May: Murder & Mayhem

Yes, my friends, it is that time of year. Are you ready for a little M & M? I know I am. This monthly theme is crime & mystery, so this encompasses a wide range of fiction. This is the perfect opportunity to knock out some series books. I know that is going to be one of my main objectives. I don't even want to know how many I have stacked in the wings.

I will come back with my list of titles...

Grab your fedora and your gat, and start drawing up a list.

I never did get to The Marco Effect which is #5 in the Dept Q. It's listed as one of my category challenge books so I will definitely get to this in May. I'll also try to bookhorn in Garnethill by Denise Mina. She is an author I have been wanting to try for some time now.

Also Listening Woman by Tony Hillerman

Yay! I have a few I'd like to get to in May:

A Plague on Both Your Houses by Susanna Gregory
A Rare Murder in Princeton by Ann Waldron
And Then You Dye by Monica Ferris
The Body in the Piazza by Katherine Hall Page

I couldn't wait and already finished two mysteries I was saving to read for M&M: The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths and The Harvest Man. *sigh* Now I don't know what to read instead.

>3 luvamystery65: I also have The Marco Effect on tap, Ro but would you be up for doing The Alphabet House first?

>5 Storeetllr: Get a hold of yourself, Mary. It is still April. LOL.

LOL I can't help myself, Mark! When it comes to reading, I'm driven.

Hoping to continue Jo Nesbo's Harry a Hole series, perfect timing!

I'm ready for some murder & mayhem! I am planning on the following books and may even try to squeeze in a few more if I can:

The Farm by Tom Rob Smith
Look To the Lady by Margery Allingham
First Frost by James Henry
Brighton Belle by Sara Sheridan

>6 msf59: Are you going to read both Alphabet House and The Marco Effect Mark?

>10 luvamystery65: I might try to bookhorn it in, at the end of the month. Would that work, Ro?

>10 luvamystery65: Yes that sounds good Mark because I definitely want to read Marco Effect first and then I'll try for Alphabet House if time permits.

I can read The Marco Effect first, Ro. Unfortunately, I won't be able to start it until the week of the 10th. I will be on vacation the first week in May and will be very limited on listening opportunities.

I am also planning on reading The Secret Place, which I've been putting off forever.

>13 msf59: I need to get back to that series Mark! Aack!

Where you at, on that series?

Mark, you are so fun! Trying to attract the ladies to the beefcake and the guys to the cheesecake! What won't you do!

For the moment I have just one murder and mayhem on my list of May, but I'll be open for more murder . Wings of Fire is waiting for me this month.

Perhaps, I join the M & M when I've finished the AAC/BAC May challenges. Is there a special rule or just crime, mysteries and thrillers?

I am tempted to get back to the Julia Spencer-Fleming series. It would mean more library books, however, when I am desperately trying to read books off my shelves. Oh well, those books have been there a long time. Another month won't hurt, right?

Whoopeee.. right up my alley. Especially this morning when I would have almost cheerfully committed murder if I thought I could get away with it cleanly. ;-)

I'll set aside Death of a Red Heroine, A Duty to the Dead and The Likeness for my May reads.

>16 vancouverdeb: Come on, Deb, you know I love my cheesecake.

>17 Ameise1: No rules, Barb, other than M & M. That covers a lot of ground. Grins...

I haven't figured out yet what is on the agenda for May, but I'm definitely ready for some "murder and mayhem."

I'll gladly join in for The Alphabet House! I'll also fit in a few classics, with some Sherlock Holmes stories from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and also a couple of Maigret novels by Georges Simenon, which I'm reading in publishing order; namely Maigret Goes Home #13 (which I've got in French audio from the library) and Maigret and the Flemish Shop #14. I'm also planning on listening to The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon this month. The subtitle makes me think it might fit into M&M, but you'd know better than me Mark, since you're among those who recommended it! :-)

Also tempted to join Judy with The Farm by Tom Rob Smith, and pick up The Likeness by Tana French too since I've got the complete series waiting in the audio tbr, but I've already planned quite a lot for May, so we'll see what I can fit in...

I just finished reading Hellhound on His Trail by Hampton Sides and at lunch today I started Listening Woman by Tony Hillerman. Hillerman's mysteries continue to surprise me. They are not dated even though this mystery was written back in the early 1980's. Good stuff. Then I plan on reading Gone Girl.

I'm in for m & m in May. Just last Friday I got two suitable books at a library book sale: Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen and Bad Boy Brawly Brown by Walter Mosley. I've wanted to try some Mosley; have no idea if this is representative or not, but it's the first one I got. Cherry hardcover for 35 cents. I've read three Hiaasen books, and all have involved m & m, so I don't expect anything different from Sick Puppy. That book was free.

I'd also like to use this as an excuse to finish James Ellroy's LA Quartet. I've read the first two books (The Black Dahlia and The Big Nowhere). Need to buy L.A. Confidential and White Jazz. Pretty sure I'll roar through them. Yeah, I've seen the movie!

Okay, Mark was right (>6 msf59:) in saying I shouldn't stress over what to read for May M&M because it's still April. I've got two on deck so far: Open and Shut by David Rosenfelt (reccied by coppers) and The Amazing Mr. Howard by Kenneth Harmon (my February Early Reviewer book that just arrived today). I'm sure there will be more.

I'll be listening to The Secret Speech which is the follow up book to Child 44.

>26 jolerie: Oooh... Child 44 is another one I've been really impatient to get to! Might have to add it to the list of possibilities.

Thanks for setting up the thread, Mark!

>24 weird_O: Sick Puppy is a good one!

>25 Storeetllr: Open and Shut - Yay! Good pick! Hope you like it! :)

I've already started Dennis Lehane's latest, World Gone By, but I may still be reading it on May 1. There's definitely murder and mayhem involved. I also have First Degree (the next book after Open and Shut) waiting on my kindle. And also the audio of The Dark Horse that I should be ready to start in a week or so.

