Haven’t read Agatha Christie yet?

Haven’t read Agatha Christie yet? 

Try one of these … as suggested by the Staff members of Syosset Public Library.

Throughout the month of March, the Syosset Public Library Readers’ Services Department will be honoring Agatha Christie, Queen of the Mystery Fiction genre.  Along with programs and displays, staff members have been recommending their favorite Agatha Christie titles and we would like to share them with all of you as well.  Having published an extraordinary amount of titles in her lifetime, choosing the right book might prove a bit overwhelming.  We’re here to help by narrowing down your choices to our top picks. 

The Secret Adversary (1922)

“Investigating the case of a woman who has been missing for five years, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford uncover just enough information to solve the mystery and put their own lives in jeopardy.” (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Brenda, Reference Librarian

Series: Tommy and Tuppence Beresford Mysteries, Book #1

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd  (1926)

“A murder in a small English village leads Hercule Poirot into a strange mystery involving a determined, curious spinster, the local doctor, and a wide range of suspects with possible motives and mysterious relationships,” (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Sonia, Readers’ Services Librarian & Sue Ann, Head of Children’s Services

Series: Hercule Poirot Mysteries, Book #3

Murder on the Orient Express (1933)

“On a three-day journey through the snowbound Balkan hills, Hercule Poirot must weed through an array of international suspects to find the passenger who murdered a gangster on the Orient Express.” (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Karen, Library Director, Audrey, Library Clerk,  Rosemarie, Librarian Trainee, Brenda, Reference Librarian & Sonia, Readers’ Services Librarian

Series: Hercule Poirot Mysteries, Book #8

The ABC Murders (1936)

“Hercule Poirot’s mastery of detective skills is tested by a mysterious correspondent who predicts and then executes alphabetical murders.” (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Sonia, Readers’ Services Librarian

Series: Hercule Poirot Mysteries, Book # 11

Death on the Nile (1937)

“Linnet Doyle is young, beautiful, and rich. She’s the girl who has everything–including the man her best friend loves. When Linnet and her new husband take a cruise on the Nile, they meet brilliant detective Hercule Poirot. It should be an idyllic trip, yet Poirot feels that something is amiss.” (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Lisa J., Readers’ Services Librarian

Series: Hercule Poirot Mysteries, Book # 15

And Then There Were None (1939)

“A killer stalks ten strangers on an isolated island off the Devon coast, in a suspenseful story of murder and retribution set to a sinister nursery rhyme.” (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Jackie, Head of Readers’ Services, Stacey, Readers’ Services Librarian Trainee & Sue Ann, Head of Children’s Services

*Alternate Title: Ten Little Indians

The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side (1962)

“Famous film actress Marina Gregg witnesses a murder in her country home, and Miss Marple agrees to investigate.” (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Sonia, Readers’ Services Librarian

Series: Jane Marple Murder Mysteries, Book #13

Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case (1975)

“Arthritic and immobilized, Hercule Poirot takes up his last case, relying on his old friend Captain Hastings to be his eyes and ears as he hunts down the slipperiest criminal of his career.” (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Sue Ann, Head of Children’s Services & Brenda, Reference Librarian

Series: Hercule Poirot Mysteries, Book #34

Prefer to read her series in order? 

See a Readers’ Services Librarian for a printed list.  Enjoy …

- posted by Jackie, Readers’ Services

Celebrating Agatha Christie

Throughout the month of March, the Readers’ Services Department will be celebrating the Queen of Crime, classic mystery author, Agatha Christie (1890-1976). The following events will be held in her honor:

_____________________________________________________________

ON THE CASE: CHRISTIE MYSTERIES

with David Houston. Friday, March 8, 2013

2 PM

Three actors perform David Houston’s radio play, with music accompaniment and sound effects, from classic short stories by the all-time mistress of suspense and surprise – including a fully staged scene drawn from numerous Agatha Christie sources.

