Messages

421

Welcome and General Discussion / Re: Calling all Edith Hamilton cozy readers

« on: May 02, 2020, 10:44:05 pm »

Becke,

A couple of things about this.

It's Edith Maxwell. She writes as Maddie Day as well, but Edith Maxwell is her real name.

I'm on fairly sure ground about this because she's a Facebook friend of mine and I've met her at signings a number of times.

You are on very solid ground - I wonder how late/early it was when I wrote that?  I do have some books by Edith Hamilton, but they aren't cozy mysteries - they're books about Greek Mythology! And the series Edith/Maddie was asking about (the Country Store series) was one written as Maddie Day.

So...thanks for fact-checking! And my apologies for screwing this up.

Can you help Maddie with the name of the Mexican restaurant? I have some books by Maddie/Edith, but not this series.

422

Welcome and General Discussion / Calling all Edith Maxwell cozy readers

« on: May 02, 2020, 01:16:40 am »

Cozy author Edith Hamilton, whose real name is Maddie Day, is a member of the Save Our Cozies group on Facebook.

She's also here: https://www.facebook.com/MaddieDayAuthor/?pageid=469826103183919&ftentidentifier=1460693220763864&padding=0

She posted a call for help to her readers on the Save Our Cozies page:


Maddie Day shared a post.
18 hrs

"Gah. I'm writing the 9th book in the Country Store series. I can't remember name of a fictional Mexican restaurant in an earlier book. I wonder if one of my faithful readers here knows it? Because otherwise I'm going to have to search eight and a half files..."



Have at it!

423

What I'm Reading / Re: My latest read is...

« on: May 02, 2020, 12:04:10 am »

I had to laugh when I read this. I always thought that if we hadn't married young (we were 19) my husband might have become a hermit or a monk. He married an uber-extrovert from a big family, so every holiday and family get-together was a trial for him. We only had two kids and he handled that pretty well (except when they had birthday parties or brought all their friends over). Now we live with our son and his wife and our two grandkids. My daughter-in-law and I are both the oldest of five kids so a noisy house is nothing new to us. It's taken my husband a little longer to get used to the daily chaos, especially since we started quarantining ourselves in mid-March. He misses his (former) quiet time at local coffee shops.

I can be a people person, if it is on my terms. If I have to deal with people on their terms, I'm usually far less interested in being involved.

When we lived in Cincinnati, we had a small room we called my husband's "meditation room." I wouldn't mind a room where I could shut myself in to read or write, but that's not going to happen.

424

Welcome and General Discussion / Re: Edgar Award Winners

« on: May 02, 2020, 12:00:54 am »

There were four authors nominated that I know/read. Unfortunately none of them won the awards.

I followed the Twitter feed as they announced the awards so I saw as each category was announced.

I read the winner, Elly Griffiths' THE STRANGER DIARIES. Usually I don't get to the Edgar winners until years after they won. But I don't think I've read any of the others. The short story is a possibility, but I don't think I have the collection that story was in.

425

Welcome and General Discussion / Edgar Award Winners

« on: May 01, 2020, 03:57:04 pm »

Thanks to Janet Rudolph - She Who Knows Everything in the Mystery World - for this:

https://mysteryreadersinc.blogspot.com/2020/04/mwa-edgar-award-winners.html?fbclid=IwAR3WeZLLP3F1l86tdsAHaaA87Isz4vsply3KGHeiICn0lvYxoEIlQSgyDAw

426

What I'm Reading / Re: My latest read is...

« on: May 01, 2020, 03:18:47 pm »

On the other hand, being in self-quarantine has to be pretty hard when you're on your own. :-(

Only if you are a socially active person who needs other people around. While there are those that fit that description. That's not me. I'm good alone, which probably explains why I'm single and childless as well. LOL

I had to laugh when I read this. I always thought that if we hadn't married young (we were 19) my husband might have become a hermit or a monk. He married an uber-extrovert from a big family, so every holiday and family get-together was a trial for him. We only had two kids and he handled that pretty well (except when they had birthday parties or brought all their friends over). Now we live with our son and his wife and our two grandkids. My daughter-in-law and I are both the oldest of five kids so a noisy house is nothing new to us. It's taken my husband a little longer to get used to the daily chaos, especially since we started quarantining ourselves in mid-March. He misses his (former) quiet time at local coffee shops.

