lyzard's list: Wrapped in the mists of obscurity in 2023 - Part 3

For some strange reason I feel a real affinity with this frog...

The black rain frog is endemic to the south coast of Africa, living at altitudes of 1000m or higher. Unlike many frogs it is not threatened, though may still be vulnerable to habitat destruction. It has a maximum length of about 5 cm, and is quite long-lived (up to 15 years). It is a burrowing species and does not require a body of water: its eggs are laid in the burrow and the species does not have a tadpole stage, with the young frogs emerging instead as tiny versions of the adult form. The burrowing itself is a defense mechanism against predators, but the black rain frog can also inflate itself to as much as 7 times its normal size.

It has other appealing features but I'll let you figure out for yourselves what those are:


  

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

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

****



The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré (1977)

2023 reading:

January:

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

February:

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

March:

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

April:

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

May:

38. It by Stephen King (1986)
39. Cut Throat by Christopher Bush (1932)
40. World's End by Upton Sinclair (1940)
41. The Secret Of Amityville by Hans Holzer (1985)
42. The Mystery Of The Flaming Footprints by M. V. Carey (1971)

June:

43. The Black Hope Horror: The True Story Of A Haunting by Ben Williams, Jean Williams and John Bruce Shoemaker (1991)
44. The White Line by John Alexander Ferguson (1929)
45. Death Of Mr Dodsley by John Alexander Ferguson (1937)
46. The Richest Widow by Hulbert Footner (1935)
47. The Kidnapping Of Madame Storey by Hulbert Footner (1936)
48. The Gracie Allen Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine (1938)
49. The Mystery Of The Ashes by Anthony Wynne (1927)
50. The Tommyknockers by Stephen King (1987)
51. Bushranger Of The Skies by Arthur Upfield (1940)
52. Dancers In Mourning by Margery Allingham (1937)

July:

53. The Claverings by Anthony Trollope (1867)
54. The Hunt For Red October by Tom Clancy (1984)
55. Nigger Heaven by Carl van Vechten (1926)
56. Gains And Losses: Novels Of Faith And Doubt In Victorian England by Robert Lee Wolff (1977)
57. Where There's A Will by Rex Stout (1940)
58. Cynthia Wakeham's Money by Anna Katharine Green (1892)
59. The Film Mystery by Arthur B. Reeve (1921)
60. The Wedding March Murder by Monte Barrett (1933)

August:

61. Death At Low Tide by Miles Burton (1938)
62. Secret Judges by Francis D. Grierson (1925)
63. The Secret Of Sarek by Maurice Leblanc (1919)
64. Why Shoot A Butler? by Georgette Heyer (1933)
65. The India-Rubber Men by Edgar Wallace (1929)
66. The Winter Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine (1939)
67. The Nameless Man by Natalie Sumner Lincoln (1917)
68. Detective Ben by J. Jefferson Farjeon (1936)
69. The Fashion In Shrouds by Margery Allingham (1938)
70. The Mystery Of The Nervous Lion by Nick West (1971)
71. The Hunterstone Outrage by Seldon Truss (1931)
72. Patriot Games by Tom Clancy (1987)

Books in transit:

To borrow:
Curious, If True by Elizabeth Gaskell {Fisher Library}
The Lifted Veil by George Eliot {Fisher Library}

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

Possible requests:
Caravans by James A. Michener {Fisher storage / SMSA, on loan}
Emperor Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer {JFR}
Sudden Death by Freeman Wills Crofts {ILL / read in-library}

On loan:
The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré (01/09/2023)
*The Claverings by Anthony Trollope (26/09/2023)
*The Hunt For Red October by Tom Clancy (26/09/2023)
*Nigger Heaven by Carl van Vecht (26/09/2023)
*Why Shoot A Butler? by Georgette Heyer (28/09/2023)
*The Fashion In Shrouds by Margery Allingham (28/09/2023)
Death Of A Swagman by Arthur Upfield (28/09/2023)
Black Orchids by Rex Stout (28/09/2023)
The Fire Engine That Disappeared by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (28/09/2023)
Jew Süss by Lion Feuchtwanger (26/10/2023)
*Gains And Losses by Robert Lee Wolff (29/10/2023)
*Bushranger Of The Skies by Arthur Upfield (29/10/2023)
Charles O'Malley by Charles Lever (17/11/2023)
The Cardinal Of The Kremlin by Tom Clancy (Ross)

Ongoing reading projects:

Blog reads:
Chronobibliography: The Penitent Hermit by "A Lady" / The Post-Boy Rob'd Of His Mail by Charles Gildon
Authors In Depth:
- Adelaide; or, The Countercharm by Catherine Cuthbertson
- Shannondale (aka "The Three Beauties; or, Shannondale: A Novel") by E.D.E.N. Southworth
- Lady Audley's Secret / The White Phantom by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
- Anecdotes Of The Altamont Family by "Gabrielli"
- The Cottage by Margaret Minifie
- The Abbess by Frances Trollope
Reading Roulette: Pique by Frances Notley / Our Mr Wrenn by Sinclair Lewis
Australian fiction: Narrative of the capture, sufferings, and miraculous escape of Mrs. Eliza Fraser by Eliza Fraser
Gothic novel timeline: Anecdotes Of A Convent by Anonymous
Early crime fiction: The Mysteries Of London by G. W. M. Reynolds
Silver-fork novels: Tremaine; or, The Man Of Refinement by Robert Plumer Ward
Related reading: Gains And Losses by Robert Lee Wollf / The Man Of Feeling by Henry Mackenzie / Le Loup Blanc by Paul Féval / Theresa Marchmont; or, The Maid Of Honour by Catherine Gore

Group reads:

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

Next up: Curious, If True by Elizabeth Gaskell / The Lifted Veil by George Eliot

General reading challenges:

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

America's best-selling novels (1895 - ????):
Next up: The Hunt For Red October / Patriot Games / The Cardinal Of The Kremlin by Tom Clancy

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

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

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

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

Banned In Boston!: (here)
Next up: Jew Süss by Lion Feuchtwanger

Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe series (shared reads):
Next up: Black Orchids (#9)

Arthur Upfield - Bony series (shared reads):
Next up: Death Of A Swagman (#9)

Margery Allingham - Albert Campion series (shared reads):
Next up: Mr Campion And Others (#11)

"The Three Investigators" (shared reads):
Next up: The Mystery Of The Singing Serpent by M. V. Carey (#17)

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

Random reading 1940 - 1969:
Next up: Caravans by James A. Michener (1963)

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

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

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

TBR notes:

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

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

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

Online:
The Whisperer by J. M. Walsh {online; possibly abridged? / Mitchell Library}
About The Murder Of A Night Club Lady by Anthony Abbot {serialised}

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

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

Completist reading:
Thieves' Nights by Harry Stephen Keeler (#5) {Rare Books}
Marked "Personal" by Anna Katharine Green (#14) {Project Gutenberg}
Dangerous Days by Mary Roberts Rinehart (#10) {Project Gutenberg}
The White Cockatoo by Mignon Eberhart {Rare Books / Internet Archive}

A Century (And A Bit) Of Reading:

At least one book a year from 1800 - 1900!

1800: Juliania; or, The Affectionate Sisters by Elizabeth Sandham
1801: Belinda by Maria Edgeworth
1802: The Infidel Father by Jane West
1803: Thaddeus Of Warsaw by Jane Porter
1804: The Lake Of Killarney by Anna Maria Porter
1805: The Impenetrable Secret, Find It Out! by Francis Lathom
1806: The Wild Irish Girl by Sydney Owenson
1807: Corinne; ou, l'Italie by Madame de Staël
1808: The Marquise Of O. by Heinrich Von Kleist
1809: The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter
1810: Forest Of Montalbano by Catherine Cuthbertson / Zastrozzi by Percy Bysshe Shelley / St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian by Percy Bysshe Shelley
1811: Self-Control by Mary Brunton
1812: The Absentee by Maria Edgeworth
1813: The Heroine; or, Adventures Of A Fair Romance Reader by Eaton Stannard Barrett
1814: The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties by Frances Burney
1815: Headlong Hall by Thomas Love Peacock
1816: Glenarvon by Lady Caroline Lamb
1817: Harrington by Maria Edgeworth
1818: Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock
1819: The Vampyre by John William Polidori
1820: The Sketch Book Of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. by Washington Irving
1821: The Ayrshire Legatees; or, The Pringle Family by John Galt / Valerius: A Roman Story by J. G. Lockhart / Kenilworth by Walter Scott
1822: Bracebridge Hall; or, The Humorists by Washington Irving
1823: The Two Broken Hearts by Catherine Gore
1824: The Adventures Of Hajji Baba Of Ispahan by James Justinian Morier
1826: Lichtenstein by Wilhelm Hauff / The Last Of The Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
1827: The Epicurean by Thomas Moore / The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
1828: The Life Of Mansie Wauch, Tailor In Dalkeith by David Moir
1829: Wilhelm Meister's Travels by Johann Goethe / The Collegians by Gerald Griffin / Louisa Egerton; or, Castle Herbert by Mary Leman Grimstone / Richelieu: A Tale Of France by G. P. R. James
1830: Alfred Dudley; or, The Australian Settlers by Sarah Porter
1831: The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
1832: The Refugee In America by Frances Trollope
1833: Tom Cringle's Log by Michael Scott
1836: Mr Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marrat / The Tree And Its Fruits; or, Narratives From Real Life by Phoebe Hinsdale Brown
1837: Rory O'More by Samuel Lover / Jack Brag by Theodore Hook
1839: Fardorougha The Miser; or, The Convicts Of Lisnamona by William Carleton
1840: The Life And Adventures Of Valentine Vox, The Ventriloquist by Henry Cockton / Ten Thousand A Year by Samuel Warren
1841: Old Saint Paul's by William Harrison Ainsworth
1842: Taras Bulba (revised edition) by Nikolai Gogol
1845: Zoe: The History Of Two Lives by Geraldine Jewsbury / The Mysteries Of London (Volume I) by G. W. M. Reynolds
1846: The Mysteries Of London (Volume II) by G. W. M. Reynolds
1847: Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë / The Macdermots Of Ballycloran by Anthony Trollope / The Mysteries Of London: Volume III by G. W. M. Reynolds
1848: The Kellys And The O'Kellys by Anthony Trollope / The Mysteries Of London: Volume IV by G. W. M. Reynolds
1850: Pique by Frances Notley
1851: The Mother-In-Law; or, The Isle Of Rays by E.D.E.N. Southworth
1856: Recollections Of A Detective Police-Officer by "Waters"
1857: The Three Clerks by Anthony Trollope / Synnøve Solbakken by Bjornstjerne Bjornson
1859: The Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden / The Bertrams by Anthony Trollope
1860: The Semi-Attached Couple by Emily Eden / Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope
1861: The Executor by Margaret Oliphant / The Rector by Margaret Oliphant
1862: Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope / The Struggles Of Brown, Jones, And Robinson by Anthony Trollope
1863: The Doctor's Family by Margaret Oliphant / Marian Grey; or, The Heiress Of Redstone Hall by Mary Jane Holmes / Salem Chapel by Margaret Oliphant
1865: Miss Mackenzie by Anthony Trollope / The Belton Estate by Anthony Trollope
1869: He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
1873: Had You Been In His Place by Lizzie Bates
1874: Chaste As Ice, Pure As Snow by Charlotte Despard
1876: Phoebe, Junior by Margaret Oliphant
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 / The Old Stone House And Other Stories by Anna Katharine Green / The Story Of Gösta Berling by Selma Lagerlöf
1892: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman / Elsie At Viamede by Martha Finley / Blood Royal by Grant Allen / Cynthia Wakeham's Money by Anna Katharine Green
1893: Elsie At Ion by Martha Finley
1894: Martin Hewitt, Investigator by Arthur Morrison / The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen / Elsie At The World's Fair by Martha Finley
1895: Chronicles Of Martin Hewitt by Arthur Morrison / Elsie's Journey On Inland Waters by Martha Finley
1896: The Island Of Dr Moreau by H. G. Wells / Adventures Of Martin Hewitt by Arthur Morrison
1897: Penelope's Progress by Kate Douglas Wiggin
1898: A Man From The North by Arnold Bennett / The Lust Of Hate by Guy Newell Boothby / Elsie On The Hudson And Elsewhere by Martha Finley
1899: Agatha Webb by Anna Katharine Green / Dr Nikola's Experiment by Guy Newell Boothby / Elsie In The South by Martha Finley
1900: The Circular Study by Anna Katharine Green / Elsie's Young Folks In Peace And War by Martha Finley

Timeline of detective fiction:

An examination of the roots of modern crime and mystery fiction:

Pre-history:
Things As They Are; or, The Adventures Of Caleb Williams by William Godwin (1794)
Mademoiselle de Scudéri by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1819); Tales Of Hoffmann (1982)
Richmond: Scenes In The Life Of A Bow Street Officer by Anonymous (1827)
Memoirs Of Vidocq by Eugene Francois Vidocq (1828)
Le Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac (1835)
Passages In The Secret History Of An Irish Countess by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1838); The Purcell Papers (1880)
The Murders In The Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales by Edgar Allan Poe (1841, 1842, 1845)

Serials:
The Mysteries Of Paris by Eugene Sue (1842 - 1843)
The Mysteries Of London by Paul Feval (1844)
The Mysteries Of London by George Reynolds (1844 - 1848)
- The Mysteries Of London: Volume I
- The Mysteries Of London: Volume II
- The Mysteries Of London: Volume III
- The Mysteries Of London: Volume IV
The Mysteries Of The Court Of London by George Reynolds (1848 - 1856)
John Devil by Paul Feval (1861)

Early detective novels:
Recollections Of A Detective Police-Officer by "Waters" (William Russell) (1856)
The Widow Lerouge by Emile Gaboriau (1866)
Under Lock And Key by T. W. Speight (1869)
Checkmate by J. Sheridan LeFanu (1871)
Is He The Man? by William Clark Russell (1876)
Devlin The Barber by B. J. Farjeon (1888)
Mr Meeson's Will by H. Rider Haggard (1888)
The Mystery Of A Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume (1889)
The Queen Anne's Gate Mystery by Richard Arkwright (1889)
The Ivory Queen by Norman Hurst (1889) (Check Julius H. Hurst 1899)
The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill (1892)

Female detectives:
The Diary Of Anne Rodway by Wilkie Collins (1856)
Ruth The Betrayer; or, The Female Spy by Edward Ellis (1862-1863)
The Female Detective by Andrew Forrester (1864)
Revelations Of A Lady Detective by William Stephens Hayward (1864)
The Law And The Lady by Wilkie Collins (1875)
Madeline Payne; or, The Detective's Daughter by Lawrence L. Lynch (Emma Murdoch Van Deventer) (1884)
Mr Bazalgette's Agent by Leonard Merrick (1888)
Moina; or, Against The Mighty by Lawrence L. Lynch (Emma Murdoch Van Deventer) (sequel to Madeline Payne?) (1891)
The Experiences Of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective by Catherine Louisa Pirkis (1893)
When The Sea Gives Up Its Dead by Elizaberth Burgoyne Corbett (Mrs George Corbett)
Dorcas Dene, Detective by George Sims (1897)
- Amelia Butterworth series by Anna Katharine Grant (1897 - 1900)
Hagar Of The Pawn-Shop by Fergus Hume (1898)
The Adventures Of A Lady Pearl-Broker by Beatrice Heron-Maxwell (1899)
Miss Cayley's Adventures by Grant Allan (1899)
Hilda Wade by Grant Allan (1900)
Dora Myrl, The Lady Detective by M. McDonnel Bodkin (1900)
The Investigators by J. S. Fletcher (1902)
Hagar's Daughter by Pauline Hopkins (1902)
Lady Molly Of Scotland Yard by Baroness Orczy (1910)
Constance Dunlap, Woman Detective by Arthur B. Reeve (1913)
Miss Madelyn Mack, Detective by Hugh C. Weir (1914)

Related mainstream works:
Adventures Of Susan Hopley by Catherine Crowe (1841)
Men And Women; or, Manorial Rights by Catherine Crowe (1843)
Hargrave by Frances Trollope (1843)
Clement Lorimer by Angus Reach (1849)
Clara Vaughan by R. D. Blackmore (1864)

True crime:
Clues: or, Leaves from a Chief Constable's Note Book by Sir William Henderson (1889)
Dreadful Deeds And Awful Murders by Joan Lock

Series and sequels, 1866 - 1919:

(1866 - 1876) **Emile Gaboriau - Monsieur Lecoq - The Widow Lerouge (1/6) {ManyBooks}
(1878 - 1917) **Anna Katharine Green - Ebenezer Gryce - The Mystery Of The Hasty Arrow (13/13)
(1896 - 1909) **Melville Davisson Post - Randolph Mason - The Corrector Of Destinies (3/3)
(1894 - 1903) **Arthur Morrison - Martin Hewitt - The Red Triangle (4/4)
(1895 - 1901) **Guy Newell Boothby - Dr Nikola - Farewell, Nikola (5/5)
(1897 - 1900) **Anna Katharine Green - Amelia Butterworth - The Circular Study (3/3)
(1899 - 1917) **Anna Katharine Green - Caleb Sweetwater - The Mystery Of The Hasty Arrow (7/7)
(1899 - 1909) **E. W. Hornung - Raffles - Mr Justice Raffles (4/4)
(1900 - 1974) Ernest Bramah - Kai Lung - Kai Lung: Six / Kai Lung Raises His Voice (7/7)
(1903 - 1904) **Louis Tracy - Reginald Brett - The Albert Gate Mystery (2/2)
(1905 - 1925) **Baroness Orczy - The Old Man In The Corner - Unravelled Knots (3/3)}
(1905 - 1928) **Edgar Wallace - The Just Men - Again The Three Just Men (6/6)
(1907 - 1942) R. Austin Freeman - Dr John Thorndyke - The Jacob Street Mystery (26/26)
(1907 - 1941) *Maurice Leblanc - Arsene Lupin - The Eight Strokes Of The Clock (10/25) {Project Gutenberg}
(1909 - 1942) *Carolyn Wells - Fleming Stone - The Tannahill Tangle (25/49) {Rare Books}
(1909 - 1929) *J. S. Fletcher - Inspector Skarratt - Marchester Royal (1/3) {Kindle}
(1910 - 1936) *Arthur B. Reeve - Craig Kennedy - Craig Kennedy Listens In (15/24) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(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 - Sergeant / Inspector Elk - White Face (6/6) {Roy Glashan's Library}
^^^^^(1910 - 1932) *Thomas, Mary and Hazel Hanshew - Cleek - The Amber Junk (aka Riddle Of The Amber Ship (9/12) {rare, expensive}
(1910 - 1918) **John McIntyre - Ashton-Kirk - Ashton-Kirk: Criminologist (4/4)
^^^(1910 - 1928) **Louis Tracy - Winter and Furneaux - The Black Cat (8/9) {Rare Books}

(1911 - 1935) G. K. Chesterton - Father Brown - The Scandal Of Father Brown (5/5)
^^^(1911 - 1940) Bertram Atkey - Smiler Bunn - Arsenic And Gold (10/11) {Rare Books}
(1912 - 1919) **Gordon Holmes (Louis Tracy) - Steingall and Clancy - The Bartlett Mystery (3/3)
(1913 - 1973) Sax Rohmer - Fu Manchu - Emperor Fu Manchu (13/14) {Rare Books / JFR / ILL / Kindle}
(1913 - 1952) Jeffery Farnol - Jasper Shrig - Heritage Perilous (7/9) {owned}
(1914 - 1950) Mary Roberts Rinehart - Hilda Adams - Episode Of The Wandering Knife (5/5)
(1914 - 1934) Ernest Bramah - Max Carrados - The Bravo Of London (5/5)
(1915 - 1936) *John Buchan - Richard Hannay - The Thirty-Nine Steps (1/5) {Fisher Library / Project Gutenberg / branch transfer / Kindle}
(1916 - 1917) **Carolyn Wells - Alan Ford - Faulkner's Folly (2/2) {owned}
^^^(1916 - 1927) **Natalie Sumner Lincoln - Inspector Mitchell - The Moving Finger (3/10) {Project Gutenberg}
^^^^^(1916 - 1917) **Nevil Monroe Hopkins - Mason Brant - The Strange Cases Of Mason Brant (1/2) {expensive}
(1918 - 1923) **Carolyn Wells - Pennington Wise - Wheels Within Wheels (8/8)
(1918 - 1939) Valentine Williams - The Okewood Brothers - The Fox Prowls (5/5)
(1918 - 1944) Valentine Williams - Clubfoot - Courier To Marrakesh (7/7)
(1918 - 1950) *Wyndham Martyn - Anthony Trent - The Mysterious Mr Garland (3/26) {Rare Books / CARM}
(1919 - 1966) *Lee Thayer - Peter Clancy - Alias Dr Ely (8/60) {Rare Books}
(1919 - 1922) **Octavus Roy Cohen - David Carroll - Midnight (4/4)

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

Series and sequels, 1920 - 1927:

(1920 - 1948) H. C. Bailey - Reggie Fortune - Black Land, White Land (12/23) {Rare Books}
(1920 - 1975) Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot - Curtain (38/38)
(1920 - 1921) **Natalie Sumner Lincoln - Ferguson - The Unseen Ear (2/2)
(1920 - 1937) *"Sapper" (H. C. McNeile) - Bulldog Drummond - The Third Round (3/10 - series continued) {Roy Glashan's Library}

(1921 - 1929) **Charles J. Dutton - John Bartley - Streaked With Crimson (9/9)
(1921 - 1925) **Herman Landon - The Gray Phantom - Gray Magic (5/5)

(1922 - 1973) Agatha Christie - Tommy and Tuppence - Postern Of Fate (5/5)
^^^^^(1922 - 1927) *Alice MacGowan and Perry Newberry - Jerry Boyne - The Seventh Passenger (4/5) {Amazon}
(1922 - 1931) Valentine Williams - Inspector Manderton - Death Answers The Bell (4/4)
(1922 - ????) *Armstrong Livingston - Jimmy Traynor - The Doublecross (aka "The Double-Cross") (2/?) {AbeBooks}

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

(1924 - 1959) Philip MacDonald - Colonel Anthony Gethryn - Rope To Spare (8/24) {Rare Books}
(1924 - 1957) Freeman Wills Crofts - Inspector French - Sudden Death (8/30) {Rare Books / ILL}
^^^(1924 - 1935) *Francis D. Grierson - Inspector Sims and Professor Wells - The Yellow Rat (aka "Murder At The Wedding") (9/13) {Rare Books}
(1924 - 1940) *Lynn Brock - Colonel Gore - The Mendip Mystery (aka "Murder At The Inn") (5/12) {Kindle}
(1924 - 1933) *Herbert Adams - Jimmie Haswell - The Crooked Lip (2/9) {Rare Books}
(1924 - 1944) *A. Fielding - Inspector Pointer - The Net Around Joan Ingilby (5/23) {Rare Books}
(1924 - 1936) *Hulbert Footner - Madame Storey - The Kidnapping Of Madame Storey (11/11)
^^^^^(1924 - 1931) R. Francis Foster - Anthony Ravenhill - The Missing Gates (1/7) {unavailable}

(1925 - 1961) ***John Rhode - Dr Priestley - Dead Men At The Folly (13/72) {Rare Books}
(1925 - 1953) *G. D. H. Cole / M. Cole - Superintendent Wilson - Corpse In Canonicals (aka "Corpse In The Constable's Garden") (8/?) {Rare Books}
(1925 - 1932) Earl Derr Biggers - Charlie Chan - Keeper Of The Keys (6/6)
(1925 - 1944) Agatha Christie - Superintendent Battle - Towards Zero (5/5)
(1925 - 1934) *Anthony Berkeley - Roger Sheringham - The Second Shot (6/10) {academic loan / Rare Books / Internet Archive}
(1925 - 1950) *Anthony Wynne (Robert McNair Wilson) - Dr Eustace Hailey - Sinners Go Secretly (4/27) {CARM}
^^^(1925 - 1939) *Charles Barry (Charles Bryson) - Inspector Lawrence Gilmartin - The Detective's Holiday (2/15) {Rare Books / GooglePlay}
(1925 - 1929) **Will Scott - Will Disher - Disher--Detective (aka "The Black Stamp") (1/5) {HathiTrust}
(1925 - 1927) **Francis Beeding - Professor Kreutzemark - The Hidden Kingdom (2/2)
(1925 - ????) *Livingston Armstrong - Peter Creighton - On The Right Wrists (1/?) {AbeBooks}

(1926 - 1968) Christopher Bush - Ludovic Travers - The Case Of The Unfortunate Village (8/63) {Kindle / State Library NSW, JFR}
(1926 - 1939) S. S. Van Dine - Philo Vance - The Winter Murder Case (12/12)
(1926 - 1952) J. Jefferson Farjeon - Ben the Tramp - Ben On The Job (7/8) {ILL / Kindle / Internet Archive}
(1926 - ????) *G. D. H. Cole / M. Cole - Everard Blatchington - Burglars In Bucks (aka "The Berkshire Mystery") (2/6) {Fisher Library}
(1926 - ????) *Arthur Gask - Gilbert Larose - The Lonely House (3/27) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(1926 - 1931) *Aidan de Brune - Dr Night - The Green Pearl (2/3) {Roy Glashan's Library}

^^^(1927 - 1933) *Herman Landon - The Picaroon - The Picaroon: Knight Errant (7/8) {State Library NSW, JFR}
(1927 - 1932) *Anthony Armstrong - Jimmie Rezaire - The Trail Of The Lotto (3/5) {CARM / AbeBooks}
(1927 - 1937) *Ronald Knox - Miles Bredon - The Body In The Silo (3/5) {Kindle / Rare Books}
(1927 - 1958) *Brian Flynn - Anthony Bathurst - The Creeping Jenny Mystery (7/54) {Kindle / ZLibrary}
(1927 - 1947) J. J. Connington - Sir Clinton Driffield - The Boathouse Riddle (6/17) {Kindle / mobilereads / Internet Archive}
(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 / Internet Archive}

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

Series and sequels, 1928 - 1930:

