I have a passion for organization. I buy books about the subject, and file folders and cabinets to put them in. Then I stack the papers that belong in the file folders in neat piles on top of my desk.
There are boxes of clear plastic and boxes of opaque plastic all neatly labeled. And empty. Their contents are still randomly stuffed into closets and drawers.
Oh, well. At least I can organize the book diaries that we have written here on Monday Nights. After much thought (at least twenty minutes) I selected geography as my guiding light. It could have been eras, or authors, but the thought of the places these books have taken us was the most appealing.
And it makes it easier to decide where to go next. England appears to have gotten more than enough visits, but she does produce some fine mysteries. Western and Eastern Europe need some stories, as does Africa - other than McCall Smith - and the Middle East. Mexico and South America aren't represented at all. Any suggestions? (Preferably written by residents of the nations involved and translated into English, if needed.)
Next week I have a best-selling Japanese author, Keigo Higashino, who has written some well-plotted contemporary mysteries set in Tokyo.
A future diary will include locations in the United States.
Country
|
City
|
Title
|
Author
|
Australia
|
Melbourne
|
Cocaine Blues
|
Kerry Greenwood
|
Canada
|
Three Pines
Quebec
|
Still Life, A Fatal Grace, The Cruelest Month, A Rule Against Murder, Brutal Telling, Bury Your Dead
|
Louise Penny
|
China
|
|
The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee (Dee Goong An)
|
Robert van Gulik
|
Denmark
|
Copenhagen
|
Keeper of Lost Causes, The Absent One, A Conspiracy of Faith
|
Jussi Adler Olsen
|
England
|
|
A Nice Class of Corpse, Mrs. Presumed Dead, Mrs. Pargeter's Package, Mrs. Pargeter's Pound of Flesh, Mrs. Pargeter's Plot, Mrs. Pargeter's Point of Honor
|
Simon Brett
|
|
|
Orchestrated Death, Death Watch, Death to Go/Necrochip
|
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
|
|
|
The Wicked Girls
|
Alex Marwood
|
|
Bradfield
|
Beneath the Bleeding (Tony Hill/Carol Jordan)
|
Val McDermid
|
|
Brighton
|
Dead Simple
|
Peter James
|
|
Cambridge
|
The Humans
|
Matt Haig
|
|
|
No Graves as Yet
|
Anne Perry
|
|
Cumbria
|
Believing the Lie
|
Elizabeth George
|
|
Derbyshire
|
Death Comes to Pemberley
|
P.D. James
|
|
Dorset
|
Death and the Dancing Footman
|
Ngaio Marsh
|
|
Ely
|
Hunting Shadows
|
Charles Todd
|
|
Hobs End
|
In A Dry Season
|
Peter Robinson
|
|
Highbury
|
The Highbury Murders
|
Victoria Grossack
|
|
Hull
|
The Dark Winter, Original Skin
|
David Mark
|
|
London
|
A Flaw in the Blood |
Stephanie Barron
|
|
|
Her Royal Spyness, A Royal Pain, Royal Flush, Royal Blood
|
Rhys Bowen
|
|
|
Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance, Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder, Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man's Smile, Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders, Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders |
Gyles Brandreth
|
|
|
Mrs. Jeffries Learns the Trade, The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries, Mrs. Jeffries Dusts for Clues, The Ghost and Mrs. Jeffries
|
Emily Brightwell
|
|
|
Snobbery With Violence
|
Marion Chesney
|
|
|
The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, Valley of Fear, The Hound of the Baskervilles
|
Arthur Conan Doyle
|
|
|
The Cuckoo's Calling
|
Robert Galbraith
|
|
|
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, The Skull Beneath the Skin
|
P.D. James
|
|
|
Beekeeper's Apprentice
|
Laurie R. King
|
|
|
The Gun Seller |
Hugh Laurie
|
|
|
The Cater Street Hangman, Face of a Stranger |
Anne Perry
|
|
|
The Stange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
|
Robert Louis Stevenson
|
|
|
Grey Mask
|
Patricia Wentworth
|
|
|
Maisie Dobbs
|
Jacqueline Winspear
|
|
Norfolk Coast,
East Anglia
|
The Crossing Places, The Janus Stone, The House at Seas End
|
Elly Griffiths
|
|
Nottingham
|
Lonely Hearts
|
John Harvey
|
|
Shrewsbury
|
Brother Cadfael
|
Ellis Peters
|
|
|
Shrewsbury Abbey, A Rare Benedictine, A Morbid Taste for Bones, One Corpse too Many, Monk's Hood, St. Peter's Fair, Leper of St. Giles, The Virgin in the Ice, The Sanctuary Sparrow, The Devil's Novice, Dead Man's Ransom, The Pilgrim of Hate
|
Ellis Peters
|
|
Scardale
|
A Place of Execution
|
Val McDermid
|
|
Studley Constable
|
The Eagle Has Landed
|
Jack Higgins
|
|
Yorkshire
|
Days of Swine and Porsches
|
Reginald Hill
|
England & France
|
|
A Duty to the Dead, An Impartial Witness, A Bitter Truth, An Unmarked Grave
|
Charles Todd
|
England
(Angevin Empire)
|
|
Murder and Magic, Too Many Magicians, Lord Darcy Investigates
|
Randall Garrett
|
|
|
Ten Little Wizards, A Study in Sorcery
|
Michael Kurland
|
Egypt
|
|
Golden Scales
|
Parker Bilal
|
|
|
Death on the Nile
|
Agatha Christie
|
|
|
Crocodile on the Sandbank, Curse of the Pharaohs, The Mummy Case, Lion in the Valley
|
Elizabeth Peters
|
France
|
Brittany
|
Assignment in Brittany
|
Helen MacInnes
|
|
Paris
|
Mission to Paris
|
Alan Furst
|
|
WWI Trenches
|
Shoulder the Sky
|
Anne Perry
|
Iceland
|
Reykjavik
|
Jar City
|
Arnaldur Indridason
|
|
Hvalvik
|
Frozen Assets
|
Quentin Bates
|
Ireland
|
Dublin
|
In the Woods, The Likeness, Faithful Place, The Secret Place
|
Tana French
|
Italy
|
Rome
|
White Smoke
|
Andrew M. Greeley
|
|
|
North From Rome
|
Helen MacInnes
|
Laos
|
|
The Coroner's Lunch, Thirty-Three Teeth, Slash and Burn
|
Colin Cotterill
|
Norway
|
|
Norwegian by Night
|
Derek B Miller
|
|
NW of Oslo
|
Don't Look Back
|
Karin Fossum
|
Russia
|
Moscow
|
The Winter Queen
|
Boris Akunin
|
|
|
The Holy Thief
|
William Ryan
|
Singapore
|
|
The Feng Shui Detective, The Feng Shui Detective Goes West, Shanghai Union of Industrial Mystics
|
Nury Vittachi
|
Scotland
|
Edinburgh
|
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
|
James Hoag
|
|
|
Knots and Crosses
|
Ian Rankin
|
|
Lochdubh
|
A Highland Christmas
|
M.C. Beaton
|
|
Outer Hebrides
|
The Blackhouse
|
Peter May
|
|
St. Andrews
|
The Distant Echo
|
Val McDermid
|
Northern Europe
|
|
Mind's Eye
|
Hakan Nesser
|
Europe
|
|
Above Suspicion
|
Helen MacInnes
|
Various
|
|
Desolate Angel
|
Chaz McGee (Katy Munger)
|
|
|
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
|
Douglas Adams
|