2022 Series of PGMCC's reading: Episode Four

Having reached 163 posts in Episode Two I think it is time to start Episode Four.

Read in 2022

I start the year with seven in-progress reads. Three of these are hangovers from 2020 and I am keeping them on the list as I do want to finish them.

Title; Author; Status; Start/end date; Number of pages

It was the best of sentences, it was the worst of sentences. by June Casagrande 17/02/2020 -
The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford 26/10/2020 -
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely 20/12/2020 –
Africa's Top Geological Sites by Richard Viljoen 02/04/2021 - 290 pages
The Economics of Inequality by Piketty 21/08/2021 - 135 Pages
Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen 18/10/2021 - 449 Pages
Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 27/12/2021 - 06/01/2022 393 pages

Books completed in 2022:

Title; Author; Status; Start/end date; Number of pages

Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 27/12/2021 - 06/01/2022 393 pages
Secrets of the World's Best-Selling Writer by Francis L. Fugate & Roberta B. Fugate 07/01/2022 - 18/01/2022 286 pages
The Case of the Lame Canary by Erle Stanley Gardner 18/01/2022 - 23/01/2022 186 Pages
Words Like Loaded Pistols: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama by Sam Leith 23/01/2022 - 05/02/2022 332 Pages
ARCADIA by Iain Pears 05/02/2022 - 18/02/2022 594 Pages
Guest List by Lucy Foley 19/02/2022 - 01/03/2022 371 Pages
Introduction to Detection Mystery Horror by Dorothy L. Sayers 02/03/2022 - 05/03/2022 48 Paged
Passport to Panic by Eric Ambler 05/03/2022 - 13/03/2022 194 Pages
Leaves for the Burning by Mervyn Wall 14/03/2022 - 20/03/2022 243 Pages
The Pigeon House by John Le Carré 21/03/2022 - 10/04/2022 310 Pages
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh 10/04/2022 - 320 pages ROA* DNF
The Sportswriter by Richard Ford 13/4/2022 - ? pages ROA* DNF
"Blood Christmas" by Ciamh McDonnell 14/4/2022 - 16/04/2022 74 pages
"Dog Day Afternoon" by Ciamh McDonnell 16/04/2022 - 16/04/2022 74 pages
The Day That Never Comes by Ciamh McDonnell 16/04/2022 - 18/04/2022 360 pages
Winter by Len Deighton 18/04/2022 - 02/05/2022 620 Pages.
Rosebud by Paul Cornell 02/05/2022 - 05/05/2022 108 pages
Angels in the Moonlight by Ciamh McDonnell 05/05/2022 - 08/05/2022 ? pages
The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup 08/05/2022 - 21/05/2022 436 Pages
Sisters Gonna Work It Out by Ciamh McDonnell 21/05/2022 - 21/05/2022 45 Pages
How to send a message Ciamh McDonnell 21/05/2022 - 21/05/2022
Last orders Ciamh McDonnell 21/05/2022 - 28/05/2022
Passage of Arms by Eric Ambler 29/05/2022 - 03/06/2022 ? pages
Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter 03/06/2022 - 17/06/2022 446 pages
Death of a Bookseller by Bernard J. Farmer 17/06/2022 - 23/06/2022
McGarry Stateside by Ciamh McDonnell 24/06/2022 - 04/07/2022
My Name Is Philippa by Philippa Ryder 04/07/2022 - 07/07/2022
First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami 08/07/2022 - 13/07/2022 256 Pages
Dead Man’s Sins by Ciamh McDonnell 13/07/2022 - 19/07/2022 314 Pages
The Light of Day by Eric Ambler 21/07/2022 - 25/07/2022 255 Pages
Firewater Blues by Ciamh McDonnell 22/07/2022 - 30/07/2022 324 Pages
Slow Horses by Mick Herron 30/07/2022 - 30/07/2022 336 Pages. DNF @ page 23.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 30/07/30 - 12/08/2022 382 Pages
Signal Moon by Kate Quinn 12/08/2022 - 14/08/2022 ? pages
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides 15/08/2022 - 24/08/2022 368 pages
Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. sayers 24/08/2022 - 11/09/2022 460 pages
Snobbery with Violence by Colin Watson 11/09/2022 - 252 pages + 4 page index
South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami 11/09/2022 - 187 pages

*ROA: Risk Of Abandonment due to lack of interest or pure boredom.

I finished Eric Ambler's The Light of Day in bed last night. I got into one of those, "I am nearly finished. Must read on. Sleep is overrated. Who cares about work tomorrow.", moods and read on until I finished. It was not the wee small hours of the morning when I finished, but I did go on to read some more from Firewater Blues.

The Light of Day was a treat. Ambler's protagonist was not as naive as the majority of his hapless heroes who fall into dangerous scenarios. He was a petty crook who was portrayed as the ordinary man. It was very cleverly done. Also, Ambler used the thoughts of his not-so-innocent innocent to analyse the situations he found himself in and to comment on events. There is one passage where he describes the interrogation process. This involves his telling the truth, which is never believed, then having a fall-back story which is partially believed, and then continuing with a modified fall-back story, and on and on, until he works out the story the interrogator wants him to tell and which they chose to believe. It was passages like this that show me why John Le Carré and Graham Greene said they found inspiration for their own work in Ambler's stories.

Would I read more stories by this author?
Yes!

Would I recommend this book?
Yes.

Who would I recommend it to?
Anyone who likes mystery novels involving espionage, criminality, adventure, intrigue, counter-espionage, etc...

Did this book inspire me to do anything?
Yes. It has strengthened my resolve to read all of Eric Ambler's stories. It has also pushed me to dig out the book I have on Kemal Atatürk.

Happy new thread!

>2 pgmcc: I really need to read more Ambler. I loved The Mask of Dimitrios. I was struck by the verisimilitude.

>4 libraryperilous: The Mask of Dimitrios was my introduction to ambler too. I have not looked back.

Congrats on the new thread and happy reading!

>3 clamairy: & >4 libraryperilous:
Thank you. I hope to see y’all round here when you can spare the time.

Happy new thread, Peter.

>8 haydninvienna: Thank you, Richard. I hope you and Mrs haydninvienna are well and that the weather is cooling a little.

We have returned to what might be considered reasonably normal Irish weather. Mild, occasional shower, dry spells that lull you out for a walk just in time for one of the showers to start when you are at your furthest point from home.

pgmcc, as mentioned to you on Twitter, there are many librarians enjoying Dublin this week. They are attending the World Library and Information Congress, sponsored by the International Federation of Library Associations. Some of the ones I know were apparently getting rowdy at some pub called The Ferryman (Ferrymen?). May I give out your name and number if someone needs bail money? Thought I'd check.

>10 jillmwo:
The Ferryman is just across the river from the convention centre. They never usually bother with the Guards. They usually just toss troublemakers in the Liffey and let the tide sort them out. No trouble with bail or any other legal technicalities.
Give them my name and number if you wish. Just remember to tell them I an not a strong swimmer and may not be much help to them.

>10 jillmwo: The Ferryman is a good pub and serves good food. I am not sure if T.J. managed to get there. As it happens I did manage to get there with another LTer during the 2019 WorldCon.