EVENING BOOK DISCUSSION

Tuesday, March 12, 2013 7:30 PM

Discussion of Agatha Christie’s classic mystery And Then There Were None with Sonia Grgas, Readers’ Services Librarian.

BOOK TO FILM

Friday, March 15, 2013 2 PM

Showing of the 1945 version of the film And Then There Were None starring Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston & Louis Hayward. A short discussion will follow the film.

No registration required. Free.

 Dedicated collections honoring Agatha Christie will be on display throughout the building.

- posted by Jackie, Readers’ Services

Mysteries: The Gardening Variety

Gardening catalogs and offers have begun to fill my mail box (and my inbox). But anticipating the delight in the arrival of my new plants and gardening equipment just isn’t enough.  I can’t go outside and actually get my hands dirty so I need to do something else.

What could be better than a mystery with a gardening theme? If you are interested in combining a cozy mystery with the delight of gardening, here are some books to consider.

One of my all time favorite characters is Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael, a crusader-turned-monk in twelfth century England.  His role as monastery herbalist allows him to roam outside the cloister. In doing so, he can satisfy his curiosity about events (and plants) around him. I especially enjoy the author’s mix of information about the religious, political, cultural and lifestyle of the medieval times.

If you are not interested in a historical aspect to your gardening-themed books, there are other suggestions:

Anthony Eglin features a retired botany professor as his amateur detective.  Dr. Lawrence Kingston is as intrigued by the challenge of a mystery as he is of lore and mysteries of plants. Eglin, who is himself a rose expert, sprinkles horticulture details throughout his writings. Try The Blue Rose which introduces Dr. Kingston when he is hired by new homeowners, Alex and Kate Sheppard, to investigate the mystery around the ‘impossible’ blue rose bush that is blooming in their walled garden.

Rosemary Harris writes the Dirty Business Mystery series. Harris’ sleuth is Paula Holliday, a transplanted New York media executive, who has started a landscape design company in Springfield CT. Author Harris is herself a master gardener and lives in CT!  In The Big Dirt Nap Paula ‘smells’ something funny when she travels to an exclusive hotel where a rare (if odiferous) plant called the titan arum, aka the corpse flower (which really exists!) is about to bloom.

River City, Missouri resident, Bretta Solomon, is the florist-sleuth in author Janis Harrison’s gardening mystery series.  Bretta’s flower business doesn’t seem to suffer when she gets involved in murder investigations. The debut novel in the series is Roots of Murder when Bretta unearths the murderer of her flower supplier.

And finally there are the two series by Susan Wittig Albert: “Darling Dahlias” and the “China Bayles” mystery series. Both series are set in small towns. Darling refers to a town in Alabama where the garden club members band together to solve mysteries and murders. Set in the 1930s Alabama, The Darling Dahlias and the Naked Ladies involves the ladies digging up clues about some newcomers with a past, possibly as (gasp!) dancers in the Ziegfeld Frolic.  China Bayles of Pecan Springs, Texas is an herbalist and an amateur detective.  She runs the herb shop, Thyme and Seasons, while dabbling in the occasional mystery. In the Mistletoe Man she investigates and solves the murder of her principal supplier of the popular herb, mistletoe.

So, enjoy these mysteries as you anticipate spring and summer, the gardens and flowers!

- posted by Brenda, Reference Services

Attention horse racing fans!

When I’ll Have Another (pictured) suffered a tendon injury and was pulled from the Belmont Stakes, hopes for a Triple Crown winner were dashed.  Great excitement had been building up when I’ll Have Another won both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness: this could be the first Triple Crown winner in 34 years. But racing fans were not completely disappointed in the 144th Belmont Stakes. Union Rags, the seventh place finisher at the Kentucky Derby edged out Paynter at the finish line.

