A Newbie Author on the PLCMC system shelves--

A fellow librarian pointed out a new title to me a few weeks ago as a
possible read for the book club. Yet, I wondered--at first--if this title would be
a good one to recommend to the group as a meaty read at a slender 219
pages. No matter, the title of the book You Should Have Died on Monday could be enough to sell this book or doom it to ridicule. The latter didn't happen with the book club.

We did select the book to read for September and things worked out well. I
discovered this book which is in the library's "African-American
Fiction" section (I can write about mysteries creep into various
library locations another time) and that author Frankie Y. Bailey has not had a book arrive at my library system before. Well, welcome--glad you made it. "Monday" is the fourth book to feature Bailey's crime historian Lizabeth "Lizzie" Stuart who's also a criminal justice professor (like Bailey in real life). This story has Stuart in search for information about her long-lost mother by traveling to Chicago, Wilmington and finallypre-Katrina New Orleans.

Overall, we liked the book. We liked the characters and the book's resolutions.
We didn't like as much some choppy pacing in the novel. I definitely her kudos for a nice author website.

Will This Female Sleuth Return to Print...?

For an embarrassing amount of time I had book donation in the back library staff offices entitled Stray Kat Waltz by Karen Kijewski, which I should have added to my library's collection or shipped off to another branch. I do plan to ship it off to another library branch although this title is a little old in public library book years (1998). And since this is the last book in series to date, it does beg the question if fictional private detective Kat Colorado will reach the printed page in a new novel?

That question came up during a book club session months ago and I wondered about this series myself. I read Stray Kat Waltz a few years back when I was considering working with a mystery book club. In the meanwhile, I plucked that book off the shelf as a good possible read with a female detective. And I was pleased--it was. Described as a quick wit, the Kat books must be somewhat breezy reads although in my book, she's recovering from the loss of a loved one.

I have looked on the Internet for new news about Kijewski (pronounced kee-eff-ski according to Mystery Readers Online ) and found a little. An un-official homepage website for Kijewski says--according to the rumors--she searching for a new publisher or stopped writing because of family obligations.

Despite nine novels and three short stories, there are fans interested in more. Here's hoping Kijewski has some stories for Kat in her.

New Mysteries on the Shelves (6)

Here are two more new mysteries on the shelves. The first features an
author I'm readily familiar with whereas the other has a clever title
for a genuine niche audience.

The book club read The Ice Maiden a few years ago and I was introduced to writer Edna Buchanan's protagonist, Miami reporter Brit Montero in The Ice Maiden. During the coming years, Brit quietly disappeared as a new series began with Miami's "Cold Case Squad." This year, Brit returns to join Buchanan's new series regulars of the Cold Case Squad in the new Love Kills: a Brit Montero novel.

Brit is sought out by the Cold Case Squad for questions involving a current case with the remains of a recently discovered kidnapper. The squad finds that Brit is the last person to have seen this person. Brit, meanwhile, has been staying at a Caribbean Island and attempting to recover after the death of the man she was engaged to marry. While there though, she finds herself in a mystery when locating a camera from a dead honeymooning couple and what it could mean. The book is 308 pages.

The next book is The Sudoku Murder: a Katie McDonald mystery by Shelley Freydont. The book is the first of a series and introduces a puzzle master as the amateur sleuth. Here, Katie becomes the new curator of her hometown puzzle museum and follows a childhood's mentor's work with her new job which even includes inheriting a young mentee--a 14-year-old runaway. And matters are much more difficult and dangerous for Katie as she does attempt solve another puzzle, the recent murder of her childhood mentor, Professor P.T.Avondale. The novel is 342 pages.