Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Book Club discusses "Stranger Room"


[This post was started in May but got delayed.] In May, the book club had a great surprise for its book discussion session as it was joined by writer Frederick Ramsay, the author of Stranger Room our book selection for the month. And the meeting was quite different for us as Ramsay joined by conference call from his home in Arizona. This is the first time we've hosted a guest author by phone.

Thankfully, everything went very well--handling the conference call with our phones, etc.-- and I believe we talked for about 40 minutes or so. Here's an author photography from the his website. Also, Ramsay contacted the group about speaking to us as he happened to google his name and found that we had his book scheduled for May. I was never more surprised then when I actually received that first call from Mr. Ramsay.

Ramsay is the author of the "Ike Schwartz mystery" series and Stranger Room (published last year) is his newest until Choker hit the book stores and library shelves just recently. Schwartz is the sheriff in a fictional rural Virginia mountain community which is his actual hometown. Following a stint in the CIA, Schwartz is back in Picketsville, Va., and works to shape up a badly-managed sheriff's department.

In Stranger Room, the death of a traveler to the town nearly mirrors the unexplained death of another in same building--now a possible historical local attraction--and to solve the crime will take a long trip back almost 150 years before the Civil War.

Also, as I wrote earlier the conservation went on for nearly most our time and here are some of the things our guest author shared:

  • he is "retired and writing for fun" with the typical goal of writing a novel within three months by producing a chapter a day

  • as Ramsay started his writing career, his wife assisted him by typing his work but not these days as she is a full-time student

  • he says he hates research when writing novels and says he'll fake some matters and "make things up"

  • "it is hard to edit your own stuff" and you have to recognize the book's story needs to move along

  • as books make a profit, the book publishers will ask for more books

  • on the disappointing side, "people aren't buying books, especially young people" (for instance, at book signings the attendees appear to be 45-years-old and older)

  • when writing, "the hardest challenge is to make each book better and to not repeat" a story

  • while writing this series, Ramsay says he develops the characters one book at a time and doesn't plan ahead where the characters should "wind up"

  • when asked about having input on book covers, he said it depends but his suggestions were used for what to show for Stranger Room cover.
Ramsay definitely won us over after we finished our discussion with his healthy dose of wit, clear-thinking judgment and good prose. Again, (as I said that night) thanks for calling and your time, Frederick Ramsay.


Thursday, July 23, 2009

The "Booklists" are complete--

Kids Education After flipping through old printouts of book club material going back several years, I believe I have compiled my final list of book club selections. That is, I have listed on the blog's sidebars (to the left) the entire list of books the book club has read over the years. The book club started in November 2001 with an initial meeting and, luckily, has been going steadily since then with monthly sessions.

Unfortunately, I have missed a date or two in 2002 and 2003 but I'm a little impressed as I look at all the titles read, including a true crime book early on (Mississippi Mud: Southern Justice and the Dixie
Mafia by Edward Humes) and award winners like the first book selection (Edgar winner, The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale).

And as I wrote in a recent post, the book club would regularly have "open dates" without assigned titles for the entire group and I didn't list each one for the book lists. So, looking back, I'm surprised how the time has flew by--it has been fun.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Open Book Club Date--

Last week, the book club had one of its "open dates" for a meeting without any assigned book title. It is as I say, a session to select your own title and to come to discuss it for the group.

It can be a good way to mix things up, to read and discuss a title you'd personally like to share, to select something offbeat and to get a greater variety of books included in the book club.

The mystery books we discussed were as follows:
  • The September Society by Charles Finch--a follow-up to the British mystery with freelance detective Charles Lenox [the book club read and discussed the author's first book the previous month]

  • Choker by Frederick Ramsay--the newest book in the series with Sheriff Ike Schwartz in rural Virgina [the book club read and discussed the author's previous book The Stranger Room for the May book club and a previously delayed post will cover the book discussion]

  • The Trail of the Wild Rose by Anthony Eglin--the next book in the series with retired botany professor (and amateur sleuth) Lawrence Kingston

  • Walla Walla Suite by Anne Argula--the second book to feature Quinn an ex-cop, now a private investigator in Seattle

  • The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl--this historical fiction debut tells of the pursuit of a serial killer in Boston following the end of the Civil War by a literary club which is matching the deaths to its translation of Dante's Inferno for the American public.


Sunday, July 05, 2009

Book Club discusses "A Beautiful Blue Death"

Last month the book club discussed a title set during the infancy of the Scotland Yard with Charles Finch's A Beautiful Blue Death. This mystery is the first of a series to feature a well-to-do, freelance detective of the 1860s named Charles Lenox. The book was published in 2007 and here's a pix of Finch from his website.

The book jacket dubs this book as "equal parts Sherlock Holmes, Gosford Park, and P. G. Wodenhouse" and it appears to have its aims well placed.


In the story, Charles takes an assignment from his close friend, Lady Jane, to investigate the death of servant Prudence Smith--a former employee of Lady Jane--when it appears she has committed suicide. His investigation, though, leads him another direction to suspect that Smith was murdered by a unique poison. As Charles continues, he enlists the help of resourceful allies while bypassing Scotland Yard (mostly) and endearing himself to Lady Jane.

Now, as I recall, the group as a whole liked the book. Responses to the book included:


  • the story was the type of mystery one attendee really enjoyed reading

  • Charles and Lady Jane's relationship although close, it could be the same as if between a gay man and straight woman (one take)

  • Charles led a very relaxed, pampered life as a Victorian gentleman and would be very ill-suited to work as a detective on a full-time basis

  • Charles enlists his valet Graham to assist with the investigation and the two men share a relationship which occasionally crosses class lines--very unlikely it was suggested

  • a filmed version of this novel could be a good period piece but would drag along otherwise

  • how Charles managed to be independently wealthy without an apparent livelihood was curious

  • the story almost takes a long tangent of political discourse during the period when the novel veers back to the central story (the author does have a background in politics)

One attendee also had a copy of the next book in the series The September Society that night.