Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 905981 times)

JoanK · « **Reply #7920 on:** January 17, 2016, 03:40:07 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!

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Discussion Leader: JoanK

JoanK · « **Reply #7921 on:** January 17, 2016, 03:47:46 PM »

Read two good mysteries this week. One "white Ghost" by James R. Benn. A WWII mystery. The narrator, a former Boston cop is apparently sent by the army to investigate murders. In this book, he's sent to the South Pacific to investigate a murder, the chief suspect is a young PT boat commander named Jack Kennedy.

A no hold barred description of the Kennedy's power, and the horrors of war.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/james-r-benn/

marjifay · « **Reply #7922 on:** January 17, 2016, 07:12:37 PM »

Benn's White Ghost sounds good, Joan. You mentioned you'd read two good mysteries this week. What was the second one?

Marj

Steph · « **Reply #7923 on:** January 18, 2016, 09:05:13 AM »

Another new to me author..

FlaJean · « **Reply #7924 on:** January 18, 2016, 11:40:19 AM »

I just got Donna Leon's book "The Golden Egg" from Amazon for my iPad Kindle app for $1.99. I thought I was up to date on the Brunetti series but didn't remember this one (22nd of 24). Thought I would mention it as the price is right.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #7925 on:** January 18, 2016, 05:44:02 PM »

I've not read that one either FlaJean - I'll have a look for it on Amazon UK - thank you!

Rosemary

marjifay · « **Reply #7926 on:** January 18, 2016, 07:39:38 PM »

I tried to read Rubbernecker by Linda Bauer. It was nominated by the 4MA (For Mystery Addicts) group and supposed to be a crime thriller page turner. I did not find it so and tossed it after 2-1/2 chapters. I don't like a book that you have to force yourself to read. and this was one of those. The second chapter was about a nurse who was annoyed because the patients in her ward kept her from reading a book from her favorite author. I kept going, thinking maybe it would get to the point of the story. But no, the third chapter started out telling the childhood life of the detective who had Asperrger's syndrome, whatever that is, and I really could care less. So that did it. Back to the library, a DNF.

Steph · « **Reply #7927 on:** January 19, 2016, 09:31:57 AM »

Asburgers,, is on the high end of the autism spectrum. My grandson has it..

JoanK · « **Reply #7928 on:** January 19, 2016, 06:50:57 PM »

The other good book is a first novel, called "Moonshadows." by

In the 1930s, a woman comes to a small Western town, determined to start a career as a photographer. She finds a body while out in the fields at night photographing moonshadows.

Interesting characters and setting. I hope she writes more.

Steph · « **Reply #7929 on:** January 20, 2016, 08:44:45 AM »

Is this a contest.Name the book and guess the author??

FlaJean · « **Reply #7930 on:** January 20, 2016, 10:00:42 AM »

I believe the author is Julie_Whitesel Weston. Sounds really interesting.

JoanK · « **Reply #7931 on:** January 20, 2016, 06:55:58 PM »

Sorry. I left the author blank, and went to get the book. Thought I then typed it in, but there was a lot going on here.

Steph · « **Reply #7932 on:** January 21, 2016, 10:28:56 AM »

I figured, but it was funny.. just like a quiz show.. and the author is......... Oh well.

JoanK · « **Reply #7933 on:** January 21, 2016, 03:53:22 PM »

So I guess FLAJEAN gets the prize for knowing the right answer. Expect your new automobile to be delivered in the next few days (but while you're waiting, don't sell the old one!)

Steph · « **Reply #7934 on:** January 22, 2016, 10:30:01 AM »

How is everyone with the storm. Living in central Florida, we are supposed to have some heavy storms, but nothing thus far other than a gentle rain early today.

ANNIE · « **Reply #7935 on:** January 22, 2016, 11:07:12 AM »

We are having very little weather problems here in downtown Gahanna but my sister, Mary, is right in the middle of NC and already her flights up to here have both been cancelled. American cancelled out all flights out of Charlotte. We have big plans for visiting Indianapolis over next weekend. Hope Jonas has passed by then.

Are police procedures counted as mysteries? I am reading Michael Connely's "City of Bones" and enjoying another Harry Bosch story.

Steph · « **Reply #7936 on:** January 23, 2016, 09:02:02 AM »

Oh my, yes Police procedurals are certainly a big part of mysteries,, I love Harry as well..

