Reviewed By Liz

I hadn’t intended to stop reviewing books completely during the SMRC, but it has taken up a lot of my spare time. However, I have about seven books awaiting reviews and hope to get to them shortly. I think six of them are by authors I haven’t read before, so I have fulfilled challenge already! The question really is when I will find the time to read the all the books by the featured authors. They all sound so good!

Today’s featured author is Luisa Buehler who writes the Grace Marsden Mysteries. Grace is a thirty something amateur sleuth who is obsessive compulsive–think Monk in a skirt. Each book in the series revolves around a cold case with uncovered bones and a touch of the supernatural.

THE ROSARY BRIDE: A CLOISTERED DEATH – Book One
During the 1940′s the women attending Rosary College insisted a beautiful young woman wearing a ‘fancy dress’ haunted the halls near the chapel. Many claimed to see the apparition often entering, sitting, and softly crooning a mournful melody. Stories of the ‘Rosary Bride’ continue from generation to generation.

Fifty years later, during the renovation of the college library, workers expose a skeleton. Grace Marsden, present at the discovery is drawn into the search for the victim’s identity, fearing the remains will lead to skeletons in her own family closet. Against her husband, her best friend, and her own common sense Grace determines to find the truth. Her involvement grows beyond her control when the dead woman reaches out to her.

Complications arise when the investigating police inspector dredges up more old secrets and betrayal. Ignoring her husband’s theory that the Inspector’s motives are less than honorable, Grace continues her quest to solve the decades old homicide. Desperate to know the truth, Grace enlists the help of Sister Andrew, a nun who lived at Rosary during the 40′s and has chronicled the college’s history. But all too soon the treachery of the past meets the future and once again lives are lost. Can Grace name the ‘Rosary Bride’ before her killer strikes again?

THE LION TAMER: A CAGED DEATH – Book Two
Wagons rolling, flags furling, horns blaring, the circus comes to town! Children chase the wagons, daring for a glimpse of exotic wild creatures. The big cats roar, sending shivers through the crowd, but they edge closer, demanding to be scared, knowing they are safe. And then a skeleton is found in a bygone relic. Is anyone safe?

Grace Marsden fights the lure of a decades old mystery surrounding a circus wagon, a phantom lion, and human bones uncovered at a local zoo. But when a dead woman sends her a letter and a dead man ends up in her neighbors yard, she can’t ignore the lion tamer and his tale. Legend, fact, or fantasy? Grace needs to find out fast before she becomes his current prey.

THE STATION MASTER: A SCHEDULED DEATH – Book Three
The eighth annual Depot Days celebration is drawing large crowds to the quaint old station. The buzz of an auction and the thrill of the win. Eager spectators crane their necks as the last antique trunk gives up its secret…Trouble!

Death has knocked at Grace Marsden’s door before, but the stakes skyrocket when circumstances cast her husband as the number one suspect in a hit and run. Once again fate sets Grace on a collision course with a determined murderer.

Suspicion raises ugly memories and peoples defenses when they realize their close-knit town harbors a killer. Who knows the secret? And who punched a one-way ticket to the end of the line for Grace?

THE SCOUT MASTER: A PREPARED DEATH – Book Four
“On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God
and my country and to obey the Scout Law…

Hidden for decades in local woods lies a World War II munitions crate filled with bones. The gruesome discovery by a Boy Scout troop uncovers Satanic rituals and prompts questions about cults, Wiccan covens, and a murdered FBI agent.

To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong…

Could young men led by a twisted scoutmaster be the hooded marauders terrorizing the woods? Can Grace count on the Scout Law to keep her safe as the cult chooses her for their next victim?

Luisa will be at Printers’ Row Chicago, June 9th, Muskego Library, WI June 21st, AuthorFest, Schaumburg Library June 23rd and the Delton Library, MI July 26th.

Her new book THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER: A BECKONING DEATH comes out this fall.

