Our next reading list is up, starting with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night by Mark Haddon. It’s quick story and a great read — perfect during the busy holiday season. Thanks to everyone who submitted stories and talked about titles for an interesting list for the next year.

Serendipitously, our March 2019 author, Sophie Hannah, will also be the keynote speaker at the March 23 2091 Murder & Mayhem Chicago, a one-day conference geared to readers and librarians looking for new books and aspiring authors hoping to learn about craft and publishing careers. It’s only $50 for a ticket (or $60 for a ticket and tee-shirt) until December 31, after which the price increases. Student pricing available. It’s a great day for those who love the genre!

Happy Reading!

December 2018: 

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night by Mark Haddon -Time Paperback – May 18, 2004
“A bestselling modern classic—both poignant and funny—about a boy with autism who sets out to solve the murder of a neighbor’s dog and discovers unexpected truths about himself and the world.” Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

January 2019: The Perfect Nanny by Leila slimani’s

When Myriam, a mother and brilliant French-Moroccan lawyer, decides to return to work, she and her husband are forced to look for a caretaker for their two young children. They are thrilled to find Louise: the perfect nanny right from the start. Louise sings to the children, cleans the family’s beautiful apartment in Paris’s upscale tenth arrondissement, stays late whenever asked, and hosts enviable kiddie parties. But as the couple and the nanny become more dependent on each other, jealousy, resentment, and frustrations mount, shattering the idyllic tableau.

February 2019: Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott

A mesmerizing psychological thriller about how a secret can bind two friends together forever…or tear them apart.Kit Owens harbored only modest ambitions for herself when the mysterious Diane Fleming appeared in her high school chemistry class. But Diane’s academic brilliance lit a fire in Kit, and the two developed an unlikely friendship. Until Diane shared a secret that changed everything between them.

March 2019: The Mystery of Three Quarters: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries)

Hercule Poirot returns home after an agreeable luncheon to find an angry woman waiting to berate him outside his front door. Her name is Sylvia Rule, and she demands to know why Poirot has accused her of the murder of Barnabas Pandy, a man she has neither heard of nor ever met. She is furious to be so accused, and deeply shocked. Poirot is equally shocked, because he too has never heard of any Barnabas Pandy, and he certainly did not send the letter in question. He cannot convince Sylvia Rule of his innocence, however, and she marches away in a rage.

Poirot wonders how many more letters of this sort have been sent in his name. Who sent them, and why? More importantly, who is Barnabas Pandy, is he dead, and, if so, was he murdered? And can Poirot find out the answers without putting more lives in danger?

April 2019: Caged (Agent Sayer Altair #1) by Ellison Cooper

FBI neuroscientist Sayer Altair hunts for evil in the deepest recesses of the human mind. Still reeling from the death of her fiance, she wants nothing more than to focus on her research into the brains of serial killers.

May 2019: The Frangipani Tree Mystery isn’t your grandmother’s sedate English cozy whodunnit. That’s because Yu, best known for a modern-day Singapore-based mystery series featuring a restauranteur named Aunty Lee, has her eye on more than murder. You could say Yu is a woke Agatha Christie. She’s also a remarkable talent with a vivid sense of time, place, and character. She puts her skills to use to conjure a captivating Singapore where dramatically different cultures blend, unite and divide.

June 2019: Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found by Gilbert King

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller Devil in the Grove, the gripping true story of a small town with a big secret. In December 1957, the wife of a Florida citrus baron is raped in her home while her husband is away. She claims a “husky Negro” did it, and the sheriff, the infamous racist Willis McCall, does not hesitate to round up a herd of suspects.

July 2019: The Widows of Malabar Hill Sujata Massey (Soho Crime) Set in India in 1921, this outstanding series launch introduces Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s first female solicitor, whose efforts to assist three widows in an estate case enmeshes her in a murder investigation. Thoughtful characterizations, especially of the capable, fiercely independent lead, bode well for future installments

August 2019: The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead

Verticality, architectural and social, is the lofty idea at the heart of Colson Whitehead’s first novel that takes place in an unnamed high-rise city that combines 21st-century engineering feats with 19th-century pork-barrel politics. Elevators are the technological expression of the vertical ideal, and Lila Mae Watson, the city’s first black female elevator inspector, is its embattled token of upward mobility.

