A Six-Pack of New Mysteries

The Chicago Way by Michael Harvey is the first one on the pile that hit my desk this morning. "A magnificent debut that should be read by all," says John Grisham on the dust jacket. (Well John, I'll just have to see about that.) Harvey is the co-writer and co-producer of the Cold Case Files television program, which may or may not be a good thing. Quoting the blurb, "... a fast-paced, stylish murder mystery featuring a tough-talking Irish cop turned private investigator who does for the city of Chicago what Elmore Leonard did for Detroit and Raymond Chandler did for Los Angeles." That alone makes it a must read for me.


Next on the pile is Mike Doogan's Capitol Offense: A Nik Kane Alaska Mystery. Kirkus Review says, "This series kickoff provides a righteously appealing hero and terrific local color." I like the Alaska setting and Doogan received praise for his last mystery so I'm willing to give this a try.


Twist Phelan provided the next book, False Fortune: A Pinnalle Peak Mystery. Sue Grafton and Michael Connelly both provide dust jacket quotes. Grafton says the book, "sizzles," and Connelly writes, "Twist Phelan knows of what she writes." If those two veterans like this one I probably will too.






A Killer's Kiss by William Lashner follows the New York Times Bestseller Marked Man by Lashner. This is the sixth outing for Lasher who is called the East Coast version of Michael Connelly by Library Journal. Tall praise indeed.



Next is At the Old Hotel: A Bartender Brian McNulty Mystery by Con Lehane. Ken Bruen writes, "A fierce novel in the Irish sense ... it may well prove to be the definitive Irish-American saga. A dark emerald, lit by old glory ... a true masterpiece of slow burn." Using a bartender as the progagonist is a good hook and the first few pages of the book hold promise.


The last of the six is Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. From the cover, "Gritty, sensual and charged with dark secrets involving love, murder and a majestic, mute heroine." (I'm thinking that's the elephant.) An interesting hook and one that got me.

Endings, Some Are Better Than Others

Eye of the Beholder by Jim Ellis. It has been a good story, evil doers brought to their just end, fair maiden saved from a fate worse than death, redemption for the noble hero, but for God's sake END IT! This book has 45 pages too many. I am at the point of skimming to just reach the end and I pray for no more twists, Ellis has strangled me with one too many twists. Makes me wish he had attended Michael Connelly's workshop Ending the Novel at Just the Right Time instead of Dostoevsky's workshop Let's Drag This Sucker Out Another Two Hundred Pages.

Ok, I got it out of my system. Ellis writes a good mystery and I will keep him on my list of must reads and I will prepare myself for slow endings.

Tree Festival

All I Can Say is WOW!

Nearly 400 people streamed into our library last Saturday night for the lighting of our very tall Christmas Tree. We expected a large turnout but when the people just kept coming and coming and coming, it went beyond our expectations.

This is a view toward the tree while the Indy Singers performed Christmas favorites. Larry Anabell brought the Singers to the Library for their second performance and as always they were terrific.

Here Julie Hildebrand (Adult Services Manager and Event Coordinator) discusses our ornament fund raiser with artist/book illustrator/library board member Tim Raglin. Tim agreed to write the family names on purchased ornaments for the evening.

A daughter discusses her "Library Bucks" with her father. Kids earned a Library Buck for each book they read between Thanksgiving and the night of the party. The bucks were used to purchase gifts for their parents or caregivers in the Friends Gift Shop.

Above, Scott Petersen (Friends' Treasurer) helps a young lady select a gift for her mother. By our count over a thousand Library Bucks were used to purchase gifts on the night of the Festival.

Bradley Blake (Library Staffer) led Christmas carols all evening. Bradley played keyboard and guitar and led popular favorites like Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer probably a dozen times.

On the third floor of the library in the Children's Department, Santa and Mrs. Claus visited with over 100 children to hear the wishes and dreams for Christmas morning.

Miss Lily, the Crown and the Dance written and being read by Trudy Bryant. Illustrator Jacqueline Haltom is showing her Beautiful Artwork to the kids and parents gathered in our Story Area.

Julie Hildebrand and Diane Hight, Friends' President are due our thanks for pulling off this wonderful event. Lots of volunteers made the evening a success. Dozens of people made themselves available to bake cookies, pick-up last minute items at the store, wrap presents, serve treats, hand out programs, and a myriad of other things that have to happen for an event of this scale to be a success.

