Goodreads Ireland discussion

*Unofficial thread... ;)

Almost, Theresa! The official unofficial thread. :)

That's funny :)

I can officially state that this is unofficial. ;)

I can unofficially say that I found this book delightful. I wonder if it was as humorous when it was first written?

I am over halfway through and really enjoying it. I think it was intended to be humourous even when it was published.

Is Lord Peter Wimsey always like this? He is so devil-may-care. I'm enjoying this a lot.

Indeed he is :-) I love Peter Wimsey.

I was thinking when this book was written that the plot was quite original. It's been almost 90 years so it would have been more ground breaking. That's saying something when your work is still good 90 years later.

I can't speak to the whole plot yet I'm not quite there yet but I think her work still reads well. It's obvious that it is written in the '20s but that it is part of its charm. I like the antiquated speech and the old world charm of it all.

Just finished last night and I thought it was a really good read. I was already familiar with the characters but I thought the characters of Peter, Bunter and Parker were very well drawn. I also love the Dowager Duchess. The mystery was almost incidental but interesting nonetheless. I look forward to the next one.

I was home sick today, and so I finished it in between naps. It was the perfect book to curl up with on a rainy, misty, "sick" day. I agree with you, Trelawn about the mystery. It was interesting, for sure, but seemed fairly linear with none of the switchbacks and twist & turns characteristic of most mysteries I read. I really enjoyed Lord Peter Wimsey, and the addition of his back story and his time in the Great War helped explain why he became so absorbed in solving this "puzzle." Bunter made me laugh, especially the letter he wrote to Wimsey near the end of the book. Great character. Being new to the series, I was wondering--when does Harriet Vane make her entrance?

Harriet appears in Strong Poison which is no.6 and more meaty than some of the earlier books. That said, the next one, Clouds of Witness, has a very good story and some further character development.

Trelawn wrote: "Harriet appears in Strong Poison which is no.6 and more meaty than some of the earlier books. That said, the next one, Clouds of Witness, has a very good story and some further character development."

Looking forward to it :)

ps I hope you are feeling better Cathleen.

Trelawn wrote: "ps I hope you are feeling better Cathleen."

Thanks, Trelawn :) I splurged several weeks ago and bought some Barry's Tea (it's expensive here) so I've had several cups of that today. It's helped soothe my throat! :)

Barry's Tea and Lyons's!!?? I feel so betrayed! :-(

Declan wrote: "Barry's Tea and Lyons's!!?? I feel so betrayed! :-("

I would have bought Lyons if I could have found some :)

That's perfectly understandable, Cathleen! :-)

Declan, if you keep lurking on the unofficial thread you might make it official. :)

Cathleen, I read you guys back East are getting quite the storm. I hope you, Sara and Barbara are all OK. I am sorry you are not well but I think the Sayers book is the perfect medicine.

As for the plot, I think it seems really straight forward to us but it was written 90 years ago so it may have been quite interesting. The dissection of bodies was probably an innovative introduction back then.

Susan wrote: "Declan, if you keep lurking on the unofficial thread you might make it official. :)

Cathleen, I read you guys back East are getting quite the storm. I hope you, Sara and Barbara are all OK. I am s..."

Susan - the rain was unbelievable and I actually thought about poor drought-struck California. A tree came down blocking exit from my neighborhood but luckily my son was on the other side of the fallen tree so we had transport if needed. We had tickets to The Lion King, but a crew came out and got the tree out of the road. It fell on a parked car but the damage was limited to the windshield and hood (bonnet). And yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous, sunny and cool day, unlike Massachusetts.

I am glad your weather is better, Barbara. I was quite worried about you after seeing pictures of the storm. I know Cathleen's area is getting hard. I wish you could send the rain to us. The temperatures have dropped which allowed the firefighters to get a handle on the fire near us. Close to 10,000 acres burned.

Susan wrote: "Declan, if you keep lurking on the unofficial thread you might make it official. :)

Cathleen, I read you guys back East are getting quite the storm. I hope you, Sara and Barbara are all OK. I am s..."

