Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 910644 times)

FlaJean · « **Reply #2840 on:** September 06, 2011, 12:50:35 PM »

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Discussion Leader: JoanK

Winchesterlady, thanks for suggesting a few new authors. Will look for them in my library. Evidently we have many mystery lovers at my library as there is a large selection.

Babi · « **Reply #2841 on:** September 07, 2011, 07:21:44 PM »

PEDLN, flash drives are foreign territory for me. But I am toying with the idea of just putting
down some of the different stories, as Gum suggested. Even that much would be something.
Hopefully Valerie and Andy have enough computer smarts to safeguard whatever I'm able to
put together. I do appreciate the encouragement. It would be a shame to lose all that heritage.

nlhome · « **Reply #2842 on:** September 08, 2011, 07:47:27 AM »

Yes, Babi, do put those stories down.

Sometimes, especially in our local paper, there are long obituaries telling of peoples' lives, and they are so interesting. When I know some of these people, either through my work or just out and about, I am struck by how rich their lives were, yet most of us never knew more than that they were older people in seemingly limited lives, "just" grandparents or great-grandparents. These are often stories better than what we can read in books, because we know the people. Imagine how their grandchildren view them.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2843 on:** September 08, 2011, 08:44:48 AM »

Yes I so agree - when I was doing executries (probate) I used to have to delve into people's lives through their paperwork, and they were often so interesting. I remember one old lady - my fairly unpleasant boss said "oh there'll be nothing to it, she didn't do anything" - or words to that effect - but when I started looking, she had been a nursery nurse and there were newspaper clippings that she had kept of children giving her presents when she retired, - she was clearly much loved. I also worked on the estate of an elderly Polish man who had died in a nursing home. He had come here during the war, then, like many Poles, had not been allowed to return to poland. He had done all sorts of things. He was a great stalwart of the Catholic cathedral in Aberdeen, and part of the ageing Polish community living in the city, some of whom I contacted to get some more information about him - they were all very interesting people.

The cathedral used to hold Polish masses, but these had been in danger of stopping, as so many Polish residents had died. Just in time, the huge influx of young Poles to the UK brought the congregations flooding back, and the masses are now probably better supported than the ones in English.

Everyone has their story, and people who write them off as not having done "anything" are missing so much.

Rosemary

MaryPage · « **Reply #2844 on:** September 08, 2011, 11:25:38 AM »

Right on, Rosemary!

pedln · « **Reply #2845 on:** September 08, 2011, 11:56:48 AM »

nlhome and Rosemary, you have given me an idea. Our local paper obits are usually so bland and full of nothing -- born, lived, died, survivors. And if you had 11 children by three divorced husbands, the ex's names are never mentioned.

But, we've had some people who wrote their own before they died. I'm going to suggest to my friend Mary that she do that, with the help of her daughter. Mary, with three others -- two 16-year-olds and and two 15 year-olds went off to Washington DC in 1942 to help the war effort. They had hoped they might be sent to Hawaii or some other exotic place, but were deemed too young. In DC they lived in a boarding house run by Ma and Pa Carter, who kept an eye on the girls in their off hours. They stayed three years. Mary worked in the munitions office, one of the girls in the new Pentagon building.

My brother is putting all this in booklet form and is so impressed with her story that he's going to write a foreward about the tone of the country at that time, so her grandkids will have some background.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2846 on:** September 08, 2011, 12:35:00 PM »

Pedln - what a great idea. Although I did not live through the war, it has always seemed very real to me because it was such a recent experience for my parents, and in London there was still so much evidence of it all around us - the bomb sites, the "pre-fabs", the air-raid shelters - these were all normal sights to me as a child. (remember Mildred in Barbara Pym's "Excellent Women", attending the church service in the half of the church that hadn't been bombed, and seeing a woman making coffee on a camping stove amongst the ruins of the other half?). For my own children, however, the war is as much ancient history as the first war was to me - soon there will be no first hand witnesses to it left.

My mother wanted to join the Land Army, but was too young, although she later worked in the Arsenal at Woolwich docks. For many young women (ie those who did not have children to worry about) the war was actually a period of new experience and freedom.

