Do you read your mysteries more than once?

I've heard people say that because a mystery is, well, a mystery—and because you always know the answer when you finish the book—there's no point in reading it again. In fact, I used to think that myself. But no longer. I have books on my shelves that I've read not once or twice, but several times, and this includes mysteries.

I don't know about you, but when I find an author I like, I buy all their books as they come out. So, just as a couple of examples, I have whole collections of novels by Carolyn Hart, Ann Granger, Robert Ludlum, Lilian Jackson Braun, Anne Perry, Elizabet Peters, Peter Robinson and more. Take the "cat who" books by Lilian Jackson Braun. I think I probably have about 15 of them by now. They are all set in the same fictional city of Pickax in Moose County (400 miles north of everywhere, as the author likes to tell us in each book), and there are a number of people (as well as two Siamese cats) that appear in all the books. So that makes for a certain familiarity to the books, but that's not a bad thing. Remember, this is escapist reading, not great literature. So after a while, the stories kind of blend together in my mind and as long as I don't read the same book again TOO soon, I don't remember how it turns out, so it doesn't matter.

The other thing about a good mystery, is that you enjoy the development of the characters almost as much as solving the mystery. I love Jim Qwilleran of the "cat who" stories. Carolyn Hart's Annie Darling is someone I feel I know. And Ann Granger's Mitchell and Markby are old friends who have driven me mad with their second-guessing of one another over the years. Why wouldn't you want to visit old friends and hear their stories again?

Of course it's still a thrill to find a new writer I like and to begin another collection. Mystery lovers usually appreciate both the new and the familiar.

What about you? Add your comment and let us know what you think.

"Dead Man's Island" and other marooned mysteries

I've just finished a Ken Follett book, "Whiteout". It's one of those stories in which a group of people is marooned in a country home because of a prolonged blizzard. This is more of a thriller than a mystery, and I'll write about it in another post.

It did remind me, though, of this tried and true formula for mystery suspense novels. I suppose the granddaddy of them all was Agatha Christie's "10 Little Indians". Ten murder suspects are all cooped up in a castle — I think it was on an island but it's such a long time since I read it that I don't quite remember. Anyway, they all kept getting bumped off one by one and the trick was to guess who the murderer was before the last one fell. Nobody does this kind of thing quite like Agatha, but some others have come close. One is Carolyn Hart.

Ms Hart has two mystery series, one starring Annie and Max Darling, and the other Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins—affectionately known as Henrie O. "Dead Man's Island" stars Henrie O. It was published in 1993.

She is a retired newspaper reporter who has travelled around the world in that work. Now she's in her sixties, and her talents have made her into an intrepid amateur detective. I like her feisty personality, and the fact that some sad episodes in her past life have helped shape it. Like most heroines of detective fiction, she can be a bit over the top, but the author helps us suspend our disbelief very nicely.

In "Dead Man's island", Henrie O has been invited by an old lover, now an arrogant media magnate and obscenely rich, to come to his private island and find out who has been trying to kill him. On the island, of course, there is a selection of people with reasons to kill him (why do these people surround themselves with people who hate them?) and much jealousy and tension among the group.

Add to this the fact that the island is in the path of a deadly hurricane, and you've got all the ingredients for a great read for detective fiction fans like us. The descriptions of the hurricane and what they all have to do to survive (and of course they don't all survive) are well done, and of course Henrie O can't just think of escaping the wind and the waves because the murderer is still at large. Oh this is pure escapist fare!

Has anyone else read "Dead Man's Island"? What do you think of Henrie O? Or have you read anything else by Carolyn Hart, or any other "marooned" type mysteries?

By the way, if you are new to blogs and don't know how they work, click on the Comments link below to leave your comments and that will continue the discussion. If you want to tell a friend about this blog, click on the envelope icon below and send them an e-mail. I'll be looking for your comments. I do plan to post regularly, so do come back often.

Want to talk about the books you're reading?

This blog is very different from my usual writings, which tend to be in the realm of business. But I'm excited about this new space and I hope it will make me lots of new reading pals.

Here's why I am starting the blog. I love mystery novels—everything from the classic English "whodunnit" in the style of Agatha Christie to the hard-boiled detective stories of folks like Robert B. Parker, the whimsical "Cat who" stories of Lilian Jackson Braun and almost everything in between. I'm also a big fan of thrillers of a certain type. I say that because I don't like lots of blood and gore, and I don't like violence for its own sake, but I like to be kept up late a night because I can't put the book down. Authors that do that for me include Robert Ludlum, Lee Childs and Harlan Coben. The other genre I call adventure stories, and one of my favourite series in this category is the Amelia Peabody stories from Elizabeth Peters.

Long ago I used to work in a company where there were quite a few of us mystery/thriller/adventure readers, and we all loved to exchange views about what we liked and what we were reading, and add more titles to our "must read" lists. Somehow I don't have many people in my circle now who like to do that, or at least not a bunch who get together very often. And I miss that.

I went on the Internet to see if I could find a blog or community already established, but I was disappointed. When I searched on terms like "mystery novel" I'd get a posting or a site that mentioned the words, but they weren't really devoted to discussions about mystery novels. So finally I decided to start my own—and here I am.

I don't know how many folks will read this, but I'll do my best to build the readership so that there will be lots of comments and chat about the books we've read and loved, or read and hated, are currently reading or plan to read. Obviously I'm the only one who can put up new posts, but I do want your comments. If you want to start a new book topic, just post a comment to the last one, and I'll put up the post that will open up the discussion. And if you like the blog, please do tell your friends who like these types of books about it so that they can join us too.

Well that's it for my first post, just to let you know why I'm doing this. Next time I'll write about a book or author that's on my favourites list.