I'm also reading my way through the Harry Hole books so will continue through May. Just started The Redeemer.

>24 weird_O: I've finished LA Quartet last year and I loved it so much.

I'll be reading definitely Only One Life by Sara Blædel (BTW a BB from Linda (Whispers1)) and A Season for the Dead by David Hewson which is the first book of the Nic Costa's series. I'm a huge fan of this serie but never read the first book. Therefore it's definitely time to do so.

If it counts, I plan to read A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James for this theme.

I won an Early Reviewers copy of The Finish: The Progress of a Murder Uncovered by Angela Elliott from the April 2015 batch! If it arrives during May, that will be another one of my M&M mysteries.

>33 Storeetllr: I won the same one :-)

>34 Ameise1: Nice! I hope it's as good as it looks!

>35 Storeetllr: I hope so, too.

#24 & 30

I read Black Dahlia years ago, and purchased L. A. Confidential but never got it read. As I recall Black Dahlia was very good. maybe it is time for me to get back to that series.

I got a good start on Listening Woman by Tony Hillerman and so far there is plenty of skulduggery and murder on the Navajo Res. I continue to be surprised by how timeless Hillerman's books are. From time-to-time I do notice that cell phones are not used, but then I think that cell phones probably wouldn't work in large areas of that part of the country anyway. They sure don't work very well in parts of Kansas and it is nowhere near as sparsely populated as is that area of New Mexico and Arizona.

Of course I'll participate in M&M.

My ever-expanding list will include:
--Lethal Letters by Ellery Adams--completed
--Slated for Death by Elizabeth J. Duncan--completed
--Ming Tea Murder by Laura Childs--completed
--Dead Rapunzel by Victoria Houston--completed
--Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham--completed
--A Bad Egg by Jessica Beck--completed
--Book Clubbed by Lorna Barrett--completed
--On Borrowed Time by Jenn McKinlay--reading

I am so in for Murder and Mayhem! Murder mysteries have been one of my favourite genres since I discovered Dame Agatha in my preteens. It's a good thing that May is a long month because I pulled the following books as possibilities for May:

Beneath these Stones by Ann Granger
A Burial at Sea by Charles Finch
The Last Queen of England by Steve Robinson
The Second Woman by Kenneth Cameron
The Whispering Gallery by Mark Sanderson
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton by Elizabeth Speller

And I have one more, another library hold that just came available, though this is a romantic mystery: Garden of Lies.

Jumping in at the last minute, I need to request the following from my ongoing series from the library:

Dr. Siri: Slash and Burn by Colin Cotterill
Eve Dallas: Holiday in Death by J. D. Robb
Flavia: I am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley
Three Pines: The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny
Lady Georgie: A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen

Finished The Bat just in time for the start of May M&M!

Well, I will only be minimally participating but I did just obtain a copy of Excursion to Tindari, so maybe I'll read that. And maybe Murder at Fenway Park. And maybe 78 Keys.

Lots of maybes.....

>43 EBT1002: I love baseball and I love mysteries so, not surprisingly, the Mickey Rawlings historical baseball series from Troy Soos is among my favorites.

I finished reading Listening Woman by Tony Hillerman. It took me four days to read this book. I can't believe how well a series that was started in 1973 wears. I am working on a year long project to read through this series from top to bottom and aside from an occasional thought about how a cell phone would have made things so much easier, these books have proved to be timeless. This particular book involves AIM radicals, Boy Scouts, and bombs on timers. That is certainly enough murder and mayhem for May and it sounds like it was written last year. It was first published in the 1980's.

I am now moving on to Heartstone by C. J. Sansom and Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall by Winston Graham. I think that the American Revolution qualifies as mayhem and I am determined to read this book before the new PBS version is broadcast in late June.

>43 EBT1002: I ordered Murder at Fenway Park from a used dealer on Amazon, and it should be arriving on Tuesday. It's one that I've long wanted to read so I think we can both plan to read that one! I loved Cincinnati Red Stalkings.

I'm 50 pages into Bad Boy Brawly Brown, and already there's been the required murder (unknown man clobbered with a meat tenderizer) and some mayhem (a police raid on a meeting of black activists). Decent start to M & M month.

I thought I'd mention here that Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, the first book in Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen series, has been adapted as a TV movie that will show on Hallmark Movie Channel tonight at 9 Eastern.

47> Love the Easy Rawlins mysteries! I'm reading the second in the Fearless series now.

The Savage Garden

This was an enjoyable historical fiction/mystery that takes place in Italy. I found the fact that the murder is not the primary theme to be intriguing. Definitely recommend for those who like both historical fiction and mysteries.

>48 cbl_tn: Hmmm - I may have to see if I can find Hallmark Channel now that they've moved all the channels around.

>51 thornton37814: It's on the Movie channel and not the regular Hallmark Channel.

>50 LoisB: I have The Savage Garden lined up for this month's reading so glad to see you enjoyed it!

>52 cbl_tn: I found it. There was an Aurora Teagarden on right before it.

Darn I missed the Joanna Fluke movie, but I did see a great episode of Foyle's War on PBS. Are they going to do more of the Fluke books as movies?

I watched a Father Brown mystery on PBS last night, one of the BBC productions--does that count? I still haven't made it to the library to pick up the Rhys Bowen mystery awaiting me there.

>55 benitastrnad: There will be a Christmas one - Plum Pudding Murder. They're also doing a Peter King Gourmet Detective movie, and they've already done an Aurora Teegarden movie. It premiered last month and they've already rerun it several times.

#57
I am going to have to start watching the listings closer. I like to watch this kind of thing while knitting. I am glad to see that people are beginning to mine the great material available in books for TV movies. This series is perfect for TV.

>48 cbl_tn: Unfortunately not available in Canada. That kind of feels like looking at the list of ER books and seeing not available in your country next to the most interesting looking ones.

My first book for M & M is A Burial at Sea by Charles Finch.

