Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 899504 times)

salan · « **Reply #560 on:** March 07, 2010, 06:26:33 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 Leaders: BillH and JoanK

Steph, I notice that you and I are frequently reading/posting at the same time. You are an early bird, too. I can't seem to sleep more than 4 or 5 hrs at night---Most aggravating!
Sally

Babi · « **Reply #561 on:** March 07, 2010, 09:02:36 AM »

I've found that once I get bored with a series and break it off, I never seem to go back.
I've no doubt missed a lot of good books that way, but shucks, there are a lot of other good
books out there, too.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #562 on:** March 07, 2010, 11:25:44 AM »

Sterling Glass has become one of my favorite characters; she has class in the old fashioned sense of the word.

Elizabeth George ~~finally~~ has a new Inspector Lynley coming out in May. My name is #20 on the waiting list. Check this out: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/elizabeth-george/this-body-of-death.htm
If you haven't fallen under George's spell beware; it is a wicked addiction. George's Lynley and Laurie R King's Mary Russell will always be at the top of my stack of books.

salan · « **Reply #563 on:** March 07, 2010, 04:59:26 PM »

Mrssherlock, I love Elizabeth George and will certainly put my name on the reserve list. It's been a while since I have read any of her books.
I don't know who recommended Charlaine Harris, but thank you. I just finished Grave Sight. It was a fast easy read that held my interest. Just what I needed while I am "slogging" my way thru Edgar Sawtelle for my ftf book club and concentrating on The Book Thief.
Sally

pedln · « **Reply #564 on:** March 07, 2010, 11:48:54 PM »

Maybe it's time for me to get back to Elizabeth George. I haven't read any of hers since she killed off one of my favorite characters. I guess she's written about two or three since then.

My f2f group read Tess Gerritson's Bone Garden this week. This was her first for me, and I really liked it. It was both historical (1830) and contemporary. Oliver Wendell Holmes even played a part in this novel about grave robbers, early medical schools, child birth fever and life in early 19th century Boston.

Steph · « **Reply #565 on:** March 08, 2010, 05:37:35 AM »

I discovered a Lauri King I had not read. Resurrection Hall. Oh the joy, I do love her Holmes books, but then I love everything she writes. The stand alones are fascinating.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #566 on:** March 08, 2010, 01:04:52 PM »

Speaking of Laurie King she has a new Mary Russell coming in April: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/k/laurie-r-king/god-of-hive.htm

marjifay · « **Reply #567 on:** March 08, 2010, 08:48:08 PM »

Elizabeth George has a new book (with Thomas Lynley) coming out April 20 -- THIS BODY OF DEATH (but 700 pages!) I liked her last one, CARELESS IN RED, but it sure needed whittling down.

Jackie, I love Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetry!

Marj

mrssherlock · « **Reply #568 on:** March 08, 2010, 10:22:23 PM »

My sister introduced me to the novels of Ann Bridge who was married to a diplomat. They are outdated in terms of technology and communism is still mrampant in the period her books cover. She writes semi-romantic mysteries nof the amateur spy girl reporter type and I'm loving them. I've read the first three of the Julia Probyn books (there are six) and accordingly "toured" Morroco, Portugal and Switzerland. I'll finish the Julia's first then read whatever else i can find. http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=bridan

FlaJean · « **Reply #569 on:** March 08, 2010, 10:50:32 PM »

I just finished two of Kerry Greenwood's Phyrne Fisher series. I liked them. Thanks to whomever suggested them. mrssherlock, the novels you mentioned by Ann Bridge sound interesting. I'll have to check on them. I lived several years in Morocco. Would like to find that one.

Frybabe · « **Reply #570 on:** March 09, 2010, 01:30:52 AM »

I was just given James Patterson's Cross Country. I've never read any of his books and this one will have to wait a while. My reading time is already "booked" for the next few months.

Steph · « **Reply #571 on:** March 09, 2010, 06:11:29 AM »

Ann Bridge. Oh me, I remember reading her spy stories way back. Good writer, but I sort of burned out on any spy stories.

