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Welcome to our Dec 21/Jan 22 Buddy Read of Dictator's Way aka Death of a Tyrant, the tenth in the Bobby Owen series, first published in 1938.

When an old acquaintance of Bobby Owen's from Oxford days turns up out of the blue, he needs help. Bobby little suspects that investigating the sinister enclave of 'Dictator's Way' will quickly set in train a series of momentous events, involving Bobby in a fistfight with an ex-professional boxer, kidnap, peril at sea and international intrigue - not to mention encounters with the mysterious and attractive Olive Farrar in whom Bobby might just have met his match.

Dictator's Way is the tenth of E.R. Punshon's acclaimed Bobby Owen mysteries, first published in 1938 and part of a series which eventually spanned thirty-five novels.

Please do not post spoilers in this thread. Thank you.

Just opening up our latest Bobby Owen read - thank you to Susan for the introduction.

Who is reading this book? I've borrowed it from the library but haven't started yet - an intriguing title, though!

This is a link to the spoiler thread:
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I own this, definitely intend to read it, but it is a bit back in the queue. This often happens with books I own as those with library deadlines push to the front of the line.

Well, at last a female has actually captured Bobby's notice. The book starts with Bobby being told that a manor house is currently a place where gambling and pornographic films are being played, and that an old acquaintance would like him to investigate. He is asked to accompany his friend the following day, but Bobby being the inquisitive person he is, sees no reason to wait for his friend and sets off to take a look at the Manor House. On arriving at the property, he is met by a bodyguard/bouncer, who immediately attacks him, and so Bobby has to take part in a fight. The attacker is a criminal, but as things turn out, he finds this man takes a liking to him, after Bobby betters him in the fight. Bobby eventually gains access to the Manor House and finds a murdered man, and so the investigation begins.
There are numerous characters introduced into this story, mostly foreigners, which I was having a bit trouble identifying at first. Besides the fight at the start, we are also given a car chase at high speed, and a boat chase in the North Sea. So there is plenty of action throughout. As I said at the start there is also a romantic element and I am eager to see if this carries on in future books.

Exciting! All that action and the prospect of Bobby finding love.

I've just started this one - love the author's note at the start with the sarky comment about people claiming characters are based on them.

Unfortunately, I've just noticed that the next book in the series, Comes a Stranger, is currently "under review" at Amazon and not available for purchase on Kindle.

I'm not sure why this happens - it seems to be affecting quite a few titles at Amazon at the moment. Seems it can take some weeks or even months for a book to become available again. I'll keep an eye on it, but if it isn't sorted out soon I think we may need to put back the date of the next buddy read. :(

How unfortunate, especially as a lot of this series were only cheap for ages. Maybe we will have to miss this one out for a while, but continue with them until it is released again.

Oh that’s a shame Judy, I’ve already got Comes a Stranger but of course we may need to put the date back if others can’t get hold of it.

I’ll be starting Dictator’s Way as soon as I finish The Night of Fear.

Thank you, Jill and Pamela. Comes a Stranger is currently planned for mid-February, so we can have a look again in early January and see whether the problem has been sorted out.

I've read about a third of this now and think I'm enjoying it more than the previous two in the series. It helps that I think so far there are fewer characters to keep track of, and the promise of romance for Bobby is also quite intriguing.

I've just checked and Comes a Stranger is still "under review" and not available on Kindle from Amazon.

What do all our Bobby Owen readers want to do? Are you happy to go ahead with the buddy read in February as planned and get it from somewhere else, or should we delay the read?

The ebook is available from other places like Kobo and Google Play Books, and libraries may have it too, but obviously Amazon is the most popular.

I saw it was under review and then found it on Amazon for sale using a different search. If you just put it "Comes a Strange Punshon" as your search criteria, 2 books appear. The one under review and a second copy which can be bought for probably $3.99 depending on tax. I'd like to read it.

I already have a copy so I’d like to go ahead. I guess the issue is that if we defer it, it could take several months before it’s available again?

I also have this so would like to go ahead. Anyone reading it later would be able to find the discussions in the archives, as they are never locked.

Carolien wrote: "I saw it was under review and then found it on Amazon for sale using a different search. If you just put it "Comes a Strange Punshon" as your search criteria, 2 books appear. The one under review a..."

Thank you, Carolien - I've just tried this and it isn't working for me in the UK, but worth trying for those in other countries. I had this happen with another book in the past, where a second edition turned up which was available.

So annoying when books vanish off Amazon!

Susan wrote: "So annoying when books vanish off Amazon!"

I definitely agree! It seems to be happening far too often.

Pamela, Jill and Carolien have all said they are happy to go ahead with this read as planned - does anyone else have thoughts on this?

My library has it, so I'm OK, and it is also available for 99p from Google Play Books:


And Kobo, also 99p:

I also have the book already, so I'm okay to continue.