Just finished Phoenix Rising - a cross of Warehouse 13 and The Librarian with Robert Downey's Sherlock Holmes. Steampunk, with some fun characters, that doesn't take itself too seriously. Plus mechamen, a la The Dr!

I finished my first M & M book this month, Dennis Lehane's World Gone By, the third and final book in his Joe Coughlin series. There wasn't as much historical detail as in the first two, The Given Day and Live By Night, but there was definitely a lot of murder and mayhem!

Next up First Degree by David Rosenfelt.

I've finished The Redeemer and picked up the next one, #7 The Snowman. I intend to finish the Harry Hole series this year.

I've read my first two, one of which I didn't expect to be a fit! The Line: A Witching Savannah Novel definitely had murder and mayhem along with the paranormal bits. And the most recent Emma Lord mystery by Mary Daheim, The Alpine Zen definitely fits.

Finished my first, A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen, a fun cosy set in the 1930s in England.

Bad Boy Brawly Brown by Walter Mosley

This is the first book by Mosley that I've read, but it won't be the last. It's an Easy Rawlings novel, exactly in the middle of the series (according to the WhackiWiki), with six books before it and six after. In this one, it's 1964, and Rawlings is working as the maintenance supervisor of the Sojourner Truth Middle School, raising two adopted children, sharing his life with an airline stewardess, and still mourning the death of his life-long friend Raymond "Mouse" Alexander in the previous year.

The story is this: Rawlings is asked by a friend to locate Brawly Brown, the son of that friend's girlfriend. Brawly allegedly hates his mother. He lived with his father, then abruptly left his father and moved in with his mother's cousin, Isolda. Busted for shoplifting a radio, he's sent to a juvenile home. Released, Brawly goes back to his father. But then, Brawly's mother says, he and his father had a violent fight, and he's on his own, and possibly running with a bad crowd.

Rawlings's searching takes him first to the home of Brawly's aunt, which is the scene of a recent, bloody murder. No Isolda there. As police arrive at the front door, he escapes out the back. Shortly thereafter, he attends a meeting of an urban activist group—Brawly may be a member—that's raided by police. Again he escapes, but in doing so, meets the group's leadership (though not Brawly). Not long afterwards, he's approached at his home by a seedy-looking detective who has photos of him taken at the meeting, in the moments before the raid. The detective knows a great deal about Rawlings, and recruits him to spy on the group for the police. While he declines the offer, he does keep the detective's phone number. It comes in handy before long.

The search progresses, with Rawlings meeting more and more people, few of whom take him at his word that he's just looking for the son of a friend, with the goal of keeping the kid out of trouble.

And so it goes, with another murder, additional mayhem, and, of course, obligatory surprises. A fun read.

I picked this book for the challenge simply because I had it. At a very recent library book sale (Buy a bag of books for $5!), I put this book in my bag because I'd heard of Mosley, but had never read anything by him. Now I have. And I'll keep an eye for Mosley books in the future.

Notorious Nineteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel

A typical Stephanie Plum novel - a nice break from some of the other things that I have been reading!

>8 drneutron: >29 avatiakh: I just finished Nesbø's latest book Blood on Snow, and it was done in an afternoon. Being from Norway I should have kept up with the Harry Hole-series, but alas, I have not. How do you like it?

I am working on another Norwegian mystery writer, Skarlagenssalen by Helge Kåre Fauskanger, which is promising, and The Murder Stone by Louise Penny, book nr 4 in the Chief Inspector Gamache-series. I am really enjoying that one:) If you can say that reading about murders are enjoyable.

>66 weird_O: I only just discovered this series this year: kind of addictive I think I've now read six. Love the historical background of changing LA.

>68 Apolline: I'm enjoying the Harry Hole books, just started The Snowman. I probably need to have a little break after this one as it will be my 4th in just a few weeks but want to finish the series this year. My favourite series is Ian Rankin's Rebus but I'm up to date. I like Harry and the overall storyline is complex enough to keep me going.
Have you read any of Nesbo's children's books? Are they popular in Norway?

I've got Leif G.W. Persson's Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End lined up and then need to get back to reading NZ and Australian crime for a bit. I have quite a few on my tbr pile.

I LOVE all the M & M activity!

I did not expect The Round House to fit into this month's theme but it definitely qualifies.

On audio, I started The Marco Effect, (book 5). The Dept. Q series is one of my favorites and, if you have not tried it and are looking for something fresh, give this a try.

Has anyone ever read a mystery by Hank Phillippi Ryan? I note that, at Malice Domestic recently, for the second straight year, Ryan has beaten out my favorite, Louise Penny, for the Agatha for Best Novel.

However, I've never ready anything by her. It looks like she has two different series available.

I have read at least two of her books. She was a TV news reporter for many years in the Boston area when I lived there. She was a good reporter and I have enjoyed her books as well.

>73 LoisB: Glad to hear it. I might pick up the first one in her newer series, the one that seems to win all the awards.

#72

Hank Phillippi Ryan has won numerous awards for her mysteries. From what I read, the critics think her novels are getting better and better. She was at several ALA conferences promoting her books and when she first started appearing I thought she wrote cozies. Her later books, however, fall more into the thriller category. She has a great web site and blog, so you might check that out to see if you like her books.

I've said all that, and have to confess, that while I do have several of her books at home, I haven't read any of them. But she is in good company as I haven't read my stash by Linda Costello or Donna Leon either. Not mention none of the Department Q books, or the Dr. Siri, or finished Michael Dibdin's series either. Or the Daniel Silva or that last George Smiley novel. I could go on and on, but you get the picture.

>66 weird_O: Great review of Bad Boy Brawly Brown. I love Easy Rawlings, and I love Mosley, in general. His The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, which doesn't quite fit the M&M profile, was one of my Best of the Year books in whatever year I read it in. If you want a real treat, and haven't seen it, the movie made of Devil in a Blue Dress, starring Denzel Washington as Easy and Don Cheadle as Mouse, was terrific.

I've finished Shadows in the Street, one of Susan Hill's Simon Serrailler series. I'm listening to the audio of John Grisham's Sycamore Row, which will probably fit this challenge (one suicide already, and portents of mayhem).

