Reading the Detectives discussion

it's time to nominate for our May group read. You are welcome to nominate books by Golden Age authors, or titles which were written later but are set during the Golden Age. Just one nomination per group member, please.

A reminder - please don't nominate the following 2 books this time round, as you will be able to vote for them in our runners-up poll in June! They are The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin and Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh.

Ah, I thought the runner up list went further back or I would have nominated this one last month! Never mind, happy to nominate now

The Poisoned Chocolates Case

I would like to nominate Murder Underground by Mavis Doriel Hay

I like both the previous nominations!

Having struggled with the couple of Margery Allingham's books I have read, I would like to give her another try and suggest the first Campion novel:

The Crime At Black Dudley

There is, after all, no better place to start than at the beginning...

A suspicious death and a haunted family heirloom were not advertised when Dr George Abbershaw and a groupof London's brightest young things accepted an invitation to the mansion of Black Dudley.

Skulduggery is most certainly afoot, and the party-goers soon realise that they're trapped in the secluded house.

Amongst them is a stranger who promises to unravel the villainous plots behind their incarceration - but can George and his friends trust the peculiar young man who calls himself Albert Campion?

The Crime at Black Dudley is a bit of an odd duck in the Campion series, but I like it! It’s very rooted in place, from a time when the Fens really were a world apart in Britain. Lots of golden age mysteries could have been set just about anywhere in the country (excepting the university-set ones, of course), and I do enjoy the ones that are more regionally specific.

I love Campion - The Crime at Black Dudley is fun though it's very different from the others in the series. I hadn't remembered its Fenland setting, but I recently read another non-mystery book by Allingham, Dance of the Years, which was full of East Anglian landscapes and accents - she lived in north Essex and knew the region very well.

Three great nominations already - The Poisoned Chocolates Case is a real one-off which would make for a good discussion and I also read and enjoyed Murder Underground last year. Decisions, decisions...

Judy wrote: "it's time to nominate for our May group read. You are welcome to nominate books by Golden Age authors, or titles which were written later but are set during the Golden Age. Just one nomination per ..."

I don't have a nomination this month, but I just want too acknowledge the excellent work of our moderators in managing the group, getting the nominations threads open in plenty of time to nominate, vote, and have time to get the book, putting each month's selections up on the home page right on time and opening the discussion threads to get things going, and otherwise just doing the behind-the-scenes work so efficiently and effectively that it goes almost unnoticed. But as the moderator of other groups, I know that it doesn't happen on its own, and I've been in too many groups where it was done dismally if at all.

So kudos and thanks to the mods here for their hard work!

I agree Everyman and I thank the moderators for the work! I'm little late in the readings, but I'll follow the activities, specially the Miss Marple challenge.

Thanks - of course, groups only work if there is lots of participation, so it is a two way thing!

I'd like to nominate Murder in Stained Glass need to start getting through those kindle freebies.

& the moderators here do indeed do an awesome job! :)

We do keep downloading these books and not reading them, don't we, Carol? :)

Susan wrote: "We do keep downloading these books and not reading them, don't we, Carol? :)"

“I can resist everything but temptation.”
― Oscar Wilde

My thoughts exactly

Thanks for the kind comments! I enjoyed Murder in Stained Glass and it is another one with a woman of a certain age as detective, so would be interesting again to compare with Miss Marple and Miss Silver...

I second (or third) Everyman's comments. Also, I would like to nominate Crocodile on the Sandbank.

I will add in the Bobby Owen again Information Received by E.R. Punshon

Ooh, the first Amelia Peabody book! I've never read any of this series and have been meaning to try it.

I haven’t read Crocodile on the Sandbank for years and would love to read it again.

Me too - Crocodile on the Sandbank is great fun - good suggestion.

Carol ♔Type, Oh Queen!♕ wrote: "I'd like to nominate Murder in Stained Glass need to start getting through those kindle freebies.

& the moderators here do indeed do an awesome job! :)"

Just a note, this book was free today in US

Judy wrote: "Ooh, the first Amelia Peabody book! I've never read any of this series and have been meaning to try it."

I've read some in the series but I don't think this was one of them.

Have you done In the Fog by Richard Harding Davis? If not, I'd like to nominate it.

No, we certainly have not read In the Fog, Elsie, so feel free to nominate it.

Tania wrote: "I second (or third) Everyman's comments. Also, I would like to nominate Crocodile on the Sandbank."

Ooh, good nomination.

A fantastic set of nominations altogether - it will be hard to choose what to vote for this month.

Any mor nominations? I'll put the poll up after the weekend.

Just to say that I've now created the poll but it won't go live until tomorrow morning (UK time) as I had a few problems setting it up. I'll post again when it goes live!

Some good choices again this month.

Yes, I'm busy deciding what to vote for!

The poll is up!

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

Very close so far - I think every vote will count this month, so do please vote for your favourite.

Yes, it's a 3-way tie at the moment in early voting, so please do cast your votes, everyone.

Albert Campion and Bobby Owen are battling it out at the moment...

I give 10 to 1 on Bobby lol

Hilary wrote: "I give 10 to 1 on Bobby lol"

With you there, Hilary :)

Might be worth a punt at those odds, as there's still nothing between this pair! But I think I'd make Albert favourite too, despite him not exactly being the athletic type...

Another close vote this month - every vote will count, so please do vote if you haven't done so already.

Yes, please do - or else we will have to have our first ever run-off!

Yes, it has been close before though, but we have avoided it so far.

I have voted, but not for the current top three as I have read those books. My vote has gone for one that I haven't read yet but is on my TBR.

However I might change my vote before the poll ends to one that I would be interested in following a discussion of.

There is time yet for the deadlock to be broken :)

I wanna read a Bobby Owen mystery!

It's in the lead at the moment, Marcus :)

Yes, Bobby is now in the lead - but only narrowly, and there is another week of voting to go.

Stop the voting, Judy! :)

Sorry, Marcus, but Campion has now crept into the lead... though only just!

Yes, I confess to putting my finger on the scale—changed my vote in favor of Campion.

I would be happy with any of the choices this month. There is always so many good books to choose from.