Golden Age of Magic...

Thu, 05/25/2006 - 2:47pm by wheloc

...stage magic, that is. Anyone with even a passing interest in the magicians of the 1920s (or anyone who just wants to read a good historical mystery) should try out Carter Beats the Devil, by Glen David Gold. The action starts when Warren Harding (generally considered to be the worst president in American history) is torn apart (then eaten, by a lion, on stage, in front of a live audience) during a trick called "Carter Beats the Devil", performed by the famous magician Carter the Great. Though it is revealed to be just a another clever illusion (and the President is clearly seen walking off stage after), Harding is found dead a few hours later, and the police would like to have a word or two with Carter...

Cool Mystery Series for the Grade School Set

Sat, 05/20/2006 - 9:43am by Edith Wharton

You may know all about Encyclopedia Brown, and the Hardy Boys, but have you ever heard of The Stink Files? Here is a list of some great mystery books for grade school readers.

For the kids who like Magic Tree House:
Cam Jansen Mysteries: Cam Jansen is a 10 year old girl with a photographic memory.
A to Z Mysteries: Help Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose solve crimes and misdemeanors.
Jigsaw Jones Mystery: Jigsaws puzzles are like mysteries: you've got to look at all the peices to solve the case!
Third-Grade Detectives: The Third Grade Detectives solve strange school mysteries!

For the more sophisticated reader:
Horace Splattly: The Cupcaked Crusader: Horace Splattley is a fourth grade super-hero!
The Stink Files: James Edward Bristlefur, British secret agent and international cat of mystery.
Chet Gecko Mysteries: Bruce Hale's hilarious animal noir stories are not to be missed.
Sammy Keyes Mysteries: Sammy Keyes is a feisty and fearless sleuth who gets in lots of trouble.

Fabulous Fiction Firsts #22

Fri, 05/19/2006 - 1:47pm by muffy

I frankly cannot remember the last time a debut thriller generated such buzz. Library Journal, Booklist, as well as Publishers Weekly all gave John Hart’s The King of Lies starred reviews.

Critics are calling it ”stunning…, an exceptionally deep and complex mystery thriller”; “The writing is beautiful and the story is gripping, but it is the character study… that puts this debut novel on the must-read list.”

At the center of the mystery is Work(man) Pickens, a struggling North Carolina attorney with some serious baggage – one of them is being accused of his father’s murder. You won’t want to miss this one.

Literary Mysteries by Boris Akunin

Wed, 04/26/2006 - 12:02pm by sstonez

The Diane Rehm Show on Tuesday, April 25th featured an interview with Russian author Boris Akunin, the pen name of Grigory Chkhartishvili. His literary detective novels became bestsellers in Russia and soon spread to the English-speaking world. The AADL owns several of his books in both English and Russian, as well as The Winter Queen and Murder on the Leviathan as books-on-CD. Can anyone spot the sly allusion to a certain Russian thinker hidden in Chkhartishvili's pen name?

(Boris Akunin = B.Akunin = Bakunin, a prominent anarchist of the 19th century.)