The *Best* of 2009--

The new year is not quite a month old so I'll assume it's a-OK to look back for good books to read which were missed. Hence, I found on the web the (Fort Worth TX) Star-Telegram touting the top mysteries of 2009 in an appealing list of thirteen.A few titles and writers jumped off the page to me as the first pick The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly which I really enjoyed reading and number twelve by a personal favorite author George Pelecanos ' The Way Home. And there are more familiar names for me and my book club regulars, I know.

Click here for the entire list. What do you think?

Book club discusses "Cold in Hand" [November]

In November, the book club had the interesting project of reading and discussing a book that was identified as being the last book of a series featuring an English police detective. Writer John Harvey created Charlie Resnick a number of years ago and his first novel to be published in 1989 was Lonely Hearts. Here is a googled recent photo of Harvey.

In 2008, Cold in Hand was released with DI Resnick preparing to end his police career with retirement when a case with personal ties pulls him into a major investigation. A shooting and murder involving rival gangs takes place when DI Lynn Kellogg--Resnick's live-in girl-friend--plunges into the fray to settle things down without success. The murdered person, a young woman named Kelly Brent, has a vocal critic of the police in her father, Howard of the circumstances leading to that death. And yet, Howard, due to his shadowy activities draws the interest of the police in his daughter's death.

The high profile murder case for Resnick and Kellogg is only part of the professional issues they encounter as another murder case Kellogg has handled resurfaces with an interdepartmental investigation and tints of police corruption.

The book was well-received and here are a few observations:

• the novel caught some of us off guard with a sudden murder nearly midway in the story of an important character
• the murder investigation of Kelly focuses in one direction and--oddly--doesn't look at the gang fight for suspects
• the author plays with the reader's attitude towards Howard Brett as he is an angry parent after the death of a child but also pictured as an angry militant black man
• when a major character is introduced midway through the story, Harvey uses a telling example of personal judgment to represent her character early on
• the novel is well-written to share character background and scenes of threat and menace.

In closing, I looked to find a library music CD with singer Bessie Smith performing "Cold in Hand Blues" (hence, the book title) but I could not check it in time for the book club. So, I settled for the available Bessie Smith music CD I could check out and played it before the book club started.

Writer Robert B. Parker dies--

When I read the headline on the Internet today about the death of novelist Robert B. Parker, I gave a small gasp and mouthed "oh no." Although I did not keep up reading private eye Spenser books Parker cranked out at a steady quip for a number of years now, I was a fan. Here's a googled pix of one of the true favorites of the library mystery section.

When I was younger, I enjoyed the '80s TV series Spenser for Hire with actors Robert Urich and Avery Brooks--based on the Spenser series--and much later got into those characters stories in print. I started with The Godwulf Manuscript and--truth be told--just bounced around wildly from there.

And as a fan, I looked forward to seeing Parker's other work too, whether reading his young adult book Edenville Owls, a stand-alone book about a bodyguard for ballplayer Jackie Robinson in Double Play and the Jesse Stone and Sunny Randell novels. I was also pleasantly impressed when I watched the movie Appaloosa last year on cable and saw that it was based on the Parker novel at the movie's end. Usually, I'm not too excited about Westerns but I read this was a good one (and the actors were interesting).

At 77 years old, Parker did thankfully live to get nods of appreciation for his body of work which includes the recent Mystery Ink's Gumshoe Award in 2007 for the lifetime achievement. Here's much more here about Parker's work aside from my reflections.

He won't write any new stories of characters striving for justice, battling with fistacuffs or throwing wise-cracks but I've certainly enjoyed Parker's work over the years.

Staff Picks Their Favorites for 2009

Speaking of Avatar the movie in the previous message, "avatars" have come up at work as a fun resource to use for promoting a staff picks display. Spectifically, our library had one created for several staffers to accompany their selection list for their favorite reads of the past year.

