Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Oh dear. On a par with The Big Four. She's not good at international intrigue. A really dreadful tale, no mystery, and just bad.

Next up: Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers, the third in her Lord Peter Wimsey series.

I was going to say that Passenger to Frankfurt superseded The Big Four as my least favourite Christie when I read it a few months ago, but I didn't want to put you off. (I'm a couple of books ahead of you on my Christie read-through, Postern of Fate is next for me.)

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I was going to say that Passenger to Frankfurt superseded The Big Four as my least favourite Christie when I read it a few months ago, but I didn't want to put you off. (I'm a couple of books ahead of you on my Christie read-through, Postern of Fate is next for me.)

Thank you both for the heads up. I'm doing a selective Christie re-read atm, currently A Murder is Announced — it looks like both these titles won't be selected.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I was going to say that Passenger to Frankfurt superseded The Big Four as my least favourite Christie when I read it a few months ago, but I didn't want to put you off. (I'm a couple of books ahead of you on my Christie read-through, Postern of Fate is next for me.)

It's nice to hear that I'm not alone in my opinion. And reflecting on the book, I think you're right - it's actually worse than The Big Four, which I wouldn't have thought possible before I read it!

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Oh dear. On a par with The Big Four. She's not good at international intrigue. A really dreadful tale, no mystery, and just bad.

Next up: Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers, the third in her Lord Peter Wimsey series.

I don't know, The Big Four is pretty awful. I have yet to read Passenger to Frankfurt. Will avoid it. Have you read the non-Poirot 'Why didn't they ask Evans'? Gave it 1 star on Goodreads.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Luffy

I don't know, The Big Four is pretty awful. I have yet to read Passenger to Frankfurt. Will avoid it. Have you read the non-Poirot 'Why didn't they ask Evans'? Gave it 1 star on Goodreads.

I gave it 4/5 when I read it back in June 2011. Let's see what I said in this place.

Well, I liked it. Although I can't remember anything of the plot after nine years.

[SeaBookGuy]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Oh dear. On a par with The Big Four. She's not good at international intrigue

I liked They Came to Baghdad. Definitely recommended as a stand-alone as far as I'm concerned.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

I liked They Came to Baghdad. Definitely recommended as a stand-alone as far as I'm concerned.

Yes, I liked that one. Although I read it ten years ago, so I don't remember any of the plot.

[DrNefario]

I never like the thrillers as much as the whodunnits, but they're usually tolerable. Passenger to Frankfurt is muddled and reactionary.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers, the third in her Lord Peter Wimsey series.

Well, an excellent mystery, and I enjoyed it, but I hadn't realised how much the casual racism and attitudes and language of the day would be on display, just because there's a minor black character. Wow. The really distressing thing (for me) is that this shows that such attitudes were entirely the norm and unremarkable, even expected, back in the 1920s, even among the 'good guys'.

Next up: Sharpe's Revenge by Bernard Cornwell. And the previous book has shown me how astonishingly inaccurate his novels are. <wry smile>

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Well, an excellent mystery, and I enjoyed it, but I hadn't realised how much the casual racism and attitudes and language of the day would be on display, just because there's a minor black character. Wow. The really distressing thing (for me) is that this shows that such attitudes were entirely the norm and unremarkable, even expected, back in the 1920s, even among the 'good guys'.

This was my reaction when I started an Allingham re-read. She was EASILY my favorite of the Golden Age Mystery Queens, I adored her Campion series in my teens, but coming back to them I found these attitudes so prevalent in the first 8 I had to take a break, haven't resumed my re-read yet.

[Luffy]

I'm of Asian (Indian) stock, and I've always admired white people who frown upon racism. All credit to you, pdurrant and uncle Robin.

[mlewis78]

I did not realize how blatant the racism was until recently when I was finding articles online in newspapers.com about ancestors. There was a murder in 1900 of a man married to a distantly relative of mine. He was a policeman and was arresting a black man for a $6 debt. The black man went back into his house and got his rifle and shot the cop. (He'd tried to reason with the cop about the arrest but the cop was adamant about taking him in.) He escaped a jail in Perth Amboy but a lot of white citizens went after him. There was a bounty on him. He escaped to Virginia and some of the bounty hunters went after him and shot him and let him bleed out. The way the article was written was assuming the black man was guilty and praised the cop for his career. A story about it written many years later put a different spin on it. I am not explaining this very well, but it struck a chord with me in light of recent events of cops shooting Black men and women. I posted the article to facebook. I don't think anyone noticed it though.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Luffy

I'm of Asian (Indian) stock, and I've always admired white people who frown upon racism. All credit to you, pdurrant and uncle Robin.

I rage-quit reading Conan Doyle's The Sign of the Four because the toxic racism/imperialist chauvinism toward the people and cultures of the subcontinent was just so overwhelming I could not continue. I know it was a product of the times, but I don't have to like it or read it. I'd much rather keep working through my copy of The Jungle Book in Hindi

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

I rage-quit reading Conan Doyle's The Sign of the Four because the toxic racism/imperialist chauvinism toward the people and cultures of the subcontinent was just so overwhelming I could not continue. I know it was a product of the times, but I don't have to like it or read it. I'd much rather keep working through my copy of The Jungle Book in Hindi

I must spruce up my hindi. I harbour ambitions to speak publicly during Ramayana sessions. It's a priority that's on par with improving my French accent.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Well, an excellent mystery, and I enjoyed it, but I hadn't realised how much the casual racism and attitudes and language of the day would be on display, just because there's a minor black character. Wow. The really distressing thing (for me) is that this shows that such attitudes were entirely the norm and unremarkable, even expected, back in the 1920s, even among the 'good guys'.

Next up: Sharpe's Revenge by Bernard Cornwell. And the previous book has shown me how astonishingly inaccurate his novels are. <wry smile>

We had a discussion of the treatment of Sayers' Jewish characters in the Mobile Read Bookclub discussion of Whose Body. There is an ongoing debate about whether Sayers was an anti-semite, so the above is not surprising.

Getting back on topic, I just finished Ron Rash's The Risen in audio and am still reading Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth on my Kobo. Now listening to The Leavenworth Case.