Phyll · « **Reply #572 on:** March 09, 2010, 10:15:03 AM »

I'm about a third of the way in to Wine of Violence by Priscilla Royal. I'm liking it very much though I'm finding that the characters seem a little slow to develop for a not very big book. However, the central figure, the young Prioress is a very strong and interesting figure. Very good book and thanks for recommending it.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #573 on:** March 09, 2010, 01:54:58 PM »

I just finished my first Sara Paretsky (V.I. Warshawski) mystery. Thanks to you all who have talked about them. I really enjoyed it, read it in 3 or 4 days. I will get others. This one was Deadlock and told me way more than i wanted to know about freight shipping on the Great Lakes, but the tidbits of info were - in the end - interesting. I'm always interested in learning about something i've never tho't about before..........jean

JoanK · « **Reply #574 on:** March 09, 2010, 03:14:57 PM »

I liked "Deadlock the best of the Paretskys. I like to learn about new things.

JACKIE, FLAJEAN: do you like the Mrs. Polifax spy stories by Dorothy Gilman? She has at least one et in Morocco.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #575 on:** March 09, 2010, 03:25:10 PM »

Joank: Who wouldn't love Mrs. Polifax? I devour those stories and can pleasurably reread them. Mabe I can be her when I grow up.

FlaJean · « **Reply #576 on:** March 09, 2010, 05:16:44 PM »

JoanK, I've read all of the Mrs. Pollifax books. I own a couple of them and reread them occasionally. I've also read a couple of her other novels. I don't think she has published anything lately.

JoanK · « **Reply #577 on:** March 09, 2010, 08:33:42 PM »

JACKIE: "Mabe I can be her when I grow up." That's MY line,!

(If we're going to grow up, maybe we'd better start. It's getting kinda late.)

FLAJEAN: is her description of Morocco accurate? Was it Morocco? I just remember her learning to whirl like the whirling dervishes. The whirling dervishes performed in my town, and I really wanted to see them, but couldn't.

Steph · « **Reply #578 on:** March 10, 2010, 06:13:22 AM »

Its funny. I also read a lot of the Mrs. Pollifax novels. Great fun

Babi · « **Reply #579 on:** March 10, 2010, 08:16:15 AM »

As I recall I read Mrs. Pollifax almost exclusively back in my 'Readers'
Digest Condensed Books' stage. You know, when the three kids keep you
so busy you can't find time for the regular books. I should probably
go find Mrs. Pollifax again and see what I missed.

JoanK · « **Reply #580 on:** March 10, 2010, 12:54:39 PM »

They repay rereading.

FlaJean · « **Reply #581 on:** March 10, 2010, 11:27:00 PM »

JoanK, It's been so many years since I read the Pollifax book when she went to Morocco I don't remember much of it. However, when we visited Epcot Center at Disney World and visited the Morocco area my husband and I were impressed. We lived in Kenitra (formerly known as Port Lyauty) in a small French villa. We did visit our Fatima's sister in the medina who cooked us a delicious meal similar to stew on a hibachi. We did sit on the floor on large pillows but because we were American she provided forks and the visit was over after the 3rd cup of mint tea, as we were told was their custom. As the young people say, it was awesome.

Steph · « **Reply #582 on:** March 11, 2010, 05:43:44 AM »

Finished Justice Hall by Lauri King. Absolutely wonderful as always. Somehow I had missed that one.. It was fun seeing a new side of Ali and Muhammad.. What a surprise.

pedln · « **Reply #583 on:** March 11, 2010, 09:42:00 AM »

Jean, you'll have a good time with so many Sara Paretsky's to read. I still have one of her V.I's on the shelf -- Blacklist -- that hasn't been read yet. My f2f group just read one of her new ones that's not a V.I. -- Bleeding Kansas, a stand alone, not a detective story, about three Kansas farm families in the Lawrence area. Paretsky grew up in that area. I give the book 5 stars for plot, character development, setting, etc. etc. etc.

It's interesting to follow an author's books, especially those of a mystery writer, and watch how they develop or change or what have you, especially when they leave the mystery vein. Nancy Pickard (Jenny Crain and Eugeinia Potter series) also recently wrote a stand alone, also set in Kansas -- Virgin of Small Plains -- was a state-wide read selection two years ago. (And Pickard visited every library in the state of Kansas!)

Even Margaret Maron (my favorite) has slightly changed her style in her Deborah Knott series -- less Deborah Knott involvement and not always first person viewpoint. I'm not sure how I feel about that latter.

Loved Ann Bridge years back and would like to reread. Not a one in my library.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #584 on:** March 11, 2010, 01:12:34 PM »

The "Kansas" books sound interesting. I think i had heard of Peretsky's book, probably read a review at some point. I am looking forward to more V.I. stories. I read Maron's Slow Dollar, can't remember at the moment what it was about. .................. jean

Phyll · « **Reply #585 on:** March 11, 2010, 01:13:43 PM »

My goodness! I didn't know that Sara Paretsky grew up in Lawrence, Pedlin. I grew up just 21 miles south of Lawrence in Ottawa KS. I am going to have to get that book and read it! Thanks for mentioning the book.

