Westport Public Library BOOK blog

F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda are among the many famous literary figures who have called Westport home, although their stay was brief. The newly-wed couple were here for six-months in 1920 during which time Fitzgerald began writing his second novel, The Beautiful and Damned.

A stolen manuscript is at the heart of the newly-released The Fitzgerald Ruse, the second title in Mark Castrique’s Blackman-Robertson series.

Former U.S. military CID Chief Warrant officer Sam Blackman and his partner Nakayla Robertson have opened a detective agency in Asheville, North Carolina. Their first client is Ethel Barkley, a charming elderly woman who hires them to retrieve a lockbox that she claims holds a valuable F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscript which she stole from the author in 1935 while he was living at the stately Grove Park Inn.

Sam and Nakayla no sooner retrieve the box – which is sealed with hardened metal bearing the imprint of a swastika – than someone steals it from their office, killing a security guard in the process. There is evidence that the theft may be part of an attempt to maintain the secrecy of a 1930s American fascist organization. Or … it may be payback from rogue Blackwater mercenaries who have a score to settle with Sam.

When Sam revisits Ethel he finds her now somewhat hostile and her subsequent murder raises the stakes.

Publishers Weekly says “Readers will hope to see a lot more of the book's amiable characters, in particular, Sam and Nakayla, whose comfortable banter lends the story much of its charm."

The first book in the series was Blackman’s Coffin (2008), and Library Journal praised the author’s “effortless storytelling.”

A mystery classic associated with Fitzgerald is David Handler’s The Man Who Would Be F. Scott Fitzgerald, which was a 1990 Edgar winner. Handler’s series character, Stewart “Hoagy” Hoag – ghostwriter of celebrity memoirs and reluctant amateur detective – is called in when wildly bestselling first-time novelist Cam Noyes, who is said to write with "a lyrical voice like F. Scott Fitzgerald", has been too busy running with the brat pack to write his long-overdue second book. Hoagy really has his hands full when bodies start piling up faster than manuscript pages.

Want to read a bit of mystery by the man himself? You can view the text of The Mystery of Raymond Mortgage – a short story Fitzgerald wrote in 1909 when he was thirteen years old – online. The story resurfaced some 50 years after its initial publication and was included in the March 1960 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

Library staff meetings include lots of “book talk.” Here are some recent recommendations.

FICTION
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay – occupied France in 1942, 10-year-old Sarah locks her brother in a cupboard for safekeeping.
Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant – convent life in 1570 Italy with politically savvy nuns and a rebellious novice.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett – Jackson MS in 1962 with the white ladies who lunch & the black women who serve them.
The Declaration by Gemma Malley –a dystopian tale set in 2140 when children are outlawed.
Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier- Native American history in one man’s life & love.
In the Heart of the Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde- a rafting trip through the Grand Canyon changes lives.
Dune Road by Jane Green- cheeky “chic lit” set in familiar surroundings.
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See- sisters leave bustling 1937 Shanghai for a new life in LA.
Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore-think smart-mouthed middle school buddy.
19th Wife by David Ebershoff- history (Mormons), murder mystery & questions about faith in a literary novel.
Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein- love & family explained by a loyal dog.
Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa- WestportREADS selection for January 2010.
Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley- clever 11-year-old girl investigates murder.
Good Thief by Hannah Tinti- Dickensian story set in old New England.
Short History of Women by Kate Walbert- past generations resonate in the present, as 20th century feminist priorities evolve.
***Come to the Library to discuss this book with Ms. Walbert on September 30 at noon.***

NON FICTION
The Noticer: Sometimes, All a Person Needs is a Little Perspective by Andy Andrews-inspiration in a blend of fiction & allegory
Columbine by Dave Cullen – careful investigation, psychological assessment & media criticism fill in the details.
Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang- forced to choose between love of family & loyalty to the Communist party- a story of courage
Madness under the Royal Palms by Laurence Leamer- close-up look at the culture of excess in Palm Beach
Year of Living Biblically by A J Jacobs – funny & profound attempt to take the Bible literally.
Finding the Quiet by Paul Wilson- suggestions to enhance your meditation practice.
How God Changes your Brain by Andrew Newberg- scientific theory & practical advice for improving life.
Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears by Theda Perdue- a tragic & heroic episode in American history.

