Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 898201 times)

Steph · « **Reply #4480 on:** December 04, 2012, 06:00:19 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!

Links:
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Our Favorite Old Mystery Writers
Fantastic Fiction
Stop You're Killing Me

Discussion Leader: JoanK

One was a Soldier was excellent. One of my favorites so far. A very good author, who has invented some very complicated characters.
Finished What the Dead Know.. A wild reverse sort of ending, but I liked it.. I like Laura Lippman..She is always thinking.

marjifay · « **Reply #4481 on:** December 04, 2012, 08:46:28 AM »

Thanks, JoanK, for recommending One Was A Soldier. I recently read A Fountain Filled With Blood which I thought was very good, and better than Bleak Midwinter. Spencer-Fleming's books seem to be getting better and better.

Marj

Steph · « **Reply #4482 on:** December 05, 2012, 06:12:43 AM »

I think that she is digging deeper into her characters and coming up with more complicated plots. A very good author indeed..Almost finished with Star Island.. He is pushing the silly limits, but then I would guess that South Beach does that.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #4483 on:** December 05, 2012, 09:36:04 AM »

I've just reserved the latest Louise Penny at the library - The Beautiful Mystery - and wondered if any of you have read it?

I really love Penny's books, but when I read her newsletters I sometimes feel she is getting a bit too precious - I know she's a great writer, but she talks about her writing as though it were some sort of mystic religion.

Just jealous really, of course

pedln · « **Reply #4484 on:** December 05, 2012, 11:50:50 AM »

Steph, have you read Laura Lippman's Power of Three? My f2f read it a few years ago, about a school shooting, pretty strong stuff.

Someone mentioned Julia Spencer-Fleming a while back and I was able to get the first one, In the Bleak Mid-winter at bargain prices. I'm looking forward to reading that one of these days. Thanks for the recommendation.

F2f meets tomorrow to discuss Mary Higgins Clark's The Christmas Thief, light and enjoyable. Rather timely because it corresponds with the lighting of the tree in Rockefeller Center and also the powerball winners.

Amazon seems to be having some special deal days for the upcoming holidays. I rarely win stuff on things like that, but have received a few books from Random House readers circle after filling out a form mentioned on Facebook.

CubFan · « **Reply #4485 on:** December 05, 2012, 11:56:14 AM »

I read the latest Louse Penny book The Beautiful Mystery as soon as it was released but have not said anything about it because I didn't like it as well as the others. I was very interested in the history of chanting by the monks but did not like he direction she took with the main characters. I had really looked forward to this book as I had enjoyed all of her previous ones, but I'm not sure I will read the next one. Since we all have different feelings about story lines, settings and character development, I'm sure there are others of you who will think this is her best.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #4486 on:** December 05, 2012, 01:10:30 PM »

Thanks Cubfan - I'll let you know what I think when I finally get it from the library.

Rosemary

JeanneP · « **Reply #4487 on:** December 05, 2012, 02:41:50 PM »

It is getting now,specially with some of the writers that have been around for awhile. You can read one of their books and love it. Pick up another and can't stand to read it.
Most now seem to be writing to many books just to fast. Maybe writing some for the Book Pads where people buy for 10 dollars but not a good story. And then work on another longer which is good but goes out on book market in Stores first for $28 and later onto the Pads. Something is changing. Can't see any author that can sit and write a good story more than twice a year. Some good books have taken 2 years to write.

JoanK · « **Reply #4488 on:** December 05, 2012, 02:49:18 PM »

Oh dear. I have a sample of "A Beautiful mystery" on my kindle, but maybe I won't read it. Penny does knock her characters about a bit, doesn't she.

MaryPage · « **Reply #4489 on:** December 05, 2012, 04:46:04 PM »

I am putting myself in your hands; trusting in your collective judgment.

Have just gone on line to Thrift Books. Do you know them? Boy, is it EVER the way to buy books these days!

I spent a grand total of $28.24 and bought ALL SEVEN of Julia Spencer-Flemings books about the Episcopal priest.

