MRA MUSINGS Volume 21, Issue 6 July 2011 Mystery News
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MRA MUSINGS Volume 21, Issue 6 July 2011 Mystery News The winners of the 2011 Thriller Awards were announced at Thriller- Events fest, hosted by the International Thriller Writers organization. Next Meeting The winners are ... Best Novel: Bad Blood by John Sanford (Putnam) Wednesday August 10 at Best Paperback Original: The Cold Room by J. T. Ellison (Mira) 6:30 PM Best First Novel: Still Missing by Chevy Stevens (St. Martin's Upcoming Topics Press) August 10 * * * * * Reginald Hill Mysteries SOME ADULT TRUTHS sent to my by a friend (severely edited) 1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die. September 14 2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when First time authors in 2011 you realize you're wrong. 3. There is great need for a sarcasm font. 4. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet? October 12 5. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty Bad Ass Sidekicks sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood. 6. Bad decisions make good stories. November 9 7. I think the freezer deserves a light as well. Clerical Sleuths 8. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay. 9. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just December 14 nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word Holiday Potluck and ―Turkeys‖ they said? 10. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important. For more information contact * * * * * Karen at Detectives and Their Vices [email protected] 714-579-0234 1. Sherlock Holmes a. Liquor, women, chess 2. V. I. Warshawski b. Cigars, ugly trench coat or Kevin at [email protected] 3. Kinsey Milhone c. Chain-smoking, racetrack-betting 4. Harry Bosch d. Scotch 5. Hercule Poirot e. Cheroots and claret Inside this issue: 6. Nero Wolfe f. Womanizing--with his partner's wife 7. Inspector Morse g. Opium/cocaine Readers Reviews 2 8. Columbo h. Vanity, n'est-e pas? Ruth Checks In 3 9. James Bond i. Beautiful women, shaken martinis 10. Philip Marlowe j. Pints of ale New in 2011 4-7 11. Rumpole k. Cigarettes, insomnia 12. Lew Archer l. Agoraphobia, overeating ( answers elsewhere in the newsletter) Reginald Hill List 8 Mystery Reader’s Accomplishments Marcia B. Karen B Dams, Jeanne M.—WINTER OF DISCONTENT—4.0 Thompson, Larry D.—TRIAL—4.0 Delaney, Vicki—SCARE THE LIGHT AWWAY—3.0 Johnson, Craig—HELL IS EMPTY—4.95 Baron, AILEEN G> THE TORCH OF TANGIER—4.0 Mitzner, Adam—A CONFLICT OF INTER- Booth, Stephen—BLOOD ON THE TONGUE—5.Griffin, EST—4.75 W>E.B.—THE SHOOTERS—4.0 Scottoline, Lisa—SAVE ME—4.5 Flynn, Vince—Separation of Power—4.0 Corleone, Douglas—NIGHT ON FIRE—4.0 Emerson, Earl—DEVIANT BEHAVIOR—3.0 Fray;n—Rebecca—DECEPTIONS—2.5 Emerson, Earl—PRIMAL THREAT—2.0 Jackson, Lisa—DEVIOUS—3.5 Emerson, Earl—CAPE DISAPPAOINTMENT—5.0 Vorhaus, John— THE ALBURQUERQUE Emerson, Earl—THE SMOKE ROOM— 4..0 TURKEY—3.0 Charlotte, Hinger—DEADLY DESCENT— Daphane Canepa 4.75 Crombie, Deborah—KISSED A SAD GOODGYE—4.5 Battles, Brett—THE SILENCED 3.75 Preston, Douglas and Lincoln Child—DANCE OF Kerr, Philip—A QUIET FLAME—4.5 DEATH—3.0 Stanley, Kelle—CITY OF DRAGONS 3.5 Leviine, Laura—THIS PEN FOR HIRE—3.0 McKevett G. A. — BITTER SWEETS—3.5 Evanovich, Janet and Charlotte Hughes—FULL SCOOP—3.0 Something to Think Karen C. about See, Lisa—SHANGHAI GIRLS—4.5 Estleman, Loren—JITTERBUG—4.0 Booth, Stephen—BLOOD ON THE TONGUE—4.25 I'll never understand some of the things peo- Parker, Robert—DOUBLE PLAY—3.5 ple do with English. Here's an example from Dana Stabenow's A TAINT IN THE BLOOD, Kevin an example which puts in one sentence the Berry, Stephen—THE JEFFERSON KEY—4.0 entire puzzling thing: Harris, Rosemary—SLUGFEST - 2.0 Daheim, Mary—THE ALPINE VENGEANCE Hiland Mountain Correctional Facility Coben Harlan—Long LOST housed women convicts and male sex Clusser, Clive—SPARTEN GOLD offenders... Langdon, Jane—THIEF OF VENICE Why is it women convicts, but male sex of- Jan fenders? Why not female convicts? Why not Elkins, Aaron—LOST –3.0 men sex offenders? Marcia F. I noticed a long time ago that people never, McManus, Patrick F.