Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 910583 times)

marcie · « **Reply #2600 on:** July 22, 2011, 12:24:22 AM »

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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!

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Discussion Leader: JoanK

marcie · « **Reply #2601 on:** July 22, 2011, 12:25:03 AM »

oh, I look forward to reading the books, MaryPage!

Steph · « **Reply #2602 on:** July 22, 2011, 08:12:40 AM »

Senior learn has been a mess for the past few days.It is not the interenet or the computer, both are working fast, but senior learn.. NOOOOO..

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #2603 on:** July 22, 2011, 09:16:15 AM »

May I solicit comments from anyone who has read the following Mystery Authors?
Maureen Jenning (The Murdock Series)
Joan Hess (Arkansas setting)
Jeff Abbott

These were names "pitched in" at our Mystery Book club meeting, and were not familiar to most of us.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2604 on:** July 22, 2011, 09:27:02 AM »

Same here Steph

Rosemary

MaryPage · « **Reply #2605 on:** July 22, 2011, 09:41:59 AM »

I have never heard of any of those, but I do note that I have been posting Michael Dibdon and it is DIBDIN. My apologies.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2606 on:** July 22, 2011, 10:17:48 AM »

No I haven't heard of them either.

MaryPage, my daughter is anxious to know whether the Arizona forest fires that you told us about have been controlled. She was very impressed with your news about your daughter looking after all those animals.

Rosemary

Frybabe · « **Reply #2607 on:** July 22, 2011, 10:57:14 AM »

I've not heard of them either.

Seniors and Friends got hit with a similar slowdown last week. It took several days to clear up. I don't know what their problem was.

MaryPage · « **Reply #2608 on:** July 22, 2011, 12:48:17 PM »

The Arizona "Monument Fire", as it has been named, has been put out, but problems of various sorts remain. Here is the story of one:

http://www.kvoa.com/full-coverage/monument-fire/

If you scroll down, you can read lots and lots of other stories about the fire. My daughter has her vet clinic in Sierra Vista, and there are a lot of stories here about that place and the fire.

Thank you for asking. My daughter is fine, the animals have gone home or found homes, and she will visit me here in October.

JoanK · « **Reply #2609 on:** July 22, 2011, 03:28:10 PM »

I can see why you like him.

Steph · « **Reply #2610 on:** July 23, 2011, 08:18:26 AM »

OK. have read Joan Hess, a few times.She writes several series. Dont like her, but she is popular.
Now, I am reading Victoria Thompson who I love. Thisis the Chinatown one.. I am intrigued.. Was it true? Did the chinese men in NYC marry the Irish girls?? Way back.. I had never ever seen that and find it interesting if odd.. So does anyone know if this is a fact or a made up thing. She does excellent research and it all seems so real, but this one threw me.

Babi · « **Reply #2611 on:** July 23, 2011, 09:26:24 AM »

I just posted a note in Fiction that I thought I was posting here. Oh, well, it won't be the first
time I've repeated myself..

I've just started C. J. Sansom's first book, "Dissolutions". Wasn't it someone here who
recommended him? The series is set in Tudor England and I always enjoy good historical
fiction. Mr. Sansom himself is pretty impressive. Ph.D in history and a lawyer, before he began
writing. He is English, lives in Surrey, so the background is all familiar to him.

nancymc · « **Reply #2612 on:** July 23, 2011, 09:35:04 AM »

I love Victoria Thompson's books and like you, Steph, I was particularly interested in the one about Chinatown. I can just imagine th young Irish girls fleeing from Ireland in the famine years and the aftermath of the famine and arriving in New York to lives of equal poverty. They must of been so pleased to meet Chinese who were kind to them, but after marriage to be rejected by both communities each thinking they were better than the other, and everyone else thinking badly of both groups. Prejudice is such a terrible thing, why any group of people could possibly think they were better than another group. I am now going to look up Michael Dibdin on Amazon kindle, cannot believe I may have one of his books in seconds. I think I was the one who recommended C.J.Sansom, I cannot get his third book on Kindle, but will try again.

Nancy

nancymc · « **Reply #2613 on:** July 23, 2011, 09:41:21 AM »

Babi if like me you like historical books have you read the Sister Fidelma books by Peter Tremayne.

