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Whodunnits

Garrette said:
Depends on the book and how long between readings. It also depends on the purpose for re-reading.

Books like A.A. Milne's The Red House Mystery (which I shamefully forgot to recommend earlier) is a true classic that is worth re-reading just to see how well it is written and plotted.

Ditto for Bentley's Trents Last Case, which I also shamefully forgot to recommend and which, unlike The Red House Mystery, I can't remember the culprit. Hmmmm..... need to get it out again.
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I was referring to his username. It was a joke.

Alex.
 
Well... at least your kids still love you...

I'm just kidding, mate. :D

Alex.
 
An interesting book for whodunit fans is Kate Summerscale's "The Suspicions of Mr Whitcher." Although its true crime, it involves a sensational country manor murder in 1860 when both the real life detective service and the mystery novel was very young and she weaves in a lot of the history of both.
 
I have a brilliant suggestion. Well, at least i think it's a brilliant idea. Can we start a whodunnit book exchange? I have loads at home that I've read and am unlikely to read again for a good few years.

I've had an exchange of whodunnits with the wonderful Nova Land from this forum for a couple of years (well, he sent me about 20 books, I sent him about 3) and I have loads of other whodunnits, as I often buy them in charity shops.

I can offer the following whodunnits at the moment:

Margery Allingham - Police at the funeral (Albert Campion mystery)
Various authors - Locked room Puzzles (4 short stories)
M.C. Beaton - Agatha Raisin and the quiche of death (I bought this in a charity shop even though I never heard of the author as I just couldn't resist the title)
Carter Dickson - The Crossbow Murder (Henry Merrivale mystery)

Any takers? I am happy to post anywhere.
 
Bump! Free whodunnits!

I just can't resist buying books - I was browsing a charity shop this afternoon and ended up buying an 8 volume children's encyclopedia from 1920's called The Book of Knowledge - now I need even more space on my bookshelf...
 
Tanja said:
Bump...
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This is one of those brilliant ideas that I'll just never follow through on. (I know me; I'm far too great a procarstinator.) Tempting, but I'm a couple of oceans away from most of you, and getting my lazy butt organized on my (approximately) one free day a month to schlep books down to the post office is just not gonna happen.

I also have this thing about parting company with any book, regardless how trivial seeming. I think of books as wealth, and I revisit them - even the pulp.

YMMV of course, but I only grudgingly part with any volume, and then I usually wind up replacing it (if it's something I liked enough to recommend, then it's something I still like enough to own a copy).
 
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, by Mark Haddon

(A Spot of Bother, by the same author -- but it's a novel. So just get it if you liked the mystery.)
 
Anyone pick up on Donna Leon, yet?

I just found a book in my stacks that I hadn't read (I'm unpacking, just having moved flats about seven days ago), and it's an interesting find.

The detective (Brunetti) is in Venice. Nice dark moody stuff, and rather cynical/skeptical, at least the one I'm reading - Uniform Justice. I'm not through the book yet, but seems like an interesting addition to the genre.
 
I have a rather large collection of old "Cardby" novels by David Hume which i cherish. It was an attempt i guess to make a British version of Sam Spade or Mike Hammer. They are quite good actually despite that they clearly are "pattern novels" meaning that all of them follow a structure that varies very little. But the environment which is late 20's to the 30's in London and around England is very vividly described and the books ARE good, -you just dont read 5 in a row. ;)
 
I for one would love to love Nero Wolfe, but I can't find any books locally and have too much to read already to bother ordering them. Yeah, I could get them from the library but I'm a bibliophile. There's something to be said for being able to go back to a book you love whenever you want.
 
dudalb said:
I am surprised at the lack of Love for Nero Wolfe.
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Who said that? I like him very much and find him one of the top 5 "whodunnits". :D
On that note, have you seen the A&E Networks tv adaption they made a couple of years ago? http://www.nerowolfe.org/htm/AE/tv_series.htm# I found them very good i must say allthough the portrail of Wolfe himself was perhaps a bit... well not really the image i had of him but all the other caracters were splendid. Timothy Hutton as Archie was spot on IMHO. :)
 
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