Famous People Make Great Fictional Sleuths

October 28, 2015October 23, 2015 / Mary / Leave a comment

I love it when well-known historical figures pop up in books I am reading. Since I could (and probably will!) write several posts on this topic, I thought I’d start with one of the most popular ways that famous people of the past get cast in novels: as amateur sleuths.

Let’s begin with Eleanor Roosevelt, who appears as the chief mystery-solver in the Eleanor Roosevelt Mystery series written by her son, the late Elliot Roosevelt. This enchanting series is a blend of fictionalized history and cozy mystery with a strong dollop of the atmosphere of the Roosevelt White House years as it can only be portrayed by an insider.

Going back in time to 18th century London, we encounter Benjamin Franklin in the mystery series by Robert Lee Hall. Books like, London Blood: Further Adventures of an American Agent Abroad, tell of Franklin’s detective experiences. His illegitimate son Nick, the narrator, is at Franklin’s side through the seven adventures that take place during the time Franklin was in England to intercede for the American colonies with the British government.

Who’s next? Jane Austen, of course, in the series by Stephanie Barron. Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor is the first in this series that depicts Jane as a sleuth with a subtle sense of humor and an eye for noticing, with excruciating exactness, nuances in the behavior of others.

And then there’s the ultimate real-person-as-fictional-sleuth genre in which famous authors cast themselves as the main crime solving character! Famous for this type of series are Steve Allen and Ed Koch. Allen penned a series featuring himself and his wife, Jayne Meadows. Books like Die Laughing are written with Allen’s trademark humor and wit. Former mayor of New York Koch also starred himself in stories such as The Senator Must Die, in which Hizzoner out-sleuths everyone around him.

I have to admit, though, my favorite mystery series that highlights the famous is Stuart Kaminsky’s Toby Peters mystery series. Although Toby Peters is a fictional character, his cases in the Hollywood of the thirties and forties bring him in contact with famous clients such as Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Salvador Dali and many others. These famous people often help him solve the case. I especially loved To Catch a Spy featuring Cary Grant, who may or may not be spying for the U.S. government during the early days of World War II, and A Fatal Glass of Beer, featuring a hard-drinking, hard-talking, shotgun-wielding W.C. Fields.

Looking for more? Try these:

The Beatrix Potter mystery series by Susan Wittig Albert

Blue Suede Clues: A Murder Mystery featuring Elvis Presley by Daniel M, Klein

Hemingway Deadlights by Michael Atkinson (featuring Ernest Hemingway)

The Color of Death by Bruce Alexander (featuring Sir John Fielding, founder of the first police force in London in the 1700s.)

A Marked Man by Barbara Hamilton (featuring Abigail Adams)

Escape Artist: an Edna Ferber mystery by Ed Ifkovic

The Illusion of Murder by Carol McCleary (featuring reporter Nellie Bly)

On Our Shelves: Romance

October 26, 2015October 13, 2015 / Linda / Leave a comment

Now that the kids are back to school, find a comfy chair, put your feet up and lose yourself in a sizzling romance!

