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I couldn't sort out the red herring. I thought the doctor's death was faked and had nothing to go on once he was clearly dead. Does anyone have votes for the next book? I'm reading Crooked House anyway.
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Jul 9, 2013 06:31
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Since I have not yet covered it, I'd go for a book by Freeman Wills Crofts as suggested in the OP. But anything by Christie doesn't feel like a chore either. e: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2013 - Free too even. If someone can lead the book for the rest of us, we should be set. Grawl fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Jul 10, 2013 |
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Jul 10, 2013 01:32
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Grawl posted:Since I have not yet covered it, I'd go for a book by Freeman Wills Crofts as suggested in the OP. But anything by Christie doesn't feel like a chore either. I think Autumncomet had volunteered to do either Pit Prop Syndicate or The Moving Finger. I could do Pit Prop Syndicate but would need time to read it, like a couple of days, so if someone else is ready to go that would be best.
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Jul 11, 2013 15:12
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I did volunteer to do it; give me the weekend to read it then we can start.  I got the bit with Armstrong and Wargrave collaborating but it never did occur to me that Morris was someone not on the island.
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Jul 12, 2013 01:07
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Autumncomet posted:I did volunteer to do it; give me the weekend to read it then we can start. So, did you read it yet? I'm eager to get on 
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Jul 17, 2013 00:09
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I'm keen too, if the thread is still going.
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Jul 23, 2013 09:13
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If we don't hear from autumncomet in the next day or two, I'll read Pit Prop Syndicate and run it--I only need a day or so to skim it and decide on the breaks etc.
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Jul 23, 2013 18:18
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That's actually a book I haven't read yet! I haven't read much Freeman for some reason, so I can finally participate in one of those. Looking forward to it.
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Jul 23, 2013 19:01
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okay. It's Tuesday the 23rd. If we haven't heard from autumncomet by say 5pm Eastern tomorrow, I will fetch Pit Prop Syndicate from Project Gutenberg, go over it tomorrow night, and post the first assignment on Thursday at some point during the day. It will be simple enough for me to read more thoroughly as the discussion goes on. Edit: While we are waiting, it might be a good idea to choose the next couple of books and who will host them so that we're ready to go when Pit Prop is finished.
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Jul 23, 2013 19:09
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Long story short, I had skimmed the book over the weekend and intended to read it more thoroughly last Monday. Then I ran into some medical issues, and when those cleared up my kindle decided to go crazy and I'm no good at reading books on my iPod. So those are my excuses.  Anyway, Pit Prop Syndicate is, like our previous Crofts book, not a traditional whodunit, so a warning there. The focus is not really on solving a murder but untangling a conspiracy. I think it could lead to some interesting discussion though and the characters are (unintentionally) hilarious.  The Pit Prop Syndicate is available for free on Project Gutenberg in a variety of formats. There are some maps in the book that might not display we'll on an ereader but I'll link those separately in the thread when they show up. For the first assignment read up to the end of chapter 3.
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Jul 24, 2013 07:35
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Autumncomet posted:For the first assignment read up to the end of chapter 3. Right then. It appears that Merriman is the hero of our tale, perhaps assisted by his friend Hilliard. Other notable characters are Coburn, who runs the mill, his daughter, and Henri, a driver. There seems to also be various workmen and at least one more driver. The mystery as it stands is why does Henri keep changing the number on his lorry, and why did Miss Coburn and Henri freak out when Merriman noticed this? And how can the pit prop trade be profitable? I have to say, I am intrigued. I suppose that Henri could just be superstitious about numbers, or trying to pass one lorry off as another for some reason. But why? I think our intrepid sleuths should investigate where the lorries go to when they leave the mill. Meander fucked around with this message at 11:01 on Sep 4, 2013 |
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Jul 24, 2013 12:19
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My thoughts so far: At least one person at the mill isn't in on the conspiracy, or the numbers would get flipped there instead of out on the road. Since a truck labeled No 6 entered the mill and was potentially seen by a non-conspirator, there probably are at least six actual trucks. They're described as being identical to a casual inspection, so the label switching might be for confusing exactly which truck is being moved when.
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Jul 25, 2013 06:38
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Wouldn't the driver be recognized? You can make #4 look like #1 but someone would notice Henri was the second to leave but first to return.
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Jul 25, 2013 09:57
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Well so far I am just as confused as our heroes. The only thing that really sticks out to me is how they keep describing the trucks moving so slowly. If you are only transporting firewood, why do you need to move so glacially slowly?
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Jul 25, 2013 18:28
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Going to pick this up and start over the weekend. I looked at the scoreboard in the thread and noticed we have only 1 solid "win" so I am going to make a comeback to try and help rectify that!
