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Tag Archives: thrillers
Reading Recommendations from Just Desserts members – May 2023
Hey, mystery fans! Looking for something good to read?
At the May 2023 Just Desserts meeting, 17 group members and guests participated in our annual “Series Share” session.
Following the “assigned reading” portion of the meeting, we held our monthly round robin in which attendees shared recommendations of what other books they’ve been reading recently, with an emphasis on mysteries/suspense/thrillers. We continued a new policy this month that began in February, to make sure everyone got a turn in the Round Robin – everyone could share a single title during their verbal recommendations, but could share additional titles on a paper form – ALL titles recommended are shared below, however
Here’s the list of mystery, thriller and suspense books recommended by Just Desserts members in May 2023:
- Trackers * by Charles Frazier
- Forget What You Know by Christina Dodd (not recommended by this reader!)
- The Bones of Paradise * by Jonis Agee
- The Last Orphan by Gregg Hurwitz
- A Killing of Innocents by Deborah Crombie
- Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
- A Borrowing of Bones * by Paula Munier
- The Dark Tide by Simon McCleave
- Down a Dark River by Karen Odden
- The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray
- The Safest Lies * by Megan Miranda
- Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gilliam McAllister
- Edge of Dusk * by Colleen Coble
- The Mitford Murders by Jessie Fellowes
- Sparring Partners (a collection of 3 novellas) by John Grisham
- A Useful Woman by Darcie Wilde
- A Study in Scarlet by Sherry Thomas
- The Ursulina * by Brian Freeman
- The Murder Book by Thomas Perry
- How I’ll Kill You by Ren DeStefano
- Shattered by Allison Brennan
- Back of Beyond by C.J. Box
- The King’s Spy * by Andrew Swanston (not in library)
- The Anatomist’s Apprentice by Tessa Harris
- Bark to the Future (as an audiobook-on-cd) by Spencer Quinn
And here were some non-mystery titles some group members also recommended in May 2023:
- Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis
- The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
- When We Had Wings * by Ariel Lawhon
- The Institute by Stephen King
- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
- The Diplomat’s Wife by Pam Jenoff
- Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Diversity * by Devon Price
- A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan
- The Boys in the Bunkhouse by Dan Barry
- The Levee * (as an audiobook-on-cd) by William Kent Krueger – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Revenge of the Librarians and Department of Mind-Blowing Theories both by Tom Gauld
What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?
Just Desserts Series Share results for 2023
Hey, mystery fans! Looking for something good to read?
At the May 25th, 2023 Just Desserts meeting that took place in person at the Bennett Martin Public Library, 17 group members participated in our 11th annual “Series Share” discussion, in which attendees were encouraged to read the first or second volume in any new mystery/thriller/suspense series that’s started within the past three years, and share their thoughts in a “round-robin” format; two more group members shared their selections via e-mail. Here’s a list of the novels/series that were mentioned by group members. We asked all attendees to also give a “Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down” for whatever series they sampled – all but one of the participants this month gave a “Thumbs Up” to whatever they read:
Just Desserts Series Share Results for 2023!
What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?
Join the discussion on the first three novels of S.A. Cosby
Hey, mystery fans! Looking for something good to read?
At the February 2023 Just Desserts meeting, 13 group members participated in a discussion of the first three novels by American mystery/suspense author S.A. (Sean) Cosby — My Darkest Prayer (2019), Blacktop Wasteland (2020) and Razorblade Tears (2021).
Absolutely no-one in the Just Desserts group disliked whichever of the novels they had read — and the entire group agreed that Cosby is an incredibly good writer. However, several group members indicated that the levels of violence and coarse language in Cosby’s novels would preclude them from reading anything further by this author. On the other hand, several group members look forward to tracking down all of his works, not to mention future books by this author.
So…What did you think of the works of S.A. Cosby? Which have you read?
Just Desserts returns on March 30th, with another grab bag theme — “Science Fiction & Fantasy Murder Mysteries”. We hope to see you there!
