mystery and crime

  • Keeping you in Suspense: Thrilling Tales for Autumn

    It seems like Summer was hardly here at all, but longer chillier Fall nights are waiting in the wings, and with them a fresh batch of chilling stories for the library’s Thrilling Tales: A Storytime for Grownups. Taking place in the Central Library’s Microsoft Auditorium on the first and thirdMonday each month from 12:05 –… Continue reading

  • A Sense of Fair Play

    I love mysteries, and am quick to defend them against snobs as being so much more than mere pastimes and puzzles. The style, introspection and character development in many crime novels easily rivals what one sees in mainstream fiction, and they often best historical fiction as a diverting way to explore another culture or era… Continue reading

  • My Bloody Lutefisk: The Scandinavian Mystery Boom

    What with so many Scandinavian crime writers getting translated lately, a trip down the mystery aisle has been getting more and more like a visit to IKEA. I mean seriously – you be the judge: SCANDINAVIAN CRIME WRITER, or IKEA FURNISHING? ALÄNG                              6. BOHOLMEN             FOSSUM                           7. KARLJOHAN BIRKELAND                     8. NESSER NESBØ                               9. KJELL KNUTAS                          10. HAGALUND 1.)  … Continue reading

  • Let me tell you a story

    In March of 2005, I sat down in front of a crowd in our auditorium and read them a story about a man planning to poison his wife. Six years later, our regular lunch hour program Thrilling Tales: A Storytime for Grownups is still going strong on the first and third Mondays of every month,… Continue reading

  • Too good to miss: Josephine Tey

    I recently discovered classic mystery author Josephine Tey. A patron and a colleague had told me about her years ago, and I filed the name away until Nancy Pearl mentioned Tey as well. And like many other readers in Seattle, when Nancy Pearl says something is good, you move that book or author to the front… Continue reading

  • Catnip for the technophobe: Learn to love e-books

    As a great fan of detective stories, I have learned over the years that the genre includes many forgotten gems, no longer in print or on library shelves.  Part of the pleasure of reading such books is discovery of new authors—the phrase ‘new to me’ describes the work of so many authors it is impossible… Continue reading

  • Looking for a mystery? Try one of the Edgar finalists

    To celebate the birthday of Edgar Allen Poe (born 202 years ago today!), the Mystery Writers of America just announced the finalists for the prestigious Edgar Awards for best mysteries published in 2010. A huge shout out to Seattle author Mary Jane Beaufrand, a finalist in the young adult category! The winners will be announced… Continue reading

  • Craving mystery

    Since the last book in The Spellman Files series has been written, released and read, I long to discover it again. Since I can’t, I gave myself a quest to find read-a-likes to pacify all those who got hooked on the life of Izzie Spellman and her crazy PI family. In Super in the City by Daphne Uviller, Zephyr… Continue reading

  • Future Fedoras: Detective Sci-Fi

    Hard boiled detectives aren’t only found in the pulps and can also be found on many a planet in the science fiction galaxy and fantasy universes. The uniform changes slightly between gumshoes, but the quick patter, ability to take a punch, and cynical streak of unbendable morality is consistent, even if it is in a galaxy far, far,… Continue reading

  • Noir Fiction

    Tomorrow night the Seattle Art Museum kicks off the 33rd annual festival of After Midnight: The Film Noir Cycle.  These shows sell out fast, but if you can’t get a seat or want to read some noir fiction, come to the Fiction Department at the Central Library and check out our display. Noir fiction: a novel or mystery which features… Continue reading

  • New Mystery, Suspense and Thrillers, and Horror

    2010 is a great year for mysteries! Several well-known and beloved mystery writers are publishing new series titles: Barbara Cleverly (Joe Sandilands), Frank Tallis (Max Liebermann), Donna Leon (Commissario Guido Brunetti), Jacqueline Winspear (Maisie Dobbs), Elizabeth George (Thomas Lynley) and Elizabeth Peters (Amelia Peabody), to name a few. If you haven’t yet discovered Alan Gordon’s 13th… Continue reading

  • Thrilling Tales for 2010.

    Entering its sixth year, the library’s Thrilling Tales: A Storytime for Grownups continues to thrill and delight. Last year’s season was our most popular yet, and this year we’ve got a great slate of tales, many from yesteryear. Thrilling Tales takes place in the Microsoft Auditorium on level one of the Central library, on alternating Mondays from 12:05 –… Continue reading

  • Catiline & Catiline & Catiline

    Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your imagination. You are a Senator in ancient Rome, sitting on the back bench as the Senate convenes on November 8, 63 BC. The great orator, the Consul Cicero, a self made man, has just noticed that his mortal enemy, the Senator Catilina (Catiline or Cataline in English), has entered… Continue reading

  • Historical mysteries with an Asian flair

    Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill One of my favorites features a delightfully quirky 70-plus year old Dr. Siri Paiboun, a coroner living in 1970s Laos. A French trained doctor and an ex-freedom fighter who fought to throw off colonialism, he is philosophically resigned as well as amused by the inept bureaucracy that’s become… Continue reading

  • When journalists turn to crime . . .

    The other day a journalism student came to the Library wanting to try a novel by Edna Buchanan, one of her favorite reporters, and we began talking about why some of our favorite mystery/thriller writers (e.g., Connelly and Buchanan, among others) earned their chops on the crime beat or as investigative journalists.  Of course there’s… Continue reading

  • Nightstand Reading: Amy Stewart on plant books, and planting books.

    Most authors who write about plants are only of interest to the green thumbed, but Amy Stewart’s books are for everyone. Her latest – Wicked Plants: The Weed that killed Lincoln’s mother, & other botanical attrocities – might even save your life, or your pets’. Amy will be appearing around the area next week, including an evening… Continue reading

  • A Perfect Match: Psychologist-detectives on the case

    There’s something about the endeavor of psychology that lends itself perfectly to crime fiction.  Psychologists seem to be able to plumb the depths of human emotion in a way that gives them unique crime-solving insights, to which the rest of us mere mortals can only aspire.  We want to know their secret.  Why else would… Continue reading

  • Book review: Ghouls Just Haunt to Have Fun

    In Ghouls Just Haunt to Have Fun by Victoria Laurie, ghost-hunting medium MJ Holliday signs on to film a reality TV series centered around her paranormal talent. When a murderer strikes at the hotel where MJ and her crew are staying (and where the TV show is set to be filmed), it quickly becomes apparent… Continue reading