Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 897664 times)

jane · « **Reply #6200 on:** February 27, 2014, 03:40:16 PM »

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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
Fantastic Fiction
Stop You're Killing Me

Discussion Leader: JoanK

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jane · « **Reply #6201 on:** February 27, 2014, 03:43:57 PM »

Our Library staff are city employees, so their pay is determined to some extent by our city council. This is a town of 5,000. The Library board, however, can raise those base amounts. All salaries, etc., come out of the Library budget.

When the city negotiates with the police, which have a union, the same hourly raise has then been given to the other city employees. While I was on the board, we gave the Director, who has a MA in Lib.Sci and a law degree and is at the top of the state public library directors' accreditation, an annual raise to eventually get her salary up comparable to other city dept heads who had much smaller budgets to manage.

After 10 yrs, she's now at their levels...in the $52,000 range and she just now gets the city raises. Again, this comes out of the budget for the library. The city pays the bulk of that budget; the county, whose residents the library serves, pays now a little better then the state required minimum.

jane · « **Reply #6202 on:** February 27, 2014, 03:51:09 PM »

Are there any good writers having books coming out between now and July 1 I should be on the lookout for?

I like light mysteries, but I'm tired of Aunt Dimitie, Joanne Fluke and gave up on Diane Mott Davidson some years ago. Who are good writers to replace these ladies?

I suspect I have a lot more winter left, so need some ideas, please.

Criteria: light, fun, romance ok, but gore, torture, abuse, horror are not.

JeanneP · « **Reply #6203 on:** February 27, 2014, 06:23:10 PM »

Now the lady they hired last week at out library does have a MA in Lib Sci and 18 years experience. Came from a Library in Michigan I believe. 39 years old. 2 teen age children.
I can not see why, when openings come be it City, County, Police chief, Fire chief. they always go out of State to hire. I am sure some of the people who have been with our library for years could have handled the same job. Had the same experiences. Maybe not have the Degree. I sometimes think that experience Equals that.

We saw that at the company I worked last 20 years for. Went by the higher the Degree and some of the Managers of 20 years service lot smarter in what the job was. couple just Junior College. I think the country now beginning to realize that we need workers for lots of things they just need a training college for 2 years and not stress all needed a 5 or 6 year in a University. Talking now of giving more money in College loans to the Trade schools with not having to pay it back. Get our Electricions, Plumbers. Metal workers etc back again.Maybe then some technical things can be built here in the USA and not over in Asia.

JeanneP · « **Reply #6204 on:** February 27, 2014, 06:27:55 PM »

Woops! got away from books there didn't I? Almost wrote one.

maryz · « **Reply #6205 on:** February 27, 2014, 08:08:53 PM »

I've just finished Spider Woman's Daughter by Anne Hillerman. She's Tony's daughter, and the book continues with Leaphorn and Chee. It's not a bad yarn - and nice to see the old friends again.

nlhome · « **Reply #6206 on:** February 27, 2014, 10:56:08 PM »

Jane, our town is about your size, and we've been trying to keep our director's salary comparable to others in the city as well. Our director has her Masters in library science also, meeting the requirement that the state sets for a good library of our size.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #6207 on:** February 28, 2014, 05:39:40 AM »

Jane - do take a look at my on-line friend Lesa Holstin's blog - she reviews light mysteries almost every day, and she's a lovely person too:

http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.co.uk/

I've just read 'Morality for Beautiful Girls' by Alexander McCall Smith. I didn't take to his Mma Ramotswe No1 Ladies Detective Agency books at first, but I enjoyed this one much more and now I think I'll read them all.

Rosemary

Steph · « **Reply #6208 on:** February 28, 2014, 07:50:48 AM »

We get tons of teens, have a teen room with books, computers, etc. I like teens,, its the knee biter type, I really am not comfortable with. I had a husband who adored all children. He never understood that I didn't. I am fine or at least think I am fine with my own grandchildren..

