Sheila Connolly on a Lifetime of Reading
Sheila Connolly

connolly sheilaI can barely recall a time when I wasn’t able to read, and once I did, I couldn’t stop. I read anything with words on it, including a lot of books that I couldn’t possibly understand, like The Little Prince when I was eight, and The Once and Future King when I was 11. (There were also a few interesting books my mother thought she’d hidden, when I was in my teens.)

My friends thought I was a little weird. After all, I’d quote odd snippets of poetry. My vocabulary sounded like it came from 19th century novels, which it probably did. What amazes me, looking back, is that I lived a pretty normal childhood life: I watched plenty of television, took part in after-school activities and sports, and ran around the neighborhood with friends enacting adventure scenarios. I was not holed up in a dark corner alone with a book. Were the days longer then?

When I moved into the house I live in now, it was the first time I ever had room to unpack all of my books (I filled all those shelves three deep, and now books, read and unread, stand in teetering piles anywhere there is space for them). Only then did I realize that the majority of what I had collected and kept were mysteries, and more important, traditional mysteries, including all writers from the Golden Age of detective fiction.

desaint littleprinceThat’s when I realized what I wanted to write. When I started writing I dabbled in thrillers and dark gritty books, but what I kept coming back to was the kind of story where an ordinary person could try to solve a crime and find justice for the victim, to right a wrong. I could create a place where the good guys won, working together and using their wits. That still feels right to me.

Sheila Connolly, Anthony and Agatha Award–nominated and New York Times bestselling author, writes mystery series set in Philadelphia, rural Massachusetts, and the Wild West of Ireland, and is looking forward to introducing a new series in 2017. In addition, she writes the Relatively Dead paranormal romance series for Beyond the Page Publishing, as well as the occasional romantic suspense. Her short stories have appeared in multiple anthologies. She lives in Massachusetts, surrounded by a few hundred of her ancestors, and in her spare time she loves to travel and to excavate old trash heaps.

This "Writers on Reading" essay was originally published in "At the Scene" enews October 2016 as a first-look exclusive to our enewsletter subscribers. For more special content available first to our enewsletter subscribers, sign up here.

Teri Duerr
2016-10-20 20:10:02

connolly sheila"When I moved into the house I live in now, it was the first time I ever had room to unpack all of my books. Only then did I realize that the majority of what I had collected and kept were mysteries, and more important, traditional mysteries, including all writers from the Golden Age of detective fiction." 

Party With Lee Child, for Veterans
Oline H. Cogdill

childlee nightschool
Jack Reacher’s avid fans are aptly called Reacher Creatures.

But really, doesn’t that describe most fans of the novels by Lee Child?

Expect a lot of Reacher Creatures—but then there are a lot of Reacher Creatures in every city—at the big launch of Night School, the 21st novel about the nomadic ex-military cop by author Lee Child.

And expect a party, but also a boost to those serving in the military.

Night School With Lee Child will be 7:30 to 11 p.m. on November 11 at The Carolina Theatre in Durham, North Carolina.

We don’t publicize book launches because there are so many and we don’t want to neglect any authors. But this one is kind of special because of the military tie-in.

The North Carolina event will celebrate the release of Night School with entertainment, coffee and craft beer tastings, late-night food, and Reacher-themed trivia.

The event kicks off with a conversation with Lee Child about the novels, the film, and his creative process.

Night School is a prequel, a technique that Child has used twice before.

The novel is set in 1996—in a pre-9/11 world when Reacher is 35 years old and still in the Army. He’s recently received a medal for a mission in the Balkans when he is sent “to school.” In this case, the school is a secret mission. A sleeper cell in Germany believes an American traitor has information to sell to Islamic terrorists for $100 million.

Since Jack Reacher is returning to the 1990s, so will some of those who attend this event.

An after-party is scheduled at nearby Bull McCabe’s (427 W. Main St.). The press release says this after-party is “inspired by Lee Child’s favorite things and Reacher’s singular lifestyle,” which sounds interesting.

Child will be on hand and there will be interactive activities and giveaways.

But the evening is about more than just Reacher’s latest adventures.

In honor of Veterans Day, Random House has partnered with the USO of North Carolina. For every ticket sold, Random House will donate a Lee Child book to a service member overseas.

Details and prices, which include a copy of Night School, are at Lee Child’s website.

Oline Cogdill
2016-10-22 16:47:50
A Quiet Place
Lucie Smoker

Like a geisha’s subtle touch, the death of Mr. Tsunao Asai’s lovely wife leaves behind mystery and innuendo. At the time of her death, Mr. Asai himself is halfway across the country fulfilling the unsavory work obligation of “not-watching” a painted companion kneel in front of his boss. Such superiors take all the credit for his hard work in the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Mr. Asai resents that. He also resents the fact that his wife, Eiko, has denied him sex since their wedding day.

Eiko dies of a heart attack outside a cosmetics shop in a posh part of Tokyo. Satisfied that her premature passing is due to her heart condition, Eiko’s family cremates her body before Mr. Asai even returns home. But when he visits the scene of her death, every detail seems wrong. The cosmetics shop has no customers. The neighborhood’s only other businesses are hideaway “couples hotels.” Why would Eiko have even been there?

As Mr. Asai unravels the truth, readers get to know this browbeaten bureaucrat, the traditions of respect he must follow in 1970s Japan, and what he is capable of orchestrating on his wife’s behalf—or really his own. Expertly translated to preserve its Japanese rhythms, Seicho Matsumoto’s sly pacing wraps deceptively gentle fingers around your wrists and tugs you into the pitch-black disintegration behind the exterior of the quiet, ever-diligent Mr. Asai.

Teri Duerr
2016-10-25 19:17:31
The Jealous Kind
Hank Wagner

James Lee Burke explores another branch of the Holland family tree in The Jealous Kind, this time focusing on 17-year-old Aaron Holland Broussard, grandson of Hackberry Holland and nephew of Cody Holland. The story is set in 1952, in Houston, as young Aaron falls hard for the love of his young life, Valerie Epstein, from North Houston. Unfortunately, in doing so, he incurs the enmity of her ex-boyfriend Grady Harrelson, whose family is rumored to have ties to organized crime. Aaron’s obsessive love for Valerie, and his fiery, stubborn nature, lead him down a treacherous path, steering him into confrontations with hooligans, mob types, law enforcement, and the ideas, beliefs, and behaviors of those occupying social classes wildly different from his own.