—BLIGHT WAY—4.0 ever speak of men poets, or men writers, or Rotenberg, Robert—OLD CITY HALL—4.5 a man stock car driver, or a man pilot. And Black, Clara—MURDER IN THE MARAIS—3.0 they equally never speak of female poets, or Fluke, Joanne—WINTER OF DICONTENT—3.0 writers, or drivers, or pilots. Aird, Catherine—THE BODY POLITIC—2.5 Spencer Fleming, Julia—ONE WAS A SOLDIER—5.0 (from a posting on an internet board of mys- Havill Steve—PROLONGED EXPOSURE—4.75 tery fans.) Page 2 MRA MUSINGS The first book is, simply, BILLY BOYLE, and Ruth Checks In in it Billy is looking into the death of a Norwegian government official. He's also learning about the Hi, All, army, the war, his uncle, and lots about him- How late I am! Things sort of fell apart in late self. He solves the case, and also falls in love, and May: we went up to Massachusetts for Memorial Day in the second book, THE FIRST WAVE, he's in Al- weekend, had a nice visit, and on our way back home geria, where he has a mission to perform and is decided to stop in Tarrytown, NY, for lunch, because also searching for his love, who has been kid- there's a restaurant we like there. When we came napped. We learn about the Vichy, and about war- out of the restaurant, the transmission on our van time love affairs, and lots more. Then, in BLOOD would not work; we tried to nurse it homewards, but ALONE, Billy is in Sicily, where the Italian Mafia it would not go, and we ended spending an expensive are interacting with world events, and in EVIL FOR evening at Doubletree Inn (whose parking lot was as EVIL, he's in Ireland, where the IRA is being co- far as the van would take us), and an even more ex- opted by Germany to disrupt the English war ef- pensive aftermath. Had to leave the van there, at fort. In RAG AND BONE, he's back in London, AAMCO. who fixed it as expensively as possible de- where the black market flourishes. There's lots of spite our pleas that we were going to trade it in and history in these books, and Billy is an engaging and didn't want anything extensive (or expensive) done to complex hero; the writing is particularly good, with it. Had, as well, to rent a car to come back home, and great sense of place (lots of research) and sense keep it for eight days while AAMCO worked on the of history, and suspenseful plotting. Best to read van, and then of course take it back up there. Made these in order, and I'm waiting impatiently for A that trip in one day, but all in all, it was a pricey trip, MORTAL TERROR, which is due out in September. and it goes without saying that we are now going to Aaron Elkins and Jane Langton both write keep the van for another year, much to Chuck's dis- about Nazi looting, in Elkins' LOOT and Langton's appointment. THE THIEF OF VENICE, and Robert Barnard's And then I developed bursitis in one hip and am OUT OF THE BLACKOUT was very good, as I re- gimping around. Going for cortisone shot Monday, call. Pip Granger's NOT ALL TARTS ARE APPLES which I dread but look forward to. begins a nice wartime series, with vivid details of So I didn't get much reading done, and of what how things were in London during that period, and I did, not much was World War II. Looking at the list Ellis Peters' FALLEN INTO THE PIT looks at in your newsletter, I had read quite a few of the things from a different slant. I started reading books listed, though I have to confess, not many of Margit Liesche's LIPSTICK AND LIES, which is them stuck in my memory. Except James Benn's Billy about Jackie Cochran's Women's Air Service Pi- Boyle series, which I really, really admire. I've read lots, but really hated the heroine, even though I them all, as quickly as they came out, and even re- admire the WASP greatly. (I thought she took too viewed the first three on Amazon.com, from ARCs many liberties with the real thing.) that the author sent me. His affections have wan- Anyway, that's my report, probably too late, dered, though, and now I have to wait for the library but well-meant, as usual. I'll try to do better in editions. But that's okay. Probably everyone in the July--my group here won't be meeting, so I can group has read at least one of them, or at least I catch myself up, maybe.