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #6209 on:** February 28, 2014, 01:33:52 PM »

I am the same Steph, I like my children's teenage friends and enjoy chatting to them. I am constantly impressed with their maturity and their awareness of world events - they know so much more than I did at their age. I find it much harder to deal with smaller children and I didn't really enjoy my own at that age - such hard work and so many tantrums and upsets. Of course teenagers are not immune from all that, and sometimes I do feel as though they are taking it in turns to have a crisis, but at least I can have a sensible conversation with them. Last night a friend gave me a lift home from a meeting. She is the same age as me but had children younger, so hers now have children of their own. She said when you look back on the teenage years you realise that they passed quite quickly - the same, I suppose, as when we look back on all those sleepless nights with little babies.

Rosemary

JoanK · « **Reply #6210 on:** February 28, 2014, 06:51:52 PM »

Jane: you've challenged me. Check Fantastic Fiction, and hit New Books or Coming soon, but you may have to page a bit to find something light, Rhys Bowman will have several out : I like her "Royal Spyness" series: young English Royal, 39th in line for the throne, no money but of course, not allowed to WORK (after all, she's a royal) so always scrounging fore money while solving mysteries.

Evanovitch will have a Plum mystery out. Scottelini will have a Legal beagle. McCall Smith ALWAYS has something coming out.

Who else? Let me think.

MaryPage · « **Reply #6211 on:** February 28, 2014, 07:46:12 PM »

Jane, I second Joan's suggestion of Rhys Bowen, and it IS Bowen you should look for, my favorite light mystery authors of days gone by may still be available:
MISS SEETON!
You may just be in danger of a severe heart attack brought on by your own laughter. Miss Seeton had THREE (3) authors in succession! Heron Carvic, Hamilton Crane, and Hampton Charles, and was the funniest amateur detective I ever read.
Second would be Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax books
While third prize would go to Charlotte MacLeod.
Ngaio Marsh could be very amusing, though that was not her forte. She was an all time favorite of mine, and I would call her fairly light reading. Definitely not dark.

Steph · « **Reply #6212 on:** March 01, 2014, 09:53:27 AM »

I am struggling away with The Accomplice by Elizabeth Ironside. Its not that I don't like it, I do, but you have to keep track to a turgid sort of Russian half and that is hard. Also it is hard to be sympathetic to a good many of the characters.. A lot of good intentions gone bad and a seriously plotting young Russian girl, who will literally do anything to stay in England.

JoanK · « **Reply #6213 on:** March 01, 2014, 03:20:44 PM »

Oh, YES! If you haven't read Mrs. Polifax, you have to! Among my favorite books of all time, and repay periodic rereading (I think I'll go read one now). Start with The Unexpected Mrs. Polifax.

JoanK · « **Reply #6214 on:** March 01, 2014, 03:30:22 PM »

Read "Morning Glory" by Sarah Jio. About the community of people who live on houseboats in Seattle. Follows two "women with broken hearts", one in the fifties, and another living on the same houseboat in the eighties. Unusual mystery and solution.

Also read another Caro Peacock Liberty Lane mystery. Liberty is a woman in 1840 London who has a detective agency. Light and interesting.

Boy, I hate reading about the lives of "ladies" then. Liberty is traveling, and, when she stays overnight at an inn, she can't eat in the dining room unless there happens to be another lady staying there. Otherwise, she must eat alone in her room.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #6215 on:** March 01, 2014, 04:22:01 PM »

One of the great things about being back in the city is that the Edinburgh central library arranges many author readings. I have just booked free tickets to four of these events, and one of them is Val McDermid, who is well known here for her novels, some of which have been televised as 'Wire in the Blood'. I have seen her interviewed on TV; she is a lovely down to earth, woman and also a great supporter of various charities. I was amazed that I got a ticket, and I'm looking forward to seeing her 'in the flesh'. Another ticket I have is to see Lindsey Davis, who writes Roman mysteries featuring a detective called Falco. I haven't read any of Davis's books yet but I'll try to do so before the event.

Rosemary

Frybabe · « **Reply #6216 on:** March 01, 2014, 05:30:01 PM »

Rosemarykaye, Davis is finished with writing the Falco series. If you don't want to pick up Falco (Silver Pigs is the first and one of my favorites in the series), then I can recommend Course of Honor. It is a novel about Vespasian's mistress.

