January 2018 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday January 2, 2018. We will be reading Bubbles Unbound by Sarah Strohmeyer. This is the first book featuring Bubbles Yablonsky. Bubbles is a hair stylist who takes journalism classes in hopes of landing a better job. She soon becomes involved in a mystery. This book won the 2001 Agatha Award for Best First Novel.

      The book description from the author’s website is: “…Convinced there’s more to life than giving blue dye jobs at Sandy’s House of Beauty, Bubbles Yablonsky has done what few in Lehigh, PA, would dare: she’s gone back to school. And if her day gig, journalism classes, and on-the-job training at a local paper aren’t enough, there’s always her family to liven things up-from her bottom-feeding, social-climbing ex-husband to her precocious teenage daughter to her gun-toting mother, who just escaped from the Polish Old Folks Apartments. But when Bubbles stumbles on a crime scene on the way home from an assignment, she is suddenly up to her roots in a nasty murder investigation . . . with suspects ranging from a greedy steel tycoon to a sexy photographer named Stiletto. It could be the Big Break she’s been waiting for. If it doesn’t kill her first. With her big hair and even bigger heart, Bubbles Yablonsky is a delightful and winning protagonist that readers will root for every step of the way.”

      We will meet in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 PM. Have a happy holiday season.

December 2017 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday December 5, 2017. We will be discussing Christmas is Murder by C.S. Challinor. This is the first book featuring Scots barrister Rex Graves. This cozy mystery takes place during the Christmas holiday season in an English manor house that has been converted to a hotel.

The book summary is: “Not even a blizzard can keep Rex Graves away from Swanmere Manor, a secluded Victorian hotel in the English countryside owned by the eccentric Dahlia Smithings. But instead of Christmas cheer, the Scottish barrister finds a dead guest. Was it a stroke that killed old Mr. Lawdry? Or an almond tart laced with poison? When more guests die, all hopes for a jolly holiday are dashed. Snowbound and terrified, no one can escape the cold-blooded killer. Rex takes it upon himself to unravel the mystery. A biography of President George W. Bush found charred in the fireplace might offer a few clues. Could the killer be the sherry-swilling handyman? The gay antiques dealer with the biting wit? The quarreling newlyweds? Surely it's not Helen D'Arcy, the lovely lass Rex seems to be falling for...”

Join us at 7:00 pm in the Second Floor Meeting Room.

November 2017 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday November 7, 2017. We will be discussing Murder at the Breakers by Alyssa Maxwell. This is the first book featuring society reporter Emma Cross in Gilded Age Newport, Rhode Island. Emma is also a distant, and poorer, relation to the Vanderbilt family.

The book summary from the author’s website is “Newport, Rhode Island, August 1895: She may be a less well-heeled relation, but as second cousin to millionaire patriarch Cornelius Vanderbilt, twenty-one-year-old Emma Cross is on the guest list for a grand ball at the Breakers, the Vanderbilts’ summer home. She also has a job to do—report on the event for the society page of the Newport Observer.

But Emma observes much more than glitz and gaiety when she witnesses a murder. The victim is Cornelius Vanderbilt’s financial secretary, who plunges off a balcony faster than falling stock prices. Emma’s black sheep brother Brady is found in Cornelius’s bedroom passed out next to a bottle of bourbon and stolen plans for a new railroad line. Brady has barely come to before the police have arrested him for the murder. But Emma is sure someone is trying to railroad her brother and resolves to find the real killer at any cost…”

Please join us in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 PM.

October 2017 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday October 3, 2017. We will be discussing A Murder in Time by Julie McElwain. This is the first book featuring Kendra Donovan. She is an FBI agent who mysteriously gets transported back in time 200 years while in pursuit of a subject in England.
The description from the publisher's website is: "When brilliant FBI agent Kendra Donovan stumbles back in time and finds herself in a 19th century English castle un
der threat from a vicious serial killer, she scrambles to solve the case before it takes her life -- 200 years before she was even born.
Beautiful and brilliant, Kendra Donovan is a rising star at the FBI. Yet her path to professional success hits a speed bump during a disastrous raid where half her team is murdered, a mole in the FBI is uncovered and she herself is severely wounded. As soon as she recovers, she goes rogue and travels to England to assassinate the man responsible for the deaths of her teammates. While fleeing from an unexpected assassin herself, Kendra escapes into a stairwell that promises sanctuary but when she stumbles out again, she is in the same place -- Aldrich Castle -- but in a different time: 1815 to be exact. Mistaken for a lady's maid hired to help with weekend guests, Kendra is forced to quickly adapt to the time period until she can figure out how she got there; and, more importantly, how to get back home. However, after the body of a young girl is found on the extensive grounds of the country estate, she starts to feel there's some purpose to her bizarre circumstances. Stripped of her twenty-first century tools, Kendra mus use her wits alone in order to unmask a cunning madman."
Join us in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 pm.