Vikas Swarup, the author of Q&A, the novel that became the critically acclaimed film Slumdog Millionaire, has turned to writing crime fiction.

Janet Maslin of the New York Times calls his second novel, Six Suspects, "a Bollywood version of the board game Clue with a strain of screwball comedy thrown in" and adds “the whole thing feels handily confined to the kind of isolated, air-tight setting that Agatha Christie’s readers love.”

In a starred review Booklist said “If Agatha Christie wrote a mystery about modern India, it might be something like this.”

Seven years ago, Vicky Rai, the playboy son of a government official murdered a waitress at a trendy restaurant in New Delhi simply because she refused to serve him a drink. Now Rai is dead, killed at a party to celebrate his acquittal. Six of the guests are discovered with guns in their possession – a corrupt bureaucrat, an American tourist, a stone-age tribesman, a Bollywood sex symbol, a mobile phone thief, and an ambitious politician – each as likely as the next to have pulled the trigger.

When asked, in an interview on the publisher’s website, about the comparisons to Christie he answers “I prefer to characterize it as a social thriller. It does begin with a murder and there is an investigation of sorts, but for me the murder is more interesting from a sociological rather than a forensic point of view.”

Swarup says his inspiration for its structure came from Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter's Night a Traveler and David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, and for its content, from real-life crimes in India including the Black Buck case and the Jessica Lall murder case.

For a little more armchair travel time in India, you might want to try three other recent releases.

In H.R.F. Keating’s Inspector Ghote’s First Case, a prequel to the popular series, newly promoted Ghote investigates a suicide case and becomes increasingly suspicious that the victim's husband is not telling the truth. The New York Times has called the detective “one of the great characters of the contemporary mystery novel.”

Tarquin Hall’s The Case of the Missing Servant introduces mustachioed Vish Puri, a respectable family man who styles himself as India's forefront private investigator. He mostly runs background checks for prospective brides and grooms until a lawyer who has brought cases against corrupt government officials retains Puri to find a maid, Mary, who has gone missing from his household – and whom he is suspected of killing. The Kirkus review raves “What Cara Black does for Paris, Hall achieves for India in this lively and quick-paced series debut.”

If noir fiction is more to your liking, try Delhi Noir, a collection of 14 stories, praised by Publishers Weekly for being “briskly paced, beautifully written and populated by vivid, original characters.”

I just got back from vacation and found a growing stack of book club requests on my desk. Although many book clubs take a break over the summer months, many others get together to plan their reading choices for the fall and winter months. If your club is putting together a list of future selections, I just wanted to let you know about the most recent additions we’ve made to the Speaking of Books collection at the library.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, has quickly become a favorite of book clubs. This charming story takes place in 1946 near the end of World War II. Writer Juliet Ashton, looking for a topic to write her next book about, finds herself in an unusual correspondence with the members of the ‘society’ in the referenced title. Written as a series of letters, Juliet finds herself drawn into the lives of the inhabitants of Guernsey Island. Their stories, their tastes in literature, and the impact the German occupation had on the residents of Guernsey will give book clubs lots to discuss. Voted one of the top books of 2008 by Westport Library patrons, it is still one of the most requested books in our catalog.

I am so pleased that we were able to add Olive Kitteridge to our Speaking of Books collection. This 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner by Elizabeth Strout was one of my personal favorites of last year. Strout has written a series of short stories all connected by the title character, Olive Kitteridge. Life in small town Maine is vividly depicted through the stories of the local residents. Ms. Strout’s beautiful writing has made her characters truly believable. You will recognize many of them and there’s much in this little novel for book clubs to talk about. Be sure to put it on your list this year.

