to be happening fast enough to make that practical for our next shared read. I'll keep my eye on it, though. I might start picking up the ones that are available and make an attempt to get closer to where you are in the series so that I might be in a position to join you at some point.

So, do you have thoughts on Valcour vs Bony? I've never heard of either of them but I'd be happy to read either one. Having said that, I am assuming you were joking about doing a chronological read of the Nero Wolfe, because I am always down for that — I try to do one every few years and I own them all in various formats. So I guess I should say any of the three are viable options for me.

>174 rosalita: I overheard someone say, "chronological read of the Nero Wolfe," and you know I would love to read these books with others. I'm currently on the seventh? Over My Dead Body.

Karen O.

>173 rosalita:

Oh yes indeed. :)

As Steve said, if it was any longer it would be intolerable, but as it is---simultaneously eyebrow-raising and brow-furrowing. :D

>174 rosalita:

I think the most important point is, there's no hurry. :)

It's hard for me not to try and push you into the Bony books. They were not the first, but the first really important Australian mystery series, so I'm all over that. They're mostly set in remote areas, and are about the land and the people and the way of life as much as the mystery. And of course they're very much about racial attitudes and assumptions of the time; and while they mostly push back, there are some points of agreement which can be uncomfortable (just FYI).

I think trying one or two is a very good idea. Of course, as so often, the first one isn't really representative, but it would give you an idea. Ninie is reading them too, so you could consult her as another non-Australian.

Keeping an eye on the Crofts books might be the best thing there. I'm not doing them to any schedule, just when they fit TIOLI, so I'm not necessarily going to pull further ahead. I know nothing about the Valcour books except that they are, apparently, a rare American series with a policeman-hero...and that it's by far the shortest of all the series we're considering. :D

>174 rosalita:, >175 klobrien2:

I was kind of kidding about Nero Wolfe...buuuut... :D

With everything else I'm over-committing to, maybe I can start trying to slot those into TIOLI too, rather than scheduling? - Julia, you could join me if/when you felt like it, and Karen, you too if/when I catch you up??

>175 klobrien2: >177 lyzard: I would love to do a chronological read of the Nero Wolfe books. I have a very personal reason for this. Rex Stout is my 3rd cousin 3x removed. :-)

>178 cbl_tn: Wow! I am quite impressed by that fact, and also by Rex Stout himself. He seems to have been very smart and humanitarian in his personality.

Karen O.

>177 lyzard: I'll grab the first couple of Bony books and see how I get on, but it sounds like we might have hit on the winner. The dated racial attitudes are not a dealbreaker for me; The Man in the Brown Suit made quite liberal use of an ethnic slur for black South Africans that was pretty irritating but not surprising given the context of the times (and also the original title for And Then There Were None, come to think of it).

I would be delighted to read along with you whenever you find yourself moved to pick one up, so just keep me posted. Sounds like we might have some company from Karen and Carrie, too. The more the merrier!

>179 klobrien2: The Stouts have a Quaker background. My branch seems to have left the Quaker faith with my 3rd-great-grandfather (Rex Stout's grandfather's 1st cousin). Rex Stout's line remained in the Quaker faith.

>180 rosalita:

Okay, great! I'll be very interested to know how they strike you.

>175 klobrien2:, >178 cbl_tn:, >180 rosalita:

Well, this will teach me to be facetious, won't it?? :D

With everything else on my plate, I'm not sure if a regular schedule will work; but perhaps what I could do is, at the beginning of the month, see if I can fit the next book into TIOLI? If so, whoever felt like joining me could---and Karen could either wait (or not, if she preferred) or re-read until we catch her up?

(Noting that Fer-de-Lance does fit this month's TIOLI, just sayin'...)

>178 cbl_tn:

Oh wow, Carrie!

Oh! - and speaking of over-committing---

Julia, are you still up for Rally Round The Flag, Boys! this month?

>182 lyzard: I've read Fer-de-Lance recently enough that I am not ready for a re-read (especially since it involves snakes). I would jump in with The League of Frightened Men.

>184 cbl_tn:

If the title is literal, I think I can guess what's under your spoiler tags. :D

Okay, no worries: certainly none of us should feel obliged or rushed with this. I'll see what Julia and Karen feel like doing.

>185 lyzard: It's on the cover of my edition, too, so probably not too spoilery!

