That all sounds phantastic! We're probably both going to continue the Patricia Wentworth quest, and I, too, would like to check off my remaining "Detection Club" bingo card squares in 2019. Count on me to go on reading other entries from the BL Crime Classics series as well.
Tiny note on Farjeon's "Seven Dead": I haven't read either this book or "Thirteen Guests" yet, but from an exchange between Tigus and BT I conclude that "Thirteen Guests" comes before "Seven Dead" in a series / pairing featuring the same investigator, so if you care about reading series in order, you may want to keep that in mind. (Tigus: Are there any major spoilers in "Seven Dead" for "Thirteen Guests"?)
I may join you for part of the "summer of Sherlock" project / period, mainly with the idea of finally going through the Stephen Fry audio of The Complete Works and the remaining Derek Jacobi audios I own but haven't listened to yet. As well as ... reading a bio of ACD that's really worth it, as most of them actually don't seem to be for one reason or another.
Anyway, I hope your 2019 reading is going to be as fabulous as it sounds like it's going to be!
Finally, a question: Do you want this post to be counted towards 24 Festive Tasks (New Year's Day, Task 1)?
There are no spoilers for Thirteen Guests in Seven Dead, and it is only briefly mentioned. I don't believe you have to read them in order.
Tho, I rather liked Thirteen Guests because it has some very unusual things in it.
Oh, yes, I will update to refer to the appropriate Task! I've been so busy that I haven't had as much of a chance to play 24 Tasks as I would've liked!
Seven Dead - an excellent start I should think. I haven't finished it, yet, but only because RL decided to get in the way. Loving it, and am hoping you and others (TA also has it) will like it, too.
Wentworth - I'll be following your reading closely on this. I haven't read Wentworth, yet, so am going to hit you up for recs.
Valdemar - What's this?
Summer of Sherlock - I'm not sure how much I'll be commenting here as I haven't been able to warm to any Holmes pastiche, yet. However, I am looking to finally get to the ACD bio that I have had from the library for months now, and I hope to get to that quite early on in the year. And as one non-fiction book leads to another there may be other books on ACD/Holmes to follow.
It's been on my Currently Reading shelf for months. I even had to take it back to the library to show I still had it before I could renew it again. (They do trust me, really, but they needed to scan it back in and then check it out again...)
I know Chris wasn't impressed but I'd like to see for myself on this one. I believe our expectations on what makes a good ACD bio may differ.
Now you have me really looking forward to Seven Dead! Antidote to Venom is available from my library, so I have put that on my BLCC classics list. Below the Clock, sadly, is not - I am putting it on my birthday list, though!
Oh yes, Raymond Postgate -- I keep meaning to finally read something by him as well. Have had "Verdict of Twelve" and several other books sitting on my physical TBR for way too long.
I read his not-as-good Somebody at the Door, which I liked, but isn't nearly as possible as Verdict of Twelve. I definitely want to read that one sometime this year!
Oh, right, that was your review -- I held back on the Audible version of "Somebody at the Door" (which currently is the only version available on Audible.de), because I remembered that either you, Tigus or BT hadn't exactly been in love with it ...
Re: British Library Classics: I'm going to just say: Avoid Murder in the Museum by John Rowland. It's pretty awful. Top 5 of the year awful for me, and if I remember right (correct me if I'm wrong BT), BrokenTune was not impressed either.
re: Sherlock pastiches. I've disliked almost all the pastiches I've read so far, but I just bought, on a whim, Otto Penzler's brick: Sherlock: An anthology of stories inspired by the greatest detective of all time. I have NO idea if it's a good collection or not, but it includes pastiches by A.A. Milne, Stephen King, Kingsley Amis, P.G. Wodehouse, Neil Gaiman, Anthony Burgess, etc. as well as at least one by Conan Doyle himself. I figure if I ever enjoy any pastiche of my personal book hero, it's going to likely be in this book, written by one of these authors.
Pretty much my thinking re: the pastiches as well (I have my eyes on the Penzler anthology, too, and just might cave as part of "summer of Sherlock" -- but we'll see, and my audio reruns of the originals definitely come first).
Re Murder in the Museum by John Rowland: This was one annoyingly stupid book and one of the most awful ones in the BLCC series. That one should have been left in obscurity, imo.
Tiny note on Farjeon's "Seven Dead": I haven't read either this book or "Thirteen Guests" yet, but from an exchange between Tigus and BT I conclude that "Thirteen Guests" comes before "Seven Dead" in a series / pairing featuring the same investigator, so if you care about reading series in order, you may want to keep that in mind. (Tigus: Are there any major spoilers in "Seven Dead" for "Thirteen Guests"?)
I may join you for part of the "summer of Sherlock" project / period, mainly with the idea of finally going through the Stephen Fry audio of The Complete Works and the remaining Derek Jacobi audios I own but haven't listened to yet. As well as ... reading a bio of ACD that's really worth it, as most of them actually don't seem to be for one reason or another.
Anyway, I hope your 2019 reading is going to be as fabulous as it sounds like it's going to be!
Finally, a question: Do you want this post to be counted towards 24 Festive Tasks (New Year's Day, Task 1)?
Tho, I rather liked Thirteen Guests because it has some very unusual things in it.
Seven Dead - an excellent start I should think. I haven't finished it, yet, but only because RL decided to get in the way. Loving it, and am hoping you and others (TA also has it) will like it, too.
Wentworth - I'll be following your reading closely on this. I haven't read Wentworth, yet, so am going to hit you up for recs.
Valdemar - What's this?
Summer of Sherlock - I'm not sure how much I'll be commenting here as I haven't been able to warm to any Holmes pastiche, yet. However, I am looking to finally get to the ACD bio that I have had from the library for months now, and I hope to get to that quite early on in the year. And as one non-fiction book leads to another there may be other books on ACD/Holmes to follow.
It's been on my Currently Reading shelf for months. I even had to take it back to the library to show I still had it before I could renew it again. (They do trust me, really, but they needed to scan it back in and then check it out again...)
I know Chris wasn't impressed but I'd like to see for myself on this one. I believe our expectations on what makes a good ACD bio may differ.
Ditto "Below the Clock".
re: Sherlock pastiches. I've disliked almost all the pastiches I've read so far, but I just bought, on a whim, Otto Penzler's brick: Sherlock: An anthology of stories inspired by the greatest detective of all time. I have NO idea if it's a good collection or not, but it includes pastiches by A.A. Milne, Stephen King, Kingsley Amis, P.G. Wodehouse, Neil Gaiman, Anthony Burgess, etc. as well as at least one by Conan Doyle himself. I figure if I ever enjoy any pastiche of my personal book hero, it's going to likely be in this book, written by one of these authors.