Superbly written, Burke’s latest is a satisfying addition to the Holland family saga, which should please most fans of the series. Burke’s exploration of Korean War-era Houston is fascinating, and his empathy for his young protagonist shines through on every page. Comparisons to classics like Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are apt, as Burke vividly portrays an idealistic protagonist who is confronting the complexities of the larger world for the first time.

Teri Duerr
2016-10-25 19:21:47
The Dead Hand
Eileen Brady

Michael A. Kahn’s latest legal mystery, The Dead Hand, has attorney Rachel Gold working two cases in the St. Louis City Circuit Court, both centered around the interpretation of an obscure law, the Rule of Perpetuities (RAP). The author, a lawyer in real life, does an admirable job explaining this seldom-used point of law. Briefly, the cases have to do with the inheritance of wealth and two women who might be frozen out of money that should be theirs. First wife Marcia Knight is being sued by her former husband’s second, younger (of course) wife who seeks to invalidate Marcia’s divorce agreement to leave her with nothing. Meanwhile, another trophy wife, a deceased billionaire, and a lawyer you love to hate, Norma Cross, are players in a scheme to manipulate the same archaic law. All the legal backstabbing and trial posturing read distressingly true, enough to make you vow to stay out of court if you can. The hilariously named Judge Ballsack presides over the mayhem. On the home front, widowed Rachel is constantly dodging her Jewish mother’s blatant attempts to fix her up. Armed with culinary skills, and a scrumptious brisket, Mom invites a dentist to dinner without telling her daughter, who already has plenty on her mind. Rachael is a gutsy, well-written character, plus a lot of fun to hang out with.

Teri Duerr
2016-10-25 19:26:37
Catacombs of Terror!
Kevin Burton Smith

Catacombs of Terror! by Stanley Donwood (previously best known as Radiohead’s “in-house” cover artist) is a prime example of what happens when a handful of tropes from various genres are tossed together.

Sure, there’s a detective, one Martin Valpolicella of Bath, England, so you could call this a mystery, I guess. But with its shopping cart of assorted mix-and-match genre motifs, plus plenty of chemical substances for the hapless gumshoe to use and abuse, this unholy mess seems to echo everything from Trainspotting and Raiders of the Lost Ark to Lovecraft and Clive Barker, with a defiantly loopy—if a tad shopworn—conspiracy liberally applied to fill in the cracks.

It kicks off when Martin, a private eye watching his career slowly trickle down the tubes, receives an anonymous note: “You’re being set up.”

It’s followed by another, slightly less vague message, and then a handful of meetings with assorted anonymous individuals who gradually fill in the details. In a few days, Martin will be charged with murder.

Bollocks, he figures—it’s most likely some kind of stupid gag set up by Barry Eliot, a local big shot whose wife Martin has been boinking lately.

But it is no gag, it turns out. It is deadly serious, and as Martin begins to investigate (between occasional rounds at the pub), he discovers there’s plenty of nasty lurking in—and under—the sleepy tourist town of Bath, a burg previously known mostly for its Roman-built baths and as the latter-day home of Jane Austen. Apparently it’s also the home of an ancient, evil cult, intent on world domination, who dwell in a subterranean network of tunnels that may stretch as far as Stonehenge, protected by an army of flesh-eating pigs. Uh-huh.

Teri Duerr
2016-10-25 19:36:25
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Teri Duerr
2016-10-27 15:42:21
Pythons and Randy Wayne White
Oline H. Cogdill

 

whiterandywayne seduced
Florida’s ecology plays a major part in each of Randy Wayne White’s novels, whether he is writing about Marion “Doc” Ford, marine biologist who doubles as a government agent, or Hannah Smith, the Gulf Coast fishing guide and private detective.

White’s latest novel Seduced is his fourth about Hannah and true to form he includes a major plot point about Florida’s ecology and history and how the two meld.

White also looks at a problem that Floridia environmentalists are grappling with—the rise in the python population in the Everglades.

While pythons might not seem to be a problem to those who don’t live in Florida, residents of the Sunshine State know the python invasion is not a joke.

This snake population, which is not native to Florida, has decimated wildlife in certain area of the Everglades where they have been found.

These predators have been found to measure 5 to 8 feet, with the record being an 18-foot, 8-inch monster. Alligators and deer have been found in their systems.

This background is interesting, but White doesn’t just spew out facts in Seduced. He includes several heart-stopping scenes in which people and pythons meet..

These scenes add to the suspense of Seduced and show just how authentic White’s research is in his novels.

And further mixing fact with fiction, White based these scenes on a personal experience in which he and two friends were chased by a python. He details his own adventures in the foreward to Seduced.

Let’s hope in the future, all of the author’s python encounters are on the page, not in real life.

Oline Cogdill
2016-10-29 13:38:24
Michael Connelly and Vin Scully
Oline H. Cogdill

 

connollymichael scully photo courtesy Michael Connelly
How do you thank someone who has brought joy to your life?

Michael Connelly found a special way to thank one of his heroes—he dedicated his latest novel The Wrong Side of Goodbye to Vin Scully, who, for 67 seasons, until his recent retirement, was the voice of the Dodgers.

The legendary sportscaster began his years with the Dodgers in 1950, back when the team was the Brooklyn Dodgers, and ended his time this year in Los Angeles.

That made Scully the longest-tenured of any broadcaster with a single team in professional sports history.

This record-breaking run is amazing and his legions of fans will miss his voice.

And that includes Connelly.

The dedication in The Wrong Side of Goodbye says it all:
“To Vin Scully
With many thanks”

And, without giving away any plot point, Connelly also features Scully in a couple of scenes in The Wrong Side of Goodbye.

Harry Bosch, Connelly’s iconic hero, remembers listening to Scully when he was on surveillance for a major case:

connellymichael wrongside
“We could hear the broadcast coming out of all the open windows of the houses,” Bosch says in The Wrong Side of Goodbye. “I wanted to bail on the surveillance and go over for the last inning. You know, badge our way into the stadium and watch. But we stayed put and listened to Vinny.”

Bosch’s memory is tinged with victory—he caught the criminal—and sadness as he contemplates Scully’s retirement.

“He’s the voice of this city. It won’t be the same without him,” Bosch adds.

Devout readers feel the same way about Bosch—the genre wouldn’t be the same without him.

Fortunately, Connelly leaves the door open for new Bosch tales. Goodbye may be in the title, but The Wrong Side of Goodbye is in no way Bosch’s swan song.

This is isn’t the first time that Connelly has paid homage to Scully.

In a 2009 interview with Parade magazine, Connelly said, “Scully is the voice of my favorite team in all of professional sports—the Dodgers. He’s also one of my heroes. Players and managers come and go. Even some fans. But Scully is always here. He has called nearly 10,000 Dodger games and in the process transcended the game. At 81, he’s as much an icon in Los Angeles as the Hollywood sign.”

