Mainly Mysteries

Welcome, Readers of Mystery and Crime Fiction

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 06:03:00 +0000

The Mainly Mysteries blog welcomes readers of mystery and crime fiction. We are members of a reading group that meets once a month in the public library in Roseburg, Oregon, to discuss Mainly Mysteries.

Join us here as our members share our thoughts with you. Feel free to interact with us. If you know of similar clubs, we would be happy to link to you.

Meetings are held at 5.30 pm in the Ford Community Room of the Douglas County Library, unless otherwise indicated.

Please feel free to come by, even if you haven’t read the book. Newcomers are always welcome. The more the merrier.

Upcoming discussions

May – Cold Dish by Craig Johnson
June – The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison
July – Reader’s favorites
August – Tilt a Whirl by Chris Grabenstein
September – Sue Grafton
October – Corpse in the Koryo by James Church
November – Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger
December – Our annual book club bash

Past discussions (see our Archives section for full texts):

April: Animal detectives
March: Deborah Crombie
February: John Grisham
January: the grand dame of detection, Agatha Christie
December: our joint bash and discussion of holiday mysteries or holiday romances
November: Tony Hillerman's The Blessing Way
October: the Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout
September: the Benni Harper series by Earlene Fowler
August: Scandinavian mysteries
July: Children's and Young Adult mysteries
June: new authors
April: The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John Le Carré
February: John Burdett's Bangkok 8
January: Widow’s Walk by Robert B. Parker
December: bash with the Chili Pepper Readers Romance Club
November: the Southern Sisters series by Anne George
October: Ammie, come home by Barbara Michaels. More here
September: Compromising Positions by Susan Isaacs. More here
August: Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Website, movie, here, there
July: American Historical Mysteries
June: Ethnic Detectives
May: Kate Wilhelm's Death Qualified

Past Events:

Nov. 20, 7 p.m. Lecture on The Witch’s Garden: The Hidden Meaning of Fairy Tales.

April 20, 7 pm: Oregon Book Awards author tour.

May 12, 6 pm: Kate Wilhelm in Ashland; see flyer and website.

4th Tuesday of each month: the Chili Peppers Readers romance club meets at 5:30 in the Ford Community Room. Their latest selection can be found on top of the New Book shelf.

Lots of fun ahead. I hope you can join us. If you can’t make it to the meeting, be sure to participate here online.

Animal detectives

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:57:00 +0000

Last night we met to discuss “animal detectives,” books in which animals take center stage to solve the mystery, writes Jeannine. As expected, it was a pretty wild meeting. I didn’t even bother using the bell, it was too much fun watching them gasp for air, and their faces turn red because they were laughing so hard (you know who I mean – the “little lambs” need to be separated in future). Silly doesn’t begin to describe it.

We raided our closets, the children’s department and our pets’ toy and food bins for decorations. There were lots of stuffed animals on the table, including a big yellow dinosaur that gave the room that really formal feel. There were cat toys (the missing tail on the mouse is a clue) and dog biscuits. We were thoughtful and kept the “real” dog biscuits on a silver platter (naturally) on the sign in table, while the dog bone cookies were on the food table. Didn’t want anyone to get confused and break a tooth (or what if they liked them?).

I’ve noticed the less food I bring to a meeting (this month: none), the more that piles up on the table. Why didn’t I think of this before? There was a tabouleh/pasta salad, dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), Monkey bread, buffalo flavored goldfish crackers, dog bone sugar cookies, several snack mixes that we will designate as kibble, bird seed and rabbit food. There were Vienna sausages referred to as “really small hot dogs,” and chocolate covered donuts, or dinosaur droppings (this seemed to upset some people, I don’t know why).

We started off with the mystery that raised the most eyebrows: Three Bags Full: a sheep detective story by Leoni Swann. The shepherd is murdered and the sheep set out to find out what happened, led by the intrepid ewe, Miss Maple. Oddly enough, the story takes place in Ireland, but is written by a German author and translated to English. We had 4.1 people who read this (one only read 10 pages), and 4 thumbs up. As one person said you “really get inside the head of a sheep.” Yes, this struck the rest of us funny too, but as they explained, the sheep would be going about their detecting business, discussing the possibilities, when “oh, look, clover!” and stop to graze. There were real characters and real character development, “in a sheepish kind of way” (unquote!), and even some deep themes, as well as sheep mythology and theology (evidently there’s some controversy whether the minister or the butcher is God). All who read it (the whole book) enjoyed it immensely, even the ones who didn’t expect to. They said it could have used a little editing (some repetition is what stopped the fifth reader), and thought it was extremely entertaining, but can’t imagine there being a follow-up. One reader said the sheep had always wanted to visit Europe, so saw the possibility of a sequel, which led to images like that of the children’s book Sheep in a Jeep, which then led to the movie version “Sheep on a Plane,” and remarks about sheep falling out of the overhead compartments, and by then the discussion was pretty well out of control.

But they were having so much fun, I didn’t ding them.

We decided to stick with the more unusual detectives, and moved on to the series by Eric Garcia that features Vincent Rubio, a velociraptor private detective in Los Angeles. In Anonymous Rex, the dinosaurs, like the vampires, have continued to live among us without our ever knowing, aided by latex masks and tail girdles. Really! This is what she told us. Rubio is the classic hard-boiled detective, with hot babes and cool criminals, and basil and oregano (in lieu of alcohol) to relax with. She said it was clever, but not witty, cute but boring, and too gimmicky to get past the fifth chapter. It was like a movie trailer, where are the best bits are there (in the first chapter), but the rest just falls flat. Oh well.

A few people read from the Cottage Tales series by Susan Wittig Albert, that takes place on Beatrix Potter’s Hill Top Farm, and includes Ms. Potter and many of the animals as characters. The animals talk to one another, but not to the people. Like Potter’s book illustrations, some animals wear clothes, some do not, for a bit of a Wind in the Willows feel to it. It sounds cutesy, but we were assured that it is just very cozy, with pleasant and different mysteries in each book. Not a rave review, but not negative either.

Combining a bit of science fiction into the mix are the Joe Grey mysteries of Shirley Rousseau Murphy. The first book in the series, Cat on the Edge, explains how Joe is different from other cats; he comes from the Catswold and can speak and understand English, among other talents. It takes a while for him to understand this, and then to make his person, Clyde, believe it. After that the series becomes more traditional mysteries, with the special talents and abilities of cats being used to solve the mystery in a less traditional manner (i.e. they’re very sneaky). Some readers had difficulty getting past the cats’ ability to talk, but for some that was just part of the fun (the cats like to call to have pizza delivered). While some of the plots sound less than cozy (a cult killing children, serial killer, etc), there’s no blood or graphic depiction of death.

Quite a few people read books from the Mrs. Murphy series by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown, with quite a few different reactions, sometimes from the same people! A positive thumbs up went to Murder at Monticello, featuring the postmistress’s cat Mrs. Murphy, and the Welsh Corgi, Tucker. Small own characters and animals, good mystery, the reader enjoyed it. Another reader read Cat’s Eyewitness, which is later in the series, but said there was too much back story missing to enjoy it. She said the animals were okay, but she couldn’t tell when they actually solved the mystery. Another reader had read many and enjoyed them, thinking they featured a companionable village and characters; that the animal relationships were interesting, and enjoyed how the animals tried to steer their humans to enlightenment by pushing things strategically in front of them. The fourth reader didn’t like the one she started at all, not able to get past the animals talking (to each other, not to the humans), especially when they called the postmistress “Mom.” The final person enjoyed the first few read, but couldn’t make it past page 58 in Pawing through the Past, but thinks it may have been the subject matter. Action revolves around an upcoming high school reunion and all the human characters begin devolving into teenagers. The animals were remarkably intelligent in comparison. One of the readers who has read most of the series says Brown seems to write each story around an issue, which unfortunately sometimes becomes more important than the story. So, out of 5 thumbs, that was 3 thumbs up, and 3 thumbs down (that’s known as “fuzzy math” – you see a lot of that in an election year).

Dogs now get their time in the spotlight. Our next member enjoyed Play dead by Leslie O’Kane. This features a dog behaviorist/therapist and the “ugly collie” on the front cover. This poor dog’s first owner is killed, so he is adopted by another person, who is also killed, leaving the dog with “quite a complex.” Obviously this is where a dog therapist comes in. The story is set in Boulder, Colorado where the author lives, and contains lots of good local information. It was recommended as a good read, a suspenseful mystery with plenty of twists. And for those who asked, the animals talk only with the body language an animal behaviorist understands, no midnight phone calls.

In the midst of this, quite a few children’s books came up, some mysteries, some not. For some reason, no one read Freddy the Detective by Walter Brooks featuring a pig detective, though one member remembered loving it as a child. Another person recommended Whittington by Alan Armstrong, an award winning animal fantasy, and another just loved Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson for the rabbit view of the human world, and read it to her students every year. Never to be left out, Hank the Cow Dog, was recommended as a great listen. In the story our member heard, the inept “Head of Security” for the ranch, Hank, sets out to find out who is stealing the corn by setting out clever traps, only to be consistently trapped himself. A clever coyote stars in A Coyote’s in the House, the first children’s novel by Elmore Leonard. Antwan is a hip-talking coyote living in the Hollywood Hills, who takes after a wasabi-whiskered mouse and ends up in the back yard of retired movie star German Shepard, Buddy. It was delightful, a good “tail.” Unquote.

There was one thumb up, and one down for the Midnight Louie series. The stories rotate between the views of the big black cat Midnight Louie and his person, Temple Barr. One reader did enjoy the Louie tales, though admitted Temple’s obsession with shoes was a bit much. The other reader was more forthcoming with her opinion – she had never read a book so full of alliteration, Temple Barr was too unbelievable, and it was “the longest book I ever read.”

The “Cat Who” series by Lilian Jackson Braun came up for discussion – are they, or are they not animal detectives. Are the two cats really looking for clues to drop in the lap of Qwilleran, or is it just coincidence or fate? The jury was deadlocked.

One person preferred “real” animals, and highly recommended the books of Bernd Heinrich on ravens, by far the smartest of birds. Another person really liked the books that draw the reader into the animal’s minds and frame of reference, to try to see their view of humans, as a way for us to better understand ourselves.

One said to heck with real, how about dragons? She highly recommended the fantasy Mistress of Dragons by Margaret Weis.

And finally, two people had cat mystery collections. One thought it was a great way to read some of her favorite writers, as well as be introduced to some she doesn’t know, without having to read a whole book. The other picked one called Cat mysteries for the holidays that she picked up for the picture on the cover of a cat paw on a skull – it was “adorable.” Um, okay….

Upcoming discussion: Animal Detectives

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:00:00 +0000

Next month we will be meeting to discuss “Animal Detectives.” The fans of Three Bags Full: a sheep detective story will finally get a chance to explain why they like it and we should read it. I’ve read the starred reviews, and I still don’t get it. If you are also skeptical, you may read about one of the many cat or neo-cat detectives, or get braver still and try out a dinosaur detective. One of our members had just started Anonymous Rex by Eric Garcia, and she had us in stitches explaining how “like the vampire, they have been with us always…” Here’s the first of Amazon’s blurb (being of the mind that you have to read it to believe it):

For Los Angeles private eye Vincent Rubio, the idea of having a tail means a lot more than being followed. Vincent is a velociraptor, one of those little dinosaurs who caused so much panic in Jurassic Park. He keeps his tail tightly strapped up in the special latex costume that he wears to make himself look human.

Well, you get the picture. Sort of.

Here’s the list of animal detectives we’ve tracked down so far. You get extra points if you find one we’ve missed. Just remember these aren’t sidekicks or “mere” pets, these animals do the actual detecting on purpose.

Cottage Tales series by Susan Wittig Albert

Big Mike series by Garrison Allen

Canapés for the Kitties by Marian Babson

Freddy the detective series by Walter R. Brooks (yes, we know it’s juvenile)

Hank the Cowdog series by John R. Erickson (another really juvenile series)

Mrs. Murphy series by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown

Midnight Louie series by Carol Nelson Douglas

Vincent Rubio series by Eric Garcia

Joe Grey series by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann

Deborah Crombie

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:47:00 +0000

Sorry I’m a bit behind reporting on the last meeting, writes Jeannine. In full panic from incoming budget cuts, we’re all running around trying to dodge falling axes. No bloodshed so far, but we’re keeping the HazMat team on speed dial.

Last Thursday the book club met to discuss the mysteries of Deborah Crombie. At first we were supposed to be in the Ford room, but a Children’s spring craft program bumped us to the Board room. But then a budget meeting full of very serious faces locked themselves in the Board room, and believe me, we weren’t going anywhere near them. So we scrambled back to the Ford room, helped them clear up and move tables, put the children’s program decorations to use and stole what was left of their refreshments. Nice punch! I think that worked out rather well.

Deborah Crombie writes British police procedurals featuring Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James. Initially partnered as a Detective Inspector with his Sergeant, their relationship, both personal and professional, shifts and realigns throughout the series. Because they work for Scotland Yard, they are called on to solve cases throughout the U.K., including Glastonbury, Yorkshire and Scotland, as well as London locations. So there is a strong sense of place, as well as character development and detective work. Deborah Crombie is actually an American (she lives in Texas) who has spent a great deal of time in Britain, and her work is compared most often to another American who writes British mysteries, Elizabeth George (the Inspector Lynley series).

Most of the group enjoyed the series a great deal. Some had read many, one had read all of them, and for a few, this was their first and they intend to read more. There was also a small group of dissidents gathered at the end of one table. These three were bored to tears and not afraid to say so. They did, however, manage to keep their heckling to a minimum J. Because it is a series, different people started at different points of the characters’ lives, and came away with different views of the series. Here’s a list of them in order with links to Amazon:

A Share in Death (1993)

All Shall Be Well (1994)

Leave the Grave Green (1995)

Mourn Not Your Dead (1996)

Dreaming of the Bones (1997)

Kissed a Sad Goodbye (1998)

A Finer End (2001)

And Justice There Is None (2002)

Now May You Weep (2003)

In a Dark House (2004)

Water Like a Stone (2007)

Where Memories Lie (June 2008)

We started with the people who had read the first in the series, A Share In Death. Most enjoyed it well enough to read more. Some thought it was more of a cozy, or traditional mystery, than a police procedural. There was the element of all the suspects under one roof, sort of a country house murder mystery. And just like the reader, the characters of Kincaid and James are meeting each other for the first time, and getting to know one another and their working styles. Some people thought the early Crombie stories were less complex than later, when there is more character development, including that of outside characters, and often more historical background (A Finer End set in both modern and medieval Glastonbury, or Kissed a Sad Goodbye set in both modern times and during World War II, are good examples of these). The dissidents of the group said the character development may be all right, but they didn’t care about any of the characters, so they quickly lost interest. The others thought them quite mad.

The mysteries themselves were considered complex and involving, and often left the reader unsure “whodunit” right up to the end of the book. Loose ends were drawn together and nothing vital left dangling. Coincidence was kept at a minimum and characters’ relationships and careers advanced at a believable pace. Both Duncan and Gemma have reasonable ambition for career advancement, and the usual difficulties with “politics,” family dynamics and child care. One reader speculated that both the home and professional lives of the characters were better understood and enjoyed by Americans because Crombie is herself an American. But others found the British colloquialisms, habits and diet to be so firmly, well, British, that some had difficulty understanding parts. But all were happy that most of the writing hadn’t been “Americanized” (though there were a few that crept in).

All in all it was a very enjoyable evening. We always like the ones where some love it, and some hate it, and only the mildest of insults are tossed around like a hot potato. And what kind of meeting would it be if I didn’t have to ding the bell at least once?

John Grisham

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:16:00 +0000

We discovered yesterday evening that in a match between Valentine’s Day and John Grisham, Grisham wins hands down, writes Jeannine. We had a big turnout and lots of fans of the author. Many had read all of his books, or most of them, and the few newbies among us all seemed suitably impressed. Not that there weren’t “quibbles”; we can poke holes in most anything. But it was fun discovering that others had the same favorites, or saw the same problems in some of the titles. But before I go on, here is a list of Grisham’s books, both fiction and nonfiction. We were throwing out titles right and left, so this will help you keep score.

Legal fiction: A Time to Kill (1989); The Firm (1991); The Pelican Brief (1992; The Client (1993); The Chamber (1994); The Rainmaker (1995); The Runaway Jury (1996); The Partner (1997); The Street Lawyer (1998); The Testament (1999); The Brethren (2000); The Summons (2002); The King of Torts (2003); The Last Juror (2004); The Broker (2005); The Appeal (2008)

Non-legal fiction: A Painted House (2001); Skipping Christmas (2002); Bleachers (2003): Playing for Pizza (2007)

Non-fiction: The Innocent Man (2006)

Our decorations were “legal”, and our cooking Southern with a little birthday and Valentine’s Day on the side. Law books, judge’s robe, briefcase and accoutrements (legal pads, post-its, pens and pencils, folders and legal forms) were spread across the table with a sprinkling of Grisham titles and court related photos amongst them. We had cornbread (recipe attached) and chili, lots of Valentine’s Day cookies, snacks and even most of one member’s ice cream birthday cake!

We began with one of the “newbies,” who decided to try The Partner, and enjoyed the intricacy of the deception and especially the ending (no spoilers!). She didn’t know why she had never read a Grisham before, but would definitely read another. Several other people had read the same title, all liked the twists and turns of the plot, but several did NOT like the ending. The final tally was 2 liked, 2 disliked the ending. Now you want to know what the ending was, don’t you? Not telling.

Now we’re going to start throwing out titles, because you can’t read just one. The next member read both The Painted House and King of Torts, and enjoyed both, but the favorites are still The Client and A Time to Kill (both were many members’ favorites, and many think A Time to Kill is still Grisham’s best book). Another member’s favorite was The Rainmaker. And one was struck by Street Lawyer, because it was the only one with “motivated, religious principles.” The author’s own principles and morality were discussed on several occasions, speculating on how much Grisham’s own situation influenced his characters wrestling with the temptations of money and power.

We moved away from the barrage of favorites to a member trying out one of Grisham’s non-thrillers, Bleachers. “The Superbowl was on,” she said, so it seemed the thing to read. Bleachers is about high school football in a small Southern town. The reader said it was good, not one of his best, but he developed tightly knit characters, a sense of community and the effects of secrets.

Then it was back to the thrillers, and another new reader tried out The Client, which was so good she went back for more, but the shelves were bare. It is the story of an 11-year-old boy and his younger brother who witness an event that traumatizes his brother into total silence. When the mob becomes involved and his family endangered, the boy hires himself a lawyer, and does he pick the right one, or what? With danger from every direction, that boy outwits them all. A very satisfying read, and a good movie too. It was agreed that it was one of the better film adaptations of Grisham’s work. For those who loved The Client, a similar title by Jonathan Kellerman was recommended, Billy Straight.

Our next reader had read everything by Grisham except his nonfiction work, The Innocent Man (at which several people piped up that it was a wonderful read as well). She liked that each book focused on some aspect of the legal world “where you want to take someone and shake them.” She is just starting his new book The Appeal, which she had with her, was holding close, and slapping at hands creeping nearby.

Quite a few people had read The King of Torts, about a Public Defender invited to take on a class action tort. He does this so successfully that it becomes his whole practice, and he gets very rich very fast. And the richer he gets, the greedier he becomes, and the lower and lower he morally descends. With a happy ending and even a little romance. Huh? Guess we have to read it to find out how that turns out. I’m trying very hard not to include spoilers here, but our actual discussion was all over the place, with everyone trying to remember which book had which plot twist, and what happened there, and how did that end, and, no, no, we’ll discuss the movies later, and…. I look at my notes now and they’re pretty useless.

The next member had picked up both “jury” titles, The Last Juror and The Runaway Jury, and liked the second one best. She was fascinated to learn how a jury operates and can be swayed when a character finagles his way onto a jury and starts making one demand after another.

Several members discovered Grisham with The Firm and continued on with his legal thrillers, and many had the same opinion that his early thrillers were the best (many votes for A Time to Kill), but that he hit a bad patch with The Chamber. Some agreed that The Chamber was “too preachy.” Several of his legal titles were considered more message than thriller, and turned them off. Quite a few people had trouble with The Brethren, one even going so far to say he was “one of the first authors to make me give up reading a book.” Many of these early fans were happy that the book club had brought them back; they tried later titles and were happy Grisham was back in form.

Several people also said these are great stories to listen to. One was especially enthralled by the reader of the CD edition of King of Torts (the library copy is read by Dennis Boutsikaris).

One of our hardest to please members enjoyed both The Firm (unbelievable but fun) and A Painted House (realistic and highly recommended) and he will read more! A Painted House also had many votes for favorite or best book, definitely Grisham’s most successful departure from legal thrillers. Another member noted how so many protagonists in Grisham’s titles must wrestle with the morality of great wealth, and speculated that it was Grisham’s way of dealing with his own great success.

And then there is his one attempt at humor, Skipping Christmas. I emphasize “attempt.” Several people said “be nice,” but I’m sorry, it is absolutely dreadful. The only thing worse is the movie they made from it, Christmas with the Kranks. I wanted to blow up the entire neighborhood. Merry Christmas.

We had one reader come to Grisham from a completely different angle. She had tried other legal fiction by Scott Turow and had been so turned off that she never tried Grisham or any other legal thriller writers. Her first taste of Grisham remedied that situation. Another author recommended was Philip Margolin, who writes legal thrillers set in Portland.

