POLITICAL SUICIDE – VG

Alan Russell – Standalone

Political Suicide features private investigator Will Travis, a different kind of "hotel detective". With his near photographic memory, Travis evaluates restaurants and hotels, reporting on service issues

and employee theft or neglect to his clients. During one of these evaluations

he witnesses a man slipping something into his woman companion's drink. Travis

rescues the woman,…

SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES - G

Sheldon Siegel – 2^nd in series

Attorney Mike Daley and Rosie, his ex-wife and law partner, are hired to defend Skipper Gates, the San Francisco DA. Skipper is an unlikable political type who is accused of murdering a male prostitute with

whom he spent the night. Not only will this scandal potentially ruin Skipper's

career, but he could conceivable be sent to Death Row if a jury finds…

MONKEEWRENCH – EX

P.J. Tracy – 1^st book

An unpopular, troublemaking old couple are brutally murdered in a small Wisconsin town church. While Wisconsin Sheriff Michael Halloran and Deputy Bonar Carlson are working to

solve their case, in the Minnesotan Twin cities, Detectives Leo Magozzi and

Gino Rolseth, are dealing with a serial killer is copying a computer game where

20 murders happen. The games’ designers, a…

The East Bay Mystery Readers' Group -

6 January Meeting Recap

THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN (non-mystery) – Good+

Mitch Albom – 8^th book

Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident…

THE AFFAIR OF THE 39 CUFFLINKS – VG

James Anderson – 3^rd in series

Alderley, the 17th-century country house of the Earl of Burford, provides the setting for Anderson's

third 1930s madcap mystery (after The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg…

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…