Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 866036 times)

Judy Laird · « **Reply #8400 on:** December 21, 2016, 04:50:53 PM »

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Pull up a comfortable chair and join us here to talk about mysteries and their authors.
We love hearing what YOU enjoy and recommend!

Links:
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Fantastic Fiction
Stop You're Killing Me

Discussion Leader: JoanK

Having a hard time keeping up with all your great books. My list is so long I will never get through all of them . I only read on my kindle. I am reading a jonathan Kellerman and I do love his books. I post very little butr I am in here everyday to see what you all are up to . Merry Christmas to all.

PatH · « **Reply #8401 on:** December 21, 2016, 05:05:58 PM »

Judy, thanks for saying hi once in a while. Merry Christmas to you.

Frybabe · « **Reply #8402 on:** December 22, 2016, 06:50:45 AM »

Hi Judy, Happy Holidays! It is so nice to know that you are here even if you don't post. Thanks for dropping in now and again. I haven't read any Kellerman. My last foray out of the science fiction realm was Red Sparrow and Palace of Treason (Red Sparrow 2) by Jason Matthews. His trilogy (#3 not out yet) is an excellent spy thriller. Red Sparrow is being made into a movie scheduled for release next year.

FlaJean · « **Reply #8403 on:** December 25, 2016, 12:05:20 PM »

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HANUKKAH TO ALL THE MYSTERY LOVERS!

FlaJean · « **Reply #8404 on:** January 02, 2017, 12:11:01 PM »

Not many posting in Mysteries during the holiday season. I've been reading "Vita Nuova" by British author Magdalen Nabb. It is her last Marshall Guarnaccia book published in 2008, a few months after Nabb died of a stroke in 2007. Her books (14) are set in Florence Italy about an unlikely Army police detective who really cares about people. Her stories are very different than those written by Donna Leon, but they do have one common theme. Both Italian characters (the Marshall and Brunetti) have understanding wives and a good home life. I've enjoyed both series, one written by a British author and the other by an American author.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #8405 on:** January 03, 2017, 11:17:51 AM »

Pre-discussion for Cranford opens
Tomorrow, Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Come Join this Historical but Timely Discussion

Lots to talk about - settle in with your 'cupa' tomorrow and share your thoughts related to change, that is so similar to today with the change in how folks read as part of nineteenth century advances and the author Elizabeth Gaskell, whose theme of change is an enduring issue.
For this Book of the Month read there will be no need to haunt the library.
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell in available online in several locations.
The Cranford Discussion starts next week.

PatH · « **Reply #8406 on:** January 04, 2017, 11:59:47 AM »

Cranford is now open. It's here:

http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=5036.0

See you there.

FlaJean · « **Reply #8407 on:** January 22, 2017, 01:57:38 PM »

It seems no one is reading mystery books in 2017. Joan, I haven't seen you post lately.

Frybabe · « **Reply #8408 on:** January 22, 2017, 03:51:31 PM »

Jean, 2017 is barely started. I am doing Cranford and the third of a very interesting, if at times puzzling, scifi series. The second of the Odd Thomas series is barely started and waiting to be picked up again. There are 112 mysteries on my Kindle still waiting to be read, including a bunch of Tony Dunbar's Tubby Dubonnet series that look interesting. Tubby is a New Orleans lawyer. Dunbar has other books, too, that look interesting. All the books, whether as editor or as author are focused on the deep south. http://www.tonydunbar.com/books.html If anyone has read his books, let me know how you liked them.

nlhome · « **Reply #8409 on:** January 22, 2017, 04:09:16 PM »

I've been reading mysteries. Right now I'm reading "Styx and Stone" which is the first in a series about Ellie Stone, a reporter in the 1960's. It's interesting so far, especially as I try to remember bits and pieces about the 60's. Before that I Bad Boy Brawly Brown" by Walter Mosley, because I just read an interview someone did with Mr.Mosley recently, and I wanted to read a couple of his previous books before I read his latest. This also was set in the 1960's. The Ellie Stone book is about a woman in changing times. The Mosley book talks a lot, or more accurately depicts a lot, about the experience of blacks in LA and in the Watts area. And they are mysteries.