Do you think I am smirking. Dang right!

nlhome · « **Reply #4490 on:** December 05, 2012, 07:34:58 PM »

I think that sometimes we read a series and have a certain expectation of how we want the characters to develop - and when the author goes in a different direction, we don't like it. I know I read some series, and then can't read any more. One is Elizabeth George - I cannot read "What Came before He shot her." Actually, I quit part way into "With No One as Witness."

There are a couple of other series where I have skipped books because I haven't want to read that particular plot line of character involvement.

Babi · « **Reply #4491 on:** December 06, 2012, 08:44:31 AM »

One of the privileges of being a reader, NL. We're perfectly free to continue or
dump, without offense to a soul.

Steph · « **Reply #4492 on:** December 06, 2012, 08:50:10 AM »

I agree on Elizabeth George. I loved her until Helen died.. Then I could not read the next apology type and the last one made me want to rip it up.. What an unpleasant woman, he picked, No sense.
I love Louise Penney, so hope I will like the latest.
Yes, I have read pretty much allof Laura Lippman. Her stand alones are powerful..The school shooting was a truly scary ending.

MaryPage · « **Reply #4493 on:** December 06, 2012, 11:11:59 AM »

Isn't that funny; I totally agree with you about Elizabeth George. Why in this WORLD did she kill off Helen like that? Or in any manner, for that?

I have not read one of her books since. You know what? I'll bet, based on what you have just said and it being identical to my reaction, I'll just bet she lost a huge percentage of her public right then and there. And I'll bet she and her publishers know it in spades!

Sort of like AMC remaking the Danish film THE KILLING, a series in which the murder is not solved until the 13th episode. But the American Public went ape over the show and AMC had a hit on their hands and they decided to change the ending, change the murderer, add in a lot of plot not in the Danish version (which was a huge hit in Europe), and carry it over until the next year. Well, I for one was furious, and I refused to watch the second year. As did MOST of their viewers! I mean, when you have been expecting to find out who done it on a certain date and then they just leave you dangling! Apparently someone in charge at AMC thought this a great way to hang on to their sudden new influx of viewers. But you don't promise one thing and then betray your public, whether a watching or a reading public. I adored Lady Helen. We should have been able to keep her.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #4494 on:** December 06, 2012, 11:59:34 AM »

I think i'll check out Maron's Christmas book.

Just finished "If Looks Could Kill" by Kate White. It was enjoyable. Someone suggested Sue Ann Jaffarian, i got "Thugs and Kisses" at the library and am liking it quite a lot. Thanks for the recommendations.

Happy holidays!

marjifay · « **Reply #4495 on:** December 06, 2012, 12:33:28 PM »

I agree that some of Elizabeth George's mystery series books were better than others. But I read her latest not long ago, BELIEVING THE LIE, and really liked it!

it is a biggie, but I was surprized that this long book kept up my interest all the way to the end. One review called it a "melodrama" and I guess it was, but a very interesting one. I really laughed at Sgt Haver's T-Shirt which she wore into Scotland Yard on her day off, infuriating her boss, which said "Jesus died for our sins...Let's not disappoint him." (I love this rather homely, a little dumpy, but very intelligent character, Barbara Havers.)

Everything is wrapped up nicely at the end, but it ends with a cliffhanger on a matter having to do with Havers' Pakistani friend and neighbor -- so I'm glad to know there will be another novel.
If Elizabeth George ever stops writing good mystery novels, she could do well writing soap operas.

Marj

JoanK · « **Reply #4496 on:** December 06, 2012, 05:32:21 PM »

"Do you think I am smirking. Dang right!"

You should be! I paid a lot more than that on kindle!

Got this years Christmas mystery by Anne Perry from the library. Can't wait to see which character features in this one as the detective.

Steph · « **Reply #4497 on:** December 07, 2012, 06:00:21 AM »

I too like Havers and her landlord and daughter.. but I dont like the direction for her main character. Besides Lady Helen was one of the few truly nice characters.. Oh well. authors can kill off who they please. Just didnt make sense.. George wanted to write about slum children and how they live, I would suppose.