427

Welcome and General Discussion / R.I.P. Maj Sjowall

« on: April 30, 2020, 11:43:17 pm »

Just saw this shared by the amazing Janet Rudolph: https://mysteryreadersinc.blogspot.com/2020/04/maj-sjowall-rip.html?fbclid=IwAR3RVZg11A5nlPGjqOMxjhZWbTc8kp6yBddveiJkOgvCcVUpCf4ksJ9zt2Y

When I was in high school, you couldn't go in a bookstore without seeing books by Sjowall and Wahloo - the husband and wife team of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. I know I read a lot of their books back then, but I didn't hang on to them.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/nov/22/crime-thriller-maj-sjowall-sweden

I think their most famous story was THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN (1968)

If these are still in print, I might be interested in rereading some of them. But I'll probably wait until I can get them from the library.

428

What I'm Reading / Re: My latest read is...

« on: April 30, 2020, 11:01:22 pm »

I used to go to Jungle Red all the time - a lot of great authors there. Now I don't get to my favorite blogs very often - not because I don't enjoy them, but because I'm just not on the computer has much as I used to. With kids out of school, my granddaughters are home almost all the time and I don't usually get online until after they've gone to bed. Right now they're walking the dog with their dad so it's quiet around here. :-)

The benefit of me being completely single and childless is that I get to do these things a lot more.

On the other hand, being in self-quarantine has to be pretty hard when you're on your own. :-(

429

What I'm Reading / Re: My latest read is...

« on: April 30, 2020, 05:06:14 pm »

I finished NANTUCKET NOON awhile ago and just picked AN ACT OF VILLAINY by Ashley Weaver as my next read. I've been following this series since the first book came out. It's hard to classify - a cozy of sorts. I like the timeframe, the Thirties. This is a new release. One of my favorite authors, Deborah Crombie, compares this series to Rhys Bowen's Royal Spyness books, which I also like.

Do you read the Jungle Red Writers blog? Both Deborah and Rhys are members of the crew there. I'm over there on a mostly daily basis.

I'm also trying to read a couple of graphic novels. The first is OVER MY DEAD BODY by Jay Faerber and the other is SOLAR FLARE VOLUME 3: SARASOTA by James Haick III.

I used to go to Jungle Red all the time - a lot of great authors there. Now I don't get to my favorite blogs very often - not because I don't enjoy them, but because I'm just not on the computer has much as I used to. With kids out of school, my granddaughters are home almost all the time and I don't usually get online until after they've gone to bed. Right now they're walking the dog with their dad so it's quiet around here. :-)

430

What I'm Reading / Re: My latest read is...

« on: April 30, 2020, 02:59:27 am »

I finished NANTUCKET NOON awhile ago and just picked AN ACT OF VILLAINY by Ashley Weaver as my next read. I've been following this series since the first book came out. It's hard to classify - a cozy of sorts. I like the timeframe, the Thirties. This is a new release. One of my favorite authors, Deborah Crombie, compares this series to Rhys Bowen's Royal Spyness books, which I also like.

431

What I'm Reading / Re: My latest read is...

« on: April 29, 2020, 05:00:34 pm »

I finished reading the Sheila Connolly book A TURN FOR THE BAD. I did a brief write up on the book that you can read HERE!

Your review makes me want to read this! I have a funny whiskey/whisky story but I'll save it for later.

I'm starting to make a dent in my to-be-read pile. Yesterday I read S.A. Lelchuk's SAVE ME FROM DANGEROUS MEN.

https://www.salelchuk.com/s-a-lelchuk.html

This is the first book in a series about investigator Nikki Griffin. This book reminds me a LITTLE of Zoe Sharp's Charlie Fox books. Both Charlie Fox and Nikki Griffin can take care of themselves. Both have issues with anger and self-control. In a fight, Zoe would win - she has military training and has learned her skills the hard way. Nikki would be a kick-ass opponent, but her ferocity is anger-driven and sometimes vengeance-driven.