And finally, our specialist in the field and only attorney in our group, absolutely raved about The Innocent Man, Grisham’s only nonfiction work. She is not a fan of true crime books, but this one had her riveted. The case came to Grisham’s attention through his participation in The Innocence Project, which is a group that tries to exonerate wrongfully convicted individuals. She said in this case the main problem was the original investigation fixated on a known problem individual and never bothered to follow other leads. The book illuminated not only law enforcement and the legal system, but also the legal situation of the mentally ill. She said it was wonderful. Someone also mentioned that Grisham doesn’t intend to write more nonfiction; the work is too hard.

We never even made it to the film versions. We’ll have to save that for another meeting. We did, however, have a brief report from the member we sent home with the Agatha Christie biography last meeting. There was no reason given for Christie's brief disappearance beyond the fact of her mother’s death and her husband dumping her for another woman (obviously forgetting her experience with poisons). And there seems to be no resemblance between Poirot and her ex-husband, another good theory laid to rest.

There was also a brief mention of Phyllis Whitney’s recent death at the ripe old age of 104! The most common refrain heard at the meeting and on the Dorothy-L listserv is “my mother and I used to enjoy those.” And you know, my mother and I DID both enjoy those. Several mentioned her books as a possible club selection, but I checked, and they all seem to be out of print. Maybe her death will prod a publisher into reprinting them.

Agatha Christie

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 19:35:00 +0000

The Mainly Mysteries Book Club met once again last night to discuss the Grande Dame of Mystery, Agatha Christie, (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1890 – 1976), writes Jeannine. Christie wrote over 80 novels and short story collections, and over a dozen plays over the span of more than half a century. Her books have been translated into over 100 languages with an estimated 4 billion sold. And on and on.

Rather than all read one title, each member could read whatever book featuring whichever detective they wished. With several members needing to leave early, we jumped right into the “show and tell.” Our first member read Partners in Crime (1929), short stories featuring the less well-known characters of Tommy and Tuppence. She likened them to Nick and Nora Charles, light and witty tales in which the couple like to take on the persona of other famous detectives. She enjoyed the vivid quick vignettes of the characters and setting, though there were lots of references she had never heard of, which she assumed was because it was published in 1929, “a bit before my time.” When one of the other members razzed her about “just a little bit,” she informed us that she was happy to have just had her 65^th birthday and was celebrating it enthusiastically, threw her arm up with a cry of “Senior Power!” and told us she had laminated her Medicare card and she was ready!

After we rolled ourselves back onto our chairs, a topic came up that reappeared several times throughout the evening, the “missing” time when Agatha Christie disappeared from her home in Berkshire (8 December 1926), and was found 10 days later in a hotel in Harrogate saying she had amnesia. There has been all kinds of speculation made (it was certainly generated at our table), and even a movie, Agatha (1979, starring Vanessa Redgrave) offered a fictional solution to the real mystery. One of our members had read that this happened shortly after Christie’s mother died, and her first husband, Colonel Archibald Christie, ran off with another woman. So disappearing for a few months made a good deal of sense to most of us. This event also features briefly in one of Kage Baker's time-travelling Company series.

Our next member had picked up a collection of Miss Marple stories. She generally does not care for short stories, but she had read 50 or 60 of Christie’s books, and Miss Marple was her favorite character, so she gave the Marple stories a try, and enjoyed them very much. One of her favorites was “The Tuesday Night Club” (from The Tuesday Club Murders, 1932) where a group of people gather together for an evening of telling mysteries and guessing the solutions, including Miss Marple and a Scotland Yard detective (guess who outsmarts who). Miss Marple has been played on TV and film by five actresses, from Gracie Fields (1956) to Joan Hickson (1985-1992), and then, in the 2005 PBS version, by Geraldine McEwan.

And did you know that Christie even had a novel set in ancient Egypt? It’s Death Comes as the End (1944).

And now we follow Miss Marple to the Caribbean in the aptly titled Caribbean Mystery (1964), filmed in 1983 and 1989 for TV. Miss Marple goes to the Caribbean for the warmer weather, and rather than go bathing or work on her suntan, she people-watches and always listens. Our reader said the mystery was good, and that though there were hints throughout, she didn’t see the end coming. She enjoyed it more for the “different setting;” moving from the parlor to the veranda.

One of our members had had surgery and was unable to hold a book, so tried Christie on tape, but even told with the correct accent, the story was just too slow for her. The next person tried both Hercule Poirot (Murder in Mesopotamia, 1936) and Miss Marple (A Pocket Full of Rye, 1953) with different results. Many people had already expressed a disdain for the Poirot character, and she had to agree, the fussy, egotistic detective does nothing but interview – talk, talk, talk. She found Miss Marple far more interesting, and despite the very British bias, thought Christie brought people to life very succinctly.

Poirot was enjoyed by the next reader, who tried Poirot Investigates (1924), a collection of short stories. She said Poirot is obviously one of those characters you either love or hate. She enjoyed the short format that gave short cameos of characters, had a mystery that kept the reader guessing, but found the wit and humor more interesting. The short stories were something like the Encyclopedia Brown children’s stories or Two-minute mysteries for adults.

We discovered that Poirot hated the heat (Murder in Mesopotamia, Death on the Nile, etc) because it made his mustache wilt, and the sand “deranged” him (a word he repeatedly used in a more literal, English-as-a-second-language sense).

Our next reader was another member who held back from reading any Christie because he had a real hang-up with the Poirot films, which he called “like treacle” (Americans: think “molasses”). He too decided to try short stories because he left it to the last minute, and was surprised to find himself really getting into them. He picked up a copy of Masterpieces in Miniature (2005), which included short stories featuring four of Christie’s most popular detectives – Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Parker Pyne, and Harley Quin. He spent more time on the less well-known characters of Pyne and Quin. He found it interesting how Pyne draws from his career using statistics to solve the unhappiness problems of his clients, and how the Quin stories had almost a menacing feel to them, with the harlequin references (multi-colored lights repeatedly fall on the character) giving it an otherworldly touch. The Poirot stories gave insight into life in the 1920s and 1930s in London, and he speculated on the possible reasons the Christie stories do not seem to date themselves in the same manner as he felt the Rex Stout do. Christie does not root her stories in concrete, well-known locales, while Stout's New York is noticeably not the city we know today.

Did you know that two of Agatha Christie’s pet hates were marmalade pudding and cockroaches? Well, I wouldn’t want them together either.

Upon the recommendation of friends to read Ten Little Indians (1939), our next member picked up a copy that included it and 4 other novels. She found it interesting how some titles have changed over time. Ten Little Indians had two previous titles, and is currently better known as And Then There Were None (1943). She enjoyed the stories, though admitted they were slow reading. The novel was made into a 1945 film, starring Barry Fitzgerald and others.

More short stories! The Mysterious Mr. Quin (1930) was a collection of stories featuring the previously mentioned Harley Quin. But most of the stories only describe him has “Mr. Quin” so she never caught the “Harley-Quin” reference (smack forehead!). She likes short stories because each one can be completed in one sitting, and these stories are a nice product of the time – the 1930s – and English county houses and manners. Sometime after a crime, Mr. Quin fortuitously shows up after the police have given up, retells the facts as known in a manner that makes the truth apparent, crime solved.

Someone noted that in the earliest Poirot stories (the first was written in 1916), Poirot was not as fussy, with the accentuated mannerisms that he later displayed. And evidently he was more popular with the public than with Dame Christie; she is reported to have found him detestable. Hm, perhaps that’s why he became so much worse; she wanted everyone to detest him as well. She was finally able to kill him off in 1975, and for the first time in history, the New York Times ran a front-page obituary for a fictional character.

After a few more minutes of Poirot bashing, we moved on to another Marple fan. Short stories yet again in Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories (1948) featuring a number of different characters. She was completely unimpressed with the title story, however, saying it read like Perry Mason. Or is it that Perry Mason reads like Agatha Christie?

Then it was Ordeal by Innocence (1958) which instead of the usual detectives, featured a doctor in the middle of a very dysfunctional family murder. It wasn’t “exciting,” but the mystery wasn’t easy to figure out.

It’s not always the case, but reading Agatha Christie’s stories made quite a few of the readers curious about Christie herself. In addition to all the speculation about her missing months, some wondered what kind of background she had. She never went to school, but was educated at home by her mother and governesses, typical for the time. In 1917 she qualified as a “dispenser” thus acquiring her knowledge of poisons. Some wondered if perhaps Poirot was similar to her ex-husband and thus her desire to kill him? We sent one of the members home with Christie’s autobiography (Agatha Christie: An Autobiography, 1977) so she can answer all our questions.

Now we come to another person who picked up short stories because they’re, well, short. Not a fan of Miss Marple (snore), she tried Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective (a.k.a. Parker Pyne Investigates, 1934). As mentioned earlier, Pyne offers his services by a classified ad: “Are you happy? If not, consult Mr. Parker Pyne, 17 Richmond Street.” And an extraordinary number of gullible people respond to this, show up in his office, and willingly fork over large sums of cash because somehow they just trust him. “It’s odd…but I do. Without knowing anything about you! I’m sure I can trust you.” The rather omniscient Mr. Pyne then creates elaborate scenarios with various actors to create situations in which the clients discover their way to true happiness. This reader’s lack of interest in Christie was not revised, but rather reinforced.

And it’s back to Hercule Poirot in The Hollow (1951). There is a gathering at an English country house in which one character is shot and another found with the gun. But not with the murder weapon. The characters’ unhappiness in life is dragged out over many (many!) chapters, and, more like a play, characters walk into the scene, then walk off, on, off…. Christie builds up the mystery with frequent surprises, and this reader liked the story “somewhat.”

Our grand finale is Endless Night (1967), and if he had described this at the last meeting, this is the one most of us would have read. He liked the way Christie writes, that she has good descriptions of the characters. There is a haunted house, a lot of people die, and a gypsy witch’s predictions. Wow, that doesn’t sound dull at all. Another member mentioned that Christie wrote ghost stories before she did mysteries; too bad she didn’t do more.

Our display had lots of books about Christie, photos of her and some of her books, and one of the very stylish Old Cataract Hotel portrayed in Death on the Nile, featured in Michael Palin's travelogue, Pole to Pole, Day 59 (DVD, 1992). (On Day 44 of this journey, Palin had stayed in Room 411 of the Pera Palas Hotel, where Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express, 1934).

There was a lovely English teapot, candlesticks, knitting paraphernalia, and Poirot’s obituary from the New York Times. Refreshments were teacake, French truffles (Poirot would be so pleased), cookies, er, that should be “biscuits,” and the tea to go with them.

Holiday Bash

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:44:00 +0000

Last Thursday evening was the joint Mainly Mysteries/Chili Pepper Readers Book Club Bash, writes Jeannine. Even though I was off that week, I still planned to be at the meeting, but was sidelined with a migraine. Trust me, you do not want me at a party with a migraine; you might as well spike the punch with motor oil – ew! So instead I have the official report from “the third string quarterback” (her words not mine). She doesn’t mention if she used the bell though – I wonder what other important details she left out….

So here is the mistranslation of her notes with (my) unsolicited commentary. Any mistakes are hers, and all profound points and humorous remarks are, naturally, mine. And Happy Holidays to all.

Sixteen readers from both book clubs met to discuss their old holiday favorites and share new “adventures in reading.” There was a variety of cookies and some hot dishes, including a delicious homemade soup. My, er, her favorite was the deviled eggs. Crunchy stuffed celery and apple salad rounded out the food groups. The decorations were, um, food. Who needs pretty pretties when you can eat the decorations? And decorations seldom smell this good.

On to the books (munching all the way)! Our first member tried several holiday romances, but they “just didn’t thrill her.” Then she found a mystery her father had left at her house called Beacon Street Mourning (2007), a Fremont Jones title by Dianne Day. She enjoyed the character, the mystery (not gory), and the Boston setting, and intends to read others in the series.

The next reader had been in the process of moving, so didn’t have time to read, but was looking forward to all the suggestions. Then a Chili Pepper member talked about a romance called The Mommy Quest (2006) by Lori Handeland. Mommy Quest, "Book 5 in the Luchetti Brothers Series," received the 2007 Romance Writers of America award for Best Long Contemporary Romance. This is a feel-good story featuring a young boy who decides he needs a mother. How he achieves this goal makes for a very hilarious story. This book is part of a series that includes a soldier quest, a daddy quest, brother quest and husband quest as well.

Now we come to a holiday mystery by Mary Higgins Clark, All Through the Night (1998). The reader says it’s predictable, but has a nice feel-good story.

From mystery we return to another holiday themed romance, No Place Like Home by Fern Michaels. It was said to be a fun read, but not a very “likely” story (I thought that was standard for romances, but that may be why I’m not popular at Chili Pepper meetings).

Next is a Lassie story, A Child’s Christmas in Wales (1955) No, that can’t be right. Oh, classic story. A classic story, A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas. This is a wonderful traditional read for the holidays.

Then farther north there is M.C. Beaton’s A Highland Christmas (1999). Main series character Hamish Macbeth is always entertaining in the warm, village cozy mysteries. The books were turned into a BBC Scotland TV series, starring Robert Carlyle, televised between 1995 and 1997. Cozy mysteries are great around the holidays – there are still dead bodies, but you really don’t have to pay much attention to them, and the “victim” is usually mean and nasty and had it coming anyway. Merry Christmas!

No Christmas list would be complete without The Gift of the Magi (1906) by O. Henry (pseudonym of William S. Porter), and several readers brought it to the table. Others suggested books by Richard Paul Evans, like The Christmas Box (1993) which became a 1995 TV movie with Richard Thomas and Maureen O'Hara. Then there is Nicholas Sharp. I’m sure these notes should read Nicholas Sparks. (But aren’t Sparks’ sad? I don’t want tearjerkers for Christmas; what are you trying to do to me? I’m definitely not coming to Chili Pepper meetings).

Another M.C. Beaton (pseudonym of Marion Chesney) title was offered, Kissing Christmas Cookies Goodbye, featuring Agatha Raisin. What do you mean there’s no “cookies” in the title? With a character named Agatha Raisin? There should be cookies involved, and you know they’re disappearing. Okay, if you’re going to get fussy, it’s really Kissing Christmas Goodbye (2007). No one wants to give the plot away, but the snow machine was a great idea! That’s okay; I don’t know what that means either.

And they’re just as mum about the next one: Comfort and Joy (2005) by Kristan Hannah. It’s supposedly a romantic mystery “that has to be read to be enjoyed – no spoilers for this book.” They’re just toying with us, aren’t they?

Ah, now we get to one with an actual description – Dahlia’s Gone (2007) by Katie Estill “takes the broken pieces of a family, a town, and three different women’s lives and combines them into a beautifully told story.” That sounds quite promising.

Moving now to the guy side of the table. Here’s a cheerful holiday title – The Reckoning (1986) by David Halberstam. This is a non-fiction expose of the auto industry that our reader says has as much or even more importance today. Something tells me there will be no new car keys in anyone’s stocking this Christmas.

Well, evidently guys don’t do holidays. Our next gentleman went the science fiction route with Mendoza in Hollywood by California SciFi author Kage Baker. He’s very good at bringing visual aids. This particular title is “a time travel story with several twists, even a bit of romance in a cyborg thriller which begins in the 24th century and returns to other eras in fascinating leaps with mysterious circumstances.” Or something like that. And there is even a bit of Christmas in one of the novels, shared by Mendoza and her three lovers (one now a husband, the other two "sons," which through the joys of time travel can actually share nuptials without any of that yucky incest stuff...). Eh?

And I thought he’d pick Hell for the Holidays (2007) by Chris Grabenstein, or at least The Stupidest Angel: a Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror (2004) by Christopher Moore. Well, at least you Bah Humbugs know what to read now.

Bubbles Unbound (2002) by Sarah Strohmeyer, a lighthearted romantic mystery featuring Bubbles Yablonsky. Now the notes here say “a different kind of Valley Girl,” but honey, she’s a JERSEY GIRL – opposite side of the continent. “Think Barbie with ambitions, hilarious situations and unbelievable adventures.” I seem to recall a crazy older female relative as well. And a hunky police detective. Hm. Who does this sound like? That’s okay, the author admits it! Yes, it is a happy rip-off of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum. Only Bubbles goes the journalist route instead of bounty hunting (journalism = asking questions = gossip. There’s the job meant for her). But sorry, sigh, no Ranger.

Last but never least, are the selections of our fearless quarterback (did they let you ding the bell at all?). She started in October and managed to read 5 different Christmas mysteries. Drum roll please:

1. The afore-mentioned Kissing Christmas Goodbye by M.C. Beaton. Agatha Raisin is NOT the most warm and cozy English detective.

2. The Last Noel (2007) by Heather Graham is “to me a horror story involving snowstorms, power outages, family bickering and bad guys with hostages. The spirit of Christmas prevails and the bad guys get what they deserve.” I bet it was the family bickering that gave her nightmares. Listen to the NPR review here.

3. Cat Deck the Halls: a Joe Grey Mystery (2007) by Shirley Rousseau Murphy. Some people do not like cats who talk like people, but our number one quarterback happens to think Joe Grey and his kitty friends are great at sleuthing, at being cats, and helping their humans catch the bad guys (and I like them too).

4. The Christmas Beginning (2007) by Anne Perry is a big plodding at first, like her English detective, Superintendent Runcorn. But it’s not about the mystery, it’s about the detective, so why not be as plodding as the detective’s personality? A nice Christmas message makes the ending quite satisfying.

5. Candy Cane Murder (2007) by Laura Levine and Leslie Meier, edited by Joanne Fluke. This includes three cotton candy, fluffy and sweet mysteries with recipes that make your mouth water. But does not include the recipe for Snickers/Mars Bar cookies that one member brought – “come on, E-----, they were sooo good!”

Oh dang, now I’m hungry. Those virtual calories are murder.

Tony Hillerman's The Blessing Way

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 06:15:00 +0000

We had a big turnout yesterday evening, writes Jeannine. This was no real surprise as we were discussing Tony Hillerman’s The Blessing Way. Several people were new to the group and had come primarily because Hillerman was the topic of the meeting. And when I asked how many people had read most or all of the series, there must have been 15 hands in the air. And it made for a wonderful discussion – the level of knowledge was high, and the anecdotes fascinating. The book wasn’t too shabby either.

All but two of Tony Hillerman’s mysteries have been set in the American Southwest, and feature either Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant/later retired Joe Leaphorn or the much younger officer Jim Chee, or both. The Blessing Way is the first of the series, with Joe Leaphorn as main investigator. There are several plot threads woven through the story – the police search for Luis Horseman, wanted for assault, who is later found dead; the search for his murderer; the stories of Navajo Wolf witches active in the Lukachukais; and the journey of Bergen McKee, who finally motivates himself enough to complete his research on Navajo witchery by following recent accounts. All three come together in the final denouement.

We had two people for whom this was the first Hillerman they had ever read. One had difficulty getting through it, but had a friend familiar with the stories and the region to “walk her through it.” It wasn’t that she dislikes it, she said, but that it was all so unfamiliar to her. Not only was the culture foreign to her, but she has never been in that part of the country either. Our other newbie is a hard man to please; he often reads a few pages then passes it off as only fit for the Chili Pepper Readers (the romance book club which he attended for a while). But he was happy with this one, not only read the whole book, but enjoyed it very much as well. And he’s Danish, so the place and culture must have been new for him too.

The rest of us must have driven them nuts throughout the discussion, constantly comparing Leaphorn with Chee, aspects of later books, changes in characters throughout the series, and other spoilers no doubt. One member said he had read his first Hillerman in South Africa and loved it and wanted MORE, but could never find any. So when he came to the United States one of the first things he did was to find the rest of the series. Obviously he is a man who has his priorities straight.

We began the discussion with the basics. Hillerman’s first story was The Fly on the Wall, more of a thriller than a mystery. We discussed whether The Blessing Way had elements of both thriller and mystery. Some couldn’t see any thriller elements and thought it definitely mystery (who did it and why?). Others said the episode with McKee, Ellen Leon and the Big Navajo in Many Ruins Canyon definitely qualified as thriller (who will live and who will die?). This brought us to the point that McKee seemed to be more at the center of the book than Leaphorn. One member wondered if Hillerman originally planned to focus on McKee, and might have switched with the popularity of Leaphorn. Another thought maybe it was to introduce the Navajo culture through white eyes (McKee’s), then go deeper through Leaphorn (non-religious Navajo), and later Chee (religious Navajo).

Most thought the plot held up over time (it was originally published in 1970), though several said they definitely enjoyed it more the first time – that first exposure to the setting and culture perhaps. Some thought the plotting was a little uneven in this book, the ending (motive) seemed to come suddenly out of left field. Everyone loved the cultural detail and how it was presented best, even those few who were bogged down/uninterested in the plot. The interaction between characters was always interesting and intricate. Many liked how Leaphorn went to a Trading Post and past the word around that the man Luis had hurt did not die, and it would be better if he came in now, knowing that the man’s clan and relatives lived throughout that area and would get the word through the grapevine to Luis. Leaphorn also did much of his questioning at a gathering of the clan at a ceremony, participating in the festival while he chatted everyone up who might know anything, hoping a stray fact would break loose.

