Westport Public Library BOOK blog

Which is not to imply that the book is dead weight by any means! Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review and called it “a splendid flowering of the talent previously demonstrated in his crime fiction.”

In this departure from his Kenzie and Gennaro mystery novels, Lehane has written a “nail-biter” of a thriller.

The question of how to determine whether a book is a mystery or a thriller often comes up. Number sixteen of Carolyn Wheat’s Sixteen Differences between Mystery and Suspense states: Mysteries are usually three hundred manuscript pages. Suspense novels can be longer.

Set in Boston at the end of the First World War, Given Day is the story of two families—one black, one white. Beat cop Danny Coughlin, the son of one of the city's most beloved and powerful police captains, joins a burgeoning union movement and the hunt for violent radicals. Luther Laurence, on the run after a deadly confrontation with a crime boss in Tulsa, works for the Coughlin family and tries desperately to find his way home to his pregnant wife.

We meet Babe Ruth, Eugene O'Neill, W. E. B. DuBois, Calvin Coolidge, and an ambitious young Department of Justice lawyer named John Hoover, as the story courses through some of the pivotal events of the time—including the Spanish Influenza pandemic—and culminates in the Boston Police Strike of 1919.

Lehane’s fans will be happy to hear that Martin Scorcese has just finished filming Shutter Island, his 2003 mind-bending psychological thriller (400 pages worth) set in 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner visit the island to investigate the disappearance of a multiple murderess from a hospital for the criminally insane amidst hints of radical experimentation and horrific surgeries. And a killer hurricane is headed straight for them.

You can read all about it at IMDb!

Have you ever wondered about the secret rooms and tunnels of old buildings? How about the New York Public Library? What a setting for a mystery! Get ready for a fast-paced story of valuable first editions, lost atlases and scary tours of those underground library places. Linda Fairstein’s eleventh Alex Cooper crime novel is due out in February. In Lethal Legacy, assistant District Attorney Cooper is called to investigate an alleged assault and then a murder on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The trail of clues leads to the New York Public Library. As usual, Fairstein brings her extensive legal experience to the telling. She ran the Sex Crimes of the District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan for over twenty years, but always wanted to be a writer. Her decision to attend law school was made to please her father, who did not regard writing as a way to make a living. Fairstein has proven him wrong with eleven popular fiction books and one non-fiction.
If you enjoy crime novels, try Fairstein. Her website is quite interesting; it even includes a list of the NYC restuarants (on the FAQ page) she likes and mentions in her novels.

If you prefer True Crime, come to the Library on Sunday September 28 at 2 pm to hear Kathryn Harrison talk about her newest book While They Slept.After a lifetime of physical and mental abuse, a young man in the midwest killed his family. Harrison examines the crime, its aftermath and the lives of the survivors- one a convicted murderer and his sister an orphan trying to rebuild her life. While They Slept has been compared to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song. Harrison’s previous books established her reputation as edgy and shockingly candid about her own family, good selections for book clubs looking for a non-fiction book to provoke discussion. Her website.

If you have come across the recently released mystery award nomination lists, your eyes do not deceive you. Two mysteries sharing a title and a dark comic style are both in the running for major awards.

Head Games by Craig McDonald has been nominated for an Anthony Award in the Best First Novel category and Head Games by Thomas B. Cavanagh has been nominated for a Shamus Award in the Best Hardcover category.

When an old pal sets Pancho Villa's head on the table of a cantina in the Mexican desert, Lassiter is up for an adventure: delivering the head to Senator Prescott Bush (father of 41, grandfather of 43) so that it can be used in secret ceremonies at Yale's Skull and Bones Society.

A bit of backstory: In 1916 Woodrow Wilson had dispatched Black Jack Pershing and an army of 10,000 into Mexico to find and bring back Pancho Villa — dead or alive. Villa evaded capture, living in comfort and peace until his assassination in 1923. A short time later, an unknown person (or persons) dug up his body and stole his head.

McDonald’s second Lassiter mystery, Toros & Torsos, is due out this month.

Spanning the years from 1935 to 1959, it involves a serial killer who arranges dead bodies to resemble surrealistic art, Ernest Hemingway, Orson Welles (again), and actual events including the Key West hurricane of 1935, the Spanish Civil War and Cuba's last days before Castro. Whew!

An old colleague shows up and offers him a chance to go out with a bang, leave his daughter with an inheritance and a chance to earn her respect. TJ Sommerset, a member of a hit boy band – who is the idol of Mike’s daughter – has gone missing, putting at risk a world tour and millions in endorsements. It isn't long, however, before Mike discovers that there are other people looking for TJ as well and when a headless corpse shows up, it’s clear that they’re not just after him for his autograph.

