What was the first crime novel you ever read? AFTER Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys that is, when you were an adult!

[carole gill]

I'm thinking too. And I realize that I mainly read horror until fairly recently! When I was a young teen I used to grab hold of my parent's Alfred Hitchcock Monthly Magazine. I loved it! But as for novels--I think the first crime novels I read were by Lawrence Sanders. Come on, tell me--so it'll refresh my memory!

[Loretta Wheeler]

Yes, they're all fictional stories...and thank God for it!:) Mine alone is going to have a huge "bite" to it but you don't know those details until the novel comes out. I imagine Houston would be makng the news world wide if we had all that'll be in there!:) And yes, you're right about the Dr. it was "the talk of the town" for many years:)

[Loretta Wheeler]

I had another thought, just thought I'd pop it on here!:) Patrick Swayze is from here....so's George Foreman...Patrick would slip into town unnoticed, (how I don't know;) but I worked with his uncle and he would tell me stories of when Patrick hit town:) and what the family would do...they used to play in a garage band together when he was young:) cute hum?:) George Foreman lives not far from me...and so he's seen around quite often:) Now, why I felt the need to say all this I haven't a clue!;) Maybe it was my sashay into the "bright side" for a moment!;)

[carole gill]

Wow, my Mother (always liked good looking actors)! had a crush on him. He's a terrific dancer. And George Foreman! well, do tell Miss Loretta, that's great. Nobody famous around these here parts in Yorkshire--just sheep and well, ah sheep. But there are some famous deceased writers! the Brontes! We don't live too far from their home. My husband took me for a walk on the moors once (cause I nagged him)--I thought I would die, it was rough terrian! off work for a week after! I kid you not! I have a photo of the old farm (it's a ruin) on Top Withins (moor) they say Emily Bronte based Wuthering Heights on. It's in one of my photos on my page.

[Loretta Wheeler]

My! The Brontes!!! You don't get more famous than that! And I never thought of the moors as being terribly rough terrain...I guess most of the pictures you see of them are long distanced and they look so welcoming...and you were so muscle strained you had to take off work? I can see that in my mind, I know if I were climbing and rolling off of crevices I'd be extremely sore...the most I do is hop on the cardio glider...(emphasis on GLIDER!;).........to quote liberally from one of my favorite movies...getting too old for this "S"!:)

[carole gill]

This is a photo of some of the walk. It's not straight moorland. there's a trail but that trail is over rock and up and down hills. there are sheep that are fenced off and I had to climb on top of rocks to step over fenced walls! we had to lift our dog up to get her over the top also. my bones hurt from the terrain! truly! we had to cross a stream on a narrow rock formation over a fast moving brook, full of big rocks! i didn't want to look down! one thing that was interesting was a stone chair- like shape that had a plaque it said Charlotte used to sit there. I BET SHE DID CAUSE SHE GOT TIRED OF THE WALK! God! it was awful! (but beautiful, too. breathtakingly so).

[Emily]

After I emerged from college and my first round of graduate school, I finally had time to read again and remembered that I liked to read mysteries. I had read Nancy Drew of course and then devoured the Trixie Belden books when I was young, and I remember going through every Agatha Christie my small public library had when I was about 12 or 13.

In my 20's I started with The Theban Mysteries by Amanda Cross, a tattered used copy I'd picked up at the Boston Public Library book sale. In the next few years, I read a lot of the big name female mystery writers of those years (the 90's) including the rest of Amanda Cross, Elizabeth George, Sue Grafton of course, Carolyn Hart, Patricia Cornwell, and others I am sure. This was before the internet or Amazon or blogs or any of that, and it strikes me now how hard it was to find new authors/titles compared to now. And, as a result, how limited my reading list actually was.

[carole gill]

so true. the internet is really great. I mean you just punch in either an author's website or you see book lists. Also there are great emails from the various publishing companies that you customize to your own tastes. whatever it is you're into. I get newsletters telling me about new authors all the time, and it's so much fun to then investigate. it's really amazing.

[DADavenport]

The first short crime story I remember reading was The Cask Of Amontillado by Poe.

The first crime novel I remember reading that bowled me over as an adult was The Maltese Falcon by Hammett.

[carole gill]

Ooh just refrehsed my memory! I think it was that story by Poe for me, too. We had to read it in school. Maltese I read fairly recently. I can't for the life of me remember the first crime novel I read--I think because I got into horror first. thanks for that.

[Loretta Wheeler]

It's a beautiful image:):) and um hum, the terrain you speak of is what popped into my head when you talked about how sore you were:)....I guess it's a "once in a lifetime" thing then hum?!;) BG....

[carole gill]

Oh yeah, although I would like to go back to the village of Haworth, it's beautiful.
The Bronte home is worth seeing too. Some of the rooms face the church yard and it is so depressing. those are old tombstones, they were there when the family was there. did you know there was a sister that died who was born before the three famous ones, I think her name was Maria and she wrote at the age of eight. A phenomanal family truly.

[Loretta Wheeler]

Amazing about the sister who died so young....and already wote. Some destinies, are meant to be...and I would say that family had a strong destiny placed before them...