Recommended reading--

"What's the best book you've read this year?" asked the librarian patron.  He was a one-time regular book club attendee and I was glad to see him so I took a few moments to contemplate on the question.   

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 I was certain he was asking about mystery novels and this question came earlier this month, roughly midyear through the monthly sessions of book club mysteries for the year.  The last title read was Jo Nesbø's The Snowman which stuck with me but the part of the ending left me cold (pun intended).  I liked the somewhat offbeat Killed by the Whim of a Hat by Colin Cotterill but considered it might be closer to an acquired taste. 

I finally decided to suggest Elly Griffiths' The Janus Stone as a satisfying mystery and story to pass the mustard. And in part, the recommendation was for the reader's taste too--a nice English mystery with a likable amateur sleuth.  This situation also repeated itself so later with a former co-worker who likes mysteries and I suggested this same title to her.  Again, a good read but also likely to fit her reading tastes.

 

Book club discusses "The Snowman"

The book club's July selection was Norway's crime writer Jo Nesbø's The Snowman. It is the seventh in the series featuring Oslo police Inspector Harry Hole.  A trained expert serial killers, Hole receives a letter telling of the arrival of a "snowman" with the first season's snow and the threat of death. In closing, the letter makes mention of a deceased serial killer Hole had investigated.

Jo Nesbø
(photo from author's website)

The threat turns real as one missing woman has a snowman placed at her home with her scarf around its neck.  Later, her part of her dismembered body is bizarrely attached to the snowman and the police investigation turns to homicide and the exploration of a trail of murders which form the ritual of a killer.  A new partner, Katrine Bratt, joins Harry and he assembles a small detective team for a case which can burn him professionally if anyone missteps.

   

Borrowing from the noir tradition, Nesbø's Hole is a recovering alcoholic with an uneven personal life.  His long-time girl friend broke off the relationship because of his devotion to the job and he works in a stressful and troubled environment.  Despite it all, including physical scars here and there, Hole is committed and determined to see his cases through.

One book club attendee had read Nesbø's work before.  The comments about The Snowman included the following:

• the story shows good detective work
• the detectives thought outside the box with the investigation
• noticed the people in the community are "more inward and protective," not inclined to shard feelings and also very conscious about their image
• good benefits may come from a small(er) team of investigating detectives on a case (as Harry requests and receives in the book) 
• "hard time reading it" and "kept putting it down"
• hated the "eerie, creepy, weird" elements of the story
• "dark and stupid" 
• Harry drinks a lot--common for detectives in mystery stories. 

And in a move that doesn't happen often, two different attendees read passages from the book which they liked.

The author's website notes this novel won "Norwegian Booksellers’ Prize 2007 for Best Novel of the Year and with The Norwegian Book Club Prize (Den norske leserprisen) 2007 for Best Novel of the Year."

The "Harry Hole" story is expected to receive a big screen treatment as famed Hollywood director Martin Scorsese is reportedly set to direct a movie based on The Snowman .

Author Mark de Castrique Visits Library

Local mystery writer Mark de Castrique visited my library recently for a special program in arrangement with the adult summer reading program for Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.  Billed the "Writing a mystery series," program,  de Castrique talked about development of his mystery series and components for effective fiction writing. 

De Castrique has two adult mystery series under his belt which are set in North Carolina. Combining the concepts that appealed to him to share in a narrative story and in locales he likes, the first series features a funeral director named Barry Clayton (Mark's father was a funeral director).  It is set in a fictional mountain town, resembling his childhood hometown.  Adding built-in personal conflicts for Barry to confront (such as self-sacrifice) along with murder investigations--a mystery series was created.  The second series features an Iraq veteran Sam Blackman set in Asheville.   

Some other points de Castrique shared included:

Mark de Castrique  (photo by blogger)

• likes to connect people and stories from the past to a present day story with interesting characters
• had worked from outlines to develop stories in earlier novels but works mostly from following the characters' stories now
• likes to include irony in stories
• when writing, he likes to pose the "what if" question
• hopes to write another Barry Clayton novel in the future
• works to be careful that too much research shared in a book doesn't turn it boring
• looks to a book editor to help shape a novel about when it should start and when it should stop
• "I'm a big believer everyone reads a different book" by the nature of experiences one brings to the story

de Castrique (photo by blogger)

De Castrique's newest book is the recently released is The 13th Target and set in Washington D.C. with a new central character former Secret Services agent Russell Mullins. De Castrique lived in the nation's capital briefly in the 70s and likes visiting the area.  He gave his first public reading of a passage from the new book which included a storyline about the Federal Reserve which interested him.

And de Castrique is careful to check facts in his writing as he shared this little story: in a pivotal scene for his newest novel, he wanted to re-examine a scene for accuracy so he took a day trip from North Carolina to Washington to settle the matter.  After arriving in the capitol, within an half hour the goal was accomplished to de Castrique's satisfaction.  Then he was free to visit family in the area--a second reward of the trip.