(1928 - 1961) Patricia Wentworth - Miss Silver - The Girl In The Cellar (32/32)
(1928 - 1936) *Gavin Holt - Luther Bastion - The White-Faced Man (aka "The Praying Monkey") (2/17) {academic loan / State Library NSW, held}
(1928 - 1936) Kay Cleaver Strahan - Lynn MacDonald - The Meriwether Mystery (5/7) {Kindle / HathiTrust}
(1928 - 1937) John Alexander Ferguson - Francis McNab - Death Of Mr Dodsley (6/6)
^^^(1928 - 1960) *Cecil Freeman Gregg - Inspector Higgins - Murder On The Bus (3/35) {Rare Books / Kindle}
(1928 - 1959) *John Gordon Brandon - Inspector Patrick Aloysius McCarthy - The Black Joss (2/53) {State Library NSW, held / JFR}
^^^^^(1928 - 1935) *Roland Daniel - Wu Fang / Inspector Saville - The Society Of The Spiders (1/6)
(1928 - 1946) *Francis Beeding - Alistair Granby - Pretty Sinister (2/18) {academic loan}
(1928 - 1930) **Annie Haynes - Inspector Stoddart - The Crystal Beads Murder (4/4)
(1928 - 1930) **Elsa Barker - Dexter Drake and Paul Howard - The Cobra Candlestick (aka "The Cobra Shaped Candlestick") (1/3) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
^^^(1928 - ????) Adam Broome - Denzil Grigson - The Queen's Hall Murder (4/10) {Trove}
(1928 - 1931) **John Stephen Strange (Dorothy Stockbridge Tillet) - Van Dusen Ormsberry - The Clue Of The Second Murder (2/3) {GooglePlay / Rare Books}

(1929 - 1947) Margery Allingham - Albert Campion - The Fashion In Shrouds (10/35) {SMSA / interlibrary loan / Kindle / fadedpage.com}
(1929 - 1984) Gladys Mitchell - Mrs Bradley - The Devil At Saxon Wall (6/67) {interlibrary loan / Kindle}
(1929 - 1937) Patricia Wentworth - Benbow Smith - Down Under (4/4)
^^^(1929 - 1954) Mignon Eberhart - Nurse Sarah Keate - Man Missing (7/7)
^^^(1929 - ????) Moray Dalton - Inspector Collier - The Belgrave Manor Crime (5/14) {Kindle}
^^^(1929 - 1930) * / ***Charles Reed Jones - Leighton Swift - The Torch Murder (1/3) {Rare Books}
(1929 - 1931) Carolyn Wells - Kenneth Carlisle - The Skeleton At The Feast (3/3) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1967) *George Goodchild - Inspector McLean - McLean Investigates (2/65) {State Library NSW, JFR / Internet Archive}
(1929 - 1979) *Leonard Gribble - Anthony Slade - The Case Of The Marsden Rubies (1/33) {AbeBooks / Rare Books / re-check Kindle}
(1929 - 1932) *E. R. Punshon - Carter and Bell - The Unexpected Legacy (1/5) {Rare Books}
(1929 - 1971) *Ellery Queen - Ellery Queen - The Roman Hat Mystery (1/40) {interlibrary loan / Internet Archive}
(1929 - 1966) *Arthur Upfield - Bony - Death Of A Swagman (9/29) {SMSA / Fisher Library}
(1929 - 1937) *Anthony Berkeley - Ambrose Chitterwick - The Piccadilly Murder (2/3) {interlibrary loan / Internet Archive}
^^^^^(1929 - 1940) *Jean Lilly - DA Bruce Perkins - The Seven Sisters (1/3) {rare, expensive}
(1929 - 1935) *N. A. Temple-Ellis (Nevile Holdaway) - Montrose Arbuthnot - The Inconsistent Villains (1/4) {Rare Books}
(1929 - 1943) *Gret Lane - Kate Clare Marsh and Inspector Barrin - The Cancelled Score Mystery (1/9) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1961) Henry Holt - Inspector Silver - The Necklace Of Death (3/16) {Rare Books}
(1929 - 1930) **J. J. Connington - Superintendent Ross - The Two Tickets Puzzle (2/2)
(1929 - 1941) *H. Maynard Smith - Inspector Frost - Inspector Frost In Crevenna Cove (5/7) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1932) Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson - Sir John Saumarez - Re-Enter Sir John (3/3)
(1929 - 1940) *Rufus King - Lieutenant Valcour - Murder By The Clock (1/11) {Rare Books / Kindle / ZLibrary}
(1929 - 1933) *Will Levinrew (Will Levine) - Professor Brierly - For Sale - Murder (4/5) {AbeBooks}
(1929 - 1932) *Nancy Barr Mavity - Peter Piper - The Body On The Floor (1/5) {AbeBooks / Rare Books / State Library NSW, JFR}
(1929 - 1934) *Charles J. Dutton - Professor Harley Manners - The Circle Of Death (4/6) {newspapers.com}
(1929 - 1932) Thomas Cobb - Inspector Bedison - Who Closed The Casement? (4/4)
(1929 - ????) * J. C. Lenehan - Inspector Kilby - The Silecroft Case (2/?) {Kindle}
(1929 - 1936) *Robin Forsythe - Anthony "Algernon" Vereker - The Polo Ground Mystery (2/5) {Kindle}
^^^^^(1929 - 1931) */***David Frome (Zenith Jones Brown) - Major Gregory Lewis - The Murder Of An Old Man (1/3) {rare, expensive}

(1930 - ????) Moray Dalton - Hermann Glide - The Strange Case Of Harriet Hall (4/?) {Kindle}
^^^(1930 - 1960) Miles Burton - Desmond Merrion - The Platinum Cat (17/57) {Rare Books}
^^^(1930 - 1960) Miles Burton - Inspector Arnold - The Platinum Cat (17/57) {Rare Books}
(1930 - 1933) Roger Scarlett - Inspector Kane - Murder Among The Angells (4/5) {expensive}
(1930 - 1941) Harriette Ashbrook - Philip "Spike" Tracy - Murder Comes Back (6/7) {Kindle}
(1930 - 1943) Anthony Abbot - Thatcher Colt - About The Murder Of The Night Club Lady (3/8) {AbeBooks / serialised}
^^^^^(1930 - ????) ***David Sharp - Professor Fielding - I, The Criminal (4/?) {unavailable?}
(1930 - 1950) *H. C. Bailey - Josiah Clunk - Garstons (aka The Garston Murder Case) (1/11) {HathiTrust}
(1930 - 1968) *Francis Van Wyck Mason - Hugh North - The Vesper Service Murders (2/41) {Kindle}
(1930 - 1976) Agatha Christie - Miss Jane Marple - Miss Marple's Final Cases (14/14)
(1930 - 1939) Anne Austin - James "Bonnie" Dundee - Murdered But Not Dead (5/5)
(1930 - 1950) *Leslie Ford (as David Frome) - Mr Pinkerton and Inspector Bull - The Hammersmith Murders (1/11) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
^^^^^(1930 - 1935) *"Diplomat" (John Franklin Carter) - Dennis Tyler - Murder In The State Department (1/7) {Amazon / Abebooks}
(1930 - 1962) *Helen Reilly - Inspector Christopher McKee - The Diamond Feather (1/31) {Rare Books}
(1930 - 1933) *Mary Plum - John Smith - The Killing Of Judge MacFarlane (1/4) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
(1930 - 1945) *Hulbert Footner - Amos Lee Mappin - The Nation's Missing Guest (3/10) {fadedpage.com}
^^^(1930 - 1933) Monte Barrett - Peter Cardigan - The Wedding March Murder (3/3)
(1930 - 1931) Vernon Loder - Inspector Brews - Death Of An Editor (2/2)
^^^^^(1930 - 1931) *Roland Daniel - John Hopkins - The Rosario Murder Case (1/2) {unavailable?}
^^^(1930 - 1961) *Mark Cross ("Valentine", aka Archibald Thomas Pechey) - Daphne Wrayne and her Four Adjusters - The Grip Of The Four (1/53) {Rare Books}
^^^(1930 - 1937) Elaine Hamilton - Inspector Reynolds - Peril At Midnight (6/9) {Kindle}
(1930 - 1932) *J. S. Fletcher - Sergeant Charlesworth - The Borgia Cabinet (1/2) {fadedpage.com / Kindle}
(1930 - ????) *Carolyn Keene - Nancy Drew - The Bungalow Mystery (3/?) {original text unavailable}
(1930 - 1937) John Dickson Carr - Henri Bencolin - The Four False Weapons (5/5)

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

Series and sequels, 1931 - 1932:

^^^(1931 - 1940) Bruce Graeme - Superintendent Stevens and Pierre Allain - Not Proven (5/8) {Trove}
(1931 - 1951) Phoebe Atwood Taylor - Asey Mayo - The Tinkling Symbol (6/24) {Rare Books / academic loan}
(1931 - 1955) Stuart Palmer - Hildegarde Withers - The Puzzle Of The Silver Persian (5/18) {Kindle / ILL / ZLibrary}
(1931 - 1933) Sydney Fowler - Inspector Cleveland - Arresting Delia (4/4)
(1931 - 1934) J. H. Wallis - Inspector Wilton Jacks - The Capital City Mystery (2/6) {Rare Books}
(1931 - ????) Paul McGuire - Inspector Cummings - Daylight Murder (aka "Murder At High Noon") (3/5) {academic loan / State Library NSW, held}
(1931 - 1936) Carlton Dawe - Leathermouth - Leathermouth's Luck (5/6) {Trove / State Library NSW, held}
(1931 - 1947) R. L. Goldman - Asaph Clume and Rufus Reed - Death Plays Solitaire (3/6) {Kindle}
^^^(1931 - 1959) E. C. R. Lorac (Edith Caroline Rivett) - Inspector Robert Macdonald - The Affair On Thor's Head (2/46) {State Library NSW, JFR}
(1931 - 1935) Clifton Robbins - Clay Harrison - Methylated Murder (5/5)
(1931 - 1972) Georges Simenon - Inspector Maigret - Le Fou de Bergerac (16/75) {ILL / Internet Archive}
^^^(1931 - 1942) R. A. J. Walling - Garstang - Murder At Midnight (2/3) {Rare Books}
(1931 - ????) Francis Bonnamy (Audrey Boyers Walz) - Peter Utley Shane - Death By Appointment (1/8) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
(1931 - 1937) J. S. Fletcher - Ronald Camberwell - Murder In The Squire's Pew (3/11) {Kindle / State Library NSW, held}
(1931 - 1933) Edwin Dial Torgerson - Sergeant Pierre Montigny - The Murderer Returns (1/2) {Rare Books)
(1931 - 1933) Molly Thynne - Dr Constantine and Inspector Arkwright - He Dies And Makes No Sign (3/3)
(1931 - 1935) Valentine Williams - Sergeant Trevor Dene - The Clue Of The Rising Moon (4/4)
(1931 - 1942) Patricia Wentworth - Frank Garrett - Pursuit Of A Parcel (5/5)
(1931 - 1931) Frances Shelley Wees - Michael Forrester and Tuck Torrie - The Mystery Of The Creeping Man (2/2)
(1931 - 1948) Alice Campbell - Tommy Rostetter - The Click Of The Gate (1/?) {CARM}
^^^(1931 - 1939) Roland Daniel - Inspector Walk - The Stool Pigeon (4/8) {Rare Books}

(1932 - 1954) Sydney Fowler - Inspector Cambridge and Mr Jellipot - The Bell Street Murders (1/11) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
^^^^^(1932 - 1935) Murray Thomas - Inspector Wilkins - Buzzards Pick The Bones (1/3) {AbeBooks, expensive}
(1932 - ????) R. A. J. Walling - Philip Tolefree - Mr Tolefree's Reluctant Witnesses (aka "The Corpse In The Coppice") (7/22) {Kindle}
(1932 - 1962) T. Arthur Plummer - Detective-Inspector Andrew Frampton - Frampton Of The Yard! (3/50) {Rare Books}
(1932 - 1946) David Hume - Mick Cardby - Bullets Bite Deep (1/29) {Rare Books}
(1932 - 1936) John Victor Turner (David Hume) - Amos Petrie - Amos Petrie's Puzzle (3/7) {Kindle}
(1932 - 1944) Nicholas Brady (David Hume) - Ebenezer Buckle - The House Of Strange Guests (1/4) {Kindle}
(1932 - 1933) Barnaby Ross (aka Ellery Queen) - Drury Lane - Drury Lane's Last Case (4/4)
^^^(1932 - ????) Richard Essex (Richard Harry Starr) - Jack Slade - Slade Scores Again (2/?) {Rare Books}
(1932 - 1933) Gerard Fairlie - Mr Malcolm - Mr Malcolm Presents (2/3) (unavailable?}
(1932 - 1934) Paul McGuire - Superintendent Fillinger - Murder By The Law (2/5) {State Library, held}
^^^^^(1932 - 1946) Roland Daniel - Inspector Pearson - The Crackswoman (1/6) {unavailable}
(1932 - 1951) Sydney Horler - Tiger Standish - Tiger Standish (1/11) {Rare Books}

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

Series and sequels, 1933 onwards:

(1933 - 1959) John Gordon Brandon - Arthur Stukeley Pennington - West End! (1/?) {AbeBooks / State Library, held}
(1933 - 1940) Lilian Garis - Carol Duncan - The Ghost Of Melody Lane (1/9) {fadedpage.com / Internet Archive}
^^^^^(1933 - 1934) Peter Hunt (George Worthing Yates and Charles Hunt Marshall) - Allan Miller - Murders At Scandal House (1/3) {AbeBooks / Amazon}
(1933 - 1968) John Dickson Carr - Gideon Fell - Hag's Nook (1/23) {Better World Books / State Library NSW, interlibrary loan}
^^^^^(1933 - 1939) Gregory Dean (Jacob D. Posner) - Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Simon - The Case Of Marie Corwin (1/3) {AbeBooks / Amazon}
(1933 - 1956) E. R. Punshon - Detective-Sergeant Bobby Owen - Information Received (1/35) {academic loan / State Library NSW, held / Rare Books}
(1933 - 1934) Jackson Gregory - Paul Savoy - A Case For Mr Paul Savoy (1/3) {AbeBooks / Rare Books}
(1933 - 1957) John Creasey - Department Z - The Death Miser (1/28) {State Library NSW, held}
^^^^^(1933 - 1940) Bruce Graeme - Superintendent Stevens - Body Unknown (2/2) {expensive}
(1933 - 1952) Wyndham Martyn - Christopher Bond - The Denmede Mystery (3/8) {State Library NSW, JFR}

^^^^^(1934 - 1949) Richard Goyne - Paul Templeton - Strange Motives (1/13) {unavailable?}
^^^^^(1934 - 1941) N. A. Temple-Ellis (Nevile Holdaway) - Inspector Wren - Three Went In (1/3) {unavailable?}
(1934 - 1953) Carter Dickson (John Dickson Carr) - Sir Henry Merivale - The Plague Court Murders (1/22) {Fisher Library}
(1934 - 1953) Leslie Ford (Zenith Jones Brown) - Colonel Primrose - The Strangled Witness (1/17) {Rare Books}
(1934 - 1975) Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe - Black Orchids (9/?) {ILL / SMSA}
(1934 - 1935) Vernon Loder - Inspector Chace - Murder From Three Angles (1/2) {Kindle / ????}

(1935 - 1939) Francis Beeding - Inspector George Martin - The Norwich Victims (1/3) {Roy Glashan's Library}
(1935 - 1976) Nigel Morland - Palmyra Pym - The Moon Murders (1/28) {State Library NSW, held}
(1935 - 1941) Clyde Clason - Professor Theocritus Lucius Westborough - The Fifth Tumbler (1/10) {HathiTrust}
(1935 - ????) G. D. H. Cole / M. Cole - Dr Tancred - Dr Tancred Begins (1/?) (AbeBooks, expensive / State Library NSW, held / Rare Books}
(1935 - ????) George Harmon Coxe - Kent Murdock - Murder With Pictures (1/22) {ebook? / AbeBooks}
^^^(1935 - 1959) Kathleen Moore Knight - Elisha Macomber - The Tainted Token (6/16) {Rare Books}

(1936 - 1974) Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Malleson) - Arthur Crook - Murder By Experts (1/51) {Kindle / interlibrary loan}
(1936 - 1940) George Bell Dyer - The Catalyst Club - The Catalyst Club (1/3) {Rare Books}
^^^(1936 - 1956) Theodora Du Bois - Anne and Jeffrey McNeil - Death Dines Out (4/19) {Rare Books}
(1936 - 1945) Charles Kingston - Chief Inspector Wake - Murder In Piccadilly (1/7) {Kindle}
(1937 - 1953) Leslie Ford (Zenith Jones Brown) - Grace Latham - Ill Met By Moonlight (1/16) {Kindle / Internet Archive}
(1938 - 1944) Zelda Popkin - Mary Carner - Time Off For Murder (2/6) {Kindle}
^^^^^(1938 - 1939) D. B. Olsen (Dolores Hitchens) - Lt. Stephen Mayhew - The Clue In The Clay (1/2) {expensive}
(1939 - 1953) Patricia Wentworth - Inspector Lamb - Vanishing Point (11/11)
^^^(1939 - 1940) Clifton Robbins - George Staveley - Death Forms Threes (2/2) {Rare Books}
(1939 - 1956) D. B. Olsen (Dolores Hitchens) - Rachel Murdock (check Stephen Mayhew) - The Cat Saw Murder (1/12) {Kindle / ZLibrary}

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

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

Non-crime series and sequels:

(1861 - 1876) **Margaret Oliphant - Carlingford - Phoebe Junior (7/7)
(1867 - 1905) **Martha Finley - Elsie Dinsmore - Elsie And Her Namesakes (28/28)
(1867 - 1872) **George MacDonald - The Seaboard Parish - Annals Of A Quiet Neighbourhood (1/3) {ManyBooks}
(1893 - 1915) **Kate Douglas Wiggins - Penelope - Penelope's Postscripts (4/4)
(1894 - 1898) **Anthony Hope - Ruritania - Rupert Of Hentzau (3/3)
(1898 - 1918) **Arnold Bennett - Five Towns - Tales Of The Five Towns (3/11) {Fisher storage / Project Gutenberg / Internet Archive}

(1901 - 1919) **Carolyn Wells - Patty Fairfield - Patty And Azalea (17/17)
(1901 - 1927) **George Barr McCutcheon - Graustark - Beverly Of Graustark (2/6) {Project Gutenberg}
(1906 - 1933) John Galsworthy - The Forsyte Saga - Over The River (12/12)
(1907 - 1912) **Carolyn Wells - Marjorie - Marjorie's Vacation (1/6) {ManyBooks}
(1908 - 1924) **Margaret Penrose - Dorothy Dale - Dorothy Dale: A Girl Of Today (1/13) {ManyBooks}
(1909 - 1912) **Emerson Hough - Western Trilogy - 54-40 Or Fight (1/3) {Project Gutenberg}
(1910 - 1931) Grace S. Richmond - Red Pepper Burns - Red Pepper Returns (6/6)
(1910 - 1933) Jeffery Farnol - The Vibarts - The Way Beyond (3/3) {Fisher Library storage / fadedpage.com}
(1910 - 1921) **Hanns Heinz Ewers - Frank Braun - Vampire (3/3) {Kindle / Zlibrary}

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

(1920 - 1939) E. F. Benson - Mapp And Lucia - Trouble For Lucia (6/6)
(1920 - 1952) William McFee - Spenlove - The Adopted - (7/7)
(1920 - 1932) *Alice B. Emerson - Betty Gordon - Betty Gordon At Bramble Farm (1/15) {ManyBooks}
^^^(1923 - 1931) *Agnes Miller - The Linger-Nots - The Linger-Nots And The Secret Maze (5/5)
(1924 - 1928) **Ford Madox Ford - Parade's End - Last Post (4/4)
(1926 - 1936) *Margery Lawrence - The Round Table - Nights Of The Round Table (1/2) {Kindle}
(1927 - 1960) **Mazo de la Roche - Jalna - Jalna (1/16) {State Library NSW, JFR / fadedpage.com}

(1928 - ????) Trygve Lund - Weston of the Royal North-West Mounted Police - The Vanished Prospector (6/9) {AbeBooks}
(1929 - 1931) *Ernest Raymond - Once In England - A Family That Was (1/3) {State Library NSW, JFR}

(1930 - 1932) Hugh Walpole - The Herries Chronicles - Vanessa (4/4)
(1930 - 1932) Faith Baldwin - The Girls Of Divine Corners - Myra: A Story Of Divine Corners (4/4)
(1930 - 1940) E. M. Delafield - The Provincial Lady - The Provincial Lady In Wartime (4/4)
(1930 - 1937) *Nina Murdoch - Miss Emily - Miss Emily In Black Lace (1/3) {State Library, held}

(1931 - 1951) Olive Higgins Prouty - The Vale Novels - Fabia (5/5)
(1931 - 1934) T. S. Stribling - The Vaiden Trilogy - The Store (2/3) {Internet Archive / academic loan / State Library, held}
(1931 - 1935) Pearl S. Buck - The House Of Earth - A House Divided (3/3)
(1932 - 1932) Lizette M. Edholm - The Merriweather Girls - The Merriweather Girls At Good Old Rockhill (4/4)
(1932 - 1952) D. E. Stevenson - Mrs Tim - Mrs Tim Flies Home (5/5) {interlibrary loan}

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

(1940 - 1953) Upton Sinclair - Lanny Budd - Between Two Worlds (2/11) {Fisher Library}
(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}
(1980 - 2011) Jean M. Auel - Earth's Children - The Plains Of Passage (4/6) {Penrith Library}
(1984 - 2013) Tom Clancy (continued by others) - Jack Ryan - Patriot Games (2/16) {Blacktown Library}
(1989 - ????) Nancy A. Collins - Sonja Blue - Darkest Heart (5/7) {AbeBooks}

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

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

Mignon Eberhart - Sarah Keate
Dead Yesterday And Other Stories (multiple Eberhart characters) {expensive / limited edition}

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Francis D. Grierson - Inspector Sims and Professor Wells
The Double Thumb (#3) {unavailable}
The Smiling Death (#6) {expensive}
The White Camellia (#7) {expensive}
The Blue Bucket Mystery (#8) {unavailable}

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Books currently on loan:

        

    

        

Reading projects:

Blog:

        

        

Other projects:

        

        

Group read news:

The next group read will be Anthony Trollope's The Claverings, in July.

After that I need a little input:

We have now finished our group reads of Margaret Oliphant's 'Chronicles of Carlingford' and, after that diversion, will be trying to get the Virago Chronological Read Project back on track.

Next up are two shorter works: Elizabeth Gaskell's Curious, If True, a collection of five short stories; and George Eliot's The Lifted Veil, a novella.

After that we are technically slated for Charlotte Yonge's The Daisy Chain; however, there has also been some interest expressed in her earlier, very popular (but non-Virago) novel, The Heir Of Redclyffe.

It has been suggested that we address the Gaskell and Eliot works within a single month. Alternatively, we could do each of them as a separate, shorter group read, perhaps leading up to the main group read of a Yonge novel (for instance, in August, September and October).

If you are interested in any of this, please let me know (either here or on the thread for the Phoebe, Junior group read):

(i) How you would prefer to address the Gaskell and Eliot works?
(ii) Whether you would prefer to do The Heir Of Redclyffe or The Daisy Chain, or both?

Right.

Usually I include a whiny post about how terribly difficult everything has been, but I think you've probably had enough of that so---

---come on in: welcome!

Happy new thread, Liz!

>1 lyzard: As always your topper made me search the internet :-)
I am sad to tell you that this sweet, little frog doesn't have an entry in the Dutch Wikipedia. Not even a Dutch name.
Thanks for making me aware of the existance of this animal.

Happy new one!

>1 lyzard: I have also not heard about this frog before. It looks like it is frowning ;)

Happy new thread, Liz. It looks like the frog needs cheering up. Interesting that it doesn't need water or have a tadpole stage - all things that you think are required in order to be a frog in the first place. Blowing up to 7 times your original size is some party trick!

Happy new thread - that's quite a frog!

Happy new froggy thread!

>22 FAMeulstee:

Hi, Anita! You're welcome. :)

I should have included its Latin name in the post: Breviceps fuscus. The species does have some variant names (plain rain frog, brown short-headed frog, Tsitsikama rainfrog) and it might be listed under one of those.

>23 figsfromthistle:

Thanks, Anita! Fat and unhappy, yup. :D

>24 Helenliz:

Hi, Helen! Yes, you'd think a land-dwelling frog was a contradiction in terms. Apparently it chirps or squeaks instead of croaking, too. Just a fat little bundle of contradictions. :)

>25 ChrisG1:

Hi, Chris - thanks for visiting! Glad you like my frog. :)

>26 drneutron:

Thanks, Jim!

Happy new thread Liz!

Happy new thread, Liz. Glad to see you up and running.

>28 swynn:

Thanks, Steve!

>29 Matke:

Sort of, anyway; thanks, Gail! :)

Finished The Mystery Of The Flaming Footprints for TIOLI #11.

Which is also a line under my very sad May figures.

I'm not feeling up for another Stephen King just yet; though without intending to I've ended up in more or less the same territory...

Now reading The Black Hope Horror: The True Story Of A Haunting by Ben Williams, Jean Williams and John Bruce Shoemaker.

Happy new thread, Liz.

>27 lyzard: I found the Latin name, Liz, and searched for that.
All I found in Dutch Wikipedia was in a listing among other species of the Breviceps family, without Dutch name or separate page. Only two family members have a page: Breviceps adspersus and Breviceps branchi. The English Wikipedia has way more information.
This frog really needs some more exposure in Dutch ;-)

>32 PaulCranswick:

Thanks, Paul!

>33 FAMeulstee:

I think your mission is clear. :D

Score!!

I mentioned previously that the previously unavailable Death Of Mr Dodsley, the fifth and final entry in John Alexander Ferguson's Francis McNab series, had suddenly appeared in an inexpensive Kindle edition.

Now we have no less than three competing Kindle editions---with the publishers of the least expensive one also unearthing the single short story to feature McNab.

It looks like Merlin Classic Crime are just getting into the business of inexpensive ebooks of forgotten crime novels (the McNab books were released in March): I shall watch with interest... :)

So, yeah---

Finished The Black Hope Horror for TIOLI #16.

Also, finished The White Line by John Alexander Ferguson for TIOLI #3.

