Reading Mysteries

Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys were series that I devoured as a child. Recently I reread a Nancy Drew mystery and still enjoyed it although found it sexist and pretty predictable.

  One summer when Jim was teaching at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, David Scholer introduced me to two LA detective series--one by Michael Connelly featuring Hieronomous Bosch, and the other by Walter Mosely featuring Easy Rawlins. At this point, I have read most of their works. I eagerly anticipated the latest Connelly book featuring Mickey Haller and was on the wait list for it at the library when it came out this month. However, I read the first chapters of Law of Innocence and then the last--to make sure Mickey got exonerated, but I didn't have the interest or the stomach to read the whole book. Not sure why I returned the book, mostly unread, but life is too short to read books that don't give me pleasure.

  During this pandemic with libraries closed, I have purchased many ebooks for my iphone Kindle App. Every day I get sales pitches from Early Bird books or BookBub. I scroll through the offers--usually at $2.99 or less--and vet them with Goodreads reviews. I would hate to count up how many I have ordered this year--not all mysteries but probably most are of that genre.

 

However, I have standards. I don't read books about serial killers or sexual assaults. I don't read "cozy mysteries." I stay away from books with titles like Chocolate Covered Murder or Just Desserts or Scone Cold Killer or Survival of the Fritters. I remember when I was volunteering at the St. Joseph Public Library and finding books for the homebound, I asked Elaine, the staff person, how to know if a book was a cozy mystery. She, with much experience, told me to look at the cover. If it was in pastels, it was a cozy mystery. I didn't want to send a book with lurid violence to the nursing home resident who requested a cozy!

As of today because I read a post on LitHub, I will avoid books by Ross MacDonald or Margaret Millar because I read a horrible account of their parenting and tragedies in their own lives. I also will not probably read any more books by Anne Parry because of her life story. That is probably an unfair prejudice but there are plenty of other books to read. 

I enjoy the mysteries that are set in a location like Venice (the Brunetti books by Donna Leon) or Quebec (Inspector Gamache books by Louise Penny) or Ireland (the Sean Duffy series by Adrian McKinty) or Boston (Spencer series by Robert Parker). I like a little romance in my books (the Blue series by Emma Jameson or the Freeman Files series by Ted Taylor)--although I think Gus Freeman is making some big mistakes in his love interests. I am eagerly awaiting the next Maisie Dobb book and have lived and agonized with her story from a child to a widow. Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers--the classic age of British mystery novels--are fun authors to read--but need to be spaced apart and not have too much of a good thing. Their own lives are interesting enough as is Sara Paretsky who writes the V I Warshawski novels set in Chicago. I have enjoyed their biographies as well as PD James or Paretsky's memoir Writing in an Age of Silence.

  Our local Princeton and Plainsboro Libraries have had curbside service for requests during this pandemic time which has been wonderful. I have enjoyed my Kindle app but still prefer a book in my hands so I have ordered many books from Better World Books in Mishawaka, a business started by two Notre Dame business school graduates that is socially responsible in reselling and donating books. I am thankful I can have the eyesight to read and the opportunities to buy and borrow books. More than ever in this time of social isolation, reading has been a great escape and pleasure.