--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: D5P00001 Date: 05/17/96 From: PAMELA DEAN DYER-BENNET Time: 10:10am \/To: FRED RUNK (Read 4 times) Subj: Re: hello? From: pddb@terrabit.mn.org (Pamela Dean Dyer-Bennet) Fred Runk writes: >Just wondering if anyone is out there? Hi! I am, though I mostly lurk. Watch out for these guy. They read voraciously and are well up in the field, in all its manifestations. They make me feel fusty. >I'm a fan of PD James' mysteries. Anybody else read much of her work? Yes. I've just reread a bunch of her stuff. I think she has improved just enormously over the years, and I think she does better when she's not writing a standard police-procedural sort of thing. I also think that she, like Amanda Cross, goes a little overboard with remarks about detective fiction and how so-and-so's hero would have such an easy time while the poor real-life policeman just has to stumble along. Cross does it better because her touch is generally lighter. Though there are serious satirical elements in, say, James's UNNATURAL CAUSES that I did not perfectly twig to the first time I read it. (That's the one that opens with a handless corpse afloat in an open boat. It also, in my edition, either suffered from the worst copy editor in the history of the genre or from none at all, thus exposing James's odd notions of punctuation.) I think the "colony of writers" bit was done better by Josephine Tey, though. My favorite James is either INNOCENT BLOOD or AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN. Oh, and I think ORIGINAL SIN might get onto the list in good time. I like Dalgleish as a character, but I don't like his books as well as Cordelia's. Reading a lot of James all at once shows up certain preoccupations: a brother and sister who are very close and often accused of incest; doomed lesbian relationships; a standard remark about the quality of good domestic architecture being that it looks as if it had grown out of the landscape naturally; a curious plenitude of references to mucus; ditto, less ickily, for blue-banded mugs. There, is that enough to go on with? -- Pamela Dean Dyer-Bennet (pddb@terrabit.mn.org) "Do you want to talk about the dramatic unities again?"--- ifmail v.2.8 * Origin: The Terraboard, Minneapolis MN (1:282/341@fidonet) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: D5P00002 Date: 05/17/96 From: JAN MURPHY Time: 12:29am \/To: ALL (Read 4 times) Subj: Ellis Peters' Fallen into the Pit I've just finished Ellis Peters' first mystery with George Felse, _Fallen Into the Pit_(1951). I discovered this series when Mysterious Press started reprinting them recently -- for some reason they've been putting them out any which way, and have just now gotten around to printing the first in the series. For those who haven't read any -- the main detective is Sergeant George Felse, a policeman in the quiet country town of Comerford in Wales. I like the series because you also see a great deal of George's wife Bunty and their son Dominic. The books are superbly written -- that almost goes without saying -- but I also find them great fun because they complement the Ngaio Marsh mysteries so nicely -- you see Inspector Alleyn going about to all these little out-of-the-way locales and taking over some difficult case from the local police, but you hardly ever see the local police doing their thing. Only here in the Felse books, you get that chance. And since you often see Felse with his family, you see son Dominic grow up as the series goes on -- in later books (e.g _Death to the Landlords_), Dominic is the only hero and the parents are mostly offstage. This first Felse book, however, is the most satisfying of the half-dozen or so I've been able to lay hands on. For one thing, it's much longer -- 325 pages -- and comes in at twice or three times the spine-thickness of the first Felse book I read, _Death and the Joyful Woman_. Peters spends a long time with the setting, capturing the atmosphere of Wales right after WWII, establishing the village and many of the inhabitants. It's a rich tapestry, and the later books now look rather thin by comparison. I wonder why the later books are so much shorter -- one wonders if some scurrilous publisher or agent convinced her that long involved "mysteries of substance" were passe. I don't want to say too much about the mystery itself for fear of spoiling it. There's a young German POW who has ended up in Comerford somehow -- he has a gift for spinning a tall tale when he thinks it's something his listeners want to hear, so he's probably given some song-and-dance about how he was really anti-Nazi but had to play along to survive. But he also has a talent for picking on people until they smack him one, so it's no surprise to the reader when he turns up dead. So George Felse is launched upon his first murder investigation, and we see all the results of suspicion haunting the village. Having taken quite a while to get to this point, Peters takes an equally leisurely way out of it, until the final flourish at the end, where she tosses off one more surprise like an artist putting a signature on a painting. So if you've wondered what all the fuss is about, yet were put off by Brother Cadfael because you don't like the historical setting, and you want to give Peters a try, you can't go far wrong by starting here. I'm looking forward to the other Felse books -- even if most of them are shorter than this first book, they are still a lot of fun. --- QM v1.31 * Origin: Sci-Fido II, World's Oldest SF BBS, Berkeley, CA (1:161/84.0) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: D5P00003 Date: 05/18/96 From: MAUREEN