Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 910530 times)

Steph · « **Reply #5640 on:** August 27, 2013, 08:30:31 AM »

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Pull up a comfortable chair and join us here to talk about mysteries and their authors.
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Discussion Leader: JoanK

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I liked the Hamish books, but tried the tv series and the accents simply threw me.. No idea what they were saying. Sigh. Some of the English series are like that. Others not.
Agatha is a once a year sort of thing for me. She is irritating in so many ways, but still interesting upon occasion.

JoanK · « **Reply #5641 on:** August 27, 2013, 05:31:53 PM »

My computer this morning told me that the new Louise Penny book had been delivered to my computer. Hoorah.

DCI Banks was on Sunday, opposite a new series "Silks", and I opted to check that out. I'd give it a "fair". I'll give it a chance, but I hope they don't continue at the same time.

"Silks" is a woman barrister who has applied for "the silk" at the same time as the (sexist and sneering) head of her chamber. Mostly showed her running around, followed by a young male pupil and dealing with the conflict of defending an accused rapist.

Steph · « **Reply #5642 on:** August 28, 2013, 08:48:07 AM »

Are they on BBC or PBS. I cannot get BBC index and have to sort o just tune in and hope..

pedln · « **Reply #5643 on:** August 28, 2013, 10:14:17 AM »

JoanK, how did you like the "SILK" show? I started watching, then got distracted and tired, but I've taped it and it's still available.

What channel shows "DCI BANKS." That's what I'd really like to see.

JoanK · « **Reply #5644 on:** August 28, 2013, 03:18:05 PM »

pedlin: I'd give it a "wait and see." The plot line has potential, but I found all the running around hard to follow. They wanted to give the texture of a young barrister's life, I guess. The end, when they settled down to the cases, was more interesting. I'll watch again.

Along with my usual trouble understanding people, I couldn't tell some of the men apart.

JoanK · « **Reply #5645 on:** August 28, 2013, 03:20:49 PM »

Finished the Robertson, and ordered another. Good police procedural. But I have to read the new Louise Penny first. It has a character based on the Dionne quintuplets. remember them? Wonder what really happened to them.

JoanK · « **Reply #5646 on:** August 28, 2013, 03:28:25 PM »

I looked them up. The fictional quint in the book is the last surviving sister, but in real life, two of them are still alive. Two of them died young, and a third at 67. They always resented the publicity they received, felt it had scarred their lives, and in adulthood, sought privacy.

ANNIE · « **Reply #5647 on:** August 28, 2013, 03:34:08 PM »

My interest in "Silk" waned also. Are they going to continue repeat bad lines and poorly written happenings each time I watch it. Very weak program. IMHO!

I remember seeing "DCI Banks" somewhere before but I can't remember where.

Rewatched an old Lewis and an old Morse. They have also started reshowing Sherlock Holmes played by Jeremy Brett. At least I can understand the lines.

I watched something else back in the olden days which was done by Scottish actors and couldn't understand most of it.

We went to see "The Butler" yesterday. One of our reasons for going was we knew the original author. He wrote a column (Baltimore paper?) about the butler and another author fleshed it out and wrote a whole book about the butler. Our author is from Columbus, OH and we read a book of his for an FTF group several years.We also met him when he came to Columbus and gave a nice talk about his family history and the book. The book he wrote, if anyone is interested, is titled "The Haygoods of Columbus". He also has written a book about Sammy Davis, Jr. but I haven't read it yet. The movie was very good and well done. Again IMHO!

Steph · « **Reply #5648 on:** August 29, 2013, 08:36:37 AM »

Did not realize that any of the Dionnes were still alive.. They really hated the publicity. Dont know how the current multiples feel, although the octuplets are going to have a really hard life with that mother.

Dana · « **Reply #5649 on:** August 29, 2013, 11:32:08 AM »

I thought Silk was a bit frenetic. If I had a job like that I'd quit and get something that gave me a life....mind you, she had enough free time to get pregnant....I did catch myself wondering when she managed that......

MaryPage · « **Reply #5650 on:** August 29, 2013, 02:50:06 PM »

Silk and DCI Banks are both on PBS.

ANNIE · « **Reply #5651 on:** August 29, 2013, 09:45:26 PM »

Thanks, Mary. Do you have a day that they are shown?

Steph · « **Reply #5652 on:** August 30, 2013, 08:46:23 AM »

My mountain PBS station seems to be into reruns of Celtic whatever and very little series. Darn.