>182 lyzard: I'll be happy to the Wolfes whenever they happen to fit into your TIOLI plans, Liz. No need to regularize it. Since I own all the books there's no issue of having to borrow from the library or whatever; I can just pluck it off the shelf and read it. :-)

>183 lyzard: Definitely up for some flag-rallying this month! I'll make a note to tackle that one whenever I finish with A Gentleman in Moscow, which in ebook form did not seem like as much of a chunkster as it has turned out be. I'm enjoying it, but it does go on. :-D

>186 cbl_tn:

On most of the editions, I see!

This for the nervous types I guess--- :D

>187 rosalita:

I've been checking around: one of my libraries holds quite a number of the series but not Fer-de-Lance, unfortunately. Some if not all of them are available on Kindle, but with a wide range of prices from okay to ouch, and that's one of the ouchier ones, so I may need an ILL. If I place it now, it may or may not arrive in time for this month, so we'll have to play it by ear.

Definitely up for some flag-rallying

Excellent!

which in ebook form did not seem like as much of a chunkster as it has turned out be

I've been caught out like that several times lately so I sympathise!

Speaking of books being longer than anticipated---Anne and I ended up moving our shared read, so that it became our first February book:

Finished The Song Of The Lark for TIOLI #10.

Now reading Glenarvon by Lady Caroline Lamb.

>188 lyzard: This for the nervous types

The penguin does not like slithery things, oh no it doesn't! :-D

>189 lyzard: The variation in ebook pricing for books by the same author in the same series baffles me on the regular!

So, then---

Adjusted February reading:

The Girl In The Cellar by Patricia Wentworth {shared read}
Mr Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marryat {C. K. Shorter challenge}
Glenarvon by Caroline Lamb {A Century Of Reading}
The Tunnel Mystery by J. C. Lenehan {Mystery League challenge}
The Song Of The Lark by Willa Cather {shared read}
Rally Round The Flag, Boys! by Max Shulman {random reading / shared read}
Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout {shared read}
Castle Skull by John Dickson Carr {TIOLI}
Dancing Death by Christopher Bush {TIOLI}
The Teeth Of The Tiger by Maurice Leblanc {TIOLI}
Elsie's Journey On Inland Waters by Martha Finley {TIOLI}

Likely March reading:

The Perpetual Curate by Margaret Oliphant {group read}
Centennial by James A. Michener {best-seller challenge}
From Man To Man by Olive Schreiner {Banned in Boston challenge}
My Lord John by Georgette Heyer {historical fiction challenge}
The Mystery Of The Silver Spider by Robert Arthur {shared read}

>191 rosalita:

I'm still planning on testing you out on that sometime this year. :D

These ones are really all over the place: I can only think they've been issued by different publishers. Never mind, an ILL is just fine!

>192 lyzard: Noting the appearance of My Lord John in March. I have that one on the shelf, so give me some notice and I'll join you.

>194 Helenliz:

I own that one too so it's all good! :)

>193 lyzard: I'm still planning on testing you out on that sometime this year

You can post pictures of snakes every month as far as I'm concerned! I kinda like 'em. No, it's the spiders you have to warn me about, please. :-)

>196 rosalita:

I'll try to remember to introduce an end-of-thread warning system. :)

Wishing you a lovely weekend, Liz.

Everything OK, Liz? Not used to seeing you 5 days away from the group.

>198 PaulCranswick:, >199 PaulCranswick:

Ehh. Some stuff going on. Not feeling very chatty. Thanks for checking in though. :)

So anyway...

Finished Glenarvon for TIOLI #4 (though I will shift it to #3 if I get the chance).

Now reading Mr Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marryat.

Glenarvon was the 1816 work for my Century Of Reading.

The next 'gap year' is 1817, where at the moment the standout choices are Maria Edgeworth's Ormond and Harrington.

(Neither of which brings up the first touchstone, so maybe I'll read one of them this month...)

Meanwhile---look what showed up yesterday:

Now what do I do...?

>203 lyzard: Ooh, that's a much better cover than my paperback copy!

>204 rosalita:

Though not a particularly good photo as the light was reflecting off the plastic cover.

Now I need to know what covers you and Carrie have! :D

I was posting from my phone yesterday or I would have posted them. I have three copies, actually — two paperback and one ebook.