Learn more about Luisa Buehler at her website: http://www.luisabuehler.com/

If you haven’t signed up for the Summer Myster Reading Challenge yet, click here for directions. You are welcome to read along on your own, of course, but only registered participants are eligible for the prizes.

If you would like to comment on a book by a featured author or ask them a question, please leave the comment on their daily page so they can find it easily. Comments about what you are reading, books you have finished, requests for readalikes or recommendations, or mystery related links can be made on the SMRC post for that day so we can all see them. Thanks!

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

Hope your reading is coming along well!

S.D. Tooley is today’s featured author.

In RESTLESS SPIRIT, the third book in the Sam Casey series, a button unearthed at a construction site reopens a 17-year-old murder case. Samantha Casey is a former homicide detective who straddles the gene fence — she is part Native American. She lives with her mother, a Sioux medicine woman, in a south suburb of Chicago. Sam’s heritage also bestowed upon her some Native American mysticism — she has the ability to hear the dead speak. Think Medium with a Native American twist. RESTLESS SPIRIT won ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Award in 2003.

The first two books in this series are NOTHING ELSE MATTERS and WHEN THE DEAD SPEAK. The Sam Casey series has twice won ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Award.

S.D. Tooley will be at Printers Row in Chicago in June for their annual book fair, as well as book fairs in Aurora IL, Schaumburg IL, Sturgis KY, Frankfort KY, Joliet IL, and Indianapolis IN. She participates in a number of panel presentations at libraries with two other authors. The group calls themselves The Mystery Mavens.

Find out more about S.D. Tooley and appearance specifics at her website: http://www.sdtooley.com

Besides the above web site, she is also on MySpace www.myspace.com/sdtooley and she sells unique grim reaper-theme products at www.cafepress.com/sdtooley.

If you haven’t signed up for the Summer Myster Reading Challenge yet, click here for directions. You are welcome to read along on your own, of course, but only registered participants are eligible for the prizes.

If you would like to comment on a book by a featured author or ask them a question, please leave the comment on their daily page so they can find it easily. Comments about what you are reading, books you have finished, requests for readalikes or recommendations, or mystery related links can be made on the SMRC post for that day so we can all see them. Thanks!

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

Mysteries, books, reading, publishing, book reviews,

While the Summer Mystery Reading Challenge wasn’t suppposed to start until June 1st, but everyone was anxious to begin, so go ahead and start reading now.

The SMRC is a flexible reading challenge with a daily featured mystery author. Join up any time (click on the icon to the right for additional info) and join in the conversation by leaving a comment on the daily post or, if it is a comment to or about one of our featured authors, leave a quote on their feature page. We encourage you to go both forward and backward through the challenge as you read the featured authors’ daily pages, books, and the comments. Tell us what you are reading and how you like it. And have fun!

For the last three days, we have been featuring deceased mystery authors who had long and illustrious careers. Today, however, we found one who is alive and kicking! Catherine Aird (pen name of Kinn Hamilton McIntosh) published her first book in 1966 and has a new book coming out this fall. All but one of her books feature Inspector C.D. Sloan and usually feature bodies found in unexpected places or unusual circumstances.

We decided to feature Aird because my two favorites were published in the 1960′s, and one of them has been recently reprinted. Tom & Enid Schantz of Rue Morgue Press met Catherine Aird for the first time at a convention in 2006 and decided on the spot that they really needed to reprint her second book, A Most Contagious Game. This book apparently fell by the wayside because it was her only stand-alone, but it is a truly wonderful book and the couple have written a lovely background piece about the book and the history behind it.

My personal favorite is Henrietta Who? A woman is killed in a hit and run and a standard autopsy is performed to confirm the cause of death. But the autopsy turns up the fact that the victim could not be the biological mother to her 20 year old daughter, Henrietta. Nobody had any idea that Henrietta was adopted or that the stories her mother told her were all false. As Henrietta searches for her identity, Sloan searches for her mother’s killer, convinced the two mysteries are connected.

