Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 898203 times)

Steph · « **Reply #4440 on:** November 17, 2012, 06:08:07 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

M i lne?? Wow. thought Winnie was it.. Will check out where to get it.

Babi · « **Reply #4441 on:** November 17, 2012, 09:05:15 AM »

Oh, MaryPage, Shakespeare among "Tudor toadies"? A kinder view would be that
when kings and queens were still powerful, one was careful not to offend. If I did
read "The Daughter of Time", it's been too long ago. I was very much surprised, tho',
to find that my library had only two of the more recent Tey books.
I see that JEANNE has the same problem in her library. I suppose the old authors are
falling by the wayside in the competition for shelf space. I'm glad to hear that the
Marsh books are going to be republished.

MaryPage · « **Reply #4442 on:** November 17, 2012, 11:47:00 AM »

Josephine Tey, whose real name was Elizabeth MacIntosh, died in 1952.

Dame Ngaio Marsh died in 1982.

So it is a mark of how good they were that their books are still in print. I cannot recall Marsh sounding anything but very English; perhaps the book Marj tried was different from her others. As I said, Clutch of Constables was my favorite. It takes place mainly on a riverboat on the Thames in England, and just could not be more British.

JoanK · « **Reply #4443 on:** November 17, 2012, 03:12:28 PM »

I'm reading "the Red house mystery". it's shaping up to be a locked room puzzle. traces only of milne's dry humor.

Steph · « **Reply #4444 on:** November 18, 2012, 06:20:04 AM »

Marsh wrote a good deal of her mysteries about England..so I found them readable.. Tey wrote about everything, everywhere and I did like her.
Funny how universal they both are. Some authors never fade, others do right away. I suspect some of the cozy ones will age rather quickly.

jane · « **Reply #4445 on:** November 18, 2012, 11:07:13 AM »

I think all novels age, not just cozies. I guess it's a matter of thinking of them as historical pieces and not trying to make them into "contemporary" when that no longer fits. Lots of novels don't include cell phones and computer technology, etc., so anytime a character is looking for a phone or wondering about finding out about someone, etc., it's obviously no longer "contemporary" to our world. Whether or not one still enjoys reading a work is, I think, very dependent on how the author has connected with that reader.

jane

Steph · « **Reply #4446 on:** November 19, 2012, 06:05:16 AM »

I am very fond of some of the older tv series.. I do laugh at the original cell phones.. Larger than abreadbox, etc. I have been trying to decide why some books age well, but others jar me..Hmm.. Takes some thought.

Babi · « **Reply #4447 on:** November 19, 2012, 08:33:29 AM »

My own thought is that books that look deeply into human behavior and conduct are timeless.
Technology changes, but the things that make human beings 'tick' are basic and don't change.
What those books have to tell us remains true, and I think we realize that.

MaryPage · « **Reply #4448 on:** November 19, 2012, 04:58:33 PM »

Along those very lines, Babi, I was deeply, deeply struck by lines spoken by Abraham Lincoln in the new movie about him.

He is talking to Congressman Stevens, a huge opponent of his, and Lincoln says:

"A compass will point you true north, but it won't show you the swamps between you and there. If you don't avoid the swamps, what's the use of knowing true north?"

Wow! All of today's congressman on both sides of the aisle need to ponder that question. Nothing is black or white; everything contains many shades of grey. Compromise has always been the order of the day whenever this country has taken a few lurches forward toward true north.

JeanneP · « **Reply #4449 on:** November 19, 2012, 06:27:32 PM »

Mary.

Did you enjoy watch the new "Lincoln" movie. Was there are lot of Political talking in it?. Does it have much of his family life? Not sure if I want to see it yet.

Steph · « **Reply #4450 on:** November 20, 2012, 09:22:16 AM »

I know I want to see it, but not quite sure when it will hit our little movie here.They tend toward cartoons and shoot em ups..

Babi · « **Reply #4451 on:** November 20, 2012, 02:15:11 PM »

I'd never heard that quote before, MARYPAGE, and it may have been writte by the
screenwriter, but I think it's great. It's true, too. So many people speak much
of the great goals they want to accomplish, but very few can provide a plan for
actually achieving them. There's swamps out there, baby, and deserts and mountains.

Hey, STEPH, do you remember when a 'shoot 'em up' was a Western movie? Nowadays
it's hoodlums shooting anything that's moving. Or hot-shot detectives pushing the limits
on what's allowed in a civilized country. Our 'hero' images are becoming a bit muddy. I
do so enjoy the police dramas where the characters are trying to live up to the 'protect and
serve' motto.