September 2017 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday September 5, 2017. We will be discussing Billy Boyle by James R. Benn. Billy is a Boston Police detective who is drafted during World War II and gets a job in England with a relative who happens to be General Eisenhower. This is the first book in this series.

The book description from the publisher’s website is: “What’s a twenty-two-year-old Irish American cop who’s never been out of Massachusetts before doing at Beardsley Hall, an English country house, having lunch with King Haakon of Norway? Billy Boyle himself wonders. Back home in Southie, he’d barely made detective when war was declared. Unwilling to fight—and perhaps die—for England, he was relieved when his mother wangled a job for him on the staff of a general married to her distant cousin. But the general turns out to be Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose headquarters are in London, which is undergoing the Blitz. And Uncle Ike wants Billy to be his personal investigator.

Billy is dispatched to the seat of the Norwegian government in exile. Operation Jupiter, the impending invasion of Norway, is being planned, but it is feared that there is a German spy amongst the Norwegians.

Billy doubts his own abilities, with good reason. A theft and two murders test his investigative powers, but Billy proves to be a better detective than he or anyone else expected.”

Join us in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 pm.

August 2017 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday August 1, 2017 when we will be discussing Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter. This is the first book in the Grant County series featuring Sara Linton who is the town of Heartsdale’s pediatrician and part-time coroner and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver who is also Sara’s ex-husband.

The synopsis from the author’s website is: “A small Georgia town erupts in panic when a young college professor is found brutally mutilated in the local diner. But it's only when town pediatrician and coroner Sara Linton does the autopsy that the full extent of the killer's twisted work becomes clear.

Sara's ex-husband, police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver, leads the investigation—a trail of terror that grows increasingly macabre when another local woman is found crucified a few days later. But he's got more than a sadistic serial killer on his hands, for the county's sole female detective, Lena Adams—the first victim's sister—want to serve her own justice. But it is Sara who holds the key to finding the killer. A secret from her past could unmask the brilliantly malevolent psychopath... or mean her death.

July 2017 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday, July 11, 2017. This is the second Tuesday because the first Tuesday is July 4^th. We will be reading, The Midwife’s Tale by Sam Thomas. This is the first book featuring midwife Bridget Hodgson, taking place during the English Civil War. This character is based upon an actual midwife from the period.

The book summary is: “It is 1644, and Parliament's armies have risen against the King and laid siege to the city of York. Even as the city suffers at the rebels' hands, midwife Bridget Hodgson becomes embroiled in a different sort of rebellion. One of Bridget's friends, Esther Cooper, has been convicted of murdering her husband and sentenced to be burnt alive. Convinced that her friend is innocent, Bridget sets out to find the real killer.

Bridget joins forces with Martha Hawkins, a servant who's far more skilled with a knife than any respectable woman ought to be. To save Esther from the stake, they must dodge rebel artillery, confront a murderous figure from Martha's past, and capture a brutal killer who will stop at nothing to cover his tracks. The investigation takes Bridget and Martha from the homes of the city's most powerful families to the alleyways of its poorest neighborhoods. As they delve into the life of Esther's murdered husband, they discover that his ostentatious Puritanism hid a deeply sinister secret life, and that far too often tyranny and treason go hand in hand.”

Join us in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 pm. Have a happy and safe 4^th of July.

June 2017 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday June 6, 2017. The book we will be discussing is Face of Deception by Iris Johansen. This is the first book featuring Eve Duncan, a forensic sculptor, who recreates and identifies faces from skulls.