GOLDMAN Time: 03:00pm \/To: PAMELA DEAN DYER-BENNET (Read 2 times) Subj: hello? On (17 May 96) Pamela Dean Dyer-Bennet wrote to Fred Runk... PD> Reading a lot of James all at once shows up certain preoccupations: a PD> brother and sister who are very close and often accused of incest; PD> doomed lesbian relationships; a standard remark about the quality of PD> good domestic architecture being that it looks as if it had grown out PD> of the landscape naturally; a curious plenitude of references to PD> mucus; ditto, less ickily, for blue-banded mugs. I find James entirely too heavy-handed. Many of the minor characters are far more believable than the major players. Another repeated scene is the haughty person who is nude in front of people she considers to be nobodies (changing clothes, swimming, etc.). This isn't in the least intended as a turn-on but as a put-down. I always expect some hearty sort to just appreciate the nekkid lady, but everyone appropriately wilts. Are you able to read this echo via Internet? If so, how? ... A little cognitive dissonance never hurt anyone... --- PPoint 1.88 * Origin: Point of No Deposit, No Return (1:153/404.11) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: D5P00004 Date: 05/18/96 From: FRED RUNK Time: 08:26pm \/To: DELORES E ROWE (Read 2 times) Subj: hello? -=> While in the White Hart, Delores E Rowe insisted to Fred Runk that <=- DER> Dunno about anyone else, Fred, but I'm here! Howdy, glad to hear from you. I had dropped a few messages into this area, but nothing happened. I guess something evil, dark and sinister, happened to them. FR>I'm a fan of PD James' mysteries. Anybody else read much of her work? DER> DER> I, too, am a great fan of hers and have all of her books. I have DER> watched the adaptations of a coupl of her books on PBS Masterpiece DER> Theater, and have found them to be excellent productions. Interesting, around here we see them on PBS MYSTERY!, and that is where I first encountered Inspector Dalgliesh. After watching the first one, I immediately went out and got all the ones I could find and now wait anxiously for each annual book. I just saw MIND FOR MURDER televised on MYSTERY! just last week, in fact. I guess it's going to be awhile now for her next one to come out. Who else are some of your favorites? Do you have a favorite type of mystery tale? ... Molly the HouseGoddess says, "Life is hard, then you nap." ___ X Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 X --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: Fred's Place (1:300/6.2) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: D5P00005 Date: 05/18/96 From: FRED RUNK Time: 08:35pm \/To: PAMELA DEAN DYER-BENNET (Read 3 times) Subj: hello? -=> While in the White Hart, Pamela Dean Dyer-bennet insisted to Fred Runk that <=- PDD> Hi! I am, though I mostly lurk. Watch out for these guy. They read PDD> voraciously and are well up in the field, in all its manifestations. PDD> They make me feel fusty. Howdy--a familiar name!!! OK, I will be careful, but I think I have encountered some voracious readers before. I definitely am not well up in the field, so I'm hoping to learn a bunch of stuff in here. >I'm a fan of PD James' mysteries. Anybody else read much of her work? PDD> Yes. I've just reread a bunch of her stuff. I think she has improved I haven't done that yet, but I'm definitely due for a rereading, once I do some in another genre. PDD> just enormously over the years, and I think she does better when she's PDD> not writing a standard police-procedural sort of thing. I also think PDD> that she, like Amanda Cross, goes a little overboard with remarks PDD> about detective fiction and how so-and-so's hero would have such an PDD> easy time while the poor real-life policeman just has to stumble PDD> along. Cross does it better because her touch is generally lighter. Hmmm, hadn't noticed her being that heavy-handed about it, although I have encountered that occasionally in her work. Of course, I run across that in a number of detective tales, especially the police procedurals. In fact I think that only series that I haven't encountered that is in Ellis Peter's "Brother Cadfael" tales. PDD> Though there are serious satirical elements in, say, James's UNNATURAL PDD> CAUSES that I did not perfectly twig to the first time I read it. Satirical elements? Guess you weren't the only one who missed that the first time around. I'm the second. Now I got to go back and see what I missed. PDD> (That's the one that opens with a handless corpse afloat in an open PDD> boat. It also, in my edition, either suffered from the worst copy PDD> editor in the history of the genre or from none at all, thus exposing PDD> James's odd notions of punctuation.) I think the "colony of writers" PDD> bit was done better by Josephine Tey, though. Which one of Tey's are you talking about? I have only read one so far--long time ago--corpse found in the queue for the afternoon matinee of a play, I think. PDD> My favorite James is either INNOCENT BLOOD or AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A PDD> WOMAN. Oh, and I think ORIGINAL SIN might get onto the list in good PDD> time. I like Dalgleish as a character, but I don't like his books as PDD> well as Cordelia's. Like both equally well--sorry there's so few of Cordelia's books--two if I remember correctly. PDD> Reading a lot of James all at once shows up certain preoccupations: a PDD> brother and sister who are very close and often accused of incest; Also tends to be a very common theme in English novels across genre. Beginning to believe this is either genetic or present in the atmosphere throughout the British