1961 Club, hosted by Stuck in a Book and Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings, starts on Monday, which means we’ll all be reading and writing about books published in that year. 1961 was a great year for publishing – I have previously read and reviewed six books on my blog and thought I would list them before the week begins. If you haven’t decided what to read yet, maybe you can find some inspiration here.

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The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett – The first book in one of my favourite series, the Lymond Chronicles, and one I would love to see someone read for 1961 Club! I know this book doesn’t appeal to everyone due to the frequent literary references, foreign language quotes, the complex plot and Lymond himself, an enigmatic character seen only through the eyes of other people, always in as bad a light as possible. For those of us who connect with it, though, it’s a wonderful reading experience, so I do highly recommend giving this book a try.

The Way to the Lantern by Audrey Erskine Lindop – Lindop seems to be a truly forgotten author, with all of her work now out of print, but she was very successful in the 1960s, with some of her books made into films. I found a copy of her French Revolution novel, The Way to the Lantern, a few years ago and absolutely loved it. I live in hope of a publisher bringing her back into print so more people can discover her work.

Death of a Tin God by George Bellairs – This is part of Bellair’s Inspector Littlejohn mystery series, although the books work as standalones and don’t need to be read in order. I’ve read four of them and this isn’t one of my favourites, but the Isle of Man setting makes it interesting.

The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart – I love Mary Stewart’s books, including this one, in which Mary Grey is approached by a man who has mistaken her for his cousin, Annabel, and persuades her to impersonate Annabel as part of a scheme to inherit his great-uncle’s fortune. This book has a particularly clever plot and, like all Stewart’s novels, a great sense of place.

The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie – A standalone Christie with neither Poirot nor Miss Marple – although another of her recurring characters, the crime writer Ariadne Oliver, does make an appearance, which is always nice to see! With a plot involving three women believed to be witches, this is an atmospheric and unsettling novel with a real sense of evil and a hint of the supernatural. It’s not one of my top few Christies but I did enjoy it.

Castle Dor by Daphne du Maurier – Du Maurier is another author I usually love, but Castle Dor, based on the legend of Tristan and Iseult, is my least favourite of her books by far. That’s probably because it’s not all her own work – the book was begun by Arthur Quiller-Couch and completed after his death by du Maurier. A lot of online sources say it was published in 1962, but the copyright in the edition I read says 1961 so I’ve included it here.

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Have you read any of these? Will you be taking part in 1961 Club next week?