Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 905908 times)

JoanK · « **Reply #8240 on:** June 19, 2016, 03:29:42 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

The Man in the brown Suit is a favorite of mine. The setting, the characters, the mystery, all good Christie.

FlaJean · « **Reply #8241 on:** June 19, 2016, 06:34:54 PM »

Finished The Laws of Murder by Charles Finch. I don't usually care for mysteries set in the 1800s era but I enjoyed this one. My next mystery is Bryant and May and the Burning Man by Christopher Fowler. I'm not sure if I've read any in this series, but it was on the New Books shelf and sounded interesting.

JoanK · « **Reply #8242 on:** June 20, 2016, 04:46:45 PM »

Bryant and may are quirky, and fun. those who want realism in their police work probably won't like them. (and it's nice to read about people who are even messier than I am!)

mabel1015j · « **Reply #8243 on:** June 21, 2016, 07:14:18 PM »

My husband was in the hospital for four days. I needed something to make me laugh, so I got a couple David Rosenfelt mysteries from the library. He never fails me. His love for his golden retriever Tara is delightful, his humor makes me laugh out loud often, his cast of characters are wonderful and his stories are good.

Jean

Winchesterlady · « **Reply #8244 on:** June 22, 2016, 12:24:35 PM »

I must apologize for never posting.....I confess to being a terrible lurker. However, every once in a while, I come across something I think might interest some of you. I just finished watching a wonderful interview with Louise Penny, who writes the Three Pines mysteries with Chief Inspector Gamache. She talks about her life before she became an author and her life with her husband who has been diagnosed with dementia. Anyway, it's quite interesting. Hope you enjoy it.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/louise-penny-on-her-unexpected-road-to-success-1.3641698

nlhome · « **Reply #8245 on:** June 22, 2016, 04:30:36 PM »

Thank you, Carol. That was an interesting interview, reminds me that I still have some of her books left to read.

JoanK · « **Reply #8246 on:** June 22, 2016, 04:48:58 PM »

CAROL: thank you, thank you. I love Louise Penny's books, and almost feel like she's family. So look forward to seeing it.

We're just glad you're with us. Post when you feel like it.

Here are her books for those who haven't met her yet. She writes about a small town near Quebec, and has you ready to pack your bags and move there. Best read more or less in order.

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/p/louise-penny/

A number of us were disappointed in her last few, especially the last one. Like many authors, I feel she's going on longer than she should. I see she has a new one coming out in July.

JoanK · « **Reply #8247 on:** June 22, 2016, 05:10:17 PM »

Stephanie Barron has a new mystery out with Jane Austen as the detective: "Jane and the Waterloo Map."

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/stephanie-barron/

We Jane Austen fanatics love these as a fun way to learn about her life. In this one, she is forty, in London editing the proofs of "Emma" (some of you were there when we discussed Emma) and is invited to the king regent's house and requested to dedicate the book to him. She hates this, since she despises his loose life style but has no choice. All this really happened, but in the book, she finds a body and solves the mystery with the help of the son of Benjamin West the painter.

MaryPage · « **Reply #8248 on:** June 25, 2016, 08:59:45 AM »

Have finished reading DO NOT LOOK BACK, the second in Karin Fossum's Inspector Sejer series, and I liked it very much; even more than the first, EVA'S EYE. She has the ability to make every character interesting and to put you right in the story.

Still have the next two of hers on hand, but I think I'll change gears and pick up another of the literally hundreds I have waiting to be read. Decisions! Decisions!

JoanK · « **Reply #8249 on:** June 25, 2016, 05:32:56 PM »

I also try not to read too many by the same author in a row.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #8250 on:** June 26, 2016, 04:38:36 PM »

Me too, I switch off after each book to another author. The only problem with that is i sometimes forget to write the title in my little notebook and you know I can't remember a month later whether I read it or not!!! One of the reasons I love Evanovich - i can keep track of her numbered titles. LOL

i'm reading an interesting book by Susan Wittig Albert, who I know as a mystery writer, but this book is Loving Eleanor, a novel about the friendship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lenora Hickok. LH is the narrator which gives the reader an interesting perspective of ER, but also info about L's life as a journalist and the people she came in contact with. Albert used a cache of letters between the two of them that has not been published before.
Jean

JoanK · « **Reply #8251 on:** June 26, 2016, 05:31:38 PM »

JEAN: That sounds fascinating! Eleanor Roosevelt is an interesting person: I'd love to know more about her. My source of information up to now is the detective stories her son Eliot wrote with her as the detective. While I love the image of her crawling through underbrush stalking a murderer, even I don't take it as serious history. (although I bet she could have, if she saw it as necessary!)

I think of her as a shy woman, originally under the thumb of her aggressive husband and mother-in-law, who reinvented herself and really invented a career for herself. Do you agree?

