Meetings are held in the library’s Gegan Room the third Monday of the month, at 7 p.m. Mysteries: Here and There - 2012 - Celebrating Our 17th Year of Reading
Monday, January 16...7:00 p.m. The Faithful Place by Tana French (Ireland)
The course of Frank Mackey's life was set by one defining moment when he was nineteen. The moment his girlfriend, Rosie Daly, failed to turn up for their rendezvous
in Faithful Place, failed to run away with him to London as they had planned. Twenty years on, Frank is still in Dublin, working as an undercover cop. He's cut all ties with his dysfunctional family. Until his sister calls to say that Rosie's suitcase has been found. Frank embarks on a journey into his past that demands he reevaluate everything he believes to be true. (2010, 3rd Rob Ryan & Cassie Maddox series, Ireland, *PW, *BL)
Monday, February 20...7:00 p.m. Buttercream Bump Off by Jenn McKinlay (US)
Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura's Fairy Tale Cupcakes bakery is gearing up for Valentine's Day. Unfortunately someone has iced Baxter Malloy on his first date with Mel's mother. Now Mom's a suspect, and Mel and Angie need to find time around frosting to dig into the man's shady past and discover who served him his just desserts. (2011, culinary cozy, 2nd Cupcake Bakery Mystery Series)
Monday, March 19...7:00 p.m. Duty To the Dead by Charles Todd (US)
Independent-minded Bess Crawford's upbringing is far different from that of the usual upper-middle-class British gentlewoman. At the outbreak of World War I, she volunteers for the nursing corps, serving from the battlefields of France to the doomed hospital ship Britannic. On one voyage, Bess grows fond of the young, gravely wounded Lieutenant Arthur Graham. Something rests heavily on his conscience, and to give him a little peace as he dies, she promises to deliver a message to his brother. (2010, 1916-historical, 1st Bess Crawford series, England)
Monday, April 16...7:00 p.m. The Informationist by Taylor Stevens (US)
A Texas oil billionaire has hired Vanessa 'Michael' Munroe to find his daughter who vanished in Africa four years ago. It's not her usual line of work, but she can't resist the challenge. Pulled deep into the mystery of the missing girl,
Munroe finds herself back in the lands of her childhood, betrayed, cut off from civilization, and left for dead. If she has any hope of escaping the jungle and the demons that drive her, she must come face-to-face with the past that she's tried for so long to forget. (2011, thriller, 1st Vanessa Michael Munroe series, Africa, *PW)
Monday, May 21...7:00 p.m. Dead Before Dying by Deon Meyer (South Africa)
Mat Joubert has lost everything: his wife, his hope and his future. Then a series of murders throws the residents of Cape Town into panic. As the killer works down some unseen hitlist, it becomes clear that while Mat is struggling to start anew, the only thing the killer wants is revenge. (1999, police procedural, stand alone, Cape Town, SA, *BL)
Monday, June 18...7:00 p.m. A Beautiful Place To Die by Malla Nunn (South Africa/Australia)
When an Afrikaans police captain is murdered in a small South African country town, Detective Emmanuel Cooper must navigate his way through the labyrinthine racial and social divisions that split the community. And as the National Party introduces the laws to support the system of apartheid, Emmanuel struggles - much like Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko - to remain a good man in the face of astonishing power (2009, police procedural, 1st Det. Emmanuel Cooper series, South Africa, *PW)
Monday, July 16...7:00 p.m. Old World Murder by Kathleen Ernst (Wisconsin)
Trying to leave painful memories behind her, Chloe Ellefson is making a fresh start. She's the new collections curator at Old World Wisconsin, an outdoor ethnic museum showcasing 1870s settlement life. On her first day, Chloe meets with an elderly woman who begs her to find a priceless eighteenth-century Norwegian ale bowl that had been donated to the museum years ago. But before Chloe can find the heirloom and return it to her, the woman dies in a suspicious car crash. (2010, amateur detective, 1st Chloe Ellefson series, Wisconsin)
Monday, August 20...7:00 p.m. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (England)
The scene is set in Cambridge, with three case histories from the past: A young child who mysteriously disappeared from a tent in her back garden; An unidentified man in a yellow jumper who marched into an office and slashed a young girl through the throat; and a young woman found by the police sitting in her kitchen next to the body of her husband, an axe buried in his head. Jackson Brodie, a private investigator and former police detective, is quietly contemplating life as a divorced father when he is flung into the midst of these resurrected old crimes. (2004, police procedural, 1st Jackson Brodie series, England)
Monday, September 17...7:00 p.m. No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay (Canada)
On the morning she will never forget, suburban teenager Cynthia Archer awakes with a nasty hangover and a feeling she is going to have an even nastier confrontation with her mom and dad. Instead, the house is empty, with no sign of her parents or younger brother Todd. At first she just thinks it's weird, then more and more scary, until finally the terrfiying reality hits her: in the blink of an eye, without any explanation, her family has simply disappeared. (2007, stand alone thriller, Milford, Conn.) Monday, October 15...7:00 p.m. Three Seconds by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrröm (Sweden)
Piet Hoffman, a top secret operative for the Swedish police, is about to embark on his most dangerous assignment yet: after years spent infiltrating the Polish mafia, he's become a key player in their attempt to take over amphetamine distribution inside Sweden's prisons. To stop them from succeeding, he will have to go deep cover, posing as a prisoner inside the country's most notorious jail. (2010, thriller, 3rd Ewert Grens series, Sweden, *BL)
Monday, November 19...Pot Luck Dinner 6:30pm, Discussion 7:00 p.m. Defending Jacob by William Landay (US)
Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student. (2012, stand alone thriller, Massachusetts)
