Tag Archives: reading list
Reading Recommendations from Just Desserts members in August 2022
Hey, mystery fans! Looking for something good to read?
At the August 2022 Just Desserts meeting, 19 group members participated in our discussion of both Camino Island and Camino Winds by John Grisham.
Following the “assigned reading” portion of the meeting, we held our monthly round robin in which all 19 attendees were able to share recommendations of what other books they’ve been reading recently, with an emphasis on mysteries/suspense/thrillers. And one absent member shared her recent recommended read by e-mail as well.
Here’s the list of mystery, thriller and suspense books recommended by Just Desserts members in August 2022:
And here were some non-mystery titles some group members also recommended in August 2022:
What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?
Reading Recommendations from Just Desserts members – February 2019
At the February 28th, 2019 meeting of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, following the discussion of the assigned topic of the month (A.J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window), we held our monthly round robin in which all attendees were able to share a few recommendations of what other books they’ve been reading recently.
Here’s the list of mystery books recommended by Just Desserts members in February 2019:
- The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly – past author selection for Just Desserts
- A new annotated edition of The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler – past author selection for Just Desserts (libraries do not own this new edition — but we have plenty of older editions)
- The Whistler by John Grisham
- Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The Fish Out of Water Series by Amy Lane (libraries own all 4 but only as e-books)
- The Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly (as a book-on-cd) – past author selection for Just Desserts
- (someone mentioned something about sometime titles Murder at the Luau but I was unable to get author information and can’t find anything about this title online)
And here were some non-mystery titles some group members also recommended in February 2019:
What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?
February 2018 reading recommendations from Just Desserts members
At the February 22nd, 2018 meeting of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, following the discussion of the assigned topic of the month (Lindsey Davis’ 20-volume series featuring Marcus Didius Falco), we held our monthly round robin in which all the attendees were able to share a few recommendations of what other books they’ve been reading recently.
Here’s the list of mystery books recommended by Just Desserts members in February 2018:
And here were some non-mystery titles some group members also recommended in February 2018:
What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?
Reading List from Just Desserts “Anthology” meeting – January 2017

At the January 26th, 2017 meeting of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, the theme of the monthly meeting was “Mystery Anthologies and Short Story Collections”. First, we had a round robin in which each attendee shared comments about whichever Anthology or Collection they had read for the month, then we had a second round robin in which all 15 attendees were able to share recommendations of other books they’ve been reading recently.
Here were the Anthologies/Collections read by group members specifically for the January 2017 meeting:
- FaceOff, edited by David Baldacci
- In Sunlight and in Shadow, edited by Lawrence Block
- The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries, edited by Otto Penzler
- Killer Year, edited by Lee Child
- Big Foot Stole My Wife, by Joan Hess writing as Joan Hadley
- Books to Die For, edited by John Connolly
- The Mistletoe Murder, posthumous collection by P.D. James
- A Treasury of Great Mysteries, edited by Howard Haycraft and John Beecroft
- Manhattan Mayhem, edited by Mary Higgins Clark
- BookShots
- The Best American Mystery Stories – 2015 edition, edited by James Patterson
- The Nine Mile Walk, collection by Harry Kemelman
- Ellery Queen’s Anthology, Spring/Summer 1976 Vol. 31
- Into the Mummy’s Tomb, edited by John Richard Stephens
- Creature Cozies, edited by Jill M. Morgan
Here’s the list of mystery books recommended by Just Desserts members in January 2017:
And here were some non-mystery titles some group members recommended in January 2017:
What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?
September 2016 reading recommendations from Just Desserts members
At the September 29th, 2016 meeting of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, following the discussion of the assigned book of the month, we had a round robin in which attendees were able to share recommendations of other books they’ve been reading recently.
Here’s the list of mystery books recommended by Just Desserts members in September 2016:
- McKee of Centre Street by Helen Reilly
- House of Secrets by ???
- Courting Trouble by Lisa Scottoline — past author selection for Just Desserts
- Hardwired by Sally Chapman
- Winter Prey and Extreme Prey by John Sandford – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Bone Deep by Randy Wayne White – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Tall Tail by Rita Mae Brown – past author selection for Just Desserts
- As Time Goes By by Mary Higgins Clark – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Grace Sees Red by Julie Hyzy – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The Widow-Maker and Massacre Pond by Paul Doiron
- Acorn TV streaming subscription – lots of classic and contemporary British TV mysteries
- The Obsession (and others) by Nora Roberts
- Crowned and Dangerous and Malice at the Palace by Rhys Bowen
- Insidious by Catherine Coulter (several reading this)
- Bedford Square by Anne Perry – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Feast Day of Fools and The Jealous Kind by James Lee Burke – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Off the Grid by C.J. Box – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The Highwayman (novella) by Craig Johnson – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The Readaholics and the Gothic Gala by Laura Diselverio
- Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
- Downfall by J.A. Jance – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Dead Joker by Anne Holt
- A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny – past author selection for Just Desserts (several reading this)
- The Night Bell by Inger Ash Wolfe
- The Murder at the Vicarage and Remember Death by Agatha Christie – past author selection for Just Desserts
- A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny – past author selection for Just Desserts
- My Sister’s Grave by Robert Dugoni
- Internship in Murder by Donald Bain, based on the works of Margaret Truman – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The Adventures of Ellery Queen, starring Jim Hutton, on DVD
- Fool Me Once, The Innocent and Home, all by Harlan Coben – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Redemption Road and The Last Child by John Hart
- Any Minute Now by Erik Van Lustbader
- Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta
- Guilty Minds by Joseph Finder
- Naked in Death by J.D. Robb – this month’s selected author for Just Desserts
- Bitter Medicine by Sara Paretsky – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The first three Kinsey Milhone novels (A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar, and C is for Corpse) by Sue Grafton – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Death on a High Floor by Charles Rosenberg
- In a Dry Season by Peter Robinson – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Cemetery Girl #2: Inheritance, 2nd in a graphic novel mystery trilogy, by Charlaine Harris, Christopher Golden and Don Kramer
And here were some non-mystery titles some group members recommended in August 2015:
What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?