JeanneP · « **Reply #4452 on:** November 20, 2012, 05:36:19 PM »

All of our favourite Cowboy hero's would not seem to be right for the shows we now have on TV. Just can't picture John Wayne and others like him playing the Detectives of today.

Steph · « **Reply #4453 on:** November 21, 2012, 05:58:04 AM »

I loved cowboy movies when I was a kid. Roy Rogers was my hero and I wanted his horse big time.. But now the shoot em ups shoot up the world.. no heros..just plain mean spirited.. I avoid them at all costs.
Reading the second Darling Dahlias book, but think that will be it.. Just too too silly.

dbroomsc · « **Reply #4454 on:** November 21, 2012, 11:23:45 AM »

Don't remember if this author was recommended here or somewhere else, but I'm glad I found her. Sue Ann Jaffarian's book "Too Big to Miss" is a real page turner. Started reading it last night and read about 75 pages. Woke up around 2:00 AM, couldn't get back to sleep so I picked up the book and finished it around 5:00 AM. The main character, Odelia Grey, is an overweight paralegal. I can relate to overweightness. When a member of her support group is reported to have committed suicide, she questions the verdict and investigates. From the information about the author in the back of the book, it says she is current president of the Los Angeles chapter of Sisters in Crime. Our library website lists several more of her books, so I will probably read another when I finish some of the TBR books I have already.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #4455 on:** November 21, 2012, 12:47:43 PM »

Sounds good Dean. My library has several of hers.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #4456 on:** November 21, 2012, 12:56:22 PM »

I've even found some Jaffarian on the East Lothian Libraries catalogue! Amazing - I've saved a few to my lists - they were short of titles, as you can imagine..

JoanK · « **Reply #4457 on:** November 22, 2012, 03:32:30 PM »

I love Jaffarian. She has the Odelia Grey series, and another series with a ghost as a detective, which I like less well, but still good.

JoanK · « **Reply #4458 on:** November 22, 2012, 03:41:19 PM »

I'm reading Mary Anna Evans. Her detective is an Black archiologist who does excavations primarily in the islands off Florida (although she travels in some of the books.

She owns and lives on one of those islands in a big house her forbears (one master, one slave) built. She starts out illegally digging up and selling artifacts to support herself, but, over the course of several books, becomes a legitimate archeologist.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/e/mary-anna-evans/

Babi · « **Reply #4459 on:** November 23, 2012, 09:07:54 AM »

Two more interesting sounding authors. I do hope I have more luck finding them in our
library. Drew a blank on the last few. I'll check again on-site. In their present mid-remodeling
status, they may not be quite up-to-date with the catalog.

Steph · « **Reply #4460 on:** November 24, 2012, 01:27:46 PM »

I have read three of the Jaffarian books. Love them, love her cranky boss and her wonderful love.. Good books.. excellent author. Have not yet found the ghost books.. She is hard to find in a lot of bookstores.

dbroomsc · « **Reply #4461 on:** November 24, 2012, 06:01:27 PM »

The Jaffarian book I read "Too Big to Miss" was a treat. I'm ready for another as soon as I finish the Rhys Bowen I just started and the Louise Penny I picked up from the library today.

Babi · « **Reply #4462 on:** November 25, 2012, 08:50:45 AM »

My library has not a single Jaffarian book! Tch!

Steph · « **Reply #4463 on:** November 25, 2012, 09:29:08 AM »

She is hard to find in used book stores as well.. Shemay be on Kindle.. There are a lot of writers that simply do not get wide distribution..Sad but true.

MaryPage · « **Reply #4464 on:** November 25, 2012, 11:56:28 AM »

Bob Schieffer of FACE THE NATION had 4 best selling authors on this morning, and one of them was Gillian Flynn who wrote GONE GIRL.

She seemed to be someone without ego and very, very nice. Very pretty and down to earth. I liked her a lot. She admits her book is quite dark.

He also had Chris Pavone, writer of The Expats, and now I find I really want to read that. And he had David Baldacci, who I like in person but do not care for his books, and Alex Stone, who wrote that book about magic, a subject I am just not interested in.

I found I liked all 4 authors as people, and that is quite surprising as I usually find so many of them to be full of themselves. These four have, or at least seem to have, great personalities.

