|
|
Post by dhunt on Sept 4, 2009 20:55:11 GMT -5
I've just discovered this writer. If you like mysteries... if you like Brother Cadfael... Her stories take place at St Frideswides, c. 1435, with a savvy sleuth named Dame Frevisse. Has anyone read her? Great fun.
|
|
|
|
Post by bluemaydie on Sept 5, 2009 15:15:51 GMT -5
I"ve read one of hers--as you say, great fun. Also a fan of Brother Cadfael (although I find some of the plotting a bit slow). Ellis Peters' other detective (whose name I can't remember, and whose stories are published with the author writing as Edith Pargeter) is also quite good. The stories are set, if I remember, in the sixties.
Have you read Dorothy L Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey stories? Set in the '20s, so they lack medieval flair, but I think they're some of the best mysteries I've ever read. Well-plotted, with characters who are real people instead of types, and with a good sense of life and death--i.e., this is not merely a puzzle to be solved, but a death in need of justice.
|
|
|
|
Post by syme on Sept 5, 2009 17:42:15 GMT -5
You know, I've never gotten around to read Dorothy Sayers. What would you recommend for a total newbie? I very rarely read mysteries, though when I have I've enjoyed them. Really, when it comes to mystery, I've never gone further than Sherlock Holmes and Fr. Brown...
|
|
|
|
Post by dhunt on Sept 6, 2009 6:57:38 GMT -5
I never got round to Sayers either. So many books to read--can't get to them all.
Brother Cadfael--yes, Bluemaydie--slow plotting is an issue. I enjoyed them very much, still. Then I found out that PBS had done an entire series; I ordered a set of three videos, thinking I'd really enjoy them. Low-budget bores. Derek Jacobi, too. Worst of all, it ruined Brother Cadfael for reading as well. I don't know how that can happen, but it did.
I read Frazer's autobio online. Her inspiration was a novel written in the 50's by Josephine Tey. Huge impact, apparently. So I checked it out at Amazon. Gracious, what praise: NYT: "the best mystery of the 20th century". It turns out that NYT was not hyperbolic. It's called The Daughter of Time, and it's mystery par excellence. Reminds me of Hitchcock's Rear Window. In fact, given the dates, he was very possibly inspired by the novel. If you're into history or research, you'd love it. From his hospital bed, where he's recuperating from an accident (Rear Window?), a detective solves the murder of the princes in the tower and exonerates Richard III--through detective work via research. (He convinced me--R. III is the most mis-maligned figure in English history.)
|
|
|
|
Post by bluemaydie on Sept 13, 2009 12:45:35 GMT -5
Actually, I loved the PBS Cadfael series. But then, I'm a mystery junkie. And a Derek Jacobi junkie (I even watched the second Underworld movie...). So my opinion is not unbiased.
I would start with the first Wimsey mystery, Whose Body? It's probably the best introduction to the character and his background in the whole series. After that, they don't have to be read in order. And I think they're all good. Gaudy Night and Nine Tailors are especially well done, although they're both slower than some others. Not slow in a slog-though-to-find-out-whodunit way, but slow in a characters-are-developing-and-things-are-builing-up kind of way.
|
|