I also read A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny.

JoanK · « **Reply #8410 on:** January 22, 2017, 06:29:47 PM »

FRYBABE: those "Tubby" books sound interesting. I love the "legal beagles".

NLHOME: ahh, a woman in the sixties: I remember it well, being a woman in a man's job. No fun.

Sorry I haven't posted lately. I've been reading mysteries (always) but nothing to write about.

Frybabe · « **Reply #8411 on:** January 23, 2017, 06:55:55 AM »

JoanK, periodically Amazon offers up one or several of the Tubby series for free. I have six or seven of them now.

JoanK · « **Reply #8412 on:** January 24, 2017, 11:04:43 PM »

FRY: I'll look for that.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #8413 on:** January 28, 2017, 10:13:34 PM »

I've been reading three interesting mysteries. One was more interesting because of the author than the story - Pearl S. Buck's . Death in the Castle: a novel. I'm not clear why the subtitle was necessary.

I got it as a free ebook from Amazon. I was very surprised to see it. The story was about an elderly couple who were no longer able to keep up a centuries old castle in England. An American has made a deal to buy it, but when he comes to visit they discover he's planning to take it down and move it to Connecticut.

There's a secondary theme of whether there are, or are not, ghosts, ancestors, in the castle and whether the Duke thinks he is really Richard the IV. I kept reading only to see how Buck finished it.

The other two where by Margaret Truman, Murder in the Library of Congress and Murder at the FBI. I had not read any of her mysteries for a decade or more and had forgotten them. Both of those were quite good. The FBI one seems to be better than the LC one, I'm in the middle of it. She has done a lot of research about each of those agencies, that info was fun for me.

Jean

PatH · « **Reply #8414 on:** January 28, 2017, 10:26:19 PM »

It's been the fashion for a few years to put :a novel at the end of fiction titles. It seems stupid to me. It messes up the rhythm of the title, and I doubt that people actually need that help in figuring out whether the book they're looking at is fiction or not.

I bet :a novel wasn't on the title when Buck wrote it.

JoanK · « **Reply #8415 on:** January 29, 2017, 05:24:40 PM »

The Buck sounds interesting. Have to get it!

I'm sorry Truman's :library of Congress one wasn't good. I've read a lot of hers, but not that onw.

I love the library of Congress! when I was in graduate school, I did research there, even had my own shelf. I used to wander around in the stacks (forbidden, but that never stopped me: I discovered if you looked like you knew where you were going, no one questioned you. You can't believe what is back there, even little coffee shops. I burned myself on some coffee once, and was rushed through laborinthine passages to an infirmary, complete with all mod cons.

In odd corners, you would find scholar's desks, piled with books (I didn't rate a desk, only a shelf -- sigh). Sometimes the books would be covered with dust, I imagine the scholar had passed away, and his books were waiting for them forever.

ANNIE · « **Reply #8416 on:** January 30, 2017, 01:23:17 PM »

I am reading The Jerusalem Puzzle by

?? !!!! Well, I tried to look it up but it's not on the pages I am reading right now. I will look it up later. I am reading it on my iPad Mini. It was one of the titles mentioned because Overdrive says this is Puzzle month?! Back later!

mabel1015j · « **Reply #8417 on:** January 31, 2017, 11:46:11 PM »

Oh, Joan, I envy your opprtunity to do research at L of C. It's such a beautiful building and then to add the wonderful resources that you had available to peruse. Heaven in my book.