September 2019: The Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem,

Phoebe Siegler first meets Charles Heist in a shabby trailer in the desert outside of Los Angeles. She’s on a quest to find her friend’s missing daughter, Arabella, and hears that Heist is preternaturally good at finding people who don’t want to be found…

October 2019: Lies the Mushroom Pickers Told  Poso Wells

When journalist Patrick Bracken returns to Gohen, the Irish village where he was born, he knows the eyes of the townspeople are on him. He has come home to investigate two deaths that happened decades earlier when he was a child, deaths that were ruled accidental. But Patrick knows—and believes the whole town knows—they were murders. He knows because he and his best friend, Mikey Lamb, were witnesses.

November 2019: The Word Is Murder Anthony Horowitz (Harper)mIn bestseller Horowitz’s metafictional crime novel, Horowitz himself joins forces with Daniel Hawthorne, a former detective inspector, in trying to solve the case of a well-to-do woman who scheduled her own funeral just hours before she was murdered in her London home. The author nicely balances deduction and wit in this tour de force.

Is everyone making their (book) list and checking it twice? Good! We won’t be discussing a novel this month, instead we’ll be reviewing your suggestions to winnow them down to a half-dozen (or so) titles. Also, starting in March 2019, I won’t be able to host for awhile, so we’ll also talk about the direction we’d like to take the club. Join us! Don’t miss out on the chance to advocate for YOUR favorite reads.

In the meantime, here’s what I’ve received so far in (no particular order).

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night by Mark Haddon -Time Paperback – May 18, 2004
“A bestselling modern classic—both poignant and funny—about a boy with autism who sets out to solve the murder of a neighbor’s dog and discovers unexpected truths about himself and the world.” Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

The Frangipani Tree Mystery isn’t your grandmother’s sedate English cozy whodunnit. That’s because Yu, best known for a modern-day Singapore-based mystery series featuring a restauranteur named Aunty Lee, has her eye on more than murder. You could say Yu is a woke Agatha Christie. She’s also a remarkable talent with a vivid sense of time, place, and character. She puts her skills to use to conjure a captivating Singapore where dramatically different cultures blend, unite and divide.

The Word Is Murder Anthony Horowitz (Harper)mIn bestseller Horowitz’s metafictional crime novel, Horowitz himself joins forces with Daniel Hawthorne, a former detective inspector, in trying to solve the case of a well-to-do woman who scheduled her own funeral just hours before she was murdered in her London home. The author nicely balances deduction and wit in this tour de force.

The 8 Mansion Murders Takemaru Abiko, trans. from the Japanese by Ho-Ling Wong (Locked Room International) Insp. Kyozo Hayami, of the Tokyo Metropolitan PD, has to figure out how a construction company executive was killed by a crossbow bolt in the unusual figure eight–shaped house that he shared with his parents and two siblings. Abiko combines laugh-out-loud humor with an ingenious murder plot in this extremely clever impossible crime novel.

The Widows of Malabar Hill Sujata Massey (Soho Crime) Set in India in 1921, this outstanding series launch introduces Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s first female solicitor, whose efforts to assist three widows in an estate case enmeshes her in a murder investigation. Thoughtful characterizations, especially of the capable, fiercely independent lead, bode well for future installments

A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjce.  Set in Calcutta 1919 this is a historical crime novel.  I thought it would be interesting since it has much background info on Calcutta during that time period.

Murder in Mayfair by D.M. Quincy.  THis is the first of a series again a historical novel.  Atlas Catesby purchases a wife from a man who has her on the auction block.  Soon the husband is murdered and the lady in question is accused.  Atlas must find who actually killed the man.

