Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 906137 times)

Steph · « **Reply #7440 on:** June 19, 2015, 08:45:11 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
Fantastic Fiction
Stop You're Killing Me

Discussion Leader: JoanK

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Will look for the first two or the book that combines several..

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #7441 on:** June 19, 2015, 12:48:58 PM »

*just lost a post to this discussion, hope I can remember what I said.
My f2f Mystery Book Club just finished reading "Defending Jacob" by Wm. Landay. Although we had a fantastic discussion, the book was not well-liked by the majority of us. Our moderator did an excellent job of researching and pointing out the "murder gene" aspect of the book (which is frightening in itself and the manner in which it may, in the future, be put to some use, mainly by Defense Attorneys. If anyone here read the book, please post here your like/dislike/comments on it.

marjifay · « **Reply #7442 on:** June 19, 2015, 06:13:17 PM »

I read Defending Jacob a coupld years ago and gave it just a 3+ rating. I can see why some of your f2f group did not like it, Tomereader. I thought the first half of the book was so boring with all that irritating psycobabble talk and the talk about a possible "murder gene" that can be carried from one family generation to the next, as well as the wife, Laura, always pushing her husband to come out with his feelings (yuk, I know what I'd have told her if I were him ("Shut the he** up!") It was not until the trial began that the story finally began to get interesting.

Marj

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #7443 on:** June 19, 2015, 08:37:25 PM »

One member stated the book was "uncomfortable". Most of us objected to such a lot of dialogue; i.e. he said, she said. The psychobabble didn't annoy us, as much as the parents' obliviousness to their son's problems. As for Jacob, most of us just wanted to slap him upside the head, and try to wake him from his snarky teenage "rebelliousness" is not the right word. Most of us wanted to give up on the book by the first third of it. Thanks, Marj

Steph · « **Reply #7444 on:** June 20, 2015, 09:14:02 AM »

Read Jacob some years ago and note that I did not like it. Like your members, I just wanted to make Jacob sit down and listen to reason of some type.. Felt the same way about several books recently.. The belief of parents to simply let their teens start to react to normal life with such disdain for all but themselves is stupid,

JoanK · « **Reply #7445 on:** June 20, 2015, 07:13:10 PM »

Read "the Ice Queen" by Nele Neuhaus, a German mystery writer. A holocaust survivor is murdered, and when the body is examined, he had a tattoo worn only by SS officers. Perhaps a little too long and bloody, but carries you along.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/n/nele-neuhaus/

JoanK · « **Reply #7446 on:** June 20, 2015, 07:18:58 PM »

Also read "At death's Window" by Jim Kelly, a British police procedural. Liked it especially for it's feeling for the seashore, and the communities on it.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/k/jim-kelly/

Frybabe · « **Reply #7447 on:** June 21, 2015, 05:18:02 AM »

I now have the Donna Leon book I ordered. They had two holds on them before me. They must have been very fast readers since the book became available two days after I put a hold on it.

MaryPage · « **Reply #7448 on:** June 21, 2015, 09:01:57 AM »

I watched the movie GONE GIRL on HBO last night, but found it pretty ghastly. Mostly I did a lot of other little stuff while it was on. The story and the couple in the movie were just as poisonous as they were in the book: she a murdering psychopath and he a wuss. I really, really get turned off by a scenario where there is NO redeeming person or situation.

Steph · « **Reply #7449 on:** June 21, 2015, 10:35:17 AM »

Very deep in The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid.. Wow.. WHat I know about the Balkans would not fill a page and she is making the murders and horror into a compelling story that takes place entirely in GB..and Scotland.

MaryPage · « **Reply #7450 on:** June 21, 2015, 11:23:26 AM »

Don't you get really, really mad at yourself when a good book opens up a whole part of the world and its culture in a way that makes you realize that, while you have known Where they were and known, perhaps, what conflicts we may have been involved in in that region of this planet, you have not truly taken the bother previously to learn anything of the peoples? I usually go on a crazy crusade to learn all I can after that happens to me, and it makes for a fun and eye opening few weeks or even months of learning new material.

JoanK · « **Reply #7451 on:** June 21, 2015, 03:48:25 PM »

" I usually go on a crazy crusade to learn all I can after that happens to me, and it makes for a fun and eye opening few weeks or even months of learning new material."

I love that! I often say that everything I know, I learned from reading mysteries.

Now my quest is to learn about something that came up in the Kelly book I mentioned above. I didn't know that when lightning hits sand, say on a beach, it creates glass with odd properties. Do any of you know about that? I can't remember the name he called it.

