Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 911388 times)

pedln · « **Reply #7160 on:** January 27, 2015, 01:25:12 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:
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Discussion Leader: JoanK

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That child -- Arch?? ANd all those references to "the Jerk." I used to enjoy that series, but not anymore. Another one that I rarely read now is the one about The Darlings. Death on Demand? Carolyn Hart? Too much mother-in-law.

One that I still read and look forward to -- Margaret Maron. I like the way she focuses on a single industry or location. Linda Fairstein is another I'll keep reading. I loved the fairly recent one about Central Park -- Death Angel?

jane · « **Reply #7161 on:** January 27, 2015, 03:39:29 PM »

I, too, gave up Diane Mott Davidson, Joanne Fluke, Carolyn Hart, Margaret Maron, and Joan Hess some years ago. They've run out of material, IMHO, and need to start new series with a new location, new characters, new character occupations.

Jane

JoanK · « **Reply #7162 on:** January 27, 2015, 04:35:30 PM »

I know. It seems to happen to all writers, including some of my favorites. Louise Penny.

MaryPage · « **Reply #7163 on:** January 27, 2015, 06:52:38 PM »

I still like Margaret Maron. Never did like the others.

nlhome · « **Reply #7164 on:** January 27, 2015, 07:46:26 PM »

I thought Arch actually behaved as I would have thought a teen-aged boy with his history might behave, better, in fact. Of course, I had two boys whose teen years certainly accelerated the gray hair. I just find the author crams too much into each book, the days are too full, and Goldie's involvement really stretches reality. But, as escape literature, it worked for me this time.

Steph · « **Reply #7165 on:** January 28, 2015, 09:04:12 AM »

I still love and read Margaret Maron.. I had two sons, but never ever would they have tried or been permitted to act like Arch.. Totally controlling of the household. Yes, I think that writers who writer too many stories in a single series get stuck.. Linda Fairstein is good, she loves research and so each book teaches you stuff. I enjoy that.
Oh Jenny.. You liked a touch. You are growing.

nlhome · « **Reply #7166 on:** January 28, 2015, 06:49:41 PM »

I don't know that sons control the household so much as the mom, in this case, appears to let him do so. Lots of guilt there. However, she seems to be doing a good job of raising him. That's one thing that doesn't bother me about the series.

Steph · « **Reply #7167 on:** January 29, 2015, 09:01:45 AM »

I picked up a Craig Johnson short story collection about Longmire... I had seen a few of the tv series and read two of the books, which are quite hard to find.. The short stories are neat for a bed book for me..They just fill in little spots here and there.

JoanK · « **Reply #7168 on:** February 03, 2015, 03:22:19 PM »

Has anyone read the "Grantchester" books by James Runcie? I've been enjoying the TV series, and thought I'd try the books.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/r/james-runcie/

MaryPage · « **Reply #7169 on:** February 03, 2015, 08:08:33 PM »

I love the Grantchester series, as well. And no, I have not read the books.

Steph · « **Reply #7170 on:** February 04, 2015, 08:49:34 AM »

Did not realize that they were a book before a tv show.

MaryPage · « **Reply #7171 on:** February 04, 2015, 08:58:16 AM »

Runcie is the son of an Archbishop of Canterbury!

JoanK · « **Reply #7172 on:** February 04, 2015, 02:49:41 PM »

He is? He says his father is a minister, but I didn't think THAT minister.

I'll let you know what I think. The first book is on my TBR list.

MaryPage · « **Reply #7173 on:** February 04, 2015, 03:45:09 PM »

His father was much more fascinating than ANY of his son's books!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Runcie

Bigger than Life, he was! I remember his reign well!

JoanK · « **Reply #7174 on:** February 04, 2015, 05:08:17 PM »

WOW! he certainly is!

Now I have to read his son's books.

Steph · « **Reply #7175 on:** February 05, 2015, 07:57:10 AM »

Still struggling along with Jenny and the problems she and her friends are having. Interesting, but I need to stop and read the book Greyhound for my f2f book club for this month.

JoanK · « **Reply #7176 on:** February 05, 2015, 03:59:29 PM »

I've started reading the first book inn the Granchester series, and am enjoying it. It's six short stories. Enjoying the third one less than the first two: it's about when are you justified in euthanasia of an old suffering person. I'll let you know on that one.

pedln · « **Reply #7177 on:** February 05, 2015, 06:11:25 PM »

The Runcie books sound good. I've not been watching the series. Are the shows "stand-alones" or do you need to watch each week to know what's going on? I can't handle too many TV series. This year it's Downton Abbey.

MaryPage · « **Reply #7178 on:** February 06, 2015, 11:40:39 AM »

Grantchester is a typical mystery series on PBS from BBC in that each story stands alone: i.e., it begins and ends in the one program episode, but the main characters appear in each story and evolve and make progress in their lives. Our hero is a young Church of England priest with the parish of Grantchester, which, by the way, is as real a town and church as London and St. Paul's. Lovely scenery. He smokes and drinks too much, but his heart is broken, as the Love of His Life is marrying, and does marry, another. Sob! The housekeeper is a stitch. His best buddy is the local Detective Chief Inspector, played by a great actor, Robson Green, you will probably recognize. This DCI recognizes this priest can get information from people that he, a policeman, could not in two lifetimes. So he uses him. Big Time. Lovely characters and lovely stories. I am enchanted with the young woman our hero is in love with. Oh, and she loves him, as well and all, but must marry money. So they each settle for someone else and look longingly at one another for, it would seem so far, the rest of their lives. Heartbreaking situation.

pedln · « **Reply #7179 on:** February 06, 2015, 01:34:18 PM »

Thanks, MaryPage, for that great summary. I think I'll watch this Sunday's performance.