MaryPage · « **Reply #7937 on:** February 02, 2016, 10:47:52 AM »

I am still not quite finished reading The Concrete Blond, a Harry Bosch. Both pre and ante surgery, and I am now two weeks into the ante, I have cut my reading time about in half, and that half has to accomplish all my newspapers and magazines in an attempt to keep up with the world swirling all about me.
But I'm getting there. Climbing up out of the abyss and becoming a bit of a human bean again.

JoanK · « **Reply #7938 on:** February 02, 2016, 04:13:43 PM »

MaryPage: I'm glad you're feeling better. {{{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}

JoanK · « **Reply #7939 on:** February 02, 2016, 04:23:35 PM »

Read a good police procedural: "A Death in the Family" by Michael Stanley.

Detective Kubu is a detective in the Botswana police force. the same background as "The Ladies no. one detective agency." but not funny. more serious, but there is something of the same gentleness, love of family, and pride in their nation. I'll definitely read more.

Like "Ladies", it's written by white expats. I'd like to see books written by the people they are writing about.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/s/michael-stanley/

Steph · « **Reply #7940 on:** February 03, 2016, 08:38:43 AM »

Just do not like the #1 Ladies thing.. I do like his Edinburgh ones. They feel real to me. I love the African books from the 20,30,40's.. by the White expats.. What a fascinating life and they really believed it would last forever.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #7941 on:** February 03, 2016, 12:37:13 PM »

I could never get into the #1 Ladies books either, Steph, so don't feel alone! I do like the Edinburgh series.

Steph · « **Reply #7942 on:** February 04, 2016, 08:47:52 AM »

nice to hear that someone else doesnt like them either. They are so popular..
Next week is our library book sale, so we are all gearing up.. Thursday, we unpack them from all of the hidden areas in the library and Friday and Saturday are sale days, then the following Mon,Tues,Wed are the final sale days with Wednesday being a by the box days. It is hard work but so rewarding. People get so excited when they find something they have been looking for.

JoanK · « **Reply #7943 on:** February 04, 2016, 03:53:23 PM »

I LOVE the No 1 Ladies, but that's what's so great about this discussion: different tastes ... But we all love a mystery!

JoanK · « **Reply #7944 on:** February 04, 2016, 04:06:56 PM »

About to read another mystery with ghosts: in the "relatively dead" series by Shiela Connolly.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/sheila-connolly/

I like all her series of light cozies. Just finished the latest "County Cork" one, in which an Irish-American woman inherits a pub in a small, isolated Irish village. In the "relatively dead" series, the narrator can sense and get messages from dead relatives, which enables her to solve buried mysteries. In the Orchard series, the narrator inherits an apple orchard, and we learn all about growing heritage apples. One strain is the Staymen -Winesaps, which I remember from my childhood as tasting like pure heaven! I cant even eat the tasteless apples we get here.

Steph · « **Reply #7945 on:** February 05, 2016, 08:24:14 AM »

Yes, I like Sheila Connolly and have read most of the county cork ones. I think i might also have read one of the ghost ones.

FlaJean · « **Reply #7946 on:** February 06, 2016, 07:48:47 PM »

I have enjoyed the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency but the last one not as much---- must be getting tired of them. The author gets too "wordy" at times.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #7947 on:** February 07, 2016, 08:38:22 AM »

I finished Summertime: All the Cats are Bored by Philippe Georget - it was a good story with interesting characters (a police detective in Perpignan - one who actually loves his wife and children! - and the disappearance of several young girls and a taxi driver), but it was slightly marred by the translation, which was not great. I'd read more of this series though, if only for the fabulous settings in SW France, an area I have visited and which Georget brings ti life very well. I also identified with the detective's bittersweet feelings about his children growing up and away from him.

Rosemary

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #7948 on:** February 07, 2016, 08:44:42 AM »

Now I'm reading A Demon Summer by GM Malliet, which is about a C of E vicar who used to be a spy and is now charged by his Bishop with investigating misdeeds at the local convent. It's part of a series but this is the first one I've read. So far it's shaping up quite well, but it's marred by being full of Americanisms - I hope that doesn't sound awful, but really, a story set in an English village should, I feel, sound English - words like 'the fall' (instead of the autumn) really jar.

What do you, as Americans, think about this issue? I don't expect American novels to use English terminology, but I do think ones about England, written by English authors, should do so, and it makes me wonder whether, in the past, publishers would have put out two versions, one for the US and one for the UK? And even that seems silly - just as saying 'pavement' instead of 'sidewalk' would sound ridiculous in a book set in New York, regardless of where it was being read.