Now reading Death Of Mr Dodsley by John Alexander Ferguson.

2023 #13

Publication date: 1835 / 1842
Genre: Historical drama
Read for: A Century Of Reading

Taras Bulba - I was drawn to Nikolai Gogol's short novel by my reading of Henryk Sienkiewicz's With Fire And Sword, which tells the same story - the mid-17th century rebellion of the Cossacks against the forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which led to the founding of the Ukraine - from the opposite point of view. Gogol first published Taras Bulba in 1835, though it was perhaps written some years earlier; it was then revised, after falling into disfavour with the Russian authorities, and was republished in 1842. This is the version that is readily available today, with the original text almost impossible to access in English; and it is a version that in some ways undermines Gogol's original vision. The first version of Taras Bulba is, evidently, very much about the fierce independence of the Cossacks; the revised version tones this attitude down significantly, and studs the narrative with moments in which the Cossacks think of themselves as, or strive to be, "good Russians", obedient to the Tsar. Whether I would have noticed this without being prompted is debatable, but once alerted to it, the contradiction is jarring. As a work of fiction, Taras Bulba is both a success and a failure. Gogol's depiction of the Cossacks, the structure of their society, the functioning of the Zaporozhian Sich (the autonomous territory that functioned as a military base), and the various means by which order and authority were maintained amongst this hot-tempered and warlike people, is detailed and convincing, if in some respects romanticised. However, Gogol's plot is weak, and his writing's Anti-Polish, anti-Turkish and anti-Jewish agenda all too clear. Taras Bulba is the story of one of the military leaders of the Cossacks, whose two sons, Ostap and Andriy, return home after their studies in Kiev, and have barely greeted their mother before Bulba carries them away to the Sich. Bulba is eager for battle as always, and even more eager that his sons may blood themselves in combat; but he is temporarily held in check by a peace treaty, which the current Hetman is determined to uphold. Bulba begins scheming to overthrow the Hetman; but before long he has all the battle he could desire, as the Cossacks respond to Polish attempts to annex Cossack land. Ostap proves himself all his father could desire; but Andriy is secretly in love with a Polish noblewoman, and for her sake betrays his people...

    “I treat you, brother gentles,” thus spoke Bulba, “not in honour of your having made me hetman, however great such an honour may be, nor in honour of our parting from our comrades. To do both would be fitting at a fitting time; but the moment before us is not such a time. The work before us is great both in labour and in glory for the Cossacks... Let us drink to our own glory, that our grandsons and their sons may say that there were once men who were not ashamed of comradeship, and who never betrayed each other. Now to the faith, brother gentles, to the faith!”
    “To the faith!” cried those standing in the ranks hard by, with thick voices. “To the faith!” those more distant took up the cry; and all, both young and old, drank to the faith.
    “To the Sich!” said Taras, raising his hand high above his head.
    “To the Sich!” echoed the foremost ranks. “To the Sich!” said the old men, softly, twitching their grey moustaches; and eagerly as young hawks, the youths repeated, “To the Sich!” And the distant plain heard how the Cossacks mentioned their Sich.
    “Now a last draught, comrades, to the glory of all Christians now living in the world!”
    And every Cossack drank a last draught to the glory of all Christians in the world. And among all the ranks in the kurens they long repeated, “To all the Christians in the world!”
    The pails were empty, but the Cossacks still stood with their hands uplifted. Although the eyes of all gleamed brightly with the wine, they were thinking deeply. Not of greed or the spoils of war were they thinking now, nor of who would be lucky enough to get ducats, fine weapons, embroidered caftans, and Tcherkessian horses; but they meditated like eagles perched upon the rocky crests of mountains, from which the distant sea is visible, dotted, as with tiny birds, with galleys, ships, and every sort of vessel, bounded only by the scarcely visible lines of shore, with their ports like gnats and their forests like fine grass. Like eagles they gazed out on all the plain, with their fate darkling in the distance. All the plain, with its slopes and roads, will be covered with their white projecting bones, lavishly washed with their Cossack blood, and strewn with shattered wagons and with broken swords and spears; the eagles will swoop down and tear out their Cossack eyes. But there is one grand advantage: not a single noble deed will be lost, and the Cossack glory will not vanish like the tiniest grain of powder from a gun-barrel. The guitar-player with grey beard falling upon his breast, and perhaps a white-headed old man still full of ripe, manly strength will come, and will speak his low, strong words of them. And their glory will resound through all the world...

Finished Death Of Mr Dodsley for TIOLI #18...and FINISHED A SERIES!!...and you know what that means...

This is the first proper series wrap-up I've had in ages, no equivocation or "calling it"; and as a consequence, you get something other than a token pygmy marmoset.

(Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Please enjoy these Geoffroy's marmosets! :)

Now reading The Richest Widow by Hulbert Footner.

>38 lyzard: MARMOSETS!!!!! !!

You know, their expressive faces get all the attention, but the brindle coat is an unexpectedly lovely addition to the whole look for these critters.

>40 rosalita:

Yes, they're gorgeous, aren't they? :)

>41 lyzard: They are, indeed!

Finished The Richest Widow for TIOLI #10.

Now reading The Kidnapping Of Madame Storey by Hulbert Footner.

Finished The Kidnapping Of Madame Storey for TIOLI #8...and FINISHED ANOTHER SERIES!!

Also realised that I neglected to do a wrap-up for John Alexander Ferguson's Francis McNab series---

This was an erratically read series because I accidentally started it in the middle in pursuit of 1931 and had to start over, because of difficulties in accessing the books, and because there was a question over whether a much earlier novel by Ferguson was the series' starting point or not (a different character of the same name appears: Ferguson seems later to have retconned this person into the "real" McNab's father).

Allowing for the false start, I either began this in 2013 or 2014; but since its final entries only became readily available this year, I don't feel so bad about taking nearly a decade for this six-work series.

Meanwhile, I probably should have done better with the 11-work Madame Storey series by Hulbert Footner: the hold-up there was not availability but series order, retitlings, and variant short story collections (this is where I am extremely grateful for the new LT series organisation options!).

Be that as it may, it seems I also read the first series work here, The Under Dogs, in 2014 (which seems to have been a demon year for starting things!).

Not that any of this is in any way relevant to you guys; if you're here at all, I'm guessing it's for this---

Now reading The Gracie Allen Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine.

Hmm. Speaking of retitlings---

>45 lyzard: Oh my stars and garters would you like at those ROCK STARS!!

>47 rosalita:

The world's only attractive mullets. :)

You know we'll cheer for the series completion, if only because it means we get to see the cuties.
>45 lyzard: and what are they exactly?
>38 lyzard: their colouring is lovely, the gold/brown/white combo works for them.

>49 Helenliz:

Working on another one as we speak (though probably won't get there until next month), so stay tuned!

Those are cotton-top tamarins: not strictly marmosets but they belong to the same family so I stretch a point. :)

Finished The Gracie Allen Murder Case for TIOLI #1.

Now reading The Mystery Of The Ashes by Anthony Wynne...though I may need a bath book too, because this is another online read (my poor eyes!).

It was serialised here a year before its book publication, which is unusual: we more often got things a decade after the event:

2023 #14

Publication date: 1927
Genre: Contemporary drama
Read for: Banned In Boston! challenge

Horizon - Duncan Dunn is born into a privileged New York family, to an unhappy mother and a mostly absent father, whose restlessness takes him more frequently and ever further from home. When he is thirteen, Duncan's father speaks candidly to him for the first and only time of his own wanderlust. He warns Duncan that he, too, will one day feel the same pull---and that he should take care before accepting responsibilities that he cannot meet. The boy never sees his father again... When Duncan his twenty, his mother remarries a rich but uncultured man, making it clear to Duncan that he must either accept his stepfather or leave. Duncan responds drastically, signing on as an ordinary seaman on a cargo boat, and spending the next two years crossing oceans---but without finding what he thinks he is seeking... Robert Carse's semi-autobigraphical first novel is a sporadically interesting but ultimately tiresome work that gives the reader no real reason to be invested in its protagonist. Furthermore, Carse employs an irritating pseudo-stream-of-consciousness writing style, all dashes and ellipses and semi-colons and half-sentences that go nowhere, that (unwittingly, I think) makes Duncan Dunn seem like a very hollow man. Horizon's strength lies not in its central character, but in Carse's depictions of life on board a commercial ship, of the friendships and antagonisms forged in the inescapably cramped conditions, and of the men's pursuit of crude and hasty pleasures during their brief forays ashore. As for Duncan himself, he is the author of so much of his own misery, in always snatching at the most drastic of all the possible solutions to his problems - and always regretting it afterwards - that it becomes very hard to sympathise. We might also be inclined to wonder how much determinism there is in Duncan's wanderlust: whether it is real, or whether his father's example is merely his excuse for evading responsibility. Over the course of its narrative, Horizon finds Duncan shifting from the land to the sea and back again, always drawn to his travels but finding in them isolation rather than fulfillment. Matters reach a crisis when Duncan becomes involved in a sudden, passionate relationship with Flores, a Spanish dancer working the cafés of Marseilles who is almost as desperate for escape as he. In her willingness to build a future with him, no matter how uncertain, Flores offers Duncan a chance at real happiness---but at the same time, she represents all that he most fears...

    He lay awake for hours; unused to the sag of the bed and the stiff sheets; missing the lurch and tremor of the ship, the myriad sounds of the sea; irritated by the smell of gasoline, the rumbling of the trolleys, the bleats of the taxis, the steady pound, pound of his watch on the bureau. At last he slept, bare arms clenched across his chest, insteps braced by the iron bar at the foot of the bed.
He awoke suddenly and sat up, staring. She was there---Flores! There---before him. Before him now. There---in that red silky thing, hands out to him... Eager lips calling his name... "Don-cin---Don-cin... My lover... Don-cin, querido mi... Don-cin...adoré---"
    The covers lopped back; he was sprawling on the cold floor, hands brushing across his face. Christ... He didn't know it was going to be like this... That she would be---here... Calling to him... Waking him from his sleep... Driving at his brain with the white fire of her beauty... With the lilting of her voice... The pooled sadness of her eyes... God! Flores---Flores!
    No. No. It was done, lad; gone now. Over with---astern forever... No more of this---no more--- Stow it away---for keeps. Hold your head up, kid... Keep you old bow up in the wind... No---no going back, no returning... It was all done---done---done...
    He stumbled across the room to the bureau; grasped his cigarettes; his briqueta. Flores---Flores---Flores! Lord, God---he was going insane---insane... He found himself at the window, the cold metal of the radiator rubbing at his bare shanks. The fat man's window was a blot of shadow... Below, the young couple slept, held in each other's arms, the light still blazing fiercely above them... And he---Scotty Dunn---sailor bum out of the Madden City---once out of Brereton-on-the-Hudson, was here, wild-eyed, half-mad... Driven to the edge of---of---of all he could stand---by a shadow, a memory... A memory of a Spanish girl, a foreign dancer, whom he had known for a week; seen four times... And would never see again...

Horizon was read for the Banned in Boston challenge---one of a number of seafaring tales that fell foul of the censor during the 20s, probably because of their depictions of young men misbehaving themselves while far from home.

Most of the novel is just Duncan moaning to himself as per the quote above (not always that badly, but I wanted to give you a good example!); however, the extended early sequence set in a bar / brothel in Marseilles, with its implication if not depiction of paid-for sex, would have been enough to condemn the book despite Duncan himself fleeing the scene. The novel's casual profanity was likely also a problem.

Now! - despite the obscurity of many of the novels on our 'banned' list, so far I've been able to access all of them (though Horizon itself was a generous gift from Steve); but I hit a wall with the next work on the list, The Sorrows Of Elsie by Andre Savignon, which was not available to me via any source and I was forced to skip it.

Steve, however, was able to acquire a library copy, and his review of it is here.

And NOW---we have a problem...

WARNING TO VISITORS:

Derogatory racial language ahead.

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Unbelievably enough, the next work up in the Banned in Boston! challenge is Nigger Heaven by Can Van Vechten.

Still more unbelievably (at least to me) is that it's available here, and I have no excuse to skip it...except the obvious. (Although early indications are that Van Vechten actually "meant well" in writing the book, whatever the hell he and his publisher were thinking when they chose that title.)

I was able to dodge this sort of bullet once before, when dealing with (as I can now say) the novel now usually known as And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - the evolution of which I examined here.

But I don't have an out this time except maybe the use of asterisks. Anyway, I will post other warnings where necessary.

>52 lyzard: sporadically interesting but ultimately tiresome work that gives the reader no real reason to be invested in its protagonist

Yeah, that sums it up for me too.

I have gotten the digital version of the Van Vechten, but probably won't get to it til next month.

Also: happy new thread!

>55 lyzard: No need to apologize on my behalf, Liz. The books exist and pretending they don't, or pretending they are something they are not, seems a bit silly. I might not have any desire to read it myself but I will be interested to read what you and Steve have to say about it.

>56 swynn:

Thanks, Steve!

Yes, I'm aiming at next month too. It will be nice to be back on something like a regular schedule with these, in spite of the book in question. :)

>57 rosalita:

That's how I feel too, and I will be treating the book as any other. I just figure that posting a warning avoids any misunderstanding.

Finished The Mystery Of The Ashes for TIOLI #10.

And now I have another problem; not the same kind, though.

There seems some question about the series order of the next two Eustace Hailey mysteries, which arrived fairly close together late in 1927 or early in 1928. However, consensus seems to be that Sinners Go Secretly is #4 in the series and The Horseman Of Death #5.

The good news is that the only (!) copy of Sinners Go Secretly I have been able to locate is in Australia; the bad news is that it's in a book depository that charges ever-escalating academic loan fees.

The Horseman Of Death, meanwhile, is only available via collectors'-edition prices overseas.

Looks like this is another one for my "incomplete series" lists. :(

>58 lyzard: Oh, I agree giving people a heads-up about what's coming is a nice courtesy for your visitors. I just don't want you feeling like you shouldn't even post about it, which it sounds like isn't how you feel so it's all good. :-)

>60 rosalita:

No, I just remember some of the reaction I got when I was dealing with the Agatha Christie under its original title. Erring on the side of caution seemed like a good idea. :)

>61 lyzard: You can't go wrong underestimating people's capacity for nuance!

Now---

I meant to have made a start on The Tommyknockers, but I haven't been able to locate my copy, and I'm getting horribly afraid that it may have run off with my copy of The Talisman, which I also still haven't found.

In the meantime, I have made a start on a different kind of chunkster, but will put it aside if/when I find the other:

Now reading Gains And Losses: Novels Of Faith And Doubt In Victorian England by Robert Lee Wolff.

Okay. I officially have a missing box of books.

I have looked everywhere I can think to look and I cannot locate my copy of The Tommyknockers any more than I could The Talisman previously. I have no idea of where they could be nor any memory of disposing of them (in fact I'm sure I wouldn't have); nor of how these books got separated (why do I have It and Needful Things to hand, along with the earlier paperbacks, but not those two and my other hardbacks?).

Anyway, with time slipping away I thought I'd better get onto locating another copy from somewhere---but it turns out that The Tommyknockers is the one King novel not readily accessible through my library system. (Ironic considering why I'm reading it.) I could buy it, but it ain't cheap in any format in spite of its vintage...though there is the thought that if I did, my own copy would of course immediately come to light...

I've settled on reading it online, having found a copy with reasonable font size: 100 pages a day is both do-able and necessary, and should leave me enough time this month to meet my other commitments (hi, Julia and Helen!).

The lost book situation continues to nag, though...

So, yeah---

Now reading The Tommyknockers by Stephen King; with Gains And Losses: Novels Of Faith And Doubt In Victorian England by Robert Lee Wolff demoted to bath book.

2023 #15

Publication date: 1831
Genre: Historical drama
Read for: A Century Of Reading

The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (original title: Notre-Dame de Paris) - Written with the July Revolution and its aftermath literally on his doorstep, Victor Hugo's historical novel is now considered the first "all-of-society" work of fiction, that is, its plot extends from the very highest reaches of society, in this case the court of Louis XI, down to its very lowest, the criminals, beggars and other outcasts of the "Court of Miracles", and touching all points in between. Set in 15th century Paris, with the arrival of the printing-press about to change the course of human history, Hugo's novel is about Paris itself more than about any of its characters, and in particular about the architecture of Paris as the outward expression of human faith, intelligence and creativity---and as an enduring form of human communication from generation to generation, the most significant form before Gutenberg. Hugo was writing at a time when, in the cause of "modernisation", Parisian Gothic architecture was under threat; and one of his main aims was to mount a case for its preservation. To the modern reader, this viewpoint gives The Hunchback Of Notre Dame a somewhat skewed perspective---as well as inviting abridgement by modern publishers, as Hugo delivers lecture after lecture on 15th century Paris and its architecture in general, and on the history of Notre-Dame de Paris in particular---with the cathedral literally and figuratively at the heart of his narrative. The other challenge to the reader is the degree to which the adaptations of this novel have been reshaped to suit modern sensibilities: this is one of those works of fiction that we think we know far better than we do; and as a consequence, there are numerous shocks along the way. Hugo pulls no punches in his depiction of a brutal, ignorant and superstitious society, where mob violence is a heartbeat away at any moment, and in which doing God's will means torture and death. Against this endemic cruelty, most of the characters stand no chance. The human centre of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame is Esmeralda, the gypsy dancer, whose beauty inspires passion, if not love, in a number of very different men. Here we have the last and greatest obstacle for the reader: far from the romantic heroine we are all accustomed to, Esmeralda is a shallow and rather stupid girl---not entirely the author of her own misfortunes, but always walking blindly into traps that should be obvious to anyone growing up in this society. (Case in point: when the tiniest things can get someone accused of witchcraft and being in league with the devil, Esmeralda performs with a trained goat.) Esmeralda herself is infatuated with Phoebus de Chateaupers, the Captain of the King's Archers: ironically, Phoebus' own physical beauty blinds Esmeralda to the selfish sensuality of his nature; and, although engaged to a woman of his own class, he is more than willing to take advantage of the gypsy's naivety. But lurking nearby is Claude Frollo, the Archdeacon of Notre-Dame, whose devotion and asceticism - whose vision of himself - are threatened by his uncontrollable desire for the girl. If one character in this novel speaks to the modern reader, it is Frollo---who proves, alas, that "toxic masculinity" is no new thing. Unable to quell the desires that are so at odds with his calling and his position in the Church, unable to face the truth of his own nature, Frollo turns it all back on Esmeralda---not merely blaming her, but seeing his weakness as evidence of her dark powers. Beneath this is something even more sadly familiar: a determination that if he cannot have Esmeralda, then no-one can. In short---Esmeralda must die... Around this central plot-thread swirls a dozen others, and a multitude of characters---chief amongst them, of course, Quasimodo, bell-ringer of Notre-Dame. Physically deformed at birth, abandoned to the Church, adopted and raised by Frollo, to whom he is devoted, almost deaf and almost blind, Quasimodo is this novel's greatest irony: isolated from his society by his disabilities, he alone is protected from its baleful influence; and for all his physical repulsiveness, he alone is capable of a generous and self-sacrificing love. Quasimodo's own feeling for Esmeralda puts him at loggerheads with Frollo, who initially tries to use him as a weapon against the girl; and their escalating battle to destroy or to protect becomes the thread which holds together the long and complex narrative of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. This is finally a novel of its time, and of its city, rather than of its characters per se; but if this harsh and uncompromising story has a hero, it is certainly Quasimodo.

    Quasimodo cast a desperate glance upon the crowd, and repeated in a voice still more heartrending: “Drink!”
    And all began to laugh.
    “Drink this!” cried Robin Poussepain, throwing in his face a sponge which had been soaked in the gutter...
    “Here’s a drinking cup!” chimed in a man, flinging a broken jug at his breast. “’Twas you that made my wife, simply because she passed near you, give birth to a child with two heads!”
    “And my cat bring forth a kitten with six paws!” yelped an old crone, launching a brick at him.
    “Drink!” repeated Quasimodo panting, and for the third time.
    At that moment he beheld the crowd give way. A young girl, fantastically dressed, emerged from the throng. She was accompanied by a little white goat with gilded horns, and carried a tambourine in her hand.
    Quasimodo’s eyes sparkled. It was the gypsy whom he had attempted to carry off on the preceding night, a misdeed for which he was dimly conscious that he was being punished at that very moment; which was not in the least the case, since he was being chastised only for the misfortune of being deaf, and of having been judged by a deaf man. He doubted not that she had come to wreak her vengeance also, and to deal her blow like the rest.
    He beheld her, in fact, mount the ladder rapidly. Wrath and spite suffocated him. He would have liked to make the pillory crumble into ruins, and if the lightning of his eye could have dealt death, the gypsy would have been reduced to powder before she reached the platform.
    She approached, without uttering a syllable, the victim who writhed in a vain effort to escape her, and detaching a gourd from her girdle, she raised it gently to the parched lips of the miserable man.
    Then, from that eye which had been, up to that moment, so dry and burning, a big tear was seen to fall, and roll slowly down that deformed visage so long contracted with despair. It was the first, in all probability, that the unfortunate man had ever shed...

Finished The Tommyknockers for TIOLI #14.

(...and have that damned rhyme stuck in my head, thanks so much, Stevie...)

Now reading Bushranger Of The Skies by Arthur Upfield; still reading Gains And Losses: Novels Of Faith And Doubt In Victorian England by Robert Lee Wolffe.

>67 lyzard: I just finished Bushranger of the Skies, coincidentally. I guess we are officially back on track. :-)

>68 rosalita:

Whoo!!

I am barely past the extremely dramatic opening. :)

>69 lyzard: That opening was a real humdinger!

Related, if you know: Was Upfield a pilot himself or just an aeronautical anorak?

>70 rosalita:

He does love his planes, doesn't he?? I don't think he was a pilot. He did do a lot of travelling in the outback for his own purposes and for geological research and may have just been very aware of the what a game-changer flight was considering the distances and the isolation.

>66 lyzard: nice review. That took some time I'm sure, and I appreciate your efforts.

>72 fuzzi:

Thanks! :)

Finished Bushranger Of The Skies for TIOLI #9.

Now reading Dancers In Mourning by Margery Allingham; still reading Gains And Losses: Novels Of Faith And Doubt in Victorian England by Robert Lee Wolff.

Just a reminder (to myself as well as others!) that there will be a group read of Anthony Trollope's The Claverings next month.

Finished Dancers In Mourning for TIOLI #15.

Still reading Gains And Losses: Novels Of Faith And Doubt In Victorian England by Robert Lee Wolff, but I doubt I'm going to get it finished this month...

...which of course brings me to my usual blather about next month's reading, which so far looks like this:

- The Claverings by Anthony Trollope {group read}
- The Hunt For Red October by Tom Clancy {best-seller challenge*}
- Where There's A Will by Rex Stout {shared read}
- The Mystery Of The Nervous Lion by Nick West {shared read}
- {Banned In Boston! book}

(*The best-seller challenge has again served up the third book in a series as its #1, and Steve and I have agreed to start at the beginning---so we'll be reading Patriot Games The Hunt For Red October instead of The Cardinal Of The Kremlin.)

The general disorganisation has not, alas, gotten any less, so I think I will leave it at that for the present: it will probably end up being self-defeating but I am stubbornly clinging to, "No, you need to write up A before moving onto B."

>77 lyzard: I think the order goes:

1. The Hunt for Red October (1984)
2. Patriot Games (1987)
3. The Cardinal of the Kremlin (1988)

While I was checking the publication order of the next books in the Bony series, I came across a blurb for the newspaper serialisation of Death Of A Swagman late in 1945, which talks about the success of the series and comments that Arthur Upfield, "Specialises in detective fiction with an Australian setting", but makes no mention of his specific detective or who - and what - he is.

Hmm...

If "Upfield's detective stories have a big public in Australia and America" you'd think we'd be past that, wouldn't you? - but obviously not.

And am I reading too much into the omission of Britain?

>78 swynn:

Mucked it up, have I?...ah! I think I found a chronological list instead of a publication order list.

Good catch, thanks!

>77 lyzard: I think I'm the only person ever who didn't like The Hunt for Red October.

>80 lyzard: Ah, that makes sense. In that case I'm fine with either order, with a slight preference for publication order.

>81 NinieB:

We'll wait and see on that point! :D

>82 swynn:

Oh, absolutely publication order, I just hadn't absorbed that there were alternatives out there.

>79 lyzard: In fairness to that newspaper commentary, the Australian setting is practically a character in itself in all of the books I've read so far. Though it's lamentable, of course, that they couldn't bring themselves to mention the most striking attraction, which is clearly the uniqueness of the Bony character. The uncharitable corner of my mind wonders if the problem was less Bony's heritage and more the overwhelmingly positive reception he received among the white folks he met — that might have been the bridge too far!

am I reading too much into the omission of Britain?

I mean, Australia and America are clearly the two most important markets. :-) But seriously, maybe the books weren't as popular in Britain for whatever reason? It's an interesting question that may be impossible to find a definitive answer for but if anyone could it's you.

>84 rosalita:

Oh, for sure; and even at this point Australian-set Australian series were a rarity, so you can't blame them for what looks like emphasising the obvious; but who talks about a detective series without mentioning the detective? I'm having trouble envisaging a reading public who might be drawn in by Upfield's name but who didn't know what he was most famous for.

And in fact we know that a number of the earlier books were not published in Britain - not until the 60s and 70s - though I thought they were over that by this point. OTOH I'd be surprised if the series did as well in America as they're suggesting (and why say that at all?).

I just find the whole thing very oddly phrased.