JoanK · « **Reply #7180 on:** February 06, 2015, 03:38:29 PM »

I don't know if this woman has showed up in the book yet. he is attracted to two women, but neither seem to fit.

But it's only the first book.

Steph · « **Reply #7181 on:** February 06, 2015, 04:06:43 PM »

Show will have to wait until Netflix.. just do not have the time now.

MaryPage · « **Reply #7182 on:** February 06, 2015, 04:26:16 PM »

Joan, the love life thing may well not be the same in the series made for television as it is in the books; I have not read the books, so I just don't know. But in this series, it is clear from the very first episode that these two have known one another since they were small children and have spent A LOT of time together and are very much in love. He has a photo of the two of them together on his office desk where he types his sermons on an old pre-electric typewriter. I think the series takes place in the nineteen fifties. Will need to Google it to find out!

MaryPage · « **Reply #7183 on:** February 06, 2015, 04:29:24 PM »

HERE YOU GO!

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-30206813

JoanK · « **Reply #7184 on:** February 07, 2015, 02:58:43 PM »

Thanks, Mary Page.

"Daisy Coulam will return to write the new episodes, adapting stories from Runcie's second Grantchester Mysteries novel, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night."

That's the book I'm reading now. I can guess they're using a character "Amanda, but changing their relationship a bit. In the book, he's rather hopeless at sorting out his feelings for women, but has them for two.

Steph · « **Reply #7185 on:** February 07, 2015, 03:39:43 PM »

Ah the used book sale brought me way too many have to have, no matter what books.. Sigh.. Another book case taken over by TBR.. I even found a short story collection by Tony Hillerman.. Very funny indeed.

FlaJean · « **Reply #7186 on:** February 07, 2015, 04:29:25 PM »

That collection of short stories by Tony Hillerman is a real find. Isn't his daughter continuing the series since Tony's death?

Kizuna Coast by Sujata Massey was interesting. Presently I'm reading Murder and Mendelssohn (a Phryne Fisher mystery) by Kerry Greenwood. Entertaining as always.

Frybabe · « **Reply #7187 on:** February 07, 2015, 05:45:12 PM »

Of interest to those of us who read The Gauguin Connection and anyone interested in art.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31183733

mabel1015j · « **Reply #7188 on:** February 07, 2015, 10:56:10 PM »

Holy smokes!!!

Steph · « **Reply #7189 on:** February 08, 2015, 08:10:51 AM »

Amazing. but going to the oil rich arab country ensures I will never see it.. I simply will not go to any of them Egypt was bad enough.

JoanK · « **Reply #7190 on:** February 08, 2015, 03:40:06 PM »

WOW! Incidentally, BUBBLE in the art discussion on Seniors and friends reminds me that Gauguin paintings make great jigsaw puzzles!

MaryPage · « **Reply #7191 on:** February 08, 2015, 05:22:38 PM »

I use the ArtPuzzles app on my iPad, and one of the series of paintings I purchased was the Gauguin. I just love those things for relaxation and pleasure.

Steph · « **Reply #7192 on:** February 10, 2015, 08:47:30 AM »

Must get back to Dante connection. Just have still been catching up on everything.

Frybabe · « **Reply #7193 on:** February 10, 2015, 12:03:25 PM »

I've started reading the second of Ruth Downey's Medicus crime series, Terra Incognita. The series so far is set in Britain shortly before Hadrian builds his wall. Ruso is a Roman army medic.

Click on the books to get a synopsis. http://rsdownie.co.uk/books/

Steph · « **Reply #7194 on:** February 12, 2015, 08:52:03 AM »

I have Terra Incognita in my tbr, saw it the other day.

nlhome · « **Reply #7195 on:** February 12, 2015, 07:37:52 PM »

Was it someone here who was reading The Finishing Stroke by Ellery Queen? I ordered that through interlibrary loan, received it from a small rural library, the 1958 printing, and enjoyed it very much. I had read it way back when, quite possibly shortly after it was written, so it was familiar but I read it with particular interesting in the references to the times. References to authors, books and music of 1929 sent me to the computer to research them. It was a good book, if an unlikely plot.

Steph · « **Reply #7196 on:** February 13, 2015, 08:37:09 AM »

I subscribe to the Ellery Queen magazine for so many years a long time ago. Loved the short stories and novelettes..
am reading the new John Sandford.. The Virgil series. He does make me laugh. and solves crimes to boot.. This one has dognapping as well as murder and meth. A threebee.

JoanK · « **Reply #7197 on:** February 13, 2015, 07:11:41 PM »

My family subscribed to the Ellery Queen magazine when I was a child, and I devoured it. Remember the "minute mysteries": A mystery a paragraph long, and you had to guess the important clue?

And some of the short stories are classics.

I may have read "The Finishing Stroke" then, but don't remember. I'm glad to hear his mysteries still hold up. I'll have to get it.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #7198 on:** February 14, 2015, 12:30:12 AM »

Just finished an ebook mystery that was free on Amazon a few weeks ago, Innocent in Las Vegas by A. R. Winter. It was entertaining, the first in a series, so the author had to set up the premise. A Vegas coupier has decided to start her own business as a private investigator. It was a little slow getting started and i asked the question "why doesn't she get some training to do this job?" it gets answered as the story continues.

It's not as good as the Gauguin Connection series, but the series may get better with future books. This story got better as i read through the book, so maybe the author is learning his/her craft.

Jean

Steph · « **Reply #7199 on:** February 14, 2015, 08:59:16 AM »

It seems to me that a lot of the free ebooks are by authors who are trying to break into the publishing world. Some are good. I am also reading a science fiction one that is fun..

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 911388 times)