Contemporary

Home by Morning – Kaki Warner

Truly Madly Montana – Fiona Lowe

I Want You To Want Me – Erika Kelly

Truly Sweet – Candis Terry

Trouble When You Walked In – Kieran Kramer

Made For Us – Samantha Chase

The Name of the Game – Jennifer Dawson

All Wrapped Up – Kimberly Kincaid

Snowflake Bay – Donna Kauffman

Love Somebody Like You – Susan Fox

Playing with Fire – Kate Meader

All I Want – Jill Shalvis

Historical

The Daughter of an Earl – Victoria Morgan

The Duke Can Go to the Devil – Erin Knightley

Put Up Your Duke – Megan Frampton

The Highlander Takes a Bride – Lynsay Sands

All The Ways to Ruin A Rogue – Sophie Jordan

The Earl Claims a Bride – Amelia Grey

The Legend of Lyon Redmond – Julie Ann Long

Some Like It Scot – Suzanne Enoch

Tall, Dark and Wicked – Madeline Hunter

Romantic Suspense

Exit Strategy – Lena Diaz

Hard to Let Go – Laura Kaye

Hot Point – M.L. Buchman

Claimed – Elle Kennedy

Paranormal

Flight From Death – Jasmine Galenorn

Vipers Rule – Stephanie Tyler

Earth Bound – Christine Feehan

Binding TIes – Shannon K. Butcher

Love & Laughter: 10 Romances That Will Make You Laugh Out Loud

October 14, 2015September 29, 2015 / Mary / 1 Comment

Light, lovely, and hilarious, these books are perfect for rainy days and lazy weekends. Indulge yourself in a little humor and romance!

Anyone But You by Jennifer Crusie
For Nina Askew, turning forty means freedom—from the ex-husband, their and stuffy suburban home, freedom to focus on what she wants. And what she wants is something her ex always vetoed—a puppy. A bouncy, adorable puppy. Instead she gets…Fred. Overweight, middle-aged, a bit smelly, Fred is light-years from perky. But he does manage to put Nina in the path of Alex Moore, her gorgeous, younger-by-a-decade neighbor.

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
Becky Bloomwood has a fabulous flat in London’s trendiest neighborhood, a troupe of glamorous socialite friends, and a closet brimming with the season’s must-haves. The only trouble is, she can’t actually afford any of it

Enchanted, Inc. by Shanna Swendson
Katie Chandler quickly learns that office politics are even more complicated when your new boss is a real ogre, and you have a crush on the sexy, shy, ultra powerful head of the R&D department, who is so busy fighting an evil competitor threatening to sell black magic on the street that he seems barely to notice her. Now it’s up to Katie to pull off the impossible: save the world and–hopefully–live happily ever after.

Single in Suburbia by Wendy Wax
Amanda’s husband has just traded her in for an affair with a teenybopper. Brooke is a trophy wife collecting dust. And Candace (Don’t call me Candy) has had too many husbands and too little love. What do these three unlikely accomplices have in common besides a Little League team called the Mudhens? A plot to reclaim a little r-e-s-p-e-c-t.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially inept professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers.

The Grand Finale by Janet Evanovich
Berry Knudson had a talent for disaster, but when she climbed a tree to rescue a kitten, she wasn’t prepared for the scrumptious hunk undressing in a nearby window, or her dive downward that smashed Jake Sawyer’s pizza and won his heart!

Must Love Dogs by Claire Cook
Divorced preschool teacher Sarah Hurlihy’s first mistake is letting her bossy big sister write her personal ad. Her second mistake is showing up to meet her first date in more than a decade. Now she’s juggling her teaching job, her big, rollicking, interfering south-of-Boston Irish family, and more men than she knows what to do with.

Recipe for Disaster by Stacy Ballis
A delicious broth of a novel about a woman whose perfect life falls apart in spectacular fashion–leaving her with a house to restore, an antique cookbook (but no cooking talent), and one very unhappy schnauzer.

The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne
To avoid embarrassing her father, a Member of Parliament, Melissa dons a blonde wig and becomes “Honey,” a no-nonsense bombshell who helps clueless bachelors shop, entertain, and navigate social minefields. She even attends parties if a client needs a “date.” But when a dashing American starts to request Honey’s services on a regular basis, it’s only a matter of time before Honey’s and Melissa’s worlds collide….

My Heart May Be Broken but My Hair Looks Great by Dixie Cash
Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin have never encountered a problem that couldn’t be fixed with a strong margarita, a whole lot of hairspray, and an ear for gossip. No doubt about it, hearts are definitely going to get broken, but if these gals have anything to do with it, the hairstyles around town are still gonna look great!

Keep Yourself Reading

October 9, 2015September 17, 2015 / emily100101 / Leave a comment

I’ve always been an avid reader, but sometimes I stall out for weeks at a time. It could be that a book just isn’t clicking with me, and so I never make the time to finish it. Or maybe I finish a particularly challenging or emotional book, and I’m hesitant to jump into a new story right away. Or maybe I’m just busy. Or maybe I’m watching too much Netflix!

