Tag: Fiction
Jane Austen: Blood Persuasion
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that…” “…there is nothing new under the sun.” Or in this novel’s case, should that be “moon”? You see, it’s 1810, and the Damned have fallen out of favor with the Prince Regent–“banished from polite society”–even though they were crucial in helping defeat invading French forces during the Napoleonic… Read More ›
Death at the Chateau Bremont
Dotted by medieval towns dating back to Roman times, filled with rolling hills of lavender and herbs, alive with the sun-drenched colors of ochre, azure, and sienna, Provence has long inspired creative minds. This is Cézanne’s country, and his birthplace, Aix-en-Provence, is the setting of M. L. Longworth’s debut novel, Death at the Château Bremont. The Mistral… Read More ›
The Witching Hour
An Englishman remarks to a bartender in New York City that “he’d just come from New Orleans, and that certainly was a haunted city.” The doctor sitting next to him agrees and remembers … “He had been dreaming of the old house in New Orleans again. He had seen the woman in the rocker. He’d… Read More ›
Purr-fect Murders
Read along with The Poisoned Martini … Mysteries and cats are a purr-fect pairing. In these tales, cats are watching. Are they witnesses to murder, sleuths on the case, or clues to the crime? Find out in these feline felonies. As before with previous discussion series, “A Taste of Murder” in 2011, “Unusual Sleuths” and “Unearthing Murder”… Read More ›
Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses
If you are reading along with The Poisoned Martini, then perhaps this month you read a Georges Simenon mystery featuring the laconic Maigret, the French commissaire known for his cigars and love of a good stiff drink. As a book discussion choice, it may be hard to come by enough copies of the same Maigret… Read More ›
Murder in Passy
“You think life finally makes sense, then…Pouff, it turns upside down,” says Commissaire Morbier to his goddaughter, Aimée Leduc, in the opening pages of this eleventh book in the Aimée Leduc Investigation series. It’s Aimée’s first day back to work after a month’s recuperation from “the explosion that had laid her low on her last case,” Murder… Read More ›
Murder at the Lanterne Rouge
J’adore Paris. Et vous? San Francisco-based author Cara Black sets her Aimée Leduc Investigation series in Paris, which the author frequently visits. Each novel features one of Paris’ twenty arrondissements, and in this tweflth entry, it’s time for the 3rd Arrondisement—wherein lies Paris’ oldest Chinatown—to shine. Aimée Leduc accompanies her long-time business partner, René, to dinner in… Read More ›
Murder on the Blackboard II
“But I’m not a detective. I was mixed up in one murder case because I happened to be at the Aquarium when a dead body appeared in the penguin tank upside down, and in another because I was having tea with the Inspector when he heard the alarm…” So says Miss Hildegarde Withers when asked… Read More ›
Murder on the Blackboard I
The perfect casting can make or break an adaptation of any story. One successful example of superb casting is that of Edna May Oliver in the role of amateur sleuth Hildegarde Withers. Hildegarde Withers is a New York City teacher (originally from Boston) who, in Murder on the Blackboard, is described as “in the neighborhood… Read More ›
Floodgates
Floodgates. For some, in New Orleans, they are an obsession. From one character’s desire to end the plague of pestilence to another’s discovery of their potential failure, the floodgates holding back the water is central to this murder mystery tale. Faye Longchamp, taking a few semesters off to work a project that could help with her dissertation,… Read More ›
The Poisoned Martini 