I plan to read whatever Margaret Maron book is next for me in the Deborah Knott series, Rituals of the Season, I believe; possibly the second of Mosley's Leonid McGill series, Known to Evil. Both of these are on my shelves, and I need to up my ROOT total.

^I have not read Jo Nesbo in quite some time and I just snagged the audio of Blood on Snow, which is not only a shorty, (Yah!!) but has been getting good reviews.
The other, very interesting thing about it is: it is read by Patti Smith, the gifted songwriter:



^That could be very cool. I might try to bookhorn it in, for M & M.

I think I'll be reading The Calling by Inger Ash Wolf. I recently caught the movie version (Susan Sarandon!) and it is quite murder and mayhem-ey.

Karen O.

My first M&M book of the month was a good one…Broken Harbor by Tana French, No. 4. in the Dublin Murder Series. In this one a seasoned detective and his rookie partner must figure out who killed three members of a family in their locked house. And how did all those holes in the walls get there? I will also be reading Listening Woman by Tony Hillerman sometime in May.

I went back to a favourite series for my second M&M (I am afraid to count how many favourite series I have.) Beneath These Stones fit the bill for the Mitchell and Markby series.

Lots of murder & mayhem here!

So far, I finished up Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo, and the audio of The Rosewood Casket by Sharyn McCrumb. Currently reading Close Case by Alafair Burke, Claire Dewitt and the Bohemian Highway by Sara Gran (e-book), and listening to A Superior Death by Nevada Barr.

#72
I just got a new e-mail from Hank Phillippi Ryan and here are all of her url's. I met her and talked with her at an American Library Association conference where she was doing a reading for the Sisters in Crime stage.

http://hankphillippiryan.com/
https://www.facebook.com/HankPhillippiRyanAuthor
https://twitter.com/HankPRyan

The e-mail had the following to say:
First, I have to admit—for me, wonderful things are happening at an amazing pace.

TRUTH BE TOLD just won the coveted Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel! (http://hankphillippiryan.com/) So fantastic! And I am still floating.

But wait--there’s more! WRITES OF PASSAGE, the anthology I edited for Sisters in Crime, won the Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction! (It’s a truly lovely book of essays by 58 authors about their journeys as writers. I cry every time I read it—they are so honest and generous.) Amazing.

But wait—breaking news! TRUTH BE TOLD and WRITES OF PASSAGE are now both nominees for the Anthony Award! I am so thrilled and honored. They’ll be presented at Bouchercon--will I see you there?

And lest you think I am neglecting my TV reporter duties: my producer and I just won an Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting, and we are nominated for two EMMYs!

(So when someone asks me—did you have a nice weekend? I have a pretty great answer.)

And at home? Well, spring has come to Boston, after that crazy winter. Our tulips are up and the squirrels are eating them (any suggestions?), and our wild mallards, Flo and Eddy, have returned to our pool. They were a bit late, just like spring, but it is such fun to await their arrival—they’ve been showing up in our back yard for the past 15 years. How do they do it?

I am working on the next book (more to come soon about that), and doing the final edits of WHAT YOU SEE—the newest Jane and Jake adventure, coming October 20. (You know there’s always some sort of surveillance camera wherever we go—but what do you think happens to all that surveillance video? Who has it, who keeps it, who sees it, and what could they do with it? WHAT YOU SEE will have you wondering what parts of your life have been caught on camera—and who might be about to use it!)

So—happy spring! If you read TRUTH BE TOLD (and I hope you will) you’ll see it’s dedicated to “You Never Know Day.” And now you have the inside scoop.

>83 benitastrnad: Thanks for the info about Hank Phillippi Ryan. I'll have to look through these.

I've picked up the first book in this series and, hopefully, at some point soon, I'll actually read it.

I've just finished the nonfiction Missoula and need to take up a more calming cozy mystery next. Something not so infuriating. Maybe the new teashop mystery from Laura Childs.

#84
When I need that kind of book I get one of the Alexander McCall Smith books.

Well, seems like there's plenty of mayhem and probable murder too in my current listen: The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann, which was especially recommended to me by Jim. What a thrilling story! Who knew Percy Fawcett was the prototype for all the 'Lost Explorer in the Amazon' types we've come to know in books and movies since the 1920s? I certainly didn't until now. Quite a ride; and I've learned more about the methods of cooking humans for consumption by cannibals than I ever wished to find out about, but it's been a blast!

>84 lindapanzo: Yeah, I finished Missoula, too. I had wanted to go to Krakauer's talk in Missoula on Wednesday night, but didn't make it through the door. People had been lining up for hours to hear him.

I'm listening to Richard Ford's Canada. It's more literary fiction that M & M although there is a bank robbery, suicide, and a teaser murder to come.

Only One Life Read in German
My 1st M & M for this month.


Author-BB from Linda (Whispers1)

This was a gripping and fast-paced reading which takes place in Danmark. A young girl was found dead in the sea. Because she was from Jordanian ancestry everybody was thinking that this case had something to do with honour killing. Even though a Danish girl was found murdered a short time later the police didn't start to make another link between those two homicides. It was only in the very end when these cases were solved and the outcome was a real surprise.

I've finished up The Snowman by Jo Nesbo, my 4th Harry Hole in the past few weeks. The Leopard is waiting for me at the library but I'll take a break for a week or so.

The latest Montalbano, Game of Mirrors, is also waiting at the library for me.

I'm also reading a children's book, Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald which is a mystery around a painting. Described as the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler meets Chasing Vermeer and I couldn't resist.

The Fatal Flame by Lyndsay Faye is coming out Tuesday. I will purchase it from Murder by the Books on Tuesday and pick it up Thursday. I will push aside anything else I am reading to see what Timothy and Val are up to next. Faye signs on Saturday May 23rd!