You can find out more about Catherine Aird at her web site.

If you haven’t signed up for the SMRC yet, click here for directions. You are welcome to read along on your own, of course, but only registered participants are eligible for the prizes.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

While the Summer Mystery Reading Challenge wasn’t suppposed to start until June 1st, but everyone was anxious to begin, so go ahead and start reading now.

The SMRC is a flexible reading challenge with a daily featured mystery author. Join up any time (click on the icon to the right for additional info) and join in the conversation by leaving a comment on the daily post or, if it is a comment to or about one of our featured authors, leave a quote on their feature page. We encourage you to go both forward and backward through the challenge as you read the featured authors’ daily pages, books, and the comments. Tell us what you are reading and how you like it. And have fun!

Many of you probably only know P.G. Wodehouse as the creator of the Jeeves and Wooster characters, which were so wonderfully portrayed by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie in the 1990′s. What you may not know is that Wodehouse wrote 96 books between 1902 and 1975 as well as plays and musical lyrics, including the song Bill from Show Boat.

Wodehouse’s humorous, light mysteries were very popular during his lifetime, but were often dismissed by critics and more serious authors. They are filled with fops, capers, and misunderstandings that snowball beyond all control and result in glorious chaos. It occured to me recently that Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books are the modern equivalent of Wodehouse’s laugh-out-loud style.

You can see the tremendous number of Wodehouse’s books (with foreign titles, which helps to cut down on confusion) and read about the interesting events in his life at his wiki.

My favorite Wodehouse book is Leave it to Psmith (1923). Psmith (the P is silent) is hired to steal a necklace at Blandings Castle. This book marries up the Psmith series with the Blandings Castle mob and hilarity results. Wodehouse’s books are fast and funny reads and I encourage you to try one out.

If you haven’t signed up for the SMRC yet, click here for directions. You are welcome to read along on your own, of course, but only registered participants are eligible for the prizes.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

While the Summer Mystery Reading Challenge wasn’t suppposed to start until June 1st, but everyone was anxious to begin, so go ahead and start reading now.

The SMRC is a flexible reading challenge with a daily featured mystery author. Join up any time (click on the icon to the right for additional info) and join in the conversation by leaving a comment on the daily post or, if it is a comment to or about one of our featured authors, leave a quote on their feature page. We encourage you to go both forward and backward through the challenge as you read the featured authors’ daily pages, books, and the comments. Tell us what you are reading and how you like it. And have fun!

Ngaio Marsh is another of my favorite classic mystery authors. Marsh wrote mysteries from the 1930′s through the 1980′s featuring British CID Detective Roderick Alleyn. Along with the better known Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, and Dorothy L. Sayers, she was considered one of the original “Queens of Crime.”

Marsh was a New Zealander with a background in both art and theater and she incorporates the arts into many of her books. Night at the Vulcan (1951) has a play production as its setting and is considered by many to be her best work. My personal favorite is Black As He’s Painted (1974), with Night at the Vulcan a close second.

One of the things I have always found most interesting about Marsh’s series is the evolving relationship between Alleyn and his wife, portrait painter Agatha Troy. Troy comes into the series after the first few books and is a shy but educated, artistic, and articulate character – many believe Marsh based this character on herself. In several of the books, Troy is the first person involved in the case and Alleyn follows in his professional capacity. The couple also has a son, who grows up during the course of the series and is also featured as an adult.

I would encourage you to read Marsh’s wiki and to sample some of her books, many of Marsh’s books are currently available.

If you haven’t signed up for the SMRC yet, click here for directions. You are welcome to read along on your own, of course, but only registered participants are eligible for the prizes.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

While the Summer Mystery Reading Challenge wasn’t suppposed to start until June 1st, but everyone was anxious to begin, so go ahead and start reading now.

