Tuesday, December 4, 2018

January 2019 Book Selection


Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday January 8, 2019. We will be reading Wish You Were Here by Rita Mae Brown. This is the first book featuring the cat Mrs. Murphy and “Harry” Haristeen her human.
The book description from the publisher’s website is, “Curiosity just might be the death of Mrs. Murphy–and her human companion, Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen.  Small towns are like families:  Everyone lives very close together, and everyone keeps secrets.  Crozet, Virginia, is a typical small town-until its secrets explode into murder.  Crozet’s thirty-something post-mistress, Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen, has a tiger cat (Mrs. Murphy) and a Welsh corgi (Tucker), a pending divorce, and a bad habit of reading postcards not addressed to her.  When Crozet’s citizens start turning up murdered, Harry remembers that each received a card with a tombstone on the front and the message "Wish you were here" on the back.  Intent on protecting their human friend, Mrs. Murphy and Tucker begin to scent out clues.  Meanwhile, Harry is conducting her own investigation, unaware her pets are one step ahead of her.  If only Mrs. Murphy could alert her somehow, Harry could uncover the culprit before the murder occurs–and before Harry finds herself on the killer’s mailing list.”
We will be meeting in the Second Floor Meeting room at 7:00pm. We meeting on the second Tuesday instead of the first because the first Tuesday is New Year’s Day. Have a happy holiday season.

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

December 2018 Book Selection


Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday December 4, 2018. We will be discussing Come Hell or Highball by Maia Chance. This is the first book featuring Lola Woodby and her Swedish cook Berta.
The book description from the publisher’s website is, “31-year-old society matron Lola Woodby has survived her loveless marriage with an unholy mixture of highballs, detective novels, and chocolate layer cake, until her husband dies suddenly, leaving her his fortune...or so Lola thought. As it turns out, all she inherits from Alfie is a big pile of debt. Pretty soon, Lola and her stalwart Swedish cook, Berta, are reduced to hiding out in the secret love nest Alfie kept in New York City. But, when rent comes due, Lola and Berta have no choice but to accept an offer made by one of Alfie's girls-on-the-side: in exchange for a handsome sum of money, the girl wants Lola to retrieve a mysterious reel of film for her.
It sounds like an easy enough way to earn the rent money. But Lola and Berta realize they're in way over their heads when, before they can retrieve it, the man currently in possession of the film reel is murdered, and the reel disappears. On a quest to retrieve the reel and solve the murder before the killer comes after them next, Lola and Berta find themselves navigating one wacky situation after another in high style and low company.”
The book club will be meeting in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 pm. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

November 2018 Book Selection


Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday November 6, 2018, when we will be discussing The Dark Winter by David Mark. This is the first book featuring Aector McAvoy who is a detective sergeant in the English city of Hull. Aector is the Scottish spelling of the name Hector.
The summary from the publisher’s website is. “A series of suspicious deaths have rocked Hull, a port city in England as old and mysterious as its bordering sea. They have captured the attention of Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy. He notices a pattern missed by his fellow officers, who would rather get a quick arrest than bother themselves with finding the true killer. Torn between his police duties and his aching desire to spend more time with his pregnant wife and young son, McAvoy is an unlikely hero: a physically imposing man far more comfortable exploring computer databases than throwing around his muscle. Compelled by his keen sense of justice, he decides to strike out alone—but in the depths of the dark winter, it’s difficult to forget what happened the last time he found himself on the wrong side of a killer’s blade…”
We will be meeting in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 pm.


Tuesday, September 4, 2018

October 2018 Book Selection


Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday October 2, 2018. We will be discussing Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham. This is the first novel featuring Detective Inspector Tom Thorne.
The synopsis from the author’s website is “His first three victims ended up dead. His fourth was not so fortunate . . .
Alison Willetts is unlucky to be alive. She has survived a stroke, deliberately induced by a skillful manipulation of pressure points on the head and neck. She can see, hear and feel; she is aware of everything going on around her, but she is completely unable to move or communicate. It is called Locked-In Syndrome. In leaving Alison Willetts alive, the police believe the killer has made his first mistake.
Then D.I. Tom Thorne discovers the horrifying truth; it is not Alison who is the mistake, it is the three women already dead. ‘An appropriate margin of error’ is how their killer dismisses them, and Thorne knows they are unlikely to be the last. For the killer is smart, and he’s getting his kicks out of toying with Thorne as much as he is pursuing his sick fantasy . . .
Thorne knows immediately he’s not going to catch the killer with procedure. But with little more than gut instinct and circumstantial evidence to damn his chief suspect, anesthetist. Jeremy Bishop, his pursuit of him is soon bordering on the unprofessional. Especially considering his involvement with Anne Coburn, Alison’s doctor and Jeremy’s close friend.
Thorne must find a man whose agenda is terrifyingly unique, and Alison, the one person who holds the key to the killer’s identity, is unable to tell anybody. . .”
We will be meeting in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 pm.

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

September 2018 Book Selection


Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday September 4, 2018. We will be discussing, Open Season by Archer Mayor. This book takes place during winter months in Brattleboro, Vermont and the first to feature police detective Joe Gunther.
The synopsis from the author’s website is, “Open Season concerns a mysterious man in a ski mask, who forces the police to reopen an old murder case by compromising all the members of the old jury. Joe, soon realizing that his department is being used as a stalking horse to flush out the real murderer, must discover who that person is, before the man in the ski mast gets to him first.”
We will be meeting in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00pm.

