Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 910212 times)

Steph · « **Reply #5080 on:** April 22, 2013, 06:01:39 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

Cara Black.. new name for me.. Too busy this week, will make a note. Also the books on the Catskills hotels..

FlaJean · « **Reply #5081 on:** April 23, 2013, 09:25:31 AM »

Susan Wittig Albert has a new China Bayles mystery "Widow's Tears". I'm #7 on the reserve list and looking forward to reading it. So far Albert has never disappointed me with this series.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #5082 on:** April 23, 2013, 11:25:28 AM »

Oh good! I've read almost all of the China Bayles series and was feeling a little depressed about coming to the end.

Jean

Steph · « **Reply #5083 on:** April 24, 2013, 06:22:44 AM »

I like China, but do not like her other series.

pedln · « **Reply #5084 on:** April 25, 2013, 11:09:28 AM »

Re: Cara Black -- MaryPage, I just read something about her yesterday, but don't remember where -- but do remember thinking that I'd like to read some of hers. Will have to check my history and see if I can find it. Maybe a link from twitter or facebook.

MaryPage · « **Reply #5085 on:** April 25, 2013, 03:29:14 PM »

Do you read BOOKMARKS? There was a long article about her in there. The current edition of that magazine. If you do read it, that is where you read about her.

pedln · « **Reply #5086 on:** April 26, 2013, 11:34:52 AM »

Oh, duh, MaryPage. Yes, it was Bookmarks (thank you Andrea for getting me on to that publication so many years ago.) The current issue recently came and i just sat down and started looking at it. And it seemed to be a really good issue. I think that's the first time I'd heard of Cara Black.

MaryPage · « **Reply #5087 on:** April 26, 2013, 03:03:28 PM »

Well then, there's two of us.
Don't tell!
I need another writer like I need a hole in the head, as there are, seriously, no exaggeration, probably over a thousand books in this house I want to read before I die, and my reading hours grow shorter and shorter as my eyes tend to fail me and I snooze off, and I am 84 next month and time is just plain eroding away.
But I am, as I said, interested in my French teaching daughter who spent a whole year in Paris and goes back almost every year, knowing about these books set in Paris.
So I went to Thrift books and managed to buy most of them for her. The few others I will buy new from Barnes & Noble, and voila! She will own the set.

JoanK · « **Reply #5088 on:** April 26, 2013, 03:10:18 PM »

Great! Let us know how she likes them. We all learn about Venice from Donna Leon's mysteries -- maybe we can learn about Paris now.

The only time I was there, it was winter and rained the whole time.

MaryPage · « **Reply #5089 on:** April 27, 2013, 10:00:36 AM »

Well, you got there!

I never did. Many plans made, and many a thing came along to shove them aside.

Ah so.

At least you GOT there!

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #5090 on:** April 27, 2013, 04:02:54 PM »

I also went in winter - November - and was blessed with amazing weather, sunny, not too cold. The weeks before and after our stay were apparently terrible - torrential rain, floods, windy. I had wanted to see Venice for years, so I think we were so lucky to hit on that beautiful week. I love Donna Leon's descriptions of it - she gives you so much detail that you would never see as a tourist, no matter how hard you tried.

I will look up Cara Black at the library, sounds interesting. Thanks for the tip.

Rosemary

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #5091 on:** April 27, 2013, 04:18:26 PM »

Amazing - our library catalogue has several Cara Black novels!

JoanK · « **Reply #5092 on:** April 27, 2013, 05:06:10 PM »

Yes, I got there. I'm so glad for all the places I've seen.

And the place I'm in now. the flowers are spectacular this year: the roses, the bougainvillea, a few camellia left: everywhere I look (thanks to the gardeners here: the few things I tried to plant all died).

Sorry, I'm in a sappy mood! But if any of you find yourself in Southern California, I've got a very comfortable couch.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #5093 on:** April 27, 2013, 06:13:11 PM »

Just seen that on Amazon UK there is an 'Aimee Leduc Companion' that purports to tell you who is who, and also to show maps of the locations in the books, etc - and it's free at the moment:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Aimee-Leduc-Companion-ebook/dp/B004Q3RMR6/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1367100618&sr=1-4&keywords=cara+black

Rosemary

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #5094 on:** April 27, 2013, 07:46:17 PM »

Not available for me here in the States. Boo!

JoanK · « **Reply #5095 on:** April 27, 2013, 09:42:18 PM »

TOME: are you sure? I just ordered iit for my kindle (cost 99 cents) and a sample of the first in the series "Murder in the Marais." (I think my library carries them if I decide I like her)

JoanK · « **Reply #5096 on:** April 27, 2013, 09:46:55 PM »

Just finished "Swift Run" by Laura DiSiverio

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/laura-disilverio/

Funny cozy about a woman PI who'se forced to take as a partner another woman with no PI skills and two spoiled children.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #5097 on:** April 27, 2013, 10:26:26 PM »

Quote from: JoanK on April 27, 2013, 09:42:18 PM

TOME: are you sure? I just ordered iit for my kindle (cost 99 cents) and a sample of the first in the series "Murder in the Marais." (I think my library carries them if I decide I like her)

I'm just telling you what it told me.
I'll double check.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #5098 on:** April 27, 2013, 10:31:07 PM »

Now is says the Kindle Edition is $7.00 - - lots of difference between 99 cents. I'll check my library.

Frybabe · « **Reply #5099 on:** April 28, 2013, 06:44:35 AM »

You must have gotten the book on special JoanK. I noticed they do that a lot. I found that several of the books I got for 99 cents or free now have higher prices on them.

My library has the Cara Black books.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #5100 on:** April 28, 2013, 12:14:30 PM »

My library has ALL her books, so I'm good to go.