The SMRC is a flexible reading challenge with a daily featured mystery author. Join up any time (click on the icon to the right for additional info) and join in the conversation by leaving a comment on the daily post or, if it is a comment to or about one of our featured authors, leave a quote on their feature page. We encourage you to go both forward and backward through the challenge as you read the featured authors’ daily pages, books, and the comments. Tell us what you are reading and how you like it. And have fun!

Special thanks go out to author Steven Rigolosi, who sent two signed copies of his new book CIRCLE OF ASSASSINS for the prize pool. Steve is going to be our featured author on June 6th. Thanks!

Those of you who have read the Where were you when Kennedy was shot?post know that the first adult mysteries I read (and loved) were the works of John Dickson Carr. Many of you younger mystery readers will never have heard of Carr, who wrote mysteries from the 1930’s through the 1970’s, but he is widely regarded as the master of the locked room mystery. His detectives, the majestic Dr. Gideon Fell and the mercurial Sir Henry Merrivale, solve cases guaranteed to bewilder and befuddle the reader. Sometimes even after the solution has been explained!

In addition to his locked room mysteries, Carr is also believed to be the author of the first full-length historical mystery – The Bride of Newgate, published in 1950. Carr was a man of many and varied accomplishments, and I encourage you to read his wiki. Many of his books have been in print recently and can be found, but his biography, John Dickson Carr: The Man Who Explained Miracles, is not currently in print.

While people think The Three Coffins is his best work, my personal favorite is The Case of the Constant Suicides.

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If you haven’t signed up for the SMRC yet, click here for directions. You are welcome to read along on your own, of course, but only registered participants are eligible for the prizes.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

While the Summer Mystery Reading Challenge doesn’t officially start until June 1st, we wanted to put daily posts up early so everyone has a place to post the list of books they are thinking of reading, ask for recommendations, or simply chat about mysteries. Feel free to jump in any time and leave a comment or ask a question.

If you read yesterday’s post, you saw that you can start reading your mysteries now. I can’t stand between determined readers and their books. But I am going to wait and do the first prize drawing after the official start so I don’t run out. I may double up on prizes later, though, because some of our featured authors have generously offered copies of their books as prizes and if they all come in there will be lots to give out to our appreciative audience.

And now to the questions…

I have mislaid the email (one of thousands this week!) but someone asked about mysteries published before 1991. Since we expected lots of readers to be away for the American Memorial Day holiday this weekend, we scheduled some classic mystery authors for the long weekend – John Dickson Carr, Ngaio Marsh, P.G. Wodehouse, and Catherine Aird are all coming up starting on Friday. These four authors cover different time periods and styles but all are remarkable in their own ways.

And the barn. I mentioned it the other day and now everyone wants to know about the barn. The barn at the top of our page is the view out the door of our house as off last fall. It is across the street from us and my husband loves taking pictures of it. We live in a rural area and I guess that that farm has not been inhabited since about the 40′s. The house and several outbuildings have fallen down and we are making book on which one goes next. We actually live in the 100+ year old school house that the children of the farm’s original owners probably attended. No, you won’t see any pictures of our house for a while. It is at least a 10 year rehab project. And we still have the cross on the roof – it was a church in later years – and we are the first people to live in it so it needs a lot of work. If I didn’t spend all of my spare time reading I might make more progress on the house.

Today’s mystery resource is a fantastic readalike source that I discovered in my prowling around the net. The Waterloo Library in Waterloo, Maine has linked to readalike lists from libraries around the world and gathered these links together in one place. And what, you ask, is a readalike? Readalikes are books that are similar to one another in style, topic, or subject matter and these readalike lists are a tremendous resource for librarians. Imagine the library patron who asks their friendly librarian for a book just like the one they read and loved, but the librarian has never read the author in question. The quick-thinking librarian pulls out the readalike list for that author and viola! they have some recommendations.

Some of these lists have not been updated in a while and some of the links are broken, but this site is still an excellent place to start looking for a readalike. If, for example, you like mysteries that revolve around food, there are more than 20 readalike lists available. There are also readalike lists for specific authors and books – there are more than a dozen readalike lists for the Da Vinci Code.