Readers also had an appreciation for Hillerman’s portrayal of women characters. While a few people wanted to take the character of Ellen Leon and slap her upside the head, she was still a believable character who responded to events in a reasonable manner. Hillerman has even more interesting female characters in later books, especially those who enter Jim Chee’s life. Everybody’s favorite was Leaphorn’s wife Emma (who does not make an appearance in this first book), a traditional Navajo who softened Leaphorn and acted as his moral core. Quite a few people would have liked her to be a continued presence throughout the series, but her absence may be part of what draws Leaphorn out of retirement to help in investigations in later novels.

Only a few niggling questions or quandaries remain. Sand in both the victims face and mouth were brought up as Significant Details, which was never fully explained. Horseman was said to have been suffocated, but not how. Several members “assumed” it had been with sand, but that was left as a definite loose thread. The scene in the cliff dwelling was intriguing and exciting, but one person brought up the fact that acoustics in those sites are pretty incredible, and that surely the guard would have heard them talking inside, as well as their digging in the wall (I think I’m managing to not include spoilers here…). In fact, one member claims that one of the theories for the disintegration of some of the cliff communities was because of people hearing things they weren’t supposed to, and the hard feelings escalated enough to split the community.

By far the part of the discussion everyone enjoyed the most was the discussion of Navajo culture and world view. The ambition and quest for wealth so prevalent in American culture is considered a sign of witchcraft by Navajos. Theirs is a view of keeping the world and spirit in balance, and this means limiting both unhappiness and happiness, poverty and wealth. One scene from a later book was related to illustrate this point, when a mother was told that her son had robbed a store, and she couldn’t comprehend why he would do that. She knew he had $700 in his pocket, and even that was more than he needed, so why would he rob for more. It was a concept that held no meaning for her.

The Navajo concept of death was discussed at some length, including the fact that a person who died of natural causes was just gone, but someone who died violently or by accident would be split into the good and bad, and all the bad aspects became a ghost and very dangerous. The Navajo also have no word for time. One member thought that might be related to the great distances involved, the Navajo reservation being about the size of New England. Quite a few people mentioned the practice of stopping outside a home and waiting to be acknowledged before coming up to the house or hogan. Another person noted how aid groups or the government would build houses for the Navajo, but they were on the white plan and included indoor plumbing. The Navajo thought that was disgusting and would not live in them, building a hogan beside the house instead.

Many people were impressed with the role of the clan in the matriarchal society, how one always introduced oneself by his clan membership (I was born of the – clan, and born to the – clan, etc), so a stranger could place him in the overall clan hierarchy (which also determined who he could marry). This clan structure was also depicted in the Enemy Way ceremony, when the entire clan came together to stand against and destroy the enemy ghost/witch, as well as dance, have horse races and other social activities. For more about the Enemy Way, see this Independent - June 25, 2005 article. This kind of clan gathering brought to mind the pow-wows one member remembered from the 1950s when she lived in Flagstaff, Arizona. She said all the local Native Americans would come together (I’m not sure if this was just Navajo, or a mix of tribes) for 4 days of celebration – races, dancing, music, food, selling arts and crafts. At that point it was just for the native peoples, but outsiders were welcomed as well.

I’ve left out a lot. Please add your comments or points I missed to the blog.

We had maps all over the place. Arizona, New Mexico, Indian Country, Southwest…. Most of the places in The Blessing Way are actual places, though Many Ruins Canyon is fiction. Chinle, Window Rock, the Lukachukai Mountains can all be found on a good map. We also had books about the region, the Navajo, the Hopi and Tony Hillerman spread around. Hillerman Country really went the rounds of the table, and one member brought her copy as well. We had two sand paintings in the display, an old Navajo weaving, several southwest baskets, some Navajo related trinkets, some photos from a trip to Canyon de Chelly, and a pottery Storyteller figurine. And lots of regional food! Pine nuts and apples, red chile pistachios, and a southwest casserole that we never did find a good name for but it had all the good stuff – beans, corn, tomato, etc – and was pretty well obliterated by the end of the meeting. (Where’s that recipe?).

For those who like Tony Hillerman, but have read all of his books, members recommended James Doss's Charlie Moon series (the Ute in the Four Corners area), and Margaret Coel (Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley in Wyoming). I highly recommend Mardi Oakley Medawar's series set among the Kiowa in the 19th century. They are serious mysteries, but Kiowa healer Tay-bodal is funny.

Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Series

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:47:00 +0000

The gang met again last night to discuss the classic Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout, writes Jeannine. We squeezed ourselves into the Library Board Room (Friends of the Library Book sale in the Ford Room through Saturday!! Get them now, get them cheap!) and enjoyed a startling combination of gourmet delights from corned beef hash to chocolate walnut pie, lemon bars, cheese and crackers, gourmet jelly beans (individually wrapped!) and more. And once again several members brought sacks of bounty from their gardens to share with everyone. We had books on orchids, gourmet cooking, New York, and beer scattered around the room, as well as a few pictures of 454 W. 35^th Street, which Wolfe aficionados have decided is the location of Wolfe’s residence/office.

Stout wrote novels and short stories about the character for 40 years, from the 1930s to the 1960s. As some of our members noted, the times changed, but the characters never aged. As Thrilling Detective describes him, Nero Wolfe was “massively overweight, a cranky, agoraphobic and sedentary gourmet who virtually never leaves his Manhattan brownstone (with 10,000 orchids on the roof and a personal elevator).” Archie Goodwin, an outstanding detective in his own right and the narrator of the stories, acts as Wolfe’s eyes, ears and legs, (not to mention his own smart mouth) tracking down leads and asking all the right questions of the right people. Also integral to Wolfe’s life and household, and occasionally to an investigation are the “orchid nurse” Theodore Horstmann, and master chef Fritz Brenner (and wouldn’t we all kill to have our own Fritz Brenner).

Several people who have seen the A&E Wolfe series (2001-2002, starring Timothy Hutton as Goodwin, and Maury Chaykin (left) as Wolfe) recommended it. But those few who remembered the USA TV network's show (1981) with William Conrad (who succeeded Thayer David, 1979) were considerably less impressed. (An excerpt from the 1977 pilot episode starring David can be viewed on YouTube.) “William Conrad was not a good fit” and “boring” were the main comments. According to Wikipedia, Rex Stout thought Charles Laughton to be the best fit for Wolfe. The first movie depicting Nero Wolfe came out in 1936, while TV series were produced in Italy (1960s), Russia (2001, with Donatatis Banionis), and the USA (1979, 1981, 2001). There was also a one-off German production of Too Many Cooks (Zu veile Koche, 1961). The Italian Thriller Magazine argues that Rai's series featuring Tino Buazelli was "the best television series on Nero Wolfe." The Wolfe Pack thinks that the San Marino stamp (below) may have been based on Buazelli's portrayal of the sleuth. Radio shows were produced by ABC (1943-44), MBS (1946), NBC (1950-51), and CBC (1982), based on the Wolfe character. Eighteen of NBC's The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe, starring Sydney Greenstreet as Wolfe, can be listened to here).

Many of our members thought of Wolfe as a stout Perry Mason, always waiting until the last moment for the grand denouement. Most did, however, enjoy the books (with a handful of exceptions).

Wolfe’s idiosyncrasies were what made him most fascinating – every day on a regular time schedule, no interruptions when he was with his orchids, no talking about a case during a meal, drinking beer to improve thought, distrust of technology (anything “more complex than a wheelbarrow”) – except his elevator, evidently…derision of women, egotistical and cantankerous.

We had quite a discussion about Wolfe’s apparent sexism. On the one hand he seemed to think women were incapable of thought, yet several readers noted that intelligent women occasionally took part in a story, including a female investigator. Was it that he hated them? Despised them? He certainly condescended to them, but then, he condescended to everyone. Perhaps his attitude was merely a product of the age of his origins, the 1930s. Or perhaps just a character quirk. No consensus was reached, so the reader will have to decide for himself. Archie certainly liked and appreciated women, though perhaps not primarily for their intellect. And the nasty specter of racism raised itself in Too Many Cooks (1938) when Archie was especially condescending to African-American characters, and Wolfe, though more polite, never disagreed.

Another discussion compared Nero Wolfe to other cerebral detectives. Because of his size and inactivity, he was deemed to be more like Hercule Poirot than the more hands-on (remember the disguises?) Sherlock Holmes. And Watson was certainly no Archie. One of the members happened to track down an article Stout wrote related to this and the previous discussion, “Watson was a woman”, in which he proved by deductive logic that Watson’s words and actions proved “he” was a “she.” This brought us back to a discussion of how much Wolfe’s ideas and quirks matched those of Stout’s, and how many were merely part of the character. Wolfe and Stout’s origins were certainly different. Wolfe was raised in Montenegro and references were made to action in the Resistance, whereas Stout was raised by Quaker parents in Illinois.

On to Archie and the other regulars. While Wolfe plots exposes in his residence, Archie is pounding the pavement looking for clues. Several people really enjoyed how Archie would constantly contest his ideas against Wolfe and lose every time. He also enjoyed needling Wolfe, always knowing the right buttons to push to get Wolfe to take a particular case. He was no Watson following behind Sherlock, but out in front where the action was, asking the hard questions, tailing the tails, and always with a remark and look for the ladies. The two other main reoccurring characters, Fritz the chef, and Theodore the orchid specialist did occasionally play larger roles in some plots. In Family Affair (1975), Fritz is very involved in the action, and even “holds down the house” when Archie and Wolfe have to make a run for it (or should that be away from it). Theodore steps up in Black Orchids (1942). There are also a handful of other detectives that are routinely called in for backup. Kramer, a police inspector, has a recurring role, sometimes as friend, and sometimes as foe. Perhaps it was rivalry or one-upmanship, but one member said “he’s just a stinker” most of the time.

The villains could also be as unusual and interesting as Archie and Wolfe. Several readers said what they liked about the plotting was that anyone could be the murderer. Stout was good with the set-up and disbursal of red herrings, with all being revealed in the last pages. There was some unhappiness with the tendency for talk over action, especially in some of the earlier titles. Some Buried Caesar (1939) was mentioned as being quite talky, and quite dated with “society-speak”).

The final discussion was on Wolfe’s motives – was he interested only in justice being served, or was it something else? And in Wolfe’s case, all agreed that yes, it was all about the money. Wolfe would work out how much money he needed to keep his lifestyle running, and the safe full of cash, and after he made that much that year, he quit until the next year. Justice was always served in the end, but was not of primary importance. Being right was more so. Occasionally it got down to pride or revenge. But he always “won” – happy ending. And was Wolfe happy? We had disagreement depending on what we meant by happy. All agreed that he was indeed “content.” Food made him the happiest. Occasionally he would sacrifice his orchids for a good cause, but never, ever his food.

Earlene Fowler's Benni Harper Series

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:52:00 +0000

Mainly Mysteries met once again on Thursday evening to discuss Benni Harper series by Earlene Fowler, writes Jeannine. Benni is the director of a folk art museum on the central California coast (think San Luis Obispo) and this brought out the “craftier” side of our members. In addition to the display of books we always have available, members brought examples of quilting and other crafts for a large and colorful display. There were traditional and original quilt patterns both large and small, needlepoint, cross-stitch, macramé, wooden bowls – we filled many tables and draped more items over chairs. In addition, several generous souls brought bounty from their gardens to share.

The food table was full as well. To compliment the Hispanic element in the series, we had chili, salsa and chips, and Mexican biscuits. There were several kinds of cakes, fresh plums and blueberry pancakes. New goodies kept arriving, so I may have missed a few. Our “refreshments” are beginning to look more like “dinner.

Eventually we tore ourselves away from the food and began the discussion. Well, we actually filled our plates, set them in front of us, and shoveled it in whenever someone else was talking. Big groups are handy that way. But on to the books….

Typical of our group, it was a very mixed reaction, from many who had read the entire series and loved them, to less satisfied readers, and one who read only 10 pages before tossing it aside.

At the beginning of the series in Fool’s Puzzle (1992), Benni Harper is a young widow, still grieving over the death of her husband in a drunken driving accident, who has tried to start a new life as a museum director, despite her only background being a BA in History. Gabe Ortiz is the new, no-nonsense police chief. Both are drawn into an investigation of a dead body found at the museum. A few of us who only read this first mystery were annoyed with Benni with her constantly withholding information from the police, no matter how many times the situation blew up in her face. Once or twice maybe, but by the third time I wanted to slap her upside the head. Unquote. We asked the other members if this is a recurring problem in the rest of the books, and one said that yes, that’s Benni’s “thing,” don’t tell Gabe because… (he’s too busy, it might upset him, she wants to check it out first, etc.), and it’s a common writer’s ploy to keep the amateur detective in the action.

After having voiced some of our annoyances, we moved the discussion to members that really enjoyed the series, and asked for favorites. Fowler's Agatha Award winning Mariner’s Compass (1999) came highly recommended as one of the more intricate and interesting plots. Benni is left an inheritance of a house from a man she does not know and with no idea why. She is required to live in the house for two weeks in order to inherit it, and what ensues is similar to a scavenger hunt looking for clues as to who he is and why Benni is to inherit. The reader, alongside Benni, puts it all together bit by bit for a satisfying mystery.

Another fan enjoyed how Benni had to learn to be a detective; she didn’t just start in being brilliant from the start, but followed more of a learning curve. She liked the pace of the story, how it unfolded slowly, had good red herrings, plausible motives, and didn’t spring new information or characters at the end. Everyone enjoyed the character of Grandma Dove – sort of the comic relief – and her pithy sayings. One member especially liked the feud she had with another character (an aunt?) wherein each would quote Bible passages in phone messages to make their point, and how furious she became when their feud moved to the Old Testament and she was forced to actually look some up.

Most people who had read the first book in the series also thought Benni mourning for her husband was very believable and handled well.

Many members had approached the series looking forward to learning more about the folk art elements and quilting pattern histories seemingly promised in the book titles (all traditional quilt block patterns), and while the author obviously had done research in what various artifacts looked like, she had done less on how to handle the items. Or perhaps this was done on purpose to reflect Benni’s lack of experience and training as a curator. Whichever, many non-experts still cringed when Benni handled material without cotton gloves, looked under material by ripping out stitching, and (prepare to cringe and wince) hung quilts on the wall using Velcro. Historical quilts. Velcro. Shudder.

Some book titles/quilt patterns had stronger ties to their story than others. In Mariner’s Compass, there is a mariner’s theme in the house and its location, as well the compass aspect of pursuing clues in every direction. In Steps to the Altar (2002) Benni is helping as a wedding planner and several secondary characters are getting married. Arkansas Traveler (2001) has a strong connection as Benni goes back to her hometown in Arkansas. In another title, a particular quilt was a clue. But other titles only touched on some aspect of folk art, and none are considered great sources of background information (as a Tony Hillerman title would be for Navajo culture, or Nevada Barr for various National Parks).

Our next member was looking forward to learning something from the series, and thought the setting was good, the characters were interesting, but there was no suspense. By page 70, nothing had happened. He likened it to watching an episode of Twin Peaks (my fingers just did their dyslexic thing and typed “epidose” – which, if you’ve ever seen Twin Peaks, actually makes more sense).

The next member read Irish Chain (1995), said there was a confusing story with characters mistrusting one another, a couple of murders, and then the story picks up about halfway. She was disappointed that the characters “do uncharacteristic things.”

And then Dove in the Window (1998) was deemed “pretty good.” The reader liked the fact that Gabe was Hispanic. In this particular title there is a lot of animosity between some of the main secondary characters, with even Gabe (Mr. Police Chief) taking it to a fistfight. Obviously something does “happen” in this one.

Another member unable to attend made sure we were told that she has read all of the series and highly enjoys them (she also hated Pride and Prejudice, and loved Bangkok 8 if that tells you anything). Whereas the next member only read about 10 pages of one title and said it belonged in the Chili Peppers group instead of ours. One last criticism was that in one story, men kept grabbing Benni by the shoulder, almost like an assault, that it was very “heavy handed.” It just came out that way. She’s sorry. After we finished laughing, we all got up and took an informative tour of the crafts on display. There are some very talented people in our group. No, none of it was mine. Sigh.

Scandinavian Mysteries

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 17:30:00 +0000

A very interesting, very lively meeting last night, writes Jeannine. We discussed Scandinavian mystery authors, and the consensus was that those long dark Scandinavian winters aren’t good for you at all. But more about that later. We were fortunate to have a Danish gentleman among our members who tried to help us with pronunciation (Åsa is pronounce ōsa), and one of our other regulars had just returned from a trip to Scandinavia. She brought a digital frame for her pictures – just plug it in and a slide show begins. Lots of oooing and ahhhing over that, and gorgeous photos.

Friendship bread. Fresh blueberry pie. And all divine. Yum.

We raided our closets once again for decorations. There was a Swedish wooden horse, a knit sweater from Denmark, a porcelain plate of the statue of the little mermaid in Copenhagen, and an æbleskiver pan. Some travel flyers and lots of books, some huckwork placemats and we were all set. A little background music by Finnish folk-rock group Värttinä kicked off proceedings.

Now, on to the books.

We had someone complain that readers weren’t returning the books right away so others could read them for the meeting as well. Almost half of the members present chose the book they read because it was the only one available. Then we discovered that nobody there had read the titles we originally wanted, so that means non-members of the book club checked out the library books! Imagine, the public checking out books at the public library! What nerve. We want our own little gold library card with special privileges, and only we can check out book club selections. Ha!

Denmark
Our first is a minor classic, which many had already read or seen the movie – Smilla’s Sense of Snow (Danish: Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne; elsewhere the title depicted on the right was used) by Peter Høeg (sort of like the French ū, Hūg). The main character is an Inuit from Greenland living in Denmark who befriends a local child who is killed, apparently by jumping from the roof of their apartment building. It is Smilla’s “sense of snow,” with the Inuit comprehension of maybe a hundred kinds of snow, and as many words for “white,” that leads her to believe the child was murdered. Our reader loved being taken into such a different world, and said the main theme was universal, about belonging and identity. Smilla is torn between Greenlander and Danish culture, and the book explores the question of just when you become a real part of a society. A fascinating book, enjoyed by all who read it (though the rather abrupt ending annoyed me). Høeg won the Glass Key award for Nordic authors in 1993, and the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger for Fiction (United Kingdom) for Smilla in 1994.

Sweden
From Denmark we move to Sweden. In Sun Storm by Åsa Larsson, the main character is with a law firm in Stockholm, with a very pregnant detective, an obnoxious prosecutor and other “non-stereotypical” characters. Larsson's book won Sweden’s Best First Crime Novel Award (2003), while Larsson's The Savage Altar was shortlisted for the 2007 United Kingdom's Duncan Lawrie International Dagger Award. We had been warned that Larsson sometimes had bad things happen to good animals in her books, so our member just skipped over the “blip about the dog,” and was able to enjoy the story (and she intends to read the rest of her books, a good recommendation). What fascinated her the most, as it seem to all of us, was the description of life in a high latitude, with the long bright days of summer and the long dark days of winter (which in this case meant murder).

She had also started Borkmann’s Point by Håkan Nesser, but hadn’t read enough to give a recommendation. Borkmann’s Point, part of the Chief Inspector Van Veeteren series, won the 1994 Swedish Crime Writers Academy Prize for Best Novel.

On now to another classic mystery, The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. It takes place in 1968 in Sweden when a mass murderer opens fire on a bus. It’s a police procedural featuring Martin Beck, who appears in about 10 other mysteries by the same authors. We asked her the obvious question – was he always laughing? But she hadn’t quite finished the book, so was uncertain about the full meaning of the title. She gave it a good recommendation. In 1973 a movie based on the book was released, starring Walter Matthau. The novel won the Edgar Award for best mystery in 1971.

Back to books, and the first by Henning Mankell to be discussed, Before the Frost (Swedish, Innan frosten). But our reader told us she had only read the prologue and stopped, and then brought out her usual written report just for the prologue. We knew we were in for it then. Evidently the prologue is a first person account of the Jonestown massacre in 1978, and it was a little too well-written and graphic for her, she could not bear it. And, as usual, she did NOT mince words. Before the Frost starts Linda Wallander off in her own series. She is the daughter of Kurt Wallander, a major character in Mankell's crime books. She did, however, highly recommend the true classic by Norwegian and Nobel laureate, Sigrid Undset, the trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter. Several other people voiced their avid recommendations as well. Undset's books were turned into a 1995 film of the same name by Liv Ullmann, which won Norway's national film award.

The next member also read Henning Mankell with somewhat greater success. She also had not yet finished the book Sidetracked (Swedish, Villospår), but it so far was not graphic like the Jonestown scene. There were several murders by psychopaths, with a second investigation into the identity of a girl who sets herself on fire. It is a police procedural in the series featuring Kurt Wallander, the small-town very intuitive detective who works in Ystad on the coast. This one took place in the midsummer when all is sunny and temperate. Although the book won the Academy of Swedish Crime Writers prize for 1995, she wouldn’t highly recommend it, but she will finish it.

Our final Henning Mankell is The White Lioness (Swedish, Den vita lejoninnan). This one was mine, and once again, I too haven’t finished it. But I do like it, will finish it, and will probably read more by Mankell. It is an earlier book in the series, and I was quite taken with how Kurt Wallander is confronted with his third homicide and he didn’t like it at all. Homicides are too stressful, he preferred dealing with small-town problems like burglars, missing persons and stolen bicycles, and if his job is going to turn into mostly homicides, well, he just might quit. This particular novel is a combination of investigations taking place in Sweden and in South Africa. It begins in Sweden with the disappearance of a woman, a farmhouse in the vicinity of her disappearance blowing up, and a black man’s finger found buried in the yard of the farmhouse. The detectives’ brains are thoroughly boggled. It turns out to be related to a conspiracy in South Africa by Afrikaner extremists to assassinate Nelson Mandela (it takes place in 1992, and was published in 1993, shortly after Mandela was released from prison while F.W. De Klerk is president). De Klerk’s Intelligence gets wind of this, and the story follows Wallander’s counterpart trying to make sense of his evidence as well. It’s complicated but fascinating, and I highly recommend it.

