Public Event
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Julia Keller Discusses Her Latest Mystery “Last Ragged Breath”
Tuesday September 29, 2015: 7:00pm to
8:30pm
Pittsfield Branch: Program Room
Blog Post
Still waiting for The Girl on the Train? Try these readalikes!
by eapearce
If you’ve been on the waiting list for The Girl on the Train for what seems like months, you’re not alone! As you patiently wait, why not try out one (or more!) of these readalikes, which will certainly begin to satisfy your craving for psychological suspense:
The Secret Place, by Tana French, introduces us to eager Detective Stephen Moran, who is presented with the opportunity to get a foot in the door of Dublin’s Murder Squad when sixteen-year-old boarding school student Holly Mackey comes to him with new evidence about the year-old murder of a fellow student. Stephen’s investigation delves him deeply into the secrets of Holly’s close-knit group of friends, and their rival clique, revealing that the private underworld of teenage girls is much more mysterious and dangerous than he could possibly have imagined.
Luckiest Girl Alive, by Jessica Knoll, has been described as “Prep meets Gone Girl,” and introduces readers to Ani FaNelli who seems to have it all: an amazing job, a perfect body, a wonderful fiancé, and a beautiful New York City apartment. But, she has spent years hiding a violent, public trauma from her past that is constantly threatening to resurface while she continually reinvents herself in attempts to escape it. When a documentary producer approaches Ani and asks if she would be willing to tell her side of the story, she hopes that this is her opportunity for public vindication. But as the filming continues, Ani’s façade begins to crack until a new revelation offers her a final chance at redemption… at the cost of her picture-perfect world.
Dare Me, by Megan Abbott, kicks off with the suspicious suicide of one of the members of a high school cheerleading team. The rest of the team, along with their new, cool coach, who’s created a “golden circle” of favorite team members, are drawn into the investigation. One girl, Addy Hanlon, takes matters into her own hands and tries desperately herself to uncover the truth behind the death and discovers that, between teenagers, the bonds of love and loyalty can create danger.
The Weight of Blood, by Laura McHugh, is set in the tiny, poor Ozark Mountain town of Henbane. When one of Lucy Dane’s friends is murdered, Lucy feels a connection between this disappearance and the vanishing of her mother years ago. As Lucy begins to do some sleuthing, she discovers evidence that makes it impossible to ignore the suspicion that has been cast on her own family. As Lucy gets closer to solving the mystery herself, she must decide where her loyalties lie.
Public Event
Award-Winning Mystery Author Allison Leotta Discusses Her Detroit-Based New Novel "A Good Killing"
Friday May 15, 2015: 7:00pm to
8:30pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #529 - “For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit.” ~ Noam Chomsky
by muffy
M(iranda) J. Carter's fiction debut - The Strangler Vine * * is longlisted for the 2104 Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize) and a finalist for the British Crime Writers' Association John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award.
Calcutta, 1837. Young William Avery was broke, homesick and for months, had waited for a commission in the East India Company's army that might never come through. Then out of the blue, he was assigned a secret mission by the Company's administrator with the promise of a promotion and a return to his beloved home in Devon.
Avery was to join Jeremiah Blake, a former Company agent gone native who turned out to be a genius at languages and disguises. The pair was to search for the missing English poet Xavier Mountstuart who has been sighted at some of the most dangerous places in all of India, overrun by the Thuggees. While wildly popular with the locals as well as audience at home (Avery being an avid fan himself), it was rumored that Mountstuart's next poem would likely lift the lid on Calcutta society, exposing not only the wickedness of the Company Sahibs, their greed and their immodesty, but also that of the princely courts of the "Hindoo and Mussulman" - a personification of the twisted gray trunks called "strangler vines" that squeeze the life out of other trees.
"Meticulously researched and packed with period detail," it will appeal to historical fiction fans who love action, adventure, and intrigue, particularly those of Bernard Cornwell, David Liss, and Iain Pears. Like many, I am waiting impatiently for the promised sequel
The Infidel Stain, and to pick up the trail of this unforgettable investigative pair.
