2022 ONTD Reading Challenge discussion

Hey everyone! Sorry this is up a little late. I know people are commenting in the original thread, but feel free to leave your thoughts here about what you read this month!

I was planning on reading something else, but I stumbled upon this horror-mystery-ghost story that I might as well count for this month. It's called The Job of the Wasp and it was super strange, oddly unsettling, and existential.

This month I read Sharp Objects, Lethal White, and I should be able to finish Sadieby Courtney Summers by end of the month because it is pretty short.

Sharp Objects was very disturbing and it honestly left me in a dark mood for two days after I read it. It is weird for books to affect me that much. I still want to watch the show but I decided a little break from that story should be good.

Lethal White was just ok. Way too long and the mystery was just intriguing enough to keep me going the 650 pages at a good pace.

I had a proper go at it this month.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was every bit as good as its reputation as a classic says. A reread after ages, it was still very enjoyable.

The Mystery Of The Three Quarters: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery I know people are divided on the topic of new Poirot books, but I've liked them and this is the strongest yet, by far!

Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates was an impulse buy, discovered through the tv show. While it delves deeper into just how scandalous a figure Phryne is, the mystery itself is a bit meh, and the whole thing lacks the sheer vibrancy Essie Davis brings to the character.

Raven Black was another tv show find. Although the mystery aspect was peanuts, the book did a terrific job describing the bleak atmosphere and mentality in the Up North, not to mention a whole collection different, deeply flawed characters.

In the Woods I'm still in the middle of. Figured no better time to give it a try, since I've seen it recommended by everyone and their cousin. The plot keeps thickening, and there's a certain aspect of cultural familiarity that endears the story to me (Scandinavian engaged to Norn Iron, here), but at the same time, I find the main character absolutely insufferable. From what I've gathered, each book is narrated by a different squad member, so I'll probably pick up the next one at some point.

I read three mysteries this month. I loved one, liked one and wasn't wild about the other.

A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George is the first book in her Inspector Lynley series. I've read and enjoyed my fair share of P.D. James and Agatha Christie novels so when my mum recommended this series, I thought I should give it a try. I wasn't impressed. It was super twee and felt like a try hard "this is my great British detective novel" novel. Also, the author tried to bring in so many sub-plots that it was a little ridiculous.

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty is a locked room mystery about a group of human clones who are piloting a spaceship to a planet that they will be settling. One day they wake up with no memories of their journey and their old bodies violently murdered around them. The story isn't told in the most impressive way possible, but the worldbuilding in this book is great and I thought it was super interesting, despite its obvious flaws.

Journey Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino is one of the best, and more interesting, books I've read all year but it's difficult to recommend. The novel traces the lives of 2 young people connected to the murder of a pawnshop owner in Osaka in 1973. Instead of telling the story of the two main characters directly, everything is revealed through the perspective of side characters, some of whom are around for less than a chapter. I usually like consistency in perspective, but the experiment that Higashino tries out in this book winds up working extremely well. Absolutely loved it!

haha yes Dainey, totally agree about Rob. I haven't seen a reader like him yet. I'm going to pick up the other Squad books too but haven't gotten round to it yet

Cathryn, thanks for this great feedback! I'm really interested in Six Wakes and Midnight Sun. Since you mentioned you read PD James, can you rec some of your faves? I've only read one by her (Original Sin), and didn't like it, but I think it might just have been a weak entry point to her work, so I'm going to give her another try.

I just finished The Broken Girls and thought it was really good! I liked that it had a supernatural element but wasn't outright horror, and I especially loved the chapters that took place in the past. It had great atmosphere too!

Hey Lea! I listened to the audiobooks for Devices and Desires, A Certain Justice, Death in Holy Orders and The Murder Room and I remember liking them well enough, but this was probably about 8 or 9 years ago so I'm not sure whether or not I'd be able to recommend them now. I can't even really remember much about them, unfortunately. What I can remember is that I do like her writing style quite a lot, maybe just the actual stories themselves aren't great for me.

I had originally planned to use Genuine Fraud for this but didn't like it at all, and decided to use The Shadow of the Wind which had really beautiful writing and an intriguing and engrossing story. I loved it but took off one star from the rating bc it had a twist I was pretty ehh about and one of the characters was so misogynistic.