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Jul 25, 2013 19:05
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Foxfire_ posted:At least one person at the mill isn't in on the conspiracy, or the numbers would get flipped there instead of out on the road. Since a truck labeled No 6 entered the mill and was potentially seen by a non-conspirator, there probably are at least six actual trucks. They're described as being identical to a casual inspection, so the label switching might be for confusing exactly which truck is being moved when. At first I was musing that Coburn might not be in on the secret (whatever the secret is), but that seems unlikely, especially as his daughter seems to be in the know. Perhaps Coburn is in on it, but the workers at the mill are ignorant, except for say Herni and maybe a few others. For some reason knowing which truck is being used when would arouse suspicion - perhaps something to do with the timing, which seems to be important somehow. Or maybe one of the trucks is special in some way? Hobnob fucked around with this message at 14:54 on Aug 1, 2013 |
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Jul 25, 2013 20:12
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Hobnob posted:At first I was musing that Coburn might not be in on the secret (whatever the secret is), but that seems unlikely, especially as his daughter seems to be in the know. Perhaps Coburn is in on it, but the workers at the mill are ignorant, except for say Herni and maybe a few others. For some reason knowing which truck is being used when would arouse suspicion - perhaps something to do with the timing, which seems to be important somehow. Or maybe one of the trucks is special in some way? Coburn has to either be in on it or be bad at business, since selling pit props should be unprofitable. Either someone's using him as a dupe and buying props at more than market price, or he's getting extra income from somewhere.
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Jul 26, 2013 00:10
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Awesome, finding this one easier to get through than the last Crofts book we did. Will join the conversation as soon as I get a chance to read chapter 3.
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Jul 26, 2013 15:58
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Interesting to see that this time it's not a murder we're trying to solve.
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Jul 27, 2013 14:33
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What would help greatly for this first segment would be a compiled list of what numbers of lorries went in which directions, at what times, with which numbers, and when they were switched. I suspect it's all going to become very important. If nobody else does it, I may try to sort it all out this weekend. And let's not write out the possibility of a murder here. It may just not have happened yet. Quinn2win fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Aug 27, 2013 |
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Jul 27, 2013 15:11
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ProfessorProf posted:What would help greatly for this first segment would be a compiled list of what numbers of lorries went in which directions, at what times, with which numbers, and when they were switched. I suspect it's all going to become very important. If nobody else does it, I may try to sort it all out this weekend. I was planning to do this anyway. 9:00 - No. 6 and No. 4 arrive empty from Bordeaux 10:30 - No. 4 leaves mill loaded with firewood and changes 4 to 1 11:00 - No. 6 leaves mill loaded with firewood. 2:30 - No. 1 returns empty and changes 1 to 4 2:45 - No. 6 returns empty 3:30 - No. 1 leaves loaded, no number change It is presumed that all lorries are coming and going from Bordeaux.
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Jul 27, 2013 18:13
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Fru Fru posted:I was planning to do this anyway. So, looking at it from the perspective of people outside of the conspiracy, there are three trucks, not two... No. 6 is behaving perfectly normally, carrying the goods to Bordeaux, so let's ignore it for now. Bordeaux's perspective: No. 6 and No. 4 leave to get goods. No. 1 and No. 6 return with goods. No. 1 and No. 6 leave to get goods. No. 1 returns with goods. Mill's perspective: No. 6 and No. 4 arrive to get goods. No. 4 and No. 6 leave to deliver goods. No. 4 and No. 6 arrive to get goods. No. 1 leaves to deliver goods? That last delivery where No. 1 didn't change its number is really the weird one. That aside, the Mill wouldn't even be aware that Lorry 4 was ever Lorry 1. I have no idea what to make of this, and I might have some details wrong, but really we just need more information. This is interesting! Quinn2win fucked around with this message at 16:06 on Aug 27, 2013 |
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Jul 27, 2013 18:24
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Not much information so far to allow much conclusions it seems. From the hints in the book, it sounds the like lady and the truck driver are in a conspiracy that probably involves smuggling some brandy, and the company owner doesn't know about it. As for changing the license plates, this would seem to cause the amount of trucks to appear much larger to the outside world, which in turn could be used to stem some potential suspicion about the frequency with which the same truck is doing trips. Or they're making the company appear much bigger than it really is.
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Jul 28, 2013 18:11
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Things seem to have slowed down, so let's move on and read to the end of chapter 5. You can unspoil things above this point. There's a map in chapter 4, linked here for those with ereaders: http://i.imgur.com/XlpZTli.png Why can't Hilliard be the protagonist? 