* * = 2 starred reviews
Blog Post
ALEX award winner Lock In
by gulickb
In February John Scalzi's book Lock In was one of 10 books to win the Alex award given out by the ALA and YALSA.
Lock In takes place in a world where 1.7 million people have contracted an illness that makes them unable to move or communicate. They are aware of their surrounding but unable to act, this syndrome is called "Locked In Syndrome" but in Scalzi's book they refer to the people who suffer from it as Haden's.
The world develops technology to let these Haden's move and be functional members of society. Now someone is killing them. Chris Shane is one of those and now he has to try and find out who is killing other Haden's and why.
This Sci Fi Mystery will grab you and make you want to finish.
If you are interested in reading more of John Scalzi's work you should out his Hugo award winners Old Man's War and Redshirts
Blog Post
RIP Ruth Rendell, Mystery Author
by Sara W
Ruth Rendell, author of the popular Inspector Wexford mystery series, has passed away at age 85. Rendell wrote more than 60 novels in her 50-year writing career, publishing mysteries under the name Ruth Rendell as well as under a pen name, Barbara Vine. Some of her mysteries were also adapted into TV series in Britain.
In Rendell's New York Times obituary, it is noted that the author was among a small group of writers who elevated the formulaic mystery genre to new heights by introducing creative storytelling methods, characters on the fringes of society, and unusual perspectives. Her final book, Dark Corners is slated for publication in October.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #527 - Spotlight on Canadian Debuts
by muffy
These 3 noteoworthy debuts share more than geography. Two are mysteries/police procedurals; two have strong historical significance; and all are inspired by real persons and/or events.
Asylum by Jeannette De Beauvoir is set in Montreal where Martine LeDuc is the director of PR for the mayor's office. Four women are found brutally murdered and shockingly posed on park benches throughout the city. Fearing a threat to tourism, the Mayor tasked Martine to act as liaison with the police department. She is paired with a young detective, Julian Fletcher. Together they dig deep into the city's and the country's past, only to uncover a link between the four women: all were involved with the decades-old Duplessis orphanage scandal. "A complex and heartbreaking mystery."
"Meticulously researched and resounding with the force of myth" The Thunder of Giants by Toronto playwright Joel Fishbane, "blends fact and fiction in a sweeping narrative that spans nearly a hundred years. Against the backdrop of epic events, two extraordinary women become reluctant celebrities in the hopes of surviving a world too small to contain them."
In 1937, at nearly eight feet tall, Andorra Kelsey, known in Detroit as the Giant of Elsa Street, is looking for a way to escape when a Hollywood movie scout offers her the role of Anna Swan (here is the link to the Canadian Anna Swan digital archive), the celebrated Nova Scotia giantess who toured with P.T. Barnum's "Human Marvels" traveling show.
Told in parallel, while Andorra is seen as a disgrace by an embarrassed family, Anna Swan (born 1846) becomes a famed attraction as she falls in love with Gavin Clarke, a veteran of the Civil War. Both women struggle to prove to the world that they are more than the sum of their measurements. "A genial, appealing celebration of two strong, independent women; recommended for fans of historical fiction." Especially for those who enjoyed The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker.
In The Unquiet Dead * * by Ausma Zehanat Khan, Detective Esa Khatta, head of Canada's new Community Policing Section specialized in handling minority-sensitive cases, is called in to investigate the death of wealthy businessman Christopher Drayton, found at the bottom of a bluff near his home in Lake Ontario. As Esa and his partner Detective Rachel Getty dig into the background of Drayton, it is evident that this upstanding Canadian citizen is in truth, a Bosnian war criminal - Lieutenant Colonel Drazen Krstic, with ties to the Srebrenica massacre of 1995 where thousands of Muslim men, women and children were slaughtered. As Khattak and Getty interview imams and neighbors and sort out what justice really means, they are forced to navigate the lingering effects of a horrible conflict and their own broken lives.
"In her spellbinding debut, Ausma Zehanat Khan (a former law professor with a specialty in Balkan war crimes) has written a complex and provocative story of loss, redemption, and the cost of justice..." "Readers of international crime fiction will be most drawn to the story, but anyone looking for an intensely memorable mystery should put this book at the top of their list."