MaryPage · « **Reply #7452 on:** June 21, 2015, 07:24:49 PM »

Joan, just Google "lightening glass" and you will find dozens of sites and images and even YouTube videos.

marjifay · « **Reply #7453 on:** June 22, 2015, 07:23:47 AM »

A very interesting book I read sometime ago was Robert Kaplan's Balkan Ghosts; A Journey through History. He mentions Rebecca West's book, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, and I've meant to read it, even bought it, but haven't got to this very long (1100+ pages) book. It gets great reviews, so someday....

Marj

Steph · « **Reply #7454 on:** June 22, 2015, 08:33:30 AM »

Oh, the West book is truly shattering.. I read if off and on for years. It is hard going all at once, but easier in small doses and wonderful.
I am at the end of the McDermid and learning that there was a massacre as the heart of the book.. Amazing.

MaryPage · « **Reply #7455 on:** June 22, 2015, 10:06:04 AM »

I read Rebecca West's book before Yugoslavia broke up eons ago, and it remains a sort of bible to me of those now separate countries. I found her a great writer, and that book remains one I recommend to every serious reader, every lover of History, and everyone who wants a basic understanding of those cultures and what their differences are.

One thing that sort of kind of fascinates me is that despite Serbia having been with us in World War II and Croatia having favored the Nazis, I have always felt a strong affinity with Croatia and disliked the Serbs. I cannot pick up all of the threads of why this is so.

It was because of Rebecca West's book that I sobbed and sobbed when the bridge at Mostar was blown up. Recently, I saw a short bit on television about the new one. It is lovely beyond expression, but hey, the ancient one is gone forever. Stupid, stupid wars!

marjifay · « **Reply #7456 on:** June 22, 2015, 12:21:07 PM »

Gone Girl "ghastly"? Really? I know I'm in the minority of readers who liked this book. I found it fascinating and thought the author had a great imagination to create the female character and her actions. That's one way to get rid of a husband -- pretend to be dead and hope he is found guilty of murder and sentenced to be executed. Wow. The book made me want to read more of her work; I have her Dark Places on my TBR list.

Marj

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #7457 on:** June 22, 2015, 12:45:44 PM »

MaryPage, I too watched the movie, Gone Girl, on HBO. I definitely hated the book, and hated the movie even more.
A funny aside: Hubby and I had watched (not my choice) "The Departed" yesterday. Then we had the misfortune of watching "Gone Girl". If I had one dollar for each time the F-word was dropped in either or both of these movies, I could go somewhere on vacation. And to think, Departed won academy awards, and Gone Girl won book prizes. Bah, humbug!

JoanK · « **Reply #7458 on:** June 22, 2015, 06:38:56 PM »

Mary Page: thanks for the "lightning glass" suggestion. great pictures, and even more interesting tidbits for the science nerd in me.

MaryPage · « **Reply #7459 on:** June 23, 2015, 08:31:56 AM »

My complaint with Gone Girl is that there is no way to identify with any one of the characters. There is no sense that right or goodness or justice has prevailed in any way or direction. The whole scenario fills me with a sense of: "If this world were made up of just people like this, I'd want to drop out of this life immediately!"

When I read a book or view a movie, I need SOMEONE to live the book or the movie with and through. Someone in the book or movie, I mean. And I need some glimmer of hope or goodness and redemption or faith in the ultimate goodness of mankind to take away with me. With Gone Girl, you feel dragged through the garbage and all stinky and nasty, with absolutely NO comfort or loving connection extending forward in time. Bleak is what it is. Bleak and blah and miserable, like being dumped in a cesspool and having no way of ever getting out of there.

Steph · « **Reply #7460 on:** June 23, 2015, 08:44:08 AM »

seem to have lost my post.. anyway, I agree with MaryPage, I need someone to identify with..or am interested in . Gone Girl just depressed me that someone would write about all disagreeable characters. Boo.

marjifay · « **Reply #7461 on:** June 23, 2015, 12:50:50 PM »

I don't mind if the characters in a book are disagreeable and unlikeable, as long as what they do is interestng. I've met plenty of those kind of people in real life, and have managed to find ones who are nice and kind, enough to offset the others.

Actually, I believe I prefer reading about nasty characters who do nasty things. It is only fiction, after all.

Marj

JoanK · « **Reply #7462 on:** June 23, 2015, 03:57:49 PM »

I'm with Mary Page and Steph. there has to be at least one character that you care about enough to care what happens to them. Unless it's a pure intellectual puzzle, where the fun is in solving it. But that shouldn't take 2-300 pages.