>11 pgmcc: chortling You're not a strong swimmer? I would have thought that any career in espionage would demand high levels of athletic prowess but perhaps you are an excellent pole vaulter?

I am also seeing a post or two about a visit to an inner Dublin neighborhood called Rathmines (characterized as a Victorian-ish suburb?). What can you share here about that area? Inquiring minds want to know and all that...

>13 jillmwo:
If I had a career in espionage I would probably have skills in disseminating disinformation. I could probably disseminate t’other information too.

Rathmines is the heart of Dublin flat-land. Well, it was in the 80s, 90s and so on. It has gotten so expensive now it may have changed a bit. All the flats will be called apartments now. It would have some trendy eateries and pubs. Rathmines is on the south side of the city, skirted on its northern edge by The Grand Canal. My wife came from Ranelagh, the next village to the East. (Dublin is basically an assemblage of villages that were incorporated into the greater whole as the city expanded.)

>11 pgmcc: Beautiful. :o)

Happy new thread Peter!

Beware of those rampaging librarians! We may seem meek and mild but when the glasses and cardigans come off, watch out!

>16 Sakerfalcon:
Thank you for the warning. I always had my suspicions about those cool, calm exteriors.

>14 pgmcc: My last address in Dublin was in Mountpleasant Avenue, which seems to be the boundary between Rathmines and Ranelagh. Nice place.

>18 haydninvienna:
My wife grew up on Ranelagh Road, just opposite Mount Pleasant Square.

>16 Sakerfalcon: and >17 pgmcc: The assumption of those cool, calm exteriors is not unlike the assumption of personas seen in other professions (such as *cough, cough* intelligence activities). It also helps when called upon to assist weeping students who have waited until the last minute to complete an assignment due in two days. Or, come to that, when confronting angry citizens requesting the removal of Little Red Riding Hood on the grounds that the wolf is a drag queen.

Oh and you should see them when the librarians decide they're going to dance all night at a vendor's party. (Vendors have been known to rent out very large spaces for the purpose.)

>20 jillmwo: I suspect a lot of this post is autobiographical. It contains a sense of authenticity and hard-won experience.

>21 pgmcc: Stories. Lots of stories. (Fortunately, no photographs.)

Having finished and enjoyed Firewater Blues by Ciamh McDonnell I have started Slow Horses by Mick Herron



I picked up Slow Horses because of comments like these:

"Britain's finest living thriller writer." Sunday Express

"Herron is such a joyously stylish writer." Ian Rankin

"The John Le Carré of our generation." Val McDermid

I am 19 pages into this book and have found no evidence that supports any of the above comments.

In chapter 1 he was going for a fast action scene with hot pursuit of a suspected suicide bomber. In his pursuit of realism and flash-bang action, he used jargon, interrupted speech, and acronyms. He succeeded in achieving a fast moving situation with lots of action, but he made it difficult for the reader to follow. His use of Jargon and acronyms can leave the reader confused and feeling stupid for not knowing what was meant. The disjointed, interrupted conversations and prose would be fine later in a book, but in the opening pages of the book it leaves the reader having to go slowly, read sentences, and trying to work out what was going on. In other words he has made reading these pages at the start of the book, a struggle to read. Had I picked this up in a bookshop and read the first couple of pages I would not have bought it.

In chapter 2 he is trying to create a base for his Intelligence characters and it strikes me that he is trying too hard to re-invent Le Carré's Circus. He does this by spending several pages telling the reader what the place looks like before bringing the reader inside the building and providing some interaction between a couple of the characters.

Characters do not appear to be developing beyond two dimensions. The attempts at character building in the initial pages I have read are not convincing, and the actions of the main character have so far lacked verisimilitude.

At this point I am inclined to not finish the book and write it off as a bad job. I feel, however, that I have to read a bit further to see if it improves. The comments praising this book and the author require me to give it a bit more time. I have, however, been dragged into dreadful wastes of good reading time by giving books a second chance when they turn out to never get any better. I will read to page 50 and make my decision there.

>23 pgmcc:
I have reached page 23 and cannot go on.

The characterisation is woeful; the flow is more like Brownian Motion that a smoothly flowing tale. Comparing this to Le Carré is a scam. Mink Herron is an author I will not be bothering with again.

Herron cannot hold a candle to Ambler, Greene or Le Carré. Comparing him to any of these authors is a misrepresentation of the truth.

Will I read more books by this author?
No.

Would I recommend this book?
No.

Did this book inspire me to do anything?
Yes!
- To never read anything by Mick Herron again.
- Never trust the praise piled on a book by the press, publishers, or actors who are making money out of playing a character in the TV adaptation or film.

>24 pgmcc: Interesting. Especially given that Val McDermid endorsement!

1) I'm sorry it was not good.
2) I'm glad you sussed that out so quickly!

>24 pgmcc: too many great books in the world to waste time and effort on a bad one. Sorry it was so disappointing.

>22 jillmwo:
Some of us are so luck the Internet was not as powerful when we were younger as it is today. :-)

As the saying goes: What goes on the Internet stays on the Internet...for ever and ever and ever...

>24 pgmcc: That's sad to hear. I've been looking at picking up this series recently due to the TV show that's now being aired (also called Slow Horses) which has some extremely talented people in it.

>28 AHS-Wolfy: I remember reading that Michael Caine, who is certainly very talented, had a rather, er, practical attitude to the roles he accepted. Some journalist or other taxed him with the assertion that one of his films (Blame it On Rio, maybe) was terrible. Caine's answer was to the effect that he didn't know whether the film was any good, but the house it built was terrific.

>28 AHS-Wolfy:
I found quotes from an interview with Gary Oldman. He said he was delighted to have played Smiley and the equivalent character in Slow Horses. He was carrying on the myth that Slow Horses is on a power with Le Carré’s Karla series. It feels like the publishers and the makers of the TV series are trying to gain audience by forcing comparison to Le Carré’s work.

>28 AHS-Wolfy: >30 pgmcc: Also remember that the TV series will certainly have been extensively rewritten. There may not be much of Herron's original text left.

FWIW, Mrs H, who reads a lot of thrillers, didn't like and didn't finish the Herron book that I took out of the library for her on the off-chance.

>29 haydninvienna:
I have not seen Blame it On Rio but I can appreciate his attitude.

I have enjoyed most of his films. The Ipcress File would be one of my favourites, with Dirty Rotten Scoundrels being on that list too.

There is a friend of mine who is a movie critic. At the annual Octocon (Sci Fi convention held in Dublin during October) convention he gives a session in which he critiques a film that he regards as dreadful. His critique is illustrated using clips from the film and he makes his commentary very funny. I have attended three of these sessions. In one of them he critiqued the 1978 film, The Swarm, starring Michael Caine, Richard Widmark, and a host of others. The film was about a swarm of killer bees. One of the things I remember about this session was that Michael Caine shouted all his lines. It was funny watching the string of scenes where Caine just shouts his lines with no attempt at acting or portraying a character.

The other thing I remember is seeing a family on a picnic being attacked by the swarm of bees and the mother and father being killed. In a scene shortly after that we see the actor who played the father, working as a radar screen operative in the emergency military HQ. :-)

>32 pgmcc: Must have been a big budget!