Has anyone read "La's Orchestra Saves the World" by Alexander McCall Smith? It is quite different from his other books, and is about a small village in Suffolk during the war - the period detail is wonderful. Nina Bawden's "Carrie's War" is also a brilliant book - about some children being evacuated to Wales - again the evocation of the time is perfect.

Rosemary

Babi · « **Reply #2847 on:** September 09, 2011, 08:28:05 AM »

I've seen the Smith book mentioned more than once, but not "Carrie's War". Both
sound interesting. I'll have to look them up. Reading about the wars, I and II, esp.
in Britain, has always been somewhat distressing. The country was so ill prepared
both times, that in the beginning those young men were going off to war with much
inferior weapons, provisions, training....you name it. WWI especially turned into a
mass slaughter house in France, for both sides. At one time I very much disliked
the idea of spending huge sums on military preparedness....until I learned the too
high cost of not being prepared.

ursamajor · « **Reply #2848 on:** September 09, 2011, 11:00:33 AM »

I have been reading some of Kathy Reich's books. She is a practicing forensic anthropologist and her heroine is also in that business. Most of the titles have Bones in them. They are the only mysteries I know that are both cozy and gruesome. Not nearly so violent as Patricia Cornwell's offerings, but good stories and more believable.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2849 on:** September 09, 2011, 11:42:25 AM »

Babi - Carrie's War is about life in a village in 1940s Wales, there isn't much about the actual war in it, so far as I can recall - but it's a great book, especially for the mysterious character Hepsibah. Similarly La's Orchestra is more about life in a Suffolk village during war time than about anything happening on the front. I have read JG Ballard's autobiographical novel "Empire of the Sun", and I found that very hard to read indeed, as it gives so many terrible details about the Japanese POW camps. I know that it is really important that we learn about these things, but they are hard to take sometimes - the Nina Bawden and A McCall Smith are much easier reads.

Rosemary

mabel1015j · « **Reply #2850 on:** September 09, 2011, 12:04:01 PM »

Just finished James Patterson's The Fifth Horseman. It was one of the "women's murder club" books and was a good story about unexplained deaths in hospitals. Am also reading a new author, to me. I found her while going thru my list of books set in NJ and Pa. Robin Hathaway. The protagonist is a doctor in Phila. This book has a lot about the Lenni-Lenape. The person who is killed is a woman of that tribe. The title is The Doctor Digs a Grave.

From a site about the author: "But Robin had always wanted to write, and on her 50th birthday her husband told her, "It's now or never." So she began. She wrote three mystery novels in three years featuring Dr. Andrew Fenimore, an old-fashioned cardiologist who still made house calls. Robin's amateur sleuth was patterned after her husband, who just happened to also be a cardiologist.

For the next ten years she sent her mysteries out, and for ten years they bounced back like india rubber balls. On her sixtieth birthday, Robin became very discouraged. She was ready to give up when a member of the Delaware Valley Sisters in Crime told her about a contest --the St. Martin's Malice Domestic Contest for Best Traditional Mystery. .Deciding to give it one last try, she sent in her first Fenimore novel, THE DOCTOR DIGS A GRAVE, and promptly forgot all about it. Nine months later she received a mysterious phone call from a woman who told her, "You've won!" At first Robin thought it might be the lottery, until the woman revealed her identity as a senior editor at St. Martin's Press, and told her THE DOCTOR DIGS A GRAVE had won the contest and they wanted to publish it. Robin's reaction was to get a migraine headache that lasted for three days!

In 1998, this book won an Agatha Award. Four more books followed. In THE DOCTOR MAKES A DOLLHOUSE CALL each murder is preceded by a death set up in miniature in a dollhouse. The third novel, THE DOCTOR AND THE DEAD MAN’S CHEST, involves pirate treasure on the Delaware Bay. In THE DOCTOR DINES IN PRAGUE, the doctor solves a mystery in his mother's homeland, the Czech Republic. The fifth Fenimore mystery, THE DOCTOR ROCKS THE BOAT, is set on Philadelphia's famous Boathouse Row. Fenimore's effort to relax on the river results in murder and mayhem. To be released in June 2006."