2023 #16

Publication date: 1980
Genre: Historical drama
Series: Earth's Children #1
Read for: Best-seller challenge

The Clan Of The Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel's 'Earth's Children' series is set during the Upper Paleolithic period, approximately 30,000 years ago, and opens in what is today the Ukraine, at a time when there was coexistence of the Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnons. These words are not, of course, used within Auel's narrative: her focus in this first book in the series is the former, who call themselves "Clan", as opposed to the physically very different people of whom they are aware but who they avoid, thinking of them simply as "the Others". Nevertheless, the book's protagonist is a young Cro-Magnon girl called Ayla, who is orphaned when the isolated valley in which she lives with her parents is struck by an earthquake. Struggling on by herself, frightened and starving, barely surviving the attack of a cave lion, which leaves its claw marks on her thigh, Ayla is near death when she is discovered by a small party of Clan, themselves displaced and their numbers reduced by the earthquake, who are in search of a new cave in which to make their home. The band barely spares her a glance---except for Iza, their healer, who receives rough permission from Brun, their leader and her sibling, to take her in. Widowed by the quake and pregnant herself, Iza exerts all her skill in saving the strange child, who she recognises as "Other" but is nevertheless drawn to; while the rest of the Clan are repulsed by the child's appearance and afraid that her presence might anger their protective spirits. Yet it is the recovering Ayla who, wandering off one day, discovers a new cave site with everything the Clan needs, so that their fears are allayed---for the present. As the Clan settles into its new home, Creb, their Mog-ur, another sibling of Brun and Iza, prepares for the many important ceremonies that will propitiate their spirits, including interpreting various signs to reveal the personal totems of the children of the group. Creb is disturbed by a persistent sense that Ayla's totem is the cave lion, the strongest of the male totems, an unprecedented revelation; yet there on her thigh is the animal's sign... As the Clan settles into its new home, The Clan Of The Cave Bear likewise settles into the strongest and most interesting aspect of the novel, Jean Auel's complex and detailed envisaging of Neanderthal society: its structures, behaviours, communication, the relative positions of the sexes, and the rituals and taboos that form its framework and hold it together. Much of this is conveyed via the main Clan characters, Iza, Creb and Brun, each of them with a separate but vitally important role to play in their community. In its entirety, Auel's depiction of Clan society is a remarkable piece of imaginative writing; and if certain aspects of it are likely to make modern readers uncomfortable, that too speaks to the integrity of her vision. The most contentious point here is probably Neanderthal communication: Auel represents the Clan as essentially non-verbal, communicating instead through body language and fine gesture. Beyond this, however, members of the Clan are born with race memories---everything that they need to know, everything that they have ever known, is already there as soon as a piece of knowledge is required. This allows the Clan to survive---but not to grow: there is no learning; there is no change. This is the point upon which this series turns: that the Neanderthals are an evolutionary cul-de-sac, doomed to extinction; while the Cro-Magnons, with their greater intellectual capacity and physical dexterity, will take humanity forward. At the heart of The Clan Of The Cave Bear is Ayla, born of the Others but raised as Clan: a contradiction that causes her - and everyone else - a great deal of difficulty and pain. How the reader reacts to Ayla will determine their response to the novel as a whole. Some of us (not mentioning any names) might be inclined to curl a lip at the novel's "Eye Of The Beholder" approach: the Clan, including Ayla herself, considers her hideously ugly, but she is described to the reader in all-too-familiar blonde-heroine terms. Auel's use of Alya to demonstrate human development at this point in history is successful up to a point, but it is an approach that requires Ayla to be good at everything - to master everything she attempts - always to be the first to think of everything - and the longer it goes on, the more her infinite perfections begin to grate. More exasperating still, given the very nature of Auel's imagining of Neanderthal society, is that Alya repeatedly violates Clan taboos ---and repeatedly gets away with it, due to her championing by Iza and Creb: what ought to mean a death sentence ends instead in the granting of unique privileges. It becomes, in fact, difficult not to sympathise somewhat with the anger and jealousy of Broud, the Clan's young leader-in-waiting (though not, I hasten to add, with his methods of retaliation), whose early and instinctive hatred of Ayla grows ever more violent as she is again and again forgiven her sins. But the Clan are not long lived, and it is only a matter of time before Broud assumes the leadership...

    Brun moved around in front of Ayla and motioned her to stand. Quickly, she scrambled to her feet. He reached into a fold and withdrew a small, red-stained oval of ivory sawed from near the tip of a mammoth tusk.
    "Ayla, this one time alone, while we are under the protection of the Most Ancient Spirits, you stand as an equal with the men... Once you leave this place, you must never again think as yourself as an equal. You are female, you will always be female... This ivory is from the tusk of the mammoth we killed. It was a very luck hunt; no man was hurt, yet we brought down the great beast. This piece has been sanctified by Ursus, coloured the sacred red by Mog-ur, and is a powerful hunting talisman. Every hunter of the Clan carries one like it in his amulet, and every hunter must have one.
    "Ayla, no boy becomes adult until he makes his first kill, but once he has, he cannot be a child. Long ago, during the time of the Spirits that still hover near, women of the Clan hunted. We don't know why your totem has led you to follow that ancient path, but we cannot deny the Spirit of the Cave Lion; it must be allowed. Ayla, you have made your first kill; you must now assume the responsibilities of an adult. But you are a woman, not a man, and you will be a woman always, in all ways but one. You may use only a sling, Ayla, but you are now the Woman who Hunts..."
    She felt her throat and the sting of the wound where Mog-ur had cut her, then slid her hand down and felt three objects inside her amulet. She moved her wrap aside and stared at the slightly smeared black lines that covered her scars. A hunter! I am a hunter! A hunter for the clan. They said it was my totem who wanted it and they couldn't deny him. She clutched her amulet, closed her eyes, and began the formal gestures.
    "Great Cave Lion, why did I ever doubt you? The death curse was a difficult test, the worst yet, but it had to be for so great a gift. I am so grateful you found me worthy. I know Creb was right---my life will never be easy with you as my totem, but it will always be worth it..."

2023 #17

Publication date: 1939
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte #7
Read for: Shared read

The Mystery Of Swordfish Reef - In the town of Bermagui, on the south coast of New South Wales, there is growing concern over a boat owned by a Mr Ericson, and crewed by two young local men, Bill Spinks and Bob Garroway, which seems to have simply vanished---on a clear day, and in calm waters. The next day, another boat captain called Jack Wilton spots an oil slick which he calculates as originating near an area called Swordfish Reef; he and his crew head in that direction, and also find a drifting thermos-flask. The police are notified and a full search instigated by sea and air, but with no results. It is weeks later when a trawler accidentally makes a horrifying find, a human head marked by bullet holes. This discovery brings to Bermagui Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte, charged with solving a mystery in which the crime scene is nothing less than the open coastal waters... This seventh entry in Arthur Upfield's "Bony" series finds its detective well out of his comfort zone, away from the outback he knows so well and deprived of his usual ability to read the land: confronted instead by a wholly alien environment, the sea. As usual, the background detail of Upfield's novel is solid: Bermagui was nothing more than a small, struggling sea-port until the author Zane Grey put it on the international map as a sports-fishing base. The narrative of The Mystery Of Swordfish Reef relies heavily upon the geography of the town and its surroundings, and its operation as a specialised tourist resort; while it diverts from its mystery and thriller aspects to tell the reader everything there is to know about the art of catching swordfish---with its protagonist finding himself as distracted from his job as he ever has been by the lure of this new and entrancing sport. But though the novel treats Bony's growing obsession with humour, the darkness of its back-story is always present. The unsolved murder threatens the local economy, now reliant upon the tourist dollar. Moreover, the missing Mr Ericson was formerly Superintendent Ericson of Scotland Yard, recently retired to Bermagui on the advice of his good friend, the Chief Commissioner of New South Wales, whose fears for the missing man are consequently tinged by guilt. It is the Commissioner who has requested the services of Inspector Bonaparte; but while Bony's serene self-confidence is undaunted by the magnitude of the task before him, he knows he will need expert help. The body of The Mystery Of Swordfish Reef - or one-half of it - finds Bony working with the local police and Jack Wilton, as he tries to determine where the crime must have been committed: calculating time and tide and wind, and the influence of the local fishing "hot-spots"; what other boats might have been the the vicinity, either as witness or perpetrator. Meanwhile, Bony is, as usual, in Bermagui incognito, posing as an aspiring sports-fisherman; and to keep up his cover, he combines searches of what he believes to be the crime scene, the area around Swordfish Reef, with his first efforts as an angler. Beginner's luck hardly describes it, as Bony finds himself battling - and finally landing - a record catch; and in his self-satisfaction, he allows his photograph to be taken by the the head of the local anglers' association, who is desperate to drum up some positive publicity for the town. The publishing of the picture has drastic consequences, however: the same people who recognised the former superintendent of Scotland Yard also recognise Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte---and soon Bony finds himself in danger of his life...

    "My Chief Commissioner," said Bony, "often tells me that I'm a damned bad policeman but a damned good detective. As a fact, I am an investigator who once I am able to say how it was done leaves the arrest and charge to other officers. I am interested less in the fate of a criminal than in his psychology.
    "I am convinced that neither the sea nor its hazards were responsible for the disappearance of the Do-Me. The recovery of the human head by the trawler crew indicates murder, and the wound in the head was caused by a .45 pistol bullet and not a .32 rifle bullet from the rifle Spinks always had with him on the Do-Me to dispatch sharks. That Mr Ericson was shot and his body thrown overboard to be partially devoured by sharks may be taken for granted. Putting last things first: who killed Ericson?...
    "A study of the reports compiled by the Sydney detectives indicated that they sought for wreckage and bodies along the coast and confined their investigations to the land. Aeroplanes searched the sea, we know, and Jack Wilton and Joe Peace, on the Marlin, searched for flotsam: still the main investigations were confined to the land.
    "It is my intention to concentrate on what happened to the Do-Me. She put to sea that fine and calm morning, and she was later seen making towards Swordfish Reef. Because the Do-Me was a vehicle of the sea and not of land, I find myself at a great disadvantage, not being a seaman as you are. Away beyond the railways, in my own country, I'd lose you in five minutes; but here on the sea you turn the tables on me..."

>87 lyzard: Nice review, Liz! One thing I wondered as I was reading — how does one pronounce Bermagui? I couldn't decide between ber-ma-GOOEY and ber-ma-GWEE, which probably means it's something completely different than either of those. :-)

I remember thinking that the rhapsodic descriptions of swordfishing seemed a bit over the top (although beautifully written as usual from Mr. Upfield), but I appreciated that at least it served a purpose to forward the plot (leading to Bony's picture being in the newspaper).

You didn't even have space to mention the romantic subplot! Upfield really gave Wentworth a run for her money on that front. :)

>88 rosalita:

Your first one is close but with a soft 'g', kind of 'gy': Berm-a-gy-oo-ee - but said quick and run together - Berm-a-gyooee.

I found it too much too, but like you I could appreciate the writing of it. I wondered if Upfield had had that experience and was trying to convey it?

I think we can almost take for granted now Bony being influenced in his cases by young lovers (and more to the point in this one, a frantic mother), though on the evidence here it seems I prefer sports fishing to romance. :D

      

2023 #18, #19, #20, #21

Publication date(s): 1926, 1927, 1927, 1929
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Henri Bencolin
Read for: Series reading (and completion)

Before the "official" beginning of his series featuring Parisian juge d'instruction, Henri Bencolin, John Dickson Carr wrote four short stories featuring the detective---sort of. Published in Carr's college literary magazine, The Haverfordian (which he also edited), these stories illustrate clearly the evolution of Carr's thinking about Bencolin, who across the course of them changes drastically from a small, rather shabby man into the overtly Mephistophelean figure who appears in the novels.

These stories also offer the evolution of Carr's thinking about mystery writing. Though he was later famous for his narratives featuring locked-room and other "impossible" crimes, these early stories don't really play fair with the reader: the circumstances are presented to Bencolin, who asks questions and comes up with a solution; but there isn't really any way the reader could anticipate him. Only the last, Grand Guignol, presents all the facts.

On the other hand, these stories do feature the gruesome murders and harsh handling of characters for which Carr's stories are also noted.

The Shadow Of The Goat - On a wager, a man locks himself into a bare stone room already checked for routes of escape and simply vanishes. This impossibility is followed by two more, murder and attempted murder by someone who could not have been there...

The Fourth Suspect - When a suspected spy is murdered, a paper goes missing that could mean another war. The obvious suspect is the man's mistress, herself married to a French agent; but she has an unshakeable alibi...

The Ends Of Justice - Henri Bencolin comes very late to a case of a man convicted of murder on what seems overwhelming evidence, yet which he is convinced is the result of a deeply laid plot of misdirection...

Grand Guignol - The marriage of the Duc de Saligny to Louise Laurent is threatened by the latter's insane former husband, who has escaped from confinement. On their wedding-night the couple defiantly appear in public, at a popular casino; Henri Bencolin himself sees de Saligny enter a certain room---in which he is later found murdered, though both doors were under observation at all times and no-one was seen to leave it...

This novella is an overt dry run for the first Bencolin novel, It Walks By Night, which I reviewed here: it features the same plot, with the same impossible murder by the same means, but omits various subplots by which Carr lengthened his narrative and made his plot more complex. It also features the first appearance by the "real" Henri Bencolin.

I'm pretty sure I posted a marmoset when I finished the series of novels but what the heck... :)

Yay. But also sigh.

February stats:

Works read: 9
TIOLI: 9, in 9 different challenges, with 1 shared read

Mystery / thriller: 5
Classic: 2
Contemporary drama: 1
Historical drama: 1

Series works: 6
Re-reads: 0
Blog reads: 0
1932: 0
1931: 0
Virago / Persephone: 0
Potential decommission: 0

Owned: 1
Library: 4
Ebooks: 4

Male authors : female authors: 8 : 1

Oldest work: The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo (1831)
Newest work: The Clan Of The Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel (1980)

******

YTD stats:

Works read: 21
TIOLI: 21, in 21 different challenges, with 3 shared reads

Mystery / thriller: 10
Classic: 5
Contemporary drama: 1
Historical romance: 1
Historical drama: 1
Young adult: 1
Fantasy: 1
Horror: 1

Series works: 13
Re-reads: 2
Blog reads: 1
1932: 0
1931: 1
Virago / Persephone: 0
Potential decommission: 0

Owned: 1
Library: 8
Ebooks: 12

Male authors : female authors: 19 : 3

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

I know all sloths have great faces, but---is it just me or does this one have a particularly great face?? :)

As anticipated, I was unable to finish Gains And Losses in June, and must set it aside again for the group read:

Now reading The Claverings by Anthony Trollope.

...and the thread is now up for the group read of The Claverings---here.

All welcome!

>89 lyzard: Ah, I can hear it now! I almost think Upfield had to have been swordfishing at least once, given the vivid way he wrote about it, but maybe he just talked to a lot of people who had done it.

Bony's just a romantic softy at heart. Which, to be fair, he tends to 'fess up to in pretty much every book. :-)

>91 lyzard: Can you ever post too many marmosets? I say no!

>93 lyzard: SLOTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is a great face — all sloths look either stoned or sly to me, and this one seems to have captured the perfect combination of the two states of being. :-)

>96 rosalita:

He needs to stop being so influenced by it though (in Bushranger Of The Skies he REALLY should have put his foot down!).

>97 rosalita:

The marmosets are the only reason I'm reading all these series, dontcha know?? :D

>98 rosalita:

I thought this one had a particularly kind face. :)

By the way, while you're here---I'm having difficulty getting hold of a copy of Where There's A Will: it's the first one not available at any of my libraries, and doesn't seem to be available much just generally. Do you know of any reason why that might be?

>100 lyzard: I don't think that was ever one I had trouble finding a used paperback of — the two toughest ones for me were The Red Box and Too Many Women. I'll PM you with a suggestion.

Seriously, what are the odds??

I went into my academic library yesterday---among other things, to pick up a copy of the Folio Society edition of The Claverings, since I always prefer to have a hard copy to work with.

It's university break so the place was very deserted; there was almost no-one on the seventh floor, which is all books and quiet study areas. In fact just one other person browsing the shelves, as far as I could see---19th century literature; same aisle as I needed; same shelf; same collection...

{---eyeballing each other---}

"Another Trollope fan, huh?"
"Mmm-hmm. Excuse me (reaching up and taking down The Claverings); hope this isn't the one you're looking for?"
"Nope, The Small House At Allington."

:D

Yes. So.

Another thing I went in for was to do a Rare Books session...on a book I actually requested for last month's TIOLI, but God and our public transport system had other ideas. :(

(Luckily it does fit this month's.)

I read the first book in Francis Grierson's series featuring Inspector Sims of Scotland Yard and his scientist collaborator, Professor Wells, The Limping Man, in 2014 (and reviewed it here).

I then had to skip the next two---before picking the series up with #4, The Lost Pearl (reviewed here), and #5, The Zoo Murder---my most enduring memory of which is the misuse of "Who's" on the cover (but anyway, reviewed here).

Then things came to a screeching halt---indicating that it was at this time that my library did its catalogue overhaul, and revealed a copy of #2, Secret Judges, in its Rare Book section.

So here we finally are.

At the same time, it is clear that the third book in the series, The Double Thumb, really is impossible to get hold of; effectively non-existent. I have remarked on this before, but collections of short stories from this time were, for whatever reason, far less likely to survive. Did they sell less copies? Did less libraries stock them?

But anyway...hopefully after this a little forward progress will be possible.

The third thing I did at the library was pick up my requested copy of our next Banned Book---

---which I was not entirely surprised to discover was bound without having its title anywhere on its outside cover. :)

So anyway---

Now reading Secret Judges by Francis D. Grierson; still reading The Claverings by Anthony Trollope; and Gains And Losses by Robert Lee Wolff.

>102 lyzard: This interaction delighted me. Glad it wasn't quite such a small world that you both wanted the same title. That would have edged into Twilight Zone territory.

>78 swynn: all good reads, and NOT as huge as later Clancy novels.

>106 MickyFine:

It was quite absurd enough as it was!

I probably should have invited him to join the group read; if only I'd thought of it...

>107 fuzzi:

Good to hear: I'm becoming a BIG fan of novels only being as long as they actually need to be! :D

Speaking of all that---

Finished The Claverings for TIOLI #4.

Now reading The Hunt For Red October by Tom Clancy.

2023 #22

Publication date: 1840
Genre: Classic
Read for: The C. K. Shorter 'Best 100 Novels' challenge

Ten Thousand A Year - Though effectively forgotten today, this novel by barrister and MP, Samuel Warren, was enormously popular in both Britain and the United States over the second half of the 19th century---something which, these days, takes some getting your head around. A bizarrely uneven blending of heavy-handed satire, straight melodrama and legal chicanery, Ten Thousand A Year is also very much a novel of two halves. One of them, the satirical half, traces the rise and fall of a certain Tittlebat Titmouse, a very minor shop clerk, after he is unexpectedly discovered to be the true heir to a country estate and an income of ten thousand pounds a year. The other half, meanwhile, follows in all seriousness the consequences of this discovery for Charles Aubrey, his wife, Agnes, and his sister, Kate, when they must give up their home and their income and start again with nothing---or what the novel considers nothing. Had the Aubreys faced actual destitution, or even real poverty, this novel might have had some merit; but as it is, though the wolf is always at the door, it never gets in---with the Aubreys left to occupy a nice, if small, house in London, with clothes on their backs and food on their table, and Charles always finding a way - sometimes via his own efforts, sometimes with the help of admiring friends - of supporting his family. Though all this was apparently very inspiring to 19th century readers, the Aubreys' perfections leave Warren without anywhere much to go with them; and far more of this massively overlong novel is devoted to tiresome and repetitive scenes of Titmouse displaying his total unfitness for the role of country gentleman, humiliating himself by trying to mimic his betters, and wasting his income in ridiculous extravagance. While all this gets extremely tiresome, there is some inadvertent interest here in what this novel reveals about the time at which it was written. Appearing in the wake of the First Reform Bill, Ten Thousand A Year is an exercise in conservative panic, full of class snobbery and sneers at the very thought of "equal rights" - or any rights - for those not born "gentlemen", and seeing chaos and anarchy and even revolution as the natural consequence of even the mildest social reform. Meanwhile, though this also gets tiresome for the modern reader, apparently part of the contemporary popularity of Ten Thousand A Year is that it was the first novel really to expose the nitty-gritty of legal practice---both its day-to-day reality, but also the million and one ways in which "the law" could be turned into a weapon by unscrupulous practitioners. At the centre of this novel is a law firm exceedingly conversant with the latter, that of Quirk, Gammon, and Snap, who are responsible for almost miraculous revelation of the true identity of Tittlebat Titmouse---thus delivering into their hands a client who may be bled at their leisure. This is where the novel does get interesting, because what we seem to have here is an example of a character getting away from his creator. I can't imagine that Samuel Warren initially intended this character to dominate his novel as he does - he would hardly have lumbered him with a ridiculous name like Oily Gammon - no, really - if he did; but over the course of Ten Thousand A Year, Gammon himself, his manipulation of the law, his constant double-dealing and his increasingly dishonest and selfish plotting hold the reader's attention as the novel's satire and didacticism entirely fail to do.

    "You know, Gammon, you're a decided deal better up in these matters than I...so just tell me, in a word, what good's to be got by showing that fellow to have died in his father's lifetime?"
    "You don't show your usual acuteness, Mr Quirk," replied Gammon, blandly. "It is to make waste paper of that conveyance which he executed, and which Mr Aubrey has, and with which he may, at one stroke, cut the ground from under our feet."
    "The very thought makes one feel quite funny---don't it, Gammon!" quoth Quirk, with a flustered air.
    "It may well do so, Mr Quirk. Now we are fairly embarked in a cause where success will be attended with so many splendid results, Mr Quirk---though I'm sure you'll always bear me out in saying how very unwilling I was to take advantage of the villany---'hem---"
    "Gammon, Gammon, you're always harking back to that---I'm tired of hearing on't... How d'ye make out - in a legal way, you know, Gammon - when a man died - I mean, of a natural death!" inquired Quirk, who was familiar enough with the means of proving the exact hour of certain violent deaths at Debtor's Door.
    "Oh! there are various methods of doing so, my dear sir," replied Gammon, carelessly. "Entries in family Bibles and prayer-books, registers, tombstones,---ay, by the way, an old tombstone," continued Gammon, musingly, "that would settle the business."
    "An old tombstone !" echoed Quirk, briskly, "Lord, Gammon, so it would! That's an idea---I call that a decided idea, Gammon. 'Twould be the very thing!"
    "The very thing!" repeated Gammon, pointedly.
    They remained silent for some moments. "Snap could not have looked about him sharp enough, when he was down at Yatton?" at length observed Quirk, in a low tone, flushing all over as he uttered the last words, and felt Gammon's cold gray eye settled on him like that of a snake.
    "He could not, indeed, my dear sir," replied Gammon, while Quirk continued gazing earnestly at him, now and then wriggling about in his chair, rubbing his chin, and drumming with his fingers on the table. "And now that you've suggested the thing, it's not to be wondered at - you know, it would have been an old tombstone - a sort of fragment of a tombstone, perhaps - so deeply sunk in the ground, probably, as easily to have escaped observation, eh? Does not it strike you so, Mr Quirk...?"

Ten Thousand A Year was read for the C. K. Shorter challenge.

The next novel in the list, at #48, is Catharine Crowe's Adventures Of Susan Hopley; or, Circumstantial Evidence---and I'm delighted to see it on this list and getting a little of the recognition it deserves. I blogged about this novel, which is on my list of important early crime fiction; but perhaps more importantly still, it was probably the first British novel to have an out-and-out servant hero(ine), and offers not only stringent social criticism, but a fascinating portrait of servants and other working people looking out for one another.

And next up---

#49: Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon by Charles Lever (1841)



Clement Shorter has shown a fondness for the regional novel throughout his list; also the historical novel; and here we have one that is both. Charles Lever was an Irishman - a rather rackety one, it seems - who qualified as a doctor before turning his gifts as a raconteur to novel-writing. The critics didn't think much of him, but the public ate him up. He was one of the first authors to include depictions of real battles in his novels, and could rank amongst his fans the Duke of Wellington; Anthony Trollope, who knew Lever, was another, observing (for better or worse) that, "He writes just as he talks."

Charles O'Malley is a picaresque tale of a young Irishman involved in the Peninsula Wars and the Battle of Waterloo.

2023 #23

Publication date: 1982
Genre: Historical drama
Series: Earth's Children #2
Read for: Best-seller challenge

The Valley Of Horses - This sequel to The Clan Of The Cave Bear opens with Ayla officially "dead" to her Clan and forced to leave everything she knows behind as she sets out into the world alone. Though she is seeking people of her own kind, those known to the Clan as "the Others", her journey leads her through a solitary wilderness which at last gives way to a sheltered valley surrounding a glacial river. Finding safe refuge in a spacious cave high in a rock face, Ayla sets to work accumulating what she will need to survive the upcoming winter: making clothes, devising tools and weapons, collecting medicinal plants, and above all laying down stores of food. The first winter passes, but still Ayla hesitates to take the step that will lead her to the Others. Instead, her time in the valley extends to several years, with her solitude softened by the presence of two unlikely companions: first a horse rescued as a young colt, raised to be both friend and working partner; and later, a cave lion cub... As was the case with The Clan Of The Cave Bear, The Valley Of Horse is at its best when it is depicting the details of Ayla's day-to-day life: applying all the practical skills of her Clan upbringing - the preparation of skins, the weaving of baskets, the carving of weapons, and so on - to her new, solitary existence. At the same time, accustomed to the group ways of the Clan, in order to survive Ayla must rethink everything she knows about hunting---devising both new weapons and new strategies, and later using both her horse and her lion as hunting partners. Here The Valley Of Horses becomes harder to take: Auel's narrative plan requires Ayla always to be the best and brightest - always the first to think of things - always the first to do things - and this begins to spin out of control in this novel, which finds her not only domesticating animals for the first time in human history, but being the person who discovers how to make fire with flint. But despite placing Alya at its centre, The Valley Of Horses is a book of two halves, also introducing "the Others", that is, the various Cro-Magnon tribes. In this its narrative focuses on two brothers, Jondalar and Thonolan, as they make a journey of their own, contact other tribes, learn new ways and languages and, in Thonolan's case, marry. In contrast to Auel's imagining of the Clan in The Clan Of The Cave Bear, the Others are presented with an overlay of absurdly modern sensibilities, particularly in the matter of the relations of the sexes; and she goes well beyond the absurd with Jondalar's unremitting personal angst ("Oh, why can't I ever FALL IN LOVE when I'm so FABULOUS AT SEX!"---no, really). The two halves of the novel collide when Thonolan, grieving the loss of his wife, effectively commits suicide by pursuing a cave lion into its lair, and Jondalar is seriously injured in attempting to save him. The animal is of course Ayla's cave lion, "Baby" (no, really), and she is able to call it off, thus saving Jondalar's life. He, as he recovers, is puzzled by the contradictions of Ayla: clearly of his own people yet unlike them in all her behaviours; ignorant of much that he takes for granted, yet with unique skills that astonish him. And she, in turn, thus thrown together with her first specimen of the Others, begins learning their ways: how to speak, in contrast with the Clan's non-verbal communication; how to work with a man as an equal, instead of submitting to him as an inferior; and how to have sex. And have sex. And have sex... Auel may have intended all this as compensation for her previous depiction of Clan sex, which is rather more, shall we say, utilitarian; but these endless scenes of sexual gymnastics are as tedious as they are ridiculous. Anyway. Eventually Ayla and Jondalar put their pants on long enough to face the reality of the world outside the valley---and the The Valley Of Horses ends with, for Ayla, the terrifying prospect of meeting her first tribe of the Others...