I've finished my first M&M book, First Frost by James Henry. This was a fun trip down memory lane for me as this book is a prequel to the Frost series originally written by R.D. Wingfield. The new authors absolutely nailed the style and black humor of the original series.

Finished The Cold Dish by Craig , first in the Wdalt Longmire series.
Wonderful setting aound the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming.

#92
There is a group of us who are reading the Longmire and the Joe Leaphorn series by Tony Hillerman. We would be happy to have you join us. That group link is here. https://www.librarything.com/topic/189510

>93 benitastrnad:

thanks for the invitation. I popped over and starred that thread.
I'm ready for the 2nd Longmire! I loved the first one.

I finished my third M&M book yesterday, Ming Tea Murder, the latest in the cozy teashop series by Laura Childs.

Last night, I picked up a classic Albert Campion mystery from Margery Allingham and the 1930s, Look to the Lady.

I finished a couple earlier this month - Fatally Frosted be Jessica Beck and Spiced to Death by Peter King. I wanted to read at least one book from the series before watching the Hallmark Movies & Mystery movie based on it on Saturday evening.

>96 cbl_tn: The Peter King books are Hallmark movies?

I've joined Linda in the reading of Look To The Lady by Margery Allingham.

>98 DeltaQueen50: And I may join you, Judy, in the reading of Margery Allingham mysteries. I've read virtually all of the Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, and Ngaio Marsh. I need an old classic mystery author to read.

I believe that there are 19 full-length Albert Campion mysteries and I've read only 5 of them--1, 2, 4, 7, and 9.

>97 lindapanzo: The first one premieres this Saturday at 9 Eastern on the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries Channel. The actor is American so they've changed the Gourmet Detective's nationality, and they have given him a name.

>100 cbl_tn: Carrie, I read the first one, The Gourmet Detective years ago and thought it was ok. I was actually hoping that you'd say that the donut shop series would be on Hallmark.

I still haven't seen the Joanne Fluke movie on Hallmark. I think it had its debut recently, though I heard a lot of people were unhappy with the casting of Hannah, the cookie baker sleuth.

>101 lindapanzo: I like Alison Sweeney but she won't match any reader's mental image of Hannah.

Dr. Siri: Slash and Burn by Colin Cotterill
Eve Dallas: Holiday in Death by J. D. Robb
Flavia: I am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley
Three Pines: The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny
Lady Georgie: A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen

Just got notified the Eve Dallas book is available at the library!

I am nearly halfway done with The Secret Speech. I have dragged my feet on this one for eons, which is surprising, since I LOVED Child 44. Thanks to Valerie for the nudge.
This is another very dark and grim read. This guy needs to cheer up.

So I've finished The Snowman by Jo Nesbo, Game of Mirrors by Andrea Camilleri and a children's mystery Under the Egg. I've started The Leopard, another by Jo Nesbo which I'm reading at a slower pace at present while I tackle reading for other challenges.

I read the Peter Colley's play I'll Be Back Before Midnight! which is a thriller, with plenty of murder and mayhem. I confess I didn't particularly enjoy it and I doubt I'll be auditioning for this one....

On the other hand, I quite unexpectedly loved Estelle Ran's The Gauguin Connection. I will definitely be reading more in this series!

I read The Farm by Tom Rob Smith and loved it!

Finishing up The Shotgun Arcana and The Lies of Locke Lamora. Murder and mayhem all through both...

I finished my 2nd book for M & M



This was a gripping reading. I love Nic Costa's series very much but never read the first of this series earlier. This series is set in Rome and there is always a lot of historical facts but also lots of religion backgrounds. This story starts off at the Vatican but takes the assassin to different churches in Rome. The homicides are always arranged in the same way in front of an alatarpiece which show a martyr. There is also lots of corruption around the church but also the police. It takes Nic Costa a lot of twist and turns to solve the puzzle even though not to his perfect satisfaction.

Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen

... Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen certainly does create Mayhem, with a capital "m". In Sick Puppy, first published at the end of the last century, he touches off barely contained chaos that skips up and down both Florida coasts, from the Keys to Fort Lauderdale, to Gainesville, to Tallahassee, to…ah...Toad Island. Only three murders, and they are largely incidental. Two accidental deaths, surely Darwinian. Lots of characters: some whacky, some creepy, some loathsome, some clueless, but only a few genuinely lethal.

The main characters:

Palmer Stoat: Greedy, loathsome, totally amoral, largely clueless, a top-flight lobbyist with $$$ clients
Desirata Stoat: Young, attractive, wanna-be…maybe…free of her husband
Twilly Spree: Free-spirited, independently wealthy, good-guy eco-terroist
Boodle, a.k.a. McGuinn: Your typical black Lab
Robert Clapley: Former drug runner and dealer; current real estate developer (and lifelong Barbie fetishist)
Darian Lee Gash a.k.a. Mr. Gash: Clapley's hit man, a carry-over from his drug-dealing days
Dick Artemus: Salesman turned Toyota mega-dealer turned governor
Lisa June Peterson: The governor's very young, very smart, quite attractive administrative assistant
Clinton Tyree a.k.a. Skink: War hero, populist, former governor, resigned and disappeared…almost
Lt. Jim Tile: Veteran state trooper, Tyree's security chief, still tenuously in touch his old boss
Doyle Tyree: War hero, war victim, brother of the former governor
Kayla Gudonov and Tish Karpinski: Sex-bombs being surgically transformed into Clapley's Barbie Twins
Karl Krimmler: On-site project supervisor directing the bulldozing of Toad Island
Dr. Steven Brinkman: Biologist doing pre-development environmental inventory on Toad Island for Clapley
Willie Vasquez-Washington: Multi-racial state senator from Miami…a wrench in the works

To launch the plot: Clapley wants to transform sparsely populated Toad Island into Shearwater Resort. But he needs the state to rip out the existing but rickety one-lane wooden bridge and replace it with a modern multi-lane span. How to get the $28 million project approved? Pay Palmer Stoat, lobbyist extraordinaire, to pull some strings. But Stoat's littering ways have attracted the ire of Twilly Spree, who dumps a load of garbage into Mrs. Stoat's BMW convertible, funnels swarms of dung beetles into Stoat's Range Rover, invades Stoat's home and carefully arranges, on Stoat's desk, the glass eyes he plucks from trophy heads lining the walls. Ultimately, he kidnaps the Lab, and also, kinda sorta, Desie Stoat. His price for backing off: unfund the bridge project, which will end Clapley's awful development.