I'm looking forward to more Nikki Griffin books and I'm always eager for more Charlie Fox books. I just noticed Zoe Sharp has a new series, but I'll probably have to wait until libraries reopen before I dig into those.

The book of the day is the late Jane Langton's NANTUCKET NOON. I'm not very far into it, but I've read several of her Homer Kelly books and so far I've liked them all.

432

What I'm Reading / PAST TENSE by Lee Child

« on: April 28, 2020, 01:10:11 am »

Wow! This book was TENSE! I had to keep reminding myself to breathe. There were a couple parts where I was so worried about what was going to happen, I almost put the book back in my bookcase. I am so glad I kept reading! Yes, it is scary. Yes, it's definitely violent. But it was one of my favorite Lee Child books, featuring everything we've come to expect of Jack Reacher and plenty of unexpected twists and turns on the way to a knock-out ending. This book came out in 2018.

I've read a lot of Lee Child's books, but in no particular order. I know there's a few I've missed, and I know I have at least one or two in my waiting-to-be-read pile. Every time I read one of his books, I want to read more, so I will probably be digging through my waiting-to-be-read pile to see what treasures I can find.

433

Welcome and General Discussion / Re: Jokes, Quotes and Anecdotes

« on: April 25, 2020, 11:58:10 pm »

THere's a really good book of quotations by Jane E. Horning called THE MYSTERY LOVER'S BOOK OF QUOTATIONS. It's from Mysterious Press, 1998 in hardcover then there was a trade paperback.

This is a treasure trove of fun quotes for mystery fans. It's arranged alphabetically by author but there's an index in the back so you can look up quotes by topic. This is one of my favorite dipping-into-before-sleeping reads. There should be an updated edition!

https://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Lovers-Book-Quotations/dp/0892962011

I thought I might order this but when I saw the book image, a lightbulb went off over my head. I already HAVE this book! I unpacked 70+ boxes of books when we moved here in 2018. They are sort of organized so in theory, I should be able to find this pretty quickly. Wish me luck!

434

Welcome and General Discussion / Re: Sports-Related Mystery Novels - Feature for May

« on: April 25, 2020, 11:52:53 pm »

I love sports, including baseball (despite being a New Zealander), have tonnes of baseball movies in my old DVD collection and have enjoyed the Troy Soos book I read a couple of years ago. Need to read more of that series.

Given my love for sports and crime writing, I've often bemoaned there aren't more mysteries set in the sports world - it certainly seems like fertile ground given the big money, competition, egos, gambling, drugs, corruption, and other things entwined in real-life sports.


Other sports mysteries/crime novels I've read and are worth considering:

• Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series (basketball player turned agent/investigator who gets entwined with crimes relating to some of his sports clients);
  THE FIXER by John Daniell (set in the world of French professional rugby, well written by a former professional player turned journalist)
  Dick Francis and Felix Francis' horse racing mysteries
  A SEASON IN THE SUN by Robert Rees - conspiracies and cricket in the Seychelles
  EXPOSED AT THE BACK by Arild Stavrum - murder in the European football world, written by a former pro player who delves into the locker rooms and dirty side of the game that may not be that well known (eg pro clubs and how they treat adolescent/young teenagers they sign etc).
  MATCHING THE EVIDENCE by Graham Smith - a crime novella set against the world of English football hooligans etc.
  FLASH & BONES by Kathy Reichs - a Tempe Brennan tale set against the world of NASCAR
  THE RULES OF BACKYARD CRICKET by Jock Serong - exceptional, Edgar shortlisted crime novel that's part coming-of-age tale, part crime drama, part meditation on toxic masculinity, all set against the world of cricket.

You've listed several books I haven't read. I can't afford to order them all, so I'm adding them to my "when the library opens again" list!

435

Welcome and General Discussion / Re: Book surprises!

« on: April 25, 2020, 11:50:39 pm »

I can't remember what book it was, but I found a book in a bookstore, brand new, with the cover printed upside down!

I checked all the other copies, and they were right side up. So I bought it, thinking it might be worth something.

The surprise came when I got home, and realized that you could just take the jacket off and put back on right side up...

LOL! Well, I hope you read it and it turned out to be a good book!