To all of you who went the extra mile to bring joy to our children - thanks.

Amelia Earhart in January

The Annual Meeting of the Friends of the Library is featuring Amelia Earhart as portrayed by Ann Birney. Ann's energetic portrayal of Atchison native Amelia Earhart has played to audiences all over Kansas. The heroic Earhart lost her life in an around the world flight in 1937.

The Friends' Annual Meeting will be held at the Library on Thursday, January 24, 2008, at 6:30 PM. Refreshments will be served following a brief business meeting.

A Magnificant Tree for Independence

Our library Friends group has hit another one out of the ball park. They bought a sixteen foot Christmas tree for our library and come December 8th all 1350 twinkling lights will glow. On the 8th we are hosting our Christmas Tree Lighting Festival for the whole community. Diane Hight, Friends' President and Julie Hildebrand, Adult Services Manager, have planned a wonderful event that has singing, food, presents, stories, authors, presents, the Indy Choir, presents, and food.

The presents that night are to be purchased by kids for their parents, caregivers, siblings, or chums, and the legal tender is the Library Buck which is earned by reading and reporting on books. The project is mostly underwritten by our Friends group but many of our fine merchants and professionals have contributed, and we thank them.

• Bettte & Phil's Cards
• Commerce Bank
• Defever Drug Store
• DJ'S Photography
• Eggberts
• First American Title
• First Federal Savings
• Health Alternative
• Longhorn Realty
• Main Street
• Merle Norman
• Messneger's Furniture
• Middy's Creations
• Nancy's Party Mania
• Nannie LaRose
• One Dollar Store
• O'Reillys Auto Parts
• Radio Shack/Computer Generation
• Sonic Drive-In
• Sound Designs
• The Hair Gallery
  
• Twigs
• Woods Lumber

We thank our underwriters for their support.

Historic Photograph Source

This is one of thousands of historical photographs available at Shorpy: The 100-Year Old Photo Blog. Although the man is not identified by name, the caption gives Independence, Kansas as his home. Is there anyone who can identify this face from the past? Please let us know if you can put a name to the face. The caption is copied directly from Shorpy.


May 1939. Between Tulare and Fresno on U.S. 99. Farmer from Independence, Kansas, on the road at cotton chopping time. He and his family have been in California for six months. Photograph by Dorothea Lange.

Back on the horse

In Cold Blood is behind me. My book discussion group talked about it on Tuesday so it is finished. I did not enjoy the book and now I remember why I have passed up reading it for 40 years, it is grim, ugly, without redemption, and not my cup of tea. Monday evening we had a showing of the film Capote at the library, it was an interesting sidelight on the book and gave another dimension to the story, but again, it was cheerless and without redemption. Yuck!

Now I can read some fun stuff. Currently on the nightstand is Slipknot by Linda Greenlaw. She is the gutsy swordfishing captain from Maine who appears as a character in Sebastian Junger's book The Perfect Storm. Her memoir of the storm event was titled The Hungry Ocean and it is a good read. She has produced several books about her life fishing and one family cookbook. She writes a good sentence and tells a good story. Slipknot is her first mystery and I like it so far. A good interview of Greenlaw ran in USAtoday.

The Indian Bride by Karin Fossum is another one of those "Translated from the Norwegian," books that fascinate me. Set in the quiet village of Elvestad, Norway it concerns the brutal death of an Indian woman who has arrived in Norway to join her new husband who lives in the village. Events conspire to keep him from picking her up at the airport and she is murdered as she makes her way to meet him. Fossum has concocted a touching story wrapped in a solid police procedural. Fossum writes Inspector Konrad Sejer and this is the eighth book featuring him, but only five of them have been translated. If you liked Henning Mankell you might like Karin Fossum. The titles that we own by her are:

1. When the Devil Holds the Candle
2. He Who Fears the Wolf
3. Don't Look Back
4. The Indian Bride

Guest Blogger - Kim Alden Mallin, M.D.

What if you walked into a morgue to view an autopsy? Hmm. Pretty gruesome. Well, what could make it worse…? What if you looked down at the body and it was someone you knew? Ugh, even more gruesome. But…what could make it even worse? Hmm, what if you looked down at the body and it was you…or at least it looked like you?

