Bear Pond Mystery Group

Well, it's been a while...

For the past few months, we've had a Mystery Book Group going at Bear Pond Books [my other place of semi-gainful employment] and it's been a load of fun: good books, good discussions, and stuff I wouldn't ordinarily have read. I think particularly of the very first Georges Simenon Maigret novel - A Man's Head, if you're wondering. Man, it was terrific: short, really powerful, and an interesting portrait of Paris in the 1930's. And it didn't feel even slightly dated despite being published in 1931. Yowza. We have a bunch of other Simenons here in the library - libraries are so good for that - & I'm looking forward to plowing through them.

We're doing one newish & one 'classic' book each month, by the way; our books for June are A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George & Edwin of the Iron Shoes by Marcia Muller. The Muller book - the first modern private eye novel featuring a woman, way predating Sue Grafton - is, sadly, out of print. Again, nice thing about libraries. Other books we've read recently are The Collaborator of Bethlehem by Rees & The Janissary Tree by Goodwin [newbies] and Whose Body? by Sayers & The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Christie. And raving about Christie [or Goodwin] can be a whole different post. Our next meeting is Monday, June 30 at 7:00p at Bear Pond. I'd take suggestions for books & authors, too. Feel free to throw 'em on, below.