 |
Tag Archives: discussion group
The Works of Erle Stanley Gardner
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:
- The Official Erle Stanley Gardner homepage
- Erle Stanley Gardner entry at Wikipedia
- Erle Stanley Gardner bibliography
We look forward to seeing your comments here over the course of the next two months!
Scott C. – Just Desserts coordinator
Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Study in Scarlet”
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!
Kerry Greenwood’s “Death at Victoria Dock”
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!
Rex Stout’s “Champagne for One”
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!
Archer Mayor’s “St. Alban’s Fire”
From one of our group member’s suggestions, we turn to contemporary mystery novelist Archer Mayor for our July 2008 selection — St. Alban’s Fire. This is the 16th volume in the popular Joe Gunther series. “Winter is on the wane in northwestern Vermont. The moon hangs bright and cold in the silvery night sky over hundreds of square miles of a peaceful, dormant landscape of dairy farms. Young Bobby Cutts enters the family barn to tend to the beasts within…and encounters a nightmare. Suddenly surrounded by bolts of fire, Bobby and the entire herd perish in a stampeding, hellish circle of flames. Called to the scene to investigate, Joe Gunther instantly recognizes arson. But by whom? And for what possible reason? There is little insurance, the family is loving and tightly knit, and there are few neighborhood animosities. Yet murder this is, and Gunther quickly discovers that someone is wreaking havoc across the bucolic farmlands surrounding the town of St. Albans. Somewhere in the dense social fabric of the community, in the hearts and souls of Bobby’s family, and in the cutthroat farming business underneath the region’s placid exterior are the truths Joe Gunther and his team must ferret out. But what looked like a local case is about to take them from the barns of Vermont to the gritty streets of Newark, New Jersey. Before all is said and done, Joe Gunther will meet one of his deadliest opponents to date…and he will need far more than his skills as a policeman to protect the people closest to his heart.”
This title was discussed at the Just Desserts meeting on July 31, 2008. We encourage you to share your own thoughts and opinions about this book in a reply comment to this blog post, below!