For our first Just Desserts meeting of 2009 we discussed the contemporary author J.A. Jance’s crossover novel, Partner in Crime, in which two of her separate series characters ended up crossing over into each other’s reality — Sheriff Joanna Brady and investigator J.P. Beaumont.
This title was discussed at the Just Desserts meeting on January 29, 2009. We encourage you to share your own thoughts and opinions about this book in a reply comment to this blog post, below!
During the Nov/Dec 2008 hiatus between meetings of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, we encourage regular attendees to participate as a group in a virtual way. While we may not have an actual meeting scheduled during these two months, we want to use this blog to keep everyone active with their mystery reading and discussions.
We encourage Just Desserts participants to read a book by Erle Stanley Gardner (the creator of Perry Mason, as well as many other novels) at some point in November or December 2008, then come back here and leave a comment about whichever ESG book they read, as a comment post in response to this message.
As a bit of background, here are some links to Erle Stanley Gardner information:
We look forward to seeing your comments here over the course of the next two months!
Scott C. – Just Desserts coordinator
For our final meeting of 2008, we will be reading and discussing the Sherlock Holmes novel A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle! This novel was Doyle’s first Holmes tale, introducing the Great Detective for the first time and chronicling his first case with Dr. Watson at his side.
This title was discussed at the Just Desserts meeting on October 30, 2008. We encourage you to share your own thoughts and opinions about this book in a reply comment to this blog post, below!
Our last contemporary mystery author for 2008 was Kerry Greenwood, whose Death at Victoria Dock was our September reading selection. Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher has been the star of a long-running Australian mystery series, set in the 1920s, which has had only limited exposure here in the U.S.
“Driving home late one night, Phryne Fisher is surprised when someone shoots out her windscreen. When she alights she finds a pretty young man with an anarchist tattoo dying on the tarmac just outside the dock gates. He bleeds to death in her arms, and Phryne promises to find out who is responsible.”
This title was discussed at the Just Desserts meeting on September 25, 2008. We encourage you to share your own thoughts and opinions about this book in a reply comment to this blog post, below!
In August 2008, it was back to a classic mystery author, this time Rex Stout, and his gustatorial sleuth, Nero Wolfe. Our selected title was Champagne for One. “There’s nothing like murder to spoil a good meal. That’s what Archie Goodwin, the able assisstant to Nero Wolfe, discovers at a lavish dinner hosted by a billionaire. It was a casual evening among gorgeous society girls until champagne became a murder weapon. Luckily for Archie his boss knows champagne and other gourmet fare. He also happens to be a genius at deduction. That combination could mean the last call for a killer who spiked the bubbly with cyanide.”
This title was discussed at the Just Desserts meeting on August 28, 2008. We encourage you to share your own thoughts and opinions about this book in a reply comment to this blog post, below!