2009 Mystery Book Club Favorites


Our Book Clubs vote on their foavorites of the books discussed durning the year. Here are the Travel Essay Book Club's top four favorites of 2009. We read so many good mysteries in 2009 the Mystery Book Club faced difficult choices in their voting! Third Place was a tie between Past Caring by Robert Goddard and Last Kashmiri Rose by Barbara Cleverly. Fourth Place was a tie between Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear and The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie King.

Uncivil Seasons: A Justin & Cuddy Novel (Paperback)

By Michael Malone
$19.99
ISBN-13: 9781570717550
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Sourcebooks Landmark, 9/2001
Other Editions of this Title
First Place went to Uncivil Seasons by Michael Malone.  If you enjoy beautiful writing, fully realized characters, and intricate plotting you will be most pleased.  Michael Malone is an Emmy Award winning screenwriter, New York Time Best Selling author, Edgar Award winner, a professor at Duke University and a very talented man.  Most of Michael Malone’s body of work is literary fiction, he has written only three mysteries set in North Carolina.  Uncivil Seasons is the first of the trilogy.  Justin Savile’s family ruled as far back as memory served, his granddaddy was the governor, his uncle a senator, his cousin the attorney general.  Justin was meant to finish law school then join his family in the halls of power.  He graduated  law school but instead of joining his powerful clan he developed a taste for alcohol and became a cop.  Crime in his social class, at least the sort that resulted in prison time, was uncommon.  It is a shock when the wife of Justin’s uncle, is found beaten to death.  She was a cheerful woman, beloved by many.  Assumptions are made about the sort of people who would be involved in her brutal murder and the reasons they employed.   It does not take long to find a low-life who fits the profile.  Cuddy Mangum is a brilliant detective from the wrong side of the tracks and a Viet Nam veteran to boot.  He is determined that justice not supposition rule.   

Finding Nouf (Paperback)

By Zoe Ferraris
$13.95
ISBN-13: 9780547237787
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Mariner Books, 5/2009
Other Editions of this Title
Second place goes to Finding Nouf , it blew me away! It takes you behind the chador, but does not ridicule the people. Zoe Ferraris married a Saudi man and lived in Jeddah, the setting for the story. She uses her intimate knowledge of the place and culture to craft a compelling mystery. Nouf goes missing; her prominent family hires Nayir, an experienced desert tracker, to help in the search. When her body is found, the facts do not sit comfortably with Nayir. Katya in the medical examiner's office also has concerns about what really happened to Nouf. The tension between Nayir and Katya as they try to discover the truth is part of the story. Nayir is uncomfortable interacting with Katya, there are taboos on what is permissible between a single woman and a man. If you enjoy a good mystery, well written, set in a very different culture do not miss this one!

The Last Kashmiri Rose (Paperback)

By Barbara Cleverly
$13.00
ISBN-13: 9780385339711
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Delta, 7/2006
Other Editions of this Title
The Last Kashmiri Rose by Barbara Cleverly tied for third place Brigadier Harold Sandilands , the great uncle of Cleverly’s husband, was the inspiration for Commander Joe Sandilands.  This is the first book in a series, it opens with Joe eagerly anticipating his return to London and Scotland Yard.  He is packed and ready to leave India, when he receives a summons from the Governor.  No good can come of this, Joe reflects.  He is right.  Pretty soon he is headed out into the hinterlands where the Governor's niece fears someone is getting away with murder.  The mortality rate in wives of the Bengal Greys is unusually high, the deaths ascribed to suicide or accident.  Joe will need all his wiles to catch a determined, intelligent killer.

Past Caring (Paperback)

By Robert Goddard
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780385341172
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Delta, 5/2008
Other Editions of this Title
Past Caring by Robert Goddard tied for third place.  A rising young star in British Parliament falls for a feisty suffragette.  He can keep his career or his love, he cannot have both.  On the day he turns in his resignation she spurns him.  Why?  In 1977 a discredited history teacher is hired by a mysterious man on the isle of Madeira to find the answer to the mystery.  Goddard writes with wonderfully elegant prose and intricate plots.  

Maisie Dobbs (Paperback)

By Jacqueline Winspear
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780142004333
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Penguin Books, 6/2004
Other Editions of this Title
 Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear tied for fourth place.  Lady Rowan is startled to discover her 14 year old maid hidden in her library voraciously reading books in the middle of the night.  Fortunately for Maisie, Lady Rowan is impressed by her intelligence and eagerness to learn.  She decides to educate the young girl.  WWI swallows Europe, filling the land with horror.  Maisie serves as a nurse, trying to help the suffering young men as a generation is destroyed.  After the war Maisie becomes a detective.  Her first case is a husband fearful his wife may be cheating.  Maisie follows the woman to a cemetery, not the usual spot for a tryst, where the young woman visits a grave with only the name Vincent.  Maisie notices this cemetery has many graves with only a single name.  Winspear treats her characters with dignity, Maisie is delightful.  You go girl!

The Beekeeper's Apprentice: Or On the Segregation of the Queen (Paperback)

By Laurie R. King
$16.00
ISBN-13: 9780312427368
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Picador, 10/2007
Other Editions of this Title
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie King tied for fourth place.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created a memorable character; there are few people who do not recognize the name Sherlock Holmes.  Laurie King has given Holmes formidable intellect to a young woman, Mary Russell, and made them compatriots.  Russell stumbles across Holmes when she is a lass of 15 and Holmes is 54.  Russell is out wandering the Sussex meadows, avoiding her shrewish aunt.  Holmes is occupying himself scrutinizing the behavior of certain bees in the meadow.  The two recognize in each other a keen intellect and inquiring nature.  Holmes takes Russell under his wing, slowly training the young girls mind.  She will grow to be his friend and associate, together they will solve puzzles baffling the authorities.  Holmes has enemies; by caring for Mary Russell he puts her at risk.  What will be the cost?  Laurie King begins a remarkable series with Mary Russell while treating Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation, Sherlock Holmes, with due respect.
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