If this sounds like you, I can help. Over the years, I’ve learned a few tricks to keep myself always reading.

Keep track of the books you want to read so you never have to wonder “What’s Next?” I love www.goodreads.com for keep tracking of what I’ve read and what I plan to read.
Don’t waste time on a book that isn’t for you. If you’re not enjoying something, allow yourself to read another book instead. Reading for pleasure should never be a chore! You can always come back to that other book later.
If life seems to get in the way of making time for reading, grab something that you can’t put down. It’s OK to indulge in fluffier stories if that’s what keeps your momentum going. You’ll be surprised by the time you suddenly “find” when a book is too good to ignore.
Make reading a part of your routine. Whether it’s with your morning coffee, on your lunch break, or before you go to sleep, try to make a set time to read every single day.
And my favorite tip: When you finish a book, immediately start reading another one, if only just the first page. This remedies the problem of letting a book “sink in” for a day, or two days, before picking up another.

I recently stalled after reading The Nightingale. It was such an emotionally intense book that I couldn’t bring myself to open another after I’d finished it, and soon a week, and then two went by. Luckily, a friend let me borrow a real page-turner, The Headmaster’s Wife, and I got my momentum back. If you like ivy-covered boarding schools, mystery, and intrigue, check it out!

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

The Headmaster’s Wife by Thomas Christopher Greene

Book Club Picks – Thrillers

September 28, 2015September 28, 2015 / Linda / Leave a comment

The days are getting shorter and the nights longer! Pick up a thriller for your book club to read!

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry – Gabrielle Zevin – When his most prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, is stolen, bookstore owner A. J. Fikry begins isolating himself from his friends, family and associates before receiving a mysterious package that compels him to remake his life.

The Life We Bury – Allen Eskens – After Joe Talbert interviews a dying Vietnam veteran for a college writing assignment, he discovers that the veteran is a convicted murderer recently released from prison and, suspecting that the veteran was framed, he begins a dangerous investigation into the thirty-year-old murder.

Red Sparrow – Jason Mathews – Drafted against her will to serve the regime of Vladimir Putin as an intelligence seductress, Dominika Egorova is assigned to operate against first-tour CIA officer Nathaniel Nash, with whom she engages in a charged effort of deception and tradecraft before a forbidden attraction threatens their careers and the security of America’s most valuable mole in Moscow.

Dept. of Speculation – Jenny Offill – An unflinching portrait of marriage by the award-winning author of Last Things features a heroine simply referred to as “the Wife,” who transitions from an idealistic woman who once exchanged love letters with her husband and who confronts an array of universal difficulties.

The Silkworm – Robert Galbraith – While investigating the brutal murder of a novelist who had just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knew, which would ruin many lives, P.I. Cormoran Strike must race against time to catch a killer unlike any he has ever encountered before.

Missing You – Harlan Coben – Spotting her ex-fiancâe’s photo on an online dating site, NYPD Detective Kat Donovan reaches out to him, hoping to rekindle the past, but her hope turns to suspicion and then terror as an unspeakable conspiracy is revealed.

Blue Labyrinth – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child – Investigating the murder of a long-time enemy, Aloysius Pendergast journeys to an abandoned California mine only to uncover a dark secret from his family’s past and a plot by a vengeful killer.

Descent – Tim Johnson – When their daughter disappears while out for a morning run during a late-summer vacation in the Rocky Mountains, her parents embark on a harrowing journey down increasingly divergent and solitary paths where they must answer some difficult questions to find the truth

Wolf In the White Van – John Darnielle – Creating fantastical mail-order role-playing games from his apartment where he endures a life of solitude after a disfiguring injury, Sean is blamed for a disaster involving two high school student clients, an event that compels him to reevaluate his own past.

An Officer and A Spy – Robert Harris – A tale inspired by the infamous Dreyfus Affair finds Georges Picquart, the recently promoted head of Paris’ late-nineteenth-century counterespionage agency, leading the effort to convict Dreyfus only to succumb to gradual doubts that a high-level spy remains at large in the military.