Scully was 88 when he retired just a few months ago, and, I think, he is one of those people who always will be associated with Los Angeles.

Connelly’s dedication is the ultimate “thank you” from a fan.

Photo: Vin Scully and Michael Connelly. Photo courtesy Michael Connelly

Oline Cogdill
2016-11-05 14:51:57
Michelle Dockery Stars in “Good Behavior,” Based on Blake Crouch Novels
Oline H. Cogdill

 

goodbehavior tnt
Some mystery novels make a fairly smooth transition to television.  

Michael Connelly’s Bosch, Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli & Isles, Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood), and Elmore Leonard’s Justified instantly come to mind.

As do the light mysteries on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel, including the Aurora Teagarden films—again from Charlaine Harris; Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swenson series; Suzi Weinert’s garage sale series; and Kate Collins’ flower shop series.

This, of course, doesn’t count the numerous successful movies based on solid crime fiction.

But sometimes that magic just doesn’t work, even for TNT, which has a good record of delivering involving series and movies with a mystery approach.

After watching twice the first three episodes of Good Behavior, based on Blake Crouch’s novels, I am still on the fence as to whether this new TNT series will be able to make viewers care about these characters, or the plots. Good Behavior debuts November 15, with a two-hour premiere at 9 p.m. on TNT.

goodbehavior michelledockeryOne thing for sure, Good Behavior is no Rizzoli & Isles.

Nor do I think it has the staying power of Major Crimes—my favorite—or The Closer.

What Good Behavior does have going for it is Michelle Dockery, who dons an American accent and various wigs to play con artist and ex-con Letty Raines.

Letty Raines is about as far from Lady Mary, the character whom Dockery played on Downton Abbey, as you can get. Letty is anything but the buttoned-up, posh upperclass Lady Mary. But Lady Mary always had a subversive streak—remember her brief affair—though nowhere near as felonious as Letty.

Letty has recently been released from prison and she really does try to do better.

She would like to have a relationship, or at least be able to see, her 10-year-old son, who is being raised by her mother, Estelle (Lusia Strus). And she is trying to show up for those mandatory check-ins with her parole officer, Christian (Terry Kinney), who understands her a lot more than either realizes.

But Letty is at heart a thief and a con artist, and she always well be, despite those self-help empowerment tapes she listens to constantly.

goodbehavior Juan Diego Botto
She can’t resist indulging in stealing valuables from wealthy patrons at uber-expensive hotels.

 A bit of jewelry, a bit of cash, some expensive perfume, some couture frocks and Jimmy Choo shoes—Letty just loves to steal, but she also keeps some things for herself to enjoy.

She’s in the middle of one of those heists when she gets a call that the hotel guest is returning. She barely has time to hide in the massive closet before the door opens. While there, she hears hit man Javier Pereira (Juan Diego Botto) being hired to kill the guest’s wife.

Letty wants to do good. She really does.

So she sets out to stop the hit, which makes her an adversary of Javier, who forces her to team up with him, and pulls her into even darker crime than she can handle.

Dockery’s no-holds-barred performance keeps Good Behavior on track. She is mesmerizing to watch as she goes through the different sides of Letty and makes the banterlike dialogue seem effortless.

Botto is certainly easy on the eyes and his calm exterior hides an amoral interior, which the actor well uses. Character actor Kinney is always delivers his best and his Christian is a man riddled with guilt, doubt, and the need for redemption.

crouchblake goodbehavior
The chemistry of Dockery, Botto, and Kinney works well, making us believe in their complicated relationships.

The scenes in which Letty and Javier try to find a charging station for their stolen Tesla are terrific.

The problem with the episodes of Good Behavior that I saw is the source material. Good Behavior is better as a novel than on the screen. Author Blake Crouch’s Good Behavior combines three novellas—The Pain of Others, Sunset Key, and Grab. In the book Letty Raines is Letty Dobesh.

Good Behavior reads better than it views. In the novels, Crouch is able to show why Letty is worth rooting for.  Unfortunately, the episodes I viewed make it hard to care about any of the characters. Crouch is listed as one of the series writers and as an executive producer.

I love the antihero, the person you shouldn’t root for but have to. Dockery’s performance almost achieves that but the scripts soon become the same—Javier has another assignment, Letty wants to stop him, Letty can’t.

As a viewer, I need more than what Good Behavior is offering. The series Wayward Pines, based on Crouch’s trilogy, was a better example of the author’s work.   
I’ll give Good Behavior another chance. But frankly, I can’t wait for Major Crimes to return.

Good Behavior debuts November 15, with a two-hour premiere at 9 p.m. on TNT. It will regularly air at 9 p.m. Tuesdays.

Photos: Juan Diego Botto as Javier Pereira and Michelle Dockery as Letty Raines. Photos courtesy TNT

Oline Cogdill
2016-11-12 15:50:00
A New Role for Jeff Abbott
Oline H. Cogdill

 

harrischarlaine allthelittleliars
Charlaine Harris
’ All the Little Liars begins with a wedding announcement of Aurora Teagarden.

Yes, after 13 years, the favorite librarian of Lawrenceton, Georgia, is back.

And Harris wastes no time in reestablishing her appealing character.

Since the wedding announcement is the first paragraph of All the Little Liars, we are not giving anything away.

The best man is the groom’s best friend—Jeff Abbott of Austin, Texas.

Abbott, of course, is a bestselling author, now best known for his globe-jumping Sam Capra novels.

This makes sense because Aurora’s husband, Robin Crusoe, is a mystery writer. Abbott, of course, also is an award-winning author.

Abbott’s latest novel in his Sam Capra series is The First Order.

Harris’ reference to another mystery writer is one of those little Easter eggs that readers adore.

 

"Jeff and I have known each other for many, many years. I picked Jeff because he is a friendly guy, and Robin is too, and they write the same sort of books. They might easily bond. Plus, Jeff is a Southerner also. But mostly because he said "yes" when I asked him,” said Harris in an email.

abbottjeff thefirstorder“I have only used names of my close friends before, to give them a fist bump," Harris added.

For his part, Abbott almost forgot about his debut in Harris’ book.

“Charlaine and I are friends; she had asked me a couple of years back if she could use my name and I said yes, but had forgotten about it until someone with an ARC posted about it on Facebook. I haven't read the book yet, it's on order but hasn't arrived. I hope ‘Jeff Abbott’ survives until the next book,” Abbott said in an email.

Read All the Little Liars to find out the fictional Jeff Abbott's fate.

