Writer Lilian Jackson Braun dies--

To live into your nineties is seen as a blessing and that hopefully was the case for mystery writer Lilian Jackson Braun. Today's news outlets report that she died last week in South Carolina (and here's a googled photo).

Braun was a fixture on the mystery book shelves with her long-running "The Cat Who..." series. A devotee to the cozy mystery genre, she retired from newspaper work in 1984 and turned to writing mysteries full-time until retiring again in 2007.

Holiday reading--

Over the holidays a visiting sister-in-law had a small paperback mystery that kept her attention until she polished it off just after Christmas. The book's cover didn't catch my interest--it looked like a "cozy mystery" I'd be reluctant to try--but I reconsidered and took a closer look.

The book is Tapped Out (2007) by writer Natalie M. Roberts, which is the second book of the "Jenny T. Partridge Dance Mysteries." I began to wonder if my library had that book or any Roberts books so I checked into it. The library system does have a couple of copies of Robert's first of the series Tutu Deadly. It was also printed in 2007.

I was glad to see the author's work carried in the area libraries so that the collection is that varied and diverse. It's reassuring to know we mix it up including a writer who doesn't have a long-running series (see here for Roberts).