The latest addition to Speaking of Books is Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Written in 2007, this is a novel about ten year old Sarah, a young Jewish girl from Paris captured by the Nazis during World War II,and American journalist Julia Jarmond. Sixty years after the war, Jarmond is working on a magazine story about the incident when she discovers a connection between her French husband’s family and young Sarah. Part history, part thriller, this book is most definitely a page turner that book clubs should enjoy.

So send me your lists and be sure to add one from our Speaking of Books collection. We can always provide a discussion guide for these books or for any of your book club choices. Contact me if you have any questions or need help with your book club.

What am I bid on another fine "antiques mystery" series?

Sterling Glass is a small-town Virginia antiques appraiser. In Stealing with Style, her first case, she becomes embroiled in a plot involving several prestigious families, valuable antiques, and con men at some of New York's leading auction houses when a number of rare objects show up in a Goodwill store. The Library Journal review called it "a fascinating look at the world of antiques” which is probably due to the fact that its author, Emyl Jenkins, is a longtime antiques appraiser and has written numerous popular books on the subject.

In the recently released The Big Steal, Sterling is hired to assess the value of broken and missing antiques following a burglary at a Virginia estate. She soon finds that although some of the articles are worth tens of thousands of dollars, others appear to be fakes. The story comes complete with secret rooms, hidden treasures and discovered diaries … and the book includes an easy guide to identifying styles and periods in an illustrated appendix.

If you want more antiques mysteries, be sure to try Jane K. Cleland’s Josie Prescott series. Josie is antiques dealer in small-town coastal New Hampshire. Author Cleland used to own a rare book and antiques store in Portsmouth, so you can be sure that she knows her stuff, too. Her website features a section called What's It Worth? You Be the Judge! Your big chance to find whether some of that old stuff in your attic should go to Sotheby's or Junkluggers.

There is also Sharon Fiffer's Chicago based "antique picker" Jane Wheel and Sujata Massey's Tokyo based Japanese-American antiques dealer and part-time spy Rei Shimura.

Lovejoy fans take note! The “Divvy” -- a man who can spot a real antique in a warehouse full of fakes -- will return in December in The Faces in the Pool, a new novel by creator Jonathan Gash.

In the meantime, you can enjoy all of the Ian McShane episodes from the television program Lovejoy which have been released on DVD. The Library owns seasons one through five as well as a delightful “Christmas Specials” collection. Season six, the last of the run, is expected in October.

Incantations, herbal cures & curses, mysterious unseen powers for good & evil…centuries of fascination with witchcraft have led to disturbing history and intriguing stories. An evergreen topic is central to two recent fiction books.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe takes a Harvard graduate student to the Salem area to clean out and sell her grandmother’s house. She finds an old “receipt book” and follows the clues to a supernatural puzzle in which her ancestors played a part. The author is completing her PhD in American Studies: she expresses her gratitude for the “witchiness” bequeathed to her by her ancestors and its contribution to her ”being the kind of person (she is.)”

In The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent, a mother and daughter stand together against the escalating hysteria in Salem. The mother’s defiance leads to her death. The story is told by her daughter whose family’s love and mutual support sustain them through a time of fear and persecution. Kent is a tenth generation descendent of the mother who was one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged in Salem.

If the power of the supernatural interests you, be sure to read Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches series. The Witching Hour traces four centuries of witchcraft and the occult and paints indelible scenes of New Orleans. Joanne Harris weaves supernatural spells throughout her books; who can forget the sudden mysterious happenings in Chocolat?
In her books, Alice Hoffman connects the events of the story with unseen forces generated by some of the characters. The powers of the natural world are ever present in her blends of magic and realism. The Story Sisters is her latest.

For more on the history of witchcraft.

San Antonio author Rick Riordan has become a household name – at least in households with children – for his Percy Jackson and the Olympians series which features a twelve-year-old boy who discovers he is the modern-day son of an ancient Greek god. His young fans will be happy to hear that Twentieth Century Fox has purchased the rights and a feature film is expected to be released in February 2010.

