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Tag Archives: thriller
Your 2012 Just Desserts hiatus reading assignment: John D. Macdonald
During the Nov/Dec 2012 hiatus between meetings of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, we encourage regular attendees to continue to participate as a group…but in a virtual way. While we may not have an actual meeting scheduled during these two months, this blog is available to keep everyone active with their mystery reading and discussions.
Our “hiatus author” for 2012 is John D. McDonald, creator of the classic mystery/suspense series featuring Travis McGee. McGee isn’t a typical P.I. or detective, but instead calls himself a “salvage consultant”, specializing in recovering lost or missing items. His standard fee is 50% of the value of the item recovered. McGee lives aboard a large houseboat called “The Busted Flush”, which he won in a poker game, and which is now docked at Fort Lauderdale, Florida. McGee appears in 21 novels, starting with The Deep Blue Goodbye in 1964 and ending in The Lonely Silver Rain in 1984. The Lincoln City Libraries have all but one of the 21 Travis McGee novels (we are missing #9).
We encourage Just Desserts participants to read any book in the Travis McGee series (click this link to jump to the library catalog), at some point in November or December 2012, then come back here and leave a comment about whatever you read or watched, as a response to this discussion topic.
As a bit of background, here are some links to MacDonald and Travis McGee information:
- Travis McGee series entry on Wikipedia, including series order
- John D. MacDonald entry on Wikipedia
- The JDMHomepage – a comprehensive fan site about MacDonald
John D. MacDonald wrote much more than the Travis McGee series. In total, he wrote over 40 additional stand-alone novels, in both the mystery/thriller, general fiction and science fiction genres.
We look forward to seeing your comments here over the course of the next two months!
So…here’s your question: Which of the Travis McGee novels did you read, and what was your opinion?
Scott C. – Just Desserts coordinator and hos
Your 2011 Just Desserts hiatus reading assignment!
During the Nov/Dec 2011 hiatus between meetings of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, we encourage regular attendees to continue to participate as a group…but in a virtual way. While we may not have an actual meeting scheduled during these two months, this blog is available to keep everyone active with their mystery reading and discussions.
Our “hiatus author” for 2011 is Georges Simenon, creator of the legendary sleuth Inspector Maigret. We encourage Just Desserts participants to read any book in the Inspector Maigret series (or watch an episode of one of the Maigret TV or movie adaptations), at some point in November or December 2011, then come back here and leave a comment about whatever you read or watched, as a response to this discussion topic.
As a bit of background, here are some links to Simenon and Maigret information:
- Georges Simenon entry on Wikipedia
- Simenon’s Maigret — a detailed site about the series, with tons of links
In all, there have been 75 novels and 28 short stories written by Simenon that feature Maigret, and the Lincoln City Libraries still have over 45 of these.
We look forward to seeing your comments here over the course of the next two months!
Scott C. – Just Desserts coordinator and host
Lee Child’s “Worth Dying For”
During our March 2011 meeting, the Just Desserts mystery fiction group discussed Lee Child’s Reacher thriller, Worth Dying For, which was set in central Nebraska.
This book was discussed at the Just Desserts meeting on March 31st, 2011. Whether or not you attended the actual meeting, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions about this book (and series) in a reply comment to this blog post, below.
Join us next on April 28th, 2011, at South Branch Library (6:30 p.m.), as we discuss author Craig Johnson’s Cold Dish, the first in a popular new series that’s already seen six volumes released. Additional titles for upcoming months’ discussions have also been posted to the Book Groups page on the libraries’ BookGuide web site.
And, for additional reminders about upcoming Just Desserts meetings, don’t forget to sign up for the Just Desserts e-mail list. Or, 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!
What did you think of Worth Dying For?
The Works of Leslie Charteris
During the Nov/Dec 2009 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 Leslie Charteris (the creator of Simon Templar, “The Saint”, as well as many other novels) at some point in November or December 2009, then come back here and leave a comment about whichever Charteris book they read, as a comment post in response to this message.
As a bit of background, here are some links to Leslie Charteris information:
- The Official Leslie Charteris homepage (site www.lesliecharteris.com currently offline)
- Leslie Charteris entry at Wikipedia
- The Saintly Bible: A Guide to the Immortal Works of Leslie Charteris and the Saint Saga
We look forward to seeing your comments here over the course of the next two months!
Scott C. – Just Desserts coordinator