>33 clamairy:
:-)

When you see the big names in the cast list you realise they had to reuse the cheaper actors to pay the big names to appear. :-)

>32 pgmcc: I blame it on Duran Duran.

>29 haydninvienna: and >32 pgmcc: Ha!! My husband has always expressed great respect for British actors because he thinks they have an extraordinary work ethic. They are simply willing to WORK, big parts, small parts, what have you. He thinks there's a very different attitude in Hollywood actors because there tends to be less thinking of the work and more concern about branding or career building.

I am reading and enjoying Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club. It is full of gentle humour. The first few chapters did not instill a "I-must-pick-this-up-at-every-opportunity" vibe in me, but it is now urging me to read. That is probably because someone has just been murdered. :-)

To be fair, the book has been competing with a lot of Real Life issues. Nothing dramatic other than being busy at work and getting involved in a lot of internal and external home activities such as cleaning, rearranging furniture, clearing out garden and house rubbish. I end up going to bed, picking up the book, and finding the words starting to swim as I am reading. The other night I woke up and found myself lying on my side, with my glasses still on, the book open in my hand, and the reading light on. I thought that if I had fallen asleep while reading it was probably the correct time to take off my glasses, put the book down, turn off the light, and make sleeping my primary objective.

Bottom line, a genteel, humorous book that I would be getting through more swiftly if it was not competing with other activities.

>37 pgmcc: I read it (and the next, The Man Who Died Twice) a few weeks ago. Although I enjoyed both, I'm not sure that "a genteel, humorous book" is quite right. Genteel and humorous up to a point, but the body count is surprisingly high  — I believe I remember at least 5 murders (and a suicide) in all, including the murder that happens long before the book starts and sets the Club going. Let's see: there's the girl murdered right at the start by her boyfriend; the boyfriend (killed by the now-retired detective who has dementia); the property developer; the property developer's dirty-deeds guy; the detective (killed by her husband); and the husband, who committed suicide. That seems a lot for genteel and humorous.

The second one has an even higher body count, plus some really disturbing behaviour by British intelligence services.

>37 pgmcc: Same here, too much real life stuff getting in the way of reading.

Where did I hide that code book? It has to be here somewhere.

It must be here. I distinctly remember hiding it in the couch.

Oh! Oh! Perhaps it was the two-seater I hid it in.

Hmmmmmm! It doesn't appear to be there either.

Oh, there it is on the bookshelf after all.

You dismantled a couch?

>45 Karlstar: Two. A three-seater and a two-seater. The one-seater had a stay of execution, but Mrs. PGMCC now wants it to become an ex-one-seater too.

We are getting powered recliners to replace them. :-)

Unlike the US, it is not customary to put unwanted furniture out for people to take. Those couches are over thirty years old and have been re-upholstered some years ago. Dismantling them means I can fit them into one bulky waste bag rather than two. The cost for disposing of the waste bag is €140, so there is method in my madness.

Also, can you imagine the joy of being given permission to tear a couch apart? And then consider the joy of being given free reign to tear two apart. Wow! Last weekend was fun.

E.T.A. ...and I managed to find my code book.

>39 Karlstar: The couch dismantling would be part of the real life interruptions to my reading.

>38 haydninvienna:
I would regard Agatha Christie books to be genteel, and she has a few books with high body counts.

I am enjoying the characters, and so far the body count is still at one, so I have plenty to look forward to. :-)

And you found nothing at all in those couches? I find that hard to believe.

>48 2wonderY:
A toy cowboy, one pencil, grand total of 22 euro cents, and a lot of dust. I was expecting to find at least one unclaimed lottery ticket worth several million euros. Most disappointing.

>46 pgmcc: I have a couch, arm chair and ottoman which would give me great joy to tear apart. Unfortunately, they are in too good a shape to willy-nilly destroy. So instead I let my son's great Dane have the run of them when he visits. One of these days they will succumb.

Did you have fun taking them apart, or did you almost lose any eye or a finger? I have never taking apart anything that large, but have mostly enjoyed the few things I have gotten to dismantle.

Dismantling the furniture looks like it was fun! I think when I’m finally ready to get rid of my couch and loveseat, I’ll put them in my classroom.

While I've never dismantled furniture, one of the most satisfying things I've ever done is drop an old crappy chair off a 2nd floor landing.

I helped dismantle a house once. The crew was just a ragtag half dozen thrifty opportunists. It was a turn of the century beauty. I had hoped to get some of the wooden siding for repairs to my own 1914 house. Instead I got most of the pine flooring, which I also had uses for.

Um, you may or may not know this but the Brisbane suburb I grew up in (late 1940s to about 1975) didn’t have sewerage and depended on outdoor toilets (dunnies, in Oz-speak). For a description of the ambience of it all, see the early chapters of Unreliable Memoirs, by Clive James. Some time after the sewerage came through and my parents’ house acquired an indoor toilet, I pulled down the old dunny. Great fun except that it left me with a serious case of the itch after many generations of itchy caterpillars had lived and passed on in it.

>51 clamairy: Luckily my "undercover" training meant I was prepared for any surprises under the surface. It was just as well; the items were constructed with staples of various lengths but all with the same degree of sharpness.

It took longer than I had hoped. I misplaced my Stanely knife and had to use scissors to cut fabric. I could have saved hours with the Stanely knife.

>52 catzteach: So, you intend watching the kids dismantling the furniture? Cool. I love work; I could sit and watch it for hours.

>53 Bookmarque: Who were you aiming for?

>54 2wonderY: That sounds fun. The closest I did to that was taking down an old plaster ceiling after it had been damaged during a bombing.

>55 haydninvienna: That sounds interesting. I helped empty a septic tank that was leaking and needed to be re-plastered. That's enough said about that.

>56 pgmcc: In my continuing attempt to prove I have the sense of humour of a teenage boy, I am reminded of a book I own, Christmas Crackers by John Julius Norwich. It’s a collection of quotations, some of them quite long. One is a transcript of a radio broadcast from many years ago about blowing up an old septic tank somewhere in rural England. The first time I read this story, it left me helpless with laughter. Worth finding the book for.

And the late Bernard Cribbins knew about taking down plaster ceilings, didn’t he?

>23 pgmcc: I struggle with spy thrillers set in contemporary times: too conspiratorial, I think. Plus, so many of them follow the same trope as police procedurals: rule-breaking agent with a chip on his shoulder and a tortured home life.

>57 haydninvienna: "This 'ere wall is goin' to hav' to go!"

>58 libraryperilous: I hate stories where the author is bending over backward to present a flawed character in their "hero".

>50 MrsLee: Are you hoping for something like this...?

>50 MrsLee: & >61 ScoLgo: That gives you plausible deniability.

>53 Bookmarque: Bookmarque: Who were you aiming for? - now if only my ex had been down there...that would have been perfect.

>61 ScoLgo: One can hope!

>64 MrsLee:
UNINTENDED consequences.

I am still reading and enjoying The Thursday Murder Club. It must be my being busy at work and other RL things that are getting in my way as I am enjoying reading the book and would like to have more opportunities to read it.

