Unseen Machinations of Murder Monday

[evelyn_b]

What I've Finished Reading

The Dead Man's Knock was perfectly satisfying, and just as pulpy as its cover promised. Dr. Gideon Fell is a good old-fashioned eccentric amateur - an enormous, rumpled, and billowing English expert on something or other who walks with (and/or brandishes) two canes, likes baffling his American hosts with cryptic jokes

Comments

[osprey_archer]

Oh drat. I was thinking I should take a break from Marsh, to save some for later - they are such good comfort reading in times of stress! - and yet Last Ditch sounds so tempting. I want to meet Ricky Alleyn! Even if he is a bit dull! Clearly he inherited his personality from the Alleyn rather than the Troy side of the family.

And this mystery bundle is offering up A++ titles if nothing else. The Mystery of Crooknose. I like the cover too, the white clapboard house with All the Windows surrounded be stabby dark trees.

[evelyn_b]

I don't want to oversell Ricky and set you up for disappointment, or steal your future comfort reading, but it can't hurt, can it? I have no idea at this point whether Last Ditch is going to be good or not. Only one way to find out!

[a_phoenixdragon]

The couple in Crooknose sound like more accurate versions of Fred and Daphne from Scooby-Doo, lol!!

*HUGS*

[evelyn_b]

Ha! I've actually never seen an entire episode of Scooby-Doo, but I'll take your word for it!

[a_phoenixdragon]

Wasn't one of my personal favs. I was always more Warner Bros than Hanna-Barbara. But the descriptions sound stupefyingly close, lol!

[sallymn]

You're right, The Keeper of Lost Causes is a good title... I always get a bit tetchy when one is used for a not so good book, just seems a waste to my lexiconophiliac mind.

That first book sounds promising...

[evelyn_b]

It's such a good title! It fits the story, too, even though I didn't like the story all that much.

It's the saddest when a bad book has a beautiful title. Well, maybe not the very saddest, but still. My sister has a book called A Landscape With Dragons, which sounds like it's going to be a nice dreamlike fantasy story, but is actually just some nutter ranting about how Pete's Dragon is evil because dragons represent the serpent from Genesis and if you show a kid making friends with a dragon it's like he's making friends with SATAN.

I always thought it was a waste of a good title, and that someone ought to poach it for a story about friendly dragons. Of course it would be a terrible disappointment if people kept buying the wrong one for their kids by mistake.

[sallymn]

Graeme Base could do wonders with it...

[evelyn_b]

Man, one of those books is called Starfish Are Pointy, which is also a genius title.

[liadtbunny]

Yay for bogus made up psychology! I also like made up cures (a trip to a hospital in Sweden/Switzerland usually cures everything).

Another good book cover: there's a murder in her purse!

[evelyn_b]

My favorite kind of psychology! And as much as I like for present-day medical technology to exist, those bright blue and white mountain cure hotels always seemed like they would be a good place to spend a couple of weeks. Sometimes what's wrong with you can't be cured by MOUNTAIN AIR, but I'm sure that sometimes it couldn't hurt.

[liadtbunny]

After psychiatrists whose treatment involves telling the patient to snap out of it, who wouldn't want some fresh mountain air;p

If I made film sequels it would be about a plucky, young intern exposing bogus psychiatrists from the first.

[evelyn_b]

I would read or watch your tales of plucky young intern bullshit hunting! As long as they didn't all end with the p.y. intern confined to a state hospital and receiving bogus psychiatric treatment for pathological insensitivity to authority figures. You can probably avoid this fate by making the p.y.i. a young man instead of the young woman I was picturing.

[lost_spook]

I must investigate John Dickson Carr at some point clearly. When I have brain, along with everything else, I suppose! :-)

I'm not entirely sure I can remember anything about Last Ditch. That may be a sign of how exciting Ricky is.

And your mystery bundle has at least come up with some fun titles and covers. :-)

[evelyn_b]

Gideon Fell is a good egg. This is a later installment, so I might try to check out some of the earlier books next.

So far, Ricky hasn't had much to do but bear exposition and Say No to Drugs, but I'm charmed by his existence anyway. And concerned about hereditary Detective Stasis.

I love my mystery bundle so much I'm considering asking the bookstore owner to mail me a new one when I finish. It's already been enough fun to pay for itself + shipping and handling. <3