Friday, September 25, 2020

Bookshelf Traveling for Insane Times #21

I am participating in the Bookshelf Traveling For Insane Times meme. It was originated by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness, but Katrina at Pining for the West is now gathering the blogposts.

So here I am looking at a small portion of a shelf in the glass front bookcase. The vintage mysteries on their side are usually hidden by the wooden frames of the two doors. 

If you have problems reading any of the titles, you can try right clicking on the image of the shelf, and open the link in a new tab.


The book on the right side, King & Joker, I have read and reviewed on the blog. It is one of my most favorite books, and also has a great skull on the cover.

The book on the left side, Icy Clutches by Aaron Elkins, is the 6th book in the Gideon Oliver series. Elkins has written several series and some standalone novels, but he is best known for this series. Gideon Oliver is a forensic anthropologist, known as the 'skeleton detective'. The fourth Oliver book, Old Bones, received the 1988 Edgar Award for Best Novel. I have only read two books in this series but I have many more of them because I collect books with skeletons or skulls on the cover. So I will continue with the series, sooner or later. Each book is set in a different and often exotic locale (Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, France; Egypt; Tahiti). 


In case the titles on the stack in the middle are not clear, here is a close up photo. I have not read any of the vintage mysteries in that stack. I have read one book by Richard Hull, The Murder of My Aunt. I really liked that one.

All of the cover illustrations for the British Library Classic Crime series are lovely, but below are two of my favorites.


See reviews of Murder in Piccadilly by Anthony Wynne at Pining for the West and Mysteries Ahoy! Per Aidan at Mysteries Ahoy! this is an inverted mystery, and that appeals to me.


The pluses for Murder of a Lady by Charles Kingston are (1) set in a castle and (2) set in Scotland. However, it is a locked room mystery and I am not very fond of those. See this review at The Invisible Event, which has links to several other reviews.

 

15 comments:

Susan said...

I love the British Library Classics covers. They're lovely!

Margot Kinberg said...

I thought The Murder of My Aunt was well-written and clever, Tracy - glad to see it here. And the Gideon Oliver series is very good. I haven't any of those in a while, and I should. Oh, and if you haven't read Elkins' Loot, I recommend it.

TracyK said...

Susan, I agree, those covers are so nice. If I did not already have so many books, I would be tempted to buy many more of them. My husband has more than I do, so we share them.

TracyK said...

Margot, I liked The Murder of My Aunt so much, I want to try more of Hull's books.

I have read Loot, and I liked it a lot. I also read Turncoat, another standalone, and I loved that one. I have another one of Elkin's standalone books on my TBR: A Long Time Coming. It is also an art-related mystery. I look forward to trying it too.

Katrina said...

I agree with you about the British Library covers, they seem to be publishing so many of them now, it would be expensive to buy them all. That King and Joker book is somehow very stylish too.

TracyK said...

And with the British Library books, Katrina, I would want to display them so that the illustrations could be seen... although the spines are very nice too.

The King and Joker edition is probably my favorite of all the books that I own.

Cath said...

Death of a Busybody by George Bellairs is very enjoyable. I also enjoyed Murder of a Lady. I'm think I'm close to being addicted to Michael Gilbert's book. Just devoured Close Quarters, the first Inspector Hazlerigg book, only started it yesterday. Luckily, I have more... LOL

Rick Robinson said...

Very nice indeed. I really like the British Library Crime Classics books and have many of them. You saw my review of one of the latest, SETTLING SCORES on my blog. I just got THE COLOR OF MURDER in the mail. The covers are wonderful. I need to do another of these shelf posts.

TracyK said...

Cath, I know what you mean about Michael Gilbert. I have liked every book I have read by him. I have four more of his books on my shelves and I think I have some in my cataloged books. I look forward to reading more of them.

TracyK said...

Rick, I have to try more of the short story collections from the British Library. I have only read one with Christmas stories. The Color of Money is by Julian Symons? I have not read anything by him, but I do have some other ones on my TBR, in old paperback editions.

I look forward to you doing another shelf post.

Rick Robinson said...

Yes, Symons. I've read short stories and a novel by him already.

CLM said...

I just drool over the British Library covers. I am currently reading Death on the Cherwell, which I think Cath recommended. I wish I owned them all. They need one of those wire spinning racks so all the covers can be seen. My all time favorite bookstore, now closed, was famous for shelving its thousands of books by publisher (it was a great place to go to prep for a job interview) but a number of paperback mysteries were also displayed in one of those racks and it was lovely to browse.

I feel like this is a duplicate of something I already wrote but it doesn't seem to be posted - I am not as much of a Peter Dickinson fan as my mother is but I am quite haunted by a book he wrote called Eva about a girl who wakes up from a coma. Normally, I prefer books by his wife, Robin McKinley but if King & Joker is so high on your list I need to give it a try!

TracyK said...

Constance, I agree, I would buy all of the British Library Crime Classics if money and space were not a problem.

I will have to look for a copy of Eva. I have only read Dickinson's mysteries, but I did know he had written fantasy, science fiction and books for children. I have many of his mysteries unread still. I have never read anything by his wife, but have thought I would try something by her someday.

col2910 said...

If I was picking one from the shelf to read, I'd probably go for the Elkins. I haven't read any of them though.

TracyK said...

I need to get back to reading Elkins' series, Col. More recently I have read his standalone books.