>56 pgmcc: hahaha! They would love that! My principal and custodian, not so much. :)

I have finished Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club. It took me a while to read (13 days) which appears to be down to real life issues, work and chores getting in the way, as well as the first half of the book, while giving me enjoyment, not grabbing me and pulling me through.

Would I read any more books by this author?
Yes.

Would I recommend this book?
Yes.

Who would I recommend this book to?
People interested in murder mysteries. I have described this as cosy crime but was challenged in this description because of the body count. I would still call it cosy crime; I do not think body count breaks the definition of cosy crime.

Did this book inspire me to do anything?
The book deals sympathetically with some fairly poignant topics, such as dementia, loneliness, love, justice, and generally growing old. There are other poignant topics that I will not mention as they could give a clue to the mysteries in the book. This book did not raise any ideas I had not thought about myself, but it did have me reviewing my thoughts on these topics and relating them to my own life and experiences.

I have many other thoughts to add to my review, but I wanted to give a brief idea of my thoughts on the book.

I am rating the book 3.5 stars out of 5. For me 3 is a good book. 4 is a stunning book. The Thursday Murder Club does not reach a 4 in my view, but it does deserve more than simply a good book rating.

I have started Signal Moon by Kate Quinn. It is a BB delivered by clamairy. 33% in and enjoying it.

>69 pgmcc: Yay!

>69 pgmcc: Is that Kate Quinn 1, 2, or 3? I’m guessing, but won’t presume.

>71 2wonderY: That is way beyond my ken.

>71 2wonderY: 1, and so is 2023's The Phoenix Crown, so I assigned them while I was playing on LT. Feel free to correct if I didn't do it properly. I don't do much in the LT weeds anymore.

>70 clamairy: Heading to bed with the intention of finishing Signal Moon before I do tomorrow's Wordle and Quordle. :-)

>74 pgmcc: I very much liked Signal Moon and plan to read more Kate Quinn in future, (an author I had not heard of prior to Clam's BB striking directly between my eyes).

It enjoyed Signal Moon. I reminded me of The Lake House movie.

>76 pgmcc: Definitely, but better.

I started reading The Maidens today.

Further notes on The Thursday Murder Club.



While I enjoyed The Thursday Murder Club, I do have a few concerns that I ignore while reading and revelling in the pleasure of the story. These are presented below in no particular order of priority. As some of these points could present spoilers I am using the spoiler mask.

Firstly, this book is very much in the style of the golden age stories, in that it is set primarily amongst the privileged, in this case, those who can afford to live in a retirement village. The participants can scarcely be described as working class, and where anyone comes close to being working class they are just part of the background noise or they have attained a position through some nefarious activity that no one wants to talk about in public.

Secondly, there is a clearly superior attitude towards The Law. Our privileged gang of four are making their own decisions as to what should be reported to the police and what should not. Murder is being swept under the carpet because the murderer was a friend of theirs and was a decent person, and obviously would not have committed the murder unless they had just cause. This is their setting themselves up as judge, jury and non-executioner and is the start of a slippery slope. While some might justify the actions on the basis of the members of The Thursday Murder Club being all decent sorts who would come to the proper decision, this justification in itself is flawed. Letting this sort of attitude persist gives other groups the opening to judge for themselves what proper justice is. In the extreme, and not that extreme, it opens the door to groups deciding that a lynching was justified, albeit without their following due process to investigate the full facts of any situation.

Thirdly is Elizabeth. Elizabeth is the ghost in the machine. She can work miracles, has all the right contacts, and can find all the information that is needed when it is needed. I wonder why she needs the rest of the gang other than to have someone to show off her brilliance to.

Fourthly, letting someone take “the honourable way out”. This is accepted by the group as an appropriate way of thinking. Perhaps it is, but it is a difficult area, and this book, to an extent, normalises it.

On the positive side, this book did address practical issues around growing old and how different people will manage in such circumstances. It also deals with dementia and its impact on the victim’s partner and friends.


Having said all that, I enjoyed the book and will be reading the next one from the author.

I am reading The Maidens by Alex Michaelides. This is another book by the author of The Silent Patient, a book I found very intriguing and captivating. It is on the strength of The Silent Patient that I have picked up The Maidens.

I pre-ordered "The Water Witch" by Jessica Thorne on July 29th. It was due for release on August 16th. It duly arrived on my Kindle on August 16th. All well and good. However, there was a line on the order enquiry stating that the "Return window closed on 12 August 2022". Hmmmm! I think Amazon has a glitch or two to sort out.

>81 pgmcc: Perhaps there are some time travel instructions in that book that will come in handy....

>82 clamairy: One can only hope.

I have an update on my reading room.

I asked my wife what she wanted for her birthday and she said she would like a double recliner for us to use when watching television in our den. (People in Ireland do not have dens. It is considered an American thing. However, we have basically handed our sitting-room/living-room over to our son, reserving a part of it for the dining table. We have put a TV into what was the dining-room, but, it is no longer a dining-room as the dining table is in the sitting-room. My wife decided we would call what was the dining-room the den. Calling it the TV room would not work, as the sitting-room also has a TV, so that would just cause confusion. So, it is the den.

Well, being the dutiful husband what I is (did you feel your teeth screech with pain when you read that), I brought my wife out to look at recliners and we now have a double recliner in the den.

While seeking our double recliner for the den we came across the recliner pictured below. My wife insisted I try it. She then insisted that we get it as a retirement present for me and that we set it up in the reading room. The picture shows it in its new location in the reading room.



By the way, the added bit of decadence is the fact that all the recliners are power operated. :-)

>84 pgmcc: Looks like a great place for reading!

>85 Karlstar: As it says on the map, "There be books here!"

Oooh. I have chair envy...

>85 Karlstar: Nah. The chair clearly says “Nap here.”

>88 2wonderY:
Funny you should say that.
:-)

Did I miss the announcement that you had retired? Or is this a present towards the future?

That is a very inviting chair, no matter what you end up doing in it.

I am confused (probably because I have spent too much time in the dark underneath a rock) but what makes this a "double" recliner? It seems to me to seat only one person. Is it that you are able to recline head and feet as separate functions? (So, head back but feet down, or something equally athletic.)

I confess I might easily get into the chair and be quite comfortable while reading, but getting out of the chair would (for me at least) present problems. But comfy chairs are a really important element of life. And I'm sitting her with more than a little chair-envy in my heart.

>91 jillmwo: This one isn't the double. That went into another room.

>90 MrsLee:
Future retirement present.

Not retiring for another 184 days, 22 hours, 12 minutes and 10 seconds. Not that I am counting.

>93 pgmcc: But you’ve got to start practicing. You don’t want to reach the day and fumble it.

>91 jillmwo:
>92 clamairy: is correct. Now, Clare was obviously paying attention.

By the way, the seats are powered. We just press a button and we are raised to a sitting position. I have to admit, however, that when fully reclined it can be a stretch to reach the button. It is much easier just to stay reclined and snooze.

>95 pgmcc: No point in laziness unless you do it properly.

>96 haydninvienna:
Precisely.

>84 pgmcc: that chair looks very comfy! Does it also help you stand when you get up?

>98 catzteach:
It does better than that. It makes you forget about wanting to get up in the first place. :-)

Here is my in-progress report on The Maidens by Alex Michaelides. It is eyes-only for those who have read the book, hence the spoiler tags.