I missed out on participating myself but decided to create an avatar anyway that I may use again. This one comes from doppelme.com. I reviewed the other staff's selections and came across a few mystery/thrller titles and thought I'd pass on those picks. Nine staff participated with maybe five in this list to follow.

Here goes: Dan Brown's The Last Symbol; Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Lee Child's Gone Tomorrow; C. J. Box's Blood Trail; John Hart's The Last Child; Michael Connelley's Scarecrow (I read and really enjoyed that one) and Sara Paretsky's Hardball.

If I got in the promotion with my choices I would have included Frederick Ramsey's Stranger Room; Joe Barone's The Body in the Record Room and Jacqueline Winspear's An Incomplete Revenge: a Maisie Dobbs Novel.

Movies, Movies--Do I Want To See That Movie???

It seems the official holdiay movie season may be technically over and Avatar is the big box office winner with--surprise(?)--a reworked version Sherlock Holmes making a very strong showing. This is the movie art shown on Yahoo! movies.

In November, I included Holmes along with two other movies for a mini-movie poll for upcoming movies and it placed first so I shouldn't be surprised it is doing well now. The other two movies I included were The Missing Person with a limited release in November so I'm unsure if it makes a theater in my area (ever) and The Lovely Bones is set to open nationwide next weekend.

From the poll (just from the movie trailers), my favorite movie was The Missing Person as it appeared to be a noir type of film. My least favorite was the Holmes movie with a nice update of the character but just too present day in manner (for my tastes).

I have read the book The Lovely Bones and I'm interested in the movie treatment.

And yet, I may only see these movies on DVD (or cable) as I just can't get the movie theater as often as I'd like...

New Year Resolution Suggestion--

My local daily newspaper had a syndicated guest column recently with a suggestion for a slightly different new year's resolution--join or start a book club. A little different, huh? Maybe--maybe not.

Anyway, St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times columnist Robyn Blumner wrote such an article punctuated with rules for a successful book club (check for "Join a book club to open your mind" Dec. 17th).

I appreciated Blumner's analytical take on book clubs and want to borrow her third suggestion to "let each member pick a book as opposed to making a consensus list." That sounds like a good approach to shift book club leadership dynamics around the group.

My book club has used a consensus model for years--primarily the selections which get the most votes from the group and that has been an acceptable diplomatic treatment for book titles. But I think we can make Rule #3 an option to explore.

And participants can count this down to stretching their reading palette.

"Mystery" movie DVDs in the library--

I appreciate that our library system has the various categories that it does for DVDs such as "classic," "drama," (the videos have been removed and maybe Blu-ray movies will come...???) and "mystery" is included.

While in the back work area recently, I spied an old movie from the 70s and checked it out that day. It was director Robert Altman's "The Long Goodbye" starring Elliot Gould as Raymond Chandler's private eye Phillip Marlowe. I enjoyed the movie with its almost oddball detective who walks around nearly unaffected by his environment. And I hope it was a joke that Marlowe went through the movie with an ever present cigarette--usually lit--in his mouth and dressed in the same black suit.

The DVD cover (as found on Amazon) is cool too--good job by the marketing people.

Also, this is the movie with the surprise ending and I will give it that. And the Arnold Swarzengeer sighting is nifty too.

By chance, days later I grabbed foreign film DVD based on Harlan Coben's book of the same name "Tell No One." Now, it is a foreign film but it is a mystery story. I had mentioned this in the blog last year as a movie to look out for and it took me a while to get the dvd and watch it. It was a very well-done movie with its story moved from the U.S. to France. I watched the movie the first time in its original French language with English subtitles and then started watching the movie again with the English language dubbing. I preferred it the first time--I was good with the subtitles and the French language is nice to hear.