Nice story about the author.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2851 on:** September 09, 2011, 12:30:40 PM »

Gosh Jean, they sound really interesting - and it's so encouraging to hear of someone who made it after 50! Though of course Mary Wesley - whose books I don't like, but lots of people do - didn't start writing till she was at least 70.

I will look out for those books, and write them in my overflowing TBR book.

Thanks,

Rosemary

salan · « **Reply #2852 on:** September 09, 2011, 07:17:04 PM »

I just finished Dorothy Sayers, Whose Body? I had not read Sayers in years. I found the book to be very dated and almost didn't finish it. Why is it that some authors we enjoyed in earlier years don't seem to hold up in time? I also finished Anne Perry's latest, Murder at Lisson Square. It was tedious and I almost didn't finish it, either. Ummm, perhaps it is the mood I am in........
Sa;;u

Frybabe · « **Reply #2853 on:** September 09, 2011, 07:29:51 PM »

I enjoyed Whose Body. Too bad only two of the Sayers books so far are up on Project Gutenberg. However, I have tons of other things to read including several Ann Perry books that have been sitting in my TBR pile.

I am just a few chapters into Carol Goodman's The Ghost Orchid. At the outset it seems a little spooky. The character from the past was a clairvoyant. It looks like the narrator also has some unrecognized tendencies in that direction. The setting is a rundown estate that is a long time artist's retreat. Already there is some professional jealousy showing up. So far, there isn't much "parallel life" narration between the narrator and the prime character in the past.

JoanK · « **Reply #2854 on:** September 09, 2011, 08:48:58 PM »

Was able to get "The Doctor Digs a grave for 1 cent plus shipping. The Author is Robin hathaway.

I have read "LAs Orchestra" and loved it. don't remember if there's a mystery in it or not. some of his mysteries are so slight, you forget they're there.

Reading a non-fiction "heist" book. Get ready for this title -- "Sex on the Moon". It's not about sex: it's about a young NASA employee who's in love. He wants to give his beloved the moon! So he steals a bag of moon rocks from NASA.

I'm curious to know how he pulled it off, and what happened to him, but so far, the background is not holding my interest.

Meanwhile, Jaffarian who wrote "Too big to Miss" has a new series about ghosts. This seems to be the "in" thing these days: mostly, I don't care for them, but "Ghost ala Mode", the first, was all right.

JoanK · « **Reply #2855 on:** September 09, 2011, 08:51:01 PM »

Just notices that FRY was reading about ghosts, too. Looks like we're in for a lot of them. Maybe now, all the authors will have to write a Halloween ghost mystery as well as a Christmas mystery.

Babi · « **Reply #2856 on:** September 10, 2011, 08:52:49 AM »

Thanks, ROSEMARY. I do enjoy the kind of book that gives you the flavor of another time
time and place.

Okay, JEAN, I'm hooked. That story about the deaths depicted in miniature in a dollhouse,
I think CSI borrowed that story line. They had a series of stories with that feature. I do
hope they credited Ms. Hathaway.

That definitely happens, SALLY. There are times when nothing suits me. Just a sign of
cranky old age creeping in, I suppose. That applies to things other than books, too. There
are times when I want something to eat, and absolutely nothing in the house appeals at all.

There' bound to be a connection, FRYBABE. Why else would the past character be appearing?
You've definitely got me intrigued. ANOTHER book on my list. This is turning out to be
a record morning for new authors/titles. (Thanks so much,guys.

)

mabel1015j · « **Reply #2857 on:** September 10, 2011, 01:21:35 PM »

Babi - i had to laugh at your comment about food, just last week my husband and i were saying that we were hungry for something and nothing in the house was satisfying! Is it just because we are not as busy w/ children and jobs and other things that books and food take on a greater importance?

"The Doctor Digs a Grave" has slowed in its interest to me. Maybe it's her dependence on stereotypes, a teenage African American who teaches the doctor some "street smarts"; stoic, dignified, quiet Native Americans. In fact, as i write this, i realize that all of her characters are kind of charicatures rather one-dimensional, maybe that's why she got turned down by publishers for ten yrs. Of course, there is enough story to finally win the prize!