    No carvings or decorations on implements, he was thinking, but made with the finest workmanship. Skins and furs cured with great skill and care---yet no clothing was cut or shaped to fit, sewn or laced together, and no item was beaded, or quilled, or dyed, or decorated in any way. Yet she had fitted and sewn his leg together. They were peculiar inconsistencies, and the woman was a mystery.
    Jondalar had been watching Ayla as she prepared to make a fire, but he really had not been paying attention. He'd seen fire made many times. He had wondered in passing why she didn't just bring in a coal from the fire she used to cook his meal, and then he supposed it had gone out. He saw, without seeing, the woman gather together quick-starting tinder, pick up a couple of stones, strike them together, and blow a flame to life. It was done so quickly that the fire was burning well before it occurred to him what she had done.
    "Great Mother! How did you get that fire started so fast?" He vaguely recalled thinking she had made a very quick fire in the middle of the night, but he had passed that off as a misapprehension.
    Ayla turned at his outburst with a quizzical look.
    "How did you start the fire?" he asked again, sitting forward. "Oh, Doni! She doesn't understand a word I'm saying." He threw his hands up in exasperation. ""Do you even know what you've done? Come here, Ayla," he said, beckoning to her.
    She went to him immediately; it was the first time she had seen him use a hand motion in any purposeful way. He was greatly concerned about something, and she frowned, concentrating on his words, wishing she could understand...

>112 lyzard: I liked this book for the same reasons you did, and disliked it for the incredibly long and overly descriptive passages about her love life.

>86 lyzard:
>112 lyzard:

I missed your comments about Clan of the Cave Bear when you originally posted them: I think you nailed its strengths and weaknesses, though I think I found Ayla's super-superness less annoying than you did in the first book. But it really did become grating in The Valley of the Horses. With that, the boom-chicka-wah-wah sex, and the lack of COTCB's interesting anthropology, TVOTH is much the weaker book.

>113 fuzzi:, >114 swynn:

I'm beginning to wonder if Auel didn't trust her own strengths enough---or perhaps didn't trust her readers to recognise the real value in these works---it feels like she thought she was sugar-coating the pill, rather than putting tomato sauce on fillet mignon.

But, alas---since the novels continued to move up the charts, maybe she was right? (Or to quote Stephen King quoting Steve Martin - and to mix my food metaphors - "Get those snails off her plate and bring her a fried cheese sandwich like I told you in the first place.")

Finished The Hunt For Red October for TIOLI #14.

Now reading---

...okay, hang on a minute...

---now reading Nigger Heaven by Carl van Vechten.

Still reading Secret Judges by Francis D. Grierson; and Gains And Losses by Robert Lee Wolff.

Finished Nigger Heaven for TIOLI #12.

Now resuming Gains And Losses: Novels Of Faith And Doubt In Victorian England by Robert Lee Wolff; still reading Secret Judges by Francis D. Grierson.

2023 #24

Publication date: 1911
Genre: Horror
Series: Frank Braun #2
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (a book that has been criticised, banned or burnt)

Alraune (original title: Alraune: Die Geschichte eines lebenden Wesens / Alraune: The Story Of A Living Being; translation: Joe E. Bandel) - Frank Braun shows up at the house of his uncle, Jakob ten Brinken, to announce that he is done with college: that from now on he will only be "a student of life". His uncle is a rich and important man - a Privy Councilor of his town, in addition to a Professor of Medicine - but he is also a man with dark secrets, of which Frank is well aware, which places him to an extent in his nephew's power. One of the frequent visitors to ten Brinken's house is the Princess Wolkonski, a Hungarian noblewoman by birth, a Polish princess by marriage, but a woman of strange tastes, insatiably curious about ten Brinken's biological research, in particular his work on sex and reproduction. One night at the home of Herr and Frau Gottram, the former the princess's legal advisor, conversation turns on the legend of the alraune - the mandrake - its supposed generation via the semen of a hanged man, and its ability to bring either great fortune or catastrophe upon those who possess it. It is Frank Braun who suggests to his uncle a new biological experiment: that through artificial insemination, he create a living alraune... This second entry in Hanns Heinz Ewers' trilogy featuring his alter-ego, Frank Braun, takes place well before the events of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, with a much younger Frank putting ideas in his uncle's head, but not directly involved in the cruel experiment that leads to the existence of a young woman of unnatural powers---and unnatural sexuality. Alraune is a bizarre and disturbing mixture of ancient myth, cutting-edge science and deliberately provocative sex. Throughout, Ewers is clearly striving to make his narrative as shocking and offensive as possible---and succeeds so well that it remains so, in certain respects, to this day. The forced insemination of the prostitute recruited to serve as the "incubator" of ten Brinken's experiment, when she tries to renege on her deal, is brutally confronting; so too the casual revelation of ten Brinken as a paedophile with a taste for young girls, but one protected by his high social standing as he preys upon the children of the local workers. The other aspects of the novel that contributed to it being widely banned at its publication and for many decades to follow are less likely to bother the modern reader. The language used throughout was in itself unacceptable at the time; however, though Ewers offers explicit descriptions of the sado-masochistic sexual relationship that eventually develops between Frank and Alraune, it was less this than the circumstances of Alraune's conception and the way in which it is presented that most appalled people. The very notion of artificial insemination was considered outrageous, against God even if practically possible; and it is implied that, as a consequence, she has no soul. When the child is born, her mother dying in the process, she is adopted by ten Brinken and raised as his daughter---which doesn't stop him, in time, becoming as sexually obsessed with her as everyone else who comes in contact with the beautiful but unnerving young woman. The legend of the mandrake comes true to the extent that ten Brinken's good fortune multiplies upon itself, with everything he touches turning to gold---until the day comes that he cannot control his desire for Alraune any longer. When she evades his advances, ten Brinken abandons Alraune to Frank Braun's "guardianship". Despite their involvement, Frank continues to keep the great secret; but eventually, from the unstable Princess Wolkonski, a hands-on participant in her conception, Alraune finally learns the truth of her origins---and from that moment the other side of the mandrake legend also comes true, with ten Brinken facing disaster at every turn...

    The Fräulein sprang up. The blood drained out of her face in an instant, but she quickly laughed again and said calmly and scornfully: "You are getting old, your Highness, old and childish."
    That was the end. Now there was no going back for the princess. She broke loose into ordinary, infiniely vulgar language like a druken bordello madam. She screamed, howled, and obscene filth poured out of her mouth.
    Alraune's mother was a whore, one of the lowest kind, who gave herself away for a mark, and her father was a miserable rapist and murderer whose name was Noerrissen. She knew all about it. The Privy Councilor had paid the prostitute money and purchased her for his vile experiment, had inseminated her with the semen of an executed criminal. That was how Alraune had been created and she, herself, had injected the loathsone semen into Alraune's mother.
    She, Alraune, the stinking fruit of that experiment, was sitting there right now---right in front of her---a murderer's daughter and a prostutute's child!
    That was her revenge. She went out triumphant, swollen with the pride of a victory that made her ten years younger. She slammed the door loudly as she closed it.
    Now it was quiet in the large library. Alraune sat in her chair, a little pale. Her hands played nervously with the necklace, faint movements played around the corners of her mouth. Finally she got up.
    "Stupid stuff," she whispered.
    She took a few steps, then calmed herself and stepped back up to her cousin. "Is it true, Frank Braun?" she asked.
    He hesitated a moment, stood up and said slowly: "I believe that it is true..."

2023 #25

Publication date: 1981
Genre: Horror
Read for: TIOLI (a book that is the basis of a lesser-known film)

The Amityville Curse - Though his public career as a parapsychologist began with his 1963 non-fiction - or "non-fiction" - book, Ghost Hunter, Hans Holzer came to his greatest prominence via his involvement with the notorious Amityville case, and his support for Ron DeFeo Jr's claim that he murdered his family under demonic influence, as recounted in Holzer's Murder In Amityville (which I read in 2019 and reviewed here). It doesn't exactly seem to me that Holzer was helping himself or his cause by then turning to writing fiction about the supposedly haunted house---but be that as it may, his novel The Amityville Curse deals with the next set of people foolish enough to ignore the curse placed upon the land and the house built on it by a certain Shinnecock chief---at least according to Hans Holzer, though the Amityville Historical Society seems to have other ideas on the subject (not to mention that the local tribe was the Montauketts, not the Shinnecocks). In a period of economic crisis, five friends - Debbie and Martin Miller, Frank and Abigail White, and Bill Montenuovo - decide to pool their resources and buy a house together; and in spite of some doubts, given its history, the house they fix upon is a three-storey Dutch Colonial property in Amityville, Long Island. The five, plus Abigail's father, the novelist Carter Blaine, move in together, occupying separate floors of the spacious house and setting up their individual living quarters plus some communal areas. At first all goes well---but it is not long before a dangerous influence makes itself felt... The Amityville Curse is an amazingly - even hypnotically - bad book: silly in plot and dull in execution, without a single line of dialogue that sounds like something a real person would say. I haven't read enough of Hans Holzer's works generally to know if his writing is always this poor, or whether, perhaps, he was trying to mimic the pseudo-journalistic approach of Jay Ansen's The Amityville Horror (which, ahem, I have also read and reviewed). Either way, Holzer's droning is in amusing contrast to the horrors of his narrative, with the six occupants of the house subjected to various degrees of paranormal terrorisation. Frank, a lawyer, and Martin, a psychiatrist, are the sceptics of the group, resisting the interpretation of events that the others are more willing to accept; but when matters escalate to physical harm, and even death, only one explanation is possible... As it pushes towards its climax, there is an air of increasing desperation about The Amityville Curse, which manifests in Hans Holzer rapidly whacking his both his main characters and his supporting cast one after the other in various outré ways---as if he was, by that point, determined to do anything it took to get a reaction out of the reader. Well, he certainly got one from this reader; though I doubt that giggling was what he had in mind.

    "I hope this works," Frank said with doubt in his voice.
    "I'm praying that it will," Bill replied, his face more serious than ever. The loss of his restaurant and his inactivity as far as work was concerned had gotten to him. He had become nervous, very much on edge, and even Lucille found him quarrelsome at times. Perhaps things would change, he thought. Perhaps their luck was about to turn. He could not conceive that the revenge of an evil entity from the past could overcome the powers of God, and to Bill, the priest represented the power of good, all that was holy and spiritual in this world. He had no doubts whatsoever that the priest would win over the Indian---and yet deep down he was fearful.
    "I wish he'd hurry up and get here," Lucille said, expressing all their thoughts.
    It was almost six o'clock when they heard the sound of a car coming up Ocean Avenue. They went to the window and saw a dark sedan coming up the street slowly with its headlights on, even though it wasn't quite dark yet. Evidently, the driver was looking for the right house, for he drove hesitantly. When he was two houses away, Abigail opened the front door, to let the priest know where the house was. But something very strange happened at that very instant: the car shot forward with tremendous speed, passed the house, and crashed into a tree at the corner of the next intersection...
    "There is no way this could have just happened," Frank finally said.
    "But it did, didn't it?" Abigail replied. She seemed very much upset by what had happened, perhaps more so than the others. "First the Evil One murdered my father, and now this good man, this priest, who only wanted to help us. We must challenge the forces of darkness."

I saw the film supposedly based on The Amityville Curse many years before I got around to reading the book, and when I finally did I was amused to realise that it junked pretty much everything from Holzer's novel except the group of house-flipping friends. The film hardly reaches any heights, but compared to its alleged source, it's a masterpiece.

2023 #26

Publication date: 1940
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Nero Wolfe #7
Read for: Shared read

Over My Dead Body - A young immigrant calling herself Carla Lovchen tries to hire the services of Nero Wolfe on behalf of her friend, Neya Tormic, who has been accused of stealing a diamond necklace from the coat of a client of the fencing and dancing studio where they are both employed. Wolfe, even in the judgement of his loyal henchman, Archie Goodwin, reacts with violent negativity, refusing to hear her out and telling Archie to remove her from the house: something he ascribes to the young woman's Montenegrin accent. Afterwards, however, Wolfe grills Archie about the movements of Carla Lovchen, and finally discovers in a certain book a paper in Serbo-Croat endorsed by the ruler of Montenegro, empowering his wife to act as his agent in America. When Carla returns, Wolfe deigns to see her---and it is then that she drops her bombshell: her friend, Neya, accused thief, is Wolfe's adopted daughter, lost many years before in the chaos of war... This seventh entry in Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series is an odd, anomalous work---or so it seems to me at this point, not being able to judge whether the revelations made here about Wolfe's youthful European activities, which include his time as an Austrian agent and a period in the Montenegrin army, have an impact going forward, or whether the matter of his adopted daughter is merely a rabbit out of a hat. Over My Dead Body is also an anomalous work in that, despite its New York setting, it has its roots deep in war-torn Europe and a plot built around espionage and financial manoeuvring, with any number of the characters turning out to be someone other than who - and what - they appear. The proliferation of non-Americans has one unfortunate consequence, in that we are privy to Archie's rather crass reflections upon immigrants generally and their accents in particular ("Naturally it irritated me," he comments as soon as Carla opens her mouth), which frankly Wolfe should have pulled him up on well before this. However---in spite of these somewhat peculiar trappings, Over My Dead Body does finally settle down into a proper mystery. Though the matter of the diamond necklace soon clears itself up when Percy Ludlow, one of her clients, gives Neya an alibi for the time of the theft, Ludlow's subsequent murder within the studio plunges her and Carla back into a mire of suspicion; while Archie's presence when the body is discovered soon has him and Wolfe the target of the choleric Inspector Cramer. The two investigators are still doing what they do best - naming, evading and befuddling the authorities on behalf of their client - when matters take another and still darker turn, with another of those involved in the case, Rudolph Faber, turning up dead in the apartment shared by the two girls...

    "Is there a lot of stuff around here about Bosnian forests and Barrett & De Russy and secret codes---"
    "No, I am very careful," said Neya.
    "Yeah, this looks like it. All I'm saying, if you try telling Cramer that you know nothing about Faber and you can't imagine why he came here to get killed, you'll find yourself out on a limb. If you tell the truth, that won't be it, and if you decide on lies, you'll have to do a lot better than that. One little fact is whoever killed Faber deprived you of your alibi for Ludlow's murder..."
    The phone rang and I went and got it... "Archie. Mr Cramer will be there shortly."
    "Goody!"
    "How is Miss Tormic?"
    "She's all right. She says her mind's a blank."
    "Shock?"
    "No, just ignorance."
    "When she is questioned about anything except her movements from ten o'clock this morning---which is the time Mr Faber left this house alive---she will decline to reply except in the presence of her attorney... What does she say about Miss Lovchen?"
    "More ignorance. The first thing she did when she entered the room and looked at the floor was let out a yell for Carla."
    "I see. That's too bad. By the way, where did you put those germination records on the oncinium hybrids? I want to check them over."
    "Christalmighty," I said bitterly. "Here's your daughter sizzling on a spot, here am I with blood on my fingers off of Faber's shirt, and you prate---why don't you try doing a little work for a change---"

2023 #27

Publication date: 1970
Genre: Young adult
Series: The Three Investigators #14
Read for: Shared read

The Mystery Of The Coughing Dragon - Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews are sent by Alfred Hitchcock to the town of Seaside, where his old friend, H. H. Allen, is one of five people to lose his dog over the previous week---and has, besides, a very strange story to tell. When questioned, Mr Allen, though embarrassed, sticks to his story of seeing a dragon in the waters beneath his cliff-top house; he also insists that he heard the creature making an odd rasping sound rather like a cough. The boys encounter various dangers in pursuing the case, but nothing prepares them for the sight of a huge, mysterious creature emerging from the sea... This 14th entry in The Three Investigators series introduces a new author to the franchise, Nick West, who on the whole does a good job of replicating the styles of his predecessors, Robert Arthur and William Arden---although Jupiter is a bit too given to (you should excuse the expression) making light of his weight than is generally the case; there's also the repeated substitution of "Jupe" for "Jupiter", which gets oddly annoying. Story-wise, The Mystery Of The Coughing Dragon perhaps covers a bit too much familiar ground, with the boys yet again investigating a cave system not only dangerous in its own right, but revealed as the base of a criminal gang. That said, the narrative also includes some less expected threats, including a gun-toting neighbour, a bizarre electronic security system, some collapsing stairs---and of course, a dragon. Having various reasons to trust the story told by Mr Allen, even if they were inclined to believe in such beasts in the first place, the boys can only stare in terrified disbelief as the creature emerges from the sea and heads straight for the cave in which they have taken refuge... Dragons are one thing: much more important is that, along the way, the boys also solve the mystery of the missing dogs---and that thanks to their intervention, No Dogs Were Harmed In The Making Of This Mystery. Phew!

    Pete gripped Jupe's shoulder. "Am I seeing things?" he gasped.
    Jupiter, stunned, shook his head. His mouth was very dry and his eyes blinked rapidly. "No---" Jupe replied hoarsely "---it's a dragon, all right!"
    The monstrous serpentine shape came closer and they could see the water glistening on its dark wet skin. The shadowy head was small and triangular, held high on a long, swaying, curved neck. Its yellow eyes were fixed on the cave, and bored into them like twin headlights...
    "A-a-a-argh!" The monster was entering the cave now and they could hear its rasping breath.
    The boys cringed back against the rock as the terrifying dragon loomed high above them. Then the long curving neck swung around and the dark head with its great staring yellow eyes lowered. The long wet jaws opened and they saw its teeth, incredibly large and shining. It breathed again in its harsh rasping manner, and then it coughed...

2023 #28

Publication date: 1912
Genre: Horror
Read for: Filmed book

The Phantom Carriage (original title: Körkarlen / The Wagoner; translation: Peter Graves) - This novella of the supernatural by Selma Lagerlöf was supposedly inspired by Dickens' A Christmas Carol; but while it is indeed a story of ghostly experiences leading to one man's redemption, its narrative is uncompromising both in terms of the human misery it portrays and its ultimate religious message. The basis of The Phantom Carriage is the legend that the last person to die in a year is doomed thereafter to drive the wagon that collects the souls of the dying poor. This is a chilling story both literally and figuratively, playing out in the depths of a Swedish winter and amongst the poor occupants of a city slum, with its main characters either dead or dying, and most of its action unfolding in the grey netherworld between the two states. David Holm, a brutal, selfish alcoholic, collapses in the snow on New Year's Eve just before the clock strikes midnight, and is astonished to find himself in company with an old friend called Georges who - now that he thinks about it - died exactly a year ago. Holm refuses to believe any of the things that Georges is telling him---until he is forced to look upon them with his own eyes, and to understand what his own fate must be...

    "Look round, David Holm!" a forceful voice commanded, and after a moment's confusion he obeyed. Lying outstretched on the ground before him was a tall, powerfully built man in filthy rags. The man lay there, spattered with blood and soil, surrounded by empty bottles, his swollen face so red and blotchy that it was impossible to discern its original features. A stray beam of light from the distant streetlamps was reflected as a malevolent gleam of hatred in his narrowed eyes.
    Holm stood there in front of this prostrate figure and saw that he was the dead man's double.
    And yet he was not a double, for he was a nothing. Or it is wrong, perhaps, to say he was a nothing, he was an image, rather. An image of the dead man as seen in a mirror, an image that has stepped out of the glass and lives and moves.
    Holm turned round quickly and saw Georges, and he saw now that Georges too was nothing, he too was an image of the body he had once occupied.
    "O thou soul, that lost dominion over thy body at the instant of the New Year's striking," Georges said, "thou shalt deliver me from my duties. Thou shalt free souls from their earthly travails for the year to come..."

2023 #29

Publication date: 1891
Genre: Short stories
Read for: Completist reading

The Old Stone House And Other Stories - This collection of one novella and four short stories by Anna Katharine Green is marked by a note of ambiguity and a tendency to leave the reader to make up their own mind. The title story, which occupies about half the book, is set in a country town in upper New York State in the mid-19th century. Juliet, the local belle, is courted by all the young men, eligible or otherwise; but things change when the masterful, sardonic Colonel Schuyler comes to town. Attracted by both the man and the social prominence he represents, yet also fearful of him, Juliet promises to marry Schuyler after he promises to build her a fine house of her own in the woods just outside town; but as the house goes up and the wedding day draws near, a shocking tragedy intervenes... In A Memorable Night, a young New York doctor falls victim to a band of kidnappers who seem to have no purpose but to keep him company through the night... In The Black Cross, when an edict goes out from the Ku Klux Klan against a certain judge, one member of the band risks everything to save the man's daughter from also paying the price... In A Mysterious Case, a young woman, alone in the world and seemingly without any enemies, falls victim to a mysterious poisoner able to strike under the noses of her medical attendants... In Shall He Wed Her?, a man learns must decide whether to honour his engagement or not, when circumstantial evidence suggests that his fiancée once stole some money...

    "You liked her too, Philo Adams. I should have been willing if you---" Here Orrin choked and paused. I had never seen a face so full of fiery emotions. "No, no, no," he went on, after a moment of silent struggle; "I could not have borne it to see any man take away what was so precious to me. I---I---I did not know I cared for her so much," he now explained, observing my look of surprise. "She teased me and put me off, and coquetted with you and Lemuel and whoever else happened to be at her side till I grew beside myself and left her, as I thought, forever. But there are women you can leave and women you cannot, and when I found she teased and fretted me more at a distance than when she was under my very eye, I went back only to find---Philo, do you think he will marry her?"
    I choked down my own emotions and solemnly answered: "Yes, he is building her a home. You must have seen the stones that are being piled up yonder on the verge of the forest."
    He turned, glared at me, made a peculiar sound with his lips, and then stood silent, opening and closing his hands in a way that made my blood run chill in spite of myself.
    "A house!" he murmured, at last; "I wish I had the building of that house!"
    The tone, the look he gave, alarmed me still further.
    "You would build it well!" I cried. It was his trade, the building of houses.
    "I would build it slowly," was his ominous answer...

March stats:

Works read: 8
TIOLI: 8, in 6 different challenges

Horror: 3
Mystery / thriller: 1
Historical drama: 1
Short stories: 1
Young adult: 1
Classic: 1

Series works: 4
Re-reads: 0
Blog reads: 0
1932: 0
1931: 0
Virago / Persephone: 0
Potential decommission: 0

Owned: 1
Library: 3
Ebooks: 4

Male authors : female authors: 5 : 3

Oldest work: Ten Thousand A Year by Samuel Warren (1840)
Newest work: The Valley Of Horses by Jean M. Auel (1982)

******

YTD stats:

Works read: 29
TIOLI: 29, in 27 different challenges, with 3 shared reads

Mystery / thriller: 11
Classic: 6
Horror: 4
Historical drama: 2
Young adult: 2
Contemporary drama: 1
Historical romance: 1
Short stories: 1
Fantasy: 1

Series works: 17
Re-reads: 2
Blog reads: 1
1932: 0
1931: 1
Virago / Persephone: 0
Potential decommission: 0

Owned: 2
Library: 11
Ebooks: 16

Male authors : female authors: 24 : 6

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

It was a short reading month; so here's a short sloth---

>128 lyzard: Excellent little fellow.
>:-)

>123 lyzard: Yep, this is a weird one. I don't think I understood any of the political intrigue when I first read it as a young teenager, but re-reading it since made a lot more sense. It's still not one of my favorites, though it does have the requisite patter and a great Archie escapade escaping from the fencing studio after the murder.

I think I'll leave you to find out in due course if any of these characters/references to Wolfe's youth bear further fruit later in the series. :-)

>124 lyzard: Argh! I have fallen behind in this series — I've only gotten through The Mystery of the Laughing Shadow. Must catch up pronto.

>128 lyzard: SLOTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And he looks to be just a wee babby, too. Totes adorbs, as I'm sure the kids no longer say.

>129 Helenliz:, >132 rosalita:

The only up-side to my poor reading numbers this year is a shorter time between sloths (at least theoretically). :)

>130 rosalita:, >131 rosalita:

I wondered if Stout felt compelled to acknowledge what was going on in Europe---even though his narrative is tacitly pre-war in spite of the OPD.

Ah, well. I shall possess my soul in patience. :D

I found an online copy of Where There's A Will and will be making do with that, but thank you for your offer. Meanwhile I have The Mystery Of The Nervous Lion on the list for this month but I can hold off if you prefer?

>133 lyzard: Perhaps you are right about Stout's motivations. I know during the war he was a member of something called the Writer's War Board (this excerpt is from nerowolfe.org):

During World War II, Rex Stout waged a personal campaign against Nazism serving as chairman of the War Writers Board, wrote and broadcast the CBS radio program "Our Secret Weapon," and was a member of several national committees.

Later stories in the corpus will show that Wolfe shared his creator's distaste for Nazis and went to (for him) extreme lengths to "do his part" for the war effort.

Glad you found an online copy of Where There's a Will though the offer stands if you get tired of reading it that way.

Re: Jupe and the boys, if it would help you to postpone the next book I'm happy to do that, but if you need it for TIOLI or other purposes go right ahead. I'm sure I can catch up fairly easily; they are quick reads.

>134 rosalita:

Ah, good to know. Yes, that makes sense.

Thanks, I'll be fine. :)

I'm okay either way so I'll jst see how the rest of the month goes. Still desperately trying to get back to my academic library to finish off Secret Judges! Meanwhile---

Finished Gains And Losses: Novels Of Faith And Doubt In Victorian England for TIOLI #1.

Now reading Where There's A Will by Rex Stout.

Finished Where There's A Will for TIOLI #11.