MaryPage · « **Reply #5653 on:** August 30, 2013, 05:46:06 PM »

Every single PBS station is different. They work up and run their very own schedules. DCI BANKS is on Maryland Public Television Saturday nights. SILK is on Masterpiece on Sunday nights on both MPT and WETA, which is in Virginia, but I can get it. WHUT in Washington D.C. always runs them during the week and a couple of weeks later. These are the only three public television channels I get, so it is impossible for me to tell you when they will be shown on your local channel. Google your local channel and click on schedule and find out. I send a once a year contribution to both MPT and WETA, and they both mail me their monthly schedules as a result of my "membership."

Steph · « **Reply #5654 on:** August 31, 2013, 08:43:12 AM »

Yes, since I live in two widely separated places, I can get the PBS in Clermont easily, but up here, I think it is in Asheville. Not sure.

FlaJean · « **Reply #5655 on:** August 31, 2013, 12:03:39 PM »

I got the DCI Banks series at a PBS in Idaho on the Internet and streamed it thru my iPad to my TV. Usually I like the British shows but didn't care for the actor playing DCI Banks or the way he portrayed the character. I should give it another try.

JoanK · « **Reply #5656 on:** August 31, 2013, 04:10:27 PM »

I finished the new Louise Penny. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who is not following the series. the plot is more outlandish and makes less sense than usual (a "They're plotting against me in corners!" kind of plot). but those of us who are hooked have to see what is going to happen to the continuing characters. She wraps up a lot of stories, so maybe she's going to end the series.

Penny makes clear in a postscript that, while the idea is based on the Dionne quints, she didn't look up to see what actually happened to them and made up their life story.

Steph · « **Reply #5657 on:** September 01, 2013, 09:31:58 AM »

I remember being fascinated by the Dionne quints many years ago and reading all I could find on them.

MaryPage · « **Reply #5658 on:** September 01, 2013, 05:23:14 PM »

Me too, and all, but then I was born in 1929 and they were the very FIRST set of 5 ever to survive as far as history knows. They were born in 1935 and the newspaper headlines, which were much larger in those days, were full of nothing else for at least a week. I can remember looking at the pictures in the newspapers. Then Canada went commercial with them, and there were calendars galore and all sorts of things. In 1940, I got a little woven basket that was sort of a miniature dog basket and it had 5 little dolls, maybe 4 inches long each, as I remember it, and each dressed in a different color starched lawn dress and bonnet: lavender, blue, green, yellow and pink. Yvonne, Cecile, Annette, Emily and Marie. I remember Emily was my favorite, and I was crushed when she died first. An epileptic fit, as I recall.

JeanneP · « **Reply #5659 on:** September 01, 2013, 05:37:40 PM »

I think that the parents of those 5 babies were taken advantage of. Some say the Church took over and made lots of money for the publicity that was done. I believe that I even had them when young. Remember you could get the cardboard cut outs with lots of clothing on most of the people well known. I had theirs also Shirley Temple was another one. Those things are now worth a lot on EBay. Didn't realize that as I had some that were 40 years old and gave them to a little girl down the street just about 3 years ago.

MaryPage · « **Reply #5660 on:** September 02, 2013, 08:13:56 AM »

I don't believe it was the church, although I could be wrong. I believe it was the Canadian government, and that they made them wards of the state.

Steph · « **Reply #5661 on:** September 02, 2013, 09:19:22 AM »

Yes, I think it was the government and the doctor who delivered them. The parents were not educated and did not understand much.

pedln · « **Reply #5662 on:** September 02, 2013, 10:28:19 AM »

Feather Crowns

This discussion of the Dionne quints reminds me of the Bobbie Ann Mason novel Feather Crowns about a woman who in 1900 gave birth to the first recorded quintuplets in North America.

JeanneP · « **Reply #5663 on:** September 02, 2013, 12:16:34 PM »

I am big on researching old cemeteries . Found one in a village few miles from me . Had 4 little head stones from early 1800s saying the first recorded births of 4 .seems they did not survive as birth and death dates close.cant make out most of it. Not a novelty anymore.

pedln · « **Reply #5664 on:** September 03, 2013, 10:51:30 AM »

JeanneP, you and my mother. She loved exploring cemetaries. It didn't matter where they were or if she knew anyone buried there. She just liked walking in them and looking.

ginny · « **Reply #5665 on:** September 03, 2013, 12:17:00 PM »

Me three, I never miss a cemetery if I can help it and have been to some incredible ones. Wrote a graduate thesis on the subject, actually.