Oline Cogdill
2016-11-19 19:15:00
My Book “Marry in Haste”
Susan Van Kirk

vankirk susanWest-central Illinois is steeped in history. My hometown of Galesburg brags that they have the last existing physical location of one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates—the Old Main building at Knox College. During the days prior to the Civil War, Galesburg was a major hub on the Underground Railroad. It’s also the hometown of Carl Sandburg and George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., the man who invented the Ferris wheel, a marvel of technology introduced at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

My current town, just 12 miles west, is Monmouth, which has the oldest continuously operating airport in Illinois. The Monmouth residents boast about “their” portrait of Lincoln. The ambrotype, taken here in 1858, now resides in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian. Both towns began in the 1830s, and both built liberal arts colleges that are almost that old.

Whenever I walk through either town, I see businesses whose cornerstones begin with a 19th-century number. I’ve combined the histories of each place to create Endurance, Illinois, a town of 15,000, and the setting of my mysteries. The latest of these is Marry in Haste.

It isn’t difficult for me to imagine Endurance in 1893, the year my fictional Olivia Havelock, age 17, leaves her small farm town of Anthem, Illinois, traveling with her parents four days by horse and wagon to Endurance so she can stay with her great aunt. Her parents hope she will learn the social graces and find a suitable husband.

Their search is rewarded beyond their imaginations. As Olivia gazes up the main staircase of Lockwood House, home of her new husband, Judge Charles Lockwood, she is overwhelmed by such splendor. The judge commissioned the Victorian home to be the most impressive house in town with 4,400 square feet, multiple bedrooms, a ballroom on the third floor, and well-trained servants. Olivia is dazzled by this mansion, and despite the 26-year difference in their ages (as well as rumors about the death of Lockwood’s first wife), she is sure they will be happy.

However, as Ben Franklin wrote, “Marry in haste, repent at leisure.” Olivia’s repentance will be terrifying.

Imagine that house a century later, now bought by Jeff Maitlin, the boyfriend of my protagonist, retired teacher Grace Kimball. Although it was the elegant Lockwood House in the past, by 2012 it is a deteriorating white elephant bought by Jeff as a restoration project. As Grace says, “I think it resembles the doomed house in Poe’s ‘The Fall of the House of Usher.’ All it needs is a moat in which to sink until it disappears.”

Allenhouse300dpi2To buy Lockwood House, Jeff takes out a loan from Conrad Folger’s bank. Folger is married to one of Grace Kimball’s favorite former students, Emily Petersen Folger. This transaction will place Grace in the middle of a murder investigation when Folger is brutally killed, and his wife becomes the chief suspect. As Grace tries to clear Emily’s name, she discovers the mysteries of the past in Lockwood House bear a strong resemblance to the murder of the present.

From 1968 to 1972, I lived in a Victorian home known as the McCullough house, the inspiration for this murder mystery. The first-floor living room and adjacent dining room were the length of a bowling alley, and the upper floors held four other apartments. The grand staircase that led from the front foyer to the ballroom on the third floor was matched by a servant’s staircase at the back.

W.W. McCullough, wealthy local businessman, built the house in the late 19th century with mahogany woodwork throughout, multiple pocket doors, fireplaces, chandeliers, water closets, carriage house, and—sigh—a ballroom. I can still see the gas lighting fixtures that remained in the walls during our time there.

vankirk marryinhasteWhen I began writing Marry in Haste, I found it easy to remember all the dark corners of my former home, and to believe that this mansion could be the common denominator of two marriages ending in mysterious deaths.

Ben Franklin was a wise man. Too bad my characters didn’t listen.

 

Susan Van Kirk is a writer of short stories, mysteries, and a creative nonfiction memoir about teaching. Her latest novel is Marry in Haste. A high school and college teacher for 44 years, she has always been interested in mysteries since she read the entire Sherlock Holmes series at an early age. It was love at first murder, and yes, her parents were worried.

Teri Duerr
2016-11-10 17:56:23

Imagining history to create the fictional 19th-century Endurance, Illinois, a town of 15,000, and the setting of Marry in Haste.

Hank Phillippi Ryan: Confessions of a Lifelong Reader
Hank Phillippi Ryan

ryan hankphillippi2Now it can be told. Now that time has passed, it is safe to reveal the secrets of my reading life. Say no more? Well, no. I’ll confess. Here are the pivotal moments, the surreptitious activities, the Cold War fears, the binges, and two outright deceptions.

1. Mom, I know you told me I was not allowed to read the James Bond books. But I ignored you, and I sneaked them. I read every one, under the covers, with whatever light I could find.

And now that we're discussing it, I also read Marjorie Morningstar, which I sneaked from your bookshelf. As well as Ten North Frederick, which wasn't as good. And Peyton Place, but didn't everyone?

I was also sneaking MAD magazine in the back seat of the car.

I now understand this would probably be no surprise to you, but I thought I was fooling you. Thanks for letting me read.

2. Dear Mr. Thornburg, my beloved high school English teacher. I never read Ethan Frome.

I said I did, I know, but I got part of the way through, and thought it was ridiculous. You will be pleased to know that I now count Edith Wharton as one of my necessary authors. So thank you, even though our initial introduction was not successful.

Miss Godfrey, we adored you and your English class too, but I did not read Martin Chuzzlewit. None of us did.

3. To my little sister Nina, I am sorry I dragged you through the neighborhood in the '60s, handing out leaflets about how to build bomb shelters. Mom made me take you, and she thought we were just playing. But I had read Fail Safe and On The Beach, and I was terrified. Everything turned out fine, and the nuclear war I feared did not happen. But I still love those books. Alas Babylon. Seven Days in May. The Manchurian Candidate. And now I write suspense. Imagine that.

4. To my high school, I stole a library book. In, I think, 1964. It is that huge orange poetry anthology edited by Louis Untermeyer. If you want it back, happy to return it. Um, I also may still have that big anthology of Sherlock Holmes. Sadly, I read all of those stories, bingeing on them, one right after the other, up in the hayloft of the barn behind our house, and I fear it may be the worse for that. I will buy the library a new one. I just could not bear to give those books back, though I promise you I always planned to. Can we waive the fines?

5. To my employers at the TV station where I worked in Atlanta. One Thursday in 1980, when I was still a general assignment reporter and I called in sick, I was not sick.

I was reading Stephen King’s The Stand, and there was no way I was going to put it down to go to work.

ryan saynomoreWell, I feel better now, having revealed all. Well, not exactly all. But I'm not going to tell you about how I sometimes read the end of mysteries first. That, I will never admit. At least not here.