JoanK · « **Reply #4465 on:** November 25, 2012, 02:38:22 PM »

I'm reading a Louise Penny now. Found there was one in the series I had missed "A Rule Against murder". It doesn't take place in Three Pines, but involves some of the same characters. It explains why I thought I had mssed something in the books I did read.

MaryPage · « **Reply #4466 on:** November 25, 2012, 10:20:31 PM »

In line with our comments a week or so ago, and my favorite mystery book of all time (so far), THE DAUGHTER OF TIME by Josephine Tey, I give you the following:

This was a below the centerfold FRONT PAGE story in today's (Sunday's) THE WASHINGTON POST.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/in-england-discovery-of-possible-royal-grave-digs-up-twisted-legacy-of-richard-iii/2012/11/24/33c34570-3314-11e2-92f0-496af208bf23_story.html

MaryPage · « **Reply #4467 on:** November 25, 2012, 10:26:09 PM »

Oh dear, it wants you to sign in. I have an account, as I am a subscriber, but I don't want to give out my password. Well, let's try this. It lacks the pictures, but here goes:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/in-england-discovery-of-possible-royal-grave-digs-up-twisted-legacy-of-richard-iii/2012/11/24/33c34570-3314-11e2-92f0-496af208bf23_print.html

Steph · « **Reply #4468 on:** November 26, 2012, 06:41:49 AM »

I also just found a missed Louise Penney book.. It was set in the village however..

Frybabe · « **Reply #4469 on:** November 26, 2012, 06:52:59 AM »

Click on "discovery in September" in the article and you get a BBC article with pictures.

Here is what the Richard III Society has: http://www.richardiii.net/ click on Leicester dig.

MaryPage · « **Reply #4470 on:** November 26, 2012, 08:18:07 AM »

Thanks, Frybabe. I have been a nut about Richard of York ever since I read Tey's book waaaaaaaay back there in time. Can a real life mystery be coming close to being solved?

Babi · « **Reply #4471 on:** November 26, 2012, 08:59:26 AM »

The first link worked for me, MARY PAGE. I will be very interested in learning
what the investigators and researchers find. I really want to read that book.
My library has the audio version only, which of course is no help to me at all.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #4472 on:** November 26, 2012, 11:20:31 AM »

Just started Ken Follett's Jackdaws, seems promising.

Steph · « **Reply #4473 on:** November 27, 2012, 05:50:59 AM »

Finally threw in the towell on the Darling Dahlias, just not interested in anyone in it.
I have a Dana Stabenow that I have not read. It has both Liam and Kate. Should be good.

JoanK · « **Reply #4474 on:** November 27, 2012, 03:21:06 PM »

A good real-life hstorical mystery. Great!

I haven't read that Stabenow.

Steph · « **Reply #4475 on:** November 28, 2012, 06:04:29 AM »

Yes, I like Liam and Stabenow does not write that much about him.. So it is good. This is probably last years book, since I bought it in paperback.. I also ordered and got the second Good Thief book.. This time he is in Las Vegas.. I loved the first one in Amsterdam.

MaryPage · « **Reply #4476 on:** December 03, 2012, 08:41:26 AM »

Had an email from Margaret Maron this morning (sent to ALL her fans in a mass mailing, not just meant for me) and she announces she has a new E-Book out for Christmas titled Five Christmas Gifts. Short stories.

FlaJean · « **Reply #4477 on:** December 03, 2012, 11:58:38 AM »

A new China Bayles mystery by Susan Wittig Albert is due out in April. "Widow's Tears" if I remember correctly.

Just finished Simon Brett's latest Fethering mystery "The Corpse on the Court". I enjoyed it. Carole is her usual "stuffy" self but Jude's character changed a bit--more vulnerable than in the previous mysteries. A nice cozy for the busy season.

JoanK · « **Reply #4478 on:** December 03, 2012, 02:53:23 PM »

Just finished Julia Spencer-fleming "One was a Soldier". I like this series, involving a woman Episcopal priest (who is also a helicopter pilot) and the cheif of police in a small upstate New York town. This one deals with PTSD. It's the latest in the series. The first is "In the Bleak Midwinter". they repay reading in order, since the characters develop.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/s/julia-spencer-fleming/

salan · « **Reply #4479 on:** December 03, 2012, 05:12:34 PM »

JoanK, I just checked out One was a Soldier, too! I have read all up to this point and really enjoyed them. You are so right about reading them in order; since the characters develope as the story continues.
Sally

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 898203 times)