The synopsis of the book from the author’s website is: “After losing her beloved child to a serial killer, forensic sculptor Eve Duncan survives by focusing on her career. The best in her field at rebuilding faces from bare skull bones, Eve specializes in identifying missing children. When billionaire John Logan requests her help in identifying an adult skull, Eve--already swamped with work--tells Logan that she isn't interested. But when he volunteers to donate a large sum of money to a charity for missing children in exchange for her time, Eve reluctantly agrees. Logan neglects to tell her that there are powerful, desperate people who are determined to keep the skull's true identity a secret at any cost. Eve's gut instincts tell her that Logan is holding back vital information: Does the billionaire really believe that he's uncovered new insight into the Kennedy assassination? Or does the skull tie him to a mysterious murder? Eve's wildest guesses don't even come close to the stunning truth that she discovers when she at last studies the restored face. Now she and Logan have proof of a dark secret that could get them killed. And it will take all of their combined cunning and sheer nerve to survive.”

We will be meeting at 7:00 pm in the Second Floor Meeting Room.After her beloved daughter vanishes, Eve Duncan survives by immersing herself in her work. The best in her elite field at rebuilding faces from fragments of skull bones, she helps to put a name to a face, to identify missing children. It is Eve’s way of coming to terms with her personal nightmare. But more terror lies ahead when she accepts a job from billionaire John Logan. Beneath Eve’s gifted hands, a face begins to emerge from the skull he has given her to reconstruct—a face that no one was ever meant to see. Now Eve is trapped in a web of murder and deceit as powerful enemies rush to cover up the truth, determined that their secrets go to the grave—even if Eve gets buried with them.

SEE LESS

After her beloved daughter vanishes, Eve Duncan survives by immersing herself in her work. The best in her elite field at rebuilding faces from fragments of skull bones, she helps to put a name to a face, to identify missing children. It is Eve’s way of coming to terms with her personal nightmare. But more terror lies ahead when she accepts a job from billionaire John Logan. Beneath Eve’s gifted hands, a face begins to emerge from the skull he has given her to reconstruct—a face that no one was ever meant to see. Now Eve is trapped in a web of murder and deceit as powerful enemies rush to cover up the truth, determined that their secrets go to the grave—even if Eve gets buried with them.

SEE LESS

After her beloved daughter vanishes, Eve Duncan survives by immersing herself in her work. The best in her elite field at rebuilding faces from fragments of skull bones, she helps to put a name to a face, to identify missing children. It is Eve’s way of coming to terms with her personal nightmare. But more terror lies ahead when she accepts a job from billionaire John Logan. Beneath Eve’s gifted hands, a face begins to emerge from the skull he has given her to reconstruct—a face that no one was ever meant to see. Now Eve is trapped in a web of murder and deceit as powerful enemies rush to cover up the truth, determined that their secrets go to the grave—even if Eve gets buried with them.

SEE LESS

After her beloved daughter vanishes, Eve Duncan survives by immersing herself in her work. The best in her elite field at rebuilding faces from fragments of skull bones, she helps to put a name to a face, to identify missing children. It is Eve’s way of coming to terms with her personal nightmare. But more terror lies ahead when she accepts a job from billionaire John Logan. Beneath Eve’s gifted hands, a face begins to emerge from the skull he has given her to reconstruct—a face that no one was ever meant to see. Now Eve is trapped in a web of murder and deceit as powerful enemies rush to cover up the truth, determined that their secrets go to the grave—even if Eve gets buried with them.

SEE LESS

After her beloved daughter vanishes, Eve Duncan survives by immersing herself in her work. The best in her elite field at rebuilding faces from fragments of skull bones, she helps to put a name to a face, to identify missing children. It is Eve’s way of coming to terms with her personal nightmare. But more terror lies ahead when she accepts a job from billionaire John Logan. Beneath Eve’s gifted hands, a face begins to emerge from the skull he has given her to reconstruct—a face that no one was ever meant to see. Now Eve is trapped in a web of murder and deceit as powerful enemies rush to cover up the truth, determined that their secrets go to the grave—even if Eve gets buried with them.