JoanK · « **Reply #5101 on:** April 28, 2013, 02:52:44 PM »

Tonight, my PBS station has Part 2 of "The Bletchley Circle", an interesting (so far) mystery about the "Bletchlry Girls", the women who broke the Nazi Code in WWII. In this, four of them reunite years later to try to catch a serial killer.

MaryPage · « **Reply #5102 on:** April 29, 2013, 01:40:05 PM »

I watched it last night and loved it. Those women are something else again. The clothing seems more forties than 1953 to me. I think I read somewhere that this is supposed to be 1953. I relate it to that being the year we bought our first house. It was built on the Levitt Town design and we bought it on the G.I. Bill. About a quarter of a acre lot with a 4 bedroom, 1 bath, no basement but crawl space house for $12,500.00! Payments were P.I.T.I. for $64.00 a month! We added a half bath before we sold it in 1960 for an upgrade. Those were the days!

JoanK · « **Reply #5103 on:** April 29, 2013, 02:54:59 PM »

It seemed more forties to me, too. There was a piece afterwards that talked about the costuming: everything (costumes and lighting) done in subdued colors to reflect the time. I don't remember the 50s being all that subdued: I was a young thing, having a good time.

As always, I have trouble understanding some of the haracters. but I love the series.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #5104 on:** April 29, 2013, 09:08:45 PM »

Joan - i too thought that their discussion after the show about the clothes seemed more forties then fifties, but then i thought maybe in England things were darker and drearier then in the USA.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #5105 on:** April 30, 2013, 03:33:48 AM »

I think things were pretty gloomy in the UK till the 1960s. My mother was married in 1952 and had to wear 'utility clothes'. Many things were still rationed, and there were still bomb sites in London (and indeed for many years after that), with many people living in 'prefabs' - makeshift little houses that were put up for short term use and were still there 30 years later (although the residents did in fact become very fond of them and were sorry to see them eventually demolished.)

Rosemary

Steph · « **Reply #5106 on:** April 30, 2013, 06:36:33 AM »

We were in Venice in April and it was lovely.. fresh and springlike.. A bit cool on the gondola ride though.

Phyll · « **Reply #5107 on:** May 02, 2013, 08:14:51 AM »

I seriously love Donna Leon's books in Venice. She knows that city very well and has the talent to vividly describe it to her readers. And I wouldn't mind knowing Commissario Guido Brunetti and his wife. I wonder if Leon, who is, or was, a teacher in Venice has written autobiographically when she writes of the wife (darn! I've forgotten her name)?

I just checked my library catalog and find that they have 13 titles by Cara Black. Would it be better to start with the first (Murder in Marais) or can they be read in any order?

FlaJean · « **Reply #5108 on:** May 02, 2013, 11:49:24 AM »

Phyll, Donna Leon is one of my favorite mystery authors. Brunetti's wife is Paola and I always enjoy reading about her delicious meals and her thoughtful handling of him and the children. Leon recently wrote a stand-alone "The Jewels of Paradise" about a young Venetian woman who has left Venice to pursue a career and returns. I enjoyed the book but the character isn't as warm or interesting as Brunetti. I wondered if Leon might be starting another series but by the end of the book I decided "don't think so."

JoanK · « **Reply #5109 on:** May 02, 2013, 04:29:32 PM »

I'm reading the first Cara Black. It's VERY good, but very emotional! About the aftermath fifty years later of the Nazi occupation of the Paris Jewish quarter. Not light reading.

The depiction of Paris reminds me of Leon. Not romanticized at all.

Frybabe · « **Reply #5110 on:** May 02, 2013, 05:36:29 PM »

I wanted to order the first Cara Black from the library, but The Devil in the White City was right there on the library book shelf when I took my last read back this morning.

maryz · « **Reply #5111 on:** May 02, 2013, 08:35:06 PM »

The Devil in the White City is a neat story, Frybabe, and it's a true story, I think.

JeanneP · « **Reply #5112 on:** May 02, 2013, 10:13:18 PM »

The first black sounds interesting . Who wrote it.

MaryPage · « **Reply #5113 on:** May 03, 2013, 09:19:09 AM »

CARA BLACK wrote it.

Steph · « **Reply #5114 on:** May 03, 2013, 02:30:34 PM »

Read Devil in the White City, but was not overly impressed.. It was ok.
Just finished another Ann Purser.. Foul Play at Four. I like her Lois Meade, but this one seemed to be pushing some limits on cozy.

maryz · « **Reply #5115 on:** May 03, 2013, 03:09:17 PM »

Steph, of the two stories in The Devil in the White City, I liked the one about the building of the city better than the murder mystery.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #5116 on:** May 03, 2013, 03:13:30 PM »

Devil InThe White City encouraged me to go on line and research that World's Fair. Most interesting, and there really was a murderer during that period.

CubFan · « **Reply #5117 on:** May 03, 2013, 07:10:05 PM »

I found it fascinating when after I read the "Devil in the White City" I shared the book with several friends. As each of them returned the book they indicated that they had either read the history portions or the mystery chapters but no one seemed to have read the entire book. Because I had read a history of Chicago I was more interested in the world's fair but read the entire book.

Mary

JeanneP · « **Reply #5118 on:** May 03, 2013, 07:27:36 PM »

My mistake Mary Page. I had not heard of Cara Black as a writer. I will now, as I just picked up her book." Murder in the Marais" as you all seem to enjoy her books. Will see how I like it.

maryz · « **Reply #5119 on:** May 03, 2013, 08:59:13 PM »

I'm like you, CubFan Mary - read the whole book, but was more interested in the ins and outs of the world's fair portions.

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 910212 times)