You know what drives me crazy, publishers that fail to let you know if a book is a sequel or part of a series. Several times I have read a book and felt a sense of confusion about some of the things going on inside of it, my mind thinking something important was missing, only to realize that the reason for this was simply because another book came before it. Now, had the book cover or description indicated this, such a mistake would never have been made, but each time this information was nowhere to be found. Even the Internet sometimes fails to give an answer, though, thankfully, more often than not it helps rather than hinders. Sadly, the isn't the case with The Other Side by R.Chetwynd-Hayes. For nearly an hour I have been doing searches to find out if there is an order one is supposed to read his books in, my realization that this title was just one of many concerning a house known as Clavering Grange having arrived quickly into my reading of this book. No answer has presented itself, however. One site does list a series of books concerning the Clavering Grange house and gives an order, yet this title is not a part of that list. Naturally, this has led me to another question: is there a series that also has some stand alone novels, ones that may not require a reading of the series to understand and enjoy? Any help in learning the answer to this would be most welcomed. I really want to read this book, but don't want to jump into the middle of a larger story and be lost.
I see what you mean... it looks pretty confusing. THIS SITE lists all thirteen of his novels, but says that only three of them are in the CLAVERING GRANGE series--yet THE OTHER SIDE isn't listed as belonging to the series...despite the fact that CLAVERING GRANGE is explicitly mentioned on the cover.
ReplyDeleteAlso, according to his obituary in THE GUARDIAN, THE DARK MAN was the first novel in the series. Yet in the first link, that novel isn't counted as part of the franchise.
The obit also states that on top of the novels, there are three collections of short stories that also fit into the the series. That just complicates things even more.
It probably also doesn't help matters that at least two of his novels were published under alternate titles at different times...
So I wish I could have been of more help, but basically this amounts to: I have no idea.
Your best bet may be to read the synopses of all of his books to surmise which ones belong in the series, and read them in order of their publication.
Good luck to you!
--J/Metro
Isn't it bizarre. I ran into the same confusion when looking it up myself. Making it worse, I found some conflicting publication dates for some of his work due to publishers only listing when they published it as opposed to when it was originally published. The site you linked to, however, has dates that make sense. Of course it now says that the book above was published before any of the other novels in the series, yet in the introduction of the book the author talks about all the other books he has written about the house. Sheesh. So confusing. I'm going to go with your suggestion and read them all in order of publication.
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