LONDON BOULEVARD – VG

Ken Bruen – Standalone

When Mitchell is released after spending 3 years in prison for a crime he doesn’t remember committing. Picked up by his

friend Billy Norton, he’s offered work by Billy with loan shark Tommy

Logan.…

LORD JOHN AND THE PRIVATE MATTER – Good+

Diana Gabaldon - Standalone

Major Lord John Grey accidentally comes to suspect that his cousin’s fiancée is infected with the pox. As he searches for a discreet way to confirm his…

QUATTROCENTO (non-mystery) – Good+

James McKean – 1^st book

Matt O’Brien, assistant curator and art restorer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has always been passionate about the Italian Renaissance. When he discovers a long-neglected portrait of…

DEAD FAMOUS – Good+

Carol O’Connell – 7^th Mallory

This story involves a seemingly unstoppable serial killer; a beautiful hunchback with tragedy in her past; a radio shock-jock who helps the killer find his victims; an extremely mean house cat; a gloomy…

LJ's Top Reads of 2003

Alexander, Bruce - Murder in Grub Street

Barton, Dan - The Heckler

Brown, Dan - The Da Vinci Code

Bruen, Ken - The Guards

Cleverly, Barbara - Ragtime in Simla

Coleman, Reed Farrel - Walking the Perfect Square

Crais, Robert - The Last Detective

Dymmock, Michael Allen - The Feline Friendship

Fforde, Jasper - The Eyre Affair

Fforde, Jasper - Lost in a Good Book

Ford, G.M. - A Blind Eye

Harris,…

The East Bay Mystery Readers' Group -

2 December 2003 Meeting Recap

BLOOD JUNCTION (Amateur Sleuth) - Caroline Carver - G-

When journalist India Kane travels from Sydney to the outback town of Cooinda for a reunion with her friend, Lauren, she has no idea of the town's appalling history. Forty years earlier…

TROPHY WIDOW – G+

Kahn, Michael A. – 7th in series

Rachel Gold agrees to represent Angela Green, a convicted murderer who has been offered a lucrative book deal. In gathering…

CORPUS CHRISTMAS – VG

Maron, Margaret – 6th in series

Lt. Sigrid Harald's professional and private lives clash when an art expert is murdered in a New York historical house. I…

THE GATEKEEPER– VG

Mayor, Archer – 14th in series

When heroin traffickers establish a vast and swift pipeline into Vermont, Joe Gunther's Bureau of Investigation is called in to…

STONE COLD – G+

Parker, Robert B. – 4th in series

Investigating a serial killer in an affluent suburban town is difficult, and dangerous, and with the added pressures from the town…

A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY – G+

Perry, Anne – Standalone

This is a novella starring Aunt Vespasia, in her younger days. While attending an elegant Christmas houseparty in a country…

The East Bay Mystery Readers' Group -

4 November 2003 Meeting Recap

SILENT PROOF (Police Procedural) - Michael A. Hawley - Good

Twenty-five years ago, a woman was murdered in a Seattle park. The crime went unsolved. To homicide detective Leah Harris and her partner Frank Milkovich, the only possible suspect…

AN EXPERIMENT IN TREASON – G+

Alexander, Bruce – 9th in series

Sir John Fielding, a blind, 18th-century London judge, and his orphan accomplice, Jeremy, get mixed up in…

SPIKED – G+

Arsenault, Mark – 1st book

In the fading manufacturing city of Lowell, Mass., Eddie Bourque, a political reporter for the shoddy Lowell Empire, looks into the brutal…

THE AMBER ROOM – G

Berry, Steve – 1st book

When Judge Rachel Cutler's father dies under suspicious circumstances, he leaves…

MASKS OF MURDER – G

Canby, C.C. – 1st book

When Detective Zeke Mallard is found brutally murdered in his own garage, it is up to Zeke’s partner, rookie Detective Richard Lanslow,…

BLOOD JUNCTION – G

Carver, Caroline – 1st book

When journalist India Kane travels from Sydney to the outback town of Cooinda for a reunion with her friend, Lauren, she has no idea…

RAGTIME IN SIMLA – VG

Cleverly, Barbara – 2nd in series

Scotland Yard Commander Joseph Sandilands, a World War I hero, has accepted an invitation to spend his vacation at the…

DON’T LEAVE ME – G

Curzon, Clare – 15th in series

Years after a rich woman disappears, her daughter also vanishes under suspicious circumstances. Superintendent Mike Yeadings…

The East Bay Mystery Readers' Group -

7 October 2003 Meeting Recap

BOOKS FOR OCTOBER 7th are:

THE LAST KASHMIRI ROSE (Historical Mystery) - Barbara Cleverly - EXCELLENT

"Scotland Yard Detective Joe Sandilands is asked to look into a series of deaths in Calcutta in 1922. A number of British officers' wives have died in what looks like the work of a clever…