Oh, I am so glad you mentioned her. I just went over to take a look at her website to see what she is up to now. She has started another series featuring Flavia Albia (who was Falco's adopted child). Sigh, now I have to go buy more books. She is already on her third of this new series. The Didius Falco series has been optioned for a TV series, but she thinks it will be several years before anything really gets started. http://www.lindseydavis.co.uk/

jane · « **Reply #6217 on:** March 01, 2014, 09:30:07 PM »

Nlhome...the Board finally has her salary up there with other dept. Heads. The others are all male, and the Council would grumble about her raises and would make "suggestions" that maybe those raises weren't really needed. [HUH? Really?? Nothing to her with her being female, of course! ]

The Board thought she'd earned the money and she'd saved us thousands in tech work she did herself! We wrote all the things she'd done that would have had to be outsourced before. She also found lots of $$$ that vendors were overcharging because they "forgot" state discounts we were due,etc. The city was just paying those bills, until she asked they be sent to her first for checking.

Thanks for the suggestions on light mysteries. I've read all the Pollifax ones and N.Marsh as well. I'll look into the others.

Steph · « **Reply #6218 on:** March 02, 2014, 10:10:49 AM »

Oh Rosemary, do you need a boarder. Val McDermid,,, Lindsay Davis.. I love both and have read most of their stuff. Did not know that Davis had started a new series.. Lucky you.

JoanK · « **Reply #6219 on:** March 02, 2014, 05:22:23 PM »

Ordered Silver pigs. I think I've read some of the Falco books.

JoanK · « **Reply #6220 on:** March 02, 2014, 05:32:13 PM »

Here is McDermid. Any favorites among her series?

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/val-mcdermid/

I've ordered "report for Murder" I love the fact that it has a cello on the front cover. It'll be awhile -- I've made a rule I can only read kindle books when I've run out of library books, and I have a bunch.

Steph · « **Reply #6221 on:** March 03, 2014, 08:39:37 AM »

I probably have read 75% of the Falco, but need to catch up.. McDermid,, possibly half.She is good, but I must be in the right mood for complicated as she is.

JoanK · « **Reply #6222 on:** March 03, 2014, 05:13:05 PM »

I saw I already had "Report for Murder in my archives. when I looked at it, I remembered reading it. my memory is getting worse and worse.

read the new Evanovitch/Goldberg "The Chase" last night. One unbelievable "caper" after another. The protagonists, now working for the government, have to steal rare and incredibly well-guarded art works (don't ask me why -- it would take all night) not once, but over and over again. If you're in the mood, it's fun, but you have to stretch "suspension of disbelief" to the breaking point. One weakness: they have unlimited resources, money, and skill at doing impossible things at their disposal, so the "clever capers" don't seem so clever.

I'll read more, but can see it getting old fairly quickly.

Steph · « **Reply #6223 on:** March 04, 2014, 08:39:41 AM »

I love Stephanie Plum, like Diesel and Lizzie, but the rest of Evanovich is way too romancy..

mabel1015j · « **Reply #6224 on:** March 04, 2014, 12:39:53 PM »

I liked The Chase, yeah, you have to suspend reality, but isn't that why we read!?!

On the other hand, i don't read sci-fi, because i can't relate to most of it in any way......

What can i tell you, to each his own, thank goodness! LOL

Jean

Steph · « **Reply #6225 on:** March 05, 2014, 08:47:42 AM »

Science Fiction.. I like both that and Fantasy. Some writers have a fully realized world, especially in fantasy.. Anne McCaffrey for one.. Marion Zimmer
Bradley is another. You enter their world with their rules. It is fascinating. I am doing that just now with Cassandra Clare.. She writes for Young Adults, but I love the slightly tilted from our world to hers and am making my way through her series.

ANNIE · « **Reply #6226 on:** March 05, 2014, 04:46:37 PM »

I never knew that we called this Fantasy. What about Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Mysts of Avalon" and T.H.White's book, "The Book of Merlyn" and "The Once and Future King" which spawned the movie about Camelot, King Authur and Guenivere,
plus some of my favorites, Madeleine L'Engle books? "A Wrinkle in Time: and "A Swiftly Tilting Planet". I guess I've always liked fantasy.

I did see "Wire in the Blood" on PBS and liked it. I will be writing down some new authors of mysteries to look for. Quite a few here that I hadn't heard of before now.
I have heard of Mrs Polifax but never read any so will see what's at my library.