If you need some more racing excitement, consider borrowing some of these books -

• Nicholas Clee tells the story of an 18th century race horse in Eclipse: The Horse That Changed Racing History Forever.
• There is the inspiring story by Jack Eisenberg, The Longest Shot: Lil E. Tee and the Kentucky Derby.
• James Squires tells of a more recent experience in Horse of a Different Color: A Tale of Breeding Geniuses, Dominant Females, and the Fastest Derby Winner since Secretariat.
• Some general books on the subject include Elizabeth Mitchell’s Three Strides before the Wire,  Robert Shoops’ Down to the Wire: The Lives of the Triple Crown Champions and Jane Smiley’s A Year at the Races.

For fictional coverage of the sport there are the books by the engaging storyteller and former jockey, Dick Francis or the Fern Michael’s series, Kentucky, which details the life of Nealy Coleman as she builds her Blue Diamond Farm.

And if a film about horse racing would be to your liking, don’t forget Seabiscuit in the media collection.

-posted by Brenda, Reference Services

5 for The Edgar Awards

Last night the Mystery Writers of America announced the winners of the 2012 Edgar Allan Poe awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television. Five of the awards are listed below and you can find a full listing of winners and nominees at the MWA website.

Best Novel – Gone by Mo Hayder

Investigating a serial carjacker whose actual targets are young children in back seats, Jack Caffery teams up once again with police diver Sergeant Flea Marley, whose life is endangered by a discovery in an abandoned, half-submerged tunnel.

Best First Novel by an American Author – Bent Road by Lori Roy

After the 1967 riots in Detroit hit too close to home, Celia Scott and her family move back to her husband’s hometown in Kansas, where his sister died under mysterious circumstances 20 years before and where Celia and two of her children struggle to adjust–especially when a local girl disappears, sending the town into a whirlwind.

Best Paperback Original – The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett

After eleven union men are found dead in a trolley car in 1919, a man named Hayes must discover the truth behind the murders–and behind the McNaughton Corporation and the Evesden, the company town it built–before he meets a grim end.

Best Fact Crime – Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

A dramatic narrative account of the 20th President’s political career offers insight into his distinguished background as an impoverished wunderkind scholar and Civil War hero, his battles against the corrupt establishment and Alexander Graham Bell’s failed attempt to save him from an assassin’s bullet.

Best Critical/Biographical - On Conan Doyle: Or, the Whole Art of Storytelling by Michael Dirda

Combining memoir and appreciation, On Conan Doyle is a highly engaging personal introduction to Holmes’s creator, as well as a rare insider’s account of the curiously delightful activities and playful scholarship of The Baker Street Irregulars, the most famous and romantic of all Sherlockian groups.

- posted by Sonia, Readers’ Services

If murder is on your mind…

That is, as in reading a murder mystery, here are some newly published books that are recent additions to Syosset Public Library’s mystery collection:

The Dog Who Knew Too Much

by Spencer Quinn

When Bernie is invited to give the keynote speech at a private investigator convention, his intrepid canine companion is secretly targeted by the high-profile person in charge, an agenda that is complicated by a missing boy, a familiar-looking puppy and the return of Bernie’s girlfriend’s ex.

Backlash

by Sally Spencer

DCI Monika Paniatowski has a bitter personal history with Chief Superintendent Kershaw, but that is not the only reason she doesn’t want the investigation into the sudden disappearance of his wife, Elaine, landing on her desk. A young prostitute, Grace Meade, has also disappeared, and yet all resources are being channelled into Elaine’s case alone. Monika determines to spend time finding Grace, but when a heavily mutilated body is discovered on the moors, it begins to look as if she has made the wrong decision.

Murder in the 11th House

by Mitchell Scott Lewis

Astrological detective David Lowell must use his astrologer’s charts and knowledge to solve the murder of a state judge in a New York City parking garage. Joined by his daughter, Melinda, a young defense attorney who believes the person arrested innocent; his hacker sidekick Mort; patient assistant Sarah; and bodyguard Andy, Lowell races against time to prove the innocence of Johnny Colbert, a mouthy bartender accused of the crime.

