Holiday Mysteries

People have asked why they couldn't register as a "follower" and I don't know.  I've made a few adjustments to the settings and hopefully it will now work.

Our Sleuths Have To Work Over the Holidays

Holiday mysteries often seem to be shorter and lighter than regular mysteries; even so I think you will enjoy this group. Take a break from your own holiday mayhem and enjoy a good read.

1.  Aunt Dimity’s Christmas by Nancy Atherton – A nameless man collapses on Lori’s driveway as she prepares for the holiday. Aunt Dimity and the local Catholic priest help her solve this good solid mystery with a quiet touch of holiday spirit.

2.  A Christmas Promise by Anne Perry – Here is a story that will stay with you long after you have finished reading it. Not one of her series books, it still takes place in Victorian England. Our two sleuths, in this mystery for adults, are Gracie, aged 13, and Minnie, aged 8.

3.  Chanukah Guilt by Ilene Schneider –This is a great introduction to Rabbi Aviva Cohen in South Jersey.

4.   Christmas Is Murder by CS Challinor – Rex Graves is a Scottish barrister in this new series. It is a very well-done “Clue” meets Agatha Christie. Can’t give away the plot, but it is another “English country house” mystery well worth the read.

5.  Death of a Cozy Writer by GM Malliet – “Hard-boiled” mystery fans might think the idea of a cozy writer’s demise is long overdue! This first book in a fairly new series is a refreshing addition to the “English country house” mystery genre.

6.  Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie – Lots of families play a game together over the holidays but they don’t all end with a murder.  There goes Poirot’s quiet holiday.

7.  A Highland Christmas by MC Beaton – Hamish Macbeth has a mystery to solve over the holidays, but this time it isn’t murder.

8.  Kissing Christmas Goodbye by MC Beaton – This is considered by some to be the best in the series of Beaton’s other famous sleuth, Agatha Raisin. It’s a delightful “cozy” for the holidays.

9.  The Midnight Before Christmas by William Bernhardt – This is a non-series mystery from a writer usually associated with courtroom drama thrillers. It is definitely NOT a “cozy”. It IS action from start to finish. Setting it against the holidays gives it more of a “noir” feeling than if it were set at another other time, I think.

10.  Tied Up In Tinsel by Ngaio Marsh – A baffling mystery (as all mysteries should be) in the typical “English country house” genre. Inspector Alleyn’s wife has a major role in this one snowed up in an isolated country manor whose household staff contains no less than five “rehabilitated” convicted murderers.

 

Banned Books Week Is Coming Up

I was just at the Library putting up a display for Banned Books Week.  Be sure to visit your local library and see what they have going on....

It is always amazing to see some titles that people have challenged and had removed from shelves, especially at schools.

Titles such as:  Where's Waldo, Little Women, Fahrenheit 451 (that's irony if there ever was), the Merriam Webster Dictionary, and  Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? are among some of the most unexpected titles.

I have to admit that there are some books that make you wonder why they were ever printed in the first place.  Many are so repulsive.  BUT! The first time you  allow a book to be censored you have started down the slippery slope to tyranny.  The slogan of this year's week is "Think For Yourself and Let Others Do The Same."  To my mind it is the perfect slogan for the entire year.  If I am allowed to have a book removed from a library or bookstore shelf because of language, sex or violence my neighbor must be allowed to have a book removed because it speaks of God, of freedom, of democracy.  There is no stopping it once started.

 

Mystery Board Games - Part of the "Everything Else"

Books, Movies and Board Games...  you can never have too many.  And if you have them life can not be dull or boring.  And if you don't include them in your life, I am convinced, you leave yourself open to stress and all its side effects of ill health - physical and mental.

Since I have started putting the mystery column in I began thinking about all those mystery board games in my collection.  I have at least 30 (the ones I can see without too much moving stuff and not including the spy types) and after thinking it over I would have to say that CLUE is still our favorite. 

For the Holmes fans, I must say that I have 5 Sherlock Holmes games, made by different companies and including a card game.

Here's the list:
Sherlock Holmes (5)
Sleuth
Mr. Ree
Whodunit
Alfred Hitchcock's Why
Where There's A Will
Who Stole Ed's Pants
Mystery Express
Murder on the Orient Express
Philip Marlow Detective GAme
Outrage
Mystery on the Nile
Mystery in the Abbey
Mystery Rummy
Kojak the Stakeout Game
221B Baker Street (4 versions)
Clue (at least 7 versions)
Clue Master Detective
Clue Museum Caper
Kill Dr Lucky (a mystery in reverse)
Totort: Nactexpress
Crime Club
Crime Solvers
Murphy
Scotland Yard

There's the list - sometime it would be good to have a mystery marathon and play them all... While I said that CLUE is our favorite I would put Mystery of the Abbey, Kill Dr. Lucky, and Mystery Express as other favorites.

