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.

B is for Balzo: Bean There, Done That by Sandra Balzo

A barista and coffee shop owner stars as our amateur sleuth in this cozy series (Bean There, Done That is the third). Maggy Thorsen is a forty-something newly single woman who left a PR job to open Uncommon Grounds in an upscale bedroom community (Brookhills) outside of Milwaukee. In this installment, Rachel Thorsen (the new “Mrs. Thorsen,” married to Maggy’s ex, Ted) asks for Maggy’s help proving that Ted was cheating on Rachel at the same time he was cheating on Maggy. Soon Rachel disappears and a solid puzzle of a plot keeps things moving along Kirkus said, in a starred review: “Balzo gives an old formula new life with crisp dialogue, complex characters and a puzzle that can’t be beat.” I like this character and the series,
Books in the series so far: Uncommon Grounds; Grounds for Murder; Bean There, Done That; Brewed, Crude and Tattooed, From the Grounds Up.
Recommend to fans of Jill Churchill, Mary Daheim, M.C. Beaton and maybe to some who like Evanovitch (but not if they say they like Evanovitch because she's wacky).
Another cozy author in the B's: Maggie Barbieri (academic setting, English prof)

2010: The year of reading alphabetically

I had this really great idea last summer to read my way through some of the mysteries that are on the shelf at the library where I work. I was going to read one author for each letter. I made a whole bunch of rules for myself, like: Had to be a book on the shelf, should be a book I might at some point recommend to a library reader, had to be an author I hadn't already read, I had to stretch myself a little, and blah blah blah. One a week. I figured I'd get through the alphabet by the end of the year.

Well, listen to this: I made it to D! Wow, right? Actually, the good news is that the little experiment was immensely helpful to me already as I regularly recommend my B and C and D authors (Rhys Bowen for her historical mysteries set in 1900s New York; Robert Crais for being almost as good as Michael Connelly and being in L.A.; Lindsay Davis for the two people in the universe who like historical mysteries but haven't already read all of hers) to voracious readers at our library. Gosh, that parenthetical phrase seems all twisted when I mentioned Lindsay Davis. Let me try again: When it comes to detectives sleuthing the mean streets of Rome (circa 70 A.D.), there's no beating Marcus Didius Falco, the unforgettable lead character in 19 of Davis's novels.

Back to 2010 A.D. ... and the reason I'm blogging again: I'm going to do it all over again. And this time it doesn't have to be one a week (because that little rule will have me looking for short books). There is no time limit. And I can read whatever I want, although it will be good to stretch a little bit. And just to prove I'm not a slacker, I'm starting all over again. That's right. I'm in the A's.

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.

Talk about Books: Four Big L’s

Laura Lippman and the Three Lisa’s – Lisa Gardner, Lisa Unger and Lisa Scottoline – are four mystery and suspense writers I depend on for page-turning stories with strong women characters.

In one month I read the newest titles from these four with a 75 percent success rate.
What the Dead Know by Lippman is her best stand-alone novel yet. (In fact, it deserves a separate blog entry. I’ll get right on that.) Hide by Lisa Gardner brings back D.D. Warren , a thinking woman’s kind of detective. Sliver of Truth, a follow up to Beautiful Lies, presents Ridley Jones, a magazine reporter still caught up in the mystery of her own identity.

But Daddy’s Girl? That’s the latest from Lisa Scottoline. I can’t believe I even read a book with that title (and check out that cover. Ug!). Natalie “Nat” Greco teaches law at Penn. She’s not exactly an inspired lecturer, and she offers even less when trying to save herself from being framed for a murder. Not only can I not believe I read a book with a title like this, I can’t believe I finished this one. Nat bumbles along – and not in an endearing way -- to the last page, making me wonder how she ever got a job at an Ivy League school, let alone as a main character in a Scottoline novel.