Reading the Detectives discussion
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November 2025 group read - Winner!
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by E.C.R. LoracI know we have had a lot of books by Lorac, but this looks really good.
“Now tell us about your crime novel. Take my advice and don’t try to be intellectual over it. What the public likes is blood.”
The Surrays and their five children form a prolific writing machine, with scores of treatises, reviews and crime thrillers published under their family name. Following a rare convergence of the whole household at their Oxfordshire home, Ruth – middle sister who writes ‘books which are just books’ – decides to spend some weeks there recovering from the pressures of the writing life while the rest of the brood scatter to the winds again. Their next return is heralded by the tragic news that Ruth has taken her life after an evening at the Surrays’ hosting a set of publishers and writers, one of whom is named as Ruth’s literary executor in the will she left behind.
Despite some suspicions from the family, the verdict at the inquest is suicide – but when Ruth’s brother Richard receives a letter from the deceased which was delayed in the post, he enlists the help of CID Robert Macdonald to investigate what could only be an ingeniously planned murder.
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by E.C.R. LoracI know we have had a lot of books by Lorac, but this looks really goo..."
In US: $1
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Susan wrote: "Hurrah! About the first time I've nominated something available across the pond."Great choice, Susan! I’ve read this but would gladly reread, it’s been awhile and I believe it had a lot going on, and my memory is a sieve - so definitely want to revisit!
I picked that up yesterday. Just hoping I didn't already have it. Last week I had new flooring put in and had to box up all the books on the second floor. New flooring looks great but now I have to reshelve the books. And, not sure if company is coming tomorrow. They came down with some sort of ailment and weren't sure if it might be covid.
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Susan wrote: "Someone in my office has covid. It's definitely on the rise again."He says they don't have it. Hope not because they're due any time now. They were in Breckenridge, Colorado, for the holiday weekend. Maybe there was a bug going around town.
How about a visit to Roger Sheringham? I’ve got his third case on kindle, currently 99 cents in the USA, Roger Sheringham and the Vane Mystery
by Anthony Berkeley.When Mrs Elsie Vane is found dead at the bottom of the cliffs at Ludmouth Bay on the Hampshire coast, the verdict is of accidental death. However, when the Daily Courier learns that Inspector Moresby of Scotland Yard has been making discreet enquiries into Mrs Vane’s affairs, the newspaper’s editor sends down gentleman sleuth Roger Sheringham to find out why. Roger’s investigations uncover murky truths about Mrs Vane’s life and a second, grisly murder…
Sorry, not sure of availability, price elsewhere, hopefully available as it’s an older title.
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Oh good, one I own.
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A .38, a nip of gin and sensational legs get Depression-era private investigator Maggie Sullivan out of most scrapes – until a stranger threatens to bust her nose, she’s hauled in on suspicion of his murder and she finds herself in the cross-hairs of a crime boss with connections at City Hall.
Moving through streets where people line up at soup kitchens, Maggie draws information from sources others overlook: The waitress at the dime store lunch counter where she has breakfast; a ragged newsboy; the other career girls at her rooming house.
Her digging gets her chloroformed and left in a ditch behind the wheel of her DeSoto. She makes her way to an upscale bordello and gets tea – and information – from the madam herself.
A gunman puts a bullet through Maggie’s hat. Her shutterbug pal on the evening paper warns her off. A new cop whose presence unsettles her thinks she’s crooked. Before she finds all the answers she needs, she faces a half-crazed man with a gun, and a far more lethal point-blank killer.
If you like Robert B. Parker's hard boiled Spencer series and strong women sleuths, don't miss this one-of-a-kind Ohio detective from a time in United States history when dames wore hats -- but seldom a Smith & Wesson.
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Sandy wrote: "Another I own and a series I mean to start, No Game For a Dame. Free in the US (from what I can see - Amazon not very helpful as it tells me I own the book).A .38, a nip of gin an..."
This sounds fun and interesting, thanks, Sandy!
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Susan: Post After Post-Mortem by ECR Lorac
Susan in NC: Roger Sheringham and the Vane Mystery aka The Mystery at Lovers' Cave by Anthony Berkeley
Sandy: No Game for a Dame by M Ruth Myers
Any more? Last call as I'll put the poll up this weekend.
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Full results:
Post After Post-Mortem 5 votes, 55.6%
Roger Sheringham and the Vane Mystery 2 votes, 22.2%
No Game For a Dame (Maggie Sullivan Mystery #1) 2 votes, 22.2%
Reading the Detectives
Books mentioned in this topic
Post After Post-Mortem (other topics)No Game For a Dame (other topics)
No Game For a Dame (other topics)
The Mystery at Lovers' Cave (other topics)
No Game For a Dame (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
E.C.R. Lorac (other topics)Anthony Berkeley (other topics)
Anthony Berkeley (other topics)
E.C.R. Lorac (other topics)
E.C.R. Lorac (other topics)
Usual rules apply. Only one nomination per group member. Only one book by any individual writer can be nominated per month, and authors can't nominate their own books. If you aren't sure whether we have read something, the group bookshelves may help, or just ask. If it was at least 3 years ago that we read it, it's fine to re-nominate.