Westport Public Library BOOK blog

Laurie R. King became the first novelist since Patricia Cornwell to win on both sides of the Atlantic with the publication of her debut thriller, A Grave Talent, which won the 1995 New Blood Dagger Award in the UK and the 1995 Edgar Award for Best First Novel in the US.

A Grave Talent was the first of five contemporary novels featuring Kate Martinelli, a San Francisco homicide detective.

King also has a long-running series which features Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes.

On her website, King explains her character this way: ”Mary Russell is what Sherlock Holmes would look like if Holmes, the Victorian detective, were a) a woman, b) of the Twentieth century, and c) interested in theology. If the mind is like an engine, free of gender and nurture considerations, then the Russell and Holmes stories are about two people whose basic mental mechanism is identical. What they do with it, however, is where the interest lies.”

With the creation of Mary Russell, King met with furious resistance from Sherlockian purists, but one reviewer said that the series "captures the spirit of the Holmes adventures with a great deal of love, while allowing room for female fans to more easily project themselves into the story." The Washington Post stated that King “… has relieved Holmes of the worst effects of his misogyny and, by so doing, salved the old hurt that comes to every female reader of literature … “

The ninth and newest book in the series is The Language of Bees.

Russell and Holmes return to their home on the Sussex coast after seven months abroad. There are two mysteries awaiting them – the inexplicable death of Holmes’ bees and the disappearance of the wife and child of Damian Adler, Holmes’ son by Irene Adler.

Russell finds herself on the trail of a killer more dangerous than any she has ever faced – and that’s saying something! The Booklist starred review promises us: “… a great deal about ancient sites in England; a major supporting role from Holmes’ brother, Mycroft; information on an occult set of beliefs possibly related to Aleister Crowley; a terrifying set piece on the horrors of early air travel; and discourse on the queasy pleasures of surrealist art,” all related in Russell’s wry and brilliant voice.

But an ever bigger treat is that Laurie R. King will be speaking at the Westport Library on Saturday, May 2nd, at 2 p.m. This is a program you do not want to miss!

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee!

Recently, OnePoll.com found the 1960 classic at the top of the list with The Bible placing second. Made into an Oscar winning movie in 1962, Mockingbird has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. The Bible which has been translated into 2233 languages has sold an estimated 2.5 billion copies since 1815.

Third place? The 2001 top seller A Child Called It by Dave Peltzer. It’s the true story of a young boy neglected by his unstable, alcoholic mother.

Here is the complete list:
1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)
2. The Bible
3. A Child Called It by Dave Peltzer (2001)
4. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus by John Gray (1993)
5. Diary of Anne Frank (1947)
6. 1984 by George Orwell (1949)
7. A Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela (2002)
8. The Beach by Alex Garland (1994)
9. Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (2005)
10. Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger (1961)

This list surprised me and made me wonder if an American list would be different. (OnePoll.com is a UK online marketing research company.) How about it?

What titles are on your Most Inspirational list?

“You're going to love meeting Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs, a pair of hip homicide detectives with the LAPD; unless, of course, you're the perp. Smart, funny and intuitive, Lomax and Biggs glide through the overlit shoals of Los Angeles like sharks through ginger ale. As up to the minute as they are intensely observant, the guys, this time, prowl the golden muck of the LA real estate bubble to fine effect; an exhilarating read.”

This is a recommendation from the late Donald Westlake for Marshall Karp’s third Lomax and Briggs mystery, Flipping Out.

Add to that no faint praise from Publishers Weekly: “Blending the gritty realism of a Joseph Wambaugh police procedural with the sardonic humor of Janet Evanovich, Karp delivers a treat that's no only laugh-out-loud funny but also remarkably suspenseful.”

Here’s the storyline: Nora Bannister writes murder mysteries with a twist – a very lucrative twist. She buys a run-down house in LA, and while her business partners turn it into a showpiece, Nora makes it the scene of a grisly murder in her bestselling House To Die For series.

Wow, that sounds like a good idea for a television reality show.

As soon as the book goes on sale, there’s a bidding frenzy – it seems a lot of people are willing to pay a lot of money to live in a real house where a fictional character has died a violent death.

When the house-flippers start turning up dead, Lomax and Biggs are assigned the case, which turns out to be a real hot potato. The dead women were the wives of their fellow cops, and the next logical target is Marilyn Biggs – Terry Biggs’s wife.

