--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: E5E00000 Date: 05/09/97 From: SUSAN BULLA Time: 07:37am \/To: ROBERT WHITE (Read 2 times) Subj: Current reads RW> I'll probably read 'Mary' when I come across it, as King is a good writer and RW> has convincing plots. But I won't be eagerly searching it out. RW> I like her Kate Martinelli series better. Me, too, but then again, I just prefer contemporary settings. RW> I started one a few years back and found it so hokey and the plot so poorly RW> thoughtout that I literally ended up throwing it into the corner. I can't even RW> remember the title, The Client RW> that are rife in Grisham's writing. It amazes me that critics, the media, and RW> Hollywood all fawn on Grisham's pap, when other writers like Scott Turow have RW> written much, much better tales in the same genre. Like I said, suspend belief, it's popcorn! * JABBER v1.2 * --- InterEcho 1.19 * Origin: * The Oasis BBS * Weatherford, TX * (817) 613-9002 * (1:130/716) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: E5E00001 Date: 05/10/97 From: PATRICK MEIKLE Time: 10:40am \/To: JAN WERTZ (Read 2 times) Subj: The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnit10:40:3805/10/97 JW> I have found an interesting anthology of Whodunnits spanning time from JW> the Ancient Greeks to the Victorian London of Sherlock Holmes. Not all JW> of the stories are riveting. but they are all fairly good. And they are JW> short, which, with my nutty schedule, helps. They include some Is the Header/slug line of this message the name of the book? that would be helpful in trying to find it locally... any publisher name? TIA (thanks in advance..) -pwm --- Maximus 3.01 * Origin: WRITERS' DEADLINE!! (613)833-1552 Rockland, ON. (1:163/504) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: E5E00002 Date: 05/09/97 From: JAN RUSSELL Time: 06:53am \/To: ALL (Read 2 times) Subj: good reads Finished "The Bone Collector" by Jeffrey Deaver last week. Reminded me of Thomas Harris in style. It's quite graphic, but has interesting, fallible characters. Just started Tami Hoag's "The Thin Dark Line". Seems like it will be a good one. Also, I like Steve Martini, Sue Grafton, and Sara Paretsky among many, many others. --- SLMAIL v4.5a (#4370) * Origin: Prince William ARC (1:265/140) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: E5F00000 Date: 05/11/97 From: POLLY FITT-JONES Time: 09:58am \/To: FRED RUNK (Read 1 times) Subj: Inspector Morse Hello there Fred.... FR> Some of the TV shows have been based on the books. I remember that FR> something about "Silent World" or something similar FR> did come from a novel by FR> Dexter. Most of those were telecast long ago, so It is "The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn" I have that to read next. We have been getting the re-runs for quite a long time now...so much so that I am re-runed out! But still, the re-runs are better than most of the other things on TV. FR> latest one, A WAY THROUGH FR> THE WOODS, is in production now. I'm looking I have just started "A Way Through the Woods". I am glad I will have it read before they put it on TV. The sun has finally come out here...and it really feels good to get out into the hammock with some ice tea and a good book! I live through all the rainey months by thinking how nice it will be when the sun finally comes out and I can put the hammock up! hope you are having a nice summer....Regards, Polly --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: Awakening - Lakewood WA (253)582-5579 HST16/V32b/VFC/V34 (1:138/102) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: E5F00001 Date: 05/11/97 From: POLLY FITT-JONES Time: 10:16am \/To: SUZZE TIERNAN (Read 1 times) Subj: Mysteries Hello Suzze.... SB> It was atypical ST> English cozy written by an SB> American! It won the SB> Agatha Award last year. What is a COZY? Are "The Cat Whos" cozy...like a murder mystery that you feel safe with vs one that scares you? It is hard for me to think of one that has scared me...I raised 4 teenagers by myself, nothing scares me any more. I wore out my scared back then. I would really enjoy a scarey book now and then. I would appreciate any recommendations. Regards.....Polly --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: Awakening - Lakewood WA (253)582-5579 HST16/V32b/VFC/V34 (1:138/102) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: E5H00000 Date: 05/11/97 From: JAN WERTZ Time: 12:21pm \/To: PATRICK MEIKLE (Read 2 times) Subj: The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnit12:21:3405/11/97 -> JW> I have found an interesting anthology of Whodunnits spanning time rom -> JW> the Ancient Greeks to the Victorian London of Sherlock Holmes. Not all -> JW> of the stories are riveting. but they are all fairly good. And they are -> JW> short, which, with my nutty schedule, helps. They include some -> Is the Header/slug line of this message the name of the book? that would e -> helpful in trying to find it locally... any publisher name? The name of the book is THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF HISTORICAL WHODUNNITS Edited by Mike Ashley Carroll and Graf Publishers Inc. 260 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10001 ISBN 0-7867-0024-6 Purchased at Walden Books --- Platinum Xpress/Win/Wildcat5! v2.0 * Origin: Mr Zip "Home of Aunt Gabby Echo" (1:123/17) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: E5I00000 Date: 05/11/97 From: IRV KOCH Time: 06:00pm \/To: PATRICK MEIKLE (Read 2 times) Subj: The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnit18:00:0805/11/97 PM> Is the Header/slug line of this message the name of the PM> book? that would be helpful in trying to find it PM> locally... any publisher name? There's a whole series of MAMMOTH BOOK OF.... I think it's Penguin and/or their numerous imprints. --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: