Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 1073697 times)

Steph · « **Reply #440 on:** February 05, 2010, 06:11:43 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
Our Favorite Old Mystery Writers
Fantastic Fiction
Stop You're Killing Me

Discussion Leaders: BillH and JoanK

I like certain English authors, but there are others than throw me.. I loved Sayers, but the Nine Tailers and the bell ringers was one of those books that I really could not quite get the changes, etc. Love to actually be there when the bell ringers are playing.. Fun to see what it really looks and sounds like

FlaJean · « **Reply #441 on:** February 05, 2010, 02:40:08 PM »

I like most English authors and Dorothy Sayers is still one of my favorites.

Johanz4 · « **Reply #442 on:** February 05, 2010, 10:06:56 PM »

haven't been here for a while, have been with mystery readers on SparkPeople but think i will come back here again.

just finished 2 books of Stuart Woods - Ed Eagle series. very good and kept me reading until 1 AM to finish. also 'Beverly Hills Dead' by him. what i liked about the 3 was the characters were all part of each book. i always like his books and hope to get more tomorrow when i return all these and look for others.

Steph - i am with you. after 2 disasters i prefer paying the extra for a single. one was a friend who asked to accompany me to a spa - she took over the room and also expected me to be with her constantly. the other was a gal who lived in my condo complex. k new of her only. we went for Mardi Graw in Key West, Fla. she was a roommate from H...

JO

Steph · « **Reply #443 on:** February 06, 2010, 06:25:42 AM »

Yes, I have had a lovely roommate, just once.. Joan Grimes at the beach, but then I really feel that I know all of you, even though I have only met a few .. So I considered that different. It is the total stranger I do not think I would like.
Talked to a lady at a library group yesterday and she was telling me that at 65 she went on a singles cruise and then put her with a 40 year old who was out for ( shall we say) adventure. Kept trying to make her set up a signal for not coming back to the room. I could not deal with that.

Babi · « **Reply #444 on:** February 06, 2010, 09:37:18 AM »

JOANK:

Quote

Oh, of course! The Brits would have bells instead of whistles

.

fairanna · « **Reply #445 on:** February 06, 2010, 05:29:38 PM »

well since I love a mystery I decided I would come here ..it has been some time since I read one but I recall I loved Sue Grafton and a Virginia writer who isnt bad is Ann Mullen who is a good friend and a neighbor of my daughter in Stanardsville she has several and I have read them all ..they may not be spectacular but I enjoy them .. any suggestions ? anna

JoanK · « **Reply #446 on:** February 06, 2010, 06:40:33 PM »

HI. JOHANZ and ANNA. Always great to see you.

I don't know Stuart Woods. It's more fun reading LA mysteries now that I live ib the area. There are so many ofthem that our face-to-face group did months or reading just LA authors. they tend to be dark. Is that true of Woods?

I don't know Ann Mullen, either. Are those cozies?

I read a second book by Carol Higgens Clark, the daughter of Mary Higgens Clark -- Snagged. Much better than the first one. Definitaly a woman's book, it's about a pantyhose convention.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #447 on:** February 06, 2010, 08:30:56 PM »

Read Louise Penny. Canadian author, wonderful books.!!!

mabel1015j · « **Reply #448 on:** February 06, 2010, 08:40:46 PM »

As i mentioned i'm reading J.A. Jance's Joanna Brady mystery, Outlaw Mountain. In this one she has just said "yes" to Butch's proposal. I find it interesting that Jance has essentially given Sheriff Brady a "wife" to help out w/ her dgt and her life. Butch has sold his bar, is supposedly writing - altho having writer's block - his first novel, so he has plenty of time to take care of Brady's dgt when BRady is up to her neck in work. And in this one he's also "sitting" w/ a developmentally disabled mid'l aged man who Brady doesn't seem to know what to do w/.