Rosemary

Steph · « **Reply #7949 on:** February 07, 2016, 09:08:44 AM »

That is absolutely fascinating RoseMary, I had not thought of all of the small differences in the Brits and Yanks.. We do use different words for a large variety of things.. Was it for sure an English author?? So many Americans write stories of England , Scotland, Wales, Ireland , even when they have never been there.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #7950 on:** February 07, 2016, 09:34:55 AM »

Hi Steph - I found it hard to get any information about her at first apart from the fact that she had studied at both Oxford and Cambridge universities, but I have now found her author website and see that she is American. However, if she's lived in both cities I think she should know the basics! Also, in the past I think an editor would have noticed these things, but now it seems to me that most books are hardly edited at all.

Even more famous authors like Louise Penny could, I feel, do with a large dose of the red pen sometimes - in fact, although I liked her earlier books, I couldn't even finish the last one - just too many two-word sentences used for effect but so over-used that they simply irritated me, plus a lot of other stuff that I felt her publisher should have dealt with. Same with JK Rowling - I know she practically has saint status, and I admire her for her achievements, but her later books could, in my humble opinion, have benefited from a bit of attention.

I'd better shut up now before I'm excommunicated!

Rosemary

jane · « **Reply #7951 on:** February 07, 2016, 10:10:17 AM »

Rosemary....agree 100% on using the correct terms for the country and characters. I read an otherwise good novel by a New Zealander about Montana. However, the use of NZ terms like kitchen "bench" when an American would say "counter," "canopy" for the covering on the bed of a pickup truck that an American cowboy would never use, and several other terms were jarring. I think people writing about other countries need a local to that area to do a serious proofread.

JoanK · « **Reply #7952 on:** February 07, 2016, 04:09:17 PM »

ROSEMARY: I read the whole Max Tudor series, and really liked it. But never caught the Americanisms. you are absolutely right -- she should have that pointed out and have it edited by a Brit.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/g-m-malliet/

In general, I'm surprised at how many "British" detective stories are written by Americans. It must be annoying! One series I read has an apology at the end for any Americanisms that have crept in.

Steph · « **Reply #7953 on:** February 08, 2016, 08:55:33 AM »

Its OK..Rosemary, I love Harry Potter, but the rest of her stuff is horrible and needs serious editing. I am beginning to believe that being an editor is somesort of dying art. I do like Elizabeth George however. She is american, but writes of England.. Great detective stories, although she loves to kill off the most beloved characters. I will never forgive her for killing off Helen.

JoanK · « **Reply #7954 on:** February 08, 2016, 04:51:52 PM »

And she led in having a disabled character who is neither a victim or a murderer. Now, disabled detectives are popular.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #7955 on:** February 09, 2016, 09:17:16 AM »

Are you talking about the Inspector Lynley books Steph? I haven't read them but we've seen quite a few of the TV episodes, and I have to say, neither my daughter nor I can stand Helen! I think it must be the actress who plays her or something - she's SO miserable the entire time, and so lacking in animation. What's Helen like in the books?

Steph · « **Reply #7956 on:** February 09, 2016, 09:25:35 AM »

Yes George's series on Lynley.. Helen in the books is gentle and kind and Lynley adores her. You have to read the books, but she died very unexpectedly and Lynley has yet to recover. Elizabeth George is writing another series. Listed as Young Adult, but quite a good book. I have read the first one.. Takes place on Whidbey Island off of Seattle.. Elizabeth lives there.

MaryPage · « **Reply #7957 on:** February 09, 2016, 10:03:08 AM »

I was a big fan of Elizabeth George, and then I dropped her entirely when she killed Helen off. So unnecessary.

I finally finished The Concrete Blond and started The Last Coyote. I think I won't buy anymore of this author. A bit too much of life on the rough side. While I am realistic enough to know that that exists, I am more comfortable with gentler stories.

Frybabe · « **Reply #7958 on:** February 09, 2016, 01:35:48 PM »

Taking a break from SciFi, I am reading "The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Burglar" by Maurice LeBlanc. Enjoyable, fun read. I expect I will be reading more of this old series.

JoanK · « **Reply #7959 on:** February 09, 2016, 05:10:12 PM »

The Arsene Lupin sounds like fun. I've heard the name, but never read the books.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/maurice-le-blanc/

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 905981 times)