Mystery Corner

[marcie]

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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   

[marcie]

Thanks very much, Jackie, for the link to the review of The Baker Street Letters. It sounds delightful!!

[Babi]

  I do hope you are all watching the new Mystery Masterpiece series, "Inspector
Lewis".  Our posters have been giving these show 5 stars!  The actors, the
writing, the scenery....all are simply great.
  Airing Sunday nights, tomorrows episode is "Murder to Die For".  You
can see what it's about...and admire that handsome fellow in the picture..
here:   http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/lewis/musictodiefor.html

  Come join us and tell us what you think about this winner.
http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=707.new#new
 

[Steph]

Oh me, I will look for Michael Robertson. The review sounds like it would really be fun.

[JoanK]

JACKIE: sorry: I should have recognized your brilliant prose.  Good idea, gives us more of an idea what to expect.

I found myself in Barnes and Noble yesterday without the list of books to try from you all. I would up with a new (to me -- I see it came out in 2006: I'm really behind) Robin Paige "Death on the Lizard". Many of you who read Susan Whittig Albert know that "Robin Paige" is really Albert and her husband. 

All of theirs include at least one historical character from the period, and this one features Marconi and the development of wireless. I'm a (very distant) relative of Samuel Morse who developed the telegraph and Morse code: I never thought about how much of an advance wireless represented, but now I think I'm going to find out all about it. Wireless was the internet of the early 1900s, says the blurb.

[mrssherlock]

There was a fascinating book about Marconi I read a few years ago.  http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews2/1400080665.asp
He had to struggle to preserve his intellectual property, an unknown concept in those days.

[Steph]

I love Alberts herb books, but not the Robin Paige line for some reason.
I have an older P.D. James that I am using as my go to sleep book.. The one that takes place on the coast line in an abbey that trains young priests.. Slow thus far.

[Babi]

 JOANK, I learned about Robin Page just recently, reading another of
Albert's Beatrix Potter series. I am loving them; the combination of
Potter whimsy, the English lake country and the small town of Sawrey,
and a mystery. All this with the added filip that much of the background,
and some of the characters...and animals..were real.

[Steph]

P.D. James picked up.. Death in Holy Orders is the title ( I think) and it is getting better and better. This is the book where he meets
Emma..

[mabel1015j]

I'm copying this "reply" that i made to "the Library" dicussion..............i hope it makes sense to you here.........................
I'm in a cozy mystery niche. I just read Lethal Legacy by Linda Fainstein - which i don't know if it fits the category of c.m., I'm totally confused by the way libraries and stores categorize books these days  I often have to check the catlogue to see if a book is in the fiction or the mystery section.
 The book is very interesting. A rare books/document researcher is murdered. It gets very complicated for the detectives and the prosecutor - who is the protagonist Alexander Cooper. In the process of investigating the murder they come upon a NYC apartment where lives the brother of a thief and forger. The detective calls in a summons for help saying something like "It's a Collyer brothers situation." ......... He has to explain to the prosecutor what that means - a house filled to the brim w/ stacks and stacks of things, which can be dangerous....................I read this part of the book just 2 days ago and here you are talking about "the brothers" on SL! ( see The Library discussion) I liked the book, altho in the middle of it Fairstein gets a bit bogged down in rare books and maps. She obviously did a lot of research at NYC public library  - she does a lot of description of the institution. I must go look for pictures of the interior. I had recently seen a "Whose Wedding is it Anyway" episode where the couple got married in the NYCPL. Fairstein is a good storyteller. I'll definitely read more of hers.

 I've just finished Between a Wok and a Hard Place by Tarar Myers - it was o.k., but she spent more time describing people, places and things than on the story. She also seemed to want to get in every stereotype about the Amish and Mennonites. It was a little over the top at times.