That contrasts w/ "Goldie" in Davidson's stories where she is, for a while, a battered wife, then a single mother w/ one son and a foster son, before she hooks up w/ her husband. And then there's Eve Dallas who has no children and a man who owns the world..............mades me wonder - - - - how would i write a protagonist who has a busy career life? ................. i am in awe of novelists...................jean

FlaJean · « **Reply #449 on:** February 06, 2010, 09:52:44 PM »

Just finished An Ice Cold Grave by Charlaine Harris. I liked the earlier books with the same characters but somehow didn't care for this one--some of the descriptions of what the "bad guys" did to those young men just grossed me out.

I haven't read a Joanna Brady book in a while. I remember liking Butch and thought he was good for her. I'll have to check out Outlaw Mountain.

Steph · « **Reply #450 on:** February 07, 2010, 05:51:43 AM »

I like both of J.A. Jances series.. I favor the Seattle detective a bit, but like Joanna as well.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #451 on:** February 07, 2010, 12:46:46 PM »

Lost this message the first time I tried; my laptop is sick, it quits with no warning after only a few minutes so I'll be using the MAC desktop when I can squeeze into the queue. I like Jance's new series about Allie Reynolds, former TV news anchor in LA. When she was canned for being older and she found that her TV executive husband of ten years was a cheater, she returned to her hometown of Sedona. I have liked all Jance's series in turn but get bored with them after a while. First in the new series: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/j/j-a-jance/edge-of-evil.htm

joangrimes · « **Reply #452 on:** February 07, 2010, 02:46:13 PM »

English mystery writers are my favorites. I do not read many American mystery writers.

I loved the older English mystery writers like John Dickson Carr( Carter Dickson) He used John Dickson Carr when writing about certain detectives and Carter Dickson when writing about others. I like Josephine Tey and Edmund Crispin. There are many other English mystery writers that I like also. The modern ones that I like are PD James and Ruth Rendell.

Joan Grimes

JoanK · « **Reply #453 on:** February 07, 2010, 07:51:34 PM »

Those are among my favorites too.

pedln · « **Reply #454 on:** February 07, 2010, 08:09:07 PM »

You all have mentioned so many books and authors I've liked or want to read. My f2f group read Stuart Woods' Chiefs some time ago and we all thought it was terrific. I think it was the first in a series. It gave you a lot to think about.

Thank you whoever introduced me to Louise Penny -- her Broken Telling was excellent, and the author just assumed her readers were intelligent. Lots to think about there, too.

I used to like Diane Mott Davidson, but lately have been getting a little tired of her, and the jerk, and arch.

Quote

i am in awe of novelists...................jean

Yes, absolutely.

Have you tried Linda Fairstein -- she's the prosecuting attorney in New York who focuses mainly on sexual abuse cases. Fairstein herself used to be a prosecuting attorney, and I think her husband was either a lawyer or a judge. She actually named him in some of her novels. Now I think he died a year or so ago. As well as being a good mystery, her novels always teach you something about New York.

JOanK -- who are some of the good writers of mysteries set in LA? I've come across some for Northern Californai, but not in LA. We lived there a couple years when two of the children were very small, first in Brentwood, then in Canoga Park. It would be fun to read some mysteries set there.

Steph · « **Reply #455 on:** February 08, 2010, 05:48:50 AM »

L.A... How about Michael Connelly and who is it, whose hero is Elvis something. Funny and wry at the same time. His helper is Joe Pike..

mrssherlock · « **Reply #456 on:** February 08, 2010, 03:03:20 PM »

robert crais.