FlaJean · « **Reply #8252 on:** June 27, 2016, 11:39:10 AM »

Have just finished the latest Feathering mystery The Killing in the Cafe by Simon Brett. Being a grandmother has softened Carole somewhat, but Jude has more patience than I could ever muster. Anyway, a nice easy read that I enjoyed as usual.

MaryPage · « **Reply #8253 on:** June 27, 2016, 02:39:20 PM »

I read that Hillary Clinton says she reads murder mysteries for relaxation these days. She mentioned two authors she enjoys: Donna Leon and Louise Penny.

JoanK · « **Reply #8254 on:** June 27, 2016, 06:29:45 PM »

Good taste!

Not sure I know the feathering mysteries.

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/simon-brett/

Oh yes, I do! I see I've missed the last two. And he has a new Mrs. Pargeter out! I thought he'd dropped that series.

Does anyone know his "Blotto and twist "series?

mabel1015j · « **Reply #8255 on:** June 29, 2016, 02:23:22 PM »

JoanK - three recommendations on books about Eleanor Roosevelt:

A bio - Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
An amazing book about the presidential years and the Depression and WWII that reads like a novel is No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin
And about her post FDR years, Casting Her Own Shadow by Alida Black.

Enjoy! She is just an amazing, complex woman. All those Roosevelts are great psychological case-studies. When teaching about them, I talked about their childhoods, their relationships with their families, and the possible reasons for their being who they were. The students loved that and would ask "why didn't they teach history like this in high school?" They liked my making them human beings - real people.

Jean

JoanK · « **Reply #8256 on:** June 29, 2016, 05:28:29 PM »

Thanks. I've resd "No Ordinary Time" and thoroughly enjoyed it.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #8257 on:** July 04, 2016, 12:53:59 PM »

That's interesting Mary Page - I love Donna Leon and I used to like Louise Penny, but I feel her more recent books have gone off a bit. She still has gazillions of adoring fans, so I'm sure she won't miss me! Mysteries are very relaxing so long as they're not too complicated - I like Ian Rankin but I have to be wide awake to keep up with his plots and all the stuff he doesn't spell out - it's very satisfying when the penny drops and you get what he's talking about, but I wouldn't say it's exactly relaxing!

Rosemary

MaryPage · « **Reply #8258 on:** July 04, 2016, 03:32:02 PM »

Hey, Gal! Long time, no see!

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #8259 on:** July 05, 2016, 02:50:40 AM »

Hi Mary Page! I know - time flies and if my laptop has kindly closed all my tabs during one if its interminable 'updates' I forget to check in. How are you?

MaryPage · « **Reply #8260 on:** July 05, 2016, 07:24:40 AM »

Old, but shoving along from day to day. The problem is, the days run faster and faster. And how fares Scotland? Dying to see what they are going to do!

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #8261 on:** July 05, 2016, 09:58:41 AM »

Well, I think we are a lot better off than England at the moment! Scotland voted very clearly to stay in the EU and most of us are devastated that we are apparently to be dragged out of it by England. The only silver lining is that Nicola Sturgeon (our First Minister) has shown fantastic leadership over this period, and I think and hope that if we now have a second independence referendum we will at last succeed. Scotland is such a different country from England now - the one having a broadly socialist, European outlook, the other an increasingly right-wing, insular paranoia. All opinions my own, of course!

The people I really feel sorry for are Londoners and some of my friends in the north of England, who no more want a part of this than we do but who have no clear alternative. Of course, they could move to Scotland!

In the meantime, we are all watching events in the US and dreading that he-who-should-not-be-named becomes the most powerful man in the world. One thing's for sure, he'll never garner the kind of accolades that President Obama has. What a shame you can't keep Obama for good. Maybe his wife should run?

Keep shoving along Mary Page! And I know what you mean - who gave it permission to be July already?!

Best wishes, Rosemary

JoanK · « **Reply #8262 on:** July 05, 2016, 03:41:21 PM »

ROSEMARY:" who gave it permission to be July already?!" Not me.

Good luck to Scotland. I'm so ignorant: I don't even know when Scotland joined England. I'm just reading about James I of England's failed attempts.

JoanK · « **Reply #8263 on:** July 05, 2016, 03:52:45 PM »

I read a mystery in Loren Estleman's "Valentino" series about the movie buff who specializes in finding lost films. I've tried to read him before, and never been able to finish one, but because this book ("Shoot") was about cowboy movies,I made it through. (I had a huge crush on Gene Autry when I was a kid)

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/e/loren-d-estleman/

The premise is rather hackneyed (the cowboy hero who is a jerk in real life), but a lot of reminiscing about old movies and stars. he says at the end, in effect: you might think this is based on gene Autry, but he was nice. Hmmmm. I wonder what that means?

Good grief Estleman has a lot of series. I think the valentino's are the only mysteries, though.)

