Westport Public Library BOOK blog

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.

When a body is discovered in a snowy field bearing the earlier killer's signature -- Roman numerals ritualistically carved into the abdomen -- Kate vows to stop the killer before he strikes again. But successive murders follow, and she is torn between running a good investigation and protecting herself and her family -- because they know that this is NOT the same killer. They share a dark secret that could destroy them all.

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 praise of the first book in the series, Blood of the Prodigal (1999), Publishers Weekly said “Gaus brings a refreshing authenticity to his unusual setting and characters. There are no wisecracking gumshoes here, but instead believable characters whose faith is explored with respect. Anyone who enjoyed the film Witness should take to this fine mystery debut.”

A Short History of Women follows the ‘history’ of women as seen through the story of the Townsend family. It begins in England in 1914 as Dorothy Townsend, a suffragette, dies as a result of a hunger strike for women’s rights. The story then follows five generations of Dorothy’s ancestors, both in Europe and in the United States, as they struggle with turbulent times and complicated lives. By following the conflicted Townsend family through the 20th century, Walbert has given us a very personal view of history and the way the lives of our ancestors continue to influence us.

Ms. Walbert’s book is beautifully written, intelligent, and sure to be a hit with book clubs. In anticipation of her visit, the library has ordered a number of copies of A Short History of Women so that you can come to her talk prepared to have a real dialogue with the author. Her publisher has also provided an excellent discussion guide and interview with Ms. Walbert. Also, be sure to listen to the podcast with the author in the NY Times review. Mark your calendar now and make arrangements to be at the library on September 30th. You won’t be disappointed.

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.

The first “movie” Marple was Margaret Rutherford, starring in Murder, She Said in 1961. Angela Lansbury starred in The Mirror Crack’d in 1980. There were also an Estonian and a Bengali Marple on the big screen.

In 1956, Gracie Fields brought the sleuth to American television audiences, and in the 1980s the legendary Helen Hayes made two Marple films for network television. There was a West German television Marple in the 70s.

There was even a Japanese anime series (2004-2005) that featured both Marple and Poirot.

But the incarnations that have had the greatest critical and popular success were those of Joan Hickson and her successor Geraldine McEwan who appeared in several television dramatizations filmed in England by BBC and ITC beginning in 1984, all of which were viewed in the states on the PBS Mystery program.

Get any group of fans together – even two will do it – and the argument begins. Hickson or McEwan? Who was the best Marple?

McKenzie, 67, says of her new role: "I'm very excited but also slightly daunted by the enormous responsibility that comes with taking on such an iconic role. Just about everybody in the world knows about Miss Marple and has an opinion of what she should be like. So I'm under no illusions about the size of the task ahead. And I suppose I'll have to remind myself how to knit."

Christie’s Poirot also returns – still portrayed so delightfully by David Souchet – for two new episodes based on Christie’s Cat among the Pigeons and Mrs. McGinty’s Dead.

You can read an interview with Souchet on the PBS website that covers a lot of topics, including his similarities to Poirot (they are both perfectionists), their differences (everything else), and Suchet's plans to continue on as the debonair Belgian.

You can find a complete listing of all of Chrisite’s mysteries on the Stop, You’re Killing Me! website, and a complete filmography at IMDb.

Check the PBS website for the complete summer-fall schedule, which will conclude with a new four-part Inspector Lewis series.

Lee (his real name is Jim Grant) and baby brother Andrew have been showing up together recently at book signings and other appearances across the country. The brothers are separated by fourteen years and as a result grew up apart from each other. But there seems to be a tremendous similarity in their writing styles. Even follows Royal Navy intelligence officer David Trevellyan in a fast paced thriller which also takes place in New York City. Some have compared Trevellyan to Reacher, but Jim Grant has created a character that is intelligent, witty and intriguing, similar to the English spy James Bond, although some reviewers have likened him to the American character Jason Bourne. Although both books are set in New York, Jack Reacher is comfortable and knowledgeable in his surroundings, while Trevallyan acts more like a tourist. Grant claims that when he decided he wanted to be a writer he stopped reading his brother’s work because he didn’t want to be influenced by his style. But the brothers acknowledge that they have done similar things in their lives and as a result you may notice parallels in their work. They both wrote their first books after having been laid off from their corporate jobs.

So if you’re a fan of Lee Child, put your name on the hold list for Gone Tomorrow. But while you’re waiting, try Even, the wait list is a lot shorter, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. The many fans of sophisticated thrillers will be anxiously awaiting the next books from both these siblings, and for those of you new to Mr. Child, try one of the earlier Jack Reacher novels - The Hard Way or The Enemy, and you'll be hooked.

He also wrote a substantial amount of poetry, novels -- including the spy novel The Man Who Was Thursday) -- and the fifty two widely read Father Brown detective stories.