SEE LESS

After her beloved daughter vanishes, Eve Duncan survives by immersing herself in her work. The best in her elite field at rebuilding faces from fragments of skull bones, she helps to put a name to a face, to identify missing children. It is Eve’s way of coming to terms with her personal nightmare. But more terror lies ahead when she accepts a job from billionaire John Logan. Beneath Eve’s gifted hands, a face begins to emerge from the skull he has given her to reconstruct—a face that no one was ever meant to see. Now Eve is trapped in a web of murder and deceit as powerful enemies rush to cover up the truth, determined that their secrets go to the grave—even if Eve gets buried with them.

SEE LESS

May 2017 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday May 2, 2017. The book we will be discussing is The Yard by Alex Grecian. This is the first book featuring Inspector Walter Day of the newly formed Murder Squad at Scotland Yard. Alex Grecian is an American writer who bases his stories in England.

The book summary from the author’s website is “1890, London.  Jack the Ripper’s reign of terror is finally over, but a new one is just beginning…

Victorian London is a cesspool of crime and Scotland Yard has only twelve detectives – known as “The Murder Squad” – to investigate countless murders every month.  Created after the Metropolitan police’s spectacular failure to capture Jack the Ripper, The Murder Squad suffers rampant public contempt.  They have failed their citizens.  But, no one can anticipate the brutal murder of one of their own…one of twelve…

When Walter Day, the squad’s newest hire, is assigned the case of the murdered detective, he finds a strange ally in the Yard’s first forensic pathologist, Dr. Bernard Kingsley.  Together they track the killer, who clearly is not finished with The Murder Squad…but why?”

Join us in the Second Floor Meeting Room of the Library at 7:00 pm.

April 2017 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday April 4, 2017. We will be discussing, The Swimmer by Joakim Zander. This book features Klara Walldéen, who is an aide at the European Union Parliament in Brussels.

A summary from the publisher’s website is:” Klara Walldéen was raised by her grandparents on a remote archipelago in the Baltic Sea, learning to fish and hunt and sail a boat through a storm. Now, as an EU Parliament aide in Brussels, she is learning how to navigate the treacherous currents of international politics: the lines between friend and enemy, truth and lies.

But Klara has accidentally seen something she shouldn’t have: a laptop containing information so sensitive that someone will kill to keep hidden. Suddenly, she is thrown into a terrifying chase across Europe, with no idea who is hunting her or why.

Meanwhile, in Virginia, an old spy hides from his past. Once, he was a man of action, an operative so dedicated that he abandoned his infant daughter to keep his cover. Now, he is the only man who can save Klara . . . and she is the only woman who can allow him to lay old ghosts to rest.”

Join us on April 4 in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 PM.

March 2017 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday March 7, 2017 when we will be discussing Booked to Die by John Dunning. This is the first book in the Cliff Janeway series. Cliff starts out as a Denver homicide detective and then a bookstore owner.

The summary from the publisher’s website is “Denver homicide detective Cliff Janeway may not always play by the book, but he is an avid collector of rare and first editions. After a local book scout is killed on his turf, Janeway would like nothing better than to rearrange the suspect's spine. But, the suspect, local lowlife Jackie Newton, is a master at eluding the law, and Janeway's wrathful brand of off-duty justice costs him his badge.

Turning to his lifelong passion, Janeway opens a small bookshop -- all the while searching for evidence to put Newton away. But when prized volumes in a highly sought-after collection begin to appear, so do dead bodies. Now, Janeway's life is about to start a precarious new chapter as he attempts to find out who's dealing death along with vintage Chandlers and Twains.”

We will meet in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 pm.

February 2017 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday February, 7 2017. We will be discussing, Now You See Me by S. J. Bolton.  This is the first book featuring Detective Constable Lacey Flint, a police detective in London.

The book synopsis from the large print edition is: “One night after interviewing a reluctant witness at a London apartment complex, Lacey Flint, a young detective constable, stumbles onto a woman brutally stabbed just moments before.  Within twenty-four hours, a reporter receives an anonymous letter that points out alarming similarities between the murder and Jack the Ripper’s first murder ---- a letter that calls out Lacey by name.  If it’s real, and if they have a killer bent on re-creating London’s bloody past, history shows they have just five days before the next attempt.”

Join us in the Second Floor Meeting room at 7:00 pm.