Crime

Listen Up! with an Audiobook

/ Susan O. / Leave a comment

Don’t have time to read?  Driving a long commute, or perhaps an out-of-state trip? Do you have trouble focusing on printed words?  Try an audio book! Cheshire Library has a large collection of books on cd, from mysteries to romance, to fiction, non-fiction, science-fiction, and foreign languages, and we add at least one new selection a day. Here’s a list of just some of our newest additions in the past month:

[Cover]  Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts

Toms River by Dan Fagin

The Hormone Cure by Sara Gottfried

Suspect by Robert Crais[Cover]

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell

Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody

[Cover]Pukka’s Promise: The Quest for Longer-lived dogs by Ted Kerasote

Rita Moreno: A Memoir By Rita Moreno

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte [Cover]Cristo by Tom Reiss

The Dogs of War by Lisa Rogak

When Your Parent Becomes Your Child by Ken Abraham

[Cover]Car Talk: 25 Years of Lousy Car Advice

Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Keith Lowe

A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash

The Butterfly’s Daughter by Mary Alice Monroe[Cover]

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget by David Wessel

[Cover]My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor

Cozy Mysteries

/ Linda / 1 Comment

it's a mysteryWhat is a cozy mystery?  The cozy mystery generally takes place in a small town where everybody knows each other.  This makes it easy for the genial sleuth to gossip with people to help solve the mystery. These books provide a fun read that engages a reader’s mind.  Cozy mysteries are considered gentle reads – no sex, no profanity, no violence – and are light-hearted and funny.  They are fast-paced with several twists and turns.  There is an emphasis on plot and character development.

Cozy mysteries have become very popular in the last few years – so much so that authors are coming up with a wide diversity of subjects for their series.  More and more authors are setting their cozy mysteries in a series so the reader becomes emotionally involved and connects with recurring characters.

No matter what hobbies you like, or subject you are interested in, chances are there is a cozy mystery series available for your reading pleasure.  Below is a small sampling of some of the cozy mystery series.

An Amish Mystery
A Ballroom Dance Mystery     
A Barking Detective Mystery
A Cat in the Stacks Mystery
A Cats and Curiosity Mystery
A Celebration Bay Mystery
A Cheese Shop Mystery
A Classic Diner Mystery
A Clueless Cooking Mystery
A Coffee House Mystery
A Consignment Shop Mystery
A Country Cooking School Mystery
A Crime of Fashion Mystery
A Cupcake Bakery Mystery
A Daring Finds Mystery
A Deadly Deli Mystery
A Farmer’s Market Mystery
A Flower Shop Mystery
A Glee Club Mystery
A Haunted Souvenir Shop Mystery
A Haunted Yarn Shop Mystery
A Honey Bee Mystery
A Magical Dress Making Mystery
A Mall Cop Mystery
A Missing Pieces Mystery
A Mystery by the Numbers
A Peach Pies and Alibis Mystery
A Piece of Cake Mystery
A PTA Mystery
A Renaissance Faire Mystery
A Soup Lovers Mystery
A Southern Sewing Circle Mystery
A Trash ‘n Treasures Mystery

A great website to visit is cozy-mysteries-unlimited.com.  It will give you a breakdown of titles by category and new release titles by month.

If you go to our library catalog, and in the “Search For” box type in the series name, then click on the blue box series, it should pull up all the titles we own in that series.

Have fun searching for your favorite series – and don’t forget, the above is just a sampling of the various subjects out there.  If you have a hobby or interest not listed, you might find it on the above mentioned website.

Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie series

/ Deborah R. / Leave a comment

Last summer I was on a hiking trip in Scotland with 3 friends, all avid readers,  all fans of Kate Atkinson’s private investigator Jackson Brodie and all totally shocked that I had never read any of her books.  Well, you can bet I rectified that situation as soon as I got home.  After the first few pages of Case Histories I was hooked.  Nominally these books (there are four) are crime novels set in England and Scotland featuring the “tender curmudgeon and solver of mysteries” Jackson Brody.  These are not traditional mysteries–they are stories that feature fully realized and interesting characters,  vivid settings and complicated, somewhat meandering (though always compelling) plots.  In Atkinson’s skilled hands multiple story lines coalesce into a seamless narrative.  She is a wonderful writer and her books offer both marvelous entertainment and insight into the human condition.  If you prefer fast-moving mysteries with a linear plot, these are probably not for you.  But if you enjoy well-written character-driven fiction, these may be just the ticket.   And lest you think I am the only one pushing these books, Oprah recommended the 4th in the series, Started Early Took My Dog in her blog Mysteries Every Thinking Woman Should Read.

I would strongly recommend reading this series in order.

  1. Case Histories
  2. One Good Turn
  3. When Will There Be Good News
  4. Started Early Took My Dog

As a bonus, the first two books in the series have been made into BBC series.  The library will be ordering Case Histories, currently the only one available in DVD. Some titles are available in downloadable versions and all are available in audiobooks in our collection or through interlibrary loan.

Please let me know if you enjoyed them!

Deborah Rutter