Frybabe · « **Reply #6227 on:** March 05, 2014, 05:11:50 PM »

I liked the two scifi stories I read by Marion Zimmer, particularly The Door Through Space. Too bad she didn't continue that into a series. I may, some day, start on her Darkover series.

Now I am all caught up on the Kate Shugak series. Bad Blood ended in a cliff hangar, but unlike a lot of other readers I had no problem with that. The rather abrupt ending could, in fact, serve as a last novel without wrapping everything up in a nice bow. It may be a while until we see another Kate Shugak, no mention of whether she is working on one just now. She is in the middle of another three volume series, the first of which was just published. Looks interesting. http://www.stabenow.com/novels/silk-and-song

JoanK · « **Reply #6228 on:** March 05, 2014, 05:42:07 PM »

ANNIE: avoid the later Mrs. Pollifax. Gilman went on writing when she should have stopped (just like Agatha Christie did). But any of the first 9 listed below (through 1990) are good.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/dorothy-gilman/

JoanK · « **Reply #6229 on:** March 05, 2014, 05:47:31 PM »

Finished the Earlene Fowler I got at the library last night "The Road to Cardinal Valley." It's not a Benni Harper, in fact, not really a mystery. Tying up the lives of characters from an earlier book. But I liked it.

Steph · « **Reply #6230 on:** March 06, 2014, 08:39:21 AM »

Darkover was a particularly interesting world.Enough so that many fans wrote short stories to continue characters and they publish quite a few anthologies of short stories. I think I read every single one, but after she died, they tried to continue the series, but her touch was gone.. Anne McCaffrey had a wonderful world with telepathic dragons tied to a human.. Loved it, but as she grew older, her son grew involved and turned it into one battle after another.Boo..

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #6231 on:** March 06, 2014, 02:16:51 PM »

Oh I do like Dana Stabenow - I think I've still got quite a few to read too, which is great. How many are there, does anyone know?

Rosemary

Frybabe · « **Reply #6232 on:** March 06, 2014, 03:02:59 PM »

Rosemarykaye, she has written 20 Kate Shugak and four Liam Campbell novels as well as three scifi's and several stand alones. Her latest endeavor she calls the Silk and Song series. The series follows Maro Polo's grandaughter as she travels from China to England. http://www.stabenow.com/novels/silk-and-song

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #6233 on:** March 06, 2014, 04:17:18 PM »

Thanks Frybabe - that means I've got lots to look forward to

JoanK · « **Reply #6234 on:** March 06, 2014, 04:27:38 PM »

Rosemary: Fantastic Fiction is great for questions like that! (ourse, you have to be able to spell the authors name correctly to find it -- always a problem for me!)

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/s/dana-stabenow/

I never heard of her "Star Svendotter" series! Have any of you read it?

Steph · « **Reply #6235 on:** March 07, 2014, 09:07:10 AM »

Joan K.. oh yes, that was actually my introduction to Dana. She wrote the science fiction first.. I fell in love with her and looked her up and then started with Kate and Liam ( a favorite of mine and wish she would write more on him)

ANNIE · « **Reply #6236 on:** March 07, 2014, 10:24:38 AM »

Thanks for the links everyone. While adding them to my books folder, I noticed that the "Book Marks" site also offers a choice of adding things to a Reading List. Never saw that before. Its a Safari offering.

jane · « **Reply #6237 on:** March 07, 2014, 12:53:52 PM »

The Reading List on Safari on my IPAD is helpful for putting links to posts I get notifications about. I use that for Goodreads. Unfortunately, I can't delete them en masse unless I delete all my bookmarks, history, etc. Deleting them individually is a giant pain, since I assumed since I couldn't see them they were gone. I do use the SHOW UNREAD which helps, but if you do SHOW ALL, you'll see them all still there.

JoanK · « **Reply #6238 on:** March 07, 2014, 04:24:08 PM »

Finished the latest Simon Brett Fethering mystery last night "The Strangling on the Stage." This one is about an amateur dramatics production (AmDram in the book). I wonder if in real life, the people involved in amateur dramatics are as completely wrapped up in it as they are in this book? To the point where one is suspected of literally killing to get a part.

ANNIE · « **Reply #6239 on:** March 07, 2014, 06:02:59 PM »

My gosh, I hope not! JoanK. I must list your title and author for my next visit online to my library. Sounds good!

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 897664 times)