Tuesday, December 1, 2015

January 2016 Book Selection



Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday January 5, 2016. We will be discussing, Dog on it by Spencer Quinn. Spencer Quinn is a penname for Peter Abrahams. This is the first book in the Chet and Bernie series. Chet is private investigator Bernie’s dog, and the story is told from his perspective.
The book summary is: Meet Chet, the wise and lovable canine narrator of Dog on It, who works alongside Bernie, a down-on-his-luck private investigator. Chet might have flunked out of police school ("I'd been the best leaper in K-9 class, which had led to all the trouble in a way I couldn't remember exactly, although blood was involved"), but he's a detective through and through. In this, their first adventure, Chet and Bernie investigate the disappearance of Madison, a teenage girl who may or may not have been kidnapped, but who has definitely gotten mixed up with some very unsavory characters. Their search for clues takes them into the desert to biker bars and other exotic locals, with Chet's highly trained nose leading the way. Both Chet and Bernie bring their own special skills to the hunt, one that puts each of them in peril. But even as the bad guys try to turn the tables, this duo is nothing if not resourceful, and the result is an uncommonly satisfying adventure. With his doggy ways and his endearingly hardboiled voice, Chet is full of heart and occasionally prone to mischief. He is intensely loyal to Bernie, who, though distracted by issues that Chet has difficulty understanding -- like divorce, child custody, and other peculiar human concerns -- is enormously likable himself, in his flawed, all-too-human way.
            Have a happy holiday season, and join us in the New Year.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

December 2015 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday December 1, 2015. We will be discussing The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke. This is the first book in the Hannah Swensen series. The character of Hannah is a baker and runs a bakery in her small town. The author also includes recipes in the books.
From the author's website: "Hannah already has her hands full trying to dodge her mother's attempts to marry her off while running The Cookie Jar, Lake Eden's most popular bakery. But once Ron LaSalle, the beloved delivery man from the Cozy Cow Dairy, is found murdered behind her bakery with Hannah's famous Chocolate Chip Crunchies scattered around him, her life can't get any worse. Determined not to let her cookies get a bad reputation, she sets out to track down a killer. But if she doesn't watch her back, Hannah's sweet life may get burned to a crisp."
We will be meeting in the Second Floor Meeting room. Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

November 2015 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday November 3, 2015. We will be discussing Raven Black by Ann Cleeves. This is the first book in the Shetland series featuring Inspector Jimmy Perez. This series is also the basis for the British television series Shetland.
From the author's website: "Raven Black was the first winner of the prestigious Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award for the best crime novel of the year. The judges praised Raven Black for its "superb sense of place." They called it "a depiction of of an enclosed community with modern and entrenched values constantly competing, [and] a thrilling read." The synopsis is: "It is a cold January morning, and Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a splash of color on the frozen ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbor, Catherine Ross. As Fran opens her mouth to scream, the ravens continue their deadly dance. The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one man- loner and simpleton Magnus Tait. But when detective Jimmy Perez and his colleagues from the mainland insist on opening out the investigation, a veil of suspicion and fear is thrown over the entire community. For the first time in years, Catherine's neighbors nervously lock their doors, whilst a killer lives on in their midst."
We will be meeting in the second floor meeting room at 7:00 pm.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

October 2015 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday October 6, 2015 at 7:00 pm when we discuss What Angels Fear by C. S. Harris. This is the first book featuring Sebastian St. Cyr, a nobleman in the time of King George III of England.
The synopsis of of the book from the large print edition is: " The year is 1811. As old King George III sinks deeper into madness, and the threat of social unrest and revolution haunts the privileged classes, a beautiful young woman is found raped and savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient parish church. An ornate dueling pistol discovered in the blood-soaked folds of Rachel York's cloak and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man: Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, a brilliant young nobleman shattered by his experiences in the Napoleonic Wars. Now a fugitive, Sebastian calls upon his experience as an agent during the war to embark on a desperate quest to catch a brutal killer and prove his own innocence."
We will be meeting in the library's second floor meeting room.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

September 2015 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday September 1, 2015 at 7:00 pm when we will be discussing, From Doon with death by Ruth Rendell. This is the first book that she wrote featuring Inspector Wexford, and the series now includes 24 titles. These books were also the inspiration for a British television series. Sadly, Ruth Rendell passed away in May of this year.
The summary from the paperback edition is: "There is nothing extraordinary about Margaret Parsons, a timid housewife in the quiet town of Kingsmarkham, a woman devoted to her garden, her kitchen, her husband. Except that Margaret Parsons is dead...Who would kill someone with nothing to hide? Inspector Wexford, the formidable chief of police, is baffled-- until he discovers Margaret's dark secret: a trove of rare books, each volume incribed by a passionate lover identified only as Doon... the case builds with relentless momentum to a shocking finale as clever as it is expected." Join us in the 2nd Floor Meeting room.

Monday, August 3, 2015

August 2015 Meeting

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the August meeting of the North Providence Mystery Book Club will be held on Tuesday, August 11, 2015 at 7 PM in the Trustee Meeting Room.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

August 2015 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday, August 4, 2015 when we will discuss, Death wore white, by Jim Kelly. This is the first book featuring Detective Inspector Peter Shaw.
This synopsis is from the author's website: " At 5:15 p.m. Harvey Ellis was trapped--stranded in a line of eight cars by a blizzard on a Norfolk coast road. At 8:15 p.m. Harvey Ellis was dead -- viciously stabbed at the wheel of his truck. And his killer has achieved the impossible: striking without being seen, and without leaving a single footprint in the snow... For DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine it's only the start of an infuriating investigation. The crime scene is melting, the murderer has vanished, the witnesses are dropping like flies. And the body count is on the rise..."
Please join us in the Library's Second Floor Meeting Room.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

July 2015 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday July 7, 2015 at 7:00 pm in the second floor meeting room. The book we will be discussing is, Some Danger Involved by by Will Thomas. This is the first story featuring Cyrus Baker and Thomas Llewelyn and is set in Victorian London.