Somewhat overweight and inelegant, Father Brown seems an unlikely detective, but appearances deceive. With keen observation and an unerring sense of man’s frailties gained during his years in the confessional Father Brown succeeds in bringing even the most elusive criminals to justice. In The Blue Cross, when asked how he knows so much of criminal "horrors," he replies "Has it never struck you that a man who does next to nothing but hear men's real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil?"

Chesterton based the character on Father John O'Connor, a parish priest who was involved in Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism in 1922.

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.”

Please join us! New faces are always welcome. To reserve a copy of the book, call 291-4821.

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. After being summoned by the Ayres family to treat a patient at Hundreds Hall, a doctor finds himself becoming entangled with the family and the supernatural presences in the house. During the doctor's repeated emergency visits – which are for the most peculiar reasons – he becomes smitten with the family’s daughter, oblivious of the Ayres’ self-destructive insularity and the ghostly avengers arisen from their past.

Reviewers have compared Waters in her latest effort to a prestigious list of gothic and literary masters including Edgar Allan Poe, Sheridan le Fanu, Wilkie Collins … and Evelyn Waugh.

A Kirkus review called it a “gripping thriller from one of the most interesting novelists at work today.”

Put this one on your beach reads list, too!

Another terrific panel was Librarians Shout and Share. Eight librarians from across the country shared what they thought would be the books that everyone will be talking about very soon. Joyce Maynard has written a beautiful coming of age story, Labor Day that will be available at the end of July. Going Away Shoes by Jill McCorkle is a selection of short stories about women and love sure to be a popular choice for book clubs. Jeanette Walls, author of The Glass Castle, has written a new book, Half-Broke Horses: a True Life Novel, based on the story of her grandmother’s life. Although it won’t be available until the fall, there should be lots of interest in this one. Another favorite of book clubs, Sarah Dunant, author of The Birth of Venus, has written a new historical novel, Sacred Hearts. Set in a convent during the Renaissance, this is a story about the power of friendship.

Pat Conroy’s new novel, South of Broad, will be available this summer. His fans are sure to enjoy this epic novel about lifelong friendships set in Charleston NC. Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo has a new book due out this summer also. That Old Cape Magic is set in Cape Cod and is a story of marriage and family that is both funny and sad.

So put your requests in now for one of these books which are starting to generate buzz. They are all on order at the library and you’ll be one of the first to read them. With all the tips and information from BookExpo I look forward to what promises to be a great year for book clubs and their members.

James Dean is the prime suspect. There are rumors that he fathered the murdered woman’s child and that she was blackmailing him about this and other indiscretions, and he was seen leaving her apartment just before her body was found.

With actress Mercedes McCambridge playing Watson to her Holmes, the 70-year-old Ferber takes a walk on the wild side when she delves into the troubled lives of the teenage heartthrob Dean and his disparate friends.

Actually, the Publishers Weekly review thought of her as a Christie-style detective, calling her “an equally shrewd but tarter version of Miss Marple.”

Ex-con Mary Alice Baker (now calling herself Nina Zero) is a Hollywood tabloid photographer for the Scandal Times. She is sent to Fairmount, Indiana, where thieves have broken into James Dean's grave and stolen some of his bones. She comes to find out that this is not an isolated incident and that there is a grave-robbing cult selling relics from old movie stars to naïve youths who aspire to stardom.

With her beloved toothless Rottweiler in tow, the prominently pierced Nina makes for an intrepid and compassionate punk protagonist and Publishers Weekly called her “a character well worth meeting again.”

James Dean, James Dean,
You were too fast to live, too young to die, bye-bye!

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.” She puts aside her flasks and Bunsen burners, determined to solve the crime herself -- much to the chagrin of the local authorities

At once both an enthralling mystery and a thought-provoking depiction of class and society, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a masterfully told tale of deceptions and an absolute literary delight.

And in answer to why a 70-year-old-man chose to write about an 11-year-old-girl in 1950s England, he explained “To me, Flavia embodies that kind of hotly burning flame of our young years: that time of our lives when we’re just starting out, when anything--absolutely anything!--is within our capabilities.”

There are five more books lined up in this series, and Bradley plans to keep Flavia in the same age bracket. “I don’t really like the idea of Flavia as an older teenager. At her current age, she is such a concoction of contradictions. It's one of the things that I very much love about her. She's eleven but she has the wisdom of an adult. She knows everything about chemistry but nothing about family relationships. I don’t think she’d be the same person if she were a few years older.”

Oh, to be eleven again and seeing a whole long, hot, lazy summer stretch out before me! I am tempted to join the Flavia de Luce Fan Club.

Put this one right at the top of your summer reading list.