MaryPage · « **Reply #4498 on:** December 07, 2012, 10:25:33 AM »

"Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR
As we go to meet the foe.
Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR
As we did the Alamo.
We will always remember how they died to set men free.
Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR
And go on to victory."

JoanK · « **Reply #4499 on:** December 07, 2012, 03:56:45 PM »

Yes, indeed. How many of us can remembeer where we were when we heard about Pearl Harbor?

Steph · « **Reply #4500 on:** December 08, 2012, 05:53:27 AM »

Since I was not quite 5, dont remember a thing.
The food trucks come to Clermont once a month. It is amazing the crowds that turn out. I love the idea of having a bit of this and a bit of that. This month, I had korean barbecue tacos. Hows that for a strange ethnic mix, but they were excellent. spicy and good. Then a cupcake for dessert.. Butterfinger type.. Then down town to look at the stores and then onto the historic village for a candlelight tour. Nice evening.

maryz · « **Reply #4501 on:** December 08, 2012, 09:37:42 AM »

Like you, Steph, I was too young to remember Pearl Harbor. (We must be very close to the same age - March 1936.) I do remember when FDR died and the parades at the end of WW2.

marjifay · « **Reply #4502 on:** December 08, 2012, 11:03:03 AM »

I was eight years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked. I remember hearing President Roosevelt speaking on the radio and telling what happened. I was scared.

Back then we didn't have television images of the war as we do now. I remember my mom reading the newspaper during WW2 with tears in her eyes, especially when she read Ernie Pyle's column about the men he talked with on the front lines.

Marj

JoanK · « **Reply #4503 on:** December 08, 2012, 02:08:24 PM »

mARJ: "I remember hearing President Roosevelt speaking on the radio and telling what happened. I was scared."

That's my memory, too. Whenever I hear "Pearl Harbor", I see that green radio dial! I remember sking my parents what's "war"? I didn't know what it was, but I could feel my parents were scared, so I was too.

JeanneP · « **Reply #4504 on:** December 08, 2012, 06:14:06 PM »

War started for us in UK l939. Seemed like it had been on for years by the time Pearl Harbor happened. We didn't get a whole lot of news on it. We had been hearing lots coming out of Asia even before 1939 as we had troops fighting in that area prior to 1939. The Japanese had started things along the Chinese borders .Some English families that had lived in China for years were being sent home. So Japan had plans long before they bombed Pearl Harbor. They had also gotten into the Allusion Island off Alaska

FlaJean · « **Reply #4505 on:** December 08, 2012, 11:28:40 PM »

I just finished Margaret Maron's latest Deborah Knott series "The Bzzard Table". I think it is one of the best in the series. Maron also has several "stand alone" books. Her "Last Lessons of Summer" was very good.

Steph · « **Reply #4506 on:** December 09, 2012, 05:58:34 AM »

I will look for the new Maron. I do so love her books.
MaryZ.. December 1937.. so the war only meant moving from where I was born, Delaware, first to Brooklyn to the navy yard for my Dad to work construction ( he was 4-f, blind on one eye) and then to Portsmouth,Va. for the navy yard there. My biggest memory was the day the war was over, my Dad came home and said to my Mom.. pack, we are going. home. She cried and cried, since her parents lived in Portsmouth and she wanted to stay in the city, but Dad was going back to Delaware, where they owned a lot and he wanted to build a house..So we did..that and the face that my Dad was a Eleanor hater..Oh me, he hated to even hear her name..

Babi · « **Reply #4507 on:** December 09, 2012, 09:07:48 AM »

What I can well remember is the day we heard that the war was over. I was ten,
and people were out in the streets, laughing and shouting. I'll never forget the
young wife driving through the streets, crying and laughing at the same time, honking the horn because her soldier husband would finally be coming home. I can still get teary remembering.
My dad worked in a torpedo factory, as a master machinist. He went to enlist,
but was told they needed master machinists in the war plants. He worked there
a couple of years, then we moved so he could work in one of the airplane factories. Those planes became so familiar to me I could identify every one of
them, young as I was.

