Do you savor a good adventure/quest yarn? Full of danger, secrets, unfriendly natives, natural predators and mystery? Imagine a middle-aged New Yorker, laptop in hand, plunked down in the Amazon jungle looking for the legendary El Dorado. That New Yorker is David Grann, who wrote about his adventure in The Lost City of Z: a Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. It’s the story of British explorer Percy Fawcett who ventured into the Amazon in 1925 determined to find the ancient civilization, rumors of which have inspired so many novels, including Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World. Fawcett, his son...
Sixteen years ago, a series of brutal murders shattered the peaceful farming community of Painters Mill, Ohio, where the Amish and “English” residents have lived side by side for two centuries. The crimes were never solved. Kate Burkholder, a young Amish girl traumatized by the crimes, left the community, abandoned her heritage, and ultimately went on to study law enforcement. Sixteen years after the Slaughterhouse Murders, as they came to be known, a gun-toting, cursing Kate returns to Painters Mill as Chief of Police.
Publishers Weekly praised author Linda Castillo’s “
well-paced plot that illuminates the divide between the Amish and ‘English’ world.”
Library Journal said that the recently released
Sworn to Silence “
marks Castillo's move from romantic suspense to straight mystery, and judging by this novel, the move is a good one.”
In case you missed it, last Sunday’s NY Times cover article was a glowing review of Kate Walbert’s new book, A Short History of Women. Just out last week and already generating a lengthy wait list at the library, this one is sure to be a favorite with book clubs this summer and well into the fall. Ms. Walbert was a National Book Award finalist in 2004 for Our Kind, and the winner of the Connecticut Book Award in 2002 for the Gardens of Kyoto. In addition to her novels, Ms. Walbert is a playwright and a writing teacher at Yale. I am so excited that Kate Walbert will be here at the Westport Library on September 30th at noon to speak about her new book. This will be a discussion not to miss.
St. Mary Mead’s sleuth Miss Jane Marple made her debut in a short story which appeared in
The Royal Magazine in December 1927. Her first novel-length case was
The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930. She is perhaps the most famous of Agatha Christie's creations, despite appearing only in assorted short stories and twelve full-length novels, and she has been portrayed by almost that many actresses on the screen. Get any group of fans together – even two will do it – and the argument begins. Hickson or McEwan? Who was the best Marple? There will be yet a third name entered into this competition when Julia McKenzie makes her first appearance as Marple on July 5th on what is now known as the
Masterpiece Mystery program. Four episodes are scheduled, all based on original Christie novels, including my all-time favorite
Murder is Easy.
Last week Lee Child’s latest book, Gone Tomorrow, entered the NY Times bestseller list in the number one position. The most recent in the Jack Reacher series of thrillers will not disappoint Child’s fans. Lee Child is known for his intelligent, plot filled suspense stories. Jack Reacher is a former US army military policeman and Child has made him the centerpiece of thirteen action packed novels. The creator of this very American character was born and raised in England, but is currently living in New York and married to an American. But did you know that Child has a younger brother, Andrew Grant, who has just published his own first novel, Even?
It has been said that G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was a prolific writer who devoted his entire career to journalism because as a journalist he could
not avoid being a controversialist. He wrote essays, often 1500 words in length to fill a page, on a variety of subjects and these appeared in the Illustrated London News for 30 years. Next Sunday, June 21st, at 2 pm, the Usual Suspects Mystery Reading Group will discuss
Father Brown: The Essential Tales, a fifteen story collection released by Modern Library in 2005. P. D. James writes in her introduction, “
We read the Father Brown stories for a variety pleasures, including their ingenuity, their wit and intelligence, and for the brilliance of the writing. But they provide more. Chesterton was concerned with the greatest of all problems, the vagaries of the human heart.”
Having gushed so shamelessly about Alan Bradley’s
Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, a delightful little mystery, I feel it only fair to give equal time to a book that might almost be called its evil twin.
In
The Little Stranger, acclaimed author Sarah Waters delivers a sinister tale brimming with psychological complexity. It is, like
Sweetness, brilliant plotted and awash in rich atmosphere. It is set in post-World War II summer at a country estate that was home to the family for more than two centuries now in a state of decline, and deals with the massive social changes of the war’s aftermath. Also, a totally satisfying read.
Here’s what’s different – it is a ghost story and not a murder mystery.
New York City was the host for BookExpo again this year and I was fortunate to be able to spend a day there. This huge trade show brings together publishers, authors, booksellers, librarians and educators to meet, talk, connect and celebrate the book industry. It’s always fun to meet authors and hear them talk about their latest books, but in addition, there are always some great programs available for attendees.
Edna Ferber, detective? In the recently released
Lone Star by Ed Ifkovic, Ferber investigates the murder of a young woman who was an “
extra” in the film
Giant, based on her blockbuster novel, which is in its final days of production in 1955. As the
Kirkus review points out, “
Nobody knows better than the author of Show Boat, Cimarronm So Big and Dinner at Eight that everyone has a skeleton in his closet.” James Dean is the prime suspect.
In his critically acclaimed first mystery novel
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: the wickedly brilliant eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a penchant for poison. One reviewer called her a “
curious combination of Harriet the Spy and Sherlock Holmes.”
It is 1950, at the beginning of summer. A dead bird has been left on the doorstep with a postage stamp pinned to its beak at Buckshaw, a decaying English mansion that is the de Luce ancestral home, and then, just hours later, Flavia finds a dying man in the cucumber patch.
Flavia is both appalled and delighted. “
I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”