The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey.  First in a series. Set in London, Alan Grant the inspector must find the killer of a man who was killed in a crowd waiting for the theatre.

The Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem,

Phoebe Siegler first meets Charles Heist in a shabby trailer in the desert outside of Los Angeles. She’s on a quest to find her friend’s missing daughter, Arabella, and hears that Heist is preternaturally good at finding people who don’t want to be found…

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

her best selling novel and described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. First, there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they’re unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. And only the dead are above suspicion.

The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead

Verticality, architectural and social, is the lofty idea at the heart of Colson Whitehead’s first novel that takes place in an unnamed high-rise city that combines 21st-century engineering feats with 19th-century pork-barrel politics. Elevators are the technological expression of the vertical ideal, and Lila Mae Watson, the city’s first black female elevator inspector, is its embattled token of upward mobility.

Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found by Gilbert King

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller Devil in the Grove, the gripping true story of a small town with a big secret. In December 1957, the wife of a Florida citrus baron is raped in her home while her husband is away. She claims a “husky Negro” did it, and the sheriff, the infamous racist Willis McCall, does not hesitate to round up a herd of suspects.

The Perfect Nanny by Leila slimani’s

When Myriam, a mother and brilliant French-Moroccan lawyer, decides to return to work, she and her husband are forced to look for a caretaker for their two young children. They are thrilled to find Louise: the perfect nanny right from the start. Louise sings to the children, cleans the family’s beautiful apartment in Paris’s upscale tenth arrondissement, stays late whenever asked, and hosts enviable kiddie parties. But as the couple and the nanny become more dependent on each other, jealousy, resentment, and frustrations mount, shattering the idyllic tableau.

Lies the Mushroom Pickers Told  Poso Wells

When journalist Patrick Bracken returns to Gohen, the Irish village where he was born, he knows the eyes of the townspeople are on him. He has come home to investigate two deaths that happened decades earlier when he was a child, deaths that were ruled accidental. But Patrick knows—and believes the whole town knows—they were murders. He knows because he and his best friend, Mikey Lamb, were witnesses.

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant…But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened…

Black Water Rising by Attica Locke

Writing in the tradition of Dennis Lehane and Greg Iles, Attica Locke, a powerful new voice in American fiction, delivers a brilliant debut thriller that readers will not soon forget. Jay Porter is hardly the lawyer he set out to be. His most promising client is a low-rent call girl and he runs his fledgling law practice out of a dingy strip mall. But he’s long since made peace with not living the American Dream and carefully tucked away his darkest sins: the guns, the FBI file, the trial that nearly destroyed him.

Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott

A mesmerizing psychological thriller about how a secret can bind two friends together forever…or tear them apart.Kit Owens harbored only modest ambitions for herself when the mysterious Diane Fleming appeared in her high school chemistry class. But Diane’s academic brilliance lit a fire in Kit, and the two developed an unlikely friendship. Until Diane shared a secret that changed everything between them.

Not a Sound by Heather Gudenkauf

When a tragic accident leaves nurse Amelia Winn deaf, she spirals into a depression that ultimately causes her to lose everything that matters–her job, her husband, David, and her stepdaughter, Nora. Now, two years later and with the help of her hearing dog, Stitch, she is finally getting back on her feet. But when she discovers the body of a fellow nurse in the dense bus ..

Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke A powerful thriller about the explosive intersection of love, race, and justice from a writer and producer of the Emmy winning Fox TV show Empire.

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others…but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.

Weeping Waters marks the beginning of a great new series with a striking new setting, a strong ensemble cast of characters and suspenseful storylines.

Inspector Albertus Beeslaar is a traumatized cop who has abandoned tough city policing and a broken relationship in Johannesburg for a backwater post on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. But his dream of rural peace is soon shattered by the repeated attacks of a brutally efficient crime syndicate, as he struggles to train and connect with rookie local cops, Ghaap and Pyl, who resent his brusqueness and his old-school ways.

