Five Books For Mystery Lovers, fun stuff edition
A bonus recommendation, our monthly playlist, a poem, and more
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Welcome to this month’s Fun Stuff Edition of Five Books For, a newsletter for people who love great stories. This edition used to be paywalled so if it’s your first time joining me for this, an extra big welcome! Having covered both male and female detectives in the past couple of weeks, I thought that this month’s bonus recommendation should have a group of detectives instead of a lone sleuth, and of course you’ll also find our usual playlist, poem and some great links for further reading.
I shared this at the time but if you missed it, I wrote a piece for
over at her wonderful Substack on the origin of my love of detective fiction. It was such a fun piece to write - you can find it here.On a totally different note, I have just joined
in her close reading/readalong of The Age Of Innocence by Edith Wharton. It’s not too late to join us if you want to - this book is considerably shorter than War & Peace and less dense than the Wolf Hall trilogy, the other readalongs I’m doing this year. Haley is such a great host and the book so far is a lot of fun and easy to read. You can click here for more details.The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
“After a certain age, you can pretty much do whatever takes your fancy. No one tells you off, except for your doctors and your children.”
So what’s it about? I suspect that many (most? all?) of you will already have heard of this series, but in case you haven’t, The Thursday Murder Club is the first in a series of cosy crime novels set in and around Cooper’s Chase, a rather luxurious retirement development and home to our four sleuths: Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim. Each week the foursome meet to discuss a local cold case and see if they can make progress or find any leads the police may have missed. When the developer of Cooper’s Chase decides to expand into the area covered by the chapel and graveyard of the former convent the development is based on, it’s clear that there will be opposition and sure enough, a murder takes place shortly afterwards, leaving our foursome with a very real and current case to solve.
What’s great about it? If you want something fun and undemanding to read but which has wonderful characters, real warmth and lots of twists and turns, then this series is perfect for you. I especially love that the protagonists are all elderly and I love how Osman brings the characters to life. There’s also a gentle humour throughout which strikes just the right note.
Give it a try if: you love cosy crime; you want to get into detective stories but don’t like anything heavy or angsty; you love great characters; you love protagonists who use their brains rather than physical strength; you like books which challenge conventions; you like books about older people; you want something fun to read; you’re looking for something lighter but not ‘trashy’.
This month’s playlist(s)
We talked about Peter Robinson’s use of music in his Inspector Banks novels and here is a real treat for you: he compiled playlists for nine of his books (it would be possible to do it yourself of course, but what a treat to have them here! If you want to fall deeper into the atmosphere of one of his books this would be a great way to do it.
This month’s poem
The Detective Agency
I love this poem set in a detective agency, which I feel is such an evocative setting. It really brings to life for me the old noir image of a detective agency but of course there’s nothing to say it’s set in the past.
By Walter Kirn, 1987.
An epic of tasks. Her long blond stocking runs interminably. Hairpins, pencils, drop as she bends to change it. Mike checks in, shadowed, hatless, snapping his gum. It is Tuesday. They have the same two options. Clients call and leave numbers. To use such services is a privilege the rich never quite get over the hang of, their packets of fifties tossed down, their orders: hunt, haunt my wife, powder her tea. Mike smokes, his assistant fans it back. For the interest it shows in their window that pigeon might as well be let in. He fears things are all academic now; she would love to think so, but wavers. So many bodies in ditches, so many bodies. You cannot reduce it. Following dark men into the dark while she mans the phones. Of nine million souls in this city only half have stories. Mike damns the fraction. She orders paper clips. Afternoon itself is the last detail, not bills on spindles, not bullets, not milk for the coffee one would guess means everything to two who say little, doing a tough job.
This month’s reading links
Back in 2017-18, The Folio Society and House Of Illustration ran a competition to find an illustrator for a new edition of The Selected Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. You can see some of the work of the finalists here and it’s such a gorgeous selection of artwork, whether you’re a Holmes fan or not. (The Guardian, free). I’d love to hear whose work you would have chosen (the eventual winner was Max Löffler (Folio Society, free).
The story of how one writer found himself at the centre of a real-life missing persons case, embroiled in a mystery. (The Guardian, free).
at considers the lessons for writers she’s picked up from Agatha Christie’s notebooks, which were surprisingly (and gratifyingly) chaotic (Substack, free).A fascinating look at a scam manual written for German immigrants moving to the US, first published in 1912. The manual was intended to help new arrivals avoid many of the cons and scams that were common at the time (Atlas Obscura, free).
The Russian government has issued an arrest warrant for author Boris Akunin, who I recommended in our first newsletter this month. One of Russia’s best-selling authors, he already lives abroad but has now been designated as a foreign agent by the Kremlin (The Times, paywall).
One of the funniest things I’ve read for ages: Sherlock Holmes And The Case Of The Possibly Flirtatious Texts (McSweeneys, free) by
(I also recommend her newsletter if you’re interested in the art of humorous writing, it’s brilliant).Thanks for reading!
I’d love to hear what you think of this month’s books and articles - you can leave a comment, send a message or reply directly to this email. I’d especially love to chat detectives so let me know if you have a favourite I’ve missed! I’ll be back next month with a new theme for us to get stuck into, ready for summer.
Happy reading!
Kate
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Great newsletter! Thank you!
The poem ! It felt like a short B&W film. Just so intriguing 👍