I am about 120 pages into this novel and it is picking up the pace. I have a few issues with the book, but there are not of a magnitude that I am totally thrown out of the book.

Firstly, the main character is a group therapist who has studied Psychology at Oxford and, by all accounts, was an excellent student. It would appear from her thoughts and behaviour that she is in need of a little therapy herself. Possibly she is too close to herself to recognise traits that she would spot straightaway in other people.

Secondly, she makes a big thing about being a group therapist and not a specialist in the psychology of individuals or in criminal psychology. Then she turns round and starts analysing the murder situation from the psychology of the individuals and being very forensic in her approach to investigating the murder.

At the same time, which is really thirdly, being a highly educated psychologist, she is basing her findings on very short encounters with individuals. It is almost as if she is just using her instincts rather than her disciplined approach.

My fourth gripe is a little oopsie by the author. He describes how the “bedders” were all sitting having their tea-break when the protagonist approaches them with questions. She is looking for Tara’s bedder, and when Tara’s bedder makes herself known she is described as carrying a mop-bucket and lighting a cigarette. Now, I have an image of all the bedders sitting having tea and one of them holding a mop-bucket in one hand while trying to light a cigarette with the other hand.

I have the impression that our protagonist may be an unreliable narrator, but that would be disappointing as the author used that ploy in his previous book. Another hypothesis I have is that the author is not very good at writing a female character. That may be contributing to my feeling of “something not quite right” about this book.

He has been good at presenting us with potential murderers. We have the American lecturer who has a cult following and an inner-circle of beautiful, rich, female students, one of whom was the first, I presume there will be more, victim. I predict Serene, one of the inner-circle, as was the first victim, Tara, will be the next victim. She has been identified as having a secret man who is messaging her and she will not reveal anything about him. If she is the next victim, I will be a little disappointed as it will mean the plot is very predictable.

The next potential murderer is the Gatekeeper, the grandson of the old Gatekeeper, Morrison. He has been slipped in there undercover of being a servant and the English sophisticates never consider servants to be significant people.

Fred, the attractive, but apparently socially inept PhD student who accosted Mariana on the train and has turned up again, in a stalkery kind of fashion.

Then there is Zoe. Our protagonist has convinced herself that the murderer is a man, but that is always a clue that it is not. Zoe could have been jealous of Tara. We shall see.

There is also the boyfriend who has been arrested for questioning, and whom the police and the criminal psychologist have pegged for the murder.

Of course, the criminal psychologist, Julian, is also a potential murderer. If he is the murderer, he would be very happy to have the boyfriend put in the frame for the murder. His quick assessment that the boyfriend is the murderer could be more than just his eagerness to have a quick resolution to the investigation.

I suspect the American lecturer’s cabal of comely wenches have provided him with an alibi are lying. There could be a red-herring in the offing. His students could be covering for his absence, but his absence may have had nothing to do with the murder. In the Prologue we have the protagonist saying she is convinced he is the murderer. This could be the set-up for the reader to follow that line of thought. I think the protagonist is too close to the murder, given that her niece was a close friend of Tara’s, and the fact that she is drawing so many links between her own perception of Greek goddess involvement in her husband’s death and the American lecturer being obsessed with the same Greek goddess.

So far there have been two short chapters written from the point of view of the murderer. This reminds me of Iain Banks’s Complicity, in which we have three points of view: one, a journalist; two, the journalist’s life-long friend; three, the murderer. It is clear that the murderer is either the journalist or the friend, but which is not revealed until well into the novel. It is an excellent book and one of its strength’s is how Banks kept the murderer’s identity hidden for so long. (I read a two-paragraph review in a Waterstones Christmas catalogue that gave away the identity of the murderer. Iain was not amused. It was very unprofessional of the Waterstones reviewer.)

How do I think the book will proceed?
There will be at least one more murder; I think two is more likely. Then the protagonist, who thinks she is on the trail of the murderer, will become a target, and the climax will be how she is being followed, then trapped, and then about to be a victim, and how she survives through her psychological cleverness and her knowledge of Greek mythology.



I am enjoying the book, but it is not as gripping as his earlier novel, The Silent Patient.

>84 pgmcc: That recliner is the perfect addition to the book room. I would be hard pushed ever to leave.

>100 pgmcc: I agree with some of your observations, particularly regarding Mariana. (You are safe to read the spoiler, Peter.) I've found this in other books too, where the author creates a professional female character but then has her act on instinct and intuition rather than using her expertise. And I too was very dubious about her as a therapist based on what we saw of her group.

>101 Sakerfalcon: I mostly agree, but one would have to leave from time to time for a comfort stop!

>101 Sakerfalcon:
I am glad it was not just me, and that my spidey senses were appropriately tuned when reading The Maidens. I think it is one of those books that has flaws, but I am finding that it is still good enough that I want to read on. I am even getting to the point of looking for opportunities to pick it up and read it despite my now confirmed concerns.

I am also glad that you approve of the recliner. It does dominate the room, but it is a total indulgence. It is its purpose in life to dominate the reading room. Of course, >102 hfglen: has to mention the real life interruptions. Surely he has noticed that in fiction, be it book, TV programme, or movie, that sort of real life interruption never happens. How often have you seen people confined to a cell for days, and never have they had such an interruption? If such interruptions were introduced to every piece of fiction we would find that the many, many story plots would collapse in a heap.

>101 Sakerfalcon: The Maidens Related comment.
I forgot to mention Henry as another potential killer.

By the way, I have just read the part where Mariana was followed in the dark on her way back to college after meeting Fred in the pub. This is exactly the type of scene I was expecting. It does not let Morris off the hook.

>103 pgmcc: I seem to recall that when Tiffany Aching was imprisoned in the Baron's dungeon in I shall wear Midnight, specific mention was made that she was provided with a bucket in the corner :-Þ

>105 hfglen:
Oh! Indoor plumbing. There’s posh for you.

>104 pgmcc: The Maidens again.
OK, I got it wrong. Veronica was the next victim; not Serene. I would still claim to be close.

>107 pgmcc: That's a fair claim.

>108 Sakerfalcon: Further thoughts on The Maidens.

My two prime suspects are Professor Fosca and Fred. In fact, I would dismiss Fosca as a suspect. The feel of the murders, and things like the postcards, are more like a set-up to frame Fosca. Following the idea of asking "Why?" rather than "Who?", I would say it is some form of revenge on Fosca. On the face of it the murderer is a male, with difficult childhood. We have been led to believe this from the chapters that are supposed to be from the murderer's point of view and from the comments of the characters in the story. We have also been given information to indicate Fosca's background fits that profile, but there is also evidence that Fred's background fits that profile. I have not identified a motive for Fred to be so precise in his targeting of Fosca, but it is not unknown in murder mysteries for vital information to be withheld until the end.

Now, if we are talking motive, would it not be conceivable that an established lecturer in the college, with knowledge of Greek mythology and language, would be jealous of this upstart American academic's success? Does Clarissa not have the strongest motive to want Fosca gone; does she not have the knowledge to play with the mythology and Greek literature? Is she not in the best position to know what is going on in the college? I had dismissed her as a suspect because I had the mental picture of her not being very agile and hence not likely to be able to wander about at night and wield a knife in a fashion necessary to commit the murders. But, of course, that could be what the author wants me to think.