Now reading Cynthia Wakeham's Money by Anna Katharine Green.

It's a bit earlier than usual, but I'm already thinking about next month's reading---mostly because I'm desperate to get back into some sort of regular routine (albeit hampered by my desire to get each subset book written up before embarking on the next one; if not my success in doing so).

Technically August is a 'B' month, so---

Best-seller challenge: Patriot Games by Tom Clancy
Napoleon Bonaparte series: Death Of A Swagman by Arthur Upfield
Albert Campion series: The Fashion In Shrouds by Margery Allingham
A Century Of Reading: Charles O'Malley by Charles James Lever
Banned in Boston!: Jew Suss by Lion Feuchtwanger

(Also 'Random Reading', in which I use the random number generator to pull a book from my wishlist, but there's a reason I'm not doing that, which I will get into anon...)

There is also a possibility that we will be proceeding with one or two smaller group reads (no decision has been made yet), in which case we might need to add:

Curious, If True by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Lifted Veil by George Eliot

(Ah, yes: there's that panicky feeling...)

I have my copy of A Fashion in Shrouds, so I'm ready for that one if you are.

>139 Helenliz:

I haven't rounded mine up yet but it shouldn't be a problem. I would like to get at least one of the others written up first though!

2023 #30

Publication date: 1876
Genre: Classic
Series: The Chronicles of Carlingford #6
Read for: Group read

Phoebe, Junior - In the final entry of her Carlingford series, Margaret Oliphant brings her action forward some twenty years, and offers a narrative intriguingly indicative of ongoing social change. At the centre of her story is Phoebe Beecham, the daughter of Phoebe Tozer, introduced to the reader in Salem Chapel---who, we now learn, did indeed succeed in marrying a Dissenting minister, if not the one she first had her eye on. In the intervening years, Mr and Mrs Beecham have risen both professionally and socially, and when the novel opens, we find them settled in a London chapel and, apart from the specifics of their religious worship, living a life as little distinct from that of their supposed enemies, "the Church people", as can be imagined. Their daughter, Phoebe, meanwhile, has had the upbringing and education of a lady, and has been kept away from Carlingford with all its social embarrassments; but when old Mrs Tozer, falls ill, and is left to the tender mercies of her ravening daughter-in-law, a decision is reluctantly made to dispatch Phoebe to Carlingford, to care for her grandmother and guard her potential inheritance. Phoebe faces up to this unpleasant task with all her customary good sense, and is soon taken to the hearts of both her grandparents; but nothing that her parents say to her quite prepares her for the fact that in Carlingford, she is nothing more than the granddaughter of "old Tozer", a shopkeeper... Phoebe, Junior is a curious and unexpected novel, and in some respects a very brave one. There is also an underlying sadness: the town of Carlingford, seen here, is stagnant; most of the "nice people" the reader has met through the preceding stories have died or moved away, so that the Tozers are able to occupy a house in what was once the most exclusive part of town; and Phoebe finds herself in an environment that offers little society or enjoyment, with the Dissenting background that means so little in London forming an impassable social barrier---almost. A chance meeting at a London party with Ursula May, the daughter of the local clergyman, bears fruit for Phoebe when the lonely girl welcomes her advent with naive enthusiasm. There is a momentary recoil from the Mays, including Ursula's brother, Reginald, when they learn who Phoebe is; but her own charm and graces finally win out: and an unlikely friendship develops. Phoebe becomes a frequent visitor at the rectory, with Reginald increasingly drawn to her; but a new complication develops when Mr May, who is struggling with debt, takes into the household as a pupil Clarence Copperhead, the son of the wealthiest member of Mr Beecham's London "connection"... There are many striking things about Phoebe, Junior, including a shocking subplot involving Mr May and the drastic lengths to which he goes as a result of his debts; and indeed, Mr May is one of the most unexpected characters to be found in the literature of this time. However, given the generally "church-and-chapel" framework of these novels, what is most surprising to the reader is the narrative's implication of crumbling social and religious barriers. Horace Northcote, a stern young Dissenting minister, starts out deliberately making enemies of the Mays, but ends up falling for Ursula; while Reginald, also a clergyman, falls in love with Phoebe, who has become the cynosure of the rectory. Yet for all this, there is a daring absence of conventional romance in this novel. But while she is very aware of Reginald's feeling for her, Phoebe, cool and sensible, already has a plan for her own future: she sets her sights on the wealthy but uncultured Clarence Copperhead---certain that, in spite of all his shortcomings, she can make something out of him, if only she can break down or circumvent the looming obstacle represented by Mr Copperhead, a crass, hardheaded, brutally selfish businessman, whose plans for his son do not include marriage with a calculating little minister's daughter...

    Phoebe's admission to the house had been more simple still. A girlish fancy on Ursula's part, a fit of good-nature on her father's, and then that secret thread of connection with Tozer which no one knew of, and the coming of Clarence Copperhead, to please whom Mr May permitted himself to be persuaded to do much; and in addition to all this, her good looks, her pretty manners, her cleverness and the deference she had always shown in the proper quarter. Mr May did not enter into the lists with his son, or think of offering himself as a suitor to Phoebe; but he liked to talk to her, and to watch what he called “her little ways,” and to hear her play when Clarence and his violin were otherwise disposed of. He was an experienced man, priding himself on a knowledge of human nature, and Phoebe's “little ways” amused him greatly. What did she mean?---to “catch” Clarence Copperhead, who would be a great match, or to fascinate Northcote?
    Oddly enough Mr May never thought of Reginald, though that young man showed an eagerness to talk to Phoebe which was more than equal with his own, and had always subjects laid up ready to discuss with her, when he could find the opportunity. Sometimes he would go up to her in the midst of the little party and broach one of these topics straight on end, without preface or introduction, as which was her favourite play of Shakespeare, and what did she think of the character of King Lear? It was not very wise, not any wiser than his neighbour was, who made pretty little Ursula into the ideal lady, the most gentle and stately figure in poetry; and yet no doubt there was something in both follies that was a great deal better than wisdom. The society formed by these two young pairs, with Clarence Copperhead as a heavy floating balance, and Mr May and Janey---one philosophical, wise and mistaken; the other sharp-sighted and seeing everything---as spectators, was very pleasant to the close little coterie themselves, and nobody else got within the charmed circle...
    It must be allowed, however, that the outside world was not pleased with this arrangement on either side of the question. The Church people were shocked with the Mays for harbouring Dissenters under any circumstances whatever, and there had not been a Minister at Salem Chapel for a long time so unpopular as Horace Northcote, who was always “engaged” when any of the connection asked him to tea, and preached sermons which went over their heads, and did not remember them when he met them in the street. Tozer was about the only one of the congregation who stood up for the young man. The others thanked Heaven that “he was but tempory,” and on the whole they were right, for certainly he was out of place in his present post.
    As for Clarence Copperhead, he led an agreeable life enough among all these undercurrents of feeling, which he did not recognise with any distinctness. He was comfortable enough, pleased with his own importance, and too obtuse to perceive that he bored his companions...

Finished Cynthia Wakeham's Money for TIOLI #15.

Now reading The Film Mystery by Arthur B. Reeve; and definitely not going to finish Secret Judges by Francis D. Grierson this month. :(

>138 lyzard: Patriot Games is one of the Tom Clancy books I not only was able to get through but enjoyed...they're good but such chunksters!

I also liked The Cardinal of the Kremlin which was never made into a movie unfortunately. My favorite Clancy is The Hunt for Red October.

>143 fuzzi:

The Hunt For Red October gives itself away as a first book by being relatively streamlined...and half of that is submarine tech! I would have liked a glossary of acronyms and a list of vessels (and perhaps some editions have that, though mine didn't) but I got along with it to a surprising degree considering it's so far out of my comfort zone.

Again not my area but I didn't think that The Cardinal Of The Kremlin had been filmed, which seems odd given everything else has been; perhaps it's too Russian? I guess I'll be finding out! :)

2023 #31

Publication date: 1891
Genre: Classic
Read for: Nobel Prize challenge

The Story Of Gösta Berling (original title: Gösta Berlings Saga; translation: Pauline Bancroft Flach) - Selma Lagerlöf's first novel is a strange, fragmented work set in the remote Värmland province of Sweden, where Lagerlöf herself was born and raised. More like a series of interconnected short stories than a coherent narrative, The Story Of Gösta Berling is set shortly after the close of the Napoleonic Wars, and offers a faithful account of a way of life that has long since passed away: of a feudal existence built around the country mansions of the wealthy, the interplay of the different classes, and the struggle for survival in the harsh Scandinavian countryside. Like most of Lagerlöf's writing, the novel's action plays out within a framework of rather stern Christian morality, with an emphasis upon sin and atonement; yet at the same time, Lagerlöf also draws heavily upon the pagan folklore of the Värmland district, and her narrative contains elements of the frankly supernatural---resulting in an odd shifting of tones that approaches what we would now call "magic realism". At the heart of the novel is Ekeby, one of the great country houses, which as part of its social duty supports a group of pensioners, "the Cavaliers of Ekeby" - superannuated soldiers, predominantly, though also others less respectable - the youngest of whom is Gösta Berling, a defrocked minister locked in a constant battle with his demons, who must fight his way back from the depths of self-loathing and despair. At his best Gösta is a poetic and charming, a man easily loved by women---but one who brings disaster upon all who draw near to him... In spite of its title, The Story Of Gösta Berling offers a complex tapestry of stories, in which the various characters come and go, each of them given their time in the spotlight. Equally memorable with Gösta himself is "the Major's wife" - Margareta Samzelius, the mistress of Ekeby - a strong-willed, passionate woman who, while her oblivious husband focuses on his hunting, administers their estates and fulfills all their social duties. It is she who oversees the Cavaliers, she too who saved Gösta's life when, after a tragic love affair, he literally laid down in the snow to die---and it is she who is finally turned out of her own home by the men who have benefitted most from her intelligence and generosity. Intriguingly, however, Margareta's sin is not her alleged adultery, by which Ekeby supposedly passed into her possession, but her spurning of her own mother, after she was upbraided for her rumoured misconduct. Accepting her expulsion from Ekeby as the working out of her mother's curse, Margareta, like Gösta, must atone for her sins and find a path to redemption... While these two main narrative threads are working themselves out, others swirl around them. Margareta's departure marks the beginning of the end for Ekeby, which is left to the mismanagement of the selfish, erratic Cavaliers and falls accordingly. Meanwhile, we also follow the stories of the evil Sintram who, if he is not the devil himself, is certainly in league with him and does his worst throughout the district; of the innocent, devout Ebba Dohna and the proud, spoiled Marianne Sinclaire, each of them destroyed by their love for Gösta; and above all, of the naive young Countess Dohna, who must face in Värmland a harshness of life of which she never dreamed during her sheltered upbringing, who will face temptation and sin, and who will become Gösta's unlikely saviour...

    An hour later the beggar sat on a chair by the door in the best room of the inn, and in front of him stood the powerful woman who had rescued him from the drift.
    Just as Gösta Berling now saw her, on her way home from the charcoal kilns, with sooty hands, and a ciay-pipe in her mouth, dressed in a short, unlined sheepskin jacket and striped homespun skirt, with tarred shoes on her feet and a sheath-knife in her bosom, as he saw her with gray hair combed back from an old, beautiful face, so had he heard her described a thousand times, and he knew that he had come across the far-famed major's wife of Ekeby.
    She was the most influential woman in all Värmland and, mistress of seven iron-works, accustomed to command and to be obeyed; and he was only a poor, condemned man, stripped of everything, knowing that every road was too heavy for him, every room too crowded. His body shook with terror, while her glance rested on him.
    She stood silent and looked at the human wretchedness before her, the red, swollen hands, the emaciated form, and the splendid head, which even in its ruin and neglect shone in wild beauty.
    "You are Gösta Berling, the mad priest?" she said, peering at him.
    The beggar sat motionless.
    "I am the mistress of Ekeby."
    A shudder passed over the beggar's body. He clasped his hands and raised his eyes with a longing glance. What would she do with him? Would she force him to live? He shook before her strength. And yet he had so nearly reached the peace of the eternal forests.
    She began the struggle by telling him the minister's daughter had got her sledge and her meal-sack again, and that she, the major's wife, had a shelter for him as for so many other homeless wretches in the bachelor's wing at Ekeby.
    She offered him a life of idleness and pleasure, but he answered he must die.
    Then she struck the table with her clenched fist, and let him hear what she thought of him.
    "So you want to die, that 's what you want. That would not surprise me, if you were alive. Look, such a wasted body and such powerless limbs and such dull eyes, and you think that there is something left of you to die. Do you think that you have to lie stiff and stark with a coffin-lid nailed down over you to be dead? Don't you believe that I stand here and see how dead you are, Gösta Berling?"

>144 lyzard: I asked my brother-in-law, a retired "submariner" and a person who has read every Tom Clancy book, why he thought they didn't make a movie from The Cardinal of the Kremlin. He said there wasn't enough "action" in his estimation, it was too cerebral for Hollywood.

I need to reread it one of these days. I have reread Red October but not in a while.

>146 fuzzi:

That sounds like a recommendation to me! :)

I usually do this after I finish *reading* my project book, but I think by April I was already in a panic how my reviewing (wasn't) going. :)

The Story Of Gösta Berling was read for my Nobel Prize for Literature challenge, in which I am reading a representative novel by those winners who were noted as novelists (whether or not they won for their novels):

The story so far:

1901: Sully Prudhomme (France) - poetry, essay
1902: Theodor Mommsen (Germany) - history, law
1903: Bjornstjerne Bjornson (Norway) - poetry, novel, drama (novel read: Synnøve Solbakken, reviewed here)
1904 (joint winner): Frédéric Mistral (France) - poetry, philology
1904 (joint winner): José Echegaray (Spain) - drama
1905: Henryk Sienkiewicz (Poland) - novel (novel read: With Fire And Sword, reviewed here)
1906: Giosuè Carducci (Italy) - poetry
1907: Rudyard Kipling (United Kingdom) - novel, short story, poetry (novel read: Kim, reviewed here)
1908: Rudolf Christoph Eucken (Germany) - philosophy
1909: Selma Lagerlöf (Sweden) - novel, short story (novel read: The Story Of Gösta Berling, reviewed here)
1910: Paul von Heyse (Germany) - poetry, drama, novel, short story

In contrast to Selma Lagerlöf, Paul von Heyse won his Nobel Prize towards the end of his career. His award was "a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories... Germany has not had a greater literary genius since Goethe."

Though von Heyse was a prolific author he only wrote two novels. I will be reading his 1873 work, Kinder der Welt / The Children Of The World.

>147 lyzard: agreed.

I think I need to move that book closer to the top of the reread queue...

>149 fuzzi:

Steve and I are slated for Patriot Games in August and The Cardinal Of The Kremlin in September, if you care to read along. :)

Finished The Film Mystery for TIOLI #8.

Now reading The Wedding March Murder by Monte Barrett.

ETA: ...which I'm having to read online, as a newspaper serial, and for which I cannot find any cover image:

>150 lyzard: I'll tentatively agree to a September read!

>152 fuzzi:

Excellent!

Finished The Wedding March Murder for TIOLI #9...and sort of finished a series.

Monte Barrett's obscure series featuring amateur detective Peter Cardigan is only three books long: I've managed to find the first and third online, serialised in the newspapers of the time, but the second is apparently only available in pricey hardcover. Why this too would not have been serialised is beyond me, but none of my sources are giving me any joy, so I'm currently forced to skip it.

In other words I've finished the series as far as I can.

It's not a very satisfactory situation, but that's no reason why I should punish you; so here's a very small marmoset as a compromise...

---and speaking of incomplete series---

Pardon me while I copy over my previous notes for Miles Burton's series featuring Inspector Arnold and/or Desmond Merrion (the two series overlap except as noted; ** = read):

**(M) #1: The Secret Of High Eldersham (1930) {weirdly enough, never out of print}
(M/A) #2/1: The Three Crimes (1931) {unavailable}
(A) #2: The Menace On The Downs (1931) {rare, expensive}
**(M/A) #3: Death Of Mr Gantley (1932) {Internet Archive}
(M/A) #4: Fate At The Fair (1933) {unavailable}
(M/A) #5: Tragedy At The Thirteenth Hole (1933) {unavailable}
(M/A) #6: Death At The Cross-Roads (1933) {unavailable}
(M/A) #7: The Charabanc Mystery (1934) {unavailable}
(M/A) #8: To Catch A Thief (1934) {unavailable}
(M/A) #9: The Devereux Court Mystery (1935) {unavailable}
**(M/A) #10: The Milk-Churn Murder (1935) {Internet Archive}
(M/A) #11: Murder Of A Chemist (1936) {unavailable}
**(M/A) #12: Death In The Tunnel (1936) {Kindle}
(M/A) #13: Where Is Barbara Prentice? (1936) {rare, expensive}
(M/A) #14: Death At The Club (1937) {unavailable}
(M/A) #15: Murder In Crown Passage (1937) {unavailable)

---and now reading Death At Low Tide (M/A #16) by Miles Burton.

>154 lyzard: Wee little marmoset!!!!!

>154 lyzard: Goodness, what big paws he has! So cute, though.

>154 lyzard: We'll take a Marmoset. >:-)

>156 rosalita:

...EXCEPT for his feet!---

>157 Matke:

---"BORN TO CLING". :D

>158 Helenliz:

I have to offer something around here (she said, eyeing her unwritten reviews in dismay), right...?

Your posts are enough to draw me in. The animals add a…little something extra.

>161 lyzard:

Aww, you're sweet. :)

Finished Death At Low Tide for TIOLI #10.

Now reading The Secret Of Sarek by Maurice Leblanc.

Ugh.

I am MASSIVELY over-committing myself this month...

Anyway---I finally made it back into Rare Books:

Finished Secret Judges by Francis D. Grierson for TIOLI #5.

Still reading The Secret Of Sarek by Maurice Leblanc.

As noted up-thread, Secret Judges is part of another erratically available series, that by Francis Durham Grierson featuring scientist Professor Wells and Inspector Sims of Scotland Yard (** = read):

#1: **The Limping Man (1924)
#2: **Secret Judges (1925)
#3: The Double Thumb (1925) {short stories; unavailable}
#4: **The Lost Pearl (1925)
#5: **The Zoo Murder (1926)

It looks like a struggle from this point onwards: #6, The Smiling Death, is locally unavailable; while #7, The White Camellia, is available only via an expensive academic loan.

The reality is, this is one of those series I'd read if I could, but which I'm not enjoying enough to spend money on. There are various irritations in these novels, including the fact that the "scientific detective" never does anything scientific; but my chief complaint is something that, I was amused to note on the way through, seems to have irritated others beside myself: the blog, "Pretty Sinister Books", says of The Smiling Death that it is---

"...a book that begins as a detective novel but quickly turns into a crime thriller..."

They all do.

There are apparently thirteen books in the series overall. One or two seem to be accessible here, but for the moment I've stalled.

ETA:

#8: The Blue Bucket Mystery (1929)
#9: The Yellow Rat (aka "Murder At The Wedding") (1929) {Rare Books}
#10: The Mysterious Mademoiselle (1930) {Rare Books}
#11: Murder At Lancaster Gate (1934)
#12: Death On Deposit (1935) {CARM}
#13: Murder In Black (1935) {CARM}

Finished The Secret Of Sarek for TIOLI #4.

Now reading Why Shoot A Butler? by Georgette Heyer.

>165 lyzard: This sounds super-frustrating, Liz. Maybe it's just as well that the book you did read weren't that great?

>167 rosalita:

There are other series I'm much more distressed over not being able to access, but these ones tweak my OCD regardless. I need to keep myself from falling into the trap of putting disproportionate effort into tracking these incomplete series, just because they *are* incomplete. :)

OTOH I owe Helen a vote of thanks: in researching a book for her TIOLI challenge, I have discovered that a previously missing work from a different series has recently become available as a free ebook---whoo!

>169 lyzard: hurrah for me!!!!

>169 lyzard:

Of course it messed up my TIOLI choice but you can't have everything. :D

2023 #32

Publication date: 1968
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Martin Beck #4
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (book with a 4 in the total number of pages)

The Laughing Policeman (original title: Den skrattande polisen; translation: Alain Blair) - Late on a rainy night in Stockholm, two patrol officers are alerted to what looks like a bus crash. Climbing on board, they have compromised the crime scene before they realise what they are actually looking at: mass murder. Eight people have been shot dead, among them a young police detective, Åke Stenström; there is a single, wounded survivor... Called to the scene, Martin Beck, Lennart Kollberg and Gunvald Larsson must try to make sense of the chaotic scene, and to answer the overriding question of whether this is a random attack, or a targeted killing with collateral damage. Though they try to keep an open mind, the detectives fear that Stenström was the intended victim---all the more so as they are unable to discover any reason why he should have been on that bus... This ironically titled fourth entry in the Martin Beck series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö is a relentlessly grim police procedural in which, increasingly, the central mass murder becomes the expression of a growing social malaise: as usual, the mystery plot is interwoven with a dark depiction of Swedish society in which violence and alienation are becoming the norm. In personal terms, Martin Beck's own marriage has long been in trouble; but over the course of The Laughing Policeman the difficult investigation begins to poison the relationship of Lennart Kollberg and his wife, who have a new baby; while Åke Stenström's strange behaviour towards his girlfriend, Åsa Torrell, over the last weeks of his life becomes a crucial factor in solving the case. Concluding from the careful timing of the attack that this was not a random act, the detectives must then decide who on board the bus was the actual target of the killer; and while suspecting it was Stenström, they must stay alert to other other possibilities. Painstakingly, they begin to investigate each of the victims, trying to determine which of the seemingly random bus passengers might have given someone motive to kill them; with only the nature of the weapon and the muttered words of the ninth, dying victim as clues... Though Beck remains the focus of its narrative, the nature of the crime in The Laughing Policeman means that the work is more evenly distributed amongst the characters, with Beck calling in several other former collaborators, each with their own special talent, to assist. All of them make critical contributions; but it is Martin Beck's success in winning the trust of Åsa Torrell that finally cracks the case. In long conversations with Åsa, Beck pieces together Åke Stenström's last movements---and discovers that during his off-duty hours, the ambitious young detective had been secretly trying to solve a notorious cold case...

    Martin Beck propped his elbows on the edge of the desk and put his head in his hands.
    It was already Friday and the eighth of December. Twenty-five days had passed and the investigation was getting nowhere. In fact, it showed signs of falling to pieces. Everyone was clinging to his own particular straw.
    Melander was puzzling over where and when he had seen or heard the name of Nils Erik Göransson. Gunvald Larsson was wondering how the Assarsson brothers made their money. Kollberg was trying to make out how a mentally unbalanced wife-killer by the name of Birgersson could conceivably have cheered up Stenström.
    Nordin was trying to establish a connection between Göransson, the mass murder and the garage in Hägersten. Ek had made such a technical study of the red doubledecker bus that nowadays it was practically impossible to talk to him about anything except electric circuits and windscreen-wiper controls.
    Mänsson had taken over Gunvald Larsson's diffuse ideas that Mohammad Boussie must have played some sort of leading role because he was Algerian; he had systematically interrogated the entire Arab colony in Stockholm.
    Martin Beck himself could think only of Stenstrom, what he had been working on, whether he had been shadowing someone and whether this someone had shot him.The argument seemed far from convincing. Would a comparatively experienced policeman really let himself get shot by the man he was shadowing? On a bus?
    Ronn could not tear his thoughts away from what Schwerin had said at the hospital the few seconds before he died...

Not a sweep - not quite - but I have 14 books (in 13 challenges) mentally tagged for TIOLI this month, and the panicky feeling that goes along with it. :D

This is the first "regular" month I've had in forever, I wonder how far I'll get??

Finished Why Shoot A Butler? for TIOLI #1.

Now reading The India-Rubber Men by Edgar Wallace.

...unless of course you don't care for 'Yellow Peril' stories:





Wiser (though even more insistent) heads then seem to have prevailed:

2023 #33

Publication date: 1936
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Philo Vance #10
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (by an author of whose oeuvre you have already read 23%)

The Kidnap Murder Case - A wave of kidnappings strikes New York, and Philo Vance is finally called in by District Attorney John Markham to assist in the strange disappearance of Kaspar Kenting. Questioning Mrs Kenting, Vance learns that, woken by noises in the adjoining room, she found the lights on, the window wide open, a ladder below, and a note demanding $50,000 for Kenting's safe return. However, a search of the missing man's bedroom determines that several items - items a man might need for a short stay away from home - are also missing. Markham suspects that he has faked his own kidnapping to extort money from his older brother, Kenyon, who has control of the family fortune; but Vance, while agreeing that the scene is staged, thinks it is to cover something more sinister... As it neared its conclusion, S. S. Van Dine's Philo Vance series became more and more an imitation of itself; and The Kidnap Murder Case is a particularly exasperating example. This novel is tiresomely padded out with long passages of Vance's persiflage and with numerous extraneous details that ultimately have no bearing upon the plot; while - amusing from a distance, I admit - this supposedly entirely "intellectual" amateur detective continues his evolution into Action Man, as seen over the previous few novels---putting himself in danger, participating in car chases and gun play, tackling dangerous criminals single-handed, and so on; though all without losing his idiosyncratic speech patterns and drawl, don't y' know... The contradictory details found the morning after Kaspar Keating's disappearance suggest to Philo Vance two different plots playing out at the same time; or perhaps, one plot gone wrong early and hastily rewritten. Vance holds to his theory of fakery even when a second ransom note is received; and though he participates in an elaborate sting operation, he is not surprised when it exposes, not someone involved in the original crime, but an individual trying to cash in on the situation. Vance's worst fears are realised when Kaspar Kenting's battered body is pulled from the river; and matters take on an extreme urgency when Mrs Kenting is subsequently abducted. It is known that Kenting was an inveterate gambler who was in debt to some dangerous individuals; but despite the involvement in the case of some ruthless killers for hire and an sinister Chinaman, Vance remains convinced that the guiding spirit may be found a lot closer to home...