Riordan also wrote the multi-award-winning Tres Navarre mystery series for adults. Jackson “Tres” Navarre is not your stereotypical private investigator. He is a Tai Chi master with a Ph.D. in English from Berkeley.

There are seven titles in the series which began in 1996 with Big Red Tequila. Next Sunday, August 16th, at 2 pm, the Usual Suspects Mystery Reading Group will discuss the third title, The Last King of Texas, published in 2000.

When a controversial University of Texas at San Antonio English professor is found shot to death, Tres Navarre is the only local academic crazy enough to accept the emergency opening. The police have assured him that they already have a suspect, and all Tres has to do is teach three of the dead man’s classes while they wrap up the open-and-shut case. But when the case starts looking just a little too perfect to Tres, he ends up on the bad side of not only the police but all of the drug dealers, gangs, and other unsavory characters in town in his search for the truth.

One of the reviews at Amazon.com raves “Riordan's style blends the hipness of Elmore Leonard with the sardonic humor of Janet Evanovich. And like Evanovich, Riordan draws on the colorful character of his locale–in his case the twangy chili con carnage of San Antonio academic life–to pepper his narrative with a mixture of medieval literature, Tex-Mex dialogue, and Sherlock Holmesian puzzles.”

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

Want more Texas flavor? Two recently released books feature female Texas Rangers – Jon Land’s Strong Enough to Die and Kathryn Casey’s Blood Lines. The word “feisty” is applied to both women in several reviews! Established in the early 1830s, the Rangers were originally hired by settlers as protection against Indian attacks. Renowned for their expert marksmanship, they established the Colt revolver (six-shooter) as the weapon of choice in the West. After Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836, the Rangers also served as a border patrol. In 1935 they were merged with the state highway patrol.

For the definitive list of all Texas-based mysteries – including James Lee Burke’s Billy Bob Holland, former Texas Ranger, and many other favorites – visit stopyourekillingme.com.

William G. Tapply died July 28, 2009 at his home in Hancock, NH, after a battle with leukemia. He was 69.

Beginning with Death at Charity’s Point in 1984, he wrote twenty seven mysteries featuring Boston sports fisherman and lawyer-turned crime solver Brady Coyne. This includes three mysteries he co-wrote with the late Philip R. Craig in which Coyne teams up with Craig’s Martha’s Vineyard detective J. W. Jackson.

“I put Bill up with Robert Parker,’’ said Kate Mattes—owner of Kate’s Mystery Books, the venerable Cambridge store—in Tapply’s Boston Globe obituary. With Brady Coyne, Tapply created “a Spenser-like character, but more polished. He was a lawyer with Brahmin clients who always wanted to keep the police out of it.’’

“He had a very nice writing style and was one of the best plotters of all the mystery authors in the New England region.’’

Tapply had a second series featuring Maine fishing guide Stoney Calhoun, and the third Calhoun title, Dark Tiger, is due in late September 2009.

Like his protagonists, Tapply was an avid fisherman. He wrote several books and nearly a thousand magazine articles about fly fishing and the great outdoors and was a Contributing Editor for Field & Stream and a columnist for American Angler.

Tapply was a professor of English at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he was also the Writer in Residence. In a story entitled Invisible Writing, which you can read on his website, he recalls his remarkable relationship with his father, who was also a writer, and shares how he received the most important writing tip of his life. Aspiring mystery writers should take note. Tapply had an enjoyable writing style and consistently turned out some of the best fair-play mysteries around.

He was a scheduled guest at the upcoming CrimeBake conference in November and I was so looking forward to meeting him. I will be participating in a panel called “L is for Librarians: Mystery-loving librarians reveal the world behind the check-out desk—how they pick mysteries and introduce authors to their patrons.” The guest of honor will be Sue Grafton and all of the programs have been named “something is for something.” CrimeBake is a conference for mystery writers and readers and is held in Dedham, Massachusetts every year. Check the official website for details.