Hi Susan--Thanks for your good wishes :) Actually, we didn't get hit by that storm. We had a rainy day with some areas of flash flooding but they were limited. NY and Long Island got clobbered, though. It's too bad we couldn't send up an order of rain to you. Today was a picture-perfect day.

Emma wrote: "Feel better Cathleen"

Emma, I didn't see this post earlier. Thank you. :)

Susan wrote: "I am glad your weather is better, Barbara. I was quite worried about you after seeing pictures of the storm. I know Cathleen's area is getting hard. I wish you could send the rain to us. The temper..."

Susan - we had another gorgeous day with temps in the low 80's and not humid. But punishing heat is returning. Glad that the fires may be under control.

I'm glad to hear that. How was the Lion King by the way?

I just started Whose Body? but am also finding it amusing. In the course of two pages little Mr. Thipps was referred to as the little architect, a respectable little man, a nice little man, poor little man, poor little Thipps, and I lost track of how many times just plain little Mr. Thipps.
I was starting to feel sorry for the poor little guy.

Diane, you are so right. LOL.

This is tangentially related...but I found some British Library "classic" mysteries online for about 2.99. The one I'm reading now, The Cornish Coast Murder was written in the 20s or 30s by John Bude. None of the characters have the humor/personality of Lord Peter Wimsey, but the vicar kind of reminds me of Father Brown. It's been a really pleasant read--a light read, and anyone who likes Dorothy Sayers might well like these British Library "crime classics," too.

Thanks for the tip. Are they on Amazon?

Susan wrote: "Thanks for the tip. Are they on Amazon?"

Yes.

I really like Lord Peter's mom. She was cool, took everything in stride. I was very sorry to find that Sir Rueben Levy was dead. I kept hoping, for his wife's sake, that he would be found. That he had been kept captive somewhere.
Are all English butlers as perfect as Jeeves and Bunter?

I'd really like to think they are Diane.I love Jeeves and Bunter. And the Dowager Duchess is fantastic. She appears in quite a few of the books, she is very feisty and very accepting. Especially where Peter is concerned.

I don't think their respective books would be the same without Jeeves and Bunter.
Are we continuing Officially continuing the Unofficial Group read for the rest of the Lord Peter books?

Yep. Next up is Clouds of Witness. I'm going to read Mary Barton for the other buddy read fi

* first and the get back to Wimsey.

What's a CSI?
I'm glad you're back, Theresa, and loved following your updates on the Russian trip.

Yeah, Theresa is back. Thanks for sharing the trip with us. It made me very happy.

The Downtown Abbey butler is also very wise. In fact after reading these posts I think a lot of butlers in fiction are wise including Rhett Butler. I love the mother and love how she rolls with the punches.

In Clouds of Witness you'll see a lot more of Peter's family including his brother Gerald and sister Mary.

Yes. It's on my Kindle but it'll be later in the month. I have my two in person book club reads and The Son to read first.

Well i've to read Mary Barton first so i'm not going straight into it either Susan.

Almost halfway through Clouds of Witness and really enjoying it. There is much more focus on the case in this book. We are also introduced to the other members of Peter's family in less than optimum circumstances. A really good story so far.

I can't wait to read it.

It has a much better pace than the first one Susan. And some of the characters from Whose Body? are really developed, like Charles Parker and Bunter.

Sounds good. I have to read Miss Marjoribanks and Mary Barton first though.

I need to finish The Son, and then I'll start. I just finished reading 1984 last night (it's the first time I've read it) and I'm still hungover by that whole reading experience. There's so much to absorb. Anyway, I'm looking forward to something a little more upbeat.

Cathleen, I can't believe you've never read 1984. It was required reading in high school. I was terrified for weeks after and a little uneasy when it was 1984. It sure stuck with me.

I've never read 1984 but I'm a bit of a wuss and Paul said I probably shouldn't read it if I ever want to sleep again :-)

I've never read it either!

Rats anyone