The book description from the author's website is: "When a student bearing a striking resemblance to artists' renderings of Jesus Christ is found murdered --by crucifixion-- in London's Jewish ghetto, 19th century private detective Barker must hire an assistant to help him solve the sinister case. Out of all who answer an ad for a position with "some danger involved" the eccentric and enigmatic Barker chooses downtrodden Llewelyn, a gutsy young man whose murky past includes recent stints at both an Oxford college and an Oxford prison. As Llewelyn learns the ropes of his position, he is drawn deeper and deeper into Barker's peculiar world of vigilante detective work, as well as the dark heart of London's teeming underworld. Together they pass through chophouses, stables, and clandestine tea rooms, tangling with the early Italian mafia, a mad professor of eugenics, and other shadowy figures, inching ever closer to the shocking truth behind the murder."

Friday, April 17, 2015

May 2015 Meeting Cancelled

The May 5, 2015 meeting of the North Providence Mystery Book Club has been cancelled due to a library face lift. We will next meet on Tuesday June 2, 2015 in the second floor meeting room. We will be reading Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

May 2015 Book Selection

The North Providence Mystery Book Club will meet on Tuesday May 5, 2015 in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 pm. We will be discussing, Cocaine blues by Kerry Greenwood. This is the first book featuring Phryne Fisher. These books take place in Australia during the 1920's, and Phryne is a socialite with a taste for adventure.
The summary from the book's publisher is, "Phryne leaves the tedium of English high society for Melbourne, Australia, and never looks back. The London season is in full fling at the end of the 1920s, but the Honorable Phryne Fisher--she of the green-grey eyes, diamant garters, and outfits that should not be sprung suddenly on those of nervous dispositions--is rapidly tiring of the tedium of arranging flowers, making polite conversations with retired colonels, and dancing with weak-chinned men. Instead, Phryne decides it might be rather amusing to try her hand at being a lady detective in Melbourne, Australia. Almost immediately from the time she books into the Windsor Hotel, Phryne is embroiled in mystery: poisoned wives, cocaine smuggling rings, corrupt cops and communism--not to mention erotic encounters with the beautiful Russian dancer, Sasha de Lisse--until her adventure reaches it steamy end in the Turkish baths of Little Lonsdale Street." These books are the basis of the Australian TV series "The Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries".

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

April 2015 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday April 7, 2015 at 7:00 PM in the second floor meeting room as we will be discussing, Bruno, Chief of Police, by Martin Walker. This is the first book in a series based in a small village in France featuring, Benoit "Bruno" Courreges, the chief of police.
The summary from the Ocean State Libraries' Ezone is: "Meet Benoit Courreges, aka Bruno, a policeman in a small village in the South of France. He's a former soldier who has embraced the pleasures and slow rhythms of country life. He has a gun but never wears it; he has the power to arrest but never uses it. But then the murder of an elderly North African who fought in the French army changes all that. Now Bruno must balance his beloved routines--living in his restored shepherd's cottage, shopping at the local market, drinking wine, strolling the countryside--with a politically delicate investigation. He's paired with a young policewoman from Paris and the two suspect anti-immigrant militants. As they learn more about the dead man's past, Bruno's suspicions turn toward a more complex motive"

Thursday, February 5, 2015

March 2015 Book Selection

The North Providence Mystery Book Club will next meet on Tuesday, March 3, 2015. We will meet at 7:00 pm in the Second Floor Conference Room. The book we will be discussing is, The Cove by Catherine Coulter. This is the first book in the FBI series, featuring Dillon Savich.
The book description is: "Sally St. John Brainerd is on the run from the authorities, who want to question her about her possible involvement in her father's murder. FBI Special Agent James Quinlan goes undercover in the picturesque town of The Cove-home of the World's Greatest Ice Cream- where Sally seeks sanctuary. But The Cove and its elderly residents harbor sinister secrets of their own. After Quinlan and Sally discover two dead bodies, Sally vanishes, and Quinlan turns to his partner, Dillon Savich to rescue her from a place where no one should be held. Quinlan discovers she is indeed the key to a murder-but whose murder?"

February Meeting

Because of the snow storm earlier this week, there will be no Mystery Book Club meeting this month. We will meet in March.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

February 2015 Book Selection

Join the Mystery Book Club on Tuesday, February 3, 2015 at 7:00 PM when we will be discussing Heresy by S. J. Parris. This is an historical mystery featuring Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk who was charged with heresy by the Inquisition. In this book, he flees to England, and begins to work for Queen Elizabeth I. The summary of the book is: "When fugitive Italian monk Giordano Bruno--philosopher, magician, and heretical scientist-- arrives in London, he's only one step ahead of the Inquisition. An undercover mission for Queen Elizabeth I and her spymaster provides added protection. Officially, Bruno is to take part in a debate on the Copernican theory of the universe at Oxford University, unofficially, he is to find out whatever he can about a Catholic plot to overthrow the queen. But when his mission is dramatically thrown off course by a series of grisly deaths and the charms of a mysterious but beautiful young woman, he realizes that somewhere within Oxford's private chambers lurks a brutal killer..." S. J. Parris is the pen name of Stephanie Merritt, who is a  journalist in Great Britain.