The ebook is by far the most boring. It's the same as the 1990s Crimeline mass-market paperback re-issues:


Then there's the 1980s Bantam mass-market paperback, which used the old image-within-a-Nero-silhouette conceit. Too busy for my tastes:


This 1990s Bantam mass-market paperback is probably the best of the three:

I have the first cover Julia posted. Not that I'm looking too closely. ;-)

>207 cbl_tn: At least the s**** in that one doesn't have its mouth wide open, fangs gleaming! The tongue is much less alarming.

>208 rosalita: Yep, there's that!

>206 rosalita:

Thanks!

I agree about the Bantam one, though I do like the suggestion of someone going "Cootchy-cootchy-coo!" to a threatening snake in the middle of it. :D

ETA: Here is a better version of my cover image:

Finished Mr Midshipman Easy for TIOLI #6.

Now reading Elsie's Journey On Inland Waters by Martha Finley.

Finished Elsie's Journey On Inland Waters for TIOLI #4.

Now reading The Teeth Of The Tiger by Maurice Leblanc.

Finished The Teeth Of The Tiger for TIOLI #11.

Now reading Castle Skull by John Dickson Carr.

I think I'll join in on the Fer-de-Lance read, whenever it happens. My copy came in today. It has the same cover as Julia's first.

>214 swynn:

Excellent!

>214 swynn: What Liz said — excellent!

Ah, crap.

I may be reading Castle Skull out of series order. :(

>217 lyzard: Uh-oh!

>219 lyzard:

I thought I'd sorted that out; but there's a passing reference in Castle Skull to another case I'm not familiar with. Though at least it's only passing! - not a Poirot-esque spoiler. :)

>219 lyzard: Are you sure it's another actual book? I know Archie Goodwin makes passing reference to various cases he and Wolfe worked on that are not actually the basis of books. For your sake, I hope that's what's going on here, although I'm sure you've considered and rejected that possibility already.

>219 lyzard:
>220 rosalita:

Or maybe the referenced case was a short story? I'm not sure what your rules are on reading those.

>220 rosalita:, >221 swynn:

No, I'm afraid it's another case of alphabetical listing of two books published in the same year, rather than publication order. I've been caught out like that before. It looks like The Lost Gallows might have come before Castle Skull. :(

ETA: Urgh, yes. Copyright info indicates that The Lost Gallows was published in March of 1931 and Castle Skull in October of that year.

In my defence, though, the two books are listed in the incorrect order EVERYWHERE, including in an omnibus release of the first three works in the series.

What's frustrating is that it looks like I started to research this at some point but then got distracted. :(

This is actually - gasp! - the second recent case of me reading a series work out of order: I read John le Carré's The Looking-Glass War last month, not realising at first that it is part of his George Smiley series, and that I had accidentally skipped a book; though in that case, Smiley is a minor supporting character, and the various entries are more thematically than plot-linked.

However---as far as my OCD goes, This Shall Not Stand; and I will be tracking down copies of both The Lost Gallows and A Murder Of Quality to set things right ASAP.

So anyway---

Finished Castle Skull for TIOLI #1.

Now reading Dancing Death by Christopher Bush.

>223 lyzard: I did the same with John Le Carré, so Voetsporen in de sneeuw (=A Murder Of Quality) is also on my list, as previous book to read. Let me know when you get to it.

>225 FAMeulstee:

I was actually hoping to pick up a library copy today, but we've got trouble on our trains so that won't be happening (my returns will have to be late, eep!). I'm going to try and squeeze it in next month, though it's already pretty crowded. :)

>226 lyzard: I have to get it from a library outside my province, so it might take a while to arrive.
March is almost full, and we will be away for a week at the end of the month.
April? May?

>227 FAMeulstee:

April would work, if that suits you better. :)

>228 lyzard: April it will be :-)

Finished Dancing Death for TIOLI #15.

Now reading---

---a drumroll, if you please---

---The Girl In The Cellar by Patricia Wentworth.

>230 lyzard: Ah! Too soon!

(I finished The Alington Inheritance over the weekend, but I'll wait a little longer to read the last — I figure I've got some time before you review that one. :-p

>231 rosalita:

:D

Don't know about that: I've just caught up The Fingerprint and I'll be doing The Alington Inheritance next; so :P

By the way, I was thinking of Fer-de-Lance next, and then Rally Round The Flag, Boys!---possibly to round out the month. Would that suit you? I suppose I need to check with Steve about the former, he may prefer it next month (or not, since we're reading Centennial).