And that's just the beginning! It's mayhem all the way. Tremendously entertaining.

The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith 3 stars

Instinctively, I must have known, there was a pretty damn good reason, I was avoiding this book. I read Child 44, five long years ago. I absolutely loved that debut. This one...well, it begins okay, as we revisit former MGB officer, Leo Demidov, the hero of Child 44. It is 1956. Stalin is dead and Khrushchev is on the rise. He pledges reform but the horrific ghosts of the past, refuse to relent. Leo is drawn into hellish retribution, involving an uprising, putting his family in grave peril. The story, begins to bog down in grim tediousness, about halfway through and never recovers, like those avenging ghosts I recently mentioned.
My last crime novel, The Marco Effect was also bloated and repetitive, but at least it had humor and engaging characters. I will not be reading the third book, which is sad, because I was crazy about his recent stand-alone, The Farm.

**I do review many of my crime, mystery reads, but thought I would share this one.

Someone gave me a copy of Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen, and I've never read him before. I may knock it out this month, and see what I think of him. I just finished No. 11 in Margaret Maron's Judge Deborah Knott series, Rituals of the Season. It was good escapism; I love Deborah and her extended family; this one leads up to her wedding (that's not the M & M part!). I'm currently listening to the audio of Sycamore Row, by John Grisham. It starts with a suicide by hanging...I think the mayhem will come in the form of a courtroom battle over the man's will. There may be as many as 12 lawyers involved---can't get much more mayhem-my than that!

>111 msf59: I felt the same about The Secret Speech and haven't picked up the third book. Thanks for making me aware that The Farm is a stand alone read, I'll add that to my to read list.

I've found my latest Jo Nesbo read too compelling once again to put down, so all my other reading has been pushed aside while I finished it. Now I'm down to the last two books in the Harry Hole series, can I finish a library book or two, or will Phantom take over my reading for the next few days?

As usual my list of possibilities for M&M exceeds the amount of reading time available. My original list of possibilities was:

Beneath these Stones by Ann Granger
A Burial at Sea by Charles Finch
The Last Queen of England by Steve Robinson
The Second Woman by Kenneth Cameron
The Whispering Gallery by Mark Sanderson
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton by Elizabeth Speller

I am very surprised to see that I am reading the list in order (how did that happen?), have read the first three and I am working on the fourth.

The Last Queen of England is a very fast paced genealogical murder mystery. How come my research is never that interesting? On second thoughts, probably not a good thing to have that many bodies piling up while on the research trail.

I've finished three so far this month:
Fatally Frosted by Jessica Beck (2.5)
Spiced to Death by Peter King (3.5)
A Plague on Both Your Houses by Susanna Gregory (4)

>112 laytonwoman3rd: I'd be surprised if you don't like Hiaasen, Linda. Sick Puppy (see 110 above) is the fourth Hiaasen novel I've read, and I just bought a fifth at a library sale last week.

I'm nearing completion of another. I've just not had much time to read the past week.

Now reading Dreaming Spies by Laurie King. I'm addicted to these Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes novels!

So far this month:

Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo, Norwegian cop Harry Hole is sent to Thailand to investigate the murder of an ambassador. Four stars.
A Superior Death by Nevada Barr. Murder & Mayhem in Isle Royale National Park on Lake Superior. Lots of atmosphere, one big coincidence in the solution that made me shake my head.
Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway by Sara Gran. The quirkiness of the initial volume in the series magnified to actual weirdness in this one, as she investigates the death of a former lover, a musician. I didn't care for this one.
Close Case by Alafair Burke. Well-written, well-plotted legal thriller: very timely despite being ten years old, with the police shooting of an unarmed African-American woman and subsequent demonstrations as part of the plot.

I also read The Rosewood Casket by Sharyn McCrumb, which really doesn't seem to fit the M&M category until near the end of the book. Very good read!

I am currently reading Stephan Talty's Hangman, second and latest in the Absalom Kearney series set in Buffalo. So far, it's hard to put down!

I finished my fourth M&M book for the month, the classic British mystery suggested by Judy, Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham, which is the third Albert Campion series.

I've read a few of these, but in no particular order, and would like to carry on with them.

I'd hoped to read 8 M&Ms this month. There's still time...

I have also finished Look To the Lady, which I really enjoyed and have now started The Farm.

I finished listening to Orchid Affair by Lauren Willig. There was no murder but plenty of mayhem! This series continues to delight me and makes me glad that I read all those Regency Romance novels all those years ago as that knowledge makes this current series so much fun to read. Now I am starting on Gone Girl.

>116 weird_O: You are right...I'm reading Skin Tight, and it's a real hoot.

At lunch, I started Victoria Houston's Dead Rapunzel, which is the 15th, and newest, in her Loon Lake fishing series.

I am starting The Secret Place, FINALLY!! How long has this book been out? My last 2 M & M books have been underwhelming, so I hope Ms. French puts me right back on track. This is a big book but I hope to bookhorn in one more murderous book before the end of the month.

>125 msf59: It's a big book, but it's a fast read, Mark. Hope you enjoy it.

I finished a reread of Charlotte MacLeod's comic murder mystery An Owl Too Many. Her Peter Shandy books are always fun.

Hangman by Stephan Talty

Second book in Absalom Kearney series

Oh, boy, this book kept me up late, and kept me reading on my day off when I should have been housecleaning, getting ready for a visit from my in-laws! This second-in-series book, set in Buffalo, was a good thriller. The escape of the dreaded "Hangman" killer during transfer between Auburn and Attica State prisons sets off a full-scale manhunt involving police from Buffalo to Syracuse. But he manages to slip through the dragnet and return to his old killing grounds in North Buffalo, where Absalom "Abby" Kearney, second-generation Buffalo homicide detective, is assigned as lead detective when he strikes again. His target vicitms: teenage girls from the wealthy North Buffalo neighborhood.