Winner of the University of Johannesburg Debut Prize, ATKV Literature Prize, and twice winner of the M-Net Literature Awards “The Afrikaans Stieg Larsson.”—Rooi Rose (South Africa)

Caged (Agent Sayer Altair #1) by Ellison Cooper

FBI neuroscientist Sayer Altair hunts for evil in the deepest recesses of the human mind. Still reeling from the death of her fiance, she wants nothing more than to focus on her research into the brains of serial killers.

Thanks to everyone who came to talk about HER LAST DAY. Our next meeting is October 18th at 7 pm, when we’ll discuss HIMSELF by Jess Kid. Here’s the blurb:

Abandoned on the steps of an orphanage as an infant in 1950, Dublin charmer Mahony assumed all his life that his mother had simply given him up. But when he receives an anonymous note suggesting that foul play may have led to her disappearance, he sees only one option: to return to the rural Irish village where he was born and find out what really happened twenty-six years earlier. In HIMSELF, Jess Kidd delivers a black-humored mystery, a debut novel populated with colorful characters, a simmering blend of the natural and the supernatural, and in homage to her roots, a generous dose of quintessentially Irish humor.

Don’t forget to pull your suggestions together for our November 15 meeting when we’ll talk about our next book list! Looking for ideas? Check out Lori Rader-Day’s suggestions (linked below) for books ALL set in the Midwest.

Literary Tidbits 

Lori-Rader Day 

THE DAY I DIED, our July 2017 read (right?) won the Anthony Award for the Best Paperback Original in September 2018 at the World Crime Fiction convention known as Bouchercon (named for famed writer/editor/critic Anthony Boucher). Here’s a  nice piece by Lori about crime stories and the Midwest.

Sophie Hannah will be at (the fictional kind of) Murder & Mayhem in Chicago March 2018!  

I think I’d mentioned that Sophie Hannah had been authorized by the Agatha Christie estate to continue the Hercule Proirot. *Gasps!* Brave lady in any case. As it turns out, I just found out that Hannah is going to be the featured author at the Murder & Mayhem conference in March in Chicago. According to Lori Rader-Day:  “If you haven’t seen Sophie speak, you are in for a treat. She’s so funny!” Lori’s a hoot, so if she says she’s funny, she must be. 

Tana French

In French’s IN THE WOODS, we all wondered what happened to the vanished children. While this article doesn’t reveal what happened, she does say why what actually happened to a pair of vanished children remains a mystery — because she didn’t think her detective was equipped to face the truth! Here’s the full article, which has her insights into Red Herrings, which is interesting from a reader and writer perspective, I think.

I enjoyed discussing TRIPTYCH , and how Slaughter revealed the ethnicity of the characters over time. It got me thinking that I’d like to explore more, and that it’s time to start compiling suggestions for our next list! Jot notes now and send them to me anytime between now and November 15 when we’ll vote on our next book list. We’ll discuss the last title from our current selections on October 18; HIMSELF by Jess Kid.

In the meantime, I have exciting news for our September 20th meeting, where we’ll have a special guest from the Delray Beach Public Library! It’ll also be the weekend after I have a meet-up with a bunch of story nerds.  It’s always hard to see summer go, but so much to look forward to.

Until then…Here’s more about our September selection:

In this page-turner of a thriller by bestselling author T.R. Ragan, unlikely partners PI Jessie Cole and crime reporter Ben Morrison search for clues to a mystery buried in their own pasts—only to discover that sometimes the truth is better off buried.

 Next Month: October 18, 2018 Himself by Jess Kid

Whew! Whatever happened to the summer doldrums? Remember when that was a thing? No doldrums here but trying to keep up with family, writing, and READING while enjoying our lovely season. With that in mind, I’ll try holding August book club on my patio but if it’s too wet or buggy we can always head inside. Are you ready? Our August book selection is TRIPTYCH by Karin Slaughter. We’ve got two more books on our reading list (below), so lets start thinking about our next titles. Maybe some below will provide inspiration? In any case, happy reading, and I hope you enjoy these bookie tidbits below.