Steph · « **Reply #2614 on:** July 24, 2011, 08:04:08 AM »

Yes, the instant book feature on ebooks of all types is fascinating, but addictive..Start out looking at free books, venture over to books period and boom.. buy one. Am really trying to preload for the Scottish trip in September.

Babi · « **Reply #2615 on:** July 24, 2011, 08:42:03 AM »

Thank you, NANCY. I have read a period mystery featuring a 'Sister', but can't remember now if it was by Peter Tremayne. The name does seem familiary. I'll see what I can find of his.

Steph · « **Reply #2616 on:** July 25, 2011, 08:23:46 AM »

I amreading an old Patricia Sprinkle. This is one of the ones about the widow of a diplomat. Most of them are in or around Atlanta, but this one is Jacksonville.. Scenery sounds nice, but doesnt match the Jacksonville, I have visited..

JoanK · « **Reply #2617 on:** July 25, 2011, 07:37:09 PM »

Just camr back from te library with a Reginald Hill and two Carmaine Harris. See you later.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #2618 on:** July 25, 2011, 07:56:14 PM »

Watched Part II of Zen on Masterpiece Mystery last night. Yummy!

Steph · « **Reply #2619 on:** July 26, 2011, 08:04:53 AM »

Charlaine is a favorite of mine.. She writes in so many different genres.. Fun to see what she does with her characters.

jeriron · « **Reply #2620 on:** July 26, 2011, 09:18:22 AM »

I seem to remember that some here like the Donna Leon books.. Well most of them had been made into a TV series in Germany (of all places) the first two with two on each DVD have been done with english subtitles. and Amazon has them and I bought them.

Inspector Brunetti isn't what I pictured him to look like but I am enjoying them. Venice is wonderful. and so much of it because just about everyplace they go is on foot or boat. I recommend yhem..

FlaJean · « **Reply #2621 on:** July 26, 2011, 11:22:06 AM »

Just finished Susan Wittig Albert's latest Darling Dahlias book. It is the second in her new series. I enjoy reading about the 1930s era. It is light reading and enjoyable.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2622 on:** July 26, 2011, 12:51:55 PM »

Thanks Jeriron - I had no idea the Brunetti books had been televised.

Rosemary

mabel1015j · « **Reply #2623 on:** July 26, 2011, 03:26:37 PM »

I must tell my libray to get the " Dahlia" books they don't have them yet.

Jean

FlaJean · « **Reply #2624 on:** July 26, 2011, 10:38:16 PM »

Many in this forum have read McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. I have really enjoyed that series, but I just finished another mystery book written by Frederick Ramsay "Reapers" that is also set in Botswana. It is the second in this series and more serious and perhaps more realistic than McCall Smith's but nonetheless a very good read.

Steph · « **Reply #2625 on:** July 27, 2011, 08:09:48 AM »

Will look for Ramsey.. Dislike the McCallSmith series..LIke a more down to earth Africa.. Elspeth Huxley was my sort of Africa.

JoanK · « **Reply #2626 on:** July 27, 2011, 03:22:03 PM »

I'd love to see the Brunetti series -- I wonder if Netflix has it.

jeriron · « **Reply #2627 on:** July 27, 2011, 03:42:32 PM »

No they don't have it.

JoanK · « **Reply #2628 on:** July 27, 2011, 06:38:57 PM »

Rats! Oh, well, I have trouble with subtitles anyway.

Steph · « **Reply #2629 on:** July 28, 2011, 07:53:57 AM »

Found a really old Jean Hager.. Possibly the second she wrote on the Inn.. Sort of fun, although her plottig has really improved.

Babi · « **Reply #2630 on:** July 28, 2011, 09:49:14 AM »

I find I am having mixed feelings about the Preston and Childs book, "Gideon's Sword".
Gideon gets a bit tiresome with his repeated interplay of witty hero vs. dump cops. Other than
that, tho', the action is fast-paced and the plot is ingenious.

marcie · « **Reply #2631 on:** July 28, 2011, 01:04:34 PM »

Babi, I'm in line at my library to get the first book in Preston & Child's new Gideon series. The authors say that they regret killing off William Smithback in the Agent Pendergast series so they put little bits of him in the Gideon character.