Lomax and Briggs made their debut in The Rabbit Factory in 2006 and their second appearance in Bloodthirsty in 2007. You can find their “biographies” on Karp’s website, along with information about how to keep in touch with the author on Facebook and Twitter. This is one author who knows how to use the latest in social networking to his advantage!

Every year when Sybil Steinberg, contributing editor for Publisher’s Weekly, comes to the library to give us her list of current favorites, I can’t wait to rush back to my desk and put a hold on some of the selections she shares with us. Last month two of her recommendations, I See You Everywhere and Olive Kitteridge, came in just in time for me to read them on my vacation. I think both of these books would be great selections for book clubs.

Julia Glass, whose first book was National Book Award winner Three Junes, actually came to the library in early January, to speak about I See You Everywhere. After hearing her speak about her book and her life as a writer, I knew I wanted to read this book. Books about sister relationships have always intrigued me, maybe because I have three sisters myself. Ms. Glass has told the story of Louisa and Clem Jardine by having each sister alternately narrate a chapter over the course of 20 years. At times this novel almost feels like a series of short stories, as Clem and Louisa’s very different personalities and lives evolve. Although I can’t say I identified with either sister, I did feel that sibling bond that sisters often feel, that love-hate relationship that often exists, but also binds you together. I consider myself pretty lucky to have three sisters with whom to share that bond.

Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout, is set in Maine where Ms. Strout grew up. It is a novel told in a series of short stories, all connected by the character Olive Kitteridge. Although Olive can be a bit difficult at times, by the end of the book you will feel empathy for her. The stories follow Olive from middle-age to widowhood at age 74. Her life goes through changes and ups and downs just as the world around her is changing. Ms. Strout has written a book full of complex characters and thought provoking stories. The ordinary events of our lives- love, death, loneliness, joy are all there and captured beautifully in this little gem of a book.

Book clubs will find much to discuss in these novels. The characters in these stories seem so real and identifiable that you are immediately drawn into their lives and imagine what you would do in their situations. Whether it is family relationships or the interactions we share with the people from our own circle of friends, both of these authors have succeeded in portraying the complexity of human relationships. Let me know if your group would like to order some copies or a discussion guide.

The 2008 Agatha nomineeshave been announced and author Kathy Lynn Emerson’s book, How to Write a Killer Historical Mystery, is on the Best Non-fiction list. The core of the book is Emerson’s personal take on writing and selling historical mysteries, but it also includes practical advice, anecdotes, and suggestions for research from over forty other historical mystery writers and insights from assorted editors, booksellers, and reviewers.

This is Emerson’s second foray into the how-to genre, having also published The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in Renaissance England in 1996.

As the author of two popular historical mystery series, the Face Down Mysteries featuring Elizabethan gentlewoman herbalist Susanna, Lady Appleton, and the Diana Spaulding Mysteries, set in 1888 in various U.S. locations featuring journalist Diana Spaulding, she certainly knows her stuff.

We first meet Susanna, Lady Appleton, in Face Down in the Marrow-Bone Pie, the first of eleven titles in the Elizabethan series. When the family steward dies in a highly suspicious manner, she takes advantage of her husband's absence on a political mission for Queen Elizabeth to investigate the man’s mysterious demise. A serving wench claims that he was frightened to death by a ghost, but Susanna determines that he was poisoned and begins to suspect that the “ghost” and the poisoner are one and the same.

Susanna is something of an expert on poisons, having been inspired by her sister's fatal encounter with some poisonous berries to write a cautionary herbal for housewives. You can find a “facsimile” of the document on Emerson’s website.

Diana Spaulding, a newly widowed journalist, makes her debut in Deadlier Than the Pen, the first of four titles in Emerson’s second series. It is 1888, the height of yellow journalism, and the murder of two female journalists prompts Spaulding to investigate the handsome horror author Damon Bathory. Written against the backdrop of New York City, the novel brings to life the day-to-day realities and hardships of the gilded age.

And, just in case this is not enough to keep Emerson busy, she also writes a contemporary mystery series under the pseudonym Kaitlyn Dunnett featuring Liss MacCrimmon, a young professional Scottish dancer.

Four of the upcoming Murder 203 authors are also up for Agathas. Rosemary Harris’ Pushing up Daisies is on the Best First Novel list, Chris Grabenstein’s The Crossroads is on the Best Children’s/Young Adult Novel list, and both Jane Cleland and Toni Kelner are up for Best Short Story. Congratulations to all!

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