MaryPage · « **Reply #4508 on:** December 09, 2012, 03:17:14 PM »

I love Maron, too; but I always wait and buy her paperbacks just as soon as they come out. I think we are on about number 19 for Deborah Knott now, and I never get tired or bored. Maron actually gets BETTER with each book. Though I did love that one about the potters in North Carolina. A lot of the names she used in that book were real people.

JoanK · « **Reply #4509 on:** December 09, 2012, 04:39:01 PM »

I'm reading an interesting and different book: "Don't Cry, Tai Lake." I won't try to spell the author's name, but here he is:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/q/qiu-xiaolong/

The author is from Shanghai, and is also a poet and translator of Chinese poetry into English. Not surprisingly, his detective is a policeman in Shanghai who quotes Chinese poetry at the drop of a hat (his own and others).

Interesting picture of Communist China (the author left China after Tenamin square). And I've long loved Japanese poetry, but am ignorant of Chinese poetry. So this is a treat for me.

Steph · « **Reply #4510 on:** December 10, 2012, 06:12:01 AM »

I had not ever read one of robert crais books.. Sentry. It is about Joe Pike and is very violent. I finally decided to take it on Saturday afternoon. Finished it yesterday. Loved it and I generally dont like violence.. But I do like Elvis Cole his detective and I loved this one. but oh me, the body count is high indeed.

Babi · « **Reply #4511 on:** December 10, 2012, 09:20:44 AM »

A policeman quoting poetry. Sounds like fun, JOANK. I don't think my chances are very good of finding it in my library, tho'. Still, I've noted down the authors
name,...carefully.

FlaJean · « **Reply #4512 on:** December 10, 2012, 06:24:23 PM »

Joank, did you find this book at Amazon for the Kindle? I'll look for that author. I like reading books about detectives in other countries.

JoanK · « **Reply #4513 on:** December 10, 2012, 07:42:55 PM »

Fla: no I found it in the libray. But the kindle has it, along with some others in the series. They don't have the extra that gives you all the books in sequence, but you can find that in the Fantastic Fiction link above (and the older ones should be cheaper!}

Steph · « **Reply #4514 on:** December 11, 2012, 06:05:10 AM »

I loved Judge Dee. but that of course was ancient China.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #4515 on:** December 11, 2012, 12:58:43 PM »

Just 70 pages into a new (to me) mystery author - Karen Swee's "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Murder." It's set in New Jersey during the Revolutionary War and very good reading. Unfortunately, it appears to be the only book she wrote and she died in 2008. It's very sad, i'm really enjoying the book.

FlaJean · « **Reply #4516 on:** December 11, 2012, 01:10:24 PM »

Joank, my library has no books by Qui Xiaolong. My son and dil often give me Amazon gifts so I'll check Amazon. I have a Kindle app on my iPad and occasionally download a book although I prefer the feel of real books.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #4517 on:** December 11, 2012, 01:21:11 PM »

Well now, I got so tired of waiting on the reserve list for "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn. I had made it up to #50 of 83 requests, so I bought it. I have heard good reports, bad reports, mediocre reports, and think it's one that has to be "just read" and make your own decisions. I'm not sure if I like it, or hate it; the format is very unusual, but since I was having a bit of insomnia last evening, I read until 4:00 AM. If nothing else, it's keeping my interest! I don't think I've wasted my Amazon money, but time will tell. I'm over half-way through, and it's a book that tempted me to do something I never do...go to the end and find out what really happened!

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #4518 on:** December 11, 2012, 01:24:04 PM »

BTW, I put on my reserve list "The Uninvited Guests" which I think is the book that was tagged as "scary" by Ginny, either in this forum, or one of our others. There are only 18 ahead of me, hee, hee, hee.

Steph · « **Reply #4519 on:** December 12, 2012, 06:11:12 AM »

Finished Wicked Appetite by Evanovich.. Not as good as Stephanie Plum, but better than those retread romances she churns out..

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 898201 times)