Personally, I don’t always think the books on readalike lists are similar, but somebody obviously did. And that hasn’t kept me from finding some real gems. I first read Harley Jane Kozak because she was on a readalike list for Janet Evanovich. Let me know what luck you have with the lists or if you have new candidates for outdated lists so we can post some up to date versions here.

If you haven’t signed up for the SMRC yet, click here for directions. You are welcome to read along on your own, of course, but only registered participants are eligible for the prizes.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

While the Summer Mystery Reading Challenge doesn’t officially start until June 1st, we wanted to put daily posts up early so everyone has a place to post the list of books they are thinking of reading, ask for recommendations, or simply chat about mysteries. Feel free to jump in any time and leave a comment or ask a question.

Okay, we have some questions…

Pat asked if she could start reading now. Apparently she has a book burning a hole through her nightstand and she just can’t stand it any longer. How can I tell you to wait if you have a new book? That would be cruel and unusual punishment. Do I look that cruel? No, wait. The only picture on the blog is a barn – you have no idea what I look like!

Go ahead and START READING now. But I am going to wait and do the first prize drawing after the official start so I don’t run out. Now I have to go change the next nine posts.

And Pat was followed quickly by two people who also couldn’t wait…

Kelly said “Book #1 – New author to me, but his 3rd book- Anthony Eglin – The Water Lily Cross. I enjoyed it, but it really, really strains the boundaries of how much an amateur sleuth can do without being ridiculous. I might read another one by Eglin or not. I’m not terribly excited.”

Suzanne said “Yesterday I read Organize Your Corpses by Mary J Maffini. Was okay, not great. You’ve got to wonder about someone who’d wear red boots with stilletto heels to run around in. I’ve got more DB Borton to read–I like Cat Caliban, and she wears comfortable clothes to detect in. I’m up to number 6.”

And if someone can tell me how to move comments I would be grateful. Since everyone is reading different authors, I have put daily posts up for comments and you can use the search box on the main page to look for comments on a particular book or author. This is a learning experience for us, and we are still working out the bugs. If you see one, please let us know!

One of the reasons I started reviewedbyliz was to expand my own mystery reading horizons. So I was delighted when Peter Rozovsky drew my attention to his Detectives Beyond Borders blog. Peter loves to read crime fiction by authors from around the world and he writes about them on his blog. He recently recommended some lighter mysteries for me and I absolutely loved Boris Akunin’s Murder on the Leviathan.

Peter’s site is quite an eye-opener for those of us who tend to think mysteries come in only two varieties – American and British. But there are mystery writers crafting stories for their local audiences around the world and many of these stories are now being translated for international readers. So expand your horizons and check out Peter’s latest find.

If you haven’t signed up for the SMRC yet, click here for directions. You are welcome to read along on your own, of course, but only registered participants are eligible for the prizes.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

While the Summer Mystery Reading Challenge doesn’t officially start until June 1st, we wanted to put daily posts up early so everyone has a place to post the list of books they are thinking of reading, ask for recommendations, or simply chat about mysteries. Feel free to jump in any time and leave a comment or ask a question.

With the advent of online booksellers and book superstores, independent mystery bookstores are in jeopardy. These stores are usually owned and operated by enthusiastic and knowledgeable mystery fans who can offer their customers great recommendations and insight into the world of mysteries. These are also great places for mystery themed events and author readings and signings. Check out the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association membership list to find a mystery bookstore in your neighborhood or to visit while traveling.

And while you are on the site, look at the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century. I have read many of these books, but I’m going to keep the list for future reference. This list was also turned into an award-winning book with reviews of the books and other interesting information. You can find out about the book here.

If you haven’t signed up for the SMRC yet, click here for directions. You are welcome to read along on your own, of course, but only registered participants are eligible for the prizes.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007