    When we were alone Markham asked: “What do you think of it, Vance?”
    “Thinkin’ is an awful bore, Markham,” Vance answered with irritating nonchalance. “And it’s growing frightfully late, especially considerin’ how early I dragged myself into consciousness this morning.”
    “Never mind all that.” Markham spoke with exasperation. “How did you know Kaspar Kenting was dead when I spoke to you on the stairway yesterday morning?”
    “You flatter me,” said Vance. “I didn’t really know. I merely surmised it---basin’ my conclusion on the indications.”
    “So that’s your mood,” snorted Markham hopelessly. “I’m telling you, you outrageous fop, that this is a damned serious situation---what happened to Fleel tonight ought to prove that.”
    Vance smoked a moment in silence, and his brow clouded: his whole expression, in fact, changed.
    “I know only too well, Markham, how serious the situation is,” he said in a grave and curiously subdued voice. “But there’s really nothing we can do. We must wait---please believe me. Our hands and feet are tied.” He looked at Markham and continued with unwonted earnestness. “The most serious part of the whole affair is that this is not a kidnapping case at all, in the conventional sense. It goes deeper than that. It’s cold-blooded, diabolical murder. But I can’t quite see my way yet to proving it. I’m far more worried than you, Markham. The whole thing is unspeakably horrible. There are subtle and abnormal elements mixed up in the situation. It’s an abominable affair, but as we sit here tonight, I want to tell you that I don’t know---I don’t know... I’m afraid to make a move until we learn more.”
    I had rarely heard Vance speak in this tone, and a curious sensation of fear, so potent as to be almost a physical reaction, ran through me...

2023 #34

Publication date: 1937
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Albert Campion #8
Read for: Shared read

The Case Of The Late Pig - For Albert Campion, the newspaper announcement of the death of one R. I. Peters - "Pig" to his enemies - coincides with the reception of a peculiarly flowery anonymous letter, deploring the early passing of...someone. Having promised himself, under torture of extreme school bullying, that he would one day attend the funeral of the late Pig, Campion feels moved to keep his word to himself; discovering among the very few gathered for the occasion Gilbert Whippet, another of Pig's school victims---and another recipient of an anonymous "invitation". Also there is the doctor in whose convalescent home Pig died, of pneumonia contracted after an operation. The event over, Campion tries to put the entire matter out of his mind, and succeeds until six months later, when he is urgently summoned by hints of murder to Highwaters, the country home of Sir Leo Pursuivant and his daughter, Janet. There, Campion finds himself gazing at the body of someone who is, without question, Pig Peters... This eighth entry in Margery Allingham's series featuring Albert Campion an anomalous work in several respects. The story is told in the first person by Campion himself, something we haven't encountered before; and his narrative is marked by a facetious note bizarrely at odds with the nasty nature of the proceedings. Pig Peters, we gather, has not improved with age; and no-one is particularly upset by his death - either of them - except for the ensuing complications. These include the fact that the murderer - and Pig's second death is, unavoidably, murder - seems likely to be one of the very charming people in Sir Leo's immediate circle of friends. The other mystery is, of course---exactly whose funeral did Campion attend...? Despite its relative brevity, The Case Of The Late Pig offers a complicated scenario full of impersonations and misdirections---though appropriately, its surface sleight-of-hand finally gives way to a grim climax that finds both Campion and his loyal if irascible factotum, Lugg, in danger of their lives. In the weeks before his second death, Pig was masquerading under the name of "Harris", as he attempted to put through a business deal that would have turned a beautiful corner of the countryside into a garish resort. Campion himself is certain that Pig is Pig - that is to say, that this Pig is his Pig - but others are not. A certain amount of light is thrown on the matter when Campion encounters Dr Kingston, under whose care Pig supposedly died the first time, and learns of the late Pig's disreputable, lookalike brother, Henry, and the making of a will...

    I am not one of these intellectual sleuths, I am afraid. My mind does not work like an adding machine, taking the facts in neatly one by one and doing the work as it goes along. I am more like the bloke with the sack and spiked stick. I collect all the odds and ends I can see and turn out the bag at the lunch hour.
    So far, I had netted one or two things. I had satisfied myself that Pig had been murdered; that is to say, whoever had killed him had done so intentionally, but not, I thought, with much premeditation. This seemed fairly obvious, since it was not reasonable to suppose that anyone could have insisted on him sitting just in that one spot, or made absolutely certain that he would stay there long enough to receive the urn when it came.
    Considering the matter, I fancied some impulsive fellow had happened along to find the stage set, as it were; Pig sitting, porcine and undesirable, under the flower pot, and, not being able to curb the unworthy instinct, had trotted upstairs and done the necessary shoving all in the first fierce flush of inspiration...
    The real trouble, I foresaw, would be the question of proof. Since finger-prints on the rough cast would be too much to hope for, and an eye-witness would have come forward before now, it was in pinning the crime down that I imagined the real snag would arise.
    Perhaps I ought to mention here that at that moment I was absolutely wrong. I was wrong not only about the position of the snag but about everything else as well. However, I had no idea of it then. I leant back in the Lagonda with Leo at my side, and drove through the yellow evening light thinking of Pig and his two funerals, past and present...

2023 #35

Publication date: 1996
Genre: Horror
Series: Sonja Blue #4
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (flower in the title)

A Dozen Black Roses - Some background is required for this one, in which Nancy A. Collins stepped away from the main narrative of her series featuring vampire-hunting vampire, Sonja Blue, to write a novel set in the "World of Darkness"---which in 1996 was (quote) "a series of tabletop role-playing games, originally created by Mark Rein-Hagen for White Wolf Publishing... The games...have a shared setting, also named the World of Darkness, which is a dark, gothic-punk interpretation of the real world, where supernatural beings such as vampires and werewolves exist in secrecy..." None of which meant much to me, albeit it represented a diversion which I found rather exasperating in terms of where Collins had left her narrative in the previous novel, Paint It Black (no biggie, just the fate of humanity hanging in the balance). All that said, A Dozen Black Roses is a perfectly fine standalone horror novel, which finds Collins reworking the Yojimbo / A Fistful Of Dollars scenario of a town controlled by two warring factions, who are both brought down by an outsider who plays them off against each other. The "town" in question is a ghetto area in an unnamed American city (Collins tells us which cities it is not, but not which one it is), which partially by natural decay and partially by design has become almost entirely a refuge for supernatural beings; though a handful of disenfranchised human beings continue to call it home. Likewise, human gang warfare has given way to an escalating conflict between the long-established vampire clan led by Sinjon, and a relatively new faction headed by a vampire called Esher---both funding their schemes for power and expansion through very human means, drug- and gun-running, respectively. Deadtown is already at flashpoint when a certain stranger arrives (in keeping with her scenario, Collins does not identify her protagonist directly, but leaves her The Woman With No Name). Intervening to save a young human child from Esher's gang-member bodyguards, and in this way making contact with another human, Eddie McLeod - "Cloudy" - who has been living in Deadtown since evading the Vietnam draft, the Stranger begins to learn about the two vampire clans---and where each might be vulnerable...

    "Let him go, Esher," the stranger said. "You've got me here, now---he's nothing to you."
    "On the contrary, my beauty," Esher grinned, nudging Cloudy with the toe of his boot. "He means everything to me. After all, he was the brat's protector. That must mean he knows where Nikola is."
    "Nikola's dead. She died in the Black Lodge."
    "Don't piss on my head and tell me it's raining, bitch," Esher snarled. "If Sinjon had her he would have tossed her out the nearest window after the first three minutes. No, I realise now my beloved's abduction was your doing, not his. I don't know why you wished to manoeuvre Sinjon and myself into a jyhad---did you think we would destroy one another, leaving Deadtown for you to take over? Is that it? Are you a mammal conspiring beneath the feet of dinosaurs?"
    "You wouldn't understand my motivations if I told you. But you're right about one thing---I came here with the express purpose of getting rid of both you and Sinjon."
    Esher stood up and stepped away from Cloudy, glowering balefully. "Who are you, woman? Did the Camarilla send you? Are you one of their Archons?"
    "The Camarilla?" She turned her head and spat. "I have as much love for the Camarilla as I have for you, Esher!"
    "Answer me, damn you! Who are you? Tell me your name!"
    "You want to know who I am? I am the shadow that monsters fear! I am the nightmare that haunts the dreams of the dead! Look into the darkest corner of your black heart, and you will find me there! I am the slayer of the dead, the destroyer of the Damned!I am that which you fear above all things---I am your death, Esher!"

2023 # 36

Publication date: 1928
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Fleming Stone #28
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (a book with a 4 in the total number of pages)

The Crime In The Crypt - Mottram Oakley, a young American, has wandered away from the group that is touring the south of England when he discovers a dead man in a crypt beneath Welbury Cathedral---a man lying in a sarcophagus, who has been shot. The immediate police investigation identifies the man as Warren Glynn, another American tourist; everyone is struck by the peaceful attitude of the victim, particularly when the police surgeon declares he was alive when shot. Made indignant by the mingled suspicion and exclusion of the police, and burning to discuss the matter with someone, Oakley singles out John Clevedon, a slight acquaintance who, he knows, shares his passion for detective fiction. He finds Clevedon confined to his room after a nasty accident to his hand, and only too glad of a visitor. He is, moreover, already being treated for a problem with his eyesight which restricts his reading, and therefore listens eagerly to Oakley's account of the murder; being equally eager to play amateur detective. Though they get nowhere with their deductions, the new friendship ends in Oakley accepting a position as companion / secretary to Clevedon while he recovers. The two travel to Clevedon's home in Massachusetts---where it is soon evident that murder has followed them... This 24th entry in Carolyn Wells' series featuring private investigator Fleming Stone is an interesting experiment, but not really a successful one. The Crime In The Crypt is a longer novel than usual, and with a first-person narrator in Mottram Oakley; and Wells attempts the tricky business of parallel plots, with the surface story told by the uncomprehending Oakley overlying a much darker tale of madness and murder. Kudos to Wells for trying something different, but unfortunately she isn't a good enough writer to pull her scheme off; while the twist on which the mystery ultimately rests has to be read to be disbelieved. As usual, Fleming Stone himself is very late on the scene; and before he shows up we have to plow through the social side of The Crime In The Crypt, if we can call it that, which is peculiar enough. Though delighted to have her son home, Mrs Clevedon frets over the possibility that Clevedon's fiancée, Vera Ridell, will be be repulsed by his finger injury and break off their engagement (something Wells, per Oakley, seems to consider a natural and reasonable reaction); and while this doesn't eventuate, something has clearly affected Vera's attitude towards the man she is to marry. Tensions consequently rise---and are only exacerbated when Oakley, to his own dismay, finds himself falling in love with Vera. However, other matters take precedence: the two young men have barely settled in when Mrs Clevedon's maid, Hilda, is found shot dead in the grounds. Once the dead girl's boyfriend is cleared, the police are stumped; and the matter remains unsolved when Mrs Clevedon disappears in the middle of a house-party---and is later found stabbed to death. It is this that prompts the hiring of Fleming Stone, whose investigation reaches all the way to England, to the murder of Warren Glynn...

    "I think, Oakley," Fleming Stone said pleasantly, "you know more about this whole terrible matter than anyone else."
    "What!" I cried, recoiling as if from an accusation.
    "There, there, I don't mean you have guilty knowledge, or any information that you are suppressing. But the affair goes back to a long time ago, and I want your help in untangling some of its snarls."
    I was flattered now and eagerly declared my willingness to do anything I could.
    My part seemed to be mostly talking. Fleming Stone asked me to tell him the whole story of the crime in the cathedral, which I had mentioned.
    So I told him everything about it, and he listened with deepest attention. We found a pleasant green nook in the woodland, and we sat on a fallen log while we talked.
    He was absorbed in my narrative and interrupted me only to put some pertinent question now and then, or to ask repetition of some point.
    The description of the body in the old stone coffin intrigued him greatly and he inquired minutely as to every phase of its appearance and effect.
    After I had finished, he exclaimed, with a look of awe on his face:
    "Three murders, each with the victim in a long, bedlike receptacle. Each with the victim lying composed and decent. Can you doubt for a moment they were all the work of the same hand?"

Best-selling books in the United States for 1985:

1. The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel
2. Texas by James A. Michener
3. Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor
4. If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon
5. Skeleton Crew by Stephen King
6. Secrets by Danielle Steel
7. Contact by Carl Sagan
8. Lucky by Jackie Collins
9. Family Album by Danielle Steel
10. Jubal Sackett by Louis L'Amour

The outlier on the 1985 list is Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon Days, a novel adapted from his A Prairie Home Companion radio show about life in small-town Minnesota.

Trashy novels did well in 1985, with Danielle Steel making the list twice: Secrets is a melodrama set in the television industry and built around the filming of a star-studded series; while Family Album is about an actress turned film director who struggles to balance her career and her family life. Sidney Sheldon's If Tomorrow Comes is about a woman who takes on the New Orleans mafia in vengeance for her mother and herself; while Jackie Collins' Lucky is one of her "Santangelo" series, about the daughter of a crime boss.

Stephen King makes the list again with Skeleton Crew, a collection of short stories including The Mist (though variant collections have since been released). Contact is Carl Sagan's science-fiction novel about first contact between humanity and a more advanced alien species.

Jubal Sackett is the fourth in Louis L'Amour's series of historical pioneering / western novels about the Sackett family, this one focused on second-generation Jubal and his solitary exploration of the plains. Greater still in scope is James A. Michener's Texas, which plots the history of the state from the Mexican expeditions of the early 1600s through to its economic struggles of the 1980s.

Texas came in at #2, meaning that Steve and I dodged another bullet; though I'm not sure you can call it dodging a bullet when you jump straight into the path of another bullet...

Jean Marie Untinen was born in Chicago in 1936. She married Ray Bernard Auel after finishing high school, and the couple had five children within the next six years. Subsequently, Jean Auel attended the University of Portland and earned an MBA; while her initial employment was in various technical areas including as a circuit-board designer.

However, Auel's personal ambition was to be a writer, her main area of interest early human history. In preparation for her first novel she joined a survival class in which she learned practical skills such as building an ice cave, and studied further under Jim Riggs, a "primitive skills" and bushcraft expert. Meanwhile Auel undertook extensive personal research of prehistoric Europe and the Ice Age.

Published in 1980, Auel's The Clan Of The Cave Bear imagines in detail Neanderthal life some 30,000 years ago. Her protagonist, Ayla, is an orphaned Cro-Magnon child who is adopted and raised within a small Neanderthal clan, but whose differing physical and intellectual capacities present a significant challenge as she tries to fit in with her new family.

The Clan Of The Cave Bear was both a critical and a popular success. Her earnings allowed Auel to expand and deepen her research for her subsequent novels by travelling to key European sites. Continuing to use Ayla as her focus character, Auel followed The Clan Of The Cave Bear with 1982's The Valley Of Horses, in which she imagined various aspects of Cro-Magnon society.

The Valley Of Horses reached #6 on the 1982 best-sellers list; while Auel's next series entry, The Mammoth Hunters, was America's best-selling book of 1985.

Three more sequels followed: The Plains Of Passage in 1990; The Shelters Of Stone in 2002; and The Land Of Painted Caves in 2011.

2023 #37

Publication date: 1985
Genre: Historical drama
Series: Earth's Children #3
Read for: Best-seller challenge

The Mammoth Hunters - The third entry in Jean M. Auel's 'Earth's Children' series opens with Ayla and Jondalar encountering one "camp" of the Cro-Magnon tribe known as the Mamutoi with whom, through the marriage of his brother, Jondalar has a connection. The travellers are invited to the Lion Camp, which is situated in a vast underground cave, and which is headed, according to Mamutoi ways, by the brother and sister, Talut and Tulie. Ayla is at first terrified by the size of the camp, by the Mamutoi habit of all speaking at once and interrupting each other, and by the way in which they openly display their emotions; she is also humiliated by having to introduce herself as of "no people", having learned from Jondalar to conceal her Clan background, much as this hurts her. However, she is warmly welcomed by the tribe's Mamut, its spiritual leader, who reminds her of Creb, her Clan's Mog-ur: their instant connection both puzzles and reassures her. Though frequently confused by behaviours so alien to her own upbringing, Alya begins to feel comfortable amongst the warm and gregarious Mamutoi; she even confides her background to one or two of her new friends; but she and Jondalar face a critical decision when a proposal is made of their formal adoption into the Lion Camp… The Mammoth Hunters exhibits both the strengths and the weaknesses of its predecessors. Its anthropological aspects rank it with The Clan Of The Cave Bear, with Auel giving much time and thought to the behaviours, rituals and taboos that allow the Lion Camp to negotiate life underground, in close confinement, through a brutal northern winter: the family groups, or “hearths” – curiously similar to those around which Clan society is structured – are based on complicated inter-relationships and marked by marriages, adoptions and shifting social status. Following the Clan gathering in her first novel, Auel here depicts a gathering of the various Mamutoi camps which, in addition to renewing connections and hosting joint social rituals, helps to determine the relative “ranking” of each. This is partially determined by fierce and direct competition in various sports and skills, but also by the particular talent of each camp. Though the actual practice of mammoth hunting is a relatively minor component of this novel, it is the Lion Camp’s reputation in this area that most establishes its worth. However, the camp faces a crisis when, in the middle of the gathering, Ayla is provoked into a defiant declaration of her Clan upbringing… Along with her imposition upon pre-historic society of improbably modern sexual sensibilities, Auel uses these novels to dissect racism, where she is on slightly firmer ground. The Clan are regarded by the Others as subhuman, if not in fact animals (which doesn’t stop the occasional sexual encounter, consensual or otherwise). Jondalar himself, in spite of his passion for Ayla, is almost physically revolted by her Clan connection: the pejorative term, “flathead”, rises only too easily to his lips; and it is his awareness of how his family will react that has prevented him from returning with her to his own people. Ayla’s revelation elicits a range of responses from the Mamutoi---from fear and rage and disgust to a more broadminded acceptance---the latter chiefly because, of course, she herself is so exceptional. Here we wander back into the more tiresome aspects of the series: Ayla is, by this time, explicitly “the Chosen One”, sigh; and her habit of being the first person in human history to do everything continues unabated (in this case, to domesticate a wolf). But even this pales beside the infuriating connective tissue of this novel, which finds Ranec, the Lion Camp’s most skilled carver – himself an anomaly, being dark-skinned – falling for Ayla at first sight and determining to make her his mate. Jondalar’s response to this is an agonised jealousy that occupies a ludicrous chunk of this book and manifests as temper tantrums in which he pushes Ayla away, followed by other tantrums when she goes; repeat ad infinitum. All of which goes to prove, I guess, that a man can live for months in utter solitude with a woman and still not understand her – or even LISTEN to her – since Ayla has been explicit enough about her Clan conditioning and the behaviours that it triggers. Jondalar, however, sees only another man being preferred to his splendiferous self and OH GREAT MOTHER HOW COULD THAT POSSIBLY BE!!?? One conversation between these two people who are supposed to be in love could resolve the situation, but instead Auel gives us about three hundred pages of go-away-come-back---so that in spite of my appreciation of The Mammoth Hunters’ good qualities, my overriding reaction to this novel was finally an overwhelming desire to take both its heroine and its hero by the hair and slam their silly heads against a glacier. Mostly Jondalar. But also Ayla.

    This was it, the auspicious day everyone had been looking forward to, the day of the Spring Festival. The happiest event, to her, would be the naming of Fralie’s baby… The Hearth of the Crane was much happier these days, not only because they shared the joy of the baby, but because Frebec and Crozie were learning they could live without arguing every moment. Not that there weren’t still problems, but they were coping better, and Fralie herself was taking a more active role in trying to mediate.
    Ayla was thinking about Fralie’s baby when she looked up and saw Ranec watching her. This was also the day he wanted to announce their Promise, and with a jolt, she remembered that Jondalar had told her he was leaving. Suddenly she found herself recalling that terrible night when Iza had died.
    “You are not Clan, Ayla,” Iza had told her. “You were born to the Others, you belong with them. Go north, Ayla. Find your own people. Find your own mate.”
    Find your own mate... Once she had thought Jondalar would be her mate, but he was leaving, going to his home without her. Jondalar didn’t want her…
    But Ranec did. She wasn’t getting younger. If she was ever going to have a baby, she should be starting one soon. She took a sip of Iza’s medicine, and swirled the last of the liquid and the dregs in the cup. If she stopped taking Iza’s medicine, and shared Pleasures with Ranec, would that start a baby inside her? She could try it and find out. Maybe she should join with Ranec. Settle with him, have the children of his hearth. Would they be beautiful dark babies with dark eyes and dark curly hair? Or would they be light like her? Maybe both…
    I’ll tell him, she thought. I’ll tell Ranec he can announce our Promise today. But as she got up and walked toward the Hearth of the Fox, her mind was filled with only one thought. Jondalar was leaving without her. She would never see Jondalar again. Even as the realisation came to her, she felt the crushing weight, and closed her eyes to fight back her grief…

April stats:

Works read: 8
TIOLI: 8, in 6 different challenges, with 2 shared reads

Mystery / thriller: 4
Classic: 2
Historical drama: 1
Horror: 1

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

Owned: 0
Library: 5
Ebooks: 3

Male authors : female authors: 2 : 7

Oldest work: Phoebe, Junior by Margaret Oliphant (1876)
Newest work: The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel (1985)

******

YTD stats:

Works read: 37
TIOLI: 37, in 33 different challenges, with 5 shared reads

Mystery / thriller: 15
Classic: 8
Horror: 5
Historical drama: 3
Young adult: 2
Contemporary drama: 1
Historical romance: 1
Short stories: 1
Fantasy: 1

Series works: 24
Re-reads: 2
Blog reads: 1
1932: 0
1931: 1
Virago / Persephone: 0
Potential decommission: 0

Owned: 2
Library: 16
Ebooks: 19

Male authors : female authors: 26 : 13

Oldest work: Sayings And Doings; or, Sketches From Life (First Series) by Theodore Hook (1824)
Newest work: The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel (1985)

Well I don't suppose there's any point trying upload a sloth just now, is there?? :(

>184 lyzard: >:-(

>180 lyzard: What a load of dreck we were reading in 1985!!! And I can't claim the high road, either, as I'm sure I read If Tomorrow Comes and enjoyed every trashy minute of it.

Skeleton Crew, on the other hand, is first rate King. "The Mist" is one of my favorite King stories of all time. I had my head on a swivel every time I went to the grocery store for months after reading it.

>184 lyzard: As long as you come back and upload (at least) one when images are working again, all will be forgiven!

>182 lyzard:

my overriding reaction to this novel was finally an overwhelming desire to take both its heroine and its hero by the hair and slam their silly heads against a glacier. Mostly Jondalar. But also Ayla.

Yes. And for exactly the same reason. I could have sniffed at the anachronisms and super-specialness of our super-specials, but it was the contrived, prolonged and unnecessary romantic tension that spoiled the read for me.

>182 lyzard: My best friend when I was in my mid-20s loved that series and I never understood the appeal. At all.

Have a terrific Tuesday, Liz!

>185 Helenliz:, >187 rosalita:

Might have to consider some consolatory bonus sloths, if and when...

>186 rosalita:

Not one of the better lists, is it?? Though I'd rather have read anything on it than Texas---even what I did end up reading! :D

It's curious that King could be so effective in the short-story format, given how out of control his novels were by this time. (About which, we shall of course be hearing more anon...)

>189 alcottacre:

Hi, Stasia! - thanks for visiting. :)

>188 swynn:, >189 alcottacre:

It's a series ruined by its main characters. The anthropological stuff is often excellent but the rest---!?

Someone I used to work with called his daughter "Ayla" so... (At the time it bothered me chiefly because it didn't scan with his surname; I have other issues now!)

Steve, I presume you'll be junking the series from here? I have it fact added it to The Lists, just because I hate leaving things unfinished; though whether I ever go back to it remains to be seen. (Possibly only if a book chances to be a perfect TIOLI fit---it happens!)

>192 lyzard: Steve, I presume you'll be junking the series from here?

I'm not in a hurry to pick it up again, but I'll also leave my bridges unburned for now.

>191 lyzard: My theory about King is that once he reached a level of fame that meant editors didn't really, you know, *edit* him anymore, the only restraint on his excesses was self-imposed. And he only seemed capable of reining himself in on work that was meant to be short format, because it kept him from indulging in the asides, digressions and other meanderings that he can't resist in a full-length novel.

>194 rosalita:

Well, not just King: I think Steve and I have been in agreement throughout the best-seller challenge that commercial success led to - or was "rewarded with" - a lack of editorial oversight. For me this sense of unnecessarily overlong books began post-war with From Here To Eternity---though there we know that James Jones actively fought to keep his novel from being edited in any way (though trust me, it needed it!). That might have set the pattern for what followed: maybe it was easier for publishers not to argue, and cheaper not to do anything, if the public was going to eat up such unwieldy novels anyway?

How else do you explain the career of James A. Michener?? :D

But King's control over his shorter works, in contrast to the logorrhea of his novels at this time, is very interesting.

Anyway---things seem to be back under control now, so---

BONUS SLOTH!!---

Finished The India-Rubber Men for TIOLI #2.

Now reading The Winter Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine.

>196 lyzard: SLOTH!!!!!!!!! And BABY SLOTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well, that was worth the wait.