Jean

FlaJean · « **Reply #8418 on:** February 03, 2017, 11:01:28 AM »

I've started using Overdrive to borrow online books from our county library. There seems to be a long wait for the titles that interest me. After weeks I finally got The Transpasser by Tana French and not sure yet whether it was worth the wait. Although it didn't come thru Amazon, I did have the choice to read it on my iPad Kindle app which I like.

nlhome · « **Reply #8419 on:** February 03, 2017, 01:23:42 PM »

FlaJean, our library director recommends that, unless it's a book a person definitely needs to read right away, that we look at the "available books" list first. My husband does that, and he finds a lot that interest him. He'll "check out" several books that are available, plus put himself on the waiting list for a couple of other ones that's he's specifically interested in. I think he can check out as many as 5 or 10 at a time, and he sends them back as soon as he is done so they're available for the next person. He reads either on his phone or his Kindle, with the occasional hard copy if it's a book he wants to read and it's available in the library. I think he's read maybe one or two books on his Kindle that he ordered from Amazon in all the years he's had his Kindle, most are from Overdrive and a few from other free sources.

FlaJean · « **Reply #8420 on:** February 05, 2017, 02:50:44 PM »

I see now that I can put a hold on 5 books. I did not really care for The Tresspasser but now have now borrowed A Still Life by Louise Penny. I am really enjoying this one.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #8421 on:** February 09, 2017, 01:13:08 PM »

I just finished Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. What a good story-teller she is. The reader knows someone has been killed but not who or why until the end of the book. At the end of each chapter which tells the story of the characters and the lead up to the killing, there are "witnesses" comments on what happened, a very interesting process, which gives the reader clues of what might have happened. The story is about the relationship of mothers of children in a kindergarden class, mothers with all the problems, joys and angst of young mothers and wives.

I will look for more of her books.

Jean

JoanK · « **Reply #8422 on:** February 09, 2017, 02:26:53 PM »

JEAN: That sounds very interesting.

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/liane-moriarty/

I see she writes Sci-Fi too.

reading the latest Scotteline "Broken". Our lawyers take on the case of a 10 year old dyslexic boy who is being bullied and abused at school. A lot about the processes and laws that (are supposed to0 protect these children.

And Mary is finally on the verge of getting married. Will she really? (I don't know -- I haven't finished the book.)

JoanK · « **Reply #8423 on:** February 19, 2017, 07:02:28 PM »

I really like Jim Kelly's Shaw and Valentine English police procedurals. They live in an English beach town -- Shaw lives on the beach and loves it, Valentine hates the water. I always learn something new about beaches, and swear I can smell the ocean while I read them. (I live just far enough away from the ocean that I can't smell it -- sigh.)

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/k/jim-kelly/

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #8424 on:** February 22, 2017, 03:04:53 AM »

They sound good Joan, I had never heard of them before.

I am just starting Christine Falls by Benjamin Black, the pen name of the Irish author John Banville. Christine Falls is about a pathologist in 1950s Dublin who realises there is something shady going on with his eminent gynaecologist brother-in-law. I haven't got very far yet but I imagine it's going to be about illegal abortions, selling of babies, etc. The writing is very good, easy to read but not simplistic. I believe it's the first one in a series.

Has anyone read any Black? There's also another Black, Carla, who writes mysteries set in Paris. I haven't read any of hers yet but I plan to.

Rosemary

Winchesterlady · « **Reply #8425 on:** February 23, 2017, 11:47:11 AM »

Rosemary -- I haven't read any Benjamin Black books, but I do have a few on my book shelves. Please let us know how you like Christine Falls.

JoanK · « **Reply #8426 on:** February 23, 2017, 02:46:14 PM »

I've read Carla, but not Benjamin.

I'm reading the second "Fake " Agatha Christie, "Closed Casket" by Sophie Hannah.. It's fun, once you get past the fact that the tone doesn't sound like Christie at all, and start judging it on its own..

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/sophie-hannah/closed-casket.htm

JoanK · « **Reply #8427 on:** February 23, 2017, 02:54:32 PM »

wait, I did start one of Benjamin's, and had to return it to the library before I finished it. It dealt with the local tannery, and how the workers were shunned and kept to themselves, because the smelled bad.