Policemen To Combat Wits With - more mysteries

These are strictly American policemen and women at work. These books are not "cozy", in fact some have quite graphic violence.

Suzanne Chazin - With a twist on regular police stories, her series stars Georgia Skeeham, a fire marshal in NYC.  I held my breath and turned the pages as fast as possible.  These are non-stop excitement.


Patricia Cornwell - When it comes to forensics any list worth its salt has to include Cornwell's Dr. Kay Scarpetta and also Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan.


Jeffery Deaver - Well known for his Lincoln Rhyme series he now has a new heroine, Kathryn Dance, a brilliant interrogator and body language expert with the California Bureau of Investigation.  She first appeared in the Lincoln Rhyme book, Cold Moon, and I was hoping we would see more of her.


Tony Hillerman - This Grand Master of mystery writing has 18 books (and they are all great) featuring his two characters Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, Navaho tribal police officers.  Some books feature one or the other and many feature both.


JA Jance - She has three different characters, but my favorites are JP Beaumont, a Seattle policeman and Joanna Brady, a sheriff in Arizona. In two of her books they even work together.


JA Konrath - The Jack Daniels series.  "Jack" is a female Lt. in the Chicago Violent Crimes Division.  She's hard-nosed, has gray in her hair and is a good read.  All the books have titles of drinks. The first in the series is Whisky Sour.  Start there.


Archer Mayor - If you live in Vermont and you like mysteries surely you are reading the Joe Gunther series already.  If you don't live in the Green Mountain State these books will make you want to visit.


Ed McBain - McBain started his 87th Precinct series in 1956 and the last was published just after his death in 2005.  They are considered THE definition of the "procedural" due to the accuracy of the police work described.  They are dead-pan and violent.


Colin Wilcox - Here is a very good "procedural" writer.  His character, Frank Hastings, is a co-commander of the SFPD Homicide division.  Wilcox is not as well known as many current "hot" authors, but his books are solid.


Stuart Woods - Woods has many non-series books that seldom disappoint and a series character Holly Barker, a former military police commander and now a police chief in a small Florida town.

By the way - did you know that September is the National Get A Library Card Month?  Your local library will have books by these authors, and if they don't they will get them for you on InterLibrary Loan.  Use your library!

"Cozy" Mysteries

Amid all the back-to-school rush who has time for a complicated mystery? It is the perfect time for a "cozy", one of those mysteries in which murder is considered an aberration, an accident, in a world that is basically benign. Here are ten good writers.

Nancy Atherton - The Aunt Dimity series with Lori Shepard, an American, and her unexpected benefactor, Aunt Dimity, who happens to be a ghost. Their association begins when Dimity bequeaths her cottage in England to Lori. They are light-weight mysteries, but very delightful.


Dorothy Cannell - Ellie is a great heroine (detective). The books are tongue-in-cheek, laugh-out-loud fun, English country manor type mysteries.


Dorothy Gilman - The Mrs. Pollifax series. Mrs. Pollifax is a lively grandmother and CIA agent.


Carolyn Hart - Her books feature a South Carolina mystery bookshop owner and a crazy supporting cast in the Death on Demand series.


Carol Anne O'Marie - The Sister Mary Ellen series. While Sister Mary Ellen, in San Francisco, and her friend are nuns of "retirement age" they are very modern, humorous and likable. Unfortunately they seem to attract dead bodies.


Elliot Roosevelt - Featuring his mother, Eleanor, the First Lady.


Ian Sansom - A fun series featuring a Jewish vegetarian from London who is a bookmobile librarian in Northern Ireland. If you would like to read a book that makes librarians laugh give this one a go.


Alexander McCall Smith - He writes two series, the Ladies No 1 Detective Agency about a lady of "traditional size" in Botswana, and the Sunday Philosophy Club series featuring Isabel Dalhousie in Scotland. In both of these series, the mystery is not the main point of the book, but rather the characters themselves.


Josephine Winspear - She writes the Masie Dobbs series which could also appear in a historical mystery list as they take place during the 1920 - 30's in London.


Patricia Wentworth - Her series features Miss Silver in London, who reminds one of Miss Marple (although she appeared before Miss Marple) or Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Allen. Wentworth wrote from the late 1920's to the 60's and the books reflect that style.

Time has really gone quickly!

I didn't realize how long it has been since I posted.   Will promise to do better from here on in. One thing that I have been asked to do is to include all my mystery lists.  I have done about a dozen so far and will begin to get them onto the site right away.