Of course, if it turns out that Fred is Clarissa's grandson,...then he could have motive, and possibly the knowledge. Is he acting alone to revenge Clarissa's reduced status? Is he working in cahoots with Clarissa? Endless questions.

By the way, in relation to Clarissa's motivation for wanting Fosca framed, there is, apart from the professional jealousy, also the old establishment not being happy with an American of poor background being so successful in a Cambridge college. Fosca has referred to his feeling this from the establishment, and how it makes him feel like an outsider; not quite accepted; resented, even.

Julian is still hanging around, but there has not been enough information about him to give us any indication that he is the murderer. If it turns out to be him it would be a bit of a cheat.

Likewise, Morris. He is too obviously a red herring. Too much of the G.K. Chesterton postman.

Elsie, the bedder, would have the resentment to kill The Maidens, but it would be a very big cheat to suddenly discover that she has the Greek knowledge required to send the postcards.

Let us not forget Zoe. Why did she only go to one meeting of The Maidens? Did something happen that angered her so much that she decided to murder the girls and frame Fosca? Does she have the knowledge to carry out the murders?

My money is on some connection between Clarissa and Fred. I still think Clarissa has the strongest motive for wanting Fosca to take a fall.


You can see I have watched many Agatha Christie murders.

I am enjoying your deductions. My lips are sealed.

>110 Sakerfalcon:
Part of the enjoyment I get from a novel is trying to work out where it is going. I cannot remember ever getting it correct, but I enjoy the speculation. It is almost as much fun for me as reading the story. :-)

>111 pgmcc: This is definitely how I operate. Often there's greater joy in being incorrect, because the shock of it is so thrilling.

>112 clamairy:
Yes, it can be quite shocking when the author gets it wrong.

>113 pgmcc: LOL, exactly.

I have acquired Snobbery with Violence by Colin Watson. I anticipate an interesting dissection of the cosy crime genre, and its underlying current of privilege and evil. :-)

>113 pgmcc: actual lol

I have finished The Maidens and am starting Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers.

The Maidens was a little disappointing given how good his first novel was. I will have to think about the book before giving final comment.

>117 pgmcc: I think you are on your way to the beach with that Sayers novel. Have fun!

>118 MrsLee: I have only read a couple of pages, but Harriet Vane is on a walking holiday by the coast. The front cover picture depicts her in the outdoors and looking at a map.

I think that supports your thinking.

Having finished The Maidens murder mystery, and it was by no means a cosy crime novel, I wanted something entertaining. Returning to the Dorothy L. Sayers novels is just the ticket. (See, I am even using Lord Peter style language.)

E.T.A. I have just learned a lesson about looking at a book cover while not wearing my glasses. My understanding of the front cover of the book was that the lady pictured was dressed in outdoor hiking gear, wearing a khaki hat with a brim, and looking at a map. From the time of my looking at the cover, putting on my glasses, writing the first paragraph above, and looking once more at the cover, she had changed into a neat summer dress, exchanged her khaki headgear for a stylish, white summer hat with a brim, put down the map, and was now reading a newspaper. At least she was still in the outdoors, and looks perfectly attired for sitting by the beach enjoying the warmth of a pleasant summer's day in the South West of England in the period when the story is set.

By the way, she has just discovered the body. Very exciting.

>117 pgmcc: Re: The maidens: The "twist" at the end made me really cross. It seemed so very implausible.

>120 Sakerfalcon: Re Re: The Maidens
Yes, I felt a similar response. While I was not totally surprised the murderer was Zoe I got the motivation totally wrong. I suppose there were hints, in that suspicion on the professor was triggered by Zoe, and then she appeared to back down when he was present. Also, it was Zoe who alleged the ceremonies were held by the Maidens, which would support the idea that they were complicit with the professor and why they gave an alibi.

I thought the ending was too convenient. It tied up too neatly. I was also not enamoured by the interlinking with The Silent Patient.

Other implausible scenes included the interview in the Dean's office after Marianna had attacked the professor. In reality, Marianna would be carted off to police station and questioned in an interview room, and definitely not with the professor present, or the dean of the college. That was a totally unreal scene. As was the scene in which Zoe told Clarissa and Marianna about the ceremonies. That was a definite, "Call the police" situation. It was not a, "We will do this ourselves. The police would not believe us" moment.

I would probably read another one of his books, but I would not be buying it as soon as I see it like I did with this one. It was such a let-down after his first one.

Another quibble I had with the book: Character names Mariana (similar to Marian) and Fosco suggested to me that there would be a tie- in in some way to The woman in white. But as far as I could tell there was no connection at all. So why did he choose those names, particularly Fosco which would ring a bell with many readers?

>122 Sakerfalcon:
I missed that. Food for thought. Of course, if the author’s own psychological condition is anything like that of his fictional psychologists, he needs treatment and it would be futile to attempt to work out the machinations of his mind.

It struck me that his books call into question the mental health of a whole generation of psychologists, if not the whole profession.

>123 pgmcc: I would not choose to seek help from any of the psychotherapy students we get here in the library. The majority of them are extremely unpleasant in their dealings with us, and seem to lack empathy or concern for others. Maybe the nice ones just don't come to the library!

>123 pgmcc: >124 Sakerfalcon: I seem to recall that somewhere in his vast corpus C G Jung says that psychoanalysis is the disease for which it pretends to be the cure.

>119 pgmcc: I think either version of the cover as you described it would work perfectly well.

Presume you've seen the Harkaway news?

Titanium Noir is on the way. Though it's srill quite a way away as release date is May 16, 2023.

>127 AHS-Wolfy:
You saw it before me. He was going to announce something on Aug 16th but was delayed. I have been watching his Twitter every day but did not check today. Thank you for letting me know.

Thank you, AHS-Wolfy, for brining Nick Harkaway's new book to my attention.



It is due for release on 16th May, 2023 in the US, and 4th May, 2023 on this side of The Atlantic.

The above image is the US cover. I have not found a UK cover image yet.

>127 AHS-Wolfy: I'll be watching for it here in the states. No announcements or pre-order availability as of yet on Amazon, (where Harkaway is on my followed author's list).

>130 ScoLgo:
I checked the US Amazon to pre-order for my daughter. They had the Kindle version, but no physical book, which is weird, the cover in >129 pgmcc: is the US cover.

In UK Amazon they have both the Kindle and the Hardback, but no book cover. :-(

I believe you can pre-order on penguinrandomhouse.com.

>129 pgmcc: Cool cover.

>131 pgmcc: I wonder if pre-order availability is regional? I am searching Amazon.com here for "Nick Harkaway Titanium Noir" and getting no results at all. Wait, that's not entirely true. I am getting results for other Harkaway titles and for Drakkar Noir fragrance - but none for this new book. Ah well, we are months away so I will simply have to be patient.

>133 ScoLgo:
When I searched for Nick Harkaway it did not show the book. When I searched for Titanium Noir it showed up.

I hope you find it.

>132 Karlstar:
It is. I am keen to see the cover for over here.