This book was really suspenseful, and the end contained a stunning twist I didn't see coming.

>128 tymfos: Sounds good! I put it on my Wish List! (BTW, the touchstone goes to a book by Faye Kellerman. Here's the link to the correct book. https://www.librarything.com/work/14636000/book/118562537)

>129 Storeetllr: Thanks, I fixed it on my post. I forgot, copying from the "edit post" screen from the post on my thread, the "fixing" of the touchstone doesn't always carry over. It is the second book in the series. The first was Black Irish. The second book I just read contains spoilers for the first one.

Last night I read The Mincing Mockingbird Guide to Troubled Birds by Matt Adrian, right out of the package, before supper, and I laughed myself foolish. Nevertheless, it's perfect for murder and mayhem, especially if watching The Birds gives you the heebie jeebies. It's a collection of one-page imaginings of conversations with, or monologues by, psycho birds, faced with lovely captioned illustrations like this one:



And in the text, among other things, we find out what happened when the chickens discovered what the farmers really do with their eggs..."The offer I make is this: give us back the uneaten eggs, and we'll let the woman and the children live. We'll give you five minutes. Just say your fare-thee-wells and tell the woman we expect to continue to be fed and watered, and we will raise our young in peace. Refuse this offer, and all manner of beaked and flapping hell will come through glass and wood until by dawn the farm will be ours..."

>130 tymfos: Yes, I've gotten caught by that little idiosyncrasy of LTs too on occasion.

>131 laytonwoman3rd: And hit by yet another bb! Love it!

>132 Storeetllr: And apparently, there's a Volume 2, as well as a calendar, and postcards....and I'm going to try to work "all manner of beaked and flapping hell" into my conversation as often as possible!

>133 laytonwoman3rd: LOL I live with all manner of beaked and flapping hell, not to mention food-and-poop-and-dust-and-feathers-all-over-the-place hell. It's just great!

Here's Nickel aka Destructo-Bird:



It isn't of Nickel, but I love this image anyway:

>134 Storeetllr: Haven't I seen that picture of Nickel before?

>135 laytonwoman3rd: Probably. I have a more recent one of her destroying a egg carton inside her cage, but I couldn't find it.

>134 Storeetllr: Nickel looks sleek and sassy, Mary!

I just finished The Farm by Tom Rob Smith, and our resident warbler, Mark, was right - once I started it I couldn't put it down, I needed to find out the truth!

>134 Storeetllr: There's an excellent entry by a parrot in The Guide to Troubled Birds (just in case you haven't already committed yourself and need another little push...)

I finished The Fatal Flame last night. I absolutely loved it. I'm crying because it is a trilogy but I want more of Timothy Wilde. This is the rare time I hope the author changes her mind down the road and revisits him.

>138 laytonwoman3rd: I'm committed! (Some might say I should have been committed long ago.) :) It actually looks like a book I need to buy rather than just borrow from the library. Next time I'm in a bookstore, I'll be searching it out.

>139 luvamystery65: I've got Gods of Gotham on my wishlist, Roberta. Not sure why I haven't already searched it out and read it. From what you've just said, I will be doing it sooner rather than later.

>131 laytonwoman3rd: Just catching up with the threads and saved this one for last. Now I begin to understand the comments on lycomayflower's thread, particularly with the photos >134 Storeetllr:!

>141 Familyhistorian: Then, I guess you didn't visit my thread lately, where I posted some more pictures from Guide to Troubled Birds. I'm afraid I'm behind on yours, too, though, so I can't really complain!

>142 laytonwoman3rd: Yes, I am caught up on your thread, Linda, and had seen the birds you posted but that was probably yesterday so didn't put everything together until I saw the posts on here.

I was following the list of books that I intended to read much too closely - not like me at all. So I pulled a few more mysteries off the shelf. So I read the follow M&M books:
Famous Players: The Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor by Rick Geary
Concealed in Death by J.D. Robb
The Bughouse Affair by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini

The third book for M&M I finished a couple of days ago:
The Crossing Places Read in German



This was a real page-turner and a very gripping reading. It is set in Norfolk near King's Lynn. Two young girls went missing ten years apart. DCI Harry Nelson from the Norfolk Police is looking into these cases and got help from the archaeologist Ruth Galloway because some bones were found in the salt moor land. Ten years ealier there were some achaeological diggings due to a henge. Ruth is helping Harry to solve the puzzle. During the search both were caught up with their past and Ruth didn't know whom she could trust and who was the real evil one.

This is the first book of Ruth Galloway's series and I'll read all the others, too.

It looks like M & M is just bubbling along. Never a shortage of these on shelf...

I am continuing The Secret Place. This is another methodical police procedural and French takes her time, but there always seems to be a nearly hypnotic flow to her narrative.

So far this month, I've read:

Chickahominy Fever by Ann McMillan
Night Train by Martin Amis
Murder on Lexington Avenue by Victoria Thompson
Death in Salem by Eleanor Kuhns

I should complete at least one or two others that fit the category by the end of the month.

I finished The Marco Effect and it was much better than book 4 of Department Q. I agree with you Mark that it really could have used some serious editing down. Still, the characters are what salvages this series for me.

my fourth book of the M & M

The Finish by Angela Elliott

This is a lovely cosy mistery which takes place in the middle of the 18th century in Covent Garden. Tha main character is a whore who finds herself in the middle of a homicide. Since she can't trust anybody she tries to solve the puzzle on her own which looks like not being an easy task. She stumbles upon a lot of shady men and is suspecting mostly the wrong person. Luckily, there are also people she can trust and they try to keep her out of harm.

Finished The Fatal Flame by Lyndsay Faye and absolutely loved the way she ended this trilogy.