Jean

Frybabe · « **Reply #2858 on:** September 10, 2011, 04:31:44 PM »

Babi, I suspect it is going to turn out that the narrator of The Ghost Orchid has some undeveloped psychic abilities of her own. She mentions hearing voices, but thinks she is just hearing the wind in the trees. She mentions that this has happened to her occasionally since childhood. Something catches her eye, but when she looks again, it is nothing. She gets the feeling someone is watching her when she is sitting somewhere in the gardens.

Babi · « **Reply #2859 on:** September 11, 2011, 08:27:41 AM »

I couldn't find any books by Robin Hathaway in my library. Perhaps the lady's success
in the contest was mostly due to the quality of the other books offered. Still, if
this was a first book, perhaps later books were less stereotyped. If you read another,
do let me know what you think, JEAN.
FRYBABE, over the years I have come to suspect that all of us could potentially
have some 'psychic' abilities. We know so little yet about the capabilities of the
mind, and think how much of our brain is 'unused'. Then I have the stories of people
I know to be truthful, as well as experiences of my own, that tell me that this whole
thing cannot be simply dismissed out-of-hand.

kiwilady · « **Reply #2860 on:** September 14, 2011, 04:14:03 AM »

I agree about Psychic connections. My grandfather and I definately had one. The night he had a massive heart attack I dreamed he had been run over by a train and woke sobbing in the early hours of the morning. Shortly after I woke the phone rang and my mother was told he was in ICU. The night he died I was violently ill all night for no apparent reason. The phone rang in the remote farmhouse where we were holidaying and it was a call to tell me he had died. Before my husband gave me the message I knew. I said to him "Grandpa is dead." My grandfather and I were extremely close for my entire life.

Carolyn

Babi · « **Reply #2861 on:** September 14, 2011, 08:27:31 AM »

Doesn't surprise me at all, CAROLYN. These things happen more often than people realize.
Those who have never had such an experience, tho', oten tend to dismiss them as imagination,
or coincidence, or chemicals in the brain,

...anything but the simple truth.

Babi · « **Reply #2862 on:** September 15, 2011, 09:28:21 AM »

For all those of you who kindly encouraged me, I have started the task of getting Nana's
stories on the computer. Most discouraging are the points on which my memory fails, (like
certain names) and the fact that the 'free' access to vital statistics records isn't free at all.
At least none of those I've pulled up on Explorer so far have been.
Right now I'm just trying to get the bare stories down. Dry reading. Hopefully, if I make it
to later drafts readibility will improve.

marcie · « **Reply #2863 on:** September 15, 2011, 10:17:46 AM »

That's wonderful, Babi, that you are preserving those stories.

Gumtree · « **Reply #2864 on:** September 15, 2011, 01:56:22 PM »

Babi: Good for you! I've been into family history on and off for years and find it so rewarding to get a story down however sketchy and maybe inaccurate - at least it's a start - and you can build on it as you go - and once you get going you might find that the facts come to you from unexpected sources. Have fun!

Babi · « **Reply #2865 on:** September 16, 2011, 06:25:45 PM »

That's true, GUM. My older daughter remembered Nana's birthdate exactly, including the
year, because their birthdays came close together.

JoanK · « **Reply #2866 on:** September 16, 2011, 09:47:21 PM »

The library had Donna Andrews new book, and I snatched it up (something about a Macaw). In the last one, eight months pregnant with twins, Meg just managed to catch the muderer before her water broke. Now she's nursing twins, and has a new collection of orphaned animals in her livingroom/ in an earlier book, she played hostess to the animals from the local zoo. In this one, from the local animal shelter. I'm sure she'll nurse the twins, take care of her animals, return to her blacksmithing, AND catch a murderer. I love these books, but they do leave me feeling a little tired!

Steph · « **Reply #2867 on:** September 17, 2011, 06:24:25 AM »

Just finished the latest Dennis Lehane.. He is an old favorite of mine and this is a Kenzey and Gennaro mystery. It is really a coda from an earlier book about them and the four year old they save years ago. The query is did they really save her.. Excellent book, but somewhat violent.. The Russian mob is involved and they are portrayed as close to beasts.. Oh well.
Good book.