I’ll See You in My Dreams

by William Deverell

While renewing his annual try for the Most Points in Vegetables and Fruits at the Garibaldi Island Fall Fair, Arthur Beauchamp is forced by new developments to revisit his first murder trial, which went horribly wrong. Now, nearly 50 years later, he is opening old wounds but also facing a chance for redemption and reconciliation.

Ghost Hero

by  S.J. Rozan

Investigating a rumor about new paintings by a famous contemporary Chinese artist who has been dead for twenty years, private investigator Lydia Chin and her partner, Bill Smith, discover that a new client is not who he claims to be.

- posted by Sonia, Readers’ Services

Mystery on campus…

It’s the end of winter break and spring term is beginning at college campuses everywhere.  I love going to school, but what to do when my work schedule conflicts with the interesting classes I want to attend? Well, of course, grab a book set on a college campus!  That is what I did this year.

Notre Dame Philosophy professor Ralph McInerny has created a series of mysteries featuring the Knight Brothers, the latest of which is Sham Rock. Even if you don’t quite understand all of the Notre Dame insider comments (what exactly is a Bookstore Basketball Tournament? ), the books are enjoyable. Philosophy professor Phil Knight and his PI brother, Roger, find themselves immersed in crime, conspiracy and murder on the lovely campus. And you always thought that colleges and universities were places of advanced learning!

While Phil Knight might be described as a traditional academic, author Donna Andrews’ books are populated by a group of professors probably best described as quirky. In her Stork Raving Mad mystery, Meg Lanslow, wife of a drama professor Michael Waterston, is surrounded by a most unconventional group of students and professors. I think it is a good thing that Caerphilly College does not really exist! This is a fun, fast-paced mystery even if it strains credibility at times.

For a book with a historical backdrop try The Dons and Mr. Dickens: The Strange Case of the Christmas Plot by William Palmer. Using the literary device of a recently discovered ‘forgotten’ manuscript, the story finds Charles Dickens and Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) solving the case of an Oxford don who was murdered in a London opium den.

Jeffrey Cruikshank’s debut novel, Murder at the B-School, is grittier than some of the others mentioned here. Wim Vermeer is a lowly, non-tenured finance professor at the prestigious Harvard Business School. When one of his students is found dead in a campus whirlpool, Professor Vermeer is appointed the liaison between the school and the dead man’s family. Wealth and police and academic power collide.  It is soon apparent that Vermeer has been setup to protect the school’s reputation.  But why and who is responsible? This is a page-turner.

Joanne Dobson features Karen Pelletier, an English professor at fictitious Enfield College. Pelletier is up for tenure in Death Without Tenure. The book delves into college politics, plagiarism, political correctness, hate crimes, drugs and academic rivalry but in the end the cops get their murderer and all is right in the New England ivy-covered walls.

Hopefully, I will be back in a classroom next semester but, if not, I will be immersing myself in some more books set on college campuses!

- posted by Brenda, Reference Services

DCI Banks Returns for Another Suspenseful Mystery

In Bad Boy (an Inspector Banks Novel) by Peter Robinson, a gun stolen by a jealous girlfriend unravels a mystery involving kidnapping and murder.  Erin, jealous of her boyfriend Jaff’s flirting with her roommate Tracy, steals his gun.  Erin’s mother, finding it her room, goes to the police station to consult with her former neighbor, DCI Banks, who hopefully will make the situation disappear.  Unfortunately for everyone, he’s on vacation.

Instead of diffusing the situation, the police exacerbate it.  Erin’s father dies as a result of a taser shot.  Tracy, who also happens to be Banks’ daughter, is kidnapped by Jaff, who later shoots Annie Cabbot, Banks’ partner and ex-girlfriend.  All of this makes for an exciting, action packed mystery.

You needn’t have read all of the Inspector Banks novels to enjoy Bad Boy.  Robinson has a descriptive, suspenseful way of telling a story.  However, once you read a book in the series, you’ll probably want to start at the beginning and read them all.  There’s a reason Peter Robinson’s books have been named Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly and Notable Book by the New York Times.

-posted by Ed G., Reference Services