2023 #39

Publication date: 1932
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Series: Ludovic Travers #7
Read for: Series reading / TIOLI (a book that would have fit into a Jan to April TIOLI challenge)

Cut Throat - Economist Ludovic Travers is consulting with Lord Zyon about his 'Work For All' campaign and the associated public meeting when the newspaper magnate receives a strange message from the secretary of financier Sir William Griffiths, promising that the latter will be on the platform with him that night, and referencing a certain hamper. Lord Zyon is sufficiently disturbed to have the hamper brought from the Albert Hall to his house; he and Travers open it---and find within the body of Sir William... In the confusion that follows, a newspaperman named Saunders slips into Lord Zyon's house, and thus finds himself in possession of an extraordinary exclusive. Despite representing himself as a reporter for one of his lordship's own papers, Sanders has been out of work since the merging of several different publications; and he seizes his chance with both hands... Travers summons his friend and colleague, Superintendent Wharton, to the scene: they determine that Sir William had been staying at his country house; that he left home the previous evening to keep an appointment, and has not been seen since; though curiously, neither does anyone seem to have missed him... In Cut Throat - its title carrying a grim double meaning - Christopher Bush blends a complex mystery with an ironic and not uncritical look at the state of (business) play at the outset of the Depression---not least the activities of the dead financier and the hypocrisy of Lord Zyon, whose public anti-unemployment campaign masks some ruthless consolidation and cutting and the consequent loss of jobs. One person hurt is the embittered Sanders, who takes a revenge of sorts by staying ahead of the official investigation at almost every step---including the discovery of a bloody car wreck that suggests Sir William Griffiths may not have been murdered after all. But who, then, was responsible for the shipping of his body? There is also the matter of the dead pig... While it spends considerable time pondering the social status and conduct of its characters, finding some of its answers there, Cut Throat is a mystery that puts significant weight - unusual weight, for a work of this time - on the forensics of the case, in particular how and when exactly Sir William died (albeit that the scientific investigation is limited by contemporary knowledge; although that in itself is interesting to the modern reader). It is also a mystery with an important psychological component: to Ludovic Travers, the mentality behind the macabre joke played with the body may be the key to the case. Meanwhile, Wharton and his subordinate, Chief-Inspector Norris, settle into the necessary grind of questioning the dead man's household and his neighbours: his erratic and often drunken nephew nephew, Tim Griffiths, who is also his heir; his overly smooth manservant, Daniels; Sir William's secretary, Bland, and his fulsomely underbred wife; and Mr Cross, the district's meek minister. As they try to track everyone's movements, a contradictory pattern emerges---and finally it dawns on Travers that the alibis of the people concerned involve some significant sleight-of-hand...

    "Certain classes of mammals have the corpuscles oval. Some don't. That's the third kind, the oval ones. The blood on that mat from the car was mammalian and not human."
    Travers nodded. "Do you know, I always thought---"
    "Of course you did! said Wharton. "So did I. These story-book ideas are too fascinating to be untrue. I know that murder's a filthy thing and science can't make it otherwise."
    "Yes," said Travers, "I'm beginning to gather that..."
    "When the housekeeper's clear, Menzies and I and maybe one or two more will go over that drawing-room."
    "What do you expect to find?"
    "Blood marks. Indications as to how he fell, whether he was standing or asleep when he fell. Confirmation of the statements in other words."
    "But he was standing! At least he must have been awake. He called out to Griffiths!"
    "So he did!" said Wharton, as if this point had just occurred to him. Travers caught the sarcasm, then saw the reason.
    "You mean it wasn't necessarily he who called out?"
    "You've got it in one! How was the throat cut? What did it look like?"
    Travers visualised that red gash across an old man's neck, and winced. "You and Menzies said it was a clean cut. Exceptionally clean."
    "It was! It was done in a flash. If he called out he was alarmed and the cut wouldn't have been clean..."

>198 rosalita:

Spoilt brat. :)

>198 rosalita: I endorse the remarks of the previous speaker.
SLOTH!!! & BABY SLOTH!!!!!

>200 lyzard: Hey, I resent resemble that remark!

>201 Helenliz:, >202 rosalita:

Remarkable!

Finished The Winter Murder Case (for TIOLI #16 if I can get a slot, for #13 if I can't, I guess)...and FINISHED A SERIES!!

I started this 12-book series in 2015, apparently. There's no reason it should have taken me this long - the books are all readily available - except the need to microdose Philo Vance.

Vance was something new in amateur detectives when "S. S. Van Dine" (Willard Huntington Wright) created him and he was generally popular despite a few naysayers. He's an acquired taste, though; and enjoyment of the series probably depends as much upon whether you find his idiosyncrasies amusing or annoying, as upon the mysteries themselves.

The first half-dozen books in this series were fresh and imaginative, if not entirely credible (other books are better, but I have a special fondness for The Greene Murder Case, wherein Vance's "brilliant" deduction of the killer's identity rests chiefly on the fact that almost everyone else is dead); but after The Kennel Murder Case, which is perhaps the series' high point, there was increasingly a sense of going through the motions---too much Vance-as-smokescreen, not enough mystery.

Anyway---it's a proper series, and it deserves a proper (if slightly befuddled) marmoset:

Now reading The Nameless Man by Natalie Sumner Lincoln.

(...and realising why the book went missing for many years...)

>204 lyzard: That is a marmoset with a lot on its mind! Big things, important questions for the ages. "Why am I here? Where do we go when we die? Will Liz ever get caught upon her reviews?"

>206 rosalita:

:P

Dropping in to say hello. I enjoy reading your reviews and have been hit by a BB or two ;)

Hi, Liz. I’ll thank you here, in case I haven’t before, for introducing me to the Ludovic Travers mysteries. Although I was lukewarm about the first one, I soon realized that the books are truly enjoyable reads.

I’m not so sure about Mrs. Bradley…not really! I’ve grown to love most of her completely off the wall books, even though the complete lack of relevance of title to the book can be maddening.

Congratulations on completing a series! I couldn’t abide Philo Vance myself, so I admire you for sticking it out to the perhaps bitter end.

And marmoset! Adorable. I think he’s wondering where Liz finds the odd books that she reads.

>208 figsfromthistle:

Hi, Anita! - thanks, that's really nice to hear. :)

>209 Matke:

Hi, Gail!

The Elsie Dinsmore books at least served this purpose: they're my equivalent of Scarlett O'Hara's "I've done murder, I can do this": I finished that series, I can finish any series...even Philo Vance. :D

It's interesting to ponder Vance and Ludovic Travers at the same time, because you could hardly have two amateur detectives more distinct from one another. Travers puts me in mind of Anthony Gilbert's Scott Egerton: that was never Gilbert's most popular series and the books are consequently harder to get---and that's possibly because it's another case of the quiet, nerdy detective who does more thinking than talking. Some people may find that dull but I find it refreshing. :)

I've been stalled on the Egerton series forever but at least a bit of catalogue overhauling belatedly revealed a copy of The Mystery Of The Open Window in Rare Books. One day...

Speaking of stalled, I really need to get back to Mrs Bradley! - she keeps missing out on the score of my already overloaded shared reads. You really just have to throw up your mental hands and go with them, don't you??

2023 #40

Publication date: 1940
Genre: Historical drama
Series: Lanny Budd #1
Read for: Random reading / series reading

World's End - Though his parents are American, young Lanning Budd has a cosmopolitan upbringing on the French Riviera, in which he learns to interact with people of all nations and types, and develops a passion for art, music and dance. Living with his mother, Mabel - known to all simply as "Beauty" - Lanny looks forward to the occasional visits of his father, Robbie, who he worships as the font of all worldly knowledge. Led to believe that his parents are divorced, Lanny eventually learns that they were never married: that Robbie was forced to choose between the artist's model with whom he was involved in Paris and his place in his family's armaments business. On his periodic visits, Robbie supplements Lanny's idealistic vision of the world with his own deeply cynical philosophy of dog-eat-dog and man-kill-man... When war erupts in Europe, dividing Lanny from his best friends - Rick Pomeroy-Nielson, a young English aristocrat, and Kurt Meissner, the anomaly of a Prussian military family - he and Beauty withdraw to their isolated villa, where as neutral Americans they hope to ride out what they are sure will be a brief conflict; but even before America's entry into the war, Lanny is faced with many new and brutal realities... The first in what eventually became an 11-book series featuring Lanny Budd, World's End was written and published by Upton Sinclair between the outbreak of WWII and America's entry into that second conflict; and an eerie sense of irony overlays the novel's look back not only at the first such conflict, but at the events that led directly from one to the other. World's End is in many respects a typical Sinclair novel: it is anything but subtle, it likes to lecture the reader, and it wears its left-wing politics on its sleeve; while Sinclair has a lot of nasty fun with the Budd family, New England puritans of evangelical faith who have no difficulty reconciling those two factors with the source of their wealth and comfort. Yet for all this, there is more character and more heart in this particular novel than is usually the case. While too many of Sinclair's works are thinly disguised polemics in which the characters are more like tokens in a board game than real people, in Lanny Budd we have a real if somewhat problematic young man whose expulsion from his sheltered upbringing into the chaos of war and its consequences have a genuine emotional resonance. The most difficult thing to accept about World's End is that Lanny's idealism manages to survive both the war and his father; but our own cynicism on that point notwithstanding, Lanny becomes the eyes through which the reader experiences---not the war directly: Lanny is too young for that, in addition to his initial neutrality---but the impact of the war upon France. However, the lasting value of World's End lies in its second half, which depicts the Paris Peace Conference. Here Upton Sinclair exploits the reader's knowledge of the future with agonising deliberation: again and again, real reconciliation is within the grasp of the conference delegates---and again and again the situation is sabotaged---by those who can see no further than the punishment of Germany, and by those who, conversely, see where and how power will subsequently be held---and who believe that the world will be controlled by those who control its oil. (This is Robbie Budd's opinion, expounded to Lanny; but in this case Sinclair signals his rare agreement with Robbie by having Lanny's syndicalist uncle also concur.) Lanny's grasp of languages leads to a position as secretary to Professor Alston, one of the American civilian experts invited to the Paris Peace Conference and tasked with trying to redraw the map of Europe. He is therefore a firsthand witness of Woodrow Wilson's desperate efforts to establish his League of Nations; of the negotiations that will determine the future direction of Europe; and of the hatred, the greed, the selfishness and the shortsightedness that will set the participants on the road to another "war to end all wars"...

    The Supreme Council decided to go ahead and complete the treaty with Germany, and ordered all the various commissions to deliver their reports and recommendations within a few days. That meant rush times for geographers, and also for secretaries and translators. Professor Alston’s French was now equal to all demands, and Lanny’s geography had improved to such an extent that he could pretty nearly substitute for his chief. There was work enough for both, and they hurried from place to place with briefcases and portfolios. A fascinating game they were playing, or rather a whole series of games---like the chess exhibitions in which some expert keeps a dozen contests in his head at the same time. In this case the chessboards were provinces and the pawns were national minorities comprising millions of human beings. Some games you were winning and some you were losing, and each was a series of surprises. At lunchtime and at dinner you compared notes with your colleagues; a busy chatter was poured out with the coffee, and human hopes were burned up with the cigarettes.
    On the whole it was exhilarating, and contributed to the sense of importance of gentlemen whose domains had hitherto been classrooms with a score or two of undergraduates. Now they were playing parts in the great world. Their names were known; visitors sought them out; newspaper reporters waylaid them in lobbies and begged them for news. What a delicious thrill it gave to the nineteen-year-old Lanny Budd to say: “Really, Mr Thompson, I’m not supposed to say anything about that; but if you will be careful not to indicate the source of your authority, I don’t mind telling you that the French are setting their war damages at two hundred billion dollars, and of course we consider that preposterous. Colonel House has said that they play with billions the way children play with wooden blocks. There’s no sense in it, because the Germans can never pay such sums.”
    When Lanny talked like this he wasn’t being presumptuous, as you might imagine; rather he was following a policy and a technique. Over a period of two months and a half the experts had observed that confidential information leaked quickly to the French press whenever it was something to French advantage; the same was the case with the British---and now the Americans also were learning to have “leaks...”

World's End was part of my 'Random Reading', in which I try to mix things up by choosing books randomly from my wishlist using a random number generator.

Time for another spin, then---

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or to put it another way---

Caravans by James A. Michener.

>212 lyzard: Oh, Liz. You poor thing.

>213 rosalita:

And am I able to just let it go? Of course not!

>214 lyzard: You wouldn't be our Liz if you could! Or as John F. Kennedy once said about your reading habits, "She does these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

You'll have to supply your own Boston brogue, which shouldn't be too hard for an Aussie. :-)

>215 rosalita:

Not sure I can do JFK, but I can do a decent Mayor Quimby---will that be sufficient? :D

>216 lyzard: Ha! Close enough for me. :-D

2023 #41

Publication date: 1985
Genre: Horror
Read for: TIOLI (a book with a ten-letter or more word in the title)

The Secret Of Amityville - Having shifted from putative non-fiction to overt fiction with The Amityville Curse (reviewed here), Hans Holzer continued in the latter thread with this novel, which purports to demonstrate that not merely the building itself, but the very land upon which the notorious Amityville house was (and is) situated, was cursed. After an amusingly perfunctory "horror" opening, Holzer proceeds to tell the back-story of the house via, in effect, an historical romance that occupies about half his narrative---and which demonstrates conclusively that Holzer knew absolutely nothing about 18th century life generally or British society specifically (or correct title usage, which to be fair a lot of Americans still get wrong). Consequently, this section of the novel is one of the most hilariously inept things I've read since James Corbett's The Merrivale Mystery (full review here; choice selection of quotes here). The point of all this is to set up a nobleman's second career as a pirate, which in turn leads him to (i) personal involvement in the case of "Ocean-Born Mary" and the allegedly haunted house in Hennicker NH, which was once investigated and publicised by - surprise! - Hans Holzer; and (ii) makes him indirectly responsible for the Native American curse that is supposedly responsible for the various strange and violent events that have plagued the Amityville house throughout its history---and which, we now learn, was built over the burial ground of a certain Chief Rolling Thunder. (Holzer is still blaming everything on the Shinnecocks rather than the Montauketts.) Meanwhile, there are various meta-pleasures here, including Holzer's coy but relentless self-promotion throughout the narrative (he never names himself, but alludes to various of his paranormal investigations, and cites two of his own books - Yankee Ghosts and The Amityville Curse - by title); and apparently he was so fond of the latter's bizarre car-crash death, quoted up-thread, that he decided to reprise it here: this time killing off a hapless delivery boy. Eventually things settle down, and we follow the stories of various people who built and/or lived on the land and paid the price for it. The final stretch of The Secret Of Amityville is the story of Paul Dickens and his girlfriend, Sybil Connor. Paul's hobby is treasure-hunting, and by various means including a séance (!) he finally hears about the cache rumoured to be buried in Amityville. The house on the land in question stands empty, and the couple decide to rent it for their vacation, so that Paul can pursue his investigation. Needless to say---treasure is not the only thing they find...

    The entity operating her physical body now was someone other than Mrs Mason. Sybil did not have to wait long before she found out who was confronting her.
    "You see, white woman," the harsh voice said, "you see now the foolishness of trying to steal treasure from sacred burial ground? I kill your man and I kill you if you do not leave."
    "I intend to leave," Sybil replied, totally prepared to defend herself. "But I want this anger, this hate to stop. What else do you want me to do...?"
    "Rolling Thunder says white woman must leave. White woman must go back to city. White woman must give back precious stone."
    "You mean the opal?"
    "Yes. Stone must go back where it came from."
    "But I don't know where it came from. How can I do this?" Sybil said, almost in tears now. But her distress made no impression on Rolling Thunder.
    "White woman must give back precious stone. White woman must leave sacred burial ground and never come back or I will kill her as I kill all others."
    "But what about the curse? You've put a curse on this house!"

Finished The Nameless Man for TIOLI #12.

Now reading Detective Ben by J. Jefferson Farjeon.

Just finished a book that I sense would be right up your street...
Poirot: The Greatest detective in the World.

>220 Helenliz:

Mais oiu! Merci, beaucoup. :)

And while you're here---

Finished Detective Ben for TIOLI #15.

Now reading The Fashion In Shrouds by Margery Allingham.

>222 lyzard: Noted, it's next up.

Finished The Fashion In Shrouds for TIOLI #10.

Now reading Patriot Games by Tom Clancy; and since at some point I'm going to need a bath book, now also reading The Mystery Of The Nervous Lion by Nick West.

2023 #42

Publication date: 1971
Genre: Young adult
Series: The Three Investigators #15
Read for: Shared read

The Mystery Of The Flaming Footprints - The Jones Salvage Yard receives a visit from The Potter, a local artist known for his eccentric wardrobe and behaviour---and his isolated existence. Jupiter Jones and his Aunt Mathilda are surprised when The Potter begins buying household items in preparation for visitors. The transaction is interrupted by the arrival of a car carrying three foreign visitors to the district, who ask directions. After their departure, The Potter asks for a glass of water, but when Jupiter returns with it he has disappeared... When Jupiter goes to The Potter's house outside Rocky Beach to look for him, he is knocked down by someone who has been rifling the office---and this is only the first of many strange occurrences centred in the house... The Mystery Of The Flaming Footprints introduces another new author to the Three Investigators series, the first woman to contribute---but inevitably hiding her sex behind her initials, as "M. V. Carey". While this possibly explains the welcome prominence in the narrative of Aunt Mathilda, the change of author is felt less positively in some of the language choices, plus the adoption of Nick West's habit of referring to Jupiter Jones throughout as "Jupe"; though the most jarring touch here is that, in place of the established mutual respect between the boys and the Rocky Beach police force, we find the Three Investigators being treated as "those meddling kids". But while these details irritate, the main shortcoming of The Mystery Of The Flaming Footprints is that it is all back-story and set-up and hardly any real mystery; while the strange manifestation of the title exists purely for that purpose, rather than being intrinsic to the plot. The disappearance of The Potter coincides with the arrival in Rocky Beach of his daughter and grandson---but also with that of the three Sinister Foreigners, who occupy a house overlooking The Potter's home, and of a visitor to the area supposedly there for the fishing, but whose all-new gear and odd behaviour catches Jupiter's attention. Recounting matters to Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews, Jupiter recalls that when the three strangers arrived, The Potter's first reaction was to cover up his signature medallion of a two-headed eagle: this clue puts Bob on the track of the bloody history of the small European nation of Lapathia. A more immediate mystery, however, is the origin of the trail of glowing, burning footprints that appear from nowhere in The Potter's house...

    Eloise Dobson screamed.
    Jupiter pushed her to one side and stared past her into the kitchen. Near the pantry door, three weird, eerie green flames leaped and flickered.
    "What is it?" Aunt Mathilda and Tom thundered down the stairs. Hans came behind them.
    Jupiter and Mrs Dobson were immobile, staring at those tongues of ghostly green fire.
    "Gracious to heavens!" gasped Aunt Mathilda.
    The flames sputtered and sank, then died, leaving not a wisp of smoke.
    "What the heck?" said Tom Dobson.
    Jupiter, Hans and Tom shoved forward into the kitchen. For almost a minute they looked at the linoleum---at the place where the flames had danced. Then Hans said it. "The Potter! He came back! He came back to haunt the house!"
    "Impossible!" said Jupiter Jones.
    But he could not deny that there, charred into the linoleum, were three footprints---and they were the prints of naked feet...

Hi Liz, I just started The Honourable Schoolboy. Will you make it this month, or should I go extra slow to move it over to September?

>211 lyzard: That actually sounds interesting. But. 11 books you say?

>212 lyzard: Condolences.

>225 lyzard: I hope to get to number 10 this month. They always go fast when I get around to them, don't know why I can't just pick up the pace.

>226 FAMeulstee:

Hi, Anita! No, that should be okay... I have probably three days to go on Patriot Games, including today, and I will get to it then.

(Beginning to sweat over Death Of A Swagman though...and I'm trying to squeeze in a Rare Books read too; yikes!)

>227 swynn:

Well you're not expecting succinctness from ol' Upton, are you?? :D

I can't remember how/why those books got on my lists, but I absolutely had the wrong idea of them in my head when I started World's End so where it went was both a shock and a pleasure. I'd like to persist with them but I'm not sure how that's going to work out.

Yeah. I mean seriously, what are the odds!? Actually I can tell you that: approximately 2200 - 1 against any one particular book on my list. The Reading Gods must have thought I'd been a bit smug about our bullet-dodging, sigh.

I got the most recent one done in a single bubble bath so really there's no excuse for you!

Speaking of which---

Finished The Mystery Of The Nervous Lion for TIOLI #13.

Still reading Patriot Games by Tom Clancy.

Between overloading myself this month (yet still not getting to much of what I had planned) and an upcoming library journey, I'm already starting to try and figure out next month.

Despite this month's overload I've ended up leaving myself a number of substantial 'project' reads, and it's a matter of deciding how many of those I want to try and tackle.

(Though I won't be taking on Caravans: I'm thinking I might work that in around the short stories of the next group read, in October.)

So the list looks like this---

The Cardinal Of The Kremlin by Tom Clancy {best-seller challenge}
Black Orchids by Rex Stout {shared read}
Jew Süss by Lion Feuchtwanger {Banned in Boston!}
Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon by Charles James Lever {C. K. Shorter challenge}
The Children Of The World by Paul Heyse {Nobel Prize challenge}

(...also technically the next Three Investigators book, but we're all a bit out of whack with those: The Mystery Of The Nervous Lion should really have been either last month or next, but oh well...)

After letting things get out of hand this month, I'm feeling that the best approach might be to restrict my numbers over the next two (with October requiring both the Margery Allingham and Arthur Upfield shared reads as well as the group read) and focus on bringing all these projects up to date. If I have any spare time, hardy-ha, well and good.

>230 lyzard: Re Jupe and the boys ... I just finished The Secret of the Crooked Cat so I'm two behind you. So if you want to shove the next one into next month I'd be fine with that.

>230 lyzard: I'm still planning on joining you on a shared read (reread for me) of The Cardinal of the Kremlin.

Caught up with your thread, whew.

I read The Mammoth Hunters, and I don't think I finished it...I just got tired of constant drama and graphic sex, just TELL the story.

In response to 1985 books being maligned I would like to recommend Jubal Sackett as a good read. I didn't read "Westerns" when I picked up that book at the library, the cover got me. I found it a really interesting read about Native American tribes in the 1600s. No cowboys, either.

>231 rosalita:

Love that cat!

We'll see how it goes: I'm still happy to be flexible with them. I really only read one this month because I needed something short and portable.

BTW did you re-read Where There's A Will or did you leave it? I noticed it's not on your lists.

>232 fuzzi:

Whew, indeed! :)

That sounds good, I'll be picking up my copy from the library tomorrow.

Oh, I know! It really feels like she didn't recognise her strengths---or maybe, given the rest of the 1985 list, she *did* judge her reading public correctly, alas!

I haven't had reason to go down that path myself but I know many people who are great admirers of the Sackett books.

I've finished Fashion in Shrouds.
hmm. Some troubling elements in there.
For a female writer, Allingham has it in for her female characters in this one. We are in no doubt of Campion's superiority over his sister, when Val seems to have most of her life well and truly sorted. I'm not sure I'm terribly keen on Dell's vision of marriage either - if I were her, I'd have turned him down flat (but I'm speaking from a good 80 year in her future, maybe it made sense then.)
Georgia seems to be presented as most likely suspect, but almost every time she;s mentioned there's something to remind you that she's not one of the establishment and she has no class, is vulgar and, frankly, isn't clever enough to have pulled it off. An odd dichotomy.
Amanda seems to come off the best of all of them, but I was left unsure if the engagement, which was initially fake, ends up being real, which I find somewhat troubling, again, looking at it from a 21st Century perspective. That age gap.

>233 lyzard: did you re-read Where There's A Will or did you leave it

Good catch! You know what, I think it dropped off my radar when we re-shuffled the schedule. I'll put it back on the list just for the sake of staying in sync. And because I never mind re-reading a Wolfe. :-)

Ugh. I got some catchin' up to do!

Let's see:

On Friday I ran in to my academic library to pick up - I thought - a copy of The Cardinal Of The Kremlin; only to have it turn out that the copy held is in Spanish, though shelved in the general literature section. A panicked text to my brother secured a copy from his local library instead, and I did pick up a copy of Charles O'Malley for the C. K. Shorter challenge.

While there, I visited Rare Books and - again, as I thought - made a start on The Hunterstone Outrage by Seldon Truss, for the Mystery League challenge, which has been on pause since last year. This turned out to be a fairly short mystery / thriller and having read about three-quarters of it in the time I had allotted, I thought 'Oh, what the hell' and stayed and finished it.

And that night I managed to finish off Patriot Games, which due to more vagaries with my library system, I ended up having to read online. Fortunately the Internet Archive has a large-print copy but still, my poor eyes. :(

The weekend then proceeded to be a total write-off, leaving me still over-committed in the few days left of the month. I will finish The Honourable Schoolboy (a shared read with Anita), but whether I also cram in Death Of A Swagman may depend on whether I'm going to leave Julia hanging if I put it off...

Phew! Also ugh.

So---

Finished The Hunterston Outrage for TIOLI #6.

Finished Patriot Games for TIOLI #11.

Now reading The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré.

>234 Helenliz:

Yes, I agree with all of that (and will no doubt say so at length, later on!). My overriding issue, though, is that it seems so out of character: we haven't had a hint of this sort of attitude before, in fact on the contrary. It doesn't make sense to me and in a very uncomfortable way.

I don't think we're supposed to take that as a formal engagement but we'll see. I don't have a problem with the age gap inasmuch as it has been acknowledged and recognised as one of the obstacles, not ignored; but she's in her mid-20s now and these things tend to take care of themselves. :)

>235 rosalita:

Yeah, I'd lost track of where we left that. Don't feel obliged just because I lumbered on, but of course of you want to...

I gather that the next couple are shorter war-time works? I can put off Black Orchids if you want us to catch up properly.

I also (re: >237 lyzard:) need to know where you are with Death Of A Swagman? Do I need to get that done this month or can I put it off until next?

Sorry about all this confusion, it's been One Of Those Months. Again. :D

>239 lyzard: I never miss a chance to re-read a Wolfe story, and Where There's a Will is worth a re-read just for the family dynamics and their effect on Wolfe. :-) Why don't you just fit Black Orchids in wherever it works best for you — on schedule or a month later are both fine with me.

As for Bony, I'm cool with letting that one slide until September, for sure. By then I will be needing my Australian bush fix, though!

>240 rosalita:

Well---Bony in September (pseudo-August) and October, you catch up Where There's A Will also in September, and Black Orchids in November??

Sorry about all this, I swear I will get myself organised one day...

>241 lyzard: Oh, please! We can change the schedule whenever we need to. It's not like we're getting paid to do this. :)

I think your proposed schedule sounds great. Make it so!

>242 rosalita:

Pity about that, isn't it? - if only panicky disorganisation was an employable skill! :D

Allrighty, then---thanks!

(P.S. Can I just say how terrifying I'm finding it to be saying September, October, November...??)

>237 lyzard: I've got my copy of The Cardinal of the Kremlin ready to go...

>244 fuzzi:

Me too, for a miracle! (Had a weird amount of trouble with Patriot Games :D )

Well. I had hoped to finish up with (sigh) May before doing this, but I have set up a new thread over here, with as always the desperate hope that this will prompt some more frequent review writing.

But at the very least there's a new frog. :)

See you there!