I've also just finished Arkansas Traveler by Earlene Fowler. Enjoyed it very much. We're an inter-racial family - many whites, blacks and Hispanics - and this is a story about the protagonist -Benni, who is white, married to an Hispanic chief of police in a small Calif town, returning to her small town in Ark with her girlhood friend, who is Hispanic and who is going to marry Benni's cousin. Another of Benni's childhood friends, a black woman, is running for mayor against a man who has been mayor for a while and has tight control on the police and other institutions in town. His son is involved w/ a group of young white supremecists. ............................is that complicated enough for you? ......................Joan and Pat, you may enjoy the banter between two older sister-aunts of Benni, who just compete w/ each other about everything, especially their cooking. Oh gosh, these books about food and w/ recipes in them are killing me!!! They all sound soooo good and make sooo hungry. .............. I like Fowler's writing, she's also a good-storyteller. The story moves along and she writes good dialogue.
 
I've just started one of J.D. Robb's books. I like her Eve Dallas stories, but i have to take a break from them every once in while. I haven't read one for months. This one is Conspiracy in Death and so far she's not over doing the gore or the sex. I'm liking it very much.

All four of these books are parts of a series about the protagonists and i think i heard about each of the authors here on SL...........................jean

[Steph]

Benni Harper is an interesting character.. Fowler also does a series on flowers??

[JoanK]

"Fowler also does a series on flowers??" She does? I think I've read all of her quilting series, but didn't know she had another one. I really like the quilts as a motif: I've never quilted, but tremendously admire those who do.

[FlaJean]

I like Fowler's Benni Harper series, but I think her best writing is a stand-alone book called "The Saddlemaker's Wife".  I was hoping she would make a series from it.  She has started a new series about a widow who owns a diner (I think) but it isn't as interesting as the Benni Harper series.

Thinking of stand-alone books by authors who write series--Carolyn Hart has a wonderful book "Letter from Home".  It was published around 2003.  I've read it twice and it is, in my opinion, her very best book.

[mrssherlock]

Flajean:  The Saddlemaker's Wife was one book I really hated to finish.  Wish she would hake it into a series. 

[Steph]

I must look up Saddlemakers wife.. I have heard so many nice things about it.. Will also look for the Hart book. I gave up on her booksellers series. Just too ooey...gooey for me.

[peace42]

just finished Die for You by Lisa Unger - think I've read one of hers before but can't remember did really like this one...writing flowed easily across the pages and I also learned a bit about the mind-set/writing process as the main character is a writer of fiction..how convenient, right?!! of course, some of the stuff seems implausible and formulaic (sp?!) but it works..and there is always a friend or two who has access to stuff that you and I wouldn't know a thing about..but it works...would definitely read another...well,  off to the library to get a couple more books..hard to stop at two but I"ll restrain myself...have been checking out books from the "new book" section which has been fun..reading stuff by folks I've not read before and I always enjoy that...happy reading everyone

[mabel1015j]

Our NJ PBS station has a show on NJ Notables, a half hour talk w/ someone from NJ. Yesterday they talked w/ Carol Higgins Clark, her mother Mary Higgins Clark has two homes in NJ, one in SAddle River and one at the shore in Spring Lake - she also has a home in Cape Cod - writing is obviously profitable

We talked at one point, maybe on SN, about how many books MHC wrote, Carol said they both have contracts to write one a year, plus she and MHC have written a Christmas book the last two years. I've enjoyed CHC's series on Reagan (somebody - i've forgotten  her last name, nice Irish girl   ). Reilly! How could i remember it was Irish and forget that it was Reilly?
CHC's website http://www.carolhigginsclark.com/

MHC"s books http://bestsellers.about.com/od/bookfilmlistsbyauthor/a/higgins_clark_b.htm

She said that the last Christmas book has been optioned for a movie and will be out for C-mas 2010. ........I wonder what happened to a movie of the Evanovich Plum series? Five or six yrs ago Evanovich said that she had an option for a movie and had on her website requests for who her fans tho't should play the various characters and that's the last  I heard of it. I immediately tho't of Sandra Bullock to be SP. ............ hope it hasn't fallen thru..........altho it would be a great tv series. ....... jean

[mabel1015j]

I just read Mary Higgins Clark's Wikipedia biography - she's  82 yrs old! And she's contracted to write books for 3 more years, isn't that great? Her bio is very interesting. It's so detailed it must have been written by a family member. The bio says she's written 24 books by 2007 but there are 45 on the link i gave in the previous post.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Higgins_Clark
jean

[Steph]

Stephanie Plum.. There is an actress who does mostly Brooklyn type roles..that would be perfect. Now if my brain just worked a bit more, I could even tell you her name..Hmm. it will come with time.

