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Category Archives: Just Desserts

Join the discussion of Alex Michaelides’ “The Silent Patient”

The Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group held its February 2022 meeting on Zoom, last night (February 24th). Eleven attendees discussed the 2019 stand-alone suspense novel The Silent Patient by author Alex Michaelides. If you have read The Silent Patient, and would like to contribute your comments about it, please do so as a reply comment to this blog post, below.

For reminders about upcoming Just Desserts meetings and/or other announcements of interest to mystery fans, don’t forget to sign up for the Just Desserts e-mail list. Or, now that in-person meetings are possible again, if you’re logged into your account on Facebook, you can visit the Events page for the Lincoln City Libraries, and mark whether or not you plan to attend upcoming sessions of Just Desserts – this is a great way for you to help us promote this engaging discussion group!

So…What did you think of The Silent Patient? Have you also read Alex Michaelides’ follow-up novel from 2021, The Maidens?

In March, we return to in-person public meetings again, and we hope to see you at future gatherings of the Just Desserts group. Watch the libraries’ website and social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) for the latest updates! In the meantime, we hope Just Desserters will join us on March 31st, 2022, for a discussion of mystery series that have been continued by secondary authors after the original author passed away. For a list of many of those to choose from, see our Mystery Continuations page on BookGuide.

Reading Recommendations from Just Desserts members – January 2022

At the January 27th, 2022 meeting of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group on Zoom, following the discussion of the assigned topic of the month (the “Billy Boyle” WWII series by James R. Benn), we held our monthly Round Robin in which all thirteen online attendees were able to share recommendations of what other books they’ve been reading recently. Also included are the recommendations from one Just Desserts member who couldn’t attend the meeting but e-mail in their recent reads.

Here’s the list of mystery, thriller and suspense books recommended by Just Desserts members in January 2022:

And here were some non-mystery titles some group members also recommended in January 2022:

What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?

Join the discussion of the Billy Boyle series by James R. Benn

The Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group held its first meeting of 2022 on Zoom, on January 27th, 2022. Thirteen virtual attendees discussed the “Billy Boyle” mystery series, set during World War II, by James R. Benn. If you’ve read any of the 16 volumes (so far) in the Billy Boyle series, and would like to contribute your comments about it, please do so as a reply comment to this blog post, below. Group members were encourage to read any one or more volume in this 16-volume series — amongst the 13 participants, eight different books were selected!

For reminders about upcoming Just Desserts meetings (once they resume) and/or other announcements of interest to mystery fans, don’t forget to sign up for the Just Desserts e-mail list. Or, now that in-person meetings are possible again, if you’re logged into your account on Facebook, you can visit the Events page for the Lincoln City Libraries, and mark whether or not you plan to attend upcoming sessions of Just Desserts – this is a great way for you to help us promote this engaging discussion group!

So…What did you think of the “Billy Boyle” series? Have you read any of these, or others, by James R. Benn?

The following handout was prepared for the members of Just Desserts: The Billy Boyle series by James R. Benn.

We hope to see you at future gatherings of the Just Desserts group, whether in-person or on Zoom. Watch the libraries’ website and social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) for the latest updates! In the meantime, we hope Just Desserters will join us on February 24th, 2022, for a discussion of Alex Michaelides’ stand-alone thriller The Silent Patient.

What was your favorite Mystery/Suspense/Thriller read in 2021?

Hey, mystery fans and members of the libraries’ Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group…

We’re in the final week of 2021, and we’re curious — what was your favorite Mystery/Suspense/Thriller read in 2021?

It doesn’t have to have been a “new” release this year, it could just be an older comfort read. But what Mystery or Suspense or Thriller stood out the most for you among all the books you read (or listened to) this past year? Bonus points if it was one of our Just Desserts reading selections!

Leave a comment here, in response to this Just Desserts Blog post, with your favorite genre read in 2021…

Your 2021 Just Desserts hiatus reading suggestion: The formative mysteries of Wilkie Collins

During Just Desserts’ traditional end-of-year holiday hiatus in November and December 2019, we’re going to continue to remain active…but only in a virtual sense. During these two months, although we won’t be gathering for an in-person meeting, members are encouraged to read either one or both of Wilkie Collins’ two classic mystery novels, which helped set the tone of mystery fiction for decades after their release — The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868). You are encouraged to read either or both of older novels, then visit this very discussion post on the Just Desserts Blog and leave a comment in a response to that post, sharing your thoughts on whichever novel you sampled.

For those who are unfamiliar with Wilkie Collins, and these two novels, here’s some general background, and an overview of the novels:

From his Wikipedia entry: William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known for The Woman in White (1859), and for The Moonstone (1868), which has been posited as the first modern English detective novel. Born to the London painter William Collins and his wife, he moved with the family to Italy when he was twelve, living there and in France for two years and learning Italian and French. He worked initially as a tea merchant. After publishing Antonina, his first novel, in 1850, Collins met Charles Dickens, who became a friend and mentor. Some Collins work first appeared in Dickens’s journals Household Words and All the Year Round. They also collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins gained financial stability and an international following by the 1860s, but began to suffer from gout and became addicted to the opium he took for the pain, so that his health and writing quality declined in the 1870s and 1880s. Collins was critical of the institution of marriage: he split his time between widow Caroline Graves – living with her for most of his adult life, treating her daughter as his – and the younger Martha Rudd, by whom he had three children.

The Woman in White: This dramatic tale, inspired by an actual criminal case, is told through multiple narrators. Frederick Fairlie, a wealthy hypochondriac, hires virtuous Walter Hartright to tutor his beautiful niece and heiress, Laura, and her homely, courageous half sister, Marian Halcombe. Although Hartright and Laura fall in love, she honours her late father’s wish that she marry Sir Percival Glyde, a villain who plans to steal her inheritance. Glyde is assisted by sinister Count Fosco, a cultured, corpulent Italian who became the archetype of subsequent villains in crime novels. Their plot is threatened by Anne Catherick, a mysterious fugitive from a mental asylum who dresses in white, resembles Laura, and knows the secret of Glyde’s illegitimate birth. Through the perseverance of Hartright and Marian, Glyde and Fosco are defeated and killed, allowing Hartright to marry Laura.

(This description comes from the Encyclopedia Brittanica)

The Moonstone: Rachel Verinder, a young English woman, inherits a large Indian diamond on her eighteenth birthday. It is a legacy from her uncle, a corrupt British army officer who served in India. The diamond is of great religious significance and extremely valuable, and three Hindu priests have dedicated their lives to recovering it. The story incorporates elements of the legendary origins of the Hope Diamond (or perhaps the Orloff Diamond or the Koh-i-Noor diamond). Rachel’s eighteenth birthday is celebrated with a large party at which the guests include her cousin Franklin Blake. She wears the Moonstone on her dress that evening for all to see, including some Indian jugglers who have called at the house. Later that night the diamond is stolen from Rachel’s bedroom, and a period of turmoil, unhappiness, misunderstandings and ill luck ensues. Told by a series of narratives from some of the main characters, the complex plot traces the subsequent efforts to explain the theft, identify the thief, trace the stone and recover it. .

(This descriptions comes from the Wikipedia entry)

Catalog Links: The libraries own several editions of both of these novels, however they are also now in the public domain, and so many, many eBook versions proliferate throughout the electronic marketplace, at cheap rates or even as free editions.