D Is for Dunning: Bookman's Wake by John Dunning

A former Denver cop who now runs a rare book store makes for an appealing amateur sleuth in the traditional Cliff Janeway mystery series. The big appeal for many fans I talk with is the knowledge readers gain about book collecting and values. Bookman’s Wake has many scenes in the Northwest (downtown Seattle; around North Bend). I think I knew enough about this series to recommend them without reading them, and now you do, too.

C Is for Cain: Mildred Pierce by James Cain

No murder, not even a crime; yet this mystery was filled with suspense and tension throughout. So glad I read this bit of L.A. noir because it wasn't what I expected. I had no problem getting Joan Crawford out of my head because the real Mildred Pierce (well, the fictional Mildred Pierce, but the one in the novel)  is much younger and complex than Crawford's onscreen character -- and the story is rawer. Still, this played out in my head in black and white. Plot: Mildred starts a chicken-and-waffle (!) restaurant that grows into a successful chain, but throughout the many stages of her business and life she remains at the mercy of her manipulative, demanding daughter Veda. You can find Veda on our library blog's list of evil scary children.

And speaking of chicken and waffles (we were talking about that, right?), I did not know that such places existed, nor had I ever used those two words in the same sentence. Ever.

A Is for Abbott: 'Collision' by Jeff Abbott

Starts strong with a blast of adrenaline. Ben and Emily are wrapping up their honeymoon in Hawaii; he slips into the shower, and Emily slips onto the kitchen floor -- shot. Dead. Fast forward a couple of years to a sniper scene in Austin and a hired assassin bumbles his assignment. Suddenly Ben and a former CIA agent are unlikely partners ... and the plot turns all kinds of crazy ways.
My friend David summarized it perfectly in his review for Booklist:
"The dialogue: smart, unobtrusive. The plot: packed, convoluted, head spinning. The everyman angle borrows from Abbot's hardcover debut, Panic (2005); neither book is memorable, but it hardly matters: if it is unbridled action you crave (or if you're just killing time till the next Lee Child comes out), Abbott's your man." (Reviewed by David Wright, Booklist, 5/1/2008)

My coworker Jeff said: "Quentin Tarantino meets Die Hard as the lives of two men literally collide" in his review for Library Journal. Snappy and memorable tagline.

I'm glad I tried this book and know more about Abbott, who also wrote a series in the 1990s starring a librarian/sleuth named Jordan Poteet (Promises of Home, Distant Blood).

Recommend to readers who like: James Patterson's stand-alone thrillers, David Baldacci, Stephen Cannell, James Grippando, and maybe to Lee Child fans.

Reading through the alphabet

Maybe if I say this out loud (or type it quietly) I'll have to actually follow through with something: I'm going to read a new author each week, for 26 weeks, right through the alphabet.

There are a few rules, and I'll make up more as I go along (and as I break the ones I already made):

1. Read consecutively through the alphabet, by last name.
2. Limit authors to the "Mystery" section of the library
3. I must select a book that is available at the library where I work.
4. It's best if the author has several titles.
5. It's okay to read bestsellers.
6. The author must be someone I haven't read.
7. I don't have to finish the book if I don't love it.
8. If I don't finish a book, I will have at least done the Joyce Sarricks' style of getting to know a book. (More about that later. Joyce Sarricks is a librarian, author, book reviewer and guru of good librarians.)
9. I do have to find good things to say about the book and/or author.
10. I will not be deterred from my alphabetical mission if someone should say something snarky, such as "What??? You haven't read THAT yet?"

Hmmm ... I'm going to work on those rules so they're a bit snappier.

Anyway, I'm doing this because I think I'm recommending the same mystery authors again and again to readers at my library. I feel only 38 percent confident when I recommend a book/author I don't know that much about; I always feel like I'm really talking out of my butt because I have no idea since I haven't actually read the book. My intent with this is to explore mysteries I might not usually read -- with the ultimate goal of being a better readers advisory librarian.

Oh, look at that! I just used library jargon. We talk about readers advisory a lot, and it's what we do all day (or at least most of the day) in the Fiction Department at my library. I kind of hate that I just dropped that term into a blog post. Let me rephrase: I want to do a better job of connecting people with books that they have a high likelihood of enjoying.