That is the process Tess Gerritsen used to come up with the premise for Body Double, the fourth book in her series about Detective Jane Razzoli. She has said that once she gets an idea for a novel, she tries to imagine what could make it worse, or scarier or more horrific. When her son became a typical annoying adolescent, she wondered where had her sweet boy gone…who was this alien? Hmm, alien? What if all the kids in a small town seemed to become “aliens”? What if there was a natural cause for it? What if they became violent? What if…? And her book Bloodstream was born.

When she overheard a dinner conversation about children disappearing from Russia, she imagined what could be happening to them? What if… they were taken hostage and brought to the US as sex slaves? What if Jane Razzoli, her main character, was somehow taken hostage along with them? What could make it worse? Hmm, what if Jane was very pregnant when she was taken hostage? What if…? And the premise for Vanish was developed.

And so it goes.

Tess Gerritsen began her writing career while out on maternity leave and bored. Watching made-for-television movies whose endings she didn’t like and thinking she could do better led to her first book, a romance titled Call After Midnight. She published eight more romances before telling her agent that she had an idea for a medical thriller. To which her agent said "No", she’d better stick to what she knew, since physicians had the market on medical thrillers. That’s when Tess said, umm…I need to tell you something. I am a physician!

Her first medical thriller was Harvest, published in 1996. She recently published her eleventh novel, The Bone Garden. Weaving together a modern day mystery involving the unmarked grave of an unknown murdered female with serial killings from the 1830s, the novel is both entertaining and informative. It brings to life 19^th century medicine through the eyes of protagonist Norris Marshall and his fellow medical student, Oliver Wendell Holmes. As a physician I was equally disgusted and fascinated by Tess’s version of how Holmes came to his conclusions regarding disease spread and control. (The real Oliver Wendell Holmes was the physician responsible for establishing the importance of washing hands in the prevention of contagion.) Her description of a ward full of women, either about to give birth or immediately post-partum, being examined one after the other by a physician who barely wipes his hands in between, carrying germs and pus and who knows what, is horrifying to me. The Bone Garden was an interesting mystery and I loved the medical history twist. Even if it was disgusting.

Now let me go wash my hands…

(Tess Gerritsen has an excellent web site linked above, and I have brought over an interesting interview of Gerritsen from YouTube, this is the first of a multi-part interview, the rest of the interview is easily available at YouTube. Our library owns 16 of Gerritsen's titles in print and as audio books. - Pete)

Guest Blogger - Kim Alden Mallin, M.D.

Kathy Reichs is my hero. With me being a Carolina born and bred woman who practices medicine by day and struggles to write medical thrillers by night…she is the very embodiment of all of my deepest desires. Not only is she a full professor at UNC-Charlotte, working for Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina and for the Laboratoire de Sciences Judiciaires et de Medecine Legale for the province of Quebec…she is the best-selling author of the Temperance Brennon series, of which Bones to Ashes is her most recent.

It was her involvement with a serial killer case that inspired her first book, Deja Dead. Serge Archambault had killed two women and admitted to having killed a third victim, cutting her body up and burying it in five locations. Kathy Reichs helped with the investigation and identification of that case. Due to the unique and skillful methods used to dismember the victim, she advised the police to look for someone who knew something about anatomy - an orthopedic surgeon or butcher. And as it turned out, the killer was a butcher.

I have enjoyed each of her novels, whether the forensic evidence uncovers cults, identifies skeletons from clandestine graves or aids disaster response teams. Her accurate descriptions of the Carolinas, from the mountains of western North Carolina to Dewee’s Island, a barrier island off of my hometown of Charleston, SC, make me feel right at home. However, her greatest appeal for me lies with her protagonist, Temperance Brennon. Tempe has a great reputation in her field and is respected for the excellent work that she does. But her non-professional life is full of complications and conflicts, which reveal her humanness, making her vulnerable just like the rest of us. Her relationships with men are troubled, she struggles with her desire to drink alcoholically, and she has a love-hate relationship with her sister all of which only make her a more likable character.

So, as I stated earlier, Kathy Reichs is my hero. But quite honestly, although I find her work fascinating and I certainly would love to be able to write like her, I much prefer my living, breathing, and usually nice-smelling patients to her larvae-filled, pungent corpses.

Dr. Mallin, Kim, is a Florida buddy from the not-so-long ago Delray Beach days. (Pete)

Reichs has ten novels to her credit. We have six titles (*) in our collection and will try to fill out the run. The television crime series Bones is based on Reichs' character Temperance Brennon.

