Clara Maynard's blog

More Edgar Nominees!

Submitted by Clara Maynard on Tue, 02/23/2010 - 3:29pm

Last week we looked at the 2010 Edgar Allan Poe Award nominees for Best Novel. The category of Best First Novel looks interesting also. When you get a chance check out one of these titles to see which book you think will win!
• The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano

The Edgars

Submitted by Clara Maynard on Wed, 02/17/2010 - 4:11pm

The Mystery Writers of America will be announcing the winners of the 2010 Edgar Allan Poe Awards on April 29. Awards are listed for several categories, but I’m always most interested in the best novel.

White Sky, Black Ice

Submitted by Clara Maynard on Wed, 02/10/2010 - 4:44pm

eskimo icefishingeskimo sledIn White Sky, Black Ice, Alaskan state trooper Nathan Active is stationed in his birth village, Chukchi. However, he doesn’t fit in, since he was adopted at birth and raised by a white couple. The locals call him nalauqmiiyaak (almost white) since he knows almost nothing about the Eskimo culture. Still he is toughing it out, hoping to get stationed back in Anchorage where he was raised.

Deadly Housewives

Submitted by Clara Maynard on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 4:17pm

housewifeDeadly Housewives, a collection of short stories, features new works by Sara Paretsky, Nevada Barr, Marcia Muller, Carole Nelson Douglas, Nancy Pickard, S.J. Rozan and others. In each story, a housewife gets rid of a cheating husband, or another troublesome relative, in an imaginative way. I must warn you that the first story by Nevada Barr has a good bit of cursing in it. That’s what the title, GDMFSOB, stands for. But it was entertaining!

A Great Loss

Submitted by Clara Maynard on Thu, 01/28/2010 - 3:09pm

I just heard that J.D. Salinger has died at the age of 91. Reclusive, but influential, he left his mark on American letters. You might want to re-read The Catcher in The Rye in his honor. (Photo courtesy of Flickr)

New York Times obituary

JD Salinger

Wallander!

Submitted by Clara Maynard on Thu, 01/28/2010 - 12:59pm

PBS did an adaption of three of Mr. Mankell's novels, and I became interested in this mystery series as a result. In The Fifth Woman, Kurt Wallander is a troubled, workaholic Swedish police detective.

Bang, Bang, Bang!

Submitted by Clara Maynard on Tue, 01/26/2010 - 4:58pm

If you've been here in the past few days, you've noticed a lot of banging coming from the ceiling. We're having some repairs done on the roof, and we apologize for all the noise. However, it will be great when it's done and we don't have a leaky roof anymore! Thanks for your patience.

Sad News - RIP Robert B. Parker

Submitted by Clara Maynard on Thu, 01/21/2010 - 1:02pm

Robert B. ParkerAfter I finished writing about The Professional and the Spencer series, I heard news of Robert B. Parker's death. He passed away at the age of 77 after suffering a heart attack while sitting at his desk. He is survived by his wife of 50 years and 2 sons. So I guess I won't be reading any more Spencer novels. Might be nice to go back and re-read some of my favorites.

New York Times Obituary

The Professional

Submitted by Clara Maynard on Wed, 01/20/2010 - 8:18pm

robert b parkerRobert B. Parker has been writing the Spencer series for quite some time. In The Professional, four women are being blackmailed by a man named Gary Eisenhower. The four victims found each other and they approach Spencer about stopping Gary.  Spencer has to track down Gary, and then deal with him. Of course, there are some murders and some tough guys connected with the case, and ultimately, Spencer has to decide whether to follow the law or his heart.

The End of Sherlock Holmes

Submitted by Clara Maynard on Wed, 01/13/2010 - 5:30pm

sherlock holmesEven Sir Arthur Connan Doyle couldn’t kill him. But this is the end of my blogging about him, at least for now. Here are books by other authors that have taken the Sherlock Holmes story further.

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