>232 lyzard: That timing works for me, although I would also be fine with waiting to rally around the flag until March. :-) I've just started the next Three Investigators, which so far involves a stolen belt of gold and emeralds and ... garden gnomes?

>233 rosalita:,

Gnomes, aaaaah!! (Weirdly enough, I remembered the museum stuff but I did not remember that!)

That's fine. I'll check with Steve about the Stout and we'll go with the timing he prefers.

ETA: Steve has agreed to Fer-de-Lance this month, so we'll go ahead with that and leave Rally Round The Flag, Boys! for now.

Finished The Girl In The Cellar for TIOLI #13---

---and---

---finished Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver series!

This is both a momentous and a sad occasion. This 32-book series, published between 1928 and 1961, is the second longest I have yet completed, surpassed only by Christie's 38-book-long Hercule Poirot series.

I have personally been reading the Miss Silver books since 2011 (!!), though as with the writing of the series itself, there was a lengthy break between the rather atypical first book, Grey Mask, and The Case Is Closed, in which it is obvious that Wentworth had rethought the character of Maud Silver.

A pivotal moment in this series read occurred late in 2016, when Julia decided to read along. After a quick dash on her part through the early entries, from March of 2017 we have been reading on a bimonthly basis. Julia's involvement added a new level of enjoyment to the project, with many spirited debates following on such topics as the difference between a mystery and a thriller, and how much of a romantic subplot is too much.

Along the way, both of us embraced the Maud Silver way of life: her unflinching morality, her knitting, her quotes from Tennyson, that incessant cough that she really should have seen a doctor about (though it does ease off in the later books), and her ability to put upstart young detectives in their place with a single reproving glance.

So what now? Well, Julia and I are already co-reading The Three Investigators, and there are other plans in the works for the two of us and for other participants. Stay tuned...

I always like to mark the end of a series, but (with apologies to Dr Fu Manchu) this time I don't think a marmoset is going to cut it.

So here instead is a family of golden lion tamarins:

And speaking of new projects---

Now reading Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout.

In which I hope to be joined by Julia, Steve, Carrie, and maybe Karen? :D

>235 lyzard: I literally LOL'd at the line about Maudie's troublesome cough, but I heartily endorse that and every other sentiment expressed. I believe this is one of the rare series that continued to improve right through to the end (assuming the last book which I haven't tackled yet didn't completely lose the plot). And she skillfully mixed several styles, as you've noted in the past, from romantic suspense to gothic thriller. I will miss her love for quoting Tennyson, Frank Abbott's admiration for his "revered preceptress" and especially the endless stream of baby coatees and booties that flowed steadily from Maudie's knitting needles. Long may she reign at Montague Mansions!

>236 lyzard: Oooh, they are so pretty!

>238 rosalita:

I wouldn't say 'lost it', but it is odd, and not (alas) Maud-heavy. There's a reason it had to be the way it is, but I admit I would have preferred something more typical as a send-off. I don't think Wentworth knew it was going to be the last one. :(

>239 lyzard:

Yes, much as I love marmosets, these guys seemed more celebratory!

>239 lyzard: I don't think Wentworth knew it was going to be the last one.

Looking at the last book's publication date and Wentworth's ... expiration ... date, I see what you mean. Pity, that.

>237 lyzard: I've got Fer-de-Lance loaded up on my Kobo, ready to go!

>240 rosalita:

Think of Agatha writing Curtain all those years before, to have it ready to go!

I've got Fer-de-Lance loaded up on my Kobo

Excellent!

>241 lyzard: Think of Agatha writing Curtain all those years before, to have it ready to go!


That's why she was the Queen of Mystery!

So, projects:

With the conclusion of the Miss Silver series, there have been discussions around possible replacements that have, I am pleased to say, attracted various degrees of attention.

1. Julia and I are already reading The Three Investigators together, and Steve has recently joined in.

2. At the moment it looks like Julia and I might pick up Arthur Upfield's Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte series as our bimonthly read. I am currently up to the 7th book, The Mystery Of Swordfish Reef, having just reviewed #6, The Bone Is Pointed, at my other thread. I will now wait for Julia to test the waters and see if she's sure about this choice.