I did read Virgin of Small Plains and enjoyed that. Also, Margaret Maron lives in the next county here in North Carolina, where I live now, and I have read quite a few of her books but had begun to not enjoy them so much. The last one I read....Hard Row...I really didn't care very much for at all. She seemed to be on a personal crusade.

Babi · « **Reply #586 on:** March 11, 2010, 02:21:03 PM »

Some of Paretsky's novels have been made into good, tight, well-made
movies. V. I. Warshawski is a tough gal, but she has her soft spots.

JoanK · « **Reply #587 on:** March 11, 2010, 02:35:57 PM »

Is "Bleeding Kansas" set in the time of the slavery debate? I've read enough about that to know why Kansas was called "Bleeding Kansas".

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #588 on:** March 11, 2010, 02:46:18 PM »

I believe that is true, Joan, about "Bleeding Kansas". It was a very good book, so totally different from what Paretsky usually writes. I do love her V.I. books though.

Steph · « **Reply #589 on:** March 12, 2010, 05:47:05 AM »

I have read all of Paretsky, The Kansas is an odd book. I enjoyed it, but would have hated to live there.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #590 on:** March 13, 2010, 06:12:14 PM »

Some one here mentioned "The Domestic Diva" series by Krista Davis; I'm sure glad I paid attention, this is a funny woman. In The Diva Runs out of Thyme Sophie Winston finds herself in an absurd imbroglio - at a contest for turkey stuffing she is competing in (against her divorced husband's sweetie, a Martha Stewart clone), the gazillionaire chief sponsor and judge embraces her and tells her she is going to the ballet with him Friday night. When Sophie finds him to refuse his "order" he is dead and Natasha, the clone, discovers her leaning over the body; Nat screams, "You've killed him." and the merry-go-round ride begins. Formulaic but fun, Sophie is one fine female.

Babi · « **Reply #591 on:** March 14, 2010, 09:36:38 AM »

I'll check out Krista Davis, JACKIE. I do enjoy some laughs with my reading.

JoanK · « **Reply #592 on:** March 14, 2010, 12:45:15 PM »

I've started a new system for recording your suggestions. Hopefully, it will work better than the other one. Krista Davis starts it off.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #593 on:** March 14, 2010, 04:31:04 PM »

Joank: Tell us more.

joangrimes · « **Reply #594 on:** March 14, 2010, 05:33:34 PM »

Yes JoanK,
Please tell us more. Joan Grimes

mabel1015j · « **Reply #595 on:** March 14, 2010, 09:01:28 PM »

My library has no Krista Davis books, i'll have to clue them in........

Steph · « **Reply #596 on:** March 15, 2010, 05:36:43 AM »

Davis is an unknown author to me as well. Will have to check her out.

JoanK · « **Reply #597 on:** March 15, 2010, 02:42:00 PM »

It's so simpleminded, I'm embarrassed. I now keep a tiny pad of paper next to the computer, small enough that when I go to the library, I can just slip it in my purse. Of course, I have to remember to put it in my purse and take it out again. Given my bad memory, that's not a given.

Steph · « **Reply #598 on:** March 16, 2010, 06:29:28 AM »

I generally write down the names of the authors and then go to Amazon to read about what they have written. Then I can go to my paperbackswap and see what they have.

Singagain · « **Reply #599 on:** March 16, 2010, 09:50:13 AM »

To Frybabe, regarding reading material for your mom: I'm also a fan of Cat Who literature, and I've found the Rita Mae Brown series very good reading also. Harry Harristeen (female) is the protagonist in these. Those books have two cats and a dog that talk amongst themselves and can understand the humans, but the humans have a hard time getting what the animals mean, much to their consternation. Brown has another mystery series also about foxhunting which is written in such a way that one learns so much about the sport that one wishes one could just go right out and take riding lessons ('one' meaning me). The animals, dogs and foxes, also talk to each other in this series. Sister Jane is the protagonist in that one, a hunt club Master (which, incidentally, so is RMB in real life). I also like the Agatha Raisin series by MC Beaton (she is so hilariously co-dependent) and Hannah Swenson mysteries by Joann Fluke. Those have cookie recipes at the end of most chapters as Hannah has a bakery in Minnesota. For a little grittier fare, Marcia Muller is tops.

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 899504 times)