PatH · « **Reply #8428 on:** February 24, 2017, 01:51:18 PM »

While we're between book discussions, I thought it might be fun to fill in the gap by reading a science fiction/fantasy short story or two, just for fun. I've put up one; here's the link:

http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=5050.msg305084#msg305084

mabel1015j · « **Reply #8429 on:** February 27, 2017, 01:43:39 PM »

Joan - have you read Scottolini's books if her columns? I'm reading Have a Good Guilt Trip, in which she and her dgt share their essays. It's a good pick-up-put-down kind of book, and I love their humor.

Jean

JoanK · « **Reply #8430 on:** March 02, 2017, 03:06:27 PM »

I read another one. It was good, too, but I forget the name.

I'm afraid Anne Perry is running down.I read her latest Christmas book, "A Christmas Message." It is confused, and the plot makes no sense. It reads like Agatha Christie's last books, when she is getting tired and confused.

Sigh, I know that feeling well. I thought I'd tackle the income tax today. I looked at all the papers, and my mind went completely blank.

FlaJean · « **Reply #8431 on:** March 15, 2017, 08:30:56 PM »

Just finished A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny. One of the best mysteries I've read in a while. She has a nice web site louisepenny.com

mabel1015j · « **Reply #8432 on:** March 15, 2017, 10:02:47 PM »

Just finished Insidious by Catherine Coulter, one of her FBI series. I realky like that series.

Jean

maeve · « **Reply #8433 on:** March 25, 2017, 08:39:41 PM »

I just finished The Dower House Mystery by Patricia Wentworth, copyright 1925. I enjoyed it and will look up some more of her books.

MaryH

ANNIE · « **Reply #8434 on:** March 25, 2017, 10:41:17 PM »

You know,I think my mother used to read Patricia Wentworth and then pass over to me.I was in high school then. A million years ago!

JoanK · « **Reply #8435 on:** March 28, 2017, 01:26:33 PM »

I used to read her too. How does she hold up over time? Still good (like us?)

maeve · « **Reply #8436 on:** March 29, 2017, 08:52:01 AM »

Yes, Joan, I thought the writing held up. I didn't feel that I was reading something written nearly 100 years ago. The characters seemed real. A few years ago I read Wilkie Collins' Woman in White and that was difficult. Many words were used where few would have been better. A very different style than we are used to now.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #8437 on:** April 13, 2017, 08:57:29 PM »

I'm trying to read Margaret Moran's first novel, (1982) a Sigrid Harald story. It desperately needed an editor. A member of the art department in a NY university is poisoned. It has possibilities of being an interesting story, except she describes every mot of dust in every room or scene........aaarrgghh. I read that her husband is an artist, was from Brooklyn and they lived in NYC for a short while, so I guess she got the art processes that she described from him. A little of that goes a long way in a mystery story in my opinion. I want mystery authors to get on with the story, unless the process is important to the solving of the murder.

I read that she's written the last Judge Knott book. I've really enjoyed those and have read almost all of them. (Sigh). She got much better in her writing with that series. 👍 I hope she starts another series.

Jean

Frybabe · « **Reply #8438 on:** April 20, 2017, 02:24:47 PM »

Samuel Boyd Benjamin Leopold Farjeon (1838-1903) wrote close to 60 novels in is 65 years of life. I am reading his Samuel Boyd of Catchpole Square: A Mystery.

The author immediately set about to set up the scene to introduce a motive for the crime and the suspects. As of Chapter 10, a man (one of the suspects) has gone missing, and no one has yet discovered the crime. It also looks like there is a developing romantic interest being introduced. The book is light reading and comes with London "pea-soup" fog. I like the e\banter between some of the characters. I may look for more of his books.

Farjeon's bio in Wikipedia is short, but interesting. Of his four children, two became writers, one was a well known name in theatrical circles, and one was a composer. His daughter, Eleanor, wrote the hymn Morning has Broken which Cat Stevens popularized. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5sSEkZ86ts Here is the poem with a brief, but interesting commentary at the bottom. https://allpoetry.com/Morning-Has-Broken

JoanK · « **Reply #8439 on:** April 20, 2017, 02:55:43 PM »

Here are his books:

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/j.-jefferson-farjeon/

ben the tramp sounds interesting.

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 866036 times)