# Guess the book **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 6, 2000, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004 "2000-11-06T21:03:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![fierra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58956e/32.png) [@fierra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fierra)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2000, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/241 "2000-12-12T21:21:11Z")
Terry Goodkind? But I don’t know the book. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2000, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/242 "2000-12-13T00:04:30Z")
I thought your use of the word “tad” was a hint – Tad Williams, I think, wrote the Memory, Sorrow, Thorn thing. Which I haven’t read, but have seen discussed on another board. People liked it. ---
**Author:** ![DynoSaur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DynoSaur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DynoSaur)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2000, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/243 "2000-12-13T04:03:03Z")
fierra’s right as to the author. Terry Goodkind. the book was Wizard’s First Rule, and the quote was the explanation of said rule. Since nobody got this, and I kind of butted in on Zoggie, I think it’s his(her?) turn… ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2000, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/244 "2000-12-14T20:50:38Z")
Aw, okay. Here goes. And i’m a girl…🙂 \*Tey used to hang men at For Turnings in the old days. Not anymore though. Now, when a murderer pays the penalty for his crime, he does so up at Bodmin, after fair trial at the Assizes. THat is, if the law convicts him before his own conscience kills him. It is better so. Like a surgical operation. And the body has a decent burial, though a nameless grave. When I was a child it was otherwise…\* Hope this will be easier than my last… ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2000, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/245 "2000-12-14T20:52:34Z")
Er, that should be they. T **h** ey used to hang men…sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2000, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/246 "2000-12-14T22:47:44Z")
Cute - I found I was reading that in an “ooh arr” accent. Is it okay to ask though, is this the Bodmin in England? Because it just occurred to me that there could be a bundle of Bodmins in the U.S. for all I know. And I don’t think this guess is dark enough for this thread really, but is it from the Winston Graham “Poldark” novels? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/247 "2000-12-15T00:13:14Z")
Yes, its the Bodmin in England. Gotta love that British literature. And no…that’s not it… ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/248 "2000-12-15T21:53:48Z")
Well, I have no idea what Zoggie’s quote is. But I will give this thread a perhaps-undeserved bump and answer DynoSaur’s question: Steven Brust writes rather lovely, cynical, violent urban fantasy novels. He is best known for the Vlad Taltos series, about a fantasy world in which human beings are by far the less dominant species. They are subjugated by a race of practically-immortal fairy-like beings called Dragaerans. The main character, Vlad Taltos, became an assassin because it gives him an opportunity to kill Dragaerans. The books are very entertaining, and the world they’re set in is quite interesting. I also recommend a non-Taltos book by Brust called Agyar. So now you know. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/249 "2000-12-16T00:48:41Z")
::sexy accent:: Vould you like a hint? ---
**Author:** ![DynoSaur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DynoSaur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DynoSaur)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/250 "2000-12-16T01:15:33Z")
Ja, ve coult use und hint. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/251 "2000-12-16T03:15:47Z")
yeah if you really insist… OK. Its a book by a female British author. Its sort of gothic and yes, takes place in England. Sort of in the old days though I’m not sure the century. The main character is male, and the story is about his encounter with another older female. Enough info? ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2000, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/252 "2000-12-18T22:30:25Z")
:😕: I think we can conclude that wasn’t enough info. More hints! Please? ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2000, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/253 "2000-12-18T23:44:18Z")
Hey, I’ve been away for DAYS and I thought I’d be all left behind, but I’m not. No progress since Friday then? Ok, I did guess this, but then did sort of check, so I’d day it’s Daphne du Maurier, “My Cousin Rachel.” ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/254 "2000-12-19T20:19:35Z")
Heh. Did my hints help you? Yes, Celyn, it was My Cousin Rachel. ::clapter:: 🙂 Your turn!! ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/255 "2000-12-19T21:01:38Z")
OK, here is a new one, then. This is the first sentence in the book, and might be easy. > [@](#): > > It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me. > ‘Very good, Ali,’ I quavered in Spanish through the closed door of the master bedroom. ‘Take him into the bar. Give him a drink.’ > ‘Hay dos. Su capellan tambien.’ > ‘Very good, Ali. Give his chaplain a drink also.’ ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2000, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/256 "2000-12-20T02:41:02Z")
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene? ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2000, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/257 "2000-12-20T03:48:52Z")
No. Oh, rats, when I saw that there was was an answer, I assumed it would be the correct one, which would allow me to go back to the harmless game of guessing, although I do it badly. (But fun for me.) OK. British, in fact English, and he would have had a certain similarity with Grahame Greene, but this author did remark upon a difference between himself and Greene, and he wrote several books, at least one of which was made into a very well known film (I am not saying that this is a recommendation). No, no, I have just realised that I am now in the position of the One Who May Give Hints, therefore I should not give away too much too early. (I believe it a phrase I once heard somewhere, from my grandmother possibly.) So! No hints yet. Suffer, ye victims, suffer! ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2000, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/258 "2000-12-20T17:29:07Z")
It’s an intriguing quote. I assumed the author was British, perhaps from the word “catamite.” I have a newly-formed theory that no American would use that word. ---
**Author:** ![jcgmoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@jcgmoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jcgmoi)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2000, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/259 "2000-12-20T19:53:54Z")
_The End of the World News_ by Anthony Burgess. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2000, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/260 "2000-12-20T20:52:20Z")
Right author - different book! Actually, Jekeira, the use of the word “catamite” led me to assume that he was a pretentious, overly wordy, show-off, whereas you assumed it meant British. Hmm. Oh dear. 🙂 I have sometimes thought that Hell is probably an eternity spent playing Scrabble with Anthony Burgess. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004.md?page=14)