Our next person said “after hearing everyone else’s, mine is damned good!” She read Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten, another police procedural set in Sweden. She said it was very much like the TV series “Prime Suspect” “without the angst and the alcohol.” It concentrates on the interaction of the team. She’s only 70 pages from the end (you notice a pattern tonight?), and she still doesn’t know whodunit. Tursten's Inspector Irene Huss series "is being filmed for Swedish television."

Iceland
Now we travel to Iceland and Arnaldur Indriðason’s Jar City (a.k.a Tainted Blood; Icelandic, Mýrin). This is another police procedural, but one in which the detective is an “everyman” rather than a super sleuth, and the story more about the detective and his life than the crime. Our reader really enjoyed how different parts of the story were braided together into a satisfying whole. She noted that the translation was into British English, rather than American, and for those of you allergic to bad language, there is a little bit, but it’s in a prison, and what you’d expect. Indriðason wone the 2002 Glass key award for this book.

Norway
We move now to a most unsatisfied reader. She read one by the Norwegian writer Kjell Eriksson and was so unimpressed she doesn’t remember what the title was. She found the story forced, with a constant series of insurmountable obstacles and what she termed a “failed ending.” A pass on this one.

Our next member has a strong Scandinavian background, with Swedish relatives, childhood pen-pals in Scandinavia, and a period as an exchange student there. She read Norwegian Karin Fossum’s Don’t Look Back (Norwegian, Se deg ikke tilbake!, Glass Key award winner, 1997). She said her heart was in her throat from the very beginning when a small child is kidnapped. She didn’t much care for where that seemed to be going, so was relieved when it was simply setting the stage for the murder of a young woman as the central mystery. It was another story that wove together different elements, and was an excellent combination of police procedural and village life. It also had a “suspenseful ending” (and what happens next?).

Another person read a different title by Karin Fossum, He Who Fears the Wolf (Norwegian, Den som frykter ulven). It begins with a woman being watched, and then later found dead with a hoe in her head. The boy who finds her is then caught up in a bank robbery, and another very dark story follows. The wolf of the title is the barbaric behavior of some of the principals. This was our recent world traveller who was in Oslo after she read the book and mentioned it to a book store staffer there who said “Oh, we don’t like her either,” and recommended K.O. Dahl instead. She did, and it was every bit as dark as Fossum. Oh well.

And another unsatisfied reader is heard from. For such a negative review, she sure had us in stitches. Blackwater by Kerstin Ekman was, well, bizarre. Our member had read about a fourth of the book and that’s all she is willing to read. The mystery, as she put it, is why did the author write it in the first place? It was very dark and psychological, filled with flashbacks and sub plots and very confusing. Okay, here goes – it’s about a boy who falls in a well where his only company is an eel. He hides the eel in his coat when he is rescued, takes it home and keeps it in a bucket. Then he sees his father commit a murder and decides to run away from home by hitchhiking. With his eel in a bucket. Would you stop for a boy with an eel in his bucket? Yup, she lost us all there too. Oh, on another bizarre note, instead of graphic sex or graphic violence, this had graphic bathroom activity. And all this just in the first 100 pages!

Moving right along.

At this point we moved to a discussion of the effects of light and darkness on the psyche. It was suggested that some of the Scandinavian authors really needed to get some of those natural light lamps to perhaps lighten up their storytelling. One member mentioned the movie, the original Insomnia (directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg, 1997), that featured the effects of constant light on the main characters during a murder investigation in Norway. One blog compared authors like Dahl and Tursten with noir crime writers.

On another bright note, one of the members brought up a title she had read recently that might lighten things up for those disturbed by those long dark nights in Scandinavia, a book that is receiving universal rave reviews and is most definitely not just the same old thing – Three Bags Full: a sheep detective story by German author Leonie Swann (a pseudonym). Yes, you read that correctly, the sheep are the detectives and they have to find out who killed the shepherd. They’re real sheep; they don’t talk to humans like some animal sleuths. They still bleat, and occasionally get sidetracked from their investigation by their grazing (oh, that bit over there looks good). It sounds absurd, but all who have read it say it works. Three Bags Full won the Friedrich Glauser Prize for a German debut crime novel in 2006. A biography written in German, with picture, can be found here.

Young Adult Mysteries

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 19:03:00 +0000

We wallowed a bit in nostalgia yesterday evening. In the spirit of the summer reading program, we met to discuss juvenile and young adult mystery novels, old and new. The discussion ran the gamut from R.L. Stine and the Goosebumps series, to Nancy Drew, Robert Louis Stevenson and Tintin. We even had an audio-visual demonstration – very cool.

We were in the Board Room, so decorations were limited to summer reading program paraphernalia – t-shirt, book bags, reading charts, bookmarks, etc. Thank you to the YA and Childrens departments for letting us borrow their materials. Food was “kid’s stuff.” Oreos, Cheez-its, chocolate covered raisins, S’more drops, muffin-cookies, macaroni and cheese, and wormy dirt (chocolate pudding with cookie crumbs and gummy worms – the most disgusting thing we’ve had to eat since the cat litter-box cake. Yeah folks, you really missed out).

We began our discussion with the eternal teenager Nancy Drew. Oddly enough, most of the people who read her for the meeting had never read her before, so couldn’t compare to when they read her as a child. Our first member read, as she bluntly put it, one of the “fake” Nancy Drews, a story from the Nancy Drew Files. She said it read well and seemed up-to-date. Next was The Clue of the Broken Locket, but midway into the book, the reader saw the Nancy Drew movie and forgot all about the book. She was, however, amazed at how all the adults just let Nancy do her thing, and her dad sends her off in her little Roadster by herself when he thinks she needs a change. Our member just couldn’t see her father suggesting that…. She liked the movie, by the way.

We were into full Nancy Drew mode now, so we moved straight on to The Secret of the Old Clock, in which Nancy must track down a second will to help settle an estate, and gee, guess where she found it (see title)? This was the original 1930 edition that she read, and she was sure that she must have read it as a child, but that she didn’t remember the plot and found it delightful. Our final Nancy Drew is The Clue of the Leaning Chimney, and was read by another person who had never read Nancy before. She thought that it was quite a complex plot, with missing Ming vases, secret china clay deposits, a walled compound and a mysterious man who keeps popping up in the action. She found it quite interesting.

Unfortunately no one read either a Hardy Boys or Trixie Belden mystery. I was hoping we might get into a fiery discussion on which was better and maybe finish with a nice battle using the Cheez-its. Ah well, another time….

Our next member brought a lovely 1908 edition of Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. I wish I’d thought of that; I loved Stevenson as a child. It has quite an involved and exciting plot: an orphan boy sold off by his uncle to a ship, the ship is wrecked, the boy teams up with a highwayman, and they plot together to reveal the evil uncle’s plot, with lots of action and derring-do throughout. She said it is a difficult read because of the language, both the different way of speaking at the time, as well as the Scottish brogue. But she could usually work out what was what because there was a glossary and (and, we felt, more to the point) illustrations. This is where children’s literature has a bit of an advantage – so much of it has illustrations. We love the pictures. And they wonder why graphic novels are so popular….

One of our members was brilliant and brought her 2 granddaughters. The three of them read children’s mysteries together. One club member thought this was clever – “book club members-in-training.” The 4th grader shared a Goosebumps series title – Say Cheese and Die by R.L. Stine. This series has been extremely popular for quite a long time, kids just love them. In this particular title, a boy finds a weird camera; the pictures it takes seem to show the future. You are instantly hooked. Her sister, a 7th grader shared The Book Without Words by Avi. It is the story of an alchemist (working illegally) and his attempts to create “life stones” so he can keep on living forever. The Book Without Words has the complete instructions, but can only be read by a person with green eyes – his servant girl, and requires others’ lives to create it. Will she live? Will he live forever?

They also read Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters by Gail Giles, a contemporary mystery with a modern dysfunctional family. In it, an imposter is sending letters supposedly from a dead sister. Or is she an imposter? They say it is very suspenseful and scary. It was great having “the real thing” – children – discussing children's literature. They can come back and join us anytime.

Some of the young adult mysteries come into the picture now. Some of the modern Nancy Drew paperbacks were passed around (peals of laughter were heard when it made its way to the member with the 1930 edition). Other incredibly popular mystery/thriller/horror writers were brought up – R.L. Stine (yes, he of the younger Goosebumps series) and Christopher Pike, with their charmingly lurid covers and titles (Summer Horror; The Last Scream; Evil Thirst, etc). What you see is what you get.

Adult mystery writers have also branched into the Young Adult market. Robert B. Parker has written The Edenville Owls, a semi-autobiographical story that takes place after World War II, and asks such questions as who is the dark mysterious stranger; which girlfriend will win out, and who are the Edenville Owls? Though definitely focusing on middle school boys, the reader still thought the story of greater interest to adults than YAs.

Another prolific Young Adult mystery author is Joan Lowery Nixon. In The Dark and Deadly Pool (1990 winner of the Indiana Young Hoosier Award), a girl in her first week on a new job at a hotel pool notices that someone has been in the pool after closing. Thefts start to occur in the hotel, and a dead body is found in the pool. Lots of suspense, and a quick, good read. If you’re strapped for time, her mysteries make easy, quick reads.

Tartabull’s Throw by Henry Garfield is aimed at older young adults. It is the story of a baseball player, a werewolf and time-travel – yet more about relationships than action. The reader said definitely older Young Adults.

On to another flurry of recommendations (like eating potato chips, you can’t read just one). Shakespeare’s Secret, a Junior Library Guild Selection, by Elise Broach was deemed very good. The Case of the Missing Marquess by two-time Edgar Award winner Nancy Springer was also very good, and featured Sherlock Holmes’ much younger sister. Adult mystery author Aimee Thurlo has also written a juvenile mystery – Spirit Line – said to be good. And the Roman Mystery Series by Caroline Lawrence (our member had just read the 2nd in the series, Secrets of Vesuvius) was also highly recommended.

But best of all, 5 stars and general raves, is The Falconer’s Knot: a Story of Friars, Flirtation and Foul Play by Mary Hoffman, which was listed for The Guardian children's fiction prize, 2007. This has a Shakespearian plot – a young man posing as a monastic novice to escape a murder charge, and a young girl forced into an order. Think “Shakespeare meets Brother Cadfael.” Highly, highly recommended.

At this point we went from the sublime to the ridiculous. From a 5-star recommendation to The Further Adventures of Hank the Cowdog by John R. Erickson. This series consists of extremely lighthearted romps at the ranch with head of security, Hank the cowdog. In this particular case, Hank develops a case of “eye-crosserosis;” an injury to his nose causes Hank to look at it too long and his eyes get stuck (Mama always said this would happen). He eventually finds his way to Madame Moonshine, a burrowing owl with the right combination to cure his affliction (turn nose right twice, left three, push). Shakespeare this isn’t, just silly fun.

On now to a children’s classic and Edgar Award winner (1968), The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton, made into a 1984 TV movie. An African-American family moves to a new house in Ohio that was once a stop on the underground railroad (Dies Drear was an abolitionist), complete with secret passages and ghosts. The real story is about the relationship between the father and son finally brought together by the uncertain circumstances. Very spooky.

On finally, to our audio-visual presentation, an extremely thoughtful overview of Tintin that I will barely be able to scratch the surface of here. The adventures of the character Tintin by Hergé (Georges Remi) were in some ways the original graphic novel. Hergé began writing in 1929 and continued until his death in 1983, so the stories cover a wide gamut of time periods and points of view. Our MM member was hooked as a child and saved his money to buy one every year and wore them out reading them. Tintin is a Boy Scout-like character, always prepared for whatever crisis confronted him.

In King Ottakar’s Sceptre, the king must display his sceptre on a particular day or be forced to abdicate - so of course there is a plot afoot to steal the scepter. It is a classic locked door mystery – how was the scepter stolen from a locked and guarded room? Naturally Tintin solves the case and foils the plotters. New characters are added with each book and become regulars populating the Tintin universe – the Thompson and Thomson identical twins with their mustaches pointing in opposite vertical directions, and Snowy the dog (whose French name, Milou, is that of the author’s former girlfriend). The Milanese Nightingale Bianca Castafiore sings the same operatic song at every appearance (the Jewel Song from Charles Gounod's Faust - the audio part of the presentation), and in King Ottokar's Sceptre causes rabbits to flee in terror. Tintin, trapped in an automobile during her performance, is grateful for safety glass.

What our presenter was most impressed with was the steady growth in the characters, as well as improvement in Hergé as both writer and artist. Themes are sometimes more up-to-date than the settings, almost prescient of things yet to come, and stories are quite international. On a fun note, Hergé, like Alfred Hitchcock, inserted himself (and sometimes others) into the story. There is also some controversy with racist stereotypes in his earlier work, which must be viewed as a product of his times, and which was replaced by an increasingly progressive development in his ideas and work. A fascinating presentation, and was rewarded with a round of applause; an excellent finale to our discussion.

New Authors

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 06:24:00 +0000

"We had another lively meeting last night," writes Jeannine. "It was a smaller group than usual. Several people had company, and others were off gallivanting around the Olympic Peninsula – as if that’s any kind of excuse."

We gathered to discuss “authors on the cutting edge,” new authors of well-reviewed mysteries, some the first in new series. We limited the selection to 8 different titles, and members could read any one (or more!) they wanted to. It was a pretty broad variety of styles and subjects, so there was definitely something for everyone. Some people wanted to read more of the titles than they were able to, which was a reoccurring theme throughout the discussion (“if people would just return the book as soon as they finished”...).

Our final tally of readership:

Baby Shark – 1

Consigned to Death – 2

Holmes on the Range – 5

Mark of the Lion – 6 (our winner!)

Shadow of the Raven – 4

Still Life – 4

The Thirteenth Tale – 3

Wild Indigo – 3

Rather than person by person, we took the discussion book by book, with anyone who read it jumping right into the discussion. Sometimes there were amazingly different responses to the same story, which made for a very lively conversation – ding ding ding. Yes, I had to resort to the bell a few times, but no one had to be threatened with the duct tape. Though there may have been a few who wanted to use it on me.

We started with the books read by the fewest people. Only our original reader (who picked out the titles) read Baby Shark by Robert Fate. The initial crime was more than some of us wanted to approach, but it created an unusual anti-hero with plans for revenge. “Baby Shark” and her father are pool sharks, but her father is murdered and Baby assaulted (to put it mildly), and at the age of 16 is now on her own. She’s taken in by friends, becomes a pool shark on her own and designs her plans…. Unusual setting and interesting character – our reader said she would probably read the sequel Baby Shark’s Beaumont blues to find out what happens next t the character.

Next with 2 readers is The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Both readers agreed that this was an extremely literate, very British tale with gothic overtones. Anyone who loves books will enjoy it; one of the characters works in a bookstore, and there are a lot of literary references. One person had one reservation concerning a theme about twins that occurred twice. The main character, Margaret Lea, was a Siamese twin separated from her sister (who died as a result) as an infant. This theme was was effective and interesting, but when another twin relationship featured in relation to the 2^nd main character, Vida Winters, it seemed too much. He also thought that the story was a very closed world, just the main characters in their homes and workplaces, talking among themselves, but no contact or references to the outside world. Which he admitted was probably on purpose, but he personally prefers to have the wider political and economic forces woven into the story. A third reader straggled in (some people have other lives – imagine) who hadn’t quite finished it. She said the first third was absolutely fabulous, and caught her interest like Harry Potter had, but then she got bogged down in the next part when it got to “really weird incest stuff” and she realized she couldn’t recommend it to some of her old lady friends. She thought it should have been handled differently, and then she could have recommended it. As she was starting to get back into the story, the book was due! And her librarian husband (hm, who could that be?) made her return the book, which may have won him librarian brownie points, but lost him a few husband points. She thought there should be a few perks with the job... Alas, there are not, we librarians have to pay the same fines as the rest of you.

On to Consigned to Death by Jane Cleland, also read by two members. Little controversy with this one. The readers thought it was an interesting setting, both coastal New Hampshire (what little there is) and the antique business, with likable characters. One of the members is a lawyer, and she was pleased that the first thing main character Josie Prescott did when the police came to question her was to request her lawyer be present. As Josie was the police’s main suspect, she turned to sleuthing to clear herself. The readers said there were lots of twists and both enjoyed it. There is a sequel out called Deadly Appraisal.

Our clunker of the evening turned out to be Wild Indigo by Sandi Ault. Three people read it and all were disappointed. The setting and premise were fine, but not well carried off. Several found it downright boring, as well as unconvincing. Author Ault and her character, Jamaica Wild, are both white women enamored of New Mexican Native culture, the character is trying to learn more to get inside the culture, and also has a pet wolf, and is held responsible for a killing, so also must turn sleuth to clear her name. Relationships were “tenuous and unclear” between characters, transitions were poorly done, and the wolf was considered the most interesting character. One member with a background among the some of the tribes of the Southwest checked out the author’s website and was not impressed, saying she showed neither a proper respect or understanding of the relevant cultures and traditions.

A far superior Southwest tale is Shadow of the Raven by David Sundstrand, which takes place in the Mojave Desert of primarily southern California. Main character Francisco Flynn is a local part Mojave Native/part Irish BLM agent who finds a body (his third in a few months, for which he gets quite a bit of ribbing) in the back country near an illegally killed bighorn sheep. All the readers found it very authentic to place and characters, liked the level of back-story and the “plausible thoughts of the characters.” It reads somewhat similar to the outdoor mysteries of Nevada Barr and Kirk Mitchell.

Next we have Still Life by Louise Penny, a title we only have 1 copy of, and yet 4 people were able to read it (because I brought it back right away, said D----). This takes place in the small village of Three Pines in Quebec, and is a cross between a police procedural and a village cozy. All readers found it to be very literary and well-crafted, and said one of the most interesting things about the story was not “who did it”, but how those left behind would deal with it--the same theme of mortality as found in The Thirteenth Tale. One person was annoyed with one subplot about a new member of the Surêté du Québec, Yvette Nichol, a really annoying individual. This person was obnoxious all through the story (until she suddenly disappeared from the story), the kind of obnoxious that has no clue she IS obnoxious. In fact, at one point she looks in a mirror where there is a sign that says “The problem is YOU” and looks over her shoulder to see who it is. Now I have to read it just for that one scene! This was enjoyed by all, and main character Chief Inspector Gamache stars in a sequel A Fatal Thaw.

Our next title had a little unexpected controversy, Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith. It’s a lighthearted paean to both Sherlock Holmes and the all-American cowboy. The main characters are brothers Old Red and Big Red (Gustav and Otto) Amlingmeyer, cowboys looking for work in 19^th century Montana. Big Red is the only one who can read, so in the evening he reads Sherlock Holmes stories to his brother. Old Red has become obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, and wants to deduct just like him. So when the Amlingmeyers are signed on with a very dubious outfit and dead bodies begin appearing, Big Red gets to work. Most people liked the story, and said it had a good mystery with the proper twists and a surprise ending, but a few had trouble with the language. One person thought the language was corny; several others said it was too “earthy” for them (in lieu of calling it “bad language”). The rest tried to figure out if they were reading the same book. There was lots of “cowboy talk” (and come on, there’s no polite way to explain how you get steers…) and these were an uneducated lot. I liked having cowboys talk like cowboys, and be more concerned with the demise of a horse than that of a man (the man deserved it, the horse didn’t). So if you don’t mind cowboy swearin’, it’s a really fun read. And those who enjoyed it will be happy to know we have a second title about the brothers, On the Wrong Track.

NEWS ALERT. NEWS ALERT. Deb Baker’s Murder Passes the Buck is the funniest mystery M---- has ever read (excerpts). Wait a minute; where’d that come from? Look, she’s waving a book at us and raving about how much fun it was. They’re all telling me to write it down. So here it is. And Baker has another one coming out soon. Don’t worry M----, I’m ordering it too.

Returning to our program.

Our final title was Mark of the Lion by Suzanne Arruda. Six members read this one and attributed its initial popularity to its setting in Africa. One member picked it up because he thought the title was so straightforward, he knew from the title what he was getting into – lions! Everyone found it exciting and suspenseful. It follows the adventures of Jade del Cameron, a woman from New Mexico who travels to Kenya after her World War I stint as an ambulance driver on the front. No wimpy female here. There was considerable argument from both sides as to whether this character was true to the times, or a modern woman transplanted into the past. Considerable argument. And some also found it annoying that the lead is once again young, tall, beautiful, independent, brilliant and a damn fine shot. Don’t you just hate people like that? You’ll have to read it to decide for yourself. A rip-roaring tale no matter the interpretation. Most liked the local color and our member from South Africa made some interesting points about shamanism in Africa, distinguishing between herbal healers, diviners, and manipulators of evil (so-called "witches"). In the African worldview “there is no such thing as coincidence;” all is attributable to the influence on the living of their deceased ancestors. He thought that the author's portrayal of laibon as evil was inconsistent with how they were viewed within Kenya. Did the author's familiarity with Navajo skinwalkers of New Mexico lead her to superimpose them on Africa?

