Mystery Book Discussion Group
Bring your lunch and join us the third Tuesday of the month from noon to 1 in the conference room on the second floor of the Main Library, at 361 Washington Street.
Copies of the book to be discussed will be available at the front desk 4 weeks before the meeting.
If you have any questions, please contact reference librarian Liz Mellett at (617) 730-2369 or via email. NEW: the group's book list.Robert B. Parker, Looking for Rachel Wallace
Sep 21, 2010 Main Library, Conference Room
Wisecracking Boston private eye Spenser is hired to protect Rachel Wallace, a woman with a lot of enemies. Unable to agree with his methods, Rachel ends up firing him, but when she disappears Spenser is determined to find her. Parker was awarded the 2002 Grand Master Award by the Mystery Writers of America.
Jacqueline Winspear, Maisie Dobbs
Oct 19, 2010 Main Library, Conference Room
Maisie Dobbs is hired by Christopher Davenham to follow his wife Celia when he believes she is having an affair. As Maisie follows Celia to the grave of a casualty of the Great War, it brings home the state of affairs in London ten years after the war to end all wars. MAISIE DOBBS won the Agatha and Macavity awards for Best First Mystery, and was a New York Times Notable Book.
Ruth Rendell, A Judgement in Stone
Nov 16, 2010 Main Library, Conference Room
On Valentine’s Day, four members of the Coverdale family – George, Jacqueline, Melinda and Giles – were murdered in the space of fifteen minutes. This novel, called a “classic” by the London Times, opens with one of the most famous first lines in crime fiction. In 1991 Rendell received the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger Lifetime Achievement Award.
Alan Bradley, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Dec 21, 2010 Main Library, Conference Room
Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce has a passion for poisons. This turns out to be a good thing for her father, the widowed Colonel de Luce, after he is accused of murder. Flavia is the only member of her eccentric family who ever uses the long-abandoned Victorian chemistry laboratory in their ancient country house, and she is determined to discover who is really responsible for the corpse in the cucumber patch. This first mystery has deservedly won a number of awards, including the Agatha, the Dilys and the CWA Debut Dagger.
Dick Francis, Forfeit
Jan 18, 2011 Main Library, Conference Room
Reporter James Tyrone becomes suspicious when racing columnist Bert Chekov recommends some “can’t lose” horses – then dies in an “accidental” fall from a window. But even Tyrone’s experience at a London scandal sheet fails to prepare him for what he uncovers when he looks into his colleague’s death. Dick Francis is the only three-time recipient of the Edgar Award for Best Novel. He won one of them for Forfeit in 1970.