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Tag Archives: book group
Henrietta Who?
For the final meeting of 2006, it was another mystery classic — Catherine Aird’s Henrietta Who?: Until her widowed mother was killed in a hit-and-run accident, Henrietta thought her last name was Jenkins. And then the post-mortem revealed that Grace Jenkins had never borne a child — that her death was not an accident. Overnight, Henrietta’s life became a nightmare of unanswered questions. Who was she? Where was her real family? Why had Grace Jenkins never told her the truth? Inspector Sloane wanted answers to other questions. Was it a coincidence that the murderer struck just before Henrietta’s 21st birthday? Who else had a key to the Jenkins cottage? The Inspector was afraid that before there were answers to these questions, the killer might strike again. And he was right.
This title was discussed at the Just Desserts meeting on August 31, 2006. We encourage you to share your own thoughts and opinions about this book in a reply comment to this blog post, below!
Haunted Ground
For September 2006, we returned to a more recently published novel, Erin Hart’s Haunted Ground. This novel also features events set in differing time periods, though: A grisly discovery is made deep in an Irish peat bog — the perfectly preserved severed head of a red-haired young woman. Has she been buried for decades, centuries, or longer? Who is she and why was she killed? American pathologist Nora Gavin and archaeologist Cormac Maguire are called in to investigate, only to find that the girl’s violent death may have shocking ties to the present — including the disappearance of a local landowner’s wife and son. Aided by a homicide detective who refuses to let the missing be forgotten, Nora and Cormac slowly uncover a dark history of secrets, betrayal, and death in which the shocking revelations of the past may lead to murder in the future…
This title was discussed at the Just Desserts meeting on September 28, 2006. We encourage you to share your own thoughts and opinions about this book in a reply comment to this blog post, below!
The Daughter of Time
Our August 2006 selection was one of the all-time classics of the mystery field — a mixture of contemporary and historical — Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time.
Tey re-creates one of history’s most famous — and vicious — crimes in her classic bestselling novel, a must read for connoisseurs of fiction. Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard, recuperating from a broken leg, becomes fascinated with a contemporary portrait of Richard III that bears no resemblance to the Wicked Uncle of history. Could such a sensitive, noble face actually belong to one of the world’s most heinous villains — a venomous hunchback who may have killed his brother’s children to make his crown secure? Or could Richard have been the victim, turned into a monster by the usurpers of England’s throne? Grant determines to find out once and for all, with the help of the British Museum and an American scholar, what kind of man Richard Plantagenet really was and who killed the Little Princes in the Tower. The Daughter of Time is an ingeniously plotted, beautifully written, and suspenseful tale, a supreme achievement from one of mystery writing’s most gifted masters.
This title was discussed at the Just Desserts meeting on August 31, 2006. We encourage you to share your own thoughts and opinions about this book in a reply comment to this blog post, below!
Catnap
For our July 2006 meeting, the group selected the first volume in Carole Nelson Douglas’ popular Midnight Louie series, Catnap [1992], featuring two of the most lovable characters you’d ever want to meet: public relations expert Temple Barr, a petite redhead with a high-heeled shoe fetish, and the irrepressible black cat Midnight Louie. When these two kneel nose to nose over a dead body at the American Booksellers Association convention in Las Vegas, the fur flies and the fun starts.
This title was discussed at the Just Desserts meeting on July 27, 2006. We encourage you to share your own thoughts and opinions about this book in a reply comment to this blog post, below!
Dating Dead Men and Dating is Murder
The June 2006 meeting of the Just Desserts discussion group focused on a pair of mysteries by former Lincolnite Harley Jane Kozak.
Kozak, a film, tv and stage actress who grew up in Lincoln but now lives in California, burst onto the mystery scene with her premiere novel, Dating Dead Men in 2004, and followed up with a very successful sequel Dating is Murder in 2005. The first book won the Nebraska Book Award for Best Fiction, and also won a triumvirate of the national mystery awards: The Agatha Award, the Anthony Award and the Macavity Award (all for best first mystery novel).
You can see a profile of Kozak here on the BookGuide Web site: Nebraska Author Harley Jane Kozak. There’s also a short interview with Kozak here as well.
This title was discussed at the Just Desserts meeting on June 29, 2006. We encourage you to share your own thoughts and opinions about this book in a reply comment to this blog post, below!