Arruda has a sequel out, Stalking Ivory, which has a more intricate mystery and takes place more in the wild, and once again is full of action and a nice touch of the supernatural.

Ding ding ding. We’re done.

Refreshments were yummy. Several people brought homemade cookies and candy, and we also had blue corn chips with peach mango salsa. Our decorations were the covers of the 8 books with accompanying related books and items – an African basket, giraffe, hippo and elephant figures (Mask of the Lion); a small pottery pueblo (Wild Indigo); bighorn sheep figure and Indian basket (Shadow of the Raven); arrow (Still Life); and real historical (i.e. has rust) cow bell, hand-made bit and boot scraper (Holmes on the Range). I kindly did not use the cow bell to keep the peace, tempting though it was.

Dinah McCall's Bloodlines

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Fri, 25 May 2007 18:19:00 +0000

Mainly Mysteries met last night to discuss Bloodlines by Dinah McCall, writes Jeannine. McCall is a pseudonym for Sharon Sala, who writes romances under her real name, and romantic suspense/thrillers under the McCall name. Bloodlines is the story of the terrifying events that happened when Olivia Sealy was a toddler and how they come back to haunt her 25 years later. When she was two she was kidnapped for ransom, and recovered after the death of her parents. Now in the present, a suitcase containing the remains of a child found in the wall of a cabin is dated to the same time, and a genetic quirk of two thumbs on one hand ties the child to Olivia’s family. The primary mystery is to find out who the child is, what her relationship is to the other Sealys, and how she died. At the same time, a crazed killer focuses on Olivia, bullets fly, rooms go up in flames, all sorts of excitement incurs, and a romance rekindles between Olivia and the detective on the case.

This made for a very good discussion because opinions were all over the place. A few people enjoyed the book immensely; a few couldn’t make it past the first few pages (“after the first few pages, my eyes refused to focus”). Most people liked the first part, but said the story did rather go to pieces by the end. The romance between Olivia and Trey seemed to annoy people more than anything else. The first member to speak said it was too romantic, “life isn’t like that.” Olivia and Trey were high school sweethearts who were split up by her grandfather because Trey was from the “wrong” part of town. They meet again during the investigation and almost immediately fall into each other’s arms as if no time at all had passed. Come again? Members thought there should have been some distance between them from change or maturity that would need to be overcome, not to mention issues of trust (touched on only lightly).

The point found most amazing by two members is that they figured out who the culprit was early into the story. They said each of them is the kind of reader that NEVER figures out who the villain is until the end. Others were equally amazed that the first two figured it out, because they never saw it coming until the end. And absolutely everyone agreed that they could have done without the baby fingernails tidbit, it was, er, um, “overkill,” and completely unnecessary, and we’d like to tear out that page, please.

While we didn’t exactly trash the novel, we were rather exuberant in picking holes in the plot. Several people who enjoyed the book admitted that there were discrepancies, but found that it didn’t matter. They were pulled into the story from the beginning and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. In fact, one person said that on a scale of 1-10 for sheer suspense, she gave it a 10. The rest were not quite so forgiving. SPOILER ALERT!! A big hurdle to overcome was the idea that two toddlers with the same father but a different mother would look so identical that one of the mothers couldn’t tell the difference between them. On which planet? END OF SPOILER ALERT. In addition, ye olde identical twin ploy came into play once again, one crazy, one sane and both unable to recognize each other after 25 years. Fires, though plausible enough, seemed to reoccur rather too often to be more than mere plot devices. Some of the characters did not ring true – Anna was all over the place, from sane to Alzheimer’s to completely whacko; Dennis seemed a totally contrived persona; and Olivia was – I’ll just say it right out – a big wimp (if anything threatening or challenging came up, she had to go off into another room and cry, leaving Trey to do all the work after he’d comforted her, of course). Oh dear, my point of view just sort of took over there, didn’t it?

Moving right along….While discussing implausibilities, one member was struck by the fact that the father (ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT!) of the two girls just happened to pick as wife and mistress “two women who look alike, and don’t they all?” I will leave to your imagination how this was interpreted by the rest of the group, but it did take several minutes for some people to pull themselves together and find their chairs after their excursion to the floor. Another person’s favorite character was the man who found the suitcase in his wall. This poor guy had big plans for remodelling the cabin now that he was retired. That was certainly spoiled; he and his wife never went back. But his character was vivid and well drawn, and disappeared after that chapter. Darn. This led us to a rather interesting discussion of architecture and home building – just how much room would have been between the studs? Could you really fit a suitcase inside? We had no definitive answer, just more questions (when was it built, where, etc.).

All in all, it was a quick, easy read with competent, never stylized prose. If you aren’t picky about details and just like being swept along in an exciting story, you’ll probably enjoy it. Don’t forget to go to our blog and register your opinion.

At this point, the discussion broadened to romantic suspense and mysteries in general. Readers of romantic suspense had all noticed that the heroes and heroines are always rich (well, at least one of them), young and beautiful. We tried thinking of titles with more “ordinary” protagonists. Tony Hillerman’s Joe Leaphorn. J.A. Jance’s characters. Quite a few names cropped up, and with them a pattern developed. Mysteries often have ordinary (older, heavier, poorer, alcoholic, etc.) characters, but in Romantic Suspense – rich, young and beautiful. For those who would like to see a romance with ordinary people, one member recommended the documentary The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill . While it primarily documents the relationship of a homeless musician with the several flocks of wild parrots in San Francisco, he says it also shows a romance between very real people.

Refreshments were provided by MM members – several kinds of chilli (the story took place in Dallas) and s’mores cookies (which go with any story). Decorations were very minimal – a suitcase and some drywall just didn’t work for me. We had some books on related subjects (DNA, women and mental illness…) and book covers for next month’s selections.

John Le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Thu, 03 May 2007 17:18:00 +0000

"We had a splendid meeting last night – everything a book club discussion is supposed to be," writes Jeanine. "It was a fairly small group, but the ideas were big and well-thought out, sometimes even touching on the profound. The title for discussion was The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré, the story of Alec Leamas, a career spy who has grown disillusioned and stale in espionage, but must undergo one last assignment before he can 'come in from the cold.' "

Above: Checkpoint Charlie

Our display was minimalist to go with the starkness of the Cold War – black and white photos from the film (Richard Burton!), Checkpoint Charlie, Cold War icons, and the well-known shot of the soldier leaping over the barbed wire to the West. The main sustenance for the spies seemed to be cigarettes and drink, so we had an EMPTY bottle of whiskey (though an alcohol-laced discussion might be interesting….) and an EMPTY pack of unfiltered Camels (in keeping with the time period). A couple of passports, with one open to the DDR ( Deutsche Demokratische Republik – East Germany) stamps and a handful of East German coins. My birth date on the passport seemed to be the most popular item for perusal. Oops.

There is no way to discuss this book without giving away the ending, so I will move to a spoiler alert, and if you have any intention of ever reading the book, you may want to stop reading at that point. Don’t forget to get in your own 2¢ here at the Mainly Mysteries Blog.

Reactions to the book were mixed. Some people read and loved all of Le Carré’s books, some sort of liked the book, some disliked it intensely – but for many different reasons. The grimness of this spy story was both the appeal and the aversion for different people. Several disliked the overall darkness of the novel; it was well-written and believable enough, perhaps too believable, but they did not really wish to spend time there. One person said it was a “sad ending to a sad book” and there was already enough sadness in the world. Another person was incensed at what was done to Liz, the “innocent,” and that they were all evil for it, and she didn’t want to read about it. Others were fascinated with the insight into another time and place and profession, and intensity of circumstances.

Pieces of Le Carré’s background were brought into the discussion and added great depth to the understanding of the book. The people who have read more of his work, say there is the common theme of betrayal and abandonment running through all the books. He worked for the British Foreign Service for some years, so is considered to be quite familiar with the world about which he writes. One member noted that his father was a con man, and that even to the present, his dad has tried to use his son’s renown to further various financial schemes, and expected him to bail him out of subsequent disasters. Most members found both points significant and very relevant to his writing and main themes. Several members mentioned how impressed they were (and one not so impressed) with Le Carré’s ability to write this novel in only 5 weeks. Several readers looked on him as a man disillusioned with his work and government, and writing the novel was a way to purge himself of his despondency, and shed light on the darkness of espionage, a catharsis of sorts.

Naturally, in a book on this topic, the subject of good and evil, and right and wrong has to be covered. All the members agreed that only Liz was the real idealist (Communist), and even she was pretty fuzzy on what she actually believed. Fiedler (another Communist) seemed to be the only “nice” person in the espionage community, and it was he who said about his fellow spies “We’re all the same you know. That’s the joke.”) The intelligence services seem more intent on what’s expedient for “our side” than what is moral or right or even ideologically “pure.” And manipulation and subterfuge is the name of the game.

A member brought up the excellent question of just what is meant by “coming in from the cold?” What exactly is the cold? Most considered it the isolation of the spy’s life cut off from any real attachment to other people. The danger, fear and harshness of the lifestyle… the necessity for an emotionless life… giving up humanity… the distance from human warmth.

Now we come to last night’s discussion, and a great big SPOILER ALERT!!!!

***********************************

Here is the big spoiler. The book is meaningless without the end, it forms the rest of the story. In fact, one member mentioned that setting up the intricate deception by British intelligence was the same as the writer’s craft, each started at the end and worked their way back, both are carefully planned backwards to achieve the final scenario. At the end of the book, Leamas and Liz are attempting to scale the Wall when they are betrayed, and Liz is shot. Leamas then makes the decision to move away from safety and back to Liz even knowing she is already dead, and to remain there in the light to force them to shoot him (which they clearly do not want to do). This brought about a splendid discussion of Leamas’ motivation – was it love, or more? Some did think it was because he loved her. Some thought it meant Leamas was finally making a choice, a non-idealist was making a stand. Or that Leamas wanted it very clear that he did not “use” Liz the way the intelligence services used people, then tossed them away. Or all of these. And one person brought it back to our discussion of “the cold,” that this was another way for Leamas to “come in from the cold.”

More pleasant asides –

Word of the meeting: revanchist. We’d all read it. On several occasions the Communists were referred to as revanchists. Did anyone know the meaning? No. Did anyone look it up? No. One of the librarians went off on a quest and returned with the definition:“ 1. The act of retaliating; revenge. 2. A usually political policy, as of a nation or an ethnic group, intended to regain lost territory or standing.” Oh.

Other favorite spy authors – Helen MacInnes, Robert Ludlum, Alistair Maclean.

One member so took to heart the Le Carré novels when he was younger and life had become quite complicated around him, that he tried to implement those skills and live as a spy in his daily life.

All in all it was a very complex and involving discussion. This synopsis only scratches the surface – I hope some people will be kind enough to elaborate more on the blog. Comparisons of the book with the movie would also be nice to read.

And through it all I didn’t have to use the bell even once.

John Burdett's Bangkok 8

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:40:00 +0000

Another great meeting last night! Lots of people, lots of points of view. The book is so different from anything else we’ve read, we just knew it would make a wonderful topic for discussion, and we were right.

The book up for discussion was Bangkok 8 by John Burdett (read interview). It follows the investigation by Thai detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep (on how to pronounce this, read comment below) of the double murder of an American marine and his police and “soul partner” Pichai by snakebite. Bangkok 8 is the district in Bangkok (known as Krung Thep in Thailand) where the events take place, and is the center of the extremely profitable sex trade. Sonchai is intimately familiar with this area having been born to a Thai prostitute and an American serviceman deployed to Vietnam. His mixed race and fluency in several languages have left him with only two professional options in Thailand – prostitute or policeman. Sonchai is a devout Buddhist – he and Pichai were the only police not on the take – and has a hard time reconciling his beliefs with the harsh realities of the society around him. The story explores that world, full of atmosphere and culture, social structure and religion, as well as an up-close-and-personal view of the sex trade, drug and jade trade, gender reassignment surgery, and anything else that brings in a buck (the police impound lot is quite a eye-opener). The idea of the “Old Man’s Club” is either absolutely appalling or a stroke of genius. Maybe both. Read the book to decide.

We had extremely mixed reactions to the book, from loving it to unable to finish it. Our first report was from a member was in that second category – she gave it a try, but there was just too much on prostitution and corruption for her tastes and she set it aside. Other members thought the cultural contrast was too much for some people, that Americans look at things in black and white, and that this book was more open about the ambiguities of life.

Now absolutely everyone agreed that this had the most original murder, and most original reason for a murder of any mystery any of us have read. Yes, even the ones who did not like the book said, yep, they hadn’t heard that one before. And most thought that the “Bye Bye Blackbird” finale was a fitting end to the story. Now you just have to read it, don’t you? We also found out from one of our members that pythons bark before they strike (good to know and rather thoughtful of them) and that they look slow, but they can move very fast (also good to know). And no, the murder was not by python. Now I’ve really got you, don’t I?

Several people didn’t really care about the mystery; they were more intrigued with the cultural background, and the quite unusual characters. Very believable, but unusual. Another member brought some background about the author, John Burdett. She said that this was not the book of a young man; he evidently got his experience in human dynamics from a family law practice in Britain, and criminal law in Hong Kong. That member was especially pleased with how Burdett portrayed American/Western culture as not necessarily the “gold standard” in the world we like to believe it is.

Also striking was how in Thailand, the bar girls leave their small villages uneducated and dirt poor and end up rich and pampered in Bangkok (oh, they earn it all right), and practically holding up their village’s economy single-handedly. Perhaps I should rephrase that… this is a rather perilous narrative. We got into trouble a few times discussing this; the double entendres kept snaring us inadvertently.

The next few members were somewhat unhappy with the book. One stopped reading because there was just no “enjoyment” in it. Another said there were parts “I didn’t need to know.” It was too complex for some, and one mentioned that it’s a story that requires “no skimming,” you’ll be lost otherwise. And she said it’s an excellent title for facial exercise – OH! Ow! Wow! And EW! While the information on delicate topics was presented matter-of-factly and not thrown in simply for effect, it still was too much for some people. And one member said he found the “gender reassignment surgery” fascinating, but did discover he read it with his legs tightly crossed.

Interesting cultural tidbits:

Police must radio in to their commander at Headquarters for permission to turn on their siren and lights.
There are no ambulances in Bangkok (probably because it’s in a perpetual traffic jam, so what’s the point?)
Very important! Elephants are required to wear taillights.
All organized crime is organized by the police and the military. This enabled them to have lower salaries and therefore demand less from the taxpayers, a GOOD thing.

One member thought nothing really happened except and the beginning and end of the story, with little beyond talk talk talk in between. Okay, there was one motorcycle chase. Maybe 2 pages in the middle somewhere. Didn’t help.

The next few members loved the language and the cadence of the dialogue. They also liked it for the characters. Sonchai’s mother was especially popular among the group, a real survivor who lived a life that’s “just the way things are.” Several were quite impressed with the dart girl – how she thought to develop that particular skill I don’t really want to know…. It was enjoyed how Pichai followed Sonchai all through the story.

Only one person seemed to have any problem with the snakes. But they’re only at the beginning, and once she moved past that, she thoroughly liked the mystery and the language.

Several people appreciated the respect for elders, how there was no marginalization of the old. There seemed to be quite an acceptance of others, until the topic of race came up. Mixed-race Thai are especially looked down upon. Many enjoyed the philosophical explanations of issues such as police corruption and prostitution. The very foreignness of the mind-frame and society was both what turned people on to the story, and what turned them off. The psychology of the characters was absorbing to all, especially the evolution of the character of Fatima, and the disconnect for Sonchai between his culture – vengeance and drugs – and his pacifistic Buddhism.

Our final reader made the mistake of waiting until the evening to read the book. For her, the book was a hard read that she needed to concentrate on (no skimming, remember?). Bedtime, we discovered however, is not the best choice. For our reader fell asleep reading the book, and had one heck-of-a nightmare. Bad guys who looked like Jet Li were in her house. There were dead bodies. She called the police but they never came. She kept calling them, saying “But there are dead bodies in my house.” They never came. She’s quite traumatized now, and afraid to finish the book.

But you won’t have that problem, right?

The display was minimal – pictures of Bangkok/Krum Thep and books on Thailand and other issues presented in the book. I think I showed remarkable restraint not including a set of darts in the display (you’ll have to read the book to have that one explained). Food was splendid – a wonderful Thai salad, a coconut-macadamia cake like confection, and a big chocolate birthday cake for one of our members. When you get to be 88, you can have a cake too. Wait a minute – big luscious chocolate cake; why would I want to wait until 88? I’ll start accumulating a list of birthdays right away….

Mainly Mysteries/Chili Pepper Readers holiday bash

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 23:48:00 +0000

Yesterday evening the Chili Pepper Readers joined Mainly Mysteries for our annual December bash, writes Jeannine. Four years ago we discussed “culinary mysteries” and everyone brought some food related to their selection, often using one of the recipes included in the story. This was such a hit that we decided to try something similar once every year. This year the Chili Pepper Readers decided to join us, and we choose a mutually beneficial theme of mystery and romance combined, reader’s choice.

We had a nice turnout with most of the regulars from both groups (which in some cases are the same people), and enough food to feed an army. And not just sweets and “refreshments,” we had REAL food. Homemade minestrone stew (I think it was the home grown tomatoes that really made the difference there) with garlic bread, other hot dishes, salads, layered Mexican dip, cookies and chocolate tea bread – food kept arriving and I lost track. There is one drawback we discovered however, our discussion was quiet and civilized, nothing like the last few meetings. While it’s possible the romance club members softened us up a bit, I think it was actually the full stomachs that made us extremely mellow. Who wants to argue when you can eat?

We have the Staff Development Committee to thank for our Christmas decorations. The staff party was the same day, and the SDC let us use their decorations including a giant and absolutely gorgeous poinsettia in the middle of the food tables. Thank you!

On to the books:

First, we have Sailing to Capri by Elizabeth Adler. Adler is known for writing “travelogue romances,” and Capri also has a murder mystery included. A billionaire dies and leaves a letter that he was murdered, and his personal assistant and a P.I. are supposed to gather the 6 possible suspects along with 6 “red herrings” for a cruise to Capri on the billionaire’s yacht, and investigate to see who the murderer is, and then have a reading of the will at Capri. The first part of the book sets the scene and the two main characters, who you can quickly see will be this book’s romance; and then the middle of the book introduces the other characters and their backgrounds, and interactions with each other on the cruise. This part was well-written and a light fun read. Then we get to the reading of the will, coincidence piles on coincidence with a little unearthly intervention thrown in, and as each shallow, mean, money-hungry suspect’s secret is revealed and that person is given some wonderful whatever from the billionaire, that person transforms into a completely different wonderful person excited about his or her new life. Well, GAG. And the mystery was solved off scene, and was the person barely mentioned (what I call the Murder She Wrote school of villains), and I’m giving away the end and I don’t care. I must say that a review of this book did say her others are much better. Too bad I didn’t read that until after I read the book.

Next!

The next person went the Christmas route and reread an old favorite The best Christmas pageant ever by Barbara Robinson . There are a group of really bad kids in town, vandalism and mischief at every turn. Come Christmastime however, and one of the girls wants to play Mary in the pageant which sort of turns the pageant on its ear as these kids become involved. Yet by the end, everyone realizes that they learned more from this new approach to the Christmas story (“Hey, unto us a child is born”) than they ever had before. Highly recommended.

There’s a nice mix of mystery and romance as well as Christmas in David Baldacci ’s The Christmas train. A jaded journalist takes a train trip across the country for an article, and meets all sorts of memorable characters along the way, including an old girlfriend. Our reader gave it a one chili romance rating (romance heat index) and one pepper for the mystery, but said it was interesting and had a nice twist.

A much older author, Rae Foley (1900-78, a.k.a. Elinor Denniston, Dennis Allan, Helen K. Maxwell), had been recommended at a previous CPR meeting and several people read some of hers. The first discussed was Fear of a stranger which was described as a quick, fun read even though you could figure out the mystery a third of the way into the story. There were two accidents with 2 dead fiancés, missing money, and the classic quandary of wondering who to trust.

The combination of romance and mystery brought to many people’s minds the formerly popular “gothic romances” of Mary Stewart and Phyllis Whitney. If you like those two, you are recommended to try Dorothy Gilman ’s Uncertain voyage (she also writes the Mrs. Pollifax mysteries). Our reader says it follows the classic formula in which the protagonist “finds herself” and solves the mystery (though our reader also had to admit that she got to “some psychological stuff and skipped to the end.” Tsk tsk). This same reader had another classic to share that she thought must be a perfect mix of romance and mystery, Nancy Drew in The stolen kiss. This newer edition had what looked like a youthful Fabio on the cover. None of the rest of us remembered Fabio on the cover of our Nancy Drews. And no, our reader (or so she calls herself) didn’t read this one either. Triple tsk.

More humor coming our way. Our next member tried Hugh Laurie’s The gun seller (read excerpt) which is a spy spoof with assassins and even a little romance on the side. Yes, it’s THAT Hugh Laurie, Bertie Wooster/Dr. House himself. (I still can’t get over how convincingly sweet stupid British Bertie Wooster transforms into cranky brilliant American Dr. House… How does he do that?) Our member said it was quite good within its genre and also for its novelty value.

Our next title was read and enjoyed by several members, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (read excerpt). An old man in a nursing home (and hating every minute of it) remembers his life with the circus. Not to give the ending away, we are assured the story includes mystery, romance, and plenty of “yahoo” as well as circus and animal lore, and comes highly recommended. This member appropriately brought circus animal cookies.