This is the second Garrity mystery. The series opener was the riveting Murderland, which is about a serial killer stalking tourists at a popular Florida theme park.

The third book in the series is the recently released Prodigal Son. With his cancer in remission after undergoing surgery to remove his tumor, Garrity takes on a case on behalf of a member of his cancer support group, who asks him to help track down the son she had put up for adoption twenty years earlier, but soon finds his search complicated by his client's disappearance and murder.

The full nomination lists for the Anthony, Macavity, and Shamus Awards are available on-line.

She is in the running for both the Anthony and Macavity Best Novel Award for What the Dead Know.

The brand-new, shiny Eiffel Tower is the pride and glory of the 1889 World Exposition. But one sunny afternoon, as visitors are crowding the viewing platforms, a woman collapses and dies on this great Paris landmark. Can a bee sting really be the cause of death? Or is there a more sinister explanation?

Young bookseller Victor Legris witnesses the woman’s death. Appalled by the media coverage of the event, he is determined to find out what actually happened and is caught in a race against time when there are more mysterious deaths.

Visit the official Maigret website for an interesting look at the detective and his world.

Cara Black’s protagonist Aimée Leduc is the owner of a detective agency specializing in corporate security. The New York Times Book Review has said “Aimée is one of those blithe spirits who can walk you through the city’s historical streets and byways with their eyes closed.”

You can find out more about Cara Black's Paris on the author’s website.

Fred Vargas’ detective is Chief Inspector Adamsberg. Publishers Weekly describes Adamsberg as “an endearing oddball sleuth in the tradition of John Dickson Carr's Henry Merrivale.” Fred Vargas is the pseudonym of French historian, archaeologist and writer Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau, born in 1957 in Paris. The surname Vargas is in honor of the Ava Gardner character in The Barefoot Contessa!

Visit the Detectives Beyond Borders website for an article on Fred Vargas’ France.

Last weekend I was down in Washington, DC and while there I was able to spend some time at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. If you’ve never been there, I highly recommend a visit. This museum is a memorial to the victims of the holocaust, but just as importantly is an institution devoted to the study and history of the holocaust. The museum’s mission is to encourage visitors to reflect on the questions raised by the events of the holocaust as well as their own responsibilities as citizens of a free society.

There have been many books written about the holocaust, and book clubs have often embraced these stories of courage and heroism. One of the most recent additions to our Speaking of Books collection is Mark it with a Stone by Joseph Horn. This is a first person account of one boy’s attempt to survive in a concentration camp. Mr. Horn was 12 when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. He spent six years in seven different concentration camps, and endured the deaths of his parents, siblings and other relatives before his ordeal came to an end in 1945 when the allies liberated the Bergin-Belson concentration camp. He was determined to tell his story so the world would not forget. This is a powerful, compelling read.

For book clubs that prefer fiction, Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum is a literary page-turner you won’t soon forget. Prior to writing this, her first novel, Jenna Blum worked for the Shoah Foundation interviewing Holocaust survivors. The book is written from a different point of view, life during the war as seen through the eyes of a typical German citizen. Her story is about love, mothers and daughters, and the choices people make in life. There are lots of discussion points here.

The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman has quickly become a book club favorite. This is the true story of Jan and Antonina Zabinski, the director of the Warsaw Zoo and his wife, and the role they played in the survival of over 300 Polish Jews during the holocaust. Mary Doria Russell has written A Thread of Grace, a historical novel based on the true story of the Italian citizens who saved thousands of Jewish lives during World War II. Well researched and full of fascinating characters, this book is both engaging and inspiring. Your book club will not be disappointed in this choice.

If your club is interested in reading any of these books, please let me know, and I’ll be happy to reserve some copies for your group.

One of the most remarked upon features of the Library is the tile mural on the Riverwalk Level outside the McManus Meeting Room. Authors who come here to speak inevitably slow down as they approach the wall and ask about it. That it is a chronological history of the town of Westport based on actual information from the Library History file and that the picture tiles were handmade to each donor’s specifications by a local artist enhance the significance of the project which raised about $250,000 for the Library building’s first expansion. The wall covers the flow of local history from the Pequot Wars in 1637 to the 1998 renovation of the Library. Tile sponsors could request that artist Marion Grebow create the likenesses of family members on individual tiles. Tiles without pictures cost less to purchase, but have provided years of enjoyment to families looking for children’s, grandchildren’s or grandparent’s names each time they return to the Library.

