yes, i'm still here, i just thought the list had died:) i don't seem to be getting it through email anymore - is everyone else?
anyway, as for which of Peter's books to read first: _The Green Gene_ is the only one i recall having fantasy/sci-fi elements. It's about a future England in which people with a certain (Celtic) gene have green skin and are terribly discriminated against. Parents have no way of knowing if their kid will be green because the gene has relatively recently mutated, so white parents might have green kids and vice-versa. Anyway, the main character is a mathematician? (or maybe some sort of scientist) who has discovered a way to tell if people have this gene. It may not sound like it, but it's quite funny - most of his books are.
I also like _The Poison Oracle_, which is about a guy who is brought to a fictional Arab country to be the sultan's zookeeper. This guy (i forgot his name) brings with him a chimpanzee who communicates with him using plastic symbols (this has really been done) and who ends up being the only witness to a murder.
There's also _The Glass-sided Ants' Nest_ (published in England as _Skin Deep_), which is about a tribe from New Guinea who move to a house in London, where their head guy (i don't think they called him a chief, but i don't remember the correct word) is murdered. This was Peter's first book (published in 1969, i think) and also the first one about his recurring character, Inspector Pibble of Scotland Yard. Peter once called him the "anti-Bond" (i.e., he's plump and awkward, but very smart).
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Received on Mon Dec 28 13:40:01 1998
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