 

Hank Phillippi Ryan is the on-air investigative reporter for Boston's NBC affiliate, winning 33 Emmys and dozens more journalism honors. The bestselling author of nine mysteries, Ryan's also an award-winner in her second profession—with five Agathas, two Anthonys, two Macavitys, the Daphne, and Mary Higgins Clark Award. Critics call her “a superb and gifted story-teller.” Her novels have been named as a Library Journal Best of 2014 and 2015. Her newest novel is Say No More—Jeffery Deaver says, “Superb!” and a Library Journal starred review says, “Ryan does it again.”

Ryan is a founder of MWA University and 2013 president of National Sisters in Crime. She lives in Boston with her husband Jonathan Shapiro, a criminal defense and civil rights attorney.

 

This “Writers on Reading” essay was originally published in “At the Scene” eNews November 2016 as a first-look exclusive to our enewsletter subscribers. For more special content available first to our enewsletter subscribers, sign up here.

Teri Duerr
2016-11-11 16:40:43

ryan hankphillippi2Now it can be told. Now that time has passed, it is safe to reveal the secrets of my reading life. Say no more? Well, no. I’ll confess. Here are the pivotal moments, the surreptitious activities, the Cold War fears, the binges, and two outright deceptions.

Beyond the Book: Richard Stark’s Parker
Dick Lochte

westlake donaldIn 1962, as Richard Stark, a pen name he’d employed in several previous short stories, Donald Westlake created arguably his most popular character, the mononymous Parker, a hardened, yet somehow honorable, professional thief with the worst luck in fictional heist history. In every one of his 24 novels, including nearly that many expertly planned robberies, something goes drastically wrong, usually because of the avarice of one or more of his crew. The fun comes from the brainpower and brawn he uses to improve his situations. The series seemed to have come to a halt with 1974’s Plunder Squad, but, after laying low for 23 years, the master thief reemerged in the properly-titled Comeback (1997), remaining active until just before his creator’s death in 2008. Westlake penned Parker’s debut novel, The Hunter (aka Point Blank and Payback, due to film adaptations), as a paperback one-off, but his editor thought the character had longer legs. Those legs have carried him from softcover to hard, and from paper to audio, film, and even graphic novel formats.

Audiobooks

Nearly all of the Parker novels are available in audio format from either AudioGo or Audible. However, in my opinion, only a few are paired with proper readers. The best collaborations, Deadly Edge, Comeback, and Backflash, feature the seriously hardboiled voice and attitude of actor Keith Szarabajka. Joe Barrett’s deep-throated narrations of Slayground, Plunder Squad, and Butcher’s Moon are good. But the reader of the majority of the titles, Stephen R. Thorne, sounds more like, well, the genial and erudite Donald Westlake than the presumably tougher-minded Richard Stark.

Movies

madeinusaThe Parker character has appeared in eight feature films, though his name is used in only the most recent, titled, appropriately, Parker. His actual movie debut was as a female, in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1966 Made in USA. Starring the director’s then-wife, Anna Karina, it’s a perplexing, surreal pop art bit of French political agitprop very loosely (if at all) based on Stark’s The Jugger. The flick, of interest mainly to fans of Godard, was made without Westlake’s knowledge. As a result of the author’s legal action, it was not shown in the United States, and the fact that it is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray from The Criterion Collection suggests that adaptation rights were eventually purchased. Parker’s more or less official debut as a recognizable character was in Point Blank (1967), adapted from The Hunter by Alexander Jacobs, David Newhouse, and Rafe Newhouse, and directed by John Boorman (Warner DVD/Blu-ray). In it, Lee Marvin (as Walker), stomped his way upward through the syndicate in search of loot he believed to be his. That same year, in the French film Mis à Sac, based on Stark’s The Score, Daniel Ivernel appeared as gang leader Edgar. While the movie has an English title, Pillaged, it doesn’t seem to have been released in the US, either in theaters or on DVD, though it apparently can be streamed via TorrentBeam.

theoutfitThe following year, Jim Brown took over (as McClain) in an OK US adaptation of the Parker novel The Seventh, titled The Split (Warner Archive DVD). In 1973, Robert Duvall assumed the role (renamed Maclin) in director John Flynn’s tough-as-nails version of The Outfit (Warner Archive, remastered). Westlake told me Duvall came closest to his own vision of the character. Peter Coyote stars (as Stone) in the slogging, dreary 1983 British film Slayground (Starz/Anchor Bay DVD), mis-adapted from one of the best novels in the series, in my opinion. As in the book, Parker/Stone winds up in a closed-for-winter amusement park, forced to battle against paid killers. The movie has Stone leaving a robbery and running over and killing a young girl, prompting her agonized father to send out an assassin for vengeance. The fact that the amusement park is in Blackpool, England, doesn’t help. In 1999, Mel Gibson (as Porter) produced and starred in Payback, a second adaptation of The Hunter. A conflict between Gibson and the film’s director-writer Brian Helgeland resulted in a serious change from director’s cut to released film. Both versions are available: Payback and Payback Straight Up: The Director’s Cut (Both on Paramount DVD or Blu-Ray). The Gibson version is more amusing, while Hegeland’s is truer to the novel, that is, tougher and harder-edged. I think both are worth watching. Westlake, however, thought Gibson’s made the lead "a mutt. Parker is not a mutt." Finally, in Parker (2013, Sony DVD ), faithfully adapted from Flashfire by John J. McLaughlin and smoothly directed by Taylor Hackford, Jason Statham made the case for a properly named, if Cockney, master thief who, betrayed and left for dead by his crew after a successful state fair robbery, survives and goes on a hunt for his share of the loot. And maybe a little, ah, payback.

Bottom line, a wry Westlake comment: "Parker has been played by several different white men, a black man, and a French woman. As my friend Joe Goldberg has observed, this could mean the character lacks definition."

Graphic Novels

cooke richardstarksparkerBefore his untimely death in May from lung cancer, the brilliant Eisner- and Harvey Award-winning artist Darwin Cooke began a series of graphic novels based on the Parker series. He completed four: Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter (2009), Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit, which includes a short version of Richard Stark’s Parker: The Man With the Getaway Face (2010), Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score (2012), and Richard Stark’s Parker: Slayground (2013). All are from IDW Publishing in hardcover and digital editions. The first two, which form a long, seamless story, along with an additional 65 pages of Cooke’s art, are available in the elaborate Richard Stark’s Parker: The Martini Edition, hardcover and slipcased, also from IDW.

More info on Westlake, Stark, and Parker may be found here: http://www.donaldwestlake.com/parker/.

