Golden Age of Detective Fiction

It’s springtime and I am going through my book collection to find as many books as possible to purge from my collection into my Little Free Library or give to friends.

1. Inspector Alleyn Collection

I’m first donating my entire physical and digital Inspector Alleyn series. I hate reading them- let me clarify. When I read Ngaio Marsh, it sounds too pretentious and try-hard, and I am so annoyed by her voice that I want to stab my eyes out. However, I love listening to Ngaio Marsh’s books- they feel much more natural as a performance. I am trying to understand why my brain only likes them in audiobook format, but there it is, and I can get any book from the series at my local library.

Books donated: 7

2. Chief Inspector Gamache series.

I’m unhauling all of my Chief Inspector Gamache books because I find all the characters besides Gamache so cloyingly twee. They grate on my nerves, and the humorous banter in the stories just falls flat for me. I also find many of Penny’s themes dark and depressing. I have always been in a weird funk after reading the Gamache books. I’ve read the first four and am done. I picked up Kingdom of the Blind while in Pennsylvania at a Little Free Library, but I think I will pass it on without reading it.

Books donated: 5

3. The Dinner Lady Detectives Series.

I’ve read the first two books in The Dinner Lady Detectives series, and it’s been a big disappointment. I love that the two leads are a married Lesbian couple, but everything else doesn’t work for me. The Dinner Ladies don’t investigate and just stumble from one impossibly broad, slapstick situation to another. It’s marketed in the same vein as The Thursday Murder Club as a sort of cozy murder mystery. Still, I find the plots to be unbelievable, and one of the two leads just totally bulldozes over her wife and is so manipulative that I can’t stand the series.

Books donated: 2.

4. Martha Grimes

The two books I have by Martha Grimes I have started multiple times in the five years I’ve owned them and I always fall asleep before the third chapter. None of the character or stories grab my attention and I’m ready to get them out of my collection.

Books donated: 2

6. The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman

I’m unhauling this for a purely petty reason, it’s in hardback, and all of my other Thursday Murder Club books are paperbacks. I am planning to get a paperback copy sometime shortly.

Books donated: 1.

7. Murder in Stained Glass by Margaret Armstrong.

Margaret Armstrong is best known as an American illustrator. She also wrote one mystery novel called Murder in Stained Glass, starring a Miss Trumbull who has a Park Avenue address, money to spare, no kids, and a lot of friends. Her debut mystery was a little unevenly paced but I liked it, however, Armstrong never returned to the series. It’s a fun little oddity but not necessary to my collection.

Books donated: 1.

8. Pignon Scorbion and the Barbershop Detectives by Rick Bleiweiss

I hated this book so much. The wooden dialog and the inane Greek chorus of lackeys slobbered over Pignon Scorbion’s mundane detective work. The fact that the detective is named Pignon Scorbion-which is patently ridiculous, and then I had to read a long, tedious backstory about his dumb name. I could go on, but I’d instead just get this book out of my life.

Books donated: 1.

I’m unhauling 19 books and am pretty pleased with my decisions. Are you decluttering your collection this spring? What books are you letting go of?