I am currently reading Dorothy L. Sayers's Have His Carcase. Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey books are a source of great entertainment and interest to me, and I consider them comfort reads. (Here comes the "but".) However, I am finding this one a little tedious in one way, but of interest in other ways. I am over 200 pages into the book and feel we should be solving the mystery by now. That impression is somewhat dampened by the fact that while I am over 200 pages into the book I have not yet reached the half-way point.

While this story has a murder mystery to be solved, I feel the murder mystery is incidental and is only providing the supporting framework Sayers was using to hang her story about the developing relationship between Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey. There is as much time spent showing their interactions, exposing the slight rifts between them, and to discussions about what is important in life, as there is to the murder mystery.

I have seen it claimed that Dorothy L. Sayers used the Harriet Vane character to project herself into the stories and into the relationship with Lord Peter Wimsey. Reading Have His Carcase has me believing that hypothesis to be true. There is a lot of soul searching, and questioning what is important in a relationship, and how equality between partners is important. Harriet Vane is an intelligent, independent person, and any hint that she might be dependent upon Lord Peter Wimsey simply because he is a man, causes great irritation. This book was first published in 1932 and we still have the situation where garage mechanics and car salesmen will talk to any man present even when a woman is the customer. I have witnessed this several times when accompanying female friends to a garage with their car for service or repair. I have been along simply by chance, but the garage people still address themselves to me, even when I step back and inform them that the lady present is the customer. It is exactly this type of attitude that is portrayed in Have His Carcase and which irritates Harriet Vane, and I presume Dorothy L. Sayers, so much.

Of all the Harriet and Peter novels, Have His Carcase is for me the least engaging. So you do have company in finding it somewhat boring. However I thought, at one point, that you were going to read Snobbery With Violence but there's been no discussion of it thus far. Were you waiting to finish Carcase before starting it? Watson actually spends more time on Agatha Christie and Edgar Wallace than he does on Sayers.

>137 jillmwo:
I only got my hands on it on Aug 22nd. I will get to it soon. Sooner than later now I know you are keen to discuss it.

Hugo Awards ceremony being transmitted on Youtube, HERE.

It is a public event and is not limited to members of Chicon 8, this year's Worldcon currently taking place in Chicago. The transmission will start at 8pm Chicago time.

>139 pgmcc: Cool!

The Librarything Authors' Gallery feature in Charts & Graphs presented me with the following authors. Having checked the number of books and works I have catalogued for each author I am wondering what exactly the ranking was. While the counts of books and works do not show a ranking that corresponds exactly with the number of books and works I have catalogued, it is a pretty accurate indication of the top authors by number of books and authors in my catalogue.

I notice that the line-up is bereft of any female authors. Looking at the cut-off threshold I see the list stops just short of Daphne Du Maurier, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ursula K. Le Guin, Tana French, and Shirley Jackson.

Also, as the ranking was obviously based on number of books/works catalogued, there are authors, such as Nick Harkaway, whose number of books written to date do not bring him up to the threshold, who are excluded albeit their being authors I follow closely, and whose books I buy on publication, or pre-order as soon as I hear they are coming out.

This list has also highlighted books I have not catalogued. We have virtually every Terry Pratchett book published, but I have not catalogued them all...yet. We also have about every Agatha Christie, Ruth Rendell, P.G. Wodehouse, Peter Tremayne, and many more. These have not been catalogued as they are in either my wife's library or that of one of our offspring.

I am surprised I have not catalogued all the John Le Carré novels. Again this is due to my wife having been the primary Le Carré fan with my only catching up on her in relatively recent years.

>134 pgmcc: A funny thing happened on the way to Stefan Tonfamecasca's secret Titan lair...

Titanium Noir has finally shown up in my corner of the Amazon colossus. At first glance, it shows the same cover you posted above. That seems to be for the kindle version. The hardcover shows a generic red cover with the title and author in a simple white serif font. Confusingly, the 'Look Inside' feature allows me to begin reading Tigerman, while the Paperback link actually seems to point to the Tigerman novel, available for delivery this coming week if ordered within the next 13 hours and 3 minutes. Clearly, Amazon is still figuring out the details for Titanium Noir... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The release date for both the kindle and hardcover versions is May 16, 2023. I'm hoping the $28.00 price drops between now and this coming spring, but I will buy it either way.

>139 pgmcc: Thank you for the link. I may try to check out the Hugo Awards tonight.

>141 pgmcc: I had somehow never looked at the author gallery feature! That's pretty cool. Mine contained a few surprises:



Firstly, while I read a lot of Stephen King back in the 1970's and 1980's, I would not have guessed that he would rank higher than CJ Cherry. He edged her out in my rankings by one book, 47 to 46.

Second, I have not read Piers Anthony in many, many years but I guess I read enough of his material in my teens that he ranks in the middle of the list. 29 books. Well, that's sort of embarrassing looking back on it. I guess I thought him punny back in the day. The last title I tried was a DNF.

Third, Robin Hobb. I read (and enjoyed) the entirety of her Realm of the Elderlings series in 2017. I guess those 17 books just barely edged out a few other authors.

Not at all surprised to find Ursula Le Guin, Gene Wolfe, Tim Powers, and CJ Cherryh as they easily make it onto my top-5 personal favorite authors list. The fifth didn't make it due to Octavia Butler not having been as prolific as the others.

>140 clamairy:
I hope it is of use to you. It will be 2am in the morning for me, so I am not likely to watch it.

Given that it is on Youtube I am wondering if they will leave it there to look back on.

>142 ScoLgo:
As you say, how prolific an author has been will influence the number of books/works one has in one's library and hence whether or not the author makes it to the top of a numbers based ranking. An interesting ranking could be based on the number of works one has as a proportion of the works authors have produced. There would have to be some other adjustment or single book authors could be hitting the top spot if you own a single copy of their only book. :-) Isn't it nice to be able to discuss the ramifications of trivial statistics? :-)

As an aside, I attended the 2005 Worldcon in Glasgow. There was a session in which TOR introduced a number of their new authors. One of them was Robin Hobb. I cannot remember the other names, but they were names that started appearing regularly.

The 2024 Worldcon will be held in Glasgow. I have bought my membership and will spend the next two years looking forward to attending.

Here is the Glasgow2024 website for those of you who are interested.

>145 pgmcc: My social media was filled with notes from friends who were in Chicago for the Worldcon. I think I was moderately envious. Now Glasgow sounds like an interesting location to hold a Worldcon. Do you think the city will be comfortable and able to handle it? (Never been to Scotland.)

>146 jillmwo:
The 2005 WorldCon was held in Glasgow. It was my first Worldcon and I had a great time. They have a large, very modern, exhibition campus which was used in 2005 for Worldcon, and t is the same venue being used in 2024. It was big enough in 2005 and has been expanded since then. There are many hotels around the complex.

I attended on the first day of the Worldcon when things were being prepared and I got the job of conveying mobility scooters from one end of the exhibition hall to the other. That was a nice job, getting things ready for people who need them. The enjoyment was nothing to do with whizzing down a wide open corridor honking the horn at anyone who might look like they were thinking of getting in your way.