Ice Fire 423-267-3789 (1:362/629) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: E5I00001 Date: 05/12/97 From: IRV KOCH Time: 05:09pm \/To: POLLY FITT-JONES (Read 2 times) Subj: Mysteries PF> PF> What is a COZY? Are "The Cat Whos" cozy...like a PF> murder mystery that you feel safe with vs one that PF> scares you? It is hard for me to think of one that has There's actually an official definition of this, for the "Agatha awards." I forget it all, but, basically, the characters have to know each other and it's at least somewhat "locale" and "flavor" based rather than it's greatest antithesis in mysteries, "the hardboiled," which depends more on action. At Southern Mystery Meet we're going to have two chunks of the Hospitality Suite: an endless supply of tea and crumpets for the cozies people ... and an endless supply of black jacks (Black Label Jack Daniels Whiskey mixed with tea) for the hardboiled fans. "Cat crimes" are, it seems to me, a separate sub-genre by themselves, though closer to cozies (along with dog mysteries) than novels set around horses. Those and "cullinary mysteries" (in which food and/or recepies, a la Tamar Myers) play a great part. --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: Ice Fire 423-267-3789 (1:362/629) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: E5J00000 Date: 05/11/97 From: JAN MURPHY Time: 04:37am \/To: PATRICK MEIKLE (Read 2 times) Subj: Re: The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodu04:37:3405/11/97 > JW> I have found an interesting anthology of Whodunnits > spanning time from > JW> the Ancient Greeks to the Victorian London of Sherlock > Holmes. Not all > JW> of the stories are riveting. but they are all fairly > good. And they are > JW> short, which, with my nutty schedule, helps. They > include some > > Is the Header/slug line of this message the name of the > book? that would be helpful in trying to find it locally... > any publisher name? There are two volumes now, _The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives_ and _The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunits_. Publisher is Carroll and Graf, if my memory serves. And the editor is Mike Ashley, not Ellis Peters as the previous poster stated. Peters wrote the introduction, thus the confusion. The books are trade paperback (the larger size, like a hardcover), and were released separately, but there was also a handsome boxed set of the two together. If you can't find it locally, send e-mail; we carry both (plus the boxed set) in the bookshop where I work. Hope this helps. --- Opus-CBCS 1.73a * Origin: Sci-Fido II, World's Oldest SF BBS, Berkeley, CA (1:161/84.0) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: E5K00000 Date: 05/13/97 From: ROBERT WHITE Time: 02:42pm \/To: ALL (Read 2 times) Subj: Recent reads I just finished another Dana Stabenow book, 'A Cold-Blooded Business'. It's another in her series with Kate Shugak. I really like the way Stabenow writes about Alaska, she conveys a lot of feel of the Last Frontier' in her books, and Shugak is a believable and interesting character. This book is set at Prudhoe Bay oil production base. I work in the oil industry, on drilling igs, so I've experienced most of what Stabenow writes about first hand. She is ead on with her descriptions of camp life, and workings around oil rigs and production sites. This is the first book that I have ever read that has otten the ambience even remotely right. Her description of a grader coming out of the ice fog and snow was right on the mark, she compared it to a scene in the movie 'Alien'. If her books have a weakness, it's that the puzzle part of he story is usually pretty thin; I can usually figure out the who-dun-it before I'm half way through. I'll gladly overlook that for the strength of her descriptive prose. A friend left me a John Grisham book, 'The Runaway Jury' when he was staying with me for a few days. He said for Grisham it wasn't too bad. I got about half way through it and got tired of all the incredible lapses of logic that Grisham seems to sprinkle throughout his books. The characters are still two- dimensional stereotypes, and although the writing is a lot better than in The Firm' it still is pretty lame. This one is getting chucked into the recycle pile to go to the UBS. I also finished a Robert Campbell mystery. His books are set in Chicago and feature Jimmy Flannery, an Irish city worker and Democratic Party ward boss. The little throwaway Irishcisms ('On my mother's grave' and such) gets a bit much at times, but the stories weave around in the immigrant neighborhoods of old Chicago and I find them generally pretty enjoyable reads. The one I just finished is 'Hip Deep in Alligators' and centers around the urban legend of pet alligators growing to full size in big city sewers. 'A Fatal Attachment' by Robert Barnard isn't as good as most of his books. It lacked the black humor and ironic twists that characterize his other books. But he does have a good eye and ear for the details of village life in England, and the story and characters are convincing to me. If you like Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, you'll probably like Barnard. I've just started the latest Jenny Cain mystery by Nancy Pickard, 'Twilight'. I'm not into it enough to really say much about it, but this is a series that I really like, and I thank Kevin Robinson for introducing me to it. My only complaint so far is the PB copy that I have is printed in very small type, about 8 point, and is somewhat taxing to read. At least for my 50 year-old eyes. Maybe Pickard has a kickback deal with optometrists or something :) Anyway I find it hard to read for more than about 10 or 15 minutes at a time. That's it for now, Bob 8-{) --- Blue Wave/Max v2.20 * Origin: TechTalk; Calgary, Alberta. V.34+ (1:134/40)