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Jul 31, 2013 01:08
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Well, I clearly misunderstood the company owner not being in on it. Not much useful information (that I can tell!) to help understand what the conspiracy really is. So apparently they have a depot in the UK and putting another one would strongly increase their profits. The boat crew is in on it. So it still looks like a smuggling operation, but how do the truck numbers factor in on that?
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Aug 1, 2013 12:36
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So not much new information, or at least not that will help us unravel the mystery. We have the people who are in on the scheme: Coburn, his daughter (probably), Captain Beamish, the engineer Bulla, and Henri. Plus at least one other on the UK side, the only one we know the name of is Archer. I think the other workers at the mill (and crew of the boat?) are probably not part of the enterprise, so the number-swapping is probably to fool them. Still not sure why the swapping is being done. It strikes me that whatever they're smuggling has to be picked up from somewhere, so maybe it's done to disguise the movement of the lorry that's picking up the goods - perhaps it's a longer trip away. (Or alternately, if they're smuggling something from England to France (what?), the goods will need to be delivered somewhere at the French end.)
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Aug 1, 2013 20:44
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Why was Ms. Coburn so shocked to see Merriman? That's my big question right now. The captain had the same reaction, but the young lady we had gotten to know beforehand. She wasn't shocked the first time she met Merriman, just the second time.
Quinn2win fucked around with this message at 16:06 on Aug 27, 2013 |
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Aug 3, 2013 20:22
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ProfessorProf posted:Why was Ms. Coburn so shocked to see Merriman? That's my big question right now. The captain had the same reaction, but the young lady we had gotten to know beforehand. She wasn't shocked the first time she met Merriman, just the second time. Quite probably the first time she saw him she wasn't alerted because he was a random passerby. Now that he has returned, it's not so random anymore and they know there's a risk he's snooping around, suspects something or might run into something accidentally. Especially if the truck driver told about him looking at the plates.
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Aug 4, 2013 08:27
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Hobnob posted:
I agree that the number swapping appears to be for the benefit of the mill workers. And since the boat's involved, then smuggling seems likely. But what? Drugs? They need to see where in Bordeaux those lorries go - particularly when Henri is driving one. Meander fucked around with this message at 11:03 on Sep 4, 2013 |
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Aug 6, 2013 05:30
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Autumncomet, you around? I think we're ready for our next assignment!
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Aug 10, 2013 00:54
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It's not midnight so it's not the weekend in my time zone yet, but if you insist Prof.  Read through the end of chapter 8. Here's the chapter 7 map for the ereaders.Edit: Oooooops, this is the actual map. Leaving the old one up in memory of my shame/good taste in movies. Mecca-Benghazi fucked around with this message at 06:04 on Aug 10, 2013 |
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Aug 10, 2013 05:07
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Autumncomet posted:It's not midnight so it's not the weekend in my time zone yet, but if you insist Prof. Judging by that "map", the story is taking a weird turn.
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Aug 10, 2013 05:26
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I didn't even know Abba was around in 1922!
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Aug 10, 2013 05:27
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My shame...  Persepolis is a great movie, watch it! Here's the actual map: http://i.imgur.com/q3COJL3.png
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Aug 10, 2013 06:03
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Can't say I'm any the wiser, and judging by the lack of posts here, neither are any of you. I doubt the rectification business nearby is coincidence, though.
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Aug 17, 2013 20:20
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I will hopefully get caught up on this tomorrow and perhaps I'll have something to contribute.
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Aug 18, 2013 01:40
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Same boat, still working on the section.
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Aug 18, 2013 04:52
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Caught up. Avenues of thought extinguished, but no new ones replacing them yet. I think it's worth properly establishing what the question we're trying to answer is: -What illicit business is being carried out at the pit prop operation? -How is it being performed without anyone's knowledge? -Who's in on it and who isn't? If we can answer all three of those, I think we can call this a win. Also, I suspect answering any one will quickly reveal the other two.
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Aug 19, 2013 05:59
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I think we can move on at this point and Zola will catch up quickly. I hope my ABBA-shaming hasn't driven people off.  A slightly larger chunk this time, read up to the end of chapter 12.
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Aug 24, 2013 01:23
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Still on chapter 9, but some quick initial thoughts: Brandy in the props - a clever ploy, if it's true. Fun fact: £84,000 in 1922 is equivalent to 5.3 million dollars in 2013. Nothing to sneeze at, nothing at all. I wonder why SUGGESTION keeps appearing in all caps. Quinn2win fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Oct 2, 2013 |
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Aug 27, 2013 15:52
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