Just Desserts – Series Share 2022 Results
Hey, mystery fans! Looking for something good to read?
At the May 26th, 2022 Just Desserts meeting that took place in person at the Bennett Martin Public Library, 14 members participated in our 10th annual “Series Share” discussion, in which attendees were encouraged to read the first or second volume in any new mystery/thriller/suspense series that’s started within the past few years, and share their thoughts in a “round-robin” format; two more group members shared their selections via e-mail. Here’s a list of the novels/series that were mentioned by group members. We asked all attendees to also give a “Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down” for whatever series they sampled – and all participants this month gave a “Thumbs Up” to whatever they read:
- The Pentecost & Parker series by Stephen Spotswood, including the first two volumes Fortune Favors the Dead, and Murder Under Her Skin
- The Frankie Elkin series by Lisa Gardner, starting with Before She Disappeared and A Step Too Far – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The Secret Scone and Book Society mystery series by Ellery Adams, starting with The Secret Scone and Book Society and The Vanishing Type
- The Roxanne Weary series by Kristen Lepionka, starting with The Last Place You Look, What You Want to See, The Stories You Tell and Once You Go This Far
- The Colter Shaw mystery series by Jeffery Deaver, staring with The Never Game and The Goodbye Man – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The Goddess of Green Street series by Kate Collins, starting with Statue of Limitations
- The Riley Fisher series by Erin Young, starting with The Fields (two readers chose this series)
- The Korner and Werner series by Katrine Engberg, the reader actually read #3, The Harbor.
- The Perveen Mistry series by Sujata Massey, starting with The Widows of Malabar Hill, The Satapur Moonstone, and The Bombay Prince
- The Laetitia Rodd series by Kate Saunders, in this case #3 The Mystery of the Sorrowful Maiden – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The Eye of Isis series by Dana Stabenow, starting with Death of an Eye – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The Alex Carter series by Alice Henderson, starting with A Solitude of Wolverines and A Blizzard of Polar Bears
- The Recovery Agent series by Janet Evanovich, starting with The Recovery Agent – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The Verifiers series by Jane Pek, starting with The Verifiers
Our main discussion took up so much time, we didn’t have time left for our traditional “Round Robin” of whatever else the group members have been reading. But a few readers tossed out four things they really wanted to mention.
Here’s a short list of mystery, thriller and suspense books recommended by Just Desserts members in May 2021:
- The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont
- A Dark and Stormy Murder by Julia Buckley
- The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood
- The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams (as an audiobook adaptation) (not a mystery)
What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?
Join the discussion of the Billy Boyle series by James R. Benn
The Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group held its first meeting of 2022 on Zoom, on January 27th, 2022. Thirteen virtual attendees discussed the “Billy Boyle” mystery series, set during World War II, by James R. Benn. If you’ve read any of the 16 volumes (so far) in the Billy Boyle series, and would like to contribute your comments about it, please do so as a reply comment to this blog post, below. Group members were encourage to read any one or more volume in this 16-volume series — amongst the 13 participants, eight different books were selected!
For reminders about upcoming Just Desserts meetings (once they resume) and/or other announcements of interest to mystery fans, don’t forget to sign up for the Just Desserts e-mail list. Or, now that in-person meetings are possible again, if you’re logged into your account on Facebook, you can visit the Events page for the Lincoln City Libraries, and mark whether or not you plan to attend upcoming sessions of Just Desserts – this is a great way for you to help us promote this engaging discussion group!
So…What did you think of the “Billy Boyle” series? Have you read any of these, or others, by James R. Benn?
The following handout was prepared for the members of Just Desserts: The Billy Boyle series by James R. Benn.
We hope to see you at future gatherings of the Just Desserts group, whether in-person or on Zoom. Watch the libraries’ website and social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) for the latest updates! In the meantime, we hope Just Desserters will join us on February 24th, 2022, for a discussion of Alex Michaelides’ stand-alone thriller The Silent Patient.