Month: September 2017

Bouchercon 2017 – Toronto – Where It Hurts

Posted on by marystojak

If you’ve been wondering about my new background, it’s a street in New Orleans where Bouchercon was held last year. Soon, I’ll be leaving for Toronto for this year’s Bouchercon!

It’s always good to have an incentive to get back on a regular reading schedule! Today’s list is a review of Reed Farrel Coleman’s Where It Hurts. I’ve been known to read a police procedural or a hardboiled mystery once in a while so I wasn’t put off by Gus Murphy, a grieving  ex-cop, who’s lost his family. The formula works to make us feel his pain even though we don’t know for a long time how the instigating action, his son’s death, happened. The character is very likable and I enjoyed his friends from the sleazy hotel, The Paragon, where he now works.

His depiction of the Manhattan island setting was intriguing. Coleman obviously did his homework about the layout of the terrain and how the precincts are setup. Everything was going well until about two-thirds of the way through the book where I felt like I must have missed something. This is the point where I would have expected the logical links of the plot to fall in place. Instead, he tries out one plot ending after another. I lost count of how many times I thought the end was near. Instead, I found myself stumbling along with Coleman until we’re back to the doughnut shop. Did I say I didn’t like the ending? A very likeable lead character though, and Coleman has some obvious writing skills that could be enhanced by a later deadline. Not my pick for the Anthony.

 

Reading on a Summery September Day – Sherlock Holmes and Margaret Atwood

Posted on by marystojak

I do love a good mystery and there are so many of them! We are quickly approaching the next Sherlockians of Baltimore meeting which is always great fun in Little Italy (in Baltimore of course.) The meetings are always interesting with analysis by some of our scholars and the quizzes on individual stories. Last time I constructed a crossword puzzle like some of our more gifted members. Little did I know how much time they took to create! I bow my head to all those who do this on a regular basis. Below you will find my puzzle for The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Quiz for the Speckled Band

I’ll give you the answers next time.  At the next meeting we’ll have a presentation about Sherlock and Jack the Ripper and will discuss  The Adventure of the Abbey Grange. I’ll have to pull out the Canon to review that one!

This group has been growing by leaps and bounds with some reminders from Greg Ruby who first told me about the group. He even put together a publication of all sorts of interesting bits of information called The Newspapers. One of my short stories about Sissy Holmes who is the reincarnation of Sherlock appears in that issue. It’s available for purchase at http://tinyurl.com/SOBNewspapers if you want to take a look.

What does all of this have to do Margaret Atwood? I just finished reading A Handmaid’s Tale which has been produced for Hulu and is also my book club’s selection. Technically it’s not a mystery, but I would argue that it’s a thriller. Her lead character is always at risk, always fearful that she will die, even to the point of acting like her former life with a husband and child did not exist. Captivated by the book, I read it in one day.  Kudos once again to our master of dystopian novels. I do love that she focuses on human motivations and interactions instead of volcanoes and tidal waves.

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Getting Back Into the Swing of Things, Marcia Talley’s first book, Sing it to Her Bones

Posted on by marystojak

Bouchercon is approaching which reminds me that I want to read the books nominated for awards. But first, I wanted to review Marcia Talley’s first book that won the Malice Domestic Grant in 1998. Almost two decades ago, I read this book for the first time. My mom recommended it which was always a thumbs up for me.

This book is the first Hannah Ives mystery. I remember that I wasn’t sure if I could relate to a cancer survivor. She’s had breast cancer and lived to tell the tale. Her thoughts echo the thoughts of all women about appearance, the possibility of reconstructive surgery, to the wig she buys to cover her sparse hair. She’s scarred by ordeal emotionally too which makes her very alive to the reader. Her sensitivity to the world around her and her estranged daughter make Hannah feel responsible when she finds the body of a girl in a well.

The setting is familiar to me because of friends I have who live near the Cheasapeake Bay, yet I had no trouble seeing the setting when I first read this book and was fairly new to Maryland. The sailing culture is a large part of the state which is natural when you consider how large the Bay is. Ms. Talley also uses sailing in the plot – no spoilers here! You’ll have to read the book to see how this fun and quick-moving plot works out. An enjoyable read!