We return to the mystery genre now with Witches bane by Susan Wittig Albert, one of the China Bayles series. In keeping with the holiday festivities (but a different holiday), this one is set around Halloween and is complete with Wiccans, Santeria, vandalism, fortune telling, and murder by poison plant. The romance comes with China’s relationship with her boyfriend. An enjoyable light mystery.

Next is another Rae Foley title, Girl on a highwire . This was read by one of the CPR members and had far too many murders in the very first chapter, so she skipped it. Who needs blood and gore for the holidays? Instead she read Debbie Macomber’s There’s something about Christmas (read excerpt) in which a woman who dislikes flying, dislikes men, dislikes Christmas and dislikes fruitcake is assigned to write a feature about Christmas fruitcake, and must fly (with an attractive male pilot) to her interviews, and – shocker – she discovers she doesn’t dislike any of them as much as she thought.

Another mystery with romance is the Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry, which was made into a TV movie. This is the first of her Thomas Pitt series set in Victorian London, and introduces Thomas and Charlotte to one another. The mystery explores the dark underside of the Victorian world, with detail and shading, whereas the romance is in the burgeoning relationship between Charlotte and Thomas, a loving relationship that continues with great sweetness and loyalty between them throughout the series.

We return now to the gothic and Mary Stewart. The next reader remembered loving Stewart in the past and wondered how a reread would be. She read Wildfire at midnight about a divorce who goes on holiday on the Isle of Skye. There is murder, and mysterious fires in the hills, and, oddly enough, her ex-husband is vacationing there as well. Our member says it has it all – cliffs, fog, drama. What more can you ask?

Prime cut by Diane Mott Davidson is part of her Goldy Bear Catering series, and focuses on the murder of a local inept building contractor and the disappearance of some historical cookbooks from the museum. All manner of other crises beset Goldy who still manages to solve it in the end. The “romance” is supplied by her teenage son.

The next title attracted the reader’s attention because the cover said “in the style of Daphne Du Maurier and Mary Stewart,” and she couldn’t resist. Caroline Llewellen’s Life Blood is about a woman who is left a cottage in the Cotswolds which she discovers was the site of a recent murder. The story is mostly mystery and suspense, but there is a bit of romance late in the book (page 200+). While not quite Stewart, it was enjoyable, and she will try others by the author.

Our final Rae Foley title is Where is Mary Bostwick? Part of the Mr. Potter series, it takes place during two days sometime before Christmas. Mary Bostwick is due to inherit a several million dollars if she shows up before a deadline in two days, at which point the money will go elsewhere, but so far she cannot be found. There are many characters, mysterious and appealing, and all the pieces and people come together and find their places before the end of the story. The reader found it very satisfying.

Our next reader was bamboozled into sharing a title despite not being prepared for the theme. So what HAVE you read? Well, if you just want to know of a good book… try Orbit by John J. Nance (listen to an interview with Nance about the book). A man wins a contest to orbit the earth, but once in orbit, the pilot is killed by a meteor and the radio is destroyed. He finds a laptop, and never expecting to be recovered, starts writing his innermost thoughts. Unknown to him, he is on a live feed that is picked up by some kids, and pretty soon becomes an international phenomenon. And international phenomenons need rescuing, don’t they…. So it sort of has some mystery (will he survive) and there is a definite romance element in the background – that qualifies, right?

The newest Amelia Peabody mystery by Elizabeth Peters (a.k.a. Barbara Mertz, Barbara Michaels) is Children of the Storm (read an excerpt). The adventurous Egyptian archaeologist family is in Egypt for a family reunion – so all the characters are together again and part of the story. There’s everything there in the plot as well – theft, murder, abduction…. According to our member, it’s the best in the series yet.

Our next title also advertised that it had it all: Love, lies and liquor by M.C. Beaton. Sounds good, but the reader was disappointed. It’s part of the Agatha Raisin series, one of the newer titles in which Agatha has her own detective agency. While the member has enjoyed the series in the past, she thought the humor was missing in this one, the mystery was just okay, and the lack of romance a let down (evidently Agatha normally chases anything in pants – this time she wasn’t answering the phone). So while the title promises a good time, the story fell short.

Our next member (of both clubs) had highly recommended a series by Brenda Joyce which offers what she thinks is the perfect combination of mystery and romance (with a 4 chili pepper rating – hot!), but decided to move out of her comfort level and try something she wouldn’t normally read. In this case it is the thriller series by J.A. Jance – Hour of the hunter; Kiss of the bees, and Day of the dead. These are far darker than Jance’s detective series, and put the main characters into some intense situations. She was very impressed with how strong the main character has to be (and is) to survive. The setting is near Tucson, and the novel gave great insight into local Papago culture, and the blending of ethnicities in the area. Things are very dark and very evil, but good triumphs in the end. She highly recommends the entire series.

Our final title is Sacred sins by Nora Roberts. The reader was thrilled to use the title for our group because she had been told it has “too much mystery for the Romance Group.” Now was her big chance! Though not written under her mystery writing pseudonym of J.D. Robb, it still qualifies as a mystery complete with a serial killer, five murders, an “insane twist” at the end, as well as the romance between a criminal profiler and a detective. It’s her favorite, and she’s reread it countless times.

A good time was had by all. We all gained several pounds and have a longer list of books we don’t have time to read. It was so civilized, I’m thinking we need to go about this differently next year. Making an open choice like this meant people were mostly reading books they liked. We do much better when we have books someone doesn’t like (fight! fight!). Perhaps next year our Christmas gift can be a list of books to stay away from like the plague. Do not buy these books for Christmas. An excuse for us to be BAD for Christmas. What do you think?

Anne George's Southern Sister Series

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 18:45:00 +0000

Thursday evening was another wild ride, writes Jeannine. Twenty people make for a big discussion group, and sometimes this means three or four discussions going on at the same time. Not pretty. But this time I was prepared. No pounding on the table with a book this time, I had a concierge bell and I wasn’t afraid to use it. A lot. Ding ding ding. And if that didn’t work, or someone monopolized the discussion, I had my next line of defense, my secret weapon, my Duct Tape. And I did threaten a few people with it. Okay, one person. Several times. Either she’s very very bad, or the power has gone to my head. Maybe someone else should hold the duct tape next time. I’m NOT giving up the bell.

Ding ding ding.

Back to the book discussion. We discussed the Southern Sisters series by Anne George. There are eight books in the series – the author died a few years ago, so unfortunately there will be no more – that feature a mismatched pair of sisters who live in Birmingham, Alabama. The flamboyant Mary Alice, “Sister,” is a large 6’ tall woman always ready to set the style, have some fun, and find a new husband while she’s at it (they keep dying and leaving her with huge bank accounts). Her sister Patricia Ann, “Mouse,” is 5’ tall, happily married to her first and only husband, and the practical, down-to-earth one of the two. Extended family ties and Sister’s adventurous lifestyle draw the pair into a wide range of mayhem set throughout the contemporary South.

We went around the table to find out which book each person read and what they thought about it. The first several enjoyed the books, some read more than one, and especially liked the personalities of the main characters and how they interacted with each other and other characters, and the humor with which they dealt with life. One person mentioned how she liked the nicknames, and how “Sister” became “Aunt Sister” to Patricia Ann’s children. Several found the Southern manners and euphemisms entertaining, and how delicately things were explained. People don’t simply die, they “pass.”

The next few people also liked the books, but said a certain suspension of disbelief was necessary, but that then there were enough twists and turns to keep the plot interesting. We happened to have two sets of sisters among the members that night, and asked the first set if they were anything like the Southern Sisters. They said not at all, and they did not have nicknames either, but were prompted by another member to relate their own tale of murder. It seems that when they were girls, one was not allowed to play with the other’s paper dolls, so she would rip the dolls’ heads off. The heads would then be taped back on. She’d rip them back off. Can’t you just feel the relish of that rip? Arhh!!

Now we come to the side of the room less than enchanted with the series. One person kept losing the track of the mystery, but did like the sisters’ rules of Southern women: Southern women are never tacky, never common, and never ever as common as pig tracks. And then our next duo of sisters didn’t like the writing, thought nothing was happening, and didn’t believe the relationship between the sisters at all. They were thoroughly disgusted. Our final naysayer normally enjoys cozies, but said this one was a bit “too cozy,” and had no sense of place.

Then it’s back to the positive reviews. Our next member’s grandparents came from Alabama, and she felt the language and atmosphere were quite realistic. She thought there were some interesting characters, and that it made for a “comfortable” read. Others in this corner said their family does say “Brother” and “Sister” like in the book, and thought Murder Boogies with Elvis was a “hoot and holler,” very entertaining. Another loved the books for the humor, not the mystery. She found it amusing that a suicide was pinpointed as a murder instead, because the sisters knew that it was a mark of a true Southern lady to know that jumping from the top of a building was not ladylike.

One member tried one of the titles – Murder gets a life – on a book-on-tape and loved having the accent punctuate the story. She found it amusing to hear about to older ladies sitting around drinking coke (unheard of in some places), and used some of their sayings to torment her teenagers (being irrational to make them think rationally), her favorite being “if you drink 3 glasses of water fast it will kill you.” Throw that into a conversation and see what happens. And her all-time favorite line was when Mouse was at lunch with her sister and another woman, listening to whatever mischief Sister was up to, and “that’s when it dawned on me….I’m having lunch with two dingbats.”

The last two members also enjoyed the interaction between the characters more than the mystery, and thought the Southern culture and humor more than made up for any plot weaknesses. One also recommended another Southern series, the bloodhound series of Virginia Lanier (also dead, now that I think about it, hmm). Her favorite regulars from George’s books were Bubba and Vulcan. Bubba is the cat who sleeps on the kitchen counter on his very own heating pad, and he never moves. Mouse isn’t even sure if they can tell if he’s alive or dead, he’s always asleep. Always. And mentioned in many of the titles is the statue of Vulcan. This is a very real statue overlooking Birmingham. Patricia Ann and her husband have a house behind it, with a charming view of Vulcan’s, um, er, behind, also known as the “moon side” (see attachment for the correct view). One of the members asked why Birmingham has a statue of Vulcan. According to the park’s website, Vulcan is the Roman god of fire and forge and has represented Birmingham for over 100 years – Birmingham evidently has a history of steel-making. Yes, it has to be said, Patricia Ann house has a view of “buns of steel.” No, you can’t pin that one on me, but I did laugh with the rest.

For more information about Anne George and her writing, take a look here. This is a very nice fan site that includes a synopsis of each book and links to related subjects. Ding ding ding. We did have a few “extra” discussions pop up. I did use the bell. I did not use the duct tape. I did wave it around, though. All threat, no action. We’re actually a very civilized group, just a little too enthusiastic on occasion. Don’t be afraid – come join us. Our decorations were simple again this meeting. We had lots of books (we always manage that!) about Southern women, Southern culture, and Southern cooking, and pictures of Birmingham, the statue of Vulcan (from several views), and assorted scenes from the series (including Elvis impersonators and snake-handling church-goers). Refreshments were Southern delights – carrot cake, okra pickles, sweet potato chips and molasses cookies dressed up like Thanksgiving turkeys.

Barbara Michaels' Ammie, Come Home

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 18:21:00 +0000

Wow, last Thursday night was a whopper, writes Jeannine. 21 attendees and all talking at once. It’s time to bring my gavel back; banging a book on the table had very little affect. This was the sort of behavior I expected for The Da Vinci Code. Who knew a discussion of Ammie, Come Home by Barbara Michaels could result in a near brawl (see guys, you DO want to come to our meetings). No, no one was actually that angry, but we were certainly loud.

Ammie, Come Home follows the actions of Ruth Bennett, her niece Sara, Sara’s boyfriend Bruce, and one of her professors, Pat MacDougal (who becomes romantically attached to Ruth) as they become aware of other forces active in Ruth’s historical Georgetown home. After attending a séance at a dinner party, Ruth decides to have one at her own house with frightening results when a “spirit” speaks not through the medium but through her niece (giving the medium the biggest scare of all). As more odd things occur in the house including dreams and the seeming possession of Sara, the four unite to get to the bottom of the mystery. In addition to haunted goings on, there is also a second story revealed by their research of the Revolutionary War occupants of the house. There, I haven’t given too much away.

That doesn’t sound terribly controversial, does it? Yikes! When some people don’t like a book, look out. And quite a few did not like it at all. And equally as many enjoyed it a great deal. One person thought this might just be a matter of taste, and asked if the ones who disliked it would ever be interested in that kind of spooky read on their own. Most said no, but a few still insisted they disliked it because it was poorly written.

At this point, I should mention that this was one of Barbara Michaels (aka Elizabeth Peters, née Barbara Mertz) first novels, published in 1968. There was definitely some consideration in the group that the writing styles of the time period may have had some influence on our reading of the story, that it being one of her early novels she was still developing her skills, and that some of the “spookiness” of the story might be deflated because of all the scary and horror books and movies produced since then. Or not, as some insisted.

Most people felt the characters were underwritten, but could not agree if this was intentional to speed the story along, or just inept. Bruce was considered to be the one best presented, but several people were disappointed with Ruth and thought more about her and her background would have built up the story. They also felt her relationship with Pat was sudden and didn’t ring true. But handy (read “plot device,” to which one member – who shall remain nameless but we all know who he was – responded that the new author took the “plot device” out of the how-to-write-a-book kit, but then didn’t read the instructions for using it).

One member also mentioned that another difficulty in writing this book was that it was necessary to juggle two stories at the same time, the past and the present. To which others said… but no, what was said was kind of rude.

To all of this harping, our fearless A----- said emphatically, “Obviously I was reading a completely different book, because the one I read was very enjoyable.” Several people concurred. Well, shoot, I liked it too; it zipped right along and I didn’t have any inclination to slap anyone like I usually do in spooky stories, especially when they start screaming (why do they go into a deserted house AT NIGHT? And then they’re surprised? Sheesh). The pro faction began speaking up at this point, and thought the story was being overanalyzed, and berated for not being something it never intended to be. And I had to add that on Dorothy-L, the mystery listserv made up of hardcore mystery fans, oodles and oodles of authors, and librarians, a great many wrote in that Ammie, Come Home is one of the best “spooky” stories around, and a favorite of many.

An interesting sideline – many thought the séances in the book could have been explored in greater depth. These were extremely short séances (or drive-thru séances, as one called them), and the medium and all the other guests were immediately dropped from the story. A couple mentioned that the two of them had attended an actual séance where about 12 people sat in a circle, and the medium told each of the ones who had expressed interest something only they knew that he heard from “beyond.” One of the couple said she was told something only she knew about, and didn’t know if he was getting it from beyond, or just “reading her mind,” but he was onto something. And this information was not something that could be investigated or inferred. They were quite impressed, though not at all convinced of another realm’s existence.

Speaking of spooky, I asked who thought it was scary, who thought a little, who thought not much…. Some were strongly affected, some not at all, several thought it was all a sham or an effort to get Ruth to sell her home. One member thought it was just right, not too spooky, just enough for a pleasant chill, but not scary at all. Until she and her husband went to visit an empty house that had been foreclosed on, with no people or electricity. At night. With only a flashlight. Dark bushes. Dark house. Very very quiet. Scared herself silly, and spooked her husband as well.

One final point that almost everyone was impressed with, that every person (living OR dead) can only be influenced by the symbols of their own beliefs. I don’t want to give too much away, but this idea did play a major role in how things turned out. Or, as one member put it, it was great to discover religious bigotry extends beyond the grave. I hadn’t thought of it quite like that….

Everyone was amazed to discover that there was a TV movie made in 1970 based on the book, The House That Would Not Die, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Richard Egan, and billed as “a tale of witchcraft, black magic, and a haunted house in the Amish country.” Huh? Cheaper to film in an old deserted farmhouse, I bet. And Bruce became Stan. Why? Was the real Bruce offended? Huh? Hollywood.

Decorations were sparse but appropriate. Pictures of buildings in Georgetown, and of a séance, surrounded by books on spiritualism, ghosts, and Georgetown. The discussion tables had tablecloths, crystal candlesticks, a genuine plastic skull and a Bible in the center (major plot point) – all for a proper séance setting. We decided against invoking the spirits, and didn’t light the candles either. That might set off the sprinkler system, and we know how well that turned out the last time….

Refreshments were contributed this time by some of the members. Jack-o-lantern appetizers, long finger cookies (a simple shortbread cookie with sliced almond fingernail can really give you the creeps), cornbread ghosts, apples with caramel, and many more. And yes, the pièce de résistance was the infamous Kitty Litter Cake (see recipe). Tootsie Rolls should be outlawed.

Susan Isaacs' Compromising Positions

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:27:00 +0000

The Mainly Mysteries Book Club met again last Thursday night to discuss Compromising Positions by Susan Isaacs (photo left) writes Jeannine. This takes place in a New York suburban upper class neighborhood in the mid-1970s. In sort of an early Desperate Housewives, Judith Singer is a housewife who gave up graduate school to become a wife and mother. When her dentist is murdered and her neighbor a prime suspect, Judith discovers just how bored she has been by the overwhelming interest she discovers in working her own “investigation.” And like Desperate Housewives, there’s a great deal more going on in Judith’s neighborhood than anyone suspects. Her dentist was a very bad boy, romancing all the influential wives in town (with pictures), with a pornography business on the side and maybe even a Mafia connection. Lots of people wanted him dead. Oh my, who could it be? Judith starts asking questions and draws the attention of both the killer and a very attractive police detective. Her husband is being a bit of a jerk, and everyone else is fooling around, so why shouldn’t she? And she does (with the detective, not the killer). They also share information, eventually leading to – um – the end of the book. See, no real spoilers there.

We had a very large group and a very wide range of reactions. Most agreed that it was a lousy mystery, but quite a few enjoyed it as good social satire. Most were conflicted, liking some parts and disliking others. Judith was not generally well liked, but most found her interesting. Her husband was viewed as horrible, and by one as “robot man.” To me he seemed just as unhappy as Judith and HE didn’t fool around. But that’s just me. Most of the other characters were more caricatures than people, and the only one anyone seemed to like was the neighbor Marilyn, the one woman in the entire town who turned the dentist down (Judith was never propositioned, for which she seemed rather disappointed) and made all her own bread.

Those who disliked the book disliked it a lot. Really really disliked it. "A" read off her review of the book which she found absolutely revolting and nothing more than pornography. Or worse. Her review was absolutely priceless, sheer perfection in its pointedness. "A" is never one to mince words, for which we treasure her. (And if we can get a copy of her review, we’ll add it to the blog). She had an especially big problem with Prince (the dentist’s dog), and how it took Prince, and another person on the carpet in the killer’s own home to set the killer over the edge. No, you really don’t want to know any more than that. Trust me on this. Or, as one clever boy mentioned, “it’s obvious the younger generation is going to the dogs.” This brought great laughter and groans. And no, you still don’t want to know.

This was Susan Isaacs’s first novel, and it was generally decided that many of the problems with the story were due to this. The author appeared to start down several different avenues in the story, but then couldn’t seem to decide which to stick with. A plot point that seemed wasted for everyone is how Dr. Fleckstein seemed to target women with influential husbands as if planning for blackmail, but never seemed to make use of it. Another member said she wasn’t paying that much attention to how it all tied (or didn’t tie) together, and didn’t care, it was just too much fun. Many admired the “crackling wit” and humor, and didn’t feel a loss of suspense, reading it for the humor rather than the mystery or puzzle.

This led to the discussion of a movie that was made of the novel in 1985, starring Susan Sarandon, Raul Julia (the detective) and Joe Montegna (the dentist), and with a screenplay written by the author. Many plot points were changed – Judith had been a reporter before and was trying to get back in the field, her husband was even more obnoxious this time around, and, while there was nice chemistry between Judith and the detective, there was no affair. Oh, and Prince was there too. Poor Prince. The people who saw the movie thought the story seemed to hang together better, causing us to wonder if the author saw some of the weak points in her original novel and sought to correct them in her screenplay.

The novel was published in 1978 and came with some of the trappings of the time. Judith had learned her police procedure from “Dragnet to Kojak.” No CSI to check out the letters on her refrigerator. One of the female police officers had a beautifully coifed “massive Afro.” It all comes back. No one in our large group, however, had any experience in that kind of suburban neighborhood. Several of us had lived in the suburbs, but the working class suburbs, the “other side of town,” and remember more the “country club mentality” presented in the book, a social class, rather than an actual neighborhood.

We used the 1970s suburban theme for our display. We had some photos from the tract homes of the period, complete with harvest gold appliances and orange shag carpet. A bright apron was laid out beside the black rotary dial phone and a Fleetwood Mac album (you remember those big black disks). Popular books of the period were spread around (Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Love Story, Roots, Thorn Birds, Passages…). And some absolutely charming dental tools, complete with tooth. Ew.

Refreshments were traditional canapés – crackers and cheese and wieners (I had been hoping for Cheeze Wiz, but oh well). We’re sorry but Twinkies were too pricey for our budget, but we lucked out - "W" brought her wonderful lemon bars instead – recipe attached.

There were a couple of book recommendations before we closed. Those who hated Compromising Positions suggested anything by Fannie Flagg instead. Everyone loves Fannie Flagg. Her most recent, Can’t wait to get to Heaven was a special joy. Another member recommended the audio book of Maeve Binchy’s Tara Road – she said the reader was especially adept at both American and Irish accents. Which led to another member recommending anything read by Simon Prebble.