2b. A possible alternative is Freeman Wills Crofts' Inspector French series, however it seems that the books are less reliably available, which may be an issue going forward.

3. It was more or less unplanned, but I have now made a start of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series, where we have feelers from Julia, Steve, Carrie and Karen. We don't have a regular plan, and particularly not as we are all at different places at the outset; but I'm sure it will shake down as we go along.

4. My other plan for myself was to pick up both Margery Allingham's Albert Campion series and Gladys Mitchell's Mrs Bradley series, reading them alternating months. I had some interest from Helen about the former, though we haven't settled anything yet.

And now I just have to live forever so I have time for all of this---easy peasy!

And speaking of all that---

Finished Fer-de-Lance for TIOLI #4.

(For those reading along, and TIOLIing, #4 is the only challenge it fits, unless we want to argue that the book "has a connection to the airline industry"? Which it sort of does...)

Now reading Dangerous Cargo by Hulbert Footner.

>244 lyzard: If I were being contrary, I would argue that at the time the book is set (1930s) there is no airline "industry" per se. There are airplanes, but were there actual airlines? And even if there were, they don't figure in Fer-de-Lance.

Whew. Good thing I am not at all a contrary person. :-)

>245 rosalita:

If you want to be pernickity, commercial aviation began in 1914. :D

By the 30s it was pretty much as we know it: a lot more haphazard, but airlines and airports, yes. None of that figures here per se, but we do have two of the characters trying to get into professional aeronautical design. Tenuous, I agree!---you'd need a challenge-setter in a very generous mood... :)

>246 lyzard: Right, I read Death in the Air (1935) last year and it was set on a commercial airplane, although I don't think the name of the airline was mentioned in the book. I think there are only about 12 people on the plane in the story, so not your 747, but still a flight with paying passengers, with some who seemed to be "regular" travelers.

Hmm. The League Of Frightened Men is another of the ouchier priced ebooks in the series, but other options are limited. There's a locked-off Rare Books copy at my academic library {*sob*}, and while the State Library holds a Penguin edition, it's not clear whether it's available for ILL (they often don't lend their Penguins). I shall have to make some inquiries, and then a decision...

>247 kac522:

There were a different set of motivations involved. Commercial aviation became established in America quite quickly because of the distances involved, actually the same thing happened here though not on the same scale; whereas in England it was mostly about hopping over to "the Continent" for business or holidays. Flights within England were usually done via individuals hiring a small plane.

>248 lyzard: Oh dear. I picked up a copy at a used book store a few years ago so I am all set with that one.

>246 lyzard: Oh, persnickety is one of my best things, Liz! :-D

>247 kac522: I thought that book sounded familiar, and sure enough I have read it, although the title on my edition was Death in the Clouds. If I had remembered the time it was set in, I wouldn't have challenged Liz at all — but then, what would be the fun in that? :-)

>251 rosalita:

Another pointless American retitling, hmm???? :D

You were unlucky: early aviation is one of my random interests!

>237 lyzard: Re: Fer de Lance: I’ll be with you in spirit. I recently read it (well, last year) so it’s a little too soon for a reread for me. I’m currently reading Over My Dead Body , the 7th Nero Wolfe.

But like I said, my heart is with you!

Karen O

>253 klobrien2:

That's fine, Karen! Feel free to hook up with us whenever it suits you. :)

>251 rosalita: LOL!
And I remember while reading that book that it was the earliest I'd read about passengers on a flight. I guess in my mind I wasn't thinking about commercial flights being common until after the war. Leave it to Liz to set us all straight, thank goodness, and save me all that googling for better things. ;)

I'm sure there are earlier instances of flight passengers in literature, but it was the earliest mention for me.

>255 kac522:

:D

I've come across a few earlier British mysteries that have the detective needing to get across the Channel quickly, but none of them dwell on the trip.

...and just like that I'm more than a month behind on my new reading reviews. :D

In my defence, I have been getting quite a few of my 2021 reviews finished over at my other thread. Still, I was hoping to have drawn a neat line under January before I started my second 2022 thread. However...

Warning to those who need it: my thread topper next time will not be cuddly at all, though I still think it's pretty cute...