Judy Laird · « **Reply #8264 on:** July 06, 2016, 04:08:45 PM »

Loved the DVD called Eleanor First Lady of the world

ginny · « **Reply #8265 on:** July 06, 2016, 05:08:43 PM »

Actually Gene Autry was a much more complicated man than people give him credit for. "Nice" or not.

FlaJean · « **Reply #8266 on:** July 09, 2016, 10:50:07 AM »

Just finished Susan Wittig Albert's new China Bayles mystery Blood Orange. It was a good story as usual but uses too many adjectives at times. Sometimes a little less description moves the story along and makes it better. She did explain things that a regular China Bayles reader would know but makes the story a good one for a first time reader of this series.

JoanK · « **Reply #8267 on:** July 09, 2016, 06:37:27 PM »

I'll look for it.

evergreen · « **Reply #8268 on:** July 11, 2016, 08:47:11 PM »

I've just finished reading Into Oblivion by Arnaldur Indridason, an Icelandic author. It's a book in the Inspector Erlendur series. It was recommended by a friend. I had never heard of the author, but it appears I'm behind the times again because he's written beaucoup mysteries.

I'm pleased that I have a new series to follow (I liked the book). Has anyone read any of his books?

FlaJean · « **Reply #8269 on:** July 11, 2016, 10:52:08 PM »

I've never Heard of that author but will make a note of him. Sounds interesting.

JoanK · « **Reply #8270 on:** July 12, 2016, 05:58:08 PM »

EVERGREEN: What an interesting series: I hadn't heard of it.

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/i/arnaldur-indridason/

Off to see if he's on my kindle.

JoanK · « **Reply #8271 on:** July 27, 2016, 05:34:15 PM »

Is no one reading mysteries in this hot weather? Slim pickings at the library last week: all dark, and I'm in the mood for something lighter.

nlhome · « **Reply #8272 on:** July 27, 2016, 10:23:39 PM »

I've read a few mysteries lately: The Summer of the Big Bachi by Naomi Hirahara - I will look for the next in that series; Little Scarlett by Walter Mosely; Home by Nightfall by Charles Finch; Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indridason. Now I'm reading Death Stalks Door County by Patricia Skalka. I'm from Wisconsin, but it has been so very long since I've been to Door County, so the setting isn't familiar to me any more - but it will be, if I can persuade my husband to head up there in September. These are all fairly dark mysteries, except the one by Charles Finch. I lightened things up with The Seventeen Second Miracle, recommended to me by a woman at our favorite coffee shop, as well as a book of short stories.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #8273 on:** August 01, 2016, 12:44:23 PM »

I found Stuart Wood's Stone Barrington series recently. I don't remember how, maybe somebody mentioned it here? I've read Under the Lake, Scandalous Behavior and am now reading Family Jewels. I'm enjoying them. Stone, the protagonist, an attorney, of course has a boatload of money. That seems to make it easier for characters to do what they want to do to solve the mystery, and is a trend in several books I've read recently. It does make for fun reading and makes me a little envious.

I find them to be well-written and they have some humor. Stone tends to go to bed with every woman he spends any time with - i guess that's Wood's fanatasy

But they aren't overly described and I just skim that and get to the mystery. I do ask the question - would any author write a female protagonist of a series as being this promiscuous? I doubt it - sexism is alive and well even in our contempoary mystery books.

Jean

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #8274 on:** August 01, 2016, 01:09:47 PM »

And that is why I quit reading the Stone Barrington series! Entirely too much bed-hopping.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #8275 on:** August 01, 2016, 01:11:27 PM »

Tomereader, have you read Woods books other than the Barrington series? Are they different?

Jean

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #8276 on:** August 01, 2016, 01:15:42 PM »

I am currently reading a Jeffrey Deaver "The Steel Kiss", and it is the usual nail-biting mystery. In places, a little bit too much "talky talky"...the perp has his own chapters, or if not a whole chapter, then several pages, where he brags about his various murder weapons. He has his eyes on Amelia right now, and I know she's very perceptive, but hope she will be on guard. This is a bona fide "nut case" although fairly intelligent and talented in certain areas. I'm over half way through, and it kept me up late last night, and again early this A.M.
It is violent and gory in places. But all who know Deaver's books, will expect this.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #8277 on:** August 01, 2016, 01:18:15 PM »

Jean, I may have deliberately skipped some of the other Woods book, thinking they would be like the Barrington ones. But, I may have read one or two. Too long ago for me to remember which.

Judy Laird · « **Reply #8278 on:** August 01, 2016, 03:14:07 PM »

enjoy anything about Eleanor Roosevelt.
Ihave a DVD Eleanor First Lady of The World wonderful!!!!!!

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #8279 on:** August 01, 2016, 04:37:03 PM »

A dear friend of mine published a book, "The Day Mrs. Roosevelt Came To Town", I believe several years ago. She says it is available on Amazon for $.01 (in paperback I think). Don't know if your local libraries would have a copy.

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 905908 times)