I see that a new Pendergast book, Cold Vengeance, will be published on 8/02/2011.

JoanK · « **Reply #2632 on:** July 28, 2011, 02:20:17 PM »

I think I'm getting "cozied out" as STEPH says. Looking for something more serious, but not "noir".

Frybabe · « **Reply #2633 on:** July 28, 2011, 05:24:07 PM »

I just started my very first ever Dorothy Sayer book. I don't remember the title off-hand, but it was the one where Lord Peter Wimsey's brother was accused of murder.

Babi · « **Reply #2634 on:** July 29, 2011, 08:28:46 AM »

I'll be interested to know what you think of Gideon Crew, MARCIE. So many
people are dying in this book, it reminds me of one of those 'action' films that
go for a lot of fire, explosions and mayhem. A lot will depend on how this story
ends, as to whether I want to continue the series.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #2635 on:** July 29, 2011, 03:00:43 PM »

I'm reading "Hitched" by Carol Higgins Clark. I haven't read any of hers for a while, but enjoy her Regan Reilly series. In this one, she and her finance Jack "no relation" Reilly are getting married in a week. When she goes to pick up her gown the store has been robbed and she has no gown. I went back to her as part of my reading mysteries set in NJ and Pa. It's a fun read and set almost totally in NJ and NY, of course. It's hard to have a setting in North Jersey w/out it bleeding into NY.

Jean

marcie · « **Reply #2636 on:** July 29, 2011, 03:43:16 PM »

Quote from: Babi on July 29, 2011, 08:28:46 AM

I'll be interested to know what you think of Gideon Crew, MARCIE. So many
people are dying in this book, it reminds me of one of those 'action' films that
go for a lot of fire, explosions and mayhem. A lot will depend on how this story
ends, as to whether I want to continue the series.

Babi, I'll definitely let you know what I think of Gideon.

I loved Agent Pendergast in the early Pendergast series, when references to him were more sketchy and subtle. I haven't liked the latter Preston & Child books as well. His character has become too bizarre and has lost some of what I saw as endearing, idiosyncratic, Sherlock Holmes qualities. And the mayhem definitely increased in the last couple of Pendergast books. I'll be interested to read the latest one.

marcie · « **Reply #2637 on:** July 29, 2011, 03:56:18 PM »

Frybabe, I think the Dorothy Sayer book you read is "Clouds of Witness." I haven't read her books in a long time. I'm sure I have the stories somewhere around the house. I always picture Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter when I read the books. The PBS series starring Carmichael was very witty.

"But to Lord Peter the world presented itself as an entertaining labyrinth of side-issues."
— Dorthy L. Sayers

MaryPage · « **Reply #2638 on:** July 30, 2011, 08:51:06 AM »

The family Round Robin came zipping around last week. We band of first cousins did it by snail mail for decades, and then we began to die off and email became so easy and yes, we feel guilty about the plight of the United States Postal Service. What can I say?

Anyway, we are down to 3 from the original 5, and one of the three is actually the widow of my cousin Bill, who delighted us by wanting to pick up where he left off in August 2006.

So we do paragraphs about what we have been reading, and my Cincinnati cousin is currently greatly enamoured of MICHAEL GRUBER. My oldest son gave me five (5) Michael Grubers for Christmas, which I dutifully put on a bookshelf while mentally marking them male fare. Well, Judy says not. She finds them beyond wonderful and suggests I begin with Tropic of Night, which is, luckily, one of the 5 I own. Sigh! Have moved that one from a foyer bookcase to a bedroom stack, but it is about a month or two down the stack and likely to have something newly discovered inserted on top of it. In short, it will be a while yet.

Has anyone here read Gruber?

Babi · « **Reply #2639 on:** July 30, 2011, 09:43:26 AM »

I liked Agent Pendergast, too, MARCIE. I suppose after an author has been writing
about a particular character for a good while, he feels he must introduce something new and different. Or may he just gets bored. It appears that the Gideon Crew series is going to reflect that increase in 'bizarre' and mayhem.

Nope, MARYPAGE, Gruber is unknown to me. Let me know what you think of
him....if you ever get there.

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 910583 times)