Babi · « **Reply #2868 on:** September 17, 2011, 10:06:11 AM »

Yes, some of these heroines do leave us feeling terribly inadequate, don't they? Really
unbelievable, but shucks; I don't have to believe a story to enjoy it.

Steph · « **Reply #2869 on:** September 18, 2011, 06:00:19 AM »

I loved the Donna Andrews series.. Meg is a hoot. I would run away in real life if I were her, but it is fun to read about her and her outrageous relatives.

jolew · « **Reply #2870 on:** September 18, 2011, 08:45:13 PM »

MIA - had a lot of problems withPC - but now back - use to be JoHanz4 but now JoLew - don't go to CompUSA for repairs - deleted everything on PC hence new Name.

just want to say i am now reading Amanda Quick 'Lie by Moonlight' - i always enjoy her books and also books by her other names.

will check in again JoLew

JoanK · « **Reply #2871 on:** September 18, 2011, 09:34:00 PM »

WELCOME BACK JOLEW!

you are welcome by any name!

Steph · « **Reply #2872 on:** September 19, 2011, 05:48:00 AM »

Found a couple of Marcia Mullers older books at library book sale and snapped them up. I do like her and forget until I see her name on a book..
Her Sharon makes so much more sense than most female detectives.

Babi · « **Reply #2873 on:** September 19, 2011, 09:13:10 AM »

It's hard to find a genre slot for Carol Goodman's "Ghost Orchid". I'm nearing the end now,
but she still has me guessing. There is certainly a mystery to be solved,....in both time periods.
There is a strong suggestion of descendents of former protagonists, there are elements of
horror. There is a psychic, or medium, both then and now. It's as though many of the souls
involved in the first events have returned to resolve matters and expose the truth...all
unknowing, of course. So, ..is it fantasy as well? Whatever it is, it's written with Carol Goodman's usual fine touch.

FlaJean · « **Reply #2874 on:** September 19, 2011, 09:58:02 AM »

I just took back 6 books to the library and only finished one of them. I guess I'm just getting more picky in my old age and no longer waste time on a book that doesn't interest me. Someone mentioned Dorothy Sayers, and I looked in my bookcase for an old Dorothy Sayers book (Clouds of Witness) I had bought from a library sale. I know Sayers is "outdated" but I'm enjoying it nonetheless.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2875 on:** September 19, 2011, 10:48:54 AM »

I've got less than a quarter to go on The Ghost Orchid. I'm not into ghosts and paranormal activities, but CG writes so well that it carries me along so well that I must finish it and find out "who done it". One thing I am finding with this one, but not the other Goodman's I've read, is that I am have to keep reminding myself which characters are in the real/now world and which are part of the story being written by our heroine.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #2876 on:** September 19, 2011, 11:50:36 AM »

Steph, just finished Marcia Muller's "Locked In". Great book, and there is a follow up to it, which I hope to get from the library soon.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #2877 on:** September 19, 2011, 01:10:51 PM »

Just finished Gillian Roberts "i'd rather be in Philadelphia" and a Lisa Scottolini, also set in Phila. Those are fun because i know the environment, but i also love the way LS writes and i like her characters very mich. This was a Mary Dinunzio story and i like the female law firm books the best. Roberts' protagomist is an English teacher in a private school in Philly, so i get the enviroment thingy and her complaints about the students, but also like her bits about the literature she's "teaching". In this book a female student takes issue w/ "Taming of the Shrew" saying it's condoning domestic abuse and bullying..........yeah.....i'd say that was a good discussion starter.

Jean

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #2878 on:** September 19, 2011, 03:05:00 PM »

Won't y'all share - even if you do not stay around to chat in Talking Heads it would be so great to have as many of us as possible list our favorites in 20 Questions - it really is a way we get to know each other a bit better -

Here we are http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=2510.msg129764#msg129764

JoanK · « **Reply #2879 on:** September 19, 2011, 03:40:54 PM »

Jean: two of my favorite authors. Usually, the plots in Gillian's books reflect whatever her students are reading. Is that the case in this one.

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 910644 times)

jolew