AGPC Convention

My last mystery column was on novels set on board ships. A good list, done as I was getting ready to set sail myself and I fully intended to read several of them while on board. The AGPC (Association of Game & Puzzle Collectors) (www.agpc.org) Convention was held on the Navigator of the Seas cruise to Cozumel and Belize. Did I get any reading done? Nope. Between very interesting talks and workshops, the good food, and the sea air I fell asleep anytime I wasn't standing up!.

Where Are The Trustees?

I wonder if other libraries are facing the problem of obtaining new members on their Board of Trustees? Recently we have been faced with having a number of vacant seats. We have asked several people if they would be willing to serve and usually the answer is "no" or "not now" or something to that effect.

What are other libraries doing to attract new members? I would love to hear.

The Mystery Corner/Mystery Firsts

One of the things I do at the Library is to contribute a column for our newsletter. I thought I would put the latest one up. If anyone would enjoy older columns let me know and I will post them. Remember, I am not an expert so I apologize ahead of time for any errors.

At the start of a new year it might be fun to look at some of the "firsts" in mystery writing. These are old and you may have to ask for them through inter-library loan.

1. First "inverted" mystery - An inverted mystery is one in which you know who the criminal is from the beginning; the question is how do they get caught. The very first one was published in 1858, in France, but the first English one was The Singing Bone by R. Austin Freeman (1912). It's part of the Dr. Thorndyke series and is still enjoyable.

2. First mystery story - In 1704 the first English translation of Arabian Nights was published. One of the stories, The Three Apples, is really the first murder mystery, but most people would say the first was Edgar Allen Poe's Murder in the Rue Morgue (1841).

3. First "locked room" mystery - John Dickson Carr is considered the master of the "locked room" genre, but the first to appear was The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill (1891). It is an excellent tale of about 100 pages.

4. First American woman mystery writer - Anne Katherine Green, educated at Poultney College, in Vermont, began a prolific writing career, in 1878, with her series detective Ebenezer Gryce of the New York Police Department in The Leavenworth Case.

5. First Native American detective - Move over Tony Hillerman! The laurels here go to Rex Stout's detective, Tecumseh Fox, in Double for Death (1936).

6. First African-American detective - Although the first to reach real popularity were Chester Himes characters "Coffin" Jones and "Gravedigger" Johnson, the first was Perry Dart in Rudolph Fisher's The Conjure-Man Dies in 1932.

7. First police detective in English fiction - Inspector Bucket in Charles Dickens' Bleak House (1853).

8. First female detective - There was an 18th century "Miss Marple" named Mlle de Sudery, but our first English language female detective is Miss "G", in The Female Detective by Andrew Forrester, Jr. (1864).

9. First time the investigator is the guilty party - Gaston Leroux, well known for The Phantom of the Opera, wrote Mystery of the Yellow Room in 1907. It's also a "locked room" mystery and a very good read.

10. First English mystery with multiple narratives - The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake (1938). It had two first-person narrators. Bleak House (1853) had multiple narratives but not all were first person.

Next month it's Oscar time so we'll look at Mysteries That Have Gone To The Movies.

Series Books & 23 Things

How many of you are still writing 2009~ It is hard to believe that it is almost the middle of Jan. already. It is true that the older you get the faster time goes by.

Technically, I have decided not to do Flicker (or is it Fliker?) for personal matters. It is easy enough to send a photo when I want to. We have photo's on the library facebook page. I have also decided not to do RSS. I tried it and wound up with way to much incoming info and have chosen to stay with bookmarks. I can open what I feel like, no problem.

I did try to comment on a blog, but when I thought I clicked Publish, or whatever it was, I must have clicked something else, because my comment disappeared into the either, never to be seen or heard of again. I was commenting on an item bemoaning the popularity of "series". The writer was thinking of books for young readers with predictable plots, inferior writing, etc, etc. but I still have to ask - what's wrong with "series"?

I wouldn't want to do without them! How well I remember my father getting quite angry with me when I failed to respond to his call to come and set the table for dinner even though I was only three feel away! I was deep into Nancy Drew and honestly did not hear him. I have remained a mystery fan, and love series mysteries. You watch a character develop over time and see their lives change - as you do with your "alive" friends. It's true, there can be poorly written series, but there are poorly written non-series books (as we all know).

There are books we read for enlightenment and there are books that we read for "comfort". One is not "good" and the other "bad". Comfort books provide a great relaxation in a stressful world. They may not all be "great literature" - indeed, perhaps none might be called such. But, you know what? Some "great literature" while good for us, can also be terribly boring. I, for one, say - Up with Series!

And that is my soapbox for today.

We Enter the Blogging World

Ten years into the 21st century I've decided to join the blogger community. Nothing like keeping up to date! Our Vt Dept of Libraries created a program to help Library Trustees learn all these social networking aids and so here I am.