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

August 2018 Book Selection


Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday August 7, 2018. We will be discussing A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow. This is the first book featuring Kate Shugak, an investigator in Alaska. She lives in an unnamed park area, and faces a brutal winter in more ways than one.

The description from the author’s website is, “It’s December in the Park, and a ranger is missing. It’s no great loss to the rest of the Park rats, they figure he’s stumbled into a snowbank and will re-emerge come breakup, just in time for the ground to thaw and them to bury him. But when the man sent to look for him also disappears, Kate Shugak, ex-investigator for the Anchorage D.A. and Park homesteader, is sent in search of them both.”
We will meet in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 pm. We will not be meeting in July since the first Tuesday is July 3rd, and the library will be closing early. Have a Happy 4th of July.

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

June 2018 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday June 5, 2018 as we discuss, The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker. This is the first book by Parker featuring Spenser, a private investigator in Boston, Massachusetts. These books were the inspiration for the 1980's television series, "Spenser for Hire".
The summary of the book from the author's website is, "Spenser earned his degree from the school of hard knocks, so he is ready when a Boston university hires him to recover a rare, stolen manuscript. He is hardly surprised that his only clue is a radical student with four bullets in his chest. The cops are ready to throw the book at the pretty blond coed whose prints are all over the murder weapon but Spenser knows there are no easy answers. He tackles some very heavy homework and knows if he doesn't finish his assignment soon, he could end up marked "D" -- for dead."
We will be meeting in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 pm. This will be the 100th title that the book club has read.

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

May 2018 Book Selection


Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday May 1, 2018. We will be discussing Christine Falls by Benjamin Black. This book is the first featuring Quirke, who is a pathologist in Dublin, Ireland during the 1950s. Benjamin Black is the pen name of author John Banville, an award-winning writer.
The book summary from the author’s website is:” It's not the dead that seem strange to Quirke. It's the living. One night, after a few drinks at an office party, Quirke shuffles down into the morgue where he works and finds his brother-in-law, Malachy, altering a file he has no business even reading. Odd enough in itself to find Malachy there, but the next morning, when the haze has lifted, it looks an awful lot like his brother-in-law, the esteemed doctor, was in fact tampering with a corpse-and concealing the cause of death.
It turns out the body belonged to a young woman named Christine Falls. And as Quirke reluctantly presses on toward the true facts behind her death, he comes up against some insidious-and very well guarded-secrets of Dublin's high Catholic society, among them members of his own family.”
We will be meeting in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00pm.

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

April 2018 Book Selection

Please join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday April 3, 2018. We will be discussing And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander. This is the first book in the Lady Emily series. This book features a young widow living in Victorian London. She starts to discover facts about her late husband, and becomes embroiled in a mystery that involved him.
The book synopsis is "Emily agreed to wed Philip, the Viscount Ashton, primarily to escape her overbearing mother. Philip's death while on safari soon after their wedding left Emily feeling little grief, for she barely knew the dashing stranger. But her discovery of his journals nearly two years later reveals a far different man than she imagined -- a gentleman scholar and antiquities collector who apparently love his new wife deeply. Emily's desire to learn more of her late husband leads her through the quiet corners of the British Museum and into a dangerous  mystery involving rare stolen artifacts. To complicate matters, she's juggling two very prominent and wealthy suitors, one of whose intentions go beyond matrimony into darker realms..."
We will be meeting in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 pm.

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

March 2018 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday March 6, 2018. We will be discussing The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill. This is the first book featuring Dr. Siri Paiboun. Siri is state pathologist in the newly communist country of Laos.
The book summary is, “Laos, 1978: Dr. Siri Paiboun, a 72-year-old medical doctor has unwillingly been appointed the national coroner of the new socialist Laos. His lab is underfunded, his boss is incompetent, and his support staff is quirky, to say the least. But Siri’s sense of humor gets him through his often frustrating days. When the body of the wife of a prominent politician comes through his morgue, Siri has reason to suspect the woman has been murdered. To get to the truth, Siri and his team face government secrets, spying neighbors, victim hauntings, Hmong shamans, botched romances, and other deadly dangers. Somehow, Siri must figure out a way to balance the will of the party and the will of the dead.”

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

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

February 2018 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday February 6, 2018. We will be reading The Cold, Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty. This is the first book featuring Detective Sean Duffy. The book takes place in Northern Ireland during “The Troubles”, notably, after the death of Bobby Sands and other hunger strikers. Duffy is in an odd position, he is a Catholic working for the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).
The book summary from the publisher’s website is:” Spring 1981. Northern Ireland. Belfast on the verge of outright civil war. The Thatcher government has flooded the area with soldiers but nightly there are riots, bombings, and sectarian attacks.
In the midst of the chaos, Sean Duffy, a young, witty, Catholic detective in the almost entirely Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary, is trying to track down a serial killer who is targeting gay men. As a Catholic policeman, Duffy is suspected by both sides and there are layers of complications. For one thing, homosexuality is illegal in Northern Ireland in 1981. Then he discovers that one of the victims was involved in the IRA, but was last seen discussing business with someone from the Protestant UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force).”

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