Steph · « **Reply #457 on:** February 09, 2010, 06:02:21 AM »

Thanks Jackie.. Robert Crais it is and boy does he cover LA.. I like him so much, although he is unlucky in love.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #458 on:** February 09, 2010, 10:20:38 AM »

Stop You're Killing Me is a great site for mysteries and has many useful links such as indices by job. location, etc. Here is the site for California locations: http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/LocationCats/USA/California.html

Jan Burke's series about a newspaper woman is LA is very good, IMHO. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/jan-burke/

mrssherlock · « **Reply #459 on:** February 09, 2010, 05:37:48 PM »

I love house plans. I pore over Dover Victorian Architecture books, studying how the rooms are fitted together, watch "House Hunters" on HGTV, and love the slick magazines like "American Bungalow. That said, there is a sick fascination with the story of a wealthy family's hunting lodge's desecretation in Skull Session by Daniel Hecht. The owner of the lodge left it one day and it has been sitting empty for several years, though empty is a misnomer since the lodge has been so thoroughly vandalized that the floors are knee deep in litter. Enter Paul slogland, a failed contractor, who is hured by the owner, his wealthy aunt, to restore the lodge aand salvage her personal property.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #460 on:** February 09, 2010, 05:43:59 PM »

Part 2 of Skull Session (My 'puter is acting up and I don't want to lose this.) Paul has Tourette's Syndrome, a neurological affliction which leaves its victims helpless to stop the tics, animal noises, and inappropriate verbalizationsm which make these folks so easy for comics to ridicule. While Paul gets started on the lodge, the local police are investigating the disappearance ov several local teens. This is a complex story and it is quite a good read. Hecht has qwritten other books and I will happily seek them out. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/daniel-hecht/skull-session.htm

JoanK · « **Reply #461 on:** February 09, 2010, 08:04:35 PM »

I remember reading a detective story years ago about a detective with Tourettes syndrome: it was quite good, but I don't remember details.

Now, they are saying that maybe Mozart had Tourettes, and that was why he acted so strangely.

Steph · « **Reply #462 on:** February 10, 2010, 06:05:03 AM »

I must hunt. I know that in my to be read case, I have a book that is about someone with Tourettes..

mrssherlock · « **Reply #463 on:** February 10, 2010, 12:03:34 PM »

Steph: If the book you are searching for is Skull Session it is quite a read.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #464 on:** February 10, 2010, 05:14:02 PM »

Picking books off an awards list can be risky but it can also yield true gems. Such a diamond-in-the-rough is Walking the Perfect Square by Reed Farrel Coleman (also writes as Tony Spinoza). Moses Prager is an ex-cop who works in New York, far from the wealthy enclaves so often featured in mysteries. He is prickly but very caring and loves his family of two brothers and a sister who lead conventional lives. Moe appeals to me and I will follow him through all the books he lives in. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/reed-farrel-coleman/

Steph · « **Reply #465 on:** February 11, 2010, 10:08:35 AM »

I just finished a Elaine Viets.. Sort of a cozy.. This one is about the mystery shopper. I much prefer the dead end jobs series..Silly premise but it works.

FlaJean · « **Reply #466 on:** February 13, 2010, 11:45:19 AM »

Just finished The Drowning River by Kim Byrne. This is her first book. It was well written and kept me interested to the last page--a really good start for a new author. I've "tried" to read several other books since last posting but I didn't even finish them. I find that more and more I gravitate to the same authors so it was refreshing to find a new author that I liked.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #467 on:** February 13, 2010, 03:22:26 PM »

Flajean: You've piqued my curiosity. Please tell us more about The Drowning River. Finding a new asuthor is like gold at the end of the rainbow, isn't it?

FlaJean · « **Reply #468 on:** February 13, 2010, 09:03:49 PM »

It's about an adopted girl attending a small college in the northeast for her Master's degree. She can't understand why several people act so strangely when they see her. It tells on the cover that she is a twin (but doesn't know it) and and her twin was drowned the year before at this same college. There are a lot of twists and turns and I don't want to spoil it incase someone here reads it. In fact, I wish I hadn't read the cover before reading it, but there were still a lot of surprises in it.

winsummm · « **Reply #469 on:** February 14, 2010, 01:13:07 AM »

christopher reich is good but not la. RULES OF DECEPTION .