Dick Lochte is a well-known literary and drama critic and contributes the "Sounds of Suspense" audiobook review column to Mystery Scene. He received the 2003 Ellen Nehr Award for Excellence in Mystery Reviewing. His prize-winning Sleeping Dog and its sequel, Laughing Dog, are available from Brash Books.

Teri Duerr
2016-11-17 18:53:00

stark richardIn 1962, as Richard Stark, a pen name he’d employed in several previous short stories, Donald Westlake created arguably his most popular character, the mononymous Parker, a hardened, yet somehow honorable, professional thief with the worst luck in fictional heist history.

The Gentleman From Japan
Hank Wagner

The sixth book in this critically acclaimed series finds the easily irritated Inspector Bing, nephew of the series’ North Korean Inspector O, dealing with several matters simultaneously in the Chinese border city of Yanji. Initially it is a rash of mysterious deaths at local eateries, followed by the appearance of a rookie deputy to whom he has to show the ropes, followed in short order by a bombing at his office, a branch of the Ministry of State Security, and the reappearance of two shady operatives from his past. To top it all off, his uncle gets wind of a covert arms deal set to go down within Bing’s jurisdiction. To some, this might seem overwhelming. To the irascible inspector, it’s just another week on the job.

In a way, the details of Bing’s ongoing investigations are irrelevant to one’s enjoyment of any particular book in this series centered in the sometimes opaque, politically complex, often-bureaucratic, and culturally very different (to many Western readers, at least) worlds of North Korea and China. The true joy of these novels lies in experiencing each inspector’s voice, and in the vicarious experience of watching them deal with the day-to-day annoyances that arise from their occupations and their colorful circle of acquaintances.

In this respect, reading The Gentleman from Japan is much like reading a book in Ed McBain’s 87th precinct series, the difference being that James Church’s books are set in the exotic locale of Yanji, China, just across the border from North Korea, instead of the exotic locale of Isola (i.e., New York City). The setting creates a seemingly endless stream of unique situations, which serve to delight readers, but provide no end of misery to Inspector Bing.

Teri Duerr
2016-11-17 19:05:43
The Knife Slipped
Kevin Burton Smith

Erle Stanley Gardner may not have been Chandler or Hammett, but he could write rings around most of his pulp peers, and he remains one of crime fiction’s bestselling authors. Sadly, he’s now mostly remembered, if at all, for creating Perry Mason, played by granite-faced Raymond Burr on the long-running TV show. Gardner pumped out over 85 novels and short stories featuring the slick defense lawyer, but over his long, long writing career, he gave life to countless short stories and novellas in the pulps and slicks, and went on to write over 150 novels full of memorable characters and fast-paced plotting. He may not have always been a great stylist—like most pulp, his stuff was often formulaic—but oh, the stories he could tell.

And if you ask me (or Gardner, who concurred), the best stuff he ever did were the books featuring bullying, bellowing, corner-cutting, penny-pinching private detective Bertha Cool of Los Angeles, a 60-something woman of mountainous proportions, and her much beleaguered diminutive assistant, Donald Lam, a young, disbarred lawyer who somehow has managed to hang on to a few scruples, despite being in a racket that apparently doesn’t have much use for them. In 29 relentlessly twisty, turny, frenetic capers, Cool and Lam worked all sorts of cases, rarely seeing eye to eye on tactics, suspects or Donald’s expense account, bickering and trying to out-maneuver each other all the way to the end when justice of some sort was (arguably) done.

But wait! Did I say 29 books? Turns out there was one more round in the chamber, moldering away in some archive, rejected by its original publisher back in 1939 for Bertha’s “tendency to talk tough, swear, smoke cigarettes, and try to gyp people.” As the Divine Ms. Cool herself tells a reluctant client, “I’m profane as hell when I get started.” Fortunately, that hasn’t stopped neo-pulpsters Hard Case Crime, who resurrected this lost treasure and have given us one of the most entertaining crime novels of the year. Only 75 years late.

Initially intended as the second book of the series, The Knife Slipped has Donald still learning the ropes, and still a little too easily distracted by a pretty face; in this case Ruth Marr, the comely switchboard operator (and future murder suspect) at the apartment building where Donald’s been dispatched to keep an eye on a wandering husband. But this simple domestic job takes a turn when hubby is bumped off, and soon spirals into a major case full of crooked cops, thugs, extortion, and assorted dirty political tricks. Bertha, of course, immediately smells money. Which may explain why she gets off her duff and does some detective work for once, while keeping Donald mostly in the dark. But even more shocking? Bertha, who generally displays about as much sentimentality as a snow shovel, lets show a teeny, tiny bit of heart at the novel’s conclusion. Who knew?

If you like your crime hardboiled, served with plenty of zip and loads of snappy patter on the side, your order’s up.

Teri Duerr
2016-11-17 19:14:19

gardner knifeslippedA hardboiled trip with 60-something PI Bertha Cool.

Holiday Issue #147 Contents

147Cover465

 

Features

Lee Child

How a British TV director bought $6 worth of paper and pencils and created the iconic Jack Reacher, ex-US Army MP and rough-and-tumble knight errant.
by Oline H. Cogdill

Ed Gorman (1941-2016)

Author, editor, anthologist, and friend to a wide swath of the mystery community.
by Jon L. Breen

Call the Kopps! Amy Stewart

A delightful new historical series starring the ultimate Jersey Girls.
by Cheryl Solimini

Sherlock on the Radio

Landmark radio dramatizations of the entire cannon, faithfully adapted.
by Jon L. Breen

David Morrell

From Rambo to Thomas De Quincey historical novels, the common thread in this writer’s work is quality.
by Betty Webb

Some Thoughts on Series Characters

by Lawrence Block

The 2016 Mystery Scene Gift Guide

Solving your holiday conundrums, one by one.
by Kevin Burton Smith

How Sweet It Is: Joanne Fluke

Fluke comes from a long line of great bakers, and she takes her responsibilities very seriously in her culinary mysteries.
by Oline H. Cogdill

The Hook

First Lines That Caught Our Attention

“Plum Crazy” Crossword

by Verna Suit

 

Departments

At the Scene

by Kate Stine

Mystery Miscellany

by Louis Phillips

Hints & Allegations

2016 Awards for the Anthony, Shamus, Ned Kelly, Ngaio Marsh, CWA Dagger, and Derringer

 
 

Reviews

Small Press Reviews: Covering the Independents

by Betty Webb

Very Original: Paperback Originals Reviewed

by Lynne Maxwell & Hank Wagner

Sounds of Suspense: Audiobooks Reviewed

by Dick Lochte

What About Murder? Reference Books Reviewed

by Jon L. Breen

Short and Sweet: Short Stories Considered

by Ben Boulden

Mystery Scene Reviews

 
 

Miscellaneous

The Docket

Letters

Our Readers Recommend

Advertiser Info

Teri Duerr
2016-11-17 20:43:34
At the Scene, Holiday Issue #147

147Cover465Hi Everyone,

Hi everyone, In sad news for the mystery community, author and editor Ed Gorman passed away on October 14, 2016.