Steph · « **Reply #7463 on:** June 24, 2015, 08:46:21 AM »

Yes,JoanK,, you named it. I need someone to like.. not even a main character, since heavens know, I did not like Poiret..Its sort of funny when I think of it, but way way back when Anne Rice was writing her marvelous vampire series, I actually rooted for one of the vampires.

marjifay · « **Reply #7464 on:** June 24, 2015, 09:48:52 AM »

Well, I have to admit, as much as I like to read about bad guys, I do like to have a good guy catch them and bring them to justice, as happened in the super suspense thriller I just finished, CONSTANT FEAR, by Daniel Palmer (where the bad guys were almost too horribly bad.)

Marj

Steph · « **Reply #7465 on:** June 25, 2015, 08:50:55 AM »

Oh what a week. I keep picking up books, reading 30 or so pages and sitting it down.. Mr. Penumbra 24 hours thing..I have tried it three times and just cannot get interested. A Sothebys expose.. nada.. even a Michael Connelly and I always like him. Sigh..

mabel1015j · « **Reply #7466 on:** June 25, 2015, 01:20:21 PM »

For you Agatha Christie fans, even more reasons to love her.........

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/http://www.modernmom.com/5fbdbdc0-48c3-11e3-87f1-bc764e04a41e.html-life/11672325/Agatha-Christie-Feminist-icon-surfer-and-single-mother.html

Jean

ginny · « **Reply #7467 on:** June 25, 2015, 01:45:56 PM »

Special Announcement

Our website will be down, beginning Monday evening, June 29, GMT, for a large update.

Please do not post at this time as your post will probably disappear.

We do not know how long it will take the computer expert to load this update and have it working.

The website will not look as it has when it comes up until we tweak it, so please be patient. Please continue to check back for news. We hope to be up and functioning by Tuesday, but if not, it shouldn't be too much longer.

Thank you for your patience

JoanK · « **Reply #7468 on:** June 25, 2015, 04:35:19 PM »

Hope I remember. I guess for me in California, evening, Greenwich Mean Time Monday means mid-morning Pacific time. Best to stay off Monday.

Steph · « **Reply #7469 on:** June 26, 2015, 08:51:44 AM »

Knowing me, I will probably forget, but will be reminded when we are not online, etc.

ginny · « **Reply #7470 on:** June 26, 2015, 09:20:41 PM »

They said Monday night, so that's what I think we should go by. If we hear anything new on Monday itself we can advise.

Steph · « **Reply #7471 on:** June 27, 2015, 08:42:12 AM »

Read the third Flavia book that I had missed before. I liked the gypsy angle, but the plot did not hold together well at all.
F
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JoanK · « **Reply #7472 on:** June 27, 2015, 04:26:35 PM »

Read the first of the Angela Marchmont books by Clara Benson.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/clara-benson/

I thought she was imitating Agatha Christie: turns out she was writing at the same time, and her books were discovered and published after her death. Of course not nearly as good as Christie, but worth a light read.

Steph · « **Reply #7473 on:** June 28, 2015, 09:24:30 AM »

That was a totally new name for me.. Will have to check her out.

ginny · « **Reply #7474 on:** June 29, 2015, 02:53:53 PM »

OK it looks like they are beginning now, to do a backup, and will start on the upgrade about 5:15 Eastern time. I don't think I'd post anything now until this is over, if you want to see it again.

Fingers crossed!!

Steph · « **Reply #7475 on:** June 30, 2015, 06:52:15 AM »

JoanK · « **Reply #7476 on:** June 30, 2015, 04:42:51 PM »

well, so far, so good. I'm told they will continue to tweak the appearance (like the weird headings).

Is anyone having trouble with the text size? It's fine for me, but there have been some complaints.

JoanK · « **Reply #7477 on:** June 30, 2015, 04:50:56 PM »

I joined Kindle unlimited last night, so I'll be reading some kindle mysteries that may not be available elsewhere. I've almost exhausted my local library (their buyer seems to like noir books, and I don't) and I need to cut my book budget.

Do those of you who belong know -- it says I am "borrowing" the books. Does that mean it will disappear at some point? And I joined on the 29th. will they bill me again on July first?

Do those who belong know?

Steph · « **Reply #7478 on:** June 30, 2015, 08:11:46 PM »

Let me know about the Kindle. I am considering it myself. I do hope that we can get it enlarged a bit here. Very hard to read.

salan · « **Reply #7479 on:** July 01, 2015, 08:22:50 AM »

I would like larger print, also.
Sally

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 906137 times)