Welcome to Monday Murder Mystery where we gather each week to talk about mysteries. Discussion of all mysteries is welcome, not just those involving murder; and all genres of mysteries are welcome, be they the coziest of the cozy style or the most cold blooded of the police procedurals.
Diarists are invited to share any book, series, author or mystery genre. If you would like to contribute, please include your subject and date in the comments, or send a private message to Susan from 29.
Because it is hard to discuss a mystery without revealing the ending, please use the comment section for that discussion, with the word "Spoiler" prominent in the topic line. Those who don't want to know the ending can set their Comment Preference to SHRINK and individually expand those comments without the warning.
I know that this year is drawing to a close because I am up to my elbows in cookie dough and surrounded by wrapping paper. I have never been able to figure out if this time of year goes by so quickly because the days have become so much shorter, or because it seems there is always too much to do and too many places to go, or because I so look forward to having the whole family gather for a few days of joyous dysfunction.
In any case, we can’t let the year end without a review of the mysteries we have read. While thinking of those mysteries on your list, you might want to consider the categories that Limelite used in this annual review.
Absolute Best Read of 2011
Without a Doubt Worst Read of 2011
Book I'd Read Again
Book I'd Most Highly Recommend to a Fellow Bibliophile
Book I Wish I'd Never Opened but Curiosity Got the Better of Me
Surprise Best Read of the Year
Best Discovered New Author
Hardest Slog
Best International Read (An international book is one read in English translation.)
How do the mysteries you have read during 2011 fit into these categories? Or does your reading require another category or two or three?
Speaking strictly of mysteries, my favorite, so far has been The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen. I know it is my favorite because I keep looking to see if any more have been translated into English yet. If I was listing books according to Limelite's list, it would be my nomination for six of the categories.
For me the worst is also an easy pick as the book I didn't finish: The Catered Thanksgiving.
Book I Wish I'd Never Opened but Curiosity Got the Better of Me would be Death by Jello, which had such an intriguing title and only cost $2.99 for the kindle version. Turned out to be a short story consisting of one scene and a motiveless crime. Dumb. But great title.
The Hardest Slog would be Faceless Killers which was hard for me because of the depressive state of the detective, Kurt Wallander. And a disappointment, because there are so many fans of the series by Henning Mankell and I love series. Perhaps I should try another one in the summer.
Other mysteries that I have read or am reading:
This Body of Death: An Inspector Lynley Novel by Elizabeth George
All of the Jesse Stone Novels (and a couple with Sunny Randall) by Robert Parker.
Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin and Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin,
Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hide, Robert Stevenson,
The Holy Thief by William Ryan,
January Kills Me (Samantha Rialto Mysteries) by Evan Katy,
Death on the Nile: Hercule Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie,
Gorky Park: A Novel by Martin Cruz Smith,
Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James,
The Winter Queen (Erast Fandorin) by Boris Akunin,
Mind's Eye by Hakan Nesser
The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon
Housekeeping Detail
Starting next week,
we will be meeting at 8:00pm Eastern. Seven o’clock on the east coast is four o’clock out here and that is an awkward time for me to post and monitor a diary. I mean, I have four cats who have to be fed at 4:00pm and they just don’t understand how a commitment to a machine could be allowed to interfere. (And if you think I am speaking figuratively, you should see them crawl onto my lap trying to get to the keyboard at 3:45 in the afternoon.)
Some Changes
There have been a couple of really good suggestions about this series that I would like to incorporate. One was that a tentative schedule be posted that would enable those who wanted to read along. That made a lot of sense, and so here is the first tentative schedule for the upcoming Monday Murder Mysteries
12/26/11 A Highland Christmas, by M.C. Beaton
01/02/12 Review of the 2011 Mystery Awards
01/09/12 Winter Queen, by Boris Akunin
01/16/12 Mystery Readers’ Guide to the World Wide Web
01/23/12 My husband’s 30th wedding anniversary so I hope to be elsewhere. Anyone want to write that week’s diary? Topic of your own choosing.
01/30/12 Mind’s Eye, by Hakkan Nesser
02/06/12 A look at the Kathleen Mallory series by Carol O’Connell, from glorificus
I hadn’t planned, when I accepted Limelite’s suggestion for this series, to be writing so many of the diaries. You are all more than welcome to contribute diaries of your own, as Emmet has done in the past, and glorificus will be doing in the future. The more voices we have, the more interesting this series will become.
Speaking of glorificus, while planning an upcoming diary, he/she asked if anyone else had written anything about the same author. A similar question had occurred to me when I wrote about an earlier book. Although the search engine helps, what we needed was a comprehensive listing of all our books. Such a list would be so very helpful, not only to avoid repetition, but also as a resource for any member looking for a good read. Or perhaps trying to remember who it was that wrote that gawd awful book about the exploding turkey.
So I decided to start one for us. Here is the current list of those books that have been written about in the Monday Murder Mystery series and links to their diaries. I will maintain this list for as long as the series continues, adding new titles and links as the diaries are published.
(As time allows, and if there are no objections, I may root around back in the archives and gradually catalog all of the books that have made their way into Readers & Book Lovers.)
Adler-Olsen, Jussi
Keeper of Lost Causes, 11/21/11
Akunin, Boris
The Winter Queen, 01/09/12
Beaton, M.C.
A Highland Christmas, 12/26/11
Christie, Agatha
Death on the Nile, 11/07/11
Crawford, Isis
A Catered Thanksgiving, 11/28/11
George, Elizabeth
Believing the Lies, 01/30/12
Hill, Reginald
Pictures of Perfection, 12/05/11
Hogg, James
The Personal Memoirs and Confession of a Justified Sinner, 02/06/12
James, P.D.
Death Comes to Pemberley, 01/30/12
Marsh, Ngaio
Death and the Dancing Footman, 11/14/11
Nesser, Hakan
Mind's Eye, 01/16/12
Rankin, Ian
Knots and Crosses, 02/06/12
Ryan, William
The Holy Thief, 12/12/11
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Stange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, 02/06/12
Future diaries will include the schedule in the tip jar and a link to this post. Hopefully that will make things easier for all.
More Changes
And now, let's just talk:
What do you think of a monthly listing of newly published mysteries? I wouldn't be able to review them all, but I could at least let you know when your favorite author's newest book was released (like you hadn't had it on your wish list already).
What else can make this a better series? What would interest you the most? The least? It is still early in the life of this fledgling series, but that is the best time to start playing around with it and making the changes that will create a more satisfying way to spend a Monday evening.