[mabel1015j]

Steph - keep thinking, it will come...............we've all been there so we know - it will come.  ................jean

[JoanK]

Is it the one who plays the Nanny on TV? Fran somebody?

[Tomereader1]

If it is Fran Drescher, nobody would go to see the movie.  She's annoying.

[Johanz4]

Hi all - i have been terribly remiss about checking this site.  i think of you all and say 'i must get back to it'.

i have found SparkPeople.com - it has many features and the main feature is about fitness, health, keeping track of your weight loss etc.  very good site. i signed up in the group 'keeping healthy after 50.'  not interested in losing weight etc.

another group is the Red Hatter group and since i belong to a local Red Hatter of course i had to join it.  i get so involved in so many activities on the RH that it takes a lot of time.

tonite, i decided to forgo and join you all.  hope you forgive me.

i have been reading some great mysteries and will try to make a list of my favorites for you. many you list i have also read.

right now i am finishing Flashpoint by Linda Barnes.  read a number of hers and enjoy them.

from now on, i will go on my PC during the day as well as in the PM and this way i can again join all that i missed.

   JOHanz4 one of the former seniornet group

[pedln]

Jean, I've really liked all the Linda Fairstein books that I've read.  You really learn a lot about places in New York.  And Fairstein herself was/is a NY prosecutor. I don't remember titles but one focused on the Museum of Natural History, and another had a lot of it set at the Botanical Gardens.  I also like Alex Cooper's cop friend and the betting on the Jeopardy questions.

Steph, I think Death in Holy Orders (PD James) has been on PBS Mystery a couple of times. The setting is a seminary?  and a young seminarian drowns?

Johan, Linda Barnes? Are her books set in Boston?  I haven't read any of hers for a long time, but I remember I liked them.  Flashpoint would be a new title for me.

I've just finished The Silver Needle Murder by Laura Childs, a very cozy cozy. Almost too much so. But the protagonist runs a tea shop and it's set in Charleston, SC, so you learn a lot about tea and Charleston and there's a bunch of yummy recipes at the end.  A fun read, but one will do for a while.

[Steph]

Pedlin, Yes, a seminarian in the book dies in a sand fall from a cliff, but drowning would probably work on tv..Interesting twists in the book and of course he meets Emma, who is later featured as his love.. at least on  his side.
I love Lindas books since she loves research and you learn some interesting things about NYC..
Ugh.. Not Fran Drescher, the voice drives me nuts..and the whine. Sigh..
No, this actress is older now. She always does Brooklyn, New York type accents and pretty much always plays in your face sort of characters. I can see her plain as day, but name....nada..

[JoanK]

JOHANZ: WELCOME. Of course I remember you from the old site. Come in whenever you want: we're always here.

I like Linda Barnes a lot --at least her Carlotta Carlyle books. She has another series with a man detectice (can't remember his name) that I didn't like.

[JoanK]

I checked Barnes in Fantastic Fiction. Her other detective is Michael Spraggue. Apparently, others didn't like him either. She hasn't written a book about him since 1984. But it says she has a paperback Carlyle out this August: "Lie Down with the Devil."

[Johanz4]

i am having trouble trying to send a reply.  this is the 3rd attempt.

yes Pedlin Linda Barnes books are set in Boston.

will write again - Donna Andrews new series featuring Turing Hopper is different and interesting try it.

will close evidently it doesn't like long post.

