Book of the Month: September 2016

This month’s reads have featured a return to a lot of familiar faces as I began the month with Henry Wade’s The Verdict of You All (1926) and continued my exploration of Molly Thynne’s work reading The Case of Sir Adam Braid (1930) and The Crime at Noah’s Ark (1931). My reading this month was also influenced by the fact it was Agatha Christie’s 126^th birthday this month, so I re-read Parker Pyne Investigates (1934) and The Moving Finger (1943). As part of this celebration I also hosted a challenge involving book recommendations for Christie novices. To see my own suggestion and the original challenge click here and click here for the results post which looks at the suggestions of other bloggers. I’ve also dipped back into the works of Sayers (‘Talboys’ (1942), Mary Roberts Rhinehart (Miss Pinkerton (1932), Gladys Mitchell (Come Away Death (1937)), Nicholas Blake (A Question of Proof (1935), Francis Durbridge (Send for Paul Temple (1938)) and June Wright (Duck Season Death (2015)). Interestingly some of my returns to familiar authors have led to me seeing the writer in a different light with the texts read showcasing different skills and styles. This was especially pertinent for Delano Ames’ The Man with the Three Jaguars (1961) and Ethel Lina White’s She Faded into Air (1941). However, there have been a couple of new authors this month in my reading such as Margaret Armstrong’s Murder in Stained Glass (1939) and I also came across some new authors in a Golden Age round robin, Double Death (1939).

But who is the winner of the coveted Book of the Month prize? Well they are probably conspicuous by their absence in the earlier part of the post and for those who are regular readers of the blog it will come as no surprise that Hans Olav Lahlum’s Chameleon People (2016) won. It is another excellent instalment in the K2 and Patricia series entailing an intriguing mystery, a stellar cast of characters, with a narrative which entwines pathos and humour with ease. This seems to be a series which always leaves me with a book hangover and is a series everyone should try.