September 20, 2018: Her Last Day by T. R. Ragan

October 18, 2018: Himself by Jess Kid

Hercule Poirot is back! Sophie Hannah is continuing Agatha Christie’s famous detective series, and I hear that the first, MYSTERY OF THREE QUARTERS is great. This sounds like it could generate some fun discussion at an upcoming meeting.

Rita Mae Brown Releases Latest Mystery

I love the premise of Rita Mae’s newest, which might sound familiar to anyone whose listened to me talk about tying a contemporary mystery into local history. Brown said there’s a new book in her “Sister Jane” series that features the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and a “Sneaky Pie” mystery featuring the National Beagle Club, which is housed at a spectacular (and real) historic property in western Loudoun County. I’m a fangirl of Rita Mae for sure — check out the article to find out why (at least partially).

Local Literary Tidbits:

Terence Faherty’s novel “Play a Cold Hand” and Kristen Lepionka’s “The Last Place You Look” are nominees for Shamus Awards from the Private Eye Writers of America.

Lori Rader-Day – UNDER A DARK SKY (William Morrow) launched August 7, and she’s out on the road promoting it. Her website is packed with events, including a couple of events with Willian Kent Krueger below.

William Kent Krueger – DESOLATION MOUNTAIN (Atria) releases in August, too. From his website: In an early review, Publishers Weekly called it “haunting… Krueger skillfully combines the otherworldly setting of the Minnesota wilds with Native American lore to create a winning mystery with more than a few surprises.

Julia Buckley also is releasing A DARK & TWISTING PATH.

Her next novel (VIRTUAL SABOTAGE, coming Oct. 23) will be offered as an ARC in a drawing entered by e-mailing JGHyzy@gmail.com, putting “VS Giveaway” as the subject, and telling her your favorite story or stories (books, movies, TV shows, etc.) that feature an element of science fiction. Then sign up for her newsletter at http://bit.ly/2Me92tk and check your e-mail to see who won.

VIRTUAL SABOTAGE is not about the gadgets and gizmos that power its Science Fiction setting. Rather, it’s about the characters—some you’ll love, some you’ll hate—and how they interact with one another in a society addicted to virtual reality.

Good luck!

Summer reading anyone? Let’s start with what a New York Times reviewer called the most riveting thriller since GONE GIRL. “A. J. Finn is a bold new talent with the touch of a master.”

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOWS

Anna Fox lives alone—a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors.

Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble—and its shocking secrets are laid bare.

What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.

More literary tidbits:

A Spanish Author’s Guide to Spanish Fiction in Crime Reads promises that “Spanish Noir will be your new obsession.” (Good! I was just looking for a new obsession…)

“The global book business is doing better now than it has been for the past 50 years, and perhaps even since its inception, and that was some 500 years ago.” – Markus Dohle, Random House CEO.

That wouldn’t surprise anyone in our group now, would it? Click here for the full article if you’d like more insights from top publisher CEOs.

Chicago Area Lit Tidbits:

Need the perfect summer read? DEATH RIDES THE FERRY by Patricia Skalka, the latest in her Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery series.

Here’s a review by The New York Journal of Books: The author handles Dave’s combined crises deftly and calmly, making for a smooth yet page-turning read. This is book four of the Door County mystery series, and like Dave the author has gained her own confidence and competence. She brings the region alive for readers with a you-are-there verisimilitude that justifies the awards and accolades she has won for her fiction. Both Dave and the supporting characters in this series are a plausible mix of strong and weak, understandably and forgivably and admirably human.

Nice!

More May 2018 Book Launches by Chicago area authors:

“PI Woman lived in the world, not on its fringes.” Author Tracy Clark on growing up in Chicago during the golden age of feminist private detective series.” Click here for the full Crime Reads article. Tracy’s debut BROKEN PLACES launched from Kensington Press in May 2018

The latest in the Cabot series DEATH AT THE SELIG STUDIOS (by Chicago’s Allium Press) by Frances McNamara also launched recently.

Happy reading!