      JOhanz

[Johanz4]

How about Susan Wittig Albert? love her China Bayles series all about herbs.  i am learning lots about herbs.

her newslerter is very interesting - much info.  go on her site and sign up for it - i know you will love it.  much info. she is also on Facebook and Twitter.  her input is about her daily activities and you will find it interesting.  try it.

      JOHANZ

[JoanK]

I'm sorry you are having trouble. Maybe they can help at the questions and problems site:

http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=29.160

Yes, having a computer as a detective is very different for Donna Andrews. I  read the first one with Turing Hopper; haven't read others but mean to. I just finished her "The Penguin Who knew too Much," As wacky as ever. this time, Andrews isn't satisfied with featuring one kind of animal: a whole zoo gets dumped in the detective's back yard!

[mabel1015j]

Just finished J.D. Robb's Conspiracy in Death. It was pretty good. It was about 9th in her series of 24 or so of Eve Dallas. I've read later ones that got much gorier and sexier. In this one she is married to Roarke, but has not gone back to Dallas to find her past yet. The banter between she and Roarke was delightful and they worked closely on a couple cases.

I like some of the technology that she invents for 2050, but i don't think she's any where close to the progress technology will have been made by that time. In this book she talked about medical progress, which was interesting, but even there, i'm not sure she was inventive enough. It was published in 1999. In the past decade we've already progressed to the point where you can be pretty sure that by 2050, we will be way beyond what she imagined in 1999. She needs to talk to some futurists .......................... I do like the auto-chef - ohhhh to just program some appliance w/ what ever you want to eat and have it appear in a few minutes just sounds like paradise to me! .........................jean

[marcie]

Welcome, Johanz. It's so good to see you here and learn what you're reading.

[Babi]

I enjoy Albert's 'Beatrix Potter' series, too.  Such an enjoyable mix of
whimsy, genuine biography, mystery, period manners and English lake country
setting.

[Steph]

I didnt like Turing Hopper from Donna Andrews. Love the other series.. Linda Barnes is wonderful about Boston. Just like Robert Parker, you can use her as a roadmap to get all sorts of places in Boston..

[JoanK]

I'm intrigued by the routes that Barnes has her cabby detective take to avoid traffic. Does anyone know Boston well enough to know if they would work?

Growing up in Washington D.C., you could always tell the natives from the newcomers because natives never took the most straightforward route anywhere.

[Tomereader1]

I loved the Turing books, is there a new one out, really?

[JoanK]

According to Fantastic Fiction, there are four Turing Harper books. The last one, "Delete All Suspects" was published in 2005.

On the other hand, she's popping with the bird (Meg Lanslow) series. A new paperback ("Six Geese Aslaying") and a new hardback(something about swans) are coming out this year. I haven't seen the "Geese" in the stores yet, have you? I'll have to look in Amazon.


http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/a/donna-andrews/

Maybe she's abandoned Turing Harper. I guess it's not as popular as the other.

[mrssherlock]

Some of you who were SeniorNetters may remember Shirley Rousseau Murphy's series about Joe Grey and his feline companions who live in the fictional town of Molena Bay, CA, which reminds me very much of Carmel.  These are fantasies since Joe is a domestic shorthair cat who talks and reads.  The cast is peopled and animaled with two- and four- footed friends.  Lots of lovely local color.  You probably should be a cat lover since the action centers on the cats.  Anyway, there is a new one;  Cat Playing Cupid is due out in PB in December and in October and new HC, Cat Striking Back.

[FlaJean]

Just finished Donna Leon's latest book "A Sea of Troubles" (A Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery).  It was more intense and exciting than her previous stories.  Brunetti's wife is very insightful.  When Brunetti says "I don't know her that well".  She comments that we never know real people the way we know people in the books we read.  I believe I agree after thinking about it.  These characters can't hide their feelings or thoughts from the reader the way we often do in real life.

[Tomereader1]

FlaJean, have you read "About Face" by Leon?  Good one!