In addition to his many literary accomplishments in the crime, Western, and horror genres, Ed and Robert Randisi founded Mystery Scene Magazine in 1985. Ed remained publisher and editor until 2002 and stayed active in the magazine as a consulting editor and columnist up until the most recent issue, Fall #146, 2016. Ed had a profound effect on my life. We had known each other for years, he as the editor and publisher of Mystery Scene Magazine and I as the editor of The Armchair Detective. In 2002, he called to ask whether I’d like to own a small magazine. Would I! It was a dream come true, and Ed was an unfailing source of good advice and good cheer in the magazine’s transition from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to New York City. In all the years since, he was as much a joy to work with as he was a joy to know. He will be missed.

Jon L. Breen offers a tribute to Ed in this issue. Please visit the website for more articles about Ed, including the tribute piece we published in our first issue of Mystery Scene in 2002, and Tom Nolan’s 2014 appreciation of Ed’s Sam McCain novels.

Lee Child wants you to know that he’s not one to lose focus. As he says in Oline Cogdill’s interview in this issue, “I am the Reacher guy. That is what I’m always going to do.” And the millions of Jack Reacher fans say

“Amen” to that!

On the other end of the crime fiction spectrum, Joanne Fluke is similarly dedicated. Each of the delicious recipes in her best- selling Hannah Swensen mysteries is rigorously tested by Fluke as well as by others who might not be as culinarily gifted. We’ve included a recipe for her Chocolate Caramels in this issue—bon appétit!

Amy Stewart was researching an early 20th-century booze smuggler when she stumbled across the Kopp sisters, a trio of crime-fighting Jersey Girls who defied their era and circumstances to carve out independent lives. We think you’ll agree that reality is as entertaining as fiction in this highly praised new series. Cherly Solimini talks to the author in this issue.

A tough start in life led directly to a career in the arts for David Morrell. He began telling himself stories in the orphanage, and, as he says in our interview, “Today I still tell stories in order to deal with whatever hell comes around.”

Lawrence Block considers the series character in an entertaining essay in this issue. Should a series hero age in real time or remain frozen in amber? He’s tried it both ways and has thoughts to share. Jim French Productions has completed a landmark achievement with the radio dramatizations of the entire Sherlock Holmes canon—four novels and 56 short stories—now available in a handsome three-volume, 30-CD set. Do you know a good little sleuth who deserves a wonderful surprise?

Speaking of gifts, Kevin Burton Smith has scoured many dark alleys and even darker bars to assemble the “2016 Mystery Scene Gift Guide for Mystery Lovers” in this issue. Take advantage of his legwork!

All of our best wishes for a wonderful holiday season and the happiest new year.

Enjoy!

Kate Stine
Editor-in-chief

 

 

 

 

 

Teri Duerr
2016-11-17 20:56:47
Holiday Issue #147
Teri Duerr
2016-11-17 21:03:48
His Bloody Project
Matthew Schlecht

There is no doubt about it, Roderick Macrae, the young killer at the center of Graeme Macrae Burnet's literary crime story His Bloody Project, is guilty. But that's just where the story begins. Structured as a collection of 19th-century historical documents uncovered by the author while researching his family history, the story begins with police statements by the residents of a tiny, isolated Scottish farming community. The documents are followed by a 17-year-old Roderick’s own account of the tragic events and murder trial around the violence that has upended life in his quiet village.

But despite the fact that readers learn of Macrae’s confession early on, author Burnet keeps eyeballs glued to the page with an immersive depiction of life in the small village of Culduie. It is a bleak existence for Roderick, his mother dead, his father severe and taciturn, and his sister a shadow of her former self since losing their mother. To add misery to grief, the Macraes are continually tormented by the local constable Lachlan Broad, who uses his authority to enforce regulations that seem designed to persecute the family. Burnet does such a good job of creating sympathy for Roderick, born into a life of hard work and poverty, that it’s not until much later, after many shifting narrators and reports, that readers begin to reconsider the way in which events, and Roderick’s own thoughts, have been presented. His Bloody Project is a heartbreakingly vivid account of life in rural Scotland more than a century ago, and a brilliant showcase in complex narrative voice that raises fascinating questions about “truth” and justice without feeling show-offy.

Teri Duerr
2016-11-23 15:27:46

macraeburnet hisbloodyprojectA vivid account of life in rural Scotland more than a century ago that raises fascinating questions about “truth” and justice.

The Madonna of Notre Dame
Betty Webb

In Alexis Ragougneau’s outstanding The Madonna of Notre Dame, the City of Light turns into the City of Darkness when a young woman is found murdered in one of the most famous cathedrals in the world. Beautifully translated from the French by Katherine Gregor, the mystery centers around the conflicts between three people trying to solve the heinous crime, often against the wishes of their superiors. They are Police Captain Landard, a Gitane-smoking hard case; Father François Kern, a lifelong sufferer of a disabling disease; and young Claire Kauffman, a deputy committing magistrate in the Parisian judicial system. Also putting in his two cents about the direction the investigation should take is Djibril, the convicted murderer Father Kern privately visits whenever he serves Mass at a nearby prison. In the standard French tradition, there are no saints here and no devils either, just flawed human beings stumbling along the best they can. Perhaps the most flawed of all is Police Lieutenant Gombrowicz, a sarcastic brute who appears to have no redeeming graces at all—until author Ragougneau serves up a surprise about him. In fact, the element of surprise is one of the most intriguing facets of this many-layered novel. Just when you think you know where the book is headed, it veers sharply into new territory. At one point, Father Kern, after so many years of suffering, has an insight that should have been self-evident, but wasn’t. Accordingly, he discovers there is a difference between illegal and immoral, and that you sometimes have to commit a crime in order to do the right thing. If you love soul-searching mysteries this book is guaranteed to make you say, “Tres magnifique!”