Heard on the TV News this morning that (Christmas book sales)--

Before dashing out the door to work this morning, I heard that this is the first Christmas in which sales for physical book were surpassed by the e-book. Taking a look on the web later, I read that Amazon claims this feat was due to the popular Kindle e-reader. There's a little more information here from InformationWeek but the future is here and now with electronic reading.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of the mystery novel--

I checked out a book recently and read about another just released one in USAToday which both tackle the craft of mystery writing--from different angles. The newer book is Talking About Detective Fiction by long-time mystery writer P.D. James. It gives an illuminating, big-picture approach to mysteries with information about the history of the genre in certain literature titles (i.e., Charles Dickins's Bleak House) to present day works with writers like Colin Dexter as shared in Amazon's product description of the book.

Click here to read additional information including a Publisher's Weekly review about this book which says it does cover British writers to a major although not exlusively degree. Look for attention focused on Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh and more. The book is 198 pages.

James has a great expertise to lend to her book while the other book The Lineup: the world's greatest crime writers tell the inside story of their greatest detectives gives a multiple voice approach. Edited by Otto Penzler, the book features 21 authors talking about the characters that they have created--the inspirations and what makes up the characteristics of the detectives. I skipped around and read the entries about writer John Harvey's Charlie Resnick and Laura Lippman's Tess Monaghan. The book is 406 pages.

A Christmas wish for a DVD set--

Its Christmas time again and I enjoy receiving DVDs (or DVD sets) like many this time of year. My dream DVD set would be an old personal favorite TV show--a private eye series from the 1970s, "Harry O" starring David Janssen. Here's a googled pix of Janssen from the series.

The series only ran two years and that can be one reason it doesn't appear to be joining other shows on the DVD racks--sadly. I had hope it would make it as more shows were coming to DVD a few years back but the DVD television show glut has eased I believe. Still, Janssen's big TV hit, "The Fugitive" is released regularly for the interested to purchase in half season "chunks"--OK, DVD sets.

Anyway, I liked the nature of the Harry Orwell character with his wit and unconventional lifestyle of living on a boat on the beach. And to get around for a while during the series he would just take public transportation--the bus. Also Janssen's voice over segments during the episodes worked for me too.

On the other hand, I still have a paperback book based on the series simplyly entitled Harry O. It was the first book with a #1 in the top left corner and was published in 1975. So till my dream happens (a studio DVD television set), I'll keep check for upcoming DVD releases but I won't hold my breath. Finally, I'm including the opening for the show courtesy of YouTube. I'm including the first and second, the third is just OK.

Book Club discusses "An Incomplete Revenge" [October]

The book club discussed the fifth book of the "Maisie Dobbs" series by Jacqueline Winspear several weeks back during the October session. An Incomplete Revenge features psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs--a highly motivated woman who pursuits an education and opportunities to move to a professionally-recognized status from that of a house servant. This book series is set during and following the first World War.

Winspear's picture here comes courtesy of her website.

In this novel, Maisie Dobbs is employed by an old friend to check out the feasibility of a land purchase. The land is in a village outside London in Kent and peculiar news stories from the area raise concern for Dobbs employer--incidents of fires. She arrives during a harvest season and works to gain the trust of the locals, including a gypsy community with which she finds an affinity.

The truth of the mysteries lie in a community's hidden secrets and try as she might, Maisie is the outsider--the woman driving around the village in her MG car.

Some quick observations (shared here) included:

• Maisie attempts to fit a community setting by picking up on the language or terms used by the residents or setting
• Maisie has a young assistant who's also a working stiff type and family man, Billy, and she offers him some work with investigations but hasn't reached out to help him as a mentor
• Maisie has personal troubles that stop her from leading a cheerful life
• however, she has a warm relationship with her father
• incidents of community secrets (or shame?) include nearly the whole community.

New Mystery by Celebrity Author--

NBC's "Today" show weatherman Al Roker is stretching his writing talents with a new mystery book, The Morning Show Murders, co-authored by Dick Lochte. The author of previous titles about fatherhood and cooking, has a made a splash into fiction writing here. The photo of Mr. Roker comes courtesy of the"NBC Today Show" website.