Just started Obsession in Death, No. 41 (I think) of the Eve Dallas mystery series. So far: murder=check; mayhem=check; fun factor=check. I really love this series!

Murder and Mayhem in abundance in Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen, all in a context of satire, parody, lunacy and farce. A real hoot.

>149 Ameise1: The Finish sounds like a good one, Barbara. On to with ever growing wish list it goes.

I finished Listening Woman by Tony Hillerman, another good offering in his Navajo Tribal Police series set in New Mexico and Arizona. Good stuff! And, it looks like The Farm has secured a firm place on my wish list. I had been undecided until I heard some warbling about it upthread. Thanks, guys!

It's been a great month for mysteries. I finished my sixth one, Lethal Letters by Ellery Adams and started my seventh mystery, A Bad Egg by Jessica Beck.

#154
I agree about Listening Woman. In fact I have been impressed with all of the Tony Hillerman mysteries. I thought they would be dated since they are 30 years old, but they aren't. I guess a good mystery is a good mystery no matter when it was written. Like Agatha Christie.

So far this month I've read 4 Harry Hole books and have just started the last one in the series, Police. I'm enjoying these and also happy to be finally finishing one of the many series I have on the go.
I have the Berlin Noir omnibus of the first 3 Bernie Gunther books on hand which I might start with next. I've read one Bernie Gunther book, A Quiet Flame, and thought it might be good to go back to the beginning. I also have a Leif G.W. Persson book lined up.

Just finished Gathering Prey by John Sandford, the newest Lucas Davenport novel. Talk about murder and mayhem—in it, Lucas chases after a Manson-ish cult leader. It was nonstop, edge-of-your-seat action. I could barely put it down.

Just started my 8th M and M book for the month, a library-themed cozy, On Borrowed Time by Jenn McKinlay. It's been a great month for mysteries.

I just finished The Mysterious Affair at Styles- a story that have read several times over the years.

I am finishing up M & M on a high note: I am just about done with Blood on Snow. It is short, nicely written, bloody as hell and the audio is terrific, narrated by the the rocker/poet, Patti Smith. Can you say: Sweet?

I did better than I thought I would this month. I read:

Coyote Dreams by C.E. Murphy
The Fatal Flame by Lyndsay Faye LOVED!!!
Listening Woman by Tony Hillerman
The Marco Effect by Jussi Adler-Olsen
Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs

Now if I could just finish Ring by Kozi Suzuki!

I know there's ONE MORE DAY in May, but I'm pretty sure I won't be reading any more M&M this month, so here's my list of the 13 (apropos for M&M, no?) M&M reads finished in May:

Garden of Lies by Amanda Quick
Fear Itself by Walter Mosley
The Amazing Mr. Howard by Kenneth W. Harmon
Tabula Rasa by Ruth Downie
Open and Shut by David Rosenfelt
Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham
The Last Detective by Peter Lovesey
Diamond Solitaire by Peter Lovesey
Vicious Circle by Mike Carey
Ghoul Goblin by Jim Butcher
Obsession in Death by J.D. Robb
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye
The Pretenders: Cemetery Girl by Charlaine Harris

Runs the gamut of sub-genre:

3 historical mysteries
5 "straight" mysteries
4 fantasy/horror/paranormal mystery thrillers
1 futuristic romantic mystery

Of these, 2 were GNs, 8 were audiobooks, and 3 were print/e-books.

The happiest "discovery" for me was the Lyndsay Faye historical mystery series, set in NYC at the dawn of official police force formation. Thank you for the reccie, Roberta!

I finally got around to finding out what all the hype was about regarding Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I finished the book just in time for the end of the May Murder and Mayhem. There certainly was plenty of that in this book. I immediately started another Longmire book Kindness Goes Unpunished and stayed up late reading it. I really like that series.

Although they weren't all strictly genre thrillers, mystery or suspense, there was a bit of M & M in every book I read this month. Here's my list:

Sycamore Row by John Grisham
The Bedquilt and Other Stories by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen
The Mincing Mockingbird Guide to Troubled Birds by Matt Adrian
Rituals of the Season by Margaret Maron
Burning Bright by Ron Rash (collection of short fiction)
The Shadows in the Streets by Susan Hill
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich

And, although I certainly won't finish it today, I've begun one more on the theme, The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling).

I read Outrage at Blanco by Bill Crider. Short western with a female seeking out those that raped her and killed her husband. A dying Texas Ranger helps her.

I finished one more M&M book this morning and had a stellar month including a lot of books that fit the category:

A Burial at Sea by Charles Finch
Beneath These Stones by Ann Granger
The Last Queen of England by Steve Robinson
Famous Players: The Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor by Rick Geary
Concealed in Death by J.D. Robb
The Bughouse Affair by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown
The Second Woman by Kenneth Cameron

I ended up with six M&M books in May:

The Alpine Zen by Mary Daheim
I'll Be Back Before Midnight! by Peter Colley
The Gauguin Connection by Estelle Ryan
An Owl Too Many by Charlotte MacLeod
Murder on Amsterdam Avenue by Victoria Thompson
The Prophet Murders by Mehmet Murat Somer

I enjoyed them all!

I finished another book for the May reading yesterday. Kindness Goes Unpunished by Craig Johnson. I think that makes 3 mysteries for me this month and that is pretty good for me.

I did pretty good this month but I always feel like a slacker when I see how much everyone else has read!

My books were:
World Gone By by Dennis Lehane
First Degree by David Rosenfelt
The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson
Bury the Lead by David Rosenfelt

I'm still reading The Ghost Fields and Junkyard Dogs.

I read 6x Jo Nesbø books, finishing the Harry Hole series plus his Headhunters that I finished up on the first day of June. I'm now downloading the audio of The Son, a standalone that I hadn't come across before.
I also read a children's mystery, Under the egg Laura Marx Fitzgerald.
I'm adding the graphic novel El Iluminado by Ilan Stavans as that had a mystery element as well.