What’s the name of the book Toddson?

So, one of my fave authors has created a spinoff “universe” from one of her series, and co-wrote the first book and has other people doing others. Mostly sound good, and I liked the first one, but the latest...just...ok, if you name one of the mean guys “Redd Bottom” you’re not being cure you’re being ridiculous. And I’ve read some fun ridiculous like, were-bear stuff? But this is not that, but I can’t get past it. Especially since the hero is apparently called “Bull” and his brothers include “Blade”. Just...take it back a notch, lady.

To those who recommended the Chanur books I send thanks. Enjoyable so far.

Glad you're enjoying them! I do love me some Cherryh.

Right now I"m reading All the Light We Cannot See, which I found in a Little Free Library a few weeks ago. Pretty good so far, although the blind girl and her dad are a bit precious.

meara, the book is called "Cinnamon and Gunpowder" (sorry about being offline over the weekend)

Is this one of us? If so, hiiiiiiii I can't wait to read this. If not, still can't wait!

That sounds amazing! And I want to be friends with her (if I am not already, but I don't think I am)

I just put it on hold at the library.

I've met her! She's a friend of my mother's, though not, to the best of my knowledge, a Buffista.

Hooray, a connection!

I’ve bought the book but I may read the new Sebastian St Cyr first. I really like that series.

Aww that sounds super cute. I will have to check that out.

Well, have finished Lord Peter. I thought I was reviewing the Queens of Crime but now I think I may be studying Gentlemen Detectives and will go back and read Poe and Louisa May Alcott and Wilkie Collins before thinking about Christie.

Anyway, the Wimsey books. First of all, the casual racist language is pretty painful. I kept being surprised by it popping up when I thought maybe there wouldn't be any more. Sigh. That was indeed what that red flag in the back of my brain was about, and perhaps I should have obeyed the warning, or bailed out early on, but this was A Project so I carried on.

Aside from that, which I had forgotten aside from the vague warning to myself, I had forgotten an awful lot. A few books I remembered a tiny bit of that I recognized when I read it again, but most of them I had no memory of whatsoever (including The Nine Tailors which I MUST have read because otherwise how would I know anything at all about ringing changes? But zero recognition while reading). To be fair, I had similarly forgotten a lot of Marsh, or thought that what I did remember came from unspecified Christie novels, so that may not signify anything other than my memory ain't great.

The mysteries are complicated and Sayers is really good with setting up a puzzle (the ciphers are particularly well handled - Peter and Harriet breaking the code in Have His Carcase is very entertaining both in demonstrating how that works and showcasing both of their characters and their relationship) but I prefer Marsh's general approach of having the revealed solution to the mystery actually be very simple and it was just a lot of misdirection that made it seem complicated, like a magic trick.

I was not nearly as fond of Peter and Harriet this time as I was on first read. Not sure if that is due to reading in my 50s vs as a teenager, or reading in the 21st century vs in the 80s, or what. I was still rooting for them, but found their manner of dealing with their problems and each other more frustrating than romantic.

Sayers did some interesting things stylistically which gave me the feeling that she was aiming for more literary cachet than Marsh and Allingham - a passage in second person, for example, and Busman's Honeymoon is very stagy (which is not surprising as it was a play before it was a novel but it reads almost like a farce in parts with people popping on and off stage with precise timing)

And I did go ahead and read Thrones and Dominions, the book that was started by Sayers and finished decades later by someone else, since I had read the Marsh book that was like that and also Cargo of Eagles that Allingham died while writing and her husband finished so consistency seemed to demand it. At least it avoided the racist language! But the mystery was not great and the characters do not feel quite right and I somehow got spoiled that as that series continues at some point Peter's brother and nephew both die and he's a Duke after all and I am super opposed to that development, so not much temptation to read further.

However, as not really wanting to recommend reading these as I am, I can't help but feel that an adaptation that modernized a la Elementary and really emphasized the PTSD and ADHD-like traits could be very good. Although how the whole aristocracy business would work I don't know. I would like to see an Alleyn adaptation that set each book in the year it was published, changing the costumes and set design and all as the series progressed, maybe even having the earliest in black and white, but keeping the core characters the same age since that is more or less how they are written. Like Batman. I would watch the hell out of that. But I am perhaps the only person in the world who wants that. The existing Campion adaptation with Peter Davison is quite good and I would only want some more of that, probably.

Thank you for attending tonight's symposium