You never know, I might bump into your filking friend again. I have already messaged her to ask if she intends going. I think she makes a policy of going to all the Worldcons. Next year is in China which might be a little more difficult to attend. It would be great if you made it to Glasgow for the con.

Regarding Glasgow being comfortable and able to handle the Worldcon, I see no reason why not. The exhibition centre is in the west of the city. In 2005 I stayed in a B&B near the city centre and took a commuter train out to the complex. The trains were fairly frequent and easy to use.

Scotland is a beautiful country and Glasgow is a good point to start any tour of the highlands and islands.

>146 jillmwo: >147 pgmcc: In my experience Jillmwo's greatest difficulty is likely to be the language barrier. Some Glaswegians (such as Rachel McCormack on BBC4) are very pleasant to listen to, but others make Glaswegian sound like a throat disease!

I am often quite diligent at reporting books I have acquired. It struck me that I should also report the books I am about to acquire, i.e. my pre-orders. As of today, my pre-orders and their published release dates are:

A Private Spy: The Letters of John Le Carré 1945-2020, edited by Tim Cornwell*: 13th October, 2022

Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami: 8th November, 2022

Hopeland by Ian McDonald: 16th February, 2023

Beyond the Reach of Earth: Book Two of the Lightspeed Trilogy by Ken MacLeod: 23 March, 2023

Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway: 4th May, 2023

It is interesting to see that four of the five books that have not yet been published have Touchstones. I find it curious that when I am holding a book in my hand and yet cannot find a Touchstone for it. Such is the mystery of life; well, of Touchstones anyway.

*Tim Cornwell passed away on 31st May, 2022, shortly after having finished editing this book of his father's letters.

>149 pgmcc: I'll be looking forward to your thoughts on Hopeland and the 2nd book of the Lightspeed trilogy.

I have about seventy pages left in Have his Carcase. I am in the middle of a long chapter in which Lord Peter mansplains encryption to Harriet Vane.. I have actually skipped to the end of that chapter.

I have just finished Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers. It is not the most enthralling or captivating Lord Peter stories. I have already expressed some of my issues with the book above in post >136 pgmcc:. >137 jillmwo: reassured me that I was not the only person to have had issues with this book. In compliance with my promise to put my summary opinion of a book up front before I produced copious notes on my feelings, I am answering my review questions here:

Would I read another book by this author?
Yes.

Would I recommend this book?
Yes, but with caveats.

Who would I recommend this book to?
To people who like Dorothy L. Sayers's writing, and who would want to read all the Lord Peter stories.

Has this book inspired me to do anything?
No.

I found the book a bit too drawn out. My inference is that Sayers was trying to do more than simply tell a murder mystery story. I believe her primary purpose in writing this book was to progress the relationship between Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey; the murder mystery was simply a framework that put the two characters together, and to present the thoughts in Harriet Vane's mind towards Lord Peter in particular, men in general, and to discuss the underlying, systemic misogyny that undermined the independence of women, and which could undermine any relationship between a man and a woman. The encounters between the two characters were affected by these thoughts, and issues were brought out into the open, primarily to show, ultimately, that Lord Peter regarded Harriet Vane as an equal person. This does not, however, prevent his mansplaining encryption to Harriet Vane, although this was more likely Sayers's way of explaining the encryption method used in the story to the reader. It still came across as mansplaining.

The murder mystery itself was designed to be difficult to prove with insurmountable factors that it required Lord Peter to solve.

The method of investigating and solving the murder mystery was laid out a bit to methodically. It was too much of a, "This happened, then that happened, then this happened...but it couldn't have happened like that...unless."

While this novel trailed on for far too long, I think it was necessary to read it to follow the developing relationship between Harriet Vane and Lord Peter. As I am on a mission to read all the Lord Peter stories, as chronologically as I can, I will not be derailed by this less than perfect novel.

This book would not be a good first Lord Peter Wimsey story to read. If it were my first I would not be as eager to continue reading these novels. If I were asked to recommend a starting point in the Lord Peter stories, I would say read them all in chronological order.

I see I have triggered the "continue this topic in another topic"* link, and, as I am about to start two new books, I think I will follow the link and start a new thread.

* Does anyone else think that the legend, "continue this topic in another topic", is a little incongruous? If we continue this topic in another topic, then surely it will no longer be this topic, but another topic. Am I the only one bothered by these existential conundrums?

>152 pgmcc: Yonks ages ago, when the social internet was just beginning (or at least my participation in it), I joined two Yahoo groups. One was for the Lord Peter Wimsey novels (The other being named Piffle which was for stuff and nonsense, but had many of the same members as the first group) and that group did a group read each cycle reading the series in order, different members participating to guide discussion, and enlighten the readers to behind the scenes knowledge, etc. I was far outclassed by knowledgeable folks there, but my lot fell to be a discussion leader for Have His Carcase. I studied a lot about cryptology, Robert Graves came into it somewhere, and I can't remember what all else. It isn't my favorite book either, but as you say, it moves things along and sets the rules for the relationship. I will be interested to see how you feel about Gaudy Night when you get to it.

A question. Would it still be mansplaining if it was Harriet giving the lecture? Somebody had to explain to the reader, and Lord Peter was the one who had been in the war. Of course, you probably didn't need the explanation, what with your nefarious "other" job. ;) I also found that part tedious and tended to skim. Another Sayers that was more of a slog than a joy was Five Red Herrings, however, there are always things to enjoy in them, even if they are not all perfectly delightful.

>154 MrsLee:
your nefarious "other" job. ;)

Please, a little more hush, hush! :-)

I will be interested to see how you feel about Gaudy Night when you get to it.

I see that the next two Lord Peter stories are, Murder Must Advertise and The Nine Tailors. These are titles I read before catching the "read-them-in-order" bug, so I am going to jump past them to Gaudy Night. Watch this space.

By the way, Murder Must Advertise and The Nine Tailors would be my favourite Lord Peter stories so far.

Another Sayers that was more of a slog than a joy was Five Red Herrings,

I read Five Red Herrings knowing that many people here found it a slog. Perhaps it was my knowing this that lowered my expectations for it, but I quite enjoyed the book. Sayers's objective in that book was to write a murder mystery in her favourite holiday destination. Perhaps that is what made the story drag for some people.

Would it still be mansplaining if it was Harriet giving the lecture? Somebody had to explain to the reader, and Lord Peter was the one who had been in the war.

Good question, but I felt it was not necessarily a good idea to have a detailed decryption in the novel. Sayers was a very clever person, and encryption would have been no problem to her, but I did not feel I wanted a step-by-step guide to the coding method in the novel. They could have included the first couple of iterations and sped rapidly to the end of the chapter with, "...another two hours of decryption gave them the text of the whole letter."

>155 pgmcc: I quite liked Five Red Herrings too, enough that I’ve been to the area where it’s set. Helps that Wigtown, the Scottish book town, is in the area as well.

>156 haydninvienna: I was not aware of there being a Scottish book town.

>155 pgmcc: " I felt it was not necessarily a good idea to have a detailed decryption in the novel."

Well, of course you would say that, not wanting trade secrets given away and all. Ahem.

Those are my two favorite novels as well.

>157 pgmcc: Shaun Bythell’s bookshop is in Wigtown.