Two New (to me) Authors

Mary Roberts Rinehart is a name I've seen in other mystery books. Wanting to expand my repertoire, I checked Fantastic Fiction and learned that The Man in Lower Ten was her first mystery novel published in 1906.

Checking through C/W MARS, that title was only available as one of a set of 3, so I requested it.

I'm afraid my first impression was disappointment. The book, while newer than 1906, was still old and had been rebound in a less-than-appealing plain red cover. Because it had been rebound, the inner margins were minimal, making the book hard to keep open and I had to work to read the ends of the lines on the left-hand page and the beginnings of the lines on the right. And the print was small. I considered returning the book and forgetting about this excursion.

It is a testament to Mary Roberts Rinehart that I finished all three stories.

Her writing style reminds me of Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett and Arthur Conan Doyle. The stories are somewhat convoluted and not always easy to follow. But I found myself enjoying them.

Typical of her times, she tends to make sweeping generalizations such as this sentence from The Case of Jennie Brice written in 1913. "There was something big about her, something which is often found in large women, a lack of spite." While that's a nice thing to say about someone (in this case Jennie Brice), I'm not sure that all "large women" can be described that way. Another comment about another character was that if he left his light on at night he must be a murderer.

My preference, however, is to read contemporary mysteries and I recently read my first book by Louise Penny Kingdom of the Blind. It had just arrived at my local public library and was listed in the
Wednesday morning email Wowbrary.

This series takes place in the Canadian province of Quebec and features Chief Inspector Gamache. Like Donna Leon and Faye Kellerman, there is a lot of character development and description of family life. It makes the characters more real and gives me a real appreciation of a different culture.

Since this series started in 2005, I'm adding Louis Penny to my list of authors to read from the beginning.

Author J.D. Robb

I just finished reading my first book by J.D. Robb -  Brotherhood in Death. I think it will be my last. I didn't like it for a variety of reasons. However, being an OCD-ish type person, I did read the entire book.

The first thing I didn't like is that it's set in 2060 and for whatever reason, I'm just not that interested in futuristic literature. The second thing is that I couldn't see the purpose for setting the story in the future. It didn't add to the plot except that the detective could use a voice command to ask her computer to perform a search on a given set of criteria. She could also use a voice command to turn on the lights 10% or 25% or however bright she wanted them.

I also didn't like the writing style of the dialog. It seemed a little forced, as if it had to be different because this all takes place 44 years from now. For example, a computer is always referred to as  "comp", a witness is a "wit". All of the characters talk on what I can only assume is a cell phone with video (or "vid") capabilities called a 'link. The specifics of the 'link (or what it is an abbreviation for) are left to the imagination of the reader. When Lieutenant Eve Dallas of the NYPSD (the S is never defined, but according to Wikipedia is Security) gets caught in traffic, she goes "vertical" - but again, no details.

The story takes place in New York City sometime after the Urbans. The Urbans are never explained and even Wikipedia did not have any information about it or them. Admittedly, I only did a very quick search. Still I shouldn't have to hunt down details like that.

Eve is foul-mouthed. I regularly use expletives, but Eve goes way beyond my comfort zone. She's just not a person with whom I can identify, and I think that is something I look for in pleasure reading. I much prefer Kinsey Millhone, V.I. Warshawski, and the lawyers at Rosato and Associates. I live vicariously through them.

I've just begun a thriller: Find Her by Lisa Gardner. While pretty brutal (Brotherhood in Death was also pretty brutal), I'm already finding this book much more to my taste.

Who Are You Reading?

I've always been a reader.

Maybe it's because I'm a librarian. Maybe it's why I became a librarian.

Regardless, I read every night before going to sleep. It's the best way I know to separate the work and worries of the day from the relaxing and refreshing aspects of sleeping.

I'm a pretty eclectic reader, though I do love mysteries (in all their forms: hard boiled detective, police procedurals, cozies, legal thrillers, etc.) and I lean toward female authors. I also like biographies. I've read all four volumes of Robert Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson. I recently finished Lyle Leverich's biography of Tennessee Williams which ends with The Glass Menagerie becoming a hit on Broadway. I plan to read John Lahr's biography of Tennessee Williams, but I wanted to read them in order (being the OCD-ish person I am).

I've read a lot of Rita Mae Brown's book. I'm not that fond of the Mrs. Murphy mysteries (written with the assistance of her cat Squeaky Pie; they're pretty light), but I do like the foxhunting mysteries. Even better, are her non-mystery fiction works such as Alma Mater and Bingo. The latter book is a sequel to Six of One. Not knowing that, I read them out of order. I've know of her first book Rubyfruit Jungle for about as long as I can remember, though I never knew exactly what is was about. I was reminded of that book when I saw the play (and also the movie) Educating Rita. Rita (whose real name is Susan) is a hair dresser from a working class family who wants to become educated by taking classes at the local college after reading Rubyfruit Jungle. The book has made such an impact on her, she even changes her name.

Well, it's a little dated (a lot has changed in 40 years) and I'm not going to change my name, but I loved the book.

Now on to the stack of tomes sitting on the night table next to my bed. What will be next?