Sticking close to what Al knows, the book, as the title suggests, deals with a murder mystery in a network TV setting. It begins as TV morning personality, Billy Blessing, a chef and restaurant owner, is suspected in the murder of a network head. The television executive has just dined at Billy's restaurant and dies after consuming poison in his meal. But who is the actual murderer? With his professional life snapped shut and on hold (no TV and restaurant work), Billy turns into a self-styled sleuth.

This is one of two new mysteries I remember from a recent book catalog at work (the other was the new Sue Grafton book).

Library System Gets a Pat on the Back

(Here's some big news from our Main Library:) The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library (formerly the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County) and South County Regional Library have once again been designated a “Five-Star” library. This is a due in large part to the support and patronage we receive from you, the people of Charlotte. Thanks! Wondering what a Five-Star Library is? It’s the highest possible rating given out by the Library Journal, and it’s similar to the Michelin and Mobile guides used for restaurants and hotels. They’ve actually given it to use twice: first in February 2009, then again in November 2009.

You can read more on our website [link to http://www.plcmc.org/About_Us/in_The_News/releaseDetails.asp?id=407].
The Library Journal Index is based equally on four things: visits, circulation, program attendance, and public Internet computer use.

The Newest in a Loooonng Series

A co-worker smiled yesterday as she received the newest Sue Grafton alphabet mystery, U is for Undertow, before leaving for the day. She noted how the series is coming to end soon and marveled that she remembered reading the first book in the early 1980s. At that time, she was at a church sleepover with two of her children--then in grade school--reading "A" is for Alibi: a Kinsey Millhone mystery.

I'm impressed that Grafton is still going strong with this clever mystery concept and has carvered a unique spot in the mystery genre for herself. And as the new People magazine notes in a book review, private detective Millhone--reaching book 20 now--does that have the wonderful author blessing of not aging in natural years as all novels are still set in the 1980s.

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.

New Black and Latino mystery collections

A few months ago I noticed an interesting title Hit List: the best of Latino Mystery among the library's new fiction books. It is a collection of mystery and crime short stories. Publishers Weekly wrote (I couldn't find my library's copy) that the book claims to be a first-ever anthology of mystery short stories by Latino writers. Included are stories by Manuel Ramos, A.E. Roman, Lucha Corpi, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Rolando Hinojos and Steve Torres. Writer Carolina García-Aguilera is the only one whom I ever remember reading (from her "Lupe Solano" private investigator mystery series).

Anyway, I'm glad to see the book in our library. Hit List was edited by Sarah Cortez and Liz Martínez and it is 191 pages.

Next, as an appropriate follow-up, I discovered the new book Black Noir: mystery, crime, and suspense stories by African-American writers in the same new fiction location. The book was edited by Otto Penzler. It features work by Walter Mosley, Edard P. Jones, Chester Himes, Charles W. Chesnutt, Elanor Taylor Bland and more. The book was edited by Otto Penzler and he writes in his introduction, "On the pages that follow, you will find stories that transcend race and genre to fulfill their primary purpose to inform and entertain."

Black Noir is 349 pages. And I'll repeat, I'm glad to see this book in the libray (and in print).

Needlecraft and Mysteries sown together...

It hasn't happened yet but my wife tells me she'd attend my book club if we'd read a Monica Ferris book. And as it turns out, she said that to me again after I'd brought her home another new Ferris book, Blackwork, from the library a few days ago. My wife knits religiously as her time allows.

Ms. Ferris is the busy author of this hobby-orientated mystery series which feature needlework shop owner and part-time sleuth Betsy Devonshire in small-town Minnosota.

The author--who writes under the pseudonym "Monica Ferris" according to her website--is at novel number 13 with the needlecraft mysteries. Ms. Ferris also loves to wear hats as you can see here courstesy of Google.

Now, will the book club ever read a book in the needlecraft series? It could happen but I have steered the club toward the more hard-edged type of mysteries (not just hardboiled) but the club votes on titles and we're not struck in the mud on types of mysteries.