1. Deja Dead (1997)
2. Death du Jour* (1999)
3. Deadly Decisions* (2000)
4. Fatal Voyage (2001)
5. Grave Secrets (2002)
6. Bare Bones (2003)
7. Monday Mourning* (2004)
8. Cross Bones* (2005)
9. Break No Bones* (2006)
10. Bones to Ashes* (2007)
    

Who loves a parade?

If you missed our Neewollah Grand Parade last Saturday then you missed a doozie. Two hours of pretty girls, high school bands, horses, floats, the Budweiser Clydesdales, clowns, Shriners in funny cars, and more. Here are a few pictures taken by Julie Hilderman. More of the pictures can be seen and downloaded at Picture Independence.

The Tenderness of Wolves

I saw this one sitting on our Interlibrary Loan desk waiting to be returned to the Grant County Public Library. The title, The Tenderness of Wolves, caught my interest. I don't know why, because I hate cold weather, but cold weather settings intrigue me so I read the blurb and the opening paragraph and decided I wanted to read it. Stef Penney is British but the novel is set in Canada in the 1860's. More than simply a mystery it is a historical drama set against the ethnic difficulties that faced the Indians, French, English, Scottish, and Norwegian settlers as they faced life in the New World.

A brutally murdered trapper is discovered as the book opens by a mother whose 17 year-old adopted son goes missing. Crime, clues, treks, hostile weather, unforgiving landscape, and privation face those seeking answers to the various unknowns introduced by author Stef Penney.

The first novel has won several European awards and Penney is working on her second novel set in England.

After finishing Pete Hamill's latest, North River, I still wanted more of a taste so I picked The Gift off the shelf for a quick read. The novel is slight, but,

"A powerful short novel that's vintage Hamill-an evocative, emotionally involving tale of fathers and sons, loss and yearning, forgiveness and approbation-is restored to print..."
--according to Amazon.

John Lamb's Bibliomania on Truman Capote

Here is a wonderful piece of work by John Lamb on In Cold Blood and Truman Capote. This is Part 1.

Here is Part 2.


My book discussion group will be talking about In Cold Blood in November and I wanted to share this powerful work by John Lamb.

Robert B. Parker, yet again

The master at the top of his game, Robert B. Parker keeps turning out novels fast enough to keep fans busy reading them. There are 36 Spenser novels, 7 Jesse Stone's, 7 Sunny Randall's, and 6 others for good measure. Parker's output spans four decades.

Now & Then is number 36 and involves all the usual suspects, Susan, Hawk, Vinnie Morris, and villains to suit the skills of Spenser and the needs of plot. Spenser is as witty as ever, Susan as beautiful, Hawk as useful, and Vinnie as accurate with a gun. Nothing in excess in a Robert B. Parker mystery except clever repartee. No surprises await but fans and faithful like us will cuddle up to this one just like the last one and just like the next one. We'd be fools not to.

I'm reading North River by Pete Hamill right now and I am thoroughly enjoying the story and Pete's skill with language, plot, characters, and the period. Set in the winter of 1934, Dr. James Delaney finds his 3-year old grandson left to him by his daughter who has gone to Spain to find her errant Mexican husband. With a Hamill inspired crew of immigrants, cops, gangsters, WW1 vets, and Dr. Delaney's sick, hurt and poor neighbors a heady brew is made. Always rich in language and detail, Hamill is delivering a sound story of honor, courage, and redemption, who could ask for more.

This is Pete Hamill's 24th book spanning five decades. Dues paid in full.

Next on my nightstand is Tallgrass by Don Coldsmith. He is a native of Iola, Kansas and was schooled in Coffeyville, Baldwin City, and UMKC. He has taught at Emporia State University and won numerous awards from the Western Writers of America. His name came up at this morning's book discussion group and I had to confess my ignorance of this prolific native author. Many of his titles are out-of-print but IPL has 33 titles (of the 45 he has written) in our collection. His fans swear by him so I'll give him a read to find out for myself.

Ghost Stories Lays An Egg ...

Rosie Cutrer gave a wonderful performance, telling scary stories, singing funny macabre songs, and demonstrating again her wide performance repertoire. But only 6 children and 4 adults came to see her, not the usual 150 to 200 we had come to expect.

We moved the event from the Riverside Park band shell to the library, the weather threatened rain, and The Independence Daily Reporter gave the wrong date for the event in the program announcement, but even so ... What could we have done differently? What kept people away? Any ideas?