Jackie long ago I did arhcitectural renderings in an attempt to make art pay and had to learn drafting and space design. I loved it. if I hadn't been half a century old and a woman I'd have started over as just that a space designer. Architects at that level don't often get to do the entire design. they do staircases etc. But contractors and buildings do whole houses and have inhouse drafts men to do the design.

I've thought women should design houses since that is where they spend so much of their time and men make lousy kitchen. I designed our home, the last one before I knew how to draft at the behest of our friend the builder, five times until he said to stop with the last version. Using just graph paper, I had a ball.

. I could walk through the rooms as I created them and making the drawings so clean and precise was fun although my fine art is loose. I haven't thought to collect the work of others but it could be interesting since I know how it is done.

claire

Steph · « **Reply #470 on:** February 14, 2010, 06:08:09 AM »

I loved drafting and took CAD as well. An interesting thing. If I had been younger, I would have looked for a drafting job in my early 60's. Was really fun.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #471 on:** February 14, 2010, 12:39:55 PM »

Were we young women of 50 today we could be following our dreams. A fascinating career i would have loved, if I had the manual dexterity and art sense, is miniaturization.

winsummm · « **Reply #472 on:** February 14, 2010, 01:18:23 PM »

miniaturization

in what way??

as for being young at fifty. . .not so out there in the wild wild world. that's when I began my rendering and I did have art etvc. No one believed me, that I did the drawings from plans. they did like my trees, but too many architects are arrogant jerks. "I could do it myself only I haven't time" is what I kept hearing.

At that time they were looking to hire young asian men in their mid twenties. I didn't fit into the office picture. in one case I was offered a drafting table between two such workers in a dimly lit upstairs location just to show me that I wouldn't fit in. The boss was a nice designer woman who understood what was happening and was very sympathetic. I was not only the wrong age and gender, I was "grossly over qualified".

Some places the work was done on a factory like basis at about six dollars an hour.

In the end it was a case of knowing architects socially who would use you. I did know one such but couldn't charge what I should have since I knew him well enough to know he couldn't afford it. life might be more even handed now but only in more well defined professions IMHO the arts are always under valued.

FlaJean · « **Reply #473 on:** February 14, 2010, 02:54:43 PM »

Just read on the Internet that Dick Francis died at his home today in the Cayman Islands. He was age 89. I read so many of his books with enjoyment and I believe many of you here did also.

JoanP · « **Reply #474 on:** February 14, 2010, 03:31:32 PM »

Spamming...to reach the masses...

As promised, the poll to determine our Spring Book Club Online in-depth discussions is now open -

We will stay open until Feb. 26.
You may vote once.
Notice the titles in the Suggestion Box heading are linked to reviews.
Note the two different categories:
1. Your first choice
2. All the titles that interest you for future discussion

VOTE HERE - (click this link)

Frybabe · « **Reply #475 on:** February 14, 2010, 03:44:01 PM »

Voted!

Mom is done with her Rumpole Omnibus book so now she wants to read more Agatha Christie. I went into the used book store to get her one and came out with four: two short story books, one with four novels (including Death on the Nile), and And Then There Were None (which I want to read myself). Nothing like a little overkill there. Actually there was a book with Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express plus three more, but it seemed a bit heavy to hold. Mom doesn't like books that are heavy to hold.

I also came out with the latest Dan Brown book, The Lost Symbol and the second StarDoc scifi.

joangrimes · « **Reply #476 on:** February 14, 2010, 04:06:33 PM »

I voted.

FlaJean · « **Reply #477 on:** February 14, 2010, 06:18:59 PM »

Voted.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #478 on:** February 14, 2010, 06:34:26 PM »

Voted

Steph · « **Reply #479 on:** February 15, 2010, 06:08:10 AM »

Dick Francis.. Oh me, another favorite author gone forever. Although I did not like the ones he wrote with his son as much as his early stuff where his wife helped. Still first Robert Parker and Now him.. Darn.

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 1073697 times)