Isles. PDD> doomed lesbian relationships; a standard remark about the quality of Yes, remember a couple of those, but can't exactly pull the titles out at this moment. Just saw MIND FOR MURDER on PBS MYSTERY! a week or so ago, and there was a hint of a possible relationship. I haven't read the novel in a long time, so I can't remember whether it was significant or even present. PDD> good domestic architecture being that it looks as if it had grown out PDD> of the landscape naturally; a curious plenitude of references to Yes, architecture shows up in just about all of her novels. PDD> mucus; ditto, less ickily, for blue-banded mugs. Now, these escaped me completely. ... You want no one to know it?...Then don't do it. Old Chinese Proverb ___ X Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 X --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: Fred's Place (1:300/6.2) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: D5P00006 Date: 05/10/96 From: ERNESTO PEREZ Time: 08:14pm \/To: QMAIL (Read 3 times) Subj: CONFIG DROP 153 --- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10 * Origin: RaMeY CyBeR BBS*PUERTO RICO*809-890-1769 (1:367/65) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: D5P00007 Date: 05/10/96 From: DELORES E ROWE Time: 09:12pm \/To: MEG ANTCZAK (Read 3 times) Subj: Before and After Meg Antczak was just wondering...... MA>Hi Delores-- Hi, Meg... MA> I never saw this posted on the echo so I thought I would resend it MA>just in case. Sorry if this is a repeat. MA>--------------------------------------------------------------------------- - MA>-- MA>Date: 04-21-96 17:06 Msg Number: 1 of 1 MA>From: MEG ANTCZAK MA> To: DELORES E ROWE MA>Subj: Before and After MA>Conf: 140 MYSTERY Myst (Replies) MA>------------------------------ MA> > I also felt it was some what unrealistic that a woman of Carolyn's age MA> > and intellect, with her devotion to her profession, and with what she MA> > had gone through, could possibly even entertain the idea of having MA> > another child. That, to me, was totally implausible. MA>That didn't bother me. I know women are not always realistic when it omes MA>to babies. We have four kids, the oldest are 22 and 20 and the youngest are MA>12 and 9. I feel like we practiced parenting on the older 2 and we inally MA>got the hang of it for these other 2. :)! BTW, this was not seen the first time around. So much mail seems to be going astray! BTW, what did YOU think of the book? MA>> I just finished reding Tami Hoag's Guilty as Sin, the sequel to MA>> Night Sins. Night Sins was one of those books youstart reading, MA>> and suddenly realize that it's 3:00am and there is NO WAY that you MA>> are going to be able to keep your eyes open long enough to finish MA>> it!! It was excellent! Guilty As Sin was VERY good, but didn't MA>> have quite the edge that Night Sins had. A very enjoyable read! MA>I haven't read her yet but she is on my list. MA> > MA> > Boo-hoo! I just reached the end of a stack of about 10 books, and don't MA> > currently have anything new or exciting to read! :( I have 3 Michael MA> > Palmr's on order from the library. I ordered them by computer last eek, MA> > so they should be here tomorrow. Hmmm. Guess I'll have to do some MA>Michael Palmer is also on my list. We have the on-line catalog and ordering MA>here too. I love it! When I look up a new author I do a screen capture and MA>then I save the file so I have a list in order of all the books. Then as MA>read them I make a note next to each title. It is working great and saves MA>me from ordering books I have already read. Plus I like to read the books MA>in the order the author wrote them. This was my first time ordering through the computer, and it was very easy! I got all three, and have finished reading them, and mailed them back. A friend deliver a sackful of books a week or so ago, bout 20 of them, so will hold off on the library for a while!! :) MA> > What's next on your list? MA>I'm waiting for a Mrs Pollifax book on tape right now. I just finished he MA>first book by a new author. It was Murder in Scorpio by Martha Lawrence. MA>The main character is a female private detective that is also a psychic. It MA>was an enjoyable book and a quick read. The style was similar to Sue MA>Grafton. The dust jacket says it is the first in a series but so far I MA>haven't found anything else she has written. TTYL, Meg I have read a couple of Sue Grafton and found them to OK reads. TTYL. *** SLMR 2.1a Just when I make ends meet, someone moves one end.... --- TriToss (tm) Professional 10.0 - #189 * Origin: The Mystic Korner, Wenatchee, Wa. 509.886.7607 - 884.0352 (1:344/115.0) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: D5P00008 Date: 05/12/96 From: BERT QUILLIN Time: 07:33am \/To: MEG ANTCZAK (Read 3 times) Subj: New Author--Great Book!!! -=> Quoting Meg Antczak to All <=- MA> I just read a great book that I wanted to let you know about. It is MA> called Absolute Power and the author is David Badacci. It is a Hi Meg: I jumped right on this and went into our public library on the computer. First, found that the last name of the author is spelled BALDACCI rather than Badacci, but that was not a problem as a search under the title found it alive and well. I had never heard of Baldacci before, but at least 68 other people using our library system had, as that is how many holds had been placed already for the book. So I am number 69 on the list. Thanks for the book review. It sounds very interesting. Regards, Bert ___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 --- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 * Origin: COM-DAT BBS (1:105/314.0)