Wyoming, Mountains, Guns, Big Game, Bring it on ...

C. J. Box is up to number seven in his (sometime Wyoming Game Warden) Joe Picket series. From the first release this series has been a winner. Box created a believable character who stands on principle even if it means citing the governor for fishing without a license. His sequence of titles is:

1. Open Season, 2001
   
2. Savage Run, 2002
   
3. Winter Kill, 2003
   
4. Trophy Hunt, 2004
   
5. Out of Range, 2005
   
6. In Plain Sight, 2006
7. Free Fire, 2007
   

The introduction of Joe Picket in Open Season earned Box an Edgar in 2002 for a Best First Novel.

Box is the real-deal, Wyoming native, worked as a ranch hand and a fishing guide. He still lives and works in Wyoming. His novels ring true and he puts Joe Picket through the wringer in every story - he pays the price for his victories. His peers (Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Tony Hillerman) line up to heap praise on his skill as a writer. For an interview of C. J. Box follow this link.

Check the shelves or put in a reserve for one of C. J. Box's mysteries they are keepers.

Ghost Stories Leaves Riverside Park

It is true, this year the Friends of the Library are moving their signature event, Ghost Stories in the Park to 220 East Maple Street and holding the event in front of the steps to the old entrance to the Carnegie building. Holding the event in the band shell at the park has been a labor of love for a few of the Library Friends, but honestly, there are so few to spread the work among that they have worn themselves out with the work.

Below, Friend's President Diane Hight stands to the left of Rosie Cutrer as our feature at the event last year.


Above, Rosie warms up her banjo for a hilarious rendition of "Ghost Chickens in the Sky."

On Thursday, October 18th, just as the skies darken we will gather again for Ghost Stories at the Library.

A taste of Prime Suspect

Here is the first of a five part segment of Prime Suspect Behind the Scenes from YouTube. If you want the see the other four segments follow the links.


Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Lynda La Plante and Prime Suspect

We owe Lynda La Plante a debt for creating the hard-bitten character Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison so well played by actress Helen Mirren. Each entry in the series stands alone although following the progression from number 1 to number 7 in order is a particular treat. I found that it took some time for my ear to adapt and 'hear' what was being said. The language may be English but it is not the English spoken 'ere in Kansas. Once the language barrier (?) has been breached the series is a delight.

Screenplays for Prime Suspect 1 and Prime Suspect 3 were written by La Plante and in 1993 she received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the work. A second Edgar was earned by Allan Cubitt who did the screenplay for Prime Suspect 2. Each entry runs between 3 1/2 and 4 hours and is intense and gritty. The first entry features sexism in the workplace and the uphill battle DCI Tennison must face to form a cohesive investigative team. A serial killer becomes the prey for her team. The second Prime Suspect involves child abuse, pedophilia, and prostitution and DCI Tennison and her team follow the leads to surprisingly high places in the British government.

Prime Suspect 3 sees DCI Tennison facing the personal ravages of alcohol in her life and the effects of an unwanted pregnancy on her professional career.

In Prime Suspect 4, which lasts nearly 41/2 hours is actually 3 short episodes and follows DCI Tennison 's no-nonsense investigations into child abduction, home invasion with murder, and a murdered woman whose case brings a shadow to the guilt of Marlowe who was the prime suspect and convicted killer in the first Prime Suspect - is he really guilty or did Tennison make a mistake?


The Prime Suspect 5 finds Detective Chief Superintendent Tennison demoted and underutilized until she gets a case involving a 12 year old who confesses to murder.

Prime Suspect 6, The Last Witness, has Tennison investigating the murder of a Bosnian refugee leader which then leads her to finding some Serbian war criminals trying to silence the last witnesses to a massacre in the war.

Prime Suspect 7, The Final Act, I think shows Tennison at her best and at her most human. With no life of her own to show for her dedication to her career, she finds herself with a serious alcohol problem. Her father takes ill and her alcohol induced blackouts make her investigative skills suffer. Her final case involves a missing 14 year old girl, a dying father, a retirement, and coming to terms with her own alcoholism.

Helen Mirren won Emmy accolades for this role. Prime Suspect 7 won three Emmy's - Direction, Writing, and Dame Helen Mirren for Outstanding Lead Actress.

The entire series is available in DVD format at the library.

"Perhaps the greatest role and performance of a female police detective, ever"--San Francisco Chronicle