The Da Vinci Code

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 20:07:00 +0000

Wow! If you want to experience a lively discussion, bring The Da Vinci Code to the table, writes Jeannine. That book practically discusses itself. I brought the Reading Group Guide questions to the group and never used a single question. People couldn’t wait to share ideas, likes and dislikes, and there seemed to be a myriad of topics to discuss. Symbolism, subjugation of the female, the Gnostic gospels, movie casting, Church history, law suits - the list went on and on. And the discussion digressed quite often. I admit I started it on that slippery slope myself. Oops. The discussion just went hoppity-skip all over the place. And I took notes. But I now I don’t know what they mean. For instance: “666 – items related.” Huh? I remember it was really funny at the time, and something about an area code…. I hope someone remembers and puts it on the blog.

We started with a showing of hands – I DO remember that much. We tried it about 6 different ways – who liked it, who didn’t like it, who liked it with reservations, wait, which one are we raising our hands for? Who raised their hand twice? It was finally decided that about half of the group liked it unequivocally, and the other half liked it with reservations. There was no one who disliked it. But there were some who only saw the movie. And some who hadn’t read the book or seen the movie. And everyone thought it was funny that reviewers of the movie thought it was either not enough like the book, or too much like it. And you notice how quickly the discussion got away from us?

Dragging the discussion back to the book, we started (we didn’t finish, but we did start) getting opinions from members around the table. Most liked the theological, sociological and symbolic material of the story, but a few had problems with the writing itself. One believed it read like a movie script, with long verbal explanations to get the background in, a bit draggy in bits and that Sophie was just another simpering female letting the man figure out all the clues – a point which several other members took great umbrage with. This led to a brief discussion of some of Brown’s other books (most seem to think Angels and Demons was even better), and then back to picking apart his writing. One reader read off terrible examples of “show, don’t tell” telling. Which segued us into yet another “version” of the story, The Da Vinci Cod: A Fishy Parody by Don Brine. Seems “Mr. Brine” noticed some of these same problems and expanded on them in his version. A paragraph was read out loud and had us in stitches. It IS in our library system, so get your reserve in early. They’ll be lining up for this one.

Parody by "Farmland" on the Da Vinci Code,
not to be confused with Don Brine's bestseller

From here the discussion went all over the place, just like a discussion is supposed to. And everyone was lobbing zingers in the middle of serious topics. It’s no wonder my notes are so cryptic (pun intended). A great deal was explored about male/female agendas, matriarchal and patriarchal societies, the subjugation of women and brainwashing of men (don’t want to be “girly men”), the lack of evidence for Mary Magdalene’s supposed prostitute background (see Time article attached) and the concept of the feminine divine, ideas that some of the members said they had never really looked at and found fascinating, if not enlightening. This also led to the fact/fiction of the book, and the lawsuit with the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail which one member says after all the hoopla, publicity and umpteenth printing should be re-titled Holy Blood, Holy Smokes.

Another member who has read all of Brown’s books says there is definitely an anti-Catholic tone to most of his books. Others disagreed, feeling it was only the Church hierarchy that was being challenged, that religion is the Church, and faith is the people, and that maybe the Church hierarchy “doesn’t own the Church.” Which brought us to a discussion of the early Church, the compilation of the Gospels and the Gnostic gospels, and the appearance of God to man. One person said that God cannot be comprehended as He is, so takes on a human form as something man can conceive of, and this is where some of the male/female identity problems arise with patriarchal societies (women being forced out of leading church positions when the religion was officially adopted by Rome because of Rome’s patriarchal society). One joker, er, member said this is exactly the argument used by the aliens in Men in Black – the aliens took human form as something humans could relate to, using their own social structure to interact. It’s scary when those parallels work, isn’t it?

Cartoon (right) found on an Opus Dei priest's website

We were winding down off the heady topics when we came to a Catholic school graduate who absolutely loved The Da Vinci Code loved the irreverence, and found it absolutely liberating. She loved the movie - and this is where we go to the important subject – but thought Tom Hanks was all wrong for the part. Never mind the hair, he just didn’t work as an academic (sorry Tom). So I asked that really big question, Who should have had the role? And one member piped up “Liam Neeson should have every role.” He should be Dumbledore, he should be Gandalf, he should be all of them…. We laughed, but you know… she’s right. He would have been better. Huh. See attached.

Before we completely went off track, again, one member asked “But can we talk about it as a mystery.” And it was decided that as a mystery, the Code is a great success, a deep philosophical mystery surrounded by complex clues and red herrings. And it is never material that the reader will figure out several chapters before the characters do.

Before we left, one member recommended a science fiction title for those interested in the male/female dynamic The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri Tepper. It “is set in a post-holocaust feminist dystopia that offers only two political alternatives: a repressive polygamist sect that is slowly self-destructing through inbreeding and the matriarchal dictatorship called Women's Country.” Award winning and highly recommended.

Almost forgot. We had wonderful refreshments, gourmet sweet treats from a local baker, and very special C.O.D.E. cookies from one of our members (who also donated some lovely patty pan squash). What are c.o.d.e. cookies you say? Cranberry Orange Divine Energy cookies of course, and if you eat them in the proper order, all will be revealed. We tried, but never seemed to get the right order. So we tried again. And again. Good cookies.

Decorations were fairly simple again. Lots of pictures of actual sites in the book, lots of books on everything from Da Vinci, to the feminine divine, to the Louvre, the Templars, cryptography and more, maps and papers, and all the stuff to look like someone is trying to crack an historical code. And a little lavender, from the south of France, no doubt.

US Historical Mysteries

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 04:44:00 +0000

The Mainly Mysteries Book Club met again last night in the Library Board Room to discuss American historical mysteries. It was a smaller group than usual, but being a smaller room, that worked out just fine. And there may have been fewer people, but those who were there were so enthusiastic that the discussion ran ½ hour over its usual time. Luckily we were fortified with all-American food – Mom’s apple pie (well, Marie Calendar’s, but baked right here at the library and didn’t that smell wafting through the halls drive everyone crazy…), oatmeal cookies, flat pretzels and artichoke tapinade (er, South America). To put us in the correct historical mood, the room was sprinkled with facsimile Civil War era newspapers, Declaration of Independence and illuminated Bill of Rights, Uncle Sam and “Remember Pearl Harbor” posters, pictures of a Civil Rights sit-in, a suffragette demonstration, Revolutionary War recruiting poster, a Native American, and a handful of small items – a squash blossom necklace, toy brass cannon, a fan, and – covering two eras – my priceless Edgar Allen Poe bobble-head figure. Also hanging from the wall was a recreation turn-of-the-century woman’s dress, complete with bustle (that we never did figure out how to rig up, and also led to a discussion on the relationship between “a bustle” and “to bustle” and an emergency telephone call to the reference desk. The official answer – maybe related, maybe not).

I began the discussion (being the only one without my mouth full) with Owen Parry’s Shadows of Glory, the second in his Civil War series featuring special presidential agent Major Abel Jones. I suspect I would have done better if I had read the first novel in the series – Faded Coat of Blue – though I can’t say I lost track anywhere. I read some of his Civil War short stories and enjoyed them very much (and I seldom even read short stories), but had a bit of difficulty getting involved in this one. The books are meticulously researched, well written from a Victorian gentleman’s point of view, and certainly had plenty of excitement, so I think it was just me. Abel is recovering from being wounded in the war (it is currently 1862) and typhus, and is sent to check out rumors of a possible rebellion by the Irish in upper New York State, and the murder of the government agent there. I won’t give away the actual conspiracy, but it does read more like international intrigue than a traditional mystery. It is full of the social attitudes of the time – toward the Irish, the “Negro,” Germans, Welsh (like Abel), spiritualism (a séance is held at a Methodist ministers house attended by Frederick Douglas, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton as well as Major Jones), the Temperance movement, etc. I recommend giving the series a try.

Our next member is a big fan of the Elliott Roosevelt series featuring his mother, Eleanor Roosevelt. She has read all of the series and liked them, but she feels one of the best is Murder and the First Lady. She loves how Elliott shows great respect for his parents, but never holds back on their personality quirks or other White House secrets. In this one set in 1939, the intrepid Eleanor takes on the Mob, learns to crack a safe, and deals with Scotland Yard, among other exciting skills and activities.

Our next book is a return to a favorite author among members, Nevada Barr’s Flashback. Though it takes place in the present on the Dry Tortugas National Park off of Key West, letters related to the mystery of alleged Lincoln assassination conspirator Dr. Samuel Mudd are integral in solving the present day mysteries. The reader thought it was Barr’s best so far.

Next we return to a title discussed (with gusto and too little time) last month, The lost German slave girl: the extraordinary true story of Sally Miller and her fight for freedom in old New Orleans by John Bailey. The mystery at the time was whether or not the slave Sally Miller was actually a light-skinned slave, or actually Salome Mueller, a German immigrant enslaved in 1840s New Orleans. The reader was enthusiastic in recommending it, said it was full of fascinating facts and stories, and had about 2 pages of notes with various “did you know that…?” points of interest.Death of a winter Shaker by Deborah Woodworth is one of a series that focuses on Sister Rose Callahan and the Kentucky Shaker community of New Homage in the 1930s, their lifestyle and beliefs, and the occasional murder. The mysteries are good, but secondary to learning about the lifestyle of the Shakers (such as that the Shakers lived celibate lives and sustained their population by taking in orphans).

We move now to the northern Great Plains in 1870s. In The contract surgeon by Dan O’Brien, Dr. Valentine McGillicuddy (“guess what day he was born on?”) is a civilian surgeon contracted by the army during the Indian Wars. He keeps coming into contact with and forms a friendship with an Indian who turns out to be Crazy Horse. The mystery is What will Crazy Horse do? and What was done to Crazy Horse? The reader was impressed and recommends it.

We step further back in time now to 1763 Boston in A wicked way to burn by Margaret Miles, part of her Bracebridge series of light historical mysteries. This particular story deals with the aftermath of the French and Indian Wars, and all the neutral French left in America after the war, and the repercussions of a new king in England. This was considered light and enjoyable, and recommended (others who had read the series agreed).

Ann McMillan in Dead March confronts the Civil War era from a different perspective, two Confederate women from opposite ends of society – a young Virginia widow and a free black “conjure” woman. Together they must, very carefully, probe for the truth of a murder and grave robbery despite the legal inferiority and social isolation of women and blacks in that period in Richmond. The member said the book was very well written, well researched with good description. It’s the first in a series.

Our next member shared Black Maria: a mystery of old Philadelphia by Mark Graham. This is set during the great 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia (one of the displays is the arm of the statue of liberty – the rest of her will come later), and is described as a dark mystery of madness and brutal murders and very psychological. It was a bit dark for her taste, but well written, and the background information was very interesting.

The Benjamin January

series by Barbara Hambly was the next item shared. Benjamin January is a free man of color, a surgeon and a music teacher in 1830s New Orleans, and because of his education and position drawn in to investigate various murders and situations. The reader said all the mysteries were good, but it is the setting and sociological information that riveted her. The first in the series is Free man of color which focuses on the free black contracted mistresses of white gentlemen, a rather original quirk of the New Orleans culture of the time. Graveyard dust focuses on voodoo (still commonly practiced), and the one “that really grabbed” her, Sold down the river, in which Benjamin goes undercover as a slave, and reveals conditions that “just made her want to cry.”

We now move forward to 1904 and …New Orleans (a definite pattern is developing here). In Chasing the devil’s tail by David Fulmer, Creole detective Vincent St. Cyr

lives investigates the murders of two prostitutes in Storyville, the then legal red light district of New Orleans, where each bordello had their house pianist, and the new music of jazz was emerging. The author combines the legend of the lost “jassin’ around” musician with historical figures (including Jellyroll Morton) in a mystery full of murder, madness and corruption. Recommended (and first in another well-reviewed series).

Our next person found another tale in which the past played into the present in Snakeskin Shamisen by Naomi Hirahara. This takes place in the Japanese-American community of Los Angeles, and focuses on Mas Arai, a 70-year-old gardener, who realizes an instrument, a “shamisen,” left at a murder scene ties the event to Okinawa during World War II. The member found it very Japanese, and hard to read.

Several members were fans of Miriam Grace Monfredo and her Seneca Falls series. This is the Seneca Falls of the suffragette movement in the 19th century. The first member read The stalking horse which focuses on the niece of the original main character of the series, who is now a very intrepid Pinkerton agent at the time of Southern secession. It is her duty to help prevent the execution of a plot to assassinate President Lincoln. The other member, unfortunately, read several in the series at the same time. She doesn’t recommend this to anyone else. She said be sure to read them in order, because new characters are introduced to the series, and she kept getting confused, “But this hasn’t happened yet!”

The first member is an avid reader of historical fiction, mysteries and otherwise, but of all she has read, the Seneca Falls series and the Hilda Johansson series by Jeanne Dams are her favorites. Hilda Johansson is a Swedish immigrant working as a maid in the home of the Studebaker family (yes, those Studebakers) in South Bend, Indiana at the turn of the century. The first title is Death in lacquer red and comes highly recommended.

The second member who liked the Seneca Falls series also recommended Confessions of a teen sleuth by Chelsea Cain. This is a parody of the Nancy Drew children’s series (come on, you know you read them), and relates the exciting adventures of our favorite teen sleuth in 1926-29, with guest appearances by Trixie Beldon and Cherry Ames. A fun read.

Our next member was still enthralled in last month’s theme of ethnic detectives. He dove into several authors recommended at the last meeting, Eliot Pattison's Shan

Tao Yun and I.J. Parker's Sugawara Akitada, and was especially impressed with the Pattison series. He thought it is especially interesting to compare the Pattison series with the Yasmina Khadra titles he described at the last meeting. In Khadra, the Algerian characters were overwhelmed by political and social events and the senseless violence, but in Pattison, the Tibetans were continuing to resist the extremes of Chinese occupation.

He also commented on several titles to fulfill his obligation to this month’s theme. He read Matthew Pearl’s The Dante Club, and the alternative history/SF The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Unfortunately he found both very dull, as soon as interesting people appeared in the story, they just as quickly disappeared. The Gibson and Sterling title presents a world in which the computer was invented in the 19th century, instead of the 20th, and the subsequent changes to world history (the present U.S. is now 3 separate nations – North, South, and Texas). Interesting ideas, but dull people. The Dante Club is one I had brought up at a previous meeting, and while this other member related how dull he thought it was, I was making gagging motions on the side. People just don’t seem to understand that when I say it was horribly graphic, I don’t mean Patricia Cornwell/Kathy Reichs/CSI graphic, I mean really really horrible. I think that the next time we have some super special edible treats at a meeting, I’m going to read a few paragraphs to the group, and all those treats will be left over, so HA! (I mean seeing the horrendous death through the eyes of the victim as maggots eat his living brain, I ask you, Is this not a bit much? And it just gets worse; there are murders to go with each rung of Dante’s Inferno, all to be experienced with the victim). Stepping down from my soap box now….

Our final title is Devil in a blue dress by Walter Mosley which features the black detective Easy Rawlins in 1948 Los Angeles (and made a dandy movie starring Denzel Washington). Easy is a sharecropper’s son from Houston who moved to Los Angeles in search of work in the defense industry. He has his own bungalow and its corresponding mortgage, so that when he loses his job at the plant, he is drawn into the dark underworld of L.A. to make ends meet. His first job is to track down a woman in the jazz clubs for people who “just want to talk to her.” Yeah, right. The member said the language was so good, that even though she wanted to race ahead to see what happened, she kept slowing down and backing up to enjoy the writing. There is strong violence, strong language and real evil, but she says she was totally convinced that it was all accurate. Highly recommended.

Non-Anglo Detectives

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 07:02:00 +0000

We met last night to discuss “ethnic detectives,” or any detective coming from a non-Anglo cultural base, writes Jeannine. Native American, Russian, Italian, South African, Algerian, Thai…. We had multicultural decorations and refreshments. There were blue corn tortilla chips (Native America) with salsa (Mexico) and hummus (Mediterranean/Middle East). Milano (Italy) and Brussels (Belgium) cookies, rice cakes (Asia), watermelon (southern Africa – I looked it up!), and several members brought other tasty treats. That puts you in a good mood right there. Except for those fish-bait smelling cans from Russia. We can see by the picture that one can had squid, but the other is a mystery. A mystery that will remain unsolved, ‘cause we ain’t opening that can!

Decorations were matched up with related books – Swedish horse with a Henning Mankell titles, kimono with Laura Joh Rowland, Mexican figure (with unopened tequila) with Rudolfo Anaya, Australian aboriginal art with Philip McLaren, a lovely picture of gondolas in Venice with Donna Leon, one of 1940s Los Angeles with Walter Mosley, an Indian incense vessel with H.R.F. Keating, a photo of Sicily with Andrea Camilleri, an African basket with Alexander McCall Smith and others.

We talked about books too.

In the past, these sessions where everyone discusses a different title have been especially rewarding, but also especially long. Sometimes members try one book but didn’t like it and tell us why, then try another (didn’t like it, tell us why), then another… until they find one they like. Or there are those that read A LOT (which we do encourage!) and bring a whole stack to share. Which we like, but…. So we thought we would start kind of a 5-minute rule, like at the Oscars. If your speech runs over, the orchestra starts playing. We don’t have an orchestra, so we brought out C----‘s dancing hamster. Talk too long the hamster sings and dances. Keep talking and you dance with the hamster. Now with staff, threatening to whip out one of C----‘s musical items is very effective and keeps everyone in line quite nicely. But Mainly Mysteries members are obviously a new breed. They liked the hamster. Someone kept talking. She was fine with dancing with the hamster. The hamster had a great time at the meeting.

This was a great idea whose time has not yet come. We’ll keep working on it.

Now for the books:

Our first titles for discussion were Gorky Park and Havana Bay by Martin Cruz Smith. Both feature detective Arkady Renko, “the cynic of cynics,” who tries to work around the KGB and the Soviet system he despises to reach the truth in each investigation. The reader enjoyed the comparison of the two books because of the different settings and time periods. In Gorky Park, Renko is working in Moscow as part of the Soviet Union, and in Havana Bay, he works for the Russian Federation on an investigation in Cuba. She found it interesting to compare the coping mechanisms of the Soviets/Russians and the Cubans with Communist oppression. She said the Russians were cynical and drank, and the Cubans were cynical and drank and had a good time. We decided that was because it’s so much warmer in Cuba.

Our next title was The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleria featuring Inspector Montalbano of the Sicilian police force. One of the Sicilian police forces. There are rather a large number of law enforcement entities in Italy. There are the carabinieri, local police, highway police, railway police, port police, anti-Mafia commission, antiterrorism commission, antidrug commission, antikidnapping commission, and, well, the list does go on. And on. Corruption is rife, and the people who work for the government are seldom the ones actually running the country. And within all this, Montalbano is an honest cop who knows how the system works, how to work around it, and how to make it work for him. There is a great sense of place in the book and feel for the people, as well as a good police procedural mystery.

Our next member read a clunker before she found an interesting title. The clunker was The China Trade by S.J. Rozan which features the Chinese-American detective Lydia Chin. She liked the character all right, but the mystery and writing was simplistic and not worth the time. She then tried Bangkok 8 by John Burdett which she says “catches you from the beginning.” It follows the investigation of Thai police officer Sonchai Jitpleecheep (no, we don’t know how to pronounce it either), and is loaded with atmosphere, Thai culture and Buddhism references.

Quite a few people read various titles from Tony Hillerman's Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn series. One read Skeleton Man, as well as The Shaman’s Game by James D. Doss, but chose to leave Hillerman for another to discuss, and instead told us about The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison. In Pattison’s books, Chinese Shan Tao Yun is exiled and imprisoned in Tibet, then released so he can make a special report there. Our reader found the book so well written and the situation in Tibet so dark that she was horribly depressed. Another member who had enjoyed the series said that, yes, the circumstances were dire, but Shan Tao Yun’s view of life despite this was quite optimistic.

The next Hillerman reader said she read the stories specifically for the cultural information, rather than the mystery. The final Hillerman reader was equally interested in Hillerman’s background growing up in the Southwest and being educated in various Indian schools and then spending years as a journalist before switching to fiction. Hillerman was so popular at this meeting that even the book on the display was snatched up to be checked out.

Our next Native American character was Cherokee Molly Bearpaw in Ravenmocker by Jean Hager. The member said that the mystery and characters were interesting, but she was especially fascinated by how clues were found and interpreted, and the tracking skills of one character.

From America now to Africa. Mainly Mysteries' very first discussion was about The #1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, and many of us have continued to read subsequent books in the series. The next member said that even though a few books in the middle of the series were not as good as the first (a problem with most series), she felt this one was back to the quality of the original. She especially enjoys the character of Mma Precious Ramotswe because she is so good at kindness and enjoying people.

And on to a colder climate. Really cold. An author whose name kept coming up was Henning Mankell of Sweden. The member who read Firewall said that Mankell is every bit as good as Pattison. The stories follow Inspector Kurt Wallander, a deeply depressed and complex individual pursuing what can turn out to be complex crimes. She found the stories very introspective, and also mentioned that there are two editions available by two different translators, and that while both are very good, she prefers the one that includes maps with each book. Another member recommended two web sites that are quite elaborate and useful (see here and on the “official” site).

Another writer of Native American mysteries is Margaret Coel. Her novels take place primarily on the Wind River Arapaho reservation, and feature two “detectives,” Catholic priest John O’Malley, and Arapaho attorney Vicki Holden. These come highly recommended, and the reader found it especially interesting to compare the Arapaho culture presented in these with that of the Navajo in Tony Hillerman’s books.