De gustibus. hahahaa

marjifay · « **Reply #5666 on:** September 03, 2013, 12:54:29 PM »

If you ever get to Arizona, be sure to go to the little town of Tombstone and see the Boothill Cemetery. You can see a listing of who is buried there, and how they died at BoothillGraves.com

Steph · « **Reply #5667 on:** September 03, 2013, 05:23:52 PM »

Tombstone was soo neat. I loved the steer in the middle of the town.

JeanneP · « **Reply #5668 on:** September 03, 2013, 07:36:08 PM »

Boothill. Been there,done that. Great. Most interesting hobby for me since I was young. No matter which country. Got to research them. Found 2 last year in Salem. Mass. And in Boston some good ones.
I followed the Mormon Trail and the Trail of Tears tracking the burials on those..

Steph · « **Reply #5669 on:** September 04, 2013, 08:12:37 AM »

The tiny little cemetaries in New England and New York are fascinating.They were allowed to bury ontheir farms for many years and many are all fenced and stil tended now.

marjifay · « **Reply #5670 on:** September 04, 2013, 09:06:50 AM »

I see that Sam Eastland (pen name of Paul Watkins) has a 4th book, THE RED MOTH, in his mystery series with Inspector Pekkala.. I read the first book in this series, EYE OF THE RED TSAR, and really liked it. (They should really be read in order. The second is SHADOW PASS, and the third ARCHIVE 17) All four get 4-1/2 stars at Anaheim.

Per an Amazon reader, "the author's name is not really "Sam Eastland," though it appears he was advised to take a pen name for this series. He is actually a literary author by the name of Paul Watkins, educated at the Dragon School in Oxford, Eton, and Yale. He is probably making more money from this series than anything he's written before, but the reader can really tell he is more of a literary than genre author by the excellence of his writing. Inspector Pekkala is a Finn in Russia, former top investigator for the Tsar, and current top investigator for Stalin. For me, at least, he is one of the more interesting characters I have enjoyed reading about for the last decade."

Marj

JoanK · « **Reply #5671 on:** September 04, 2013, 03:27:38 PM »

Marj: thanks, got a sample.

Finished reading "A Charitable Body". thanks for recommending it, I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Now I'm into something else: "The Amelia Butterworth Mysteries" by Anna Katharine Green.

These were written in the 1840s and features one of the first female detectives, the one that is said to be the inspiration for Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. If you like "The Moonstone", you'll like green: the style is similar, although less longwinded, more straightforward in describing a complicated plot (hence also less funny and thoughtful, although there are touches of humor).

It takes place in New York of the period, although in Gramercy Park, one of the most London-like areas of New York. It could be in London. She may have been imitating such of the English writers that were available to her (I need to check dates).

Frybabe · « **Reply #5672 on:** September 04, 2013, 04:11:24 PM »

I have Agatha Webb downloaded to my Kindle (free from Project Gutenberg) waiting to be read.

Steph · « **Reply #5673 on:** September 05, 2013, 09:21:01 AM »

Found a Dana Stabenow Kate book, I had somehow missed..Breakup and love it. Funnier thanher usual stuff.

marjifay · « **Reply #5674 on:** September 05, 2013, 11:16:01 AM »

What's the name of the Dana Stabenow book, Steph?

JudeS · « **Reply #5675 on:** September 06, 2013, 01:40:57 AM »

Marjifay

Thanks for the name of the series by Paul Watkins.
I hope it is as good as the wonderful series about the Russian Police Inspector Porfory Rostnikov.
They were written by a Film Professor, Stuart Kaminsky and he wrote many of them.
Some of my favorites were :
Death of a Dissident
The Man Who Walked Like a Bear
The Dog Who Bit a Policeman
Fall of a Cosmonaut

Great characters, in depth writing and full of suspense.

Steph · « **Reply #5676 on:** September 06, 2013, 08:10:45 AM »

The Stabenow is "Breakup" and it is the week or so before the ice breaks. It has made me laugh out loud many times.. Early one, she is in the old cabin. I must have missed it somehow.

marjifay · « **Reply #5677 on:** September 06, 2013, 08:49:54 AM »

I have not read any of Kaminsky's series with Ispector Rostnikov, Jude, but I will certainly give them a try. Thanks.

Marj

Steph · « **Reply #5678 on:** September 07, 2013, 08:28:53 AM »

Company gone. morning devoted to wash,dry,fold, put away,,,stuff and vacuuming with four dogs, it surely needs it.

MaryPage · « **Reply #5679 on:** September 07, 2013, 08:55:32 AM »

I am pinching myself. Son Rob is 67 years old today. Now THERE'S a mystery!

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 910530 times)