Interested in a *Mystery Movie*?

I browsed through USA Today on the web last week and found an poll about holiday movies. I selected one I'd like to see, to see how it fared with the others, and to my surprise Sherlock Holmes--not my choice--did quite well. That peaked my curiousity and I decided to look for other upcoming movies and I found two others which can fairly can be called mysteries.

Naturally, you'd want to see a movie trailer before going to the theater--so you can take a look here. I have "The Lovely Bones," "The Missing Person" and "Sherlock Holmes" (thanks YouTube and click on the "Back" button at the top of the page to toggle between selections). Look them over and select your choice below. I appreciate your vote.

*Which Movie Would You Rather See This Holiday Season? (*Correction--the last entry should read "I want to go to a comedy film instead")

Recommended Reading (2)

Not that long ago, a fellow librarian mentioned that her most recently read novel was a good title so I jotted the title down to save for a time like this. The book she read was In Their Blood by Sharon Potts and it is her debut novel according to her author website.

The story's plot is about a college student personal investigation of a double murder in his family's home--consisting of his parents. The student, Jeremy Stroeb, explores his parents' background to find out what would lead to their attack and, with expected results in the process, stirs up the trouble for himself and his sister. Jeremy's investigation finds his parents were not the people he believed them to be.

Set in Miami Beach, Florida, the novel is 354 pages and was published this year.

Book Club discusses "The Body in the Record Room" [September]

Unexpectedly, I got behind with book club comments about our selections so I'm catching up now. The September selection was The Body in the Record Room by Joe Barone. Set in 1954 at a Missouri mental hospital, an assertive patient discovers a body in the facility's record room and begins his own investigation of the death.


Here's a photo of author Barone from his blog under "Crimeplace: a place for readers and writers of crime fiction to meet." At this point, he appears to participate in blogs instead of having a website.


With the assistance of a fellow patient and an outside contact, the patient actually makes strides in this endeavour without outwardly upsetting established practices. And the patient does have a name--he goes by "Roy Rogers" after his idol, the cowboy movie star.


The book club had a very good discussion about the novel and it covered a range of topics. Mainly though, the book takes a major turn in the storyline which is only slyly hinted in book descriptions and reviews. That being the case, I'll keep that big plot line quiet here too.


Otherwise, our comments include the following:

• the novel has its share of bad acts by characters but the author plays fair by finding fault all around


• Roy has genuine mental issues but he is able to keep them at bay while focused on his investigations


• Roy also has a unique ability to move around the grounds with the ease of being undetected and getting the trust of necessary allies


• the manner which the town hosting this mental facility appears to benefit from the operation but isolates it.

As I recall, we all found the book a worthwhile read.

Recommended Reading (1)

As you sit behind the library desk, you're bound to get advice about a good book you ought to read (or just hang around in the library--no difference) and when I get ambitious I do write the title down. That happened just the other day when a retired librarian spoke to me about a novel which she said the book club should read. It is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson with translation from Swedish by Reg Keeland. She cautioned the story takes a while to get into but she is preparing to purchase a follow-up novel (although I can't recall if it is the new The Girl Who Played with Fire or the upcoming The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest).

Dragon Tattoo was published in 2008 in the United States and is a rather hefty 485 pages (more reading than I'd like to ask of the book club for the monthly selection). The book is popular though as the library system has copies in regular print, large print and CD with double-digit requests for the title.

The novel's story covers the investigation of a missing young heir to a very wealthy Swedish family by a journalist and--seemingly unlikely ally--a young, tattooed computer hacker. This investigation also begins after a 40-year-old disappearance.