Clara Maynard's blog

Miss de Luce

Submitted by Clara Maynard on Fri, 06/04/2010 - 5:08pm

english manor house

 

Flavia de Luce is a brilliant chemist and detective, and she happens to be 11 years old.

Tortured by her evil big sisters, ignored by her loving but eccentric father, she is left to her own devices in their English manor house in the village of Bishop’s Lacey. When a local puppet show is ruined by the death of the puppeteer, she investigates. The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag may sound like a children’s book, but it is definitely an adult book, and well worth the read. The author received the Debut Dagger Award for The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, the first Flavia de Luce mystery.

 

 

Playing with Fire!

Submitted by Clara Maynard on Thu, 05/27/2010 - 3:09pm

city

 

If you haven’t read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo yet, you’ll have to wait for a copy as everyone wants to read it. However, there are not nearly as many requests for The Girl Who Played with Fire, the second book in the series. If you’ve been wondering if it’s as good as the first, reviews are mixed. However, I found it to be quite entertaining, and enjoyed the insight into the Lisbeth Salander character. My only regret is that the author has passed away and there will be no more books from him. In this one, a journalist is about to expose Sweden's sex trafficking business when he and his girlfriend are suddenly murdered. Due to circumstantial evidence, Lisbeth is a prime suspect and she goes into hiding. Her friend, Blomkvist,strives to clear her. The characters, as before, are quite interesting as is the look at Swedish society.

Lasso yourself a good read!

Submitted by Clara Maynard on Thu, 05/06/2010 - 11:46am

cowboy with lasso

The Texas Library Association has released its first Lariat List of recommended reading for adults. One might expect this to be a list of novels set in Texas, but that is not so. The group wanted to create a list of books that were "a pleasure to read.” The Lariat List is diverse in genres and appeal factors. I thought you might like to know about the mysteries on the list. Here they are:

Edgar Award Winners 2010

Submitted by Clara Maynard on Fri, 04/30/2010 - 2:34pm

edgar award

The Edgar Awards were announced last night and here are the winners:
Novel        The Last Child by John Hart
First Novel          In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff
Best Paperback    Body Blows by Marc Strange
Young Adult        Reality Check by Peter Abrahams
Best Critical          The Lineup by Otto Penzler

Check one out for yourself and see what you think!

(photo of the Edgar award courtesy of Kevin Dooley via Flickr)

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