* * = 2 starred reviews
Blog Post
Bruno, Chief of Police: Got Truffles?
by ballybeg
Following the adventures of Bruno Courreges, the chief of police (in fact, the only police) in a small town of the Perigord in France, is a tour de force of excitement and pleasure. Well-conceived mysteries, comtemporary and edgy, are balanced with Bruno’s propensity for gardening, cooking, training his bassett hound puppy and riding his horse around the countryside. He is a friend and mentor to his whole village, protecting the farmers and market growers from egregious and invasive regulations, coaching the kids' tennis and rugby teams and upholding a strong, but individual, sense of rightness about surviving the vagaries of modern life and the bureaucrats of the EU. A nice juxtaposition here of domesticity, small-village life in modern France and the inevitable murder and mayhem.
Bruno has his own website and, rumor has it, a cookbook coming soon, but start with these recipes. He has become a larger-than-life character whose exploits and lifestyle provide an enviable counterpoint to, well, everyday life. I recommend you start with Bruno, Chief of Police and proceed in order through the eight (so far) books!
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #526
by muffy
Lady Montfort's (Clementine Elizabeth Talbot) annual summer ball is the highlight of the season, not just for the household but for the county, and all their London friends. With the millions of details to be seen to, her ladyship relies heavily on her capable and resourceful housekeeper Edith Jackson, a handsome woman in her early thirties. The 1912 ball went off without a hitch. Even the weather was perfect to show off the Montfort's new sunken garden. Tragedy strikes in the early hours of the next morning when the gamekeeper finds a body, hanging in a gibbet that turns out to be that of Teddy Mallory, Lord Montford's dishonorable nephew, just expelled from Christ Church, Oxford.
When it was discovered that a new housemaid and one of their London guests also disappeared during the night, Scotland Yard gets involved. After unwittingly witnessed a violent confrontation between her son Harry, Lord Haversham and Teddy in the early evening, Lady Montfort fears that the official police inquiry is pointing towards her son as a potential suspect. Taking matters into her own hands, the countess enlists the help of Mrs. Jackson, to investigate the case.
In Death of a Dishonorable Gentleman "an enchanting debut, author Tessa Arlen (incorporates) exquisite period detail into her well-mannered mystery, offers readers an engaging peek into the lives of upper and lower classes of early 1900s England combined with a little history interspersed." For those who enjoyed English country house mysteries like Gosford Park and Kate Morton's The House at Riverton.
If the elegant estate on the jacket cover brings to mind another establishment depicted in a long-running Masterpiece Theatre TV series, it's intentional. In fact, Tessa Arlen will participate in a panel discussion entitled Downton Malice: British Historical Period Mysteries at the Malice Domestic convention in Bethesda, Maryland, Sunday, May 3, 2015.
Historical mystery fans interested specifically in the Edwardian era may wish to check out the author's Redoubtable Edwardians blog, choke-full of fabulous information and readalikes.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #523
by muffy
Publicity-shy UK debut author (we really don't know much about him) Mason Cross sets his electrifying thriller (and the first in a projected series) The Killing Season * * in the heartland of the USA.
2 weeks before his scheduled execution, convicted mass-murderer Caleb Wardell (nicknamed 'The Chicago Sniper') escaped in an ambush, during a late-night transfer on a rural road. It appeared that someone knew exactly where and when, and Wardell was not even the target.
Within hours, the FBI calls in Carter Blake to assist in a task force to find Wardell before the ensuing public hysteria once the news of the escape leaks out. Blake, a man with a specialized talents in finding those who don't want to be found, teams up with Elaine Banner, the Bureau's rising star who is privately juggling life as a newly-single mother. Racing against the clock and Bureau politics, they must track Wardell down as he cuts a swathe across America, apparently killing at random, just for the thrill of it, and always a step ahead of them.
"Cross keeps the pace breakneck, the suspense high, and the body count higher. Wardell is a terrific villain: intelligent, disciplined, resourceful, and utterly twisted. Banner is a single parent stretched between her daughter and her career. Blake is an enigma, but readers can trust that Cross will fill in his backstory in future novels."
For Jack Reacher and John Rain fans.
* * = 2 starred reviews