Want an interesting crash course in Westport history? At the Library store, you may purchase a catalog of the historical tile mural written by former Library Board member Dorothy Curran. Pictures of the tiles are included. (River of Names $10) Whether you are new to town or have been here for many years, I guarantee that delving into the tile mural- in the book or on the wall- will reveal some new aspect of life in Westport through the years.

The New York Times review for this book said “Prepare to be astonished …”

It received starred reviews in both Publishers Weekly and Library Journal and its many other laudatory reviews included terms such as engaging, inspired, delightful, poignant, compelling, and fresh.

Maisie entered domestic service in 1910 at the age of thirteen to work as a maid for Lady Rowan Compton. When her remarkable intelligence and innate love of learning are discovered by her employer, her education is taken in hand and she eventually enters Girton College at Cambridge University.

World War I intervenes and changes her plans. She serves as a nurse at the front and falls in love with a handsome young doctor, only to lose him.

In 1929, following an apprenticeship, Maisie hangs out her shingle -- M. Dobbs, Trade and Personal Investigations -- and soon becomes enmeshed in a mystery surrounding The Retreat, a reclusive community of veterans wounded in body and spirit. She uncovers a disturbing mystery there and, after a dramatic dénouement, Maisie finds the courage to confront the ghost that has haunted her for over ten years.

There have been four additional Maisie Dobbs mysteries, each as brilliant as the first, and I found the most recent, An Incomplete Revenge, to be the best yet. PW reported that “this jaunt back to a bygone era is as satisfying as a spin in Maisie's MG.”

The Usual Suspects Mystery Reading Group will be discussing Maisie Dobbs on Sunday, September 21st, at 2 p.m.

On Sunday, October 19th, we will discuss A Test of Wills, the first book in Todd's series.

Hope you can join us. New faces are always welcome. To reserve copies, call 291-4821.

Which do you prefer? Read the book and then see the movie? Or do you like to see the movie first? I like to read the book first. Otherwise, the indelible images from the movie prevent my imagination from taking flight as I read. A bunch of books-to-movies are in the works, so here’s a heads-up for you book- first people.

September release:
Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride. Four black U.S. soldiers get trapped in a Tuscan village during WWII. The film is directed by Spike Lee and stars Derek Luke, Michael Ealy & Laz Alonso.

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. Strange tale of a young man who “earns” needed funds by pretending to choke on food at high-priced restaurants- told by the master of black humor. Film directed by Gregg Clark stars Anjelica Huston, Sam Rockwell & Kelly Macdonald.

Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks. Romance as a divorced couple find each other during a storm. George C. Wolfe is the director and Richard Gere & Diane Lane return for their third Sparks novel on the big screen.

October release:
Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker. A story of lawmen in the Old West with a classic villain.
Starring Viggo Mortenson, Renee Zellweger & Jeremy Irons, the film is directed by Ed Harris.

Body of Lies by David Ignatius. Super post 9/11 thriller. With Leonardo DiCaprio & Russell Crowe, the film is directed by Ridley Scott.

Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Contemporary classic of Southern life. Directed by Gina Prince-Blythewood, the film stars Queen Latifah, Dakota Fanning & Jennifer Hudson.

Grabenstein won the Anthony Award for Best First Mystery for his debut Tilt a Whirl, the first in a series of John Ceepak mysteries set in Sea Haven, New Jersey. A former MP in Iraq, Ceepak brings his considerable physical strength, crime-solving skills and morality to the beachside town.

The second book, Mad Mouse, was selected as one of the Ten Best Mysteries of 2006 by Kirkus. It was followed by Whack a Mole in 2007 and the newly released Hell Hole.

The books are both suspenseful and humorous, the characters are endearing, the dialog is snappy, and the setting is a refreshing change.

The Crossroads got a starred review in Booklist which called it "An absorbing psychological thriller . . . as well as a rip-roaring ghost story."

I loved it. It reminded me of those wonderful Alfred Hitchcock stories I devoured in my youth. Definitely adult-worthy. You will admire Zack and his marvelous step-mother and the ghostly cast of characters who wander across the pages.

These books, too, have that wonderful Hitchcockian pacing and tone. If you are a recorded book fan, narrator Colleen Delaney does a terrific job of conveying Ingrid’s adolescent angst.

Abrahams will be in attendance at this year’s CrimeBake conference (November 14-16 in Dedham MA) and presenting a master class on "Writing for Young Audiences."

Check out the conference details. These conferences are for fans as much as for writers and would-be writers. CrimeBake is one of my favorites because it a small, cozy group in a relaxed setting. You park your car in the hotel garage when you get there and don’t need again until it’s time to head for home!

Harlan Coben will be this year’s guest of honor.