We now leave the present for the past, and the culture of classical Rome. In Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis, Marcus Didius Falco is a private detective on the mean streets of Rome, where you never know what beautiful dame is going to walk through your door. Sound familiar? The hardboiled p.i. persona works amazingly well in Imperial Rome, dirty streets, crowded tenements, rampant corruption and greed, political backstabbing (as well as the regular kind with a knife), and silver ingots (the silver pigs of the title) just waiting to be stolen - all the elements that make for a good mystery with fascinating historical details thrown in for good measure. The historical detail was so interesting that the member pursued the subject further, reading a novel about Attila and the Roman general Flavius Aetius (probably the one by Ross Laidlaw, Attila: the scourge of God), which then took her to a children’s Newberry winning book The White Stag by Kate Seredy, which “Retells the legendary story of the Huns' and Magyars' long migration from Asia to Europe where they hope to find a permanent home.” And a reminder of the obvious which we all miss, Hun as in HUNgary (the Magyar Republic). Sometimes it really is just staring you in the face.

From the northern Mediterranean we move now to the south and Algeria. Our next member chose a Superintendent Llob mystery by Yasmina Khadra because, well, it was short. Short, but packed with power and content as Sup. Llob tries to do his job amidst the intense violence and terrorism in contemporary Algeria. With great depth, Khadra tries to find meaning in all the violence, only to clearly demonstrate that the violence is meaningless. Yasmina Khadra is the pseudonym or a male author who chose a female’s name so his writing would not have to undergo severe censorship in Algeria (women’s words obviously of little worth or danger). He has also written non-mystery novels such as The Swallows of Kabul (life in Afghanistan under the Taliban) and Wolf Dreams (follows the transformation of a sweet boy to fanatic terrorist).

Our next member had quite a range of titles to present. She started with The #1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (subject of the book club’s very first discussion!) and enjoyed the first part about Precious Ramotswe’s background, but did not care for the “little stories” about the detective agency itself. So she moved on to another book by the same author, The Girl Who Married a Lion and Other Tales from Africa which she thought would be something like an African Aesop’s Fables. Instead it was like a very grim Grimm’s Fairy Tales, extremely graphic violence and horror, so she set that one aside as well. Then, being interested in Gypsy culture, she tried The Hummingbird Wizard by Meredith Blevins. She said the writing and mystery were okay, but there was not enough information about Gypsy culture to whet her appetite. So our reader fell back on an author she had had previous success with, Lou Jane Temple and her “Spice Box” series (culinary historicals). The first, The Spice Box, is about a young Irish immigrant working in a Jewish household in 1860s New York with requisite murder and mystery, and a lot of fascinating Jewish culture. The spice box itself was an interesting cultural item, for in addition to the various spices in each tiny drawer, was a special drawer with one recipe from each of its owners. The second in the series, Death du Jour moves back to Paris and the French Revolution. As you can see by the length of this paragraph, the hamster was used. Several times. Dancing was enthusiastic.

Our next member read The Twelfth Card by Jeffrey Deaver. In it a Harlem teenager trying to solve a 140-year-old mystery about an ancestor is targeted by a killer. It’s part of the Lincoln Rhyme series which is also interesting for exploring the situation of a quadriplegic police detective. But a rave review now goes to a nonfiction title, The Lost German Slave Girl: the extraordinary true story of Sally Miller and her fight for freedom in old New Orleans by John Bailey. It explores the intricacies of Louisiana slave law and the status of black women as Sally’s identity is debated as either a light-skinned black woman or an illegally enslaved white German woman. This title comes highly recommended.

Our final reader had three books to share (the hamster was not used). He first tried Deon Meyer’s Dead before Dying which is a thriller/police procedural that takes place in South Africa, featuring Zatopek van Heerden. He had read it before in the original Afrikaans, but was quite disappointed in the English translation which he said “washes out” the sense of country. So, wishing to remain in Africa, he tried Henning Mankell’s White Lioness which takes place in both Sweden and South Africa, and offers a complex story about a plot against Nelson Mandela. He highly recommends Mankell and his Inspector Wallander. Finally, in an effort to read as many African authors as possible, he also tried a Yasmina Khadra Superintendent Llob mystery, which he said had vivid characters wresting with corruption, but it had so much country/cultural detail that the police story was lost.

The interest in Africa brought forth a recommendation for The Flamingo Feather by Laurens van der Post, a novel about a Soviet plot to overthrow South Africa, and full of historical and cultural background of South Africa.

Are you still there? At this point we called it a day.

Future meetings:

July 6: in honor of Independence Day in the United States, we will be discussing American historical mysteries, or any mystery taking place in the geographical area of the United States during any time period. So anything from the Anasazi mysteries of Kathleen O’Neal and W. Michael Gear to the Elvis mysteries of Daniel M. Klein is acceptable. That meeting will be in the Library Board Room instead of the big Ford Community Room.

August 10: back in the Ford Community Room, we will delve into controversy (we hope) with a discussion of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Whether you read the book or watched the movie, hated it, loved it, liked bits of it, wonder what the fuss is about, we want you there with your opinion. For more information and links, take a look at Wikipedia's Da Vinci Code article.

September 14: we hope to discuss Compromising Positions by Susan Isaacs, sort of the original desperate housewives. We won’t know until early July if sufficient copies will be available to order or not. We’ll let you know immediately if we have to switch titles. Or get a head start and read one of the old copies already in the system.

We have not decided what to discuss for October. Some kind of tie-in with Halloween could be fun. Paranormal mysteries? Vampire mysteries? A particular title? Be thinking about it and bring your ideas to the next meeting.

For those of you who were unable to attend or share more of your favorite ethnic detectives, don’t forget to blog here. There’s more than enough room – and time – for all your comments and opinions.

Till next time.

PS: If you would like to read and discuss along with us:

* send an e-mail request to mainly.mysteries at gmail.com for an annotated reading list;
* look at lists on African Crime and Mystery Fiction available from Northbrook Public Library, Mid-Continent Public Library, and Morton Grove Public Library. We can also send you a a larger annotated list by request;
* click on "Comments" below this post for a list of ethnic detectives available in the Douglas County Library System.

Kate Wilhelm's Death Qualified

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Thu, 11 May 2006 09:18:00 +0000

Our May author, Kate Wilhelm, lives in Eugene. So Oregonians can expect to read about landmarks you’ll recognize, writes Jeannine. Wilhelm is an award winning author of both mysteries/legal thrillers and science fiction. Once you try her, you may never read another by John Grisham. Death Qualified features recurring character attorney Barbara Holloway. Five years before Barbara Holloway gave up practicing law, disillusioned with a profession that put politics before justice. Then she receives a phone call, with a simple message: "I need you." Holloway is “death qualified,” meaning she is permitted to act in capital cases, and must try to keep a woman from being railroaded by the legal system. Publishers Weekly says it is “another intricate, many-layered novel, in equal parts murder mystery, science fiction, psychological study and consideration of legal ethics.” To find out more, check out Wilhelm’s web site (of all places).

When the group met to discuss Kate Wilhelm’s Death Qualified, we had a very animated discussion, writes Jeannine. As one member said “It was like three books in one,” so there was a great deal of material to explore.
In Death Qualified, Barbara Hollaway is called back by her father to the Eugene area to help a friend of his combat murder charges. Nell is accused of killing her husband sometime after he allegedly killed a female hitchhiker somewhere below the Dee Wright observatory attempting to manipulate reality and perception, using a computer program of fractals and Mandelbrots sets (click here to have these explained, or just look at the pretty pictures) to draw a susceptible mind into another way of viewing reality. Or that was their plan…. So there really are three separate books interwoven – the interconnected relationships of all the characters, the legal battle for acquittal, and the scientific skirmish for reality and sanity.
The plot was quite complex with many psychological layers, and great food for discussion. Once again tastes varied greatly – some people loved the book, some loved certain parts of the story, some hated the whole thing, and a few couldn’t get past the first few chapters. Oddly enough, it was the detailed description of the area in the mountains of Chapter 4 that really turned some people off, they thought it was a complete waste of time. One pointed to Nell's thoughts, "Talk to Grampa," as an example of “purple prose.” Many others liked the entire book except the very end, which some didn’t like because of the science fiction elements, and some didn’t like because of the high level of coincidence. One person said that the odd ending left her feeling cheated, there was no happily ever after with all conflict resolved. Even odder, not everyone could agree on whether a main character lived or died (“But I thought he died! No, he didn’t. Oh, good”). Read it and see what you think (I thought it was perfectly clear, she says with her nose in the air).
A member elucidated a main theme running repeatedly throughout the novel – how once something is started, there is no going back, and the end is seldom what was planned. This showed up in how Barbara was once again drawn into the legal profession and completely into the case; how the scientists started their research with the best of intentions but eventually descended to madness and murder; how Mike thought only to see what was on the computer disks so he could help with the case, but was completely transformed by it; and how Clive’s attempt to create a social cover escalated to violence.
Everyone seemed to agree all the characters were interesting and well-developed. As more were introduced, the list of suspects increased as well as the complex interactions of the characters revealed more and varied motives. And even the “bad guys,” who we dubbed The Cabal of Evil, turned out to be more balanced and complex than we first believed. Everyone was thoroughly fed up with Doc’s weakness of character. And most were highly suspicious of his disabled wife Jessie – several people kept expecting her to rise and walk from her wheelchair when no one was looking. We also discussed Nell’s reasoning for not divorcing Lucas in the first place; whether or not Lucas was really crazy or not; and the relationship between Barbara, her father Frank, and former boyfriend/prosecutor Tony. Barbara’s fierce idealism 5 years before had been crushed when her father and Tony worked out a plea bargain for her client without her knowledge, so her jaded view was a combination of what she viewed as a failed legal process and a personal betrayal by Tony and Frank. She was able to gradually work through these feelings and gain a better understanding of her father and his viewpoint as this trial progressed.
As you can see, there is a lot of content to this story. A great deal is left out here – the trial itself, which is as good or better than Grisham – the methods of creating suspense to move the characters’ musings along – and the way the reader is sucked in at the very beginning when the story is presented by the medicated, confused and somewhat amnesiac “Travis” as he tries to break free and remember his real self, Lucas. You won’t even hear Barbara mentioned until page 59. It’s definitely not pulp fiction.
Decorations were fairly simple with pictures of the Dee Wright observatory and scenery in that part of the Cascades, including a
picture that looked just like the scene of the murder. Law books and gavel, cassette tapes (Lucas’ diary) and floppy disks (the infamous Mandelbrot program – don’t worry, they’re being wiped), the explanation of Mandelbrots sets listed above (picture right) and some dandy pictures of fractals (Google image search!). Refreshments were cheese(y lawyers) and (clients who are) crackers, trail mix (fruits and nuts) and Pecan sandies (because Nell was a sweet cookie? Groan. No, of course, it’s the nuts thing again. Sanity is a BIG issue in this book).

Please be sure to log your ideas and comments online in our blog. You do NOT have to use your real name, so don’t be shy.

Science Fiction Detectives

noreply@blogger.com (Mainly Mysteries) — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 06:50:00 +0000

In April we explored authors whose books blend science fiction with mystery and crime fiction. According to Jeannine, this is essentially a cross-genre that requires only that the detective be somewhere in the future, or on another planet, or in an alternate history. He/She/It can be human, or robot, or android, or A.I., or whatever some clever author thinks up. I suppose if it’s an alien it could technically be used in our Ethnic Detectives discussion too. There are the books of J.D. Robb (Eve Dallas in the near future), Donna Andrews’ series about A.I. sleuth Turing Hopper, the Philip K. Dick story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (remember the movie Blade Runner?) and Minority Report (with a movie of the same name). You can find a small list at Stop You Are Killing Me and another annotated one at SciFiMysteries. It should be a very different kind of discussion, so be sure to join us.

Last night was a very lively meeting, writes Jeannine. It was a somewhat smaller group, but no one was shy. We discussed “science fiction detectives” which we discovered can cover a great deal of diverse ground (and space).

We had a great time setting up the display and refreshments. Wow, you can take just about anything and call it something else. For some odd reason, none of us had any light sabers or ray guns, no space shuttles or bio-scanners, warp drives, androids or brain augmentations. On our paychecks? Ha! So we went decidedly low-tech:

the classic flying saucer (as seen in “Plan 9 from Outer Space”) – two metal pie pans taped together
We had E.T.’s bicycle horn
Arthur Dent’s towel (and a copy of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – yes, that Arthur Dent)
My personal favorite – two Scottish Tribbles
A bottle of nanobots (you just think it’s empty)
A spherical thruster cap and an FTL warp drive dynamo (my cats didn’t want to play with them anyway)
A technobabble modifier (also used to pry the keys off the keyboard, or is that the same thing?)
And you’ve all seen one of these – a whatchamacallit doohickey thingamabob (be sure to spell that correctly – a thingamagig is completely different)
And everyone’s favorite, an actual transporter (it said so, right on the paper we taped to the floor, with a few cds to make it look “realistic”)

Naturally, once you get started with this sort of thing, look out. For refreshments we had:

Alien Munch Mix (caramel corn mix)
Flying saucers (cookies – round ones, duh)
Golden orbs of Alpha Centauri (oranges)
Space drops (just change the a to an i…)
Robot fuel (coffee)
Android fuel (tea)
Fuel stabilizer (cream/creamer)
Fuel booster (sugar/sweetener)
Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters (apple cider)

A couple of members also brought real food, er, let me think here… ah, yes –

Bark from the Tree of Life (chocolate, no-brainer)
Speckled Space Puffs (try saying that fast 3 times – poppy seed muffins)

Oh yes, colanders were provided to wear for people who were afraid of having their minds sucked out by aliens. Some people swear by aluminum foil, but we thought the colanders looked much smarter.

Okay, now that the important stuff is out of the way, on to the books!

Our first title brought to the table was Murder in the Solid State by Wil McCarthy. The reader was not a fan of science fiction, but thought it was a fairly decent mystery with lots of computer related technobabble that she skimmed over. She said, however, that there were about three small bits totally unrelated to the plot that she found quite offensive, and spoiled the story for her (and will keep her from reading any more by this author).

Our next member had returned his book, so couldn’t quite remember the title – Death in… by McCarthy. He said it was about how science affects politics and way of life, and the plot followed scientists in truly deadly competition with one another, resorting to murder to get ahead. Lots of murder. And a bit of nanotechnology. After tracking down the title (Reference Librarian to the rescue!), we discovered it was the same as one discussed by an earlier member – Murder in the Solid State by Wil McCarthy. Each had such a different reaction to and enjoyment of the book that they didn’t realize they were discussing the same item. The rest of us didn’t either. Maybe we should always have at least two people read the same book – the result is quite fascinating.

Our next member is a fan of the TV program “Boston Legal,” so she picked up one of the Tek series “by” William Shatner (ghostwriter!, ghostwriter!), TekLords. In it, PI Jake Cardigan tries to stop a deadly viral plague that has been loosed on a future San Francisco. We know that it is a future San Francisco because there are lots of androids and robots, and cool new words we’ve never heard of. The reader found it extremely annoying throughout, and just keep hearing the phrase “Denny Crane, Denny Crane.” Evidently not science fiction to be taken seriously….

Which, ahum, brings us to J.D. Robb. Robb is the pseudonym of Nora Roberts, and it should be noted her “futuristic” detective Eve Dallas is catalogued here in the mysteries, not the science fiction. Several members read one of her titles – Divided in Death and Survivor in Death, and both were rather unimpressed. The first reader did not like SF to begin with, so found all the futuristic terms and gadgets quite annoying. The story and characters were uninvolving, and the mystery was just so-so. The other reader didn’t care for the book because it was not SF enough. It read to her as just everyday USA a little faster. Characters were flat, and the mystery okay. Her verdict on the book, “Oh well.”

Three members chose the classic Do androids dream of electric sheep? by Philip K. Dick (made – sort of – into the movie Blade Runner). One of them even finished it recently, another had read it years ago, the other is almost done…. The first member to discuss it considered it one of the best pieces of science fiction ever written, with the creation of a complete universe with its own theological system, and asking the question (and the real mystery within the mystery) “What makes us human?” In the novel, human detectives hunt down androids who have escaped termination, and as the story evolves, the humans become more inhuman, and the androids more human, and the question becomes more difficult to answer. This member is also a big fan of the movie Blade Runner, but says it is nothing like the book and follows a completely different story line. He says both are great in their own ways, but have in common only their characters’ names. Both of the other readers agreed with most of his points, especially the exploration of the line between android and human. One was impressed with the religious imagery, though she had a feeling a great deal of it was sailing over her head, and she also thought the creative terminology didn’t always work (disemelevatored?, p.115).

We now move to a “mystery” without a detective, Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Shadow. Orson Scott Card is a master universe/world builder. He has two parallel series that take place at the same approximate time and universe, but focus on different characters – the Enders series that begins with Ender’s Game (read Chapter One here), and the Shadow series that begins with Ender’s Shadow (read Chapter One here). Ender Wiggin’s shadow is 4-year-old Bean, a brilliant orphan enrolled in the same school as Ender, where games and drills are far more than just games and drills. The mystery is not murder, but the parentage of the child. The book comes highly recommended, and the reader fully intends to try out the rest of the series, even though she has never been a big fan of science fiction.

Our next member doesn’t like science fiction at all. Never reads any of it. Never. So imagined how stunned she was to learn J.D. Robb can be considered science fiction. Or that alternative histories and time travel can as well. She loves time travel. Gotchya! You read some science fiction, tell us all about it. So she told us about The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser (a mystery writer of some repute), in which a bride on the eve of her wedding looks in a family heirloom mirror and is switched with her grandmother on the eve of her wedding. The member was fascinated at how differently the two coped – the grandmother was totally befuddled in the future world, and the granddaughter found it very easy to slip into a world where she knew what was going to happen to all the main characters already.

Our next member has the luxury of being read to by her husband while she is doing needlework. He loves science fiction, so recommended the Peter F. Hamilton trilogy: Mindstar Rising, A Quantum Murder, and The Nano Flower. Unfortunately, they read the middle one first, which she described at very much science fiction, but also a classic “closed door mystery.” She said it was strong as both SF and mystery, and both enjoyed it enough to move on to the first in the series.

This same voracious reader also shared a mystery with strong science fiction elements, You’ve Got Murder by Donna Andrews, the first in a series about a mystery solving A.I. (artificial intelligence), Turing Hopper. This first in the series explores how the Turing first became sentient, and then how she gets her human friends to help her solve a mystery. Our reader enjoyed this, said it was interesting watching the evolution of the character, and that the mystery was well done as well.

Now to Pashazade by Jon Courteney Grimwood. This one is a bit complicated (but never confusing). It takes place in a near future 21st century in an alternate history where the Ottoman Empire never fell. Most of it takes place in “El Iskandrya” (Alexandria) and follows the adventures of Ashraf Bey, a rather mysterious man brought from Seattle by his aunt (who he is amazed to discover is his aunt) to take part in an arranged marriage. When he discovers his intended does not want to marry him, he backs out (the scandal!). But before the dust settles, his aunt is murdered, he becomes guardian of his niece, and he is framed for her and another’s murders. But he is no shrinking violet – he has some rather interesting skills, an unusual base of knowledge and way of “seeing things.” Like a certain fox…. Read it to find out. One of the most interesting (and refreshing) aspects of the book was the north Africa/Muslim setting, rich with history and atmosphere, combined with the near future/modern sense of society and technology.

We move now to another voracious reader, who brought quite a few titles to the table. She read The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde specifically to cover our theme, and thoroughly enjoyed the wit and imagination shown in creating this “literary detective” who restores order to sabotaged classic works of fiction by actually entering the work to catch the saboteur. We read this title some years back as a group, and discovered you either love it, hate it, or just don’t get it.

This member then expanded to some of her favorite science fiction, and science fiction fantasy (more cross-genres!). She shared Barbara Hambly’s The Silent Tower, full of mages and magic, dual worlds, and a void that is mysteriously being opened to create a connection between the worlds. Another favorite by Hambly is Time of the Dark, another “SF fantasy” with dual worlds.

She also shared the adventures of Pip and Flinx series by Alan Dean Foster in For Love of Mother-Not. Flinx is an orphan boy traveling from world to world trying to find out where he came from (he appears to be genetically altered), and Pip is his pet, a deadly poisonous snake (sounds handy). Each book takes place on a different planet, so there is always variety and imaginative world-building in each novel of the series.

Another member brought up a title that exemplifies how the time travel really can be true science fiction – To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. In it, Willis takes some of the time travel concepts she introduced in the award winning Doomsday Book, and turns them into a very humorous jaunt through Victoriana (there was nothing remotely humorous in Doomsday). Highly recommended.

The meeting then turned into a lively discussion of “what comes next” and other activities we might try. We settled on our themes/selection through August (stay tuned below), but also brought up other possible ideas. A theme idea related to our ethnic detectives was to do selections continent by continent – mysteries set in Africa, mysteries set in Asia…. Another idea was to have Sherlock Holmes as a theme, but not limited to Doyle. There are many, many mysteries and series with Holmes as a main character (such as those by Laurie R. King or Caleb Carr). This also brought us to a discussion of which we each preferred – everyone reading a single title, or all the same author, or a broader theme – and it was decided that most preferred a mix, a single title one month, a theme the next, an author the next….
You can find a list of books on science-fiction mystery and crime fiction available in the Douglas County Library System by clicking on "Comments" below this post.