'Classic' Detective Stories you have enjoyed.

[amateur51]

amateur51

I hadn't read any PG Wodehouse at the time, but I spent part of my childhood in Valley Fields, which was of course Wodehouse's name for Dulwich Village. Back in the 1940s it seemed very rural, perhaps not very different from his own time, as there was virtually no traffic ( No petrol for motorists ) and some of the walks up to Sydenham were like country lanes,with deserted mansions on the hill whose owners had moved out of London to safety. I was accepted for a place at Dulwich College, but begged to be sent to boarding school instead, I'd probably read too many school stories. If you get the chance, the Dulwich Picture Gallery is well worth a visit, and the College still has Shackleton's rowing boat the James Caird on view, in which he and his crew made their epic survival journey in the Antarctic.

Cheers Ferret. I keep meaning to use my Crumbly Pass to go to the Dulwich Picture Gallery as I used to know one of its Trustees who was always bending my ear about what a fine place it is and what a wonderful collections it has (He was looking for a Lottery grant at the time and I was a rather more minor functionary than I think he realised )

[Stunsworth]

As Scandinavian fiction has been mentioned I can recommend the 'Martin Beck' books by Sjöwall and Wahlöö. Apparantly the couple wrote alternate chapters, though you'd never guess it from reading the books. There were 10 in all written from 1966 to 1975, and for anyone with a Kindle the first one in the series - Roseanna is available for 99p.

[antongould]

Yes they are very good and started the whole Nordic thing although I've never heard the alternate chapters theory before!

[Don Basilio]

At the arch/knowing end of the spectrum is Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May novels. I've only read two, and finished them both in a day. His Seventy Seven Clocks has a totally improbable plot, but is great fun, particularly if you're a Gilbert and Sullivan fan.

[salymap]

Margery Allingham's life wasn't that long, she was about 66 when she died, apparently not that happy either,
but I'm very glad she wrote her wonderful, sometimes dated now, but descriptive books.

[Petrushka]

This excellent thread has prompted me to purchase new copies of A Question of Proof by Nicholas Blake and Trent's Last Case by E C Bentley. Not read either for very many years so will be a joy to make their acquantance again. Will look at Allingham next, again not read since the late 1960's.

[antongould]

Margery Allingham's life wasn't that long, she was about 66 when she died, apparently not that happy either,
but I'm very glad she wrote her wonderful, sometimes dated now, but descriptive books.

Crispin / Montogomery also died young and also seemed to have a not that happy life. Is there a trend emerging here?

[Don Basilio]

Where did you find out about Bruce Montgomery/Edmund Crispin, anton? I've often wondered.

Colin Watson of the incomparable Flaxborough novels died in his 50s. I don't know anything else about him.

[Pianorak]

Kyril Bonfiglioli, anyone? - The Mortdecai Trilogy - where the central character is a cross between a Bertie Wooster with the brain of Jeeves, Raffles, and Falstaff...

Just finished the Trilogy. What a read! Fivehundred odd pages of smart, intelligent and witty as well as gruesome one-liners – and what a plot! Such inventive language; vocabulary that even the good ol' OED hasn't heard of. I shall miss my daily dose of Mortdecai.
And the icing on the cake? Got it for 1p on amazon. Can't really carp about the £2.80 p&p now, can you.

[antongould]

Just finished the Trilogy. What a read! Fivehundred odd pages of smart, intelligent and witty as well as gruesome one-liners – and what a plot! Such inventive language; vocabulary that even the good ol' OED hasn't heard of. I shall miss my daily dose of Mortdecai.
And the icing on the cake? Got it for 1p on amazon. Can't really carp about the £2.80 p&p now, can you.

Thanks in anticipation vinteuil and Pianorak
Just got it for 1p on Amazon too if Lady Gould's credit card will perform of course!

[salymap]

DonBasilio. If I may answer your query about Edmund Crispin/Bruce Montgomery, it is all explained on the back cover of my copy of 'The Moving Toyshop' and probably on all his 8 'tec novels.
When I worked in publishing the composer, Geoffrey Bush said he was a friend of BM and was the original inspiration for Gervase Fen, the 'hero' of most of them. Quite likely I should think. And wiki says BM was an alchoholic and died of a heart attack in his fifties.

[Ferretfancy]

I quote today's Guardian :- "In what is billed as a literary first, 26 crime authors, including Alexander McCall Smith and Kathy Reichs, have teamed up to write a novel by each writing a chapter based on a plot outline assigned to them by the compilation's editor"
The enterprise is being steered by Peter James, who is chair of the Crime Writer's Association, and there is apparently a brilliant denouement which he thinks few will guess..
The end result is called No Rest for the Dead, and is published this week by Simon and Schuster. This sort of consequences style effort has been tried in music, the Hexameron Variations for example, but as far as I know not in crime. I look forward to the review.

[arancie33]

What a wonderful thread. Can I strongly endorse the comments by readers of Donna Leon and her policeman, Guido Brunetti. Also Martin O'Brien's Jaquot books, though they do tend to get a bit bloody towards the end of the series. As a change from the continental diet, has anyone read JM Gregson and his groups of policemen in deepest Gloucestershire? Lightweight but entertaining. Living in Shropshire, I have felt obliged to try Ellis Peters and her Cadfael but couldn't really work up much enthusiasm. Maybe others (apart from Signora Arancie) have had more luck.

[Thespian]

I quote today's Guardian :- "In what is billed as a literary first, 26 crime authors, including Alexander McCall Smith and Kathy Reichs, have teamed up to write a novel by each writing a chapter based on a plot outline assigned to them by the compilation's editor"
The enterprise is being steered by Peter James, who is chair of the Crime Writer's Association, and there is apparently a brilliant denouement which he thinks few will guess..
The end result is called No Rest for the Dead, and is published this week by Simon and Schuster. This sort of consequences style effort has been tried in music, the Hexameron Variations for example, but as far as I know not in crime. I look forward to the review.

in 1931 the detection club did "The Floating Admiral" with Dorothy L sayers, GK Chesterton and Christie and others all contibuting a chapter

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/books/n/n38357.htm

[Pianorak]

. . . I shall miss my daily dose of Mortdecai.

Yipppeee!! Just found another couple of books by Kyril Bonfiglioli - All the Tea in China and The Great Mortdecai Moustache Mystery (the latter alas with Craig Brown). More fun with the louche anti-hero The Hon. Charles Mortdecai to look forward to.