I read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, it was great, and (view spoiler)[I think I’ve read the two twistiest Agatha Christie books this year, so that’s something! (hide spoiler)] I also read Whose Body?, and I fell in love with Peter Wimsey when he’s described like so at the very beginning: (spoiler cut cuz it’s gross) (view spoiler)[”His long, amiable face looked as if it had generated spontaneously from his top hat, as white maggots breed from Gorgonzola.” I learned a lot about maggot cheese that day. (hide spoiler)]. It wasn’t that great, but Wimsey’s a funny and charming character, so I’m reading Clouds of Witness now and liking it more.

Got through a few this month! a bunch of mysteries I've been meaning to read for AGES as I branch out into the genre, this month was a good excuse.

The Blue Place - was good, Griffith has beautiful prose and really beautifully drawn characters - it was really less about the mystery than about the protagonist, American-Norwegian tall incredibly sexy butch detective Aud. I had to think for a hot second to remember how the mystery was actually resolved LOL

In the Woods - was also good, but it's just so damn descriptive it really took me a good while to get stuck into it. I was fascinated by the main, current-day murder mystery, and less so about Rob and his past, and was frustrated when so much of the middle part was so very much not about Katy lol. Yet also, although absolutely infuriating, Rob was a really well written portrayal of slow destruction and PTSD. French is a damn good writer and I'm keen to read more!

Confessions - not done yet but damn it's good.

I read The Devotion of Suspect X. It was okay. Like many of the reviewers the summary reminded me of Death Note but it turned out to not have as much suspense or intrigue (?). I wouldn't say it was boring just low-key. It was a quick read and had some interesting twists~

I’ve been reading Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None - it’s a fun read, I can sort of see why it’s one of her most successful novels but is very predictable and cheesy through the lens of modern crime/thriller.

I just found out that the book’s original title is “Ten Little N******” and the events that take place in the book is based on an old British blackface song (theres also a American version of the song about Native Americans). Now I don’t know how I should take the book.

I only have about 20 pages left but I don’t know if I’m still able to enjoy the book considering what it’s based on, despite the version I’m reading has majority, if not all, of the problematic language has been altered. What do you all think?

Just finished The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and what a ride. At first I was going to say it's like the game the Sexy Brutale or Groundhog's Day but with murder, then as it kept going it was Groundhog's Day with Murder on the Orient Express, and I'd take all of that and throw in some (view spoiler)[Black Mirror. (hide spoiler)]

It started off a little slow until the main character, Aiden, is told that he's solving a murder and the rules are explained to him. I had no idea what the answer to the mystery was, which I appreciate, but not sure how much I like Aiden's ending.

I read The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova.

From the #1 bestselling author of The Historian comes an engrossing novel that spans the past and the present and unearths the dark secrets of Bulgaria, a beautiful and haunted country. Kostova's new novel is a tale of immense scope that delves into the horrors of a century and traverses the culture and landscape of this mysterious country. Suspenseful and beautifully written, it explores the power of stories, the pull of the past, and the hope and meaning that can sometimes be found in the aftermath of loss.


Elizabeth Kostova blew me away with The Historian and while I wasn't the biggest fan of The Swan Thieves, this one brought me back to loving her as an author. A richly told story that delivers atmosphere, characters, and emotions. It makes me want to go to Bulgaria and befriend strangers. Very well done!

I loved The Shadow Land too!

I went with a Miss Marple book for this challenge - I have a kindle collection of all Miss Marple mysteries which I'm making my way through, they are wonderful comfort reads. I picked 4:50 from Paddington, which was a bit far-fetched, but fun. I enjoyed it. I never guess the murderer in Agatha Christie's books!

James wrote: "I’ve been reading Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None - it’s a fun read, I can sort of see why it’s one of her most successful novels but is very predictable and cheesy through the lens of m..."

This book title is actually one of the things I think of when people say something wasn't considered racist back then. Or that the UK is less racist/doesn't have the same history with minstrelsy. The American nursery rhyme was the original version, but then the n-word was subbed in for a minstrel show version, which popularized the rhyme in the UK. The title was so racist that it was published as And Then There Were None in the US from the start, though there was a period during which it was Ten Little Indians, coinciding with the time Westerns were popular, and it was published under that name in the UK until the 80s. And it's still published with the n-word in translation in certain countries. You can easily find British people getting huffy about ~political correctness~ because of the title changes, EVEN THOUGH IT WAS TOO RACIST FOR 1940s AMERICA. It's a pretty clear example of how racism in our culture is exported, perpetuated, romanticized, and then even slower to change in other countries.

I had a lot more to say about this than I thought! I blame Megyn Kelly...anyway, I'm sorry you went into the book unawares. It's why I've avoided reading older British mysteries for so long; you'll probably stumble on some racism and antisemitism, even in the ones that aren't notorious for it.