Teri Duerr
2016-11-29 17:28:48
The Widower’s Wife
Betty Webb

In Cate Holahan’s The Widower’s Wife doing the right thing is never an issue, but doing the wrong thing and living to enjoy the fruits of your crimes is. Once Ana Bacon’s unemployed, spendthrift husband Tom has burned through all their money, he decides to take out a multimillion dollar insurance policy, then fake his death, eventually returning to his family under a new identity. When that doesn’t work, Tom asks Ana to be the one who plays dead. Against her better judgment, Ana, who is an excellent swimmer, agrees to stage a fall from a cruise ship and disappear until the insurance money comes through. With cash in hand, she, Tom, and their daughter Sophia will change their names and move to South America. But again, things don’t go as planned, mainly because Ana loves little Sophia too much to even temporarily separate from her for the required time. Another complication: just before Ana takes her fateful dive off the cruise ship, she discovers she is pregnant. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, though, and soon the deed is done, but in a different manner than originally planned. That’s when this fine thriller really gets interesting. One of the fun things about The Widower’s Wife is that the story is told by Ana, and separately, by Ryan Monahan, the insurance investigator sent to confirm the shipboard “accident.” Monahan enters the book only after Ana’s disappearance, yet his is the voice we encounter in chapter one, set months after Ana’s “death.” Monahan’s suspicions, counterpointed by Ana’s adventures, make for scary—and sometimes amusing—reading. There are many good lessons to be learned: first, never marry a spendthrift; second, don’t trust two-legged coyotes; third, avoid insurance investigators; and the list goes on in this riveting tale of love-gone-bad—but to reveal all of them here would spoil a terrific ending.

Teri Duerr
2016-11-29 17:33:28
The White Devil (Stansberry)
Betty Webb

Domenic Stansberry’s The White Devil proves that while many women are courageous and self-sacrificing, some of them are parasites. Such appears to be the case with small-time American actress Vicki Wilson, an entertainingly passive do-little who allows Johnny, her manipulative brother, to lead her down an Italian garden path to murder. Vicki is well aware that Johnny is rotten to the core, but for some reason she’s too morally lazy to do anything about it. Maybe she’s in denial because of some horrific (and glossed over) event in her childhood. Or maybe deep down she’s every bit as bad as Johnny and only lacks the energy to be overtly evil. Whatever Vicki’s motivation, or lack thereof, she seems content to let events unfold as they may. After all, Johnny’s machinations might help her marry a man wealthier than her recently deceased husband who died in an “accident” near an Italian vineyard while horseback riding with her brother. Funny how people seem to drop dead whenever Johnny’s in the vicinity. The White Devil may be set in Italy, but it is strongly reminiscent of Tennessee Williams’ Spain-set Suddenly Last Summer—right down to a hint of incest. Gorgeously written and strongly atmospheric, The White Devil is no mere travelogue. It’s a morality piece, and a startling one at that. Worms turn here, and readers will be stunned by its final, shocking pages.

Teri Duerr
2016-11-29 17:42:32
A Story to Kill
Lynne F. Maxwell

In an uncanny harmonic convergence, Kensington has published two first in a new series cozies featuring protagonists who have retrofitted their large homes to accommodate retreats. I take this as a sign that the bed-and-breakfast/retreat business model is viable for women who want to retool their lives. Leastwise, this appears to be the case in the cozy world of wish fulfillment.

The first of the two mysteries [read about the second, Death Among the Doilies, here] is A Story to Kill by Lynn Cahoon, whom you may recognize as the author of the Tourist Trap mysteries. This well-crafted novel introduces Cat Latimer, who has returned to her hometown of Aspen Hills, Colorado, after she unexpectedly inherits the rambling house she shared with her ex-husband before their bitter divorce. Not only does Michael’s sudden death come as a shock, but Cat is even more surprised that he bequeathed her anything, much less the house. Nevertheless, Cat is willing to return and, in order to buy the time she needs for her writing career as a newly published author, she partners with her best friend, Shauna, to establish a business offering writers’ retreats. As the book begins, the first retreat cohort arrives. The group includes a celebrity guest, Tom Cook, a bestselling thriller writer and alumnus of the local private college. From the beginning, the retreat is beset by problems, culminating in Tom’s murder. Cat’s Uncle Pete, the local police chief, heads the investigation, but Cat pursues some promising leads of her own. Fortunately, she has hooked up with her hunky high school boyfriend, Seth, who reliably appears just when she needs him most. Best of all, Cat and crew prove to be engaging characters, and Cahoon does a stellar job of keeping them—and the reader—guessing at the identity of the murderer. Let’s all hope that the writers’ retreat is a successful business venture because I, for one, would love to continue following Cat’s literary—and not so literary—exploits.

Teri Duerr
2016-11-29 17:58:57
Death Among the Doilies
Lynne F. Maxwell

In an uncanny harmonic convergence, Kensington has published two first in a new series cozies featuring protagonists who have retrofitted their large homes to accommodate retreats. I take this as a sign that the bed-and-breakfast/retreat business model is viable for women who want to retool their lives. Leastwise, this appears to be the case in the cozy world of wish fulfillment.

The second mystery employing the retreat theme [read about the first, A Story to Kill, here] is Death Among the Doilies, in Mollie Cox Bryan’s new series starring Cora Chevalier. Plagued by anxiety attacks and in retreat (pun intended) from a career as a domestic violence counselor in Pittsburgh, Cora relocates to Indigo Gap, North Carolina, to begin her new life as proprietor of an inn and retreat for crafters of all sorts. The emphasis on crafting will come as no surprise to the many fans of Bryan’s delightful Cumberland Creek scrapbooking mysteries. In this engaging new series, Bryan expands crafting to include many arts, such as broom and candle making. Cora’s new business venture gets off to a precarious start, however, when Jane, her best friend and business partner, becomes a suspect in the murder of the town librarian. As a former victim of domestic violence who attempted to kill her abuser, Jane wishes nothing more than to put her past behind her, but in small-town Indigo Gap, as in small towns everywhere, once the information gets out, the gossip mill takes over. It makes for a challenging debut for Jane’s first crafting retreat. Very quickly it becomes evident that her new life in Indigo Gap will not be a peaceful escape, and, as murders mount, so does her stress level. Cora takes charge of her anxiety by taking positive action toward self-efficacy through crime-solving. Thus, through her cozy mystery, Bryan conveys her affirmative message powerfully, which makes Death Among the Doilies so much more than just another cozy. Finally, Bryan’s fans will appreciate the special guest appearances of Cora’s Uncle Jon and his wife Beatrice, favorite denizens of Cumberland Creek. Please join me in welcoming the new Cora Crafts Mystery series. You will not want to beat a hasty (or any other kind of) retreat once you open this craftily provocative cozy!

Teri Duerr
2016-11-29 18:06:51