January 2020 Book Selection

The North Providence Mystery Book Club will meet on Tuesday January 7, 2020. The book we will be reading is The Hearse You Came in On by Tim Cockey. This is the first book featuring Hitchcock Sewell, an undertaker in Baltimore, Maryland who gets involved in police matters.

The description of the book is, “What self-respecting undertaker would allow himself to get involved in a murder investigation, a series of dirty videos, a case of political blackmail, and police corruption, as well as one of the worst amateur theater productions in recent memory? None, unless your name happens to be Hitchcock Sewell, the most charming suspense hero to come along in years. And, who knew an undertaker could look so good? In this fast-paced and enormously entertaining mystery, Hitch has gotten himself into more trouble than any self-respecting undertaker should.”

Enjoy the holiday season, and join us in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 pm.

December 2019 Meeting Cancelled

Due to the library closing on  December 3rd because of weather conditions, the meeting  of the book club is cancelled. We will meet on January 7, 2020. More details on the next book will be coming.
Enjoy your holidays.

December 2019 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday December 3, 2019. We will be discussing, Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death by M. C. Beaton. This is the first book in the Agatha Raisin series, which has been filmed for television under the title “Agatha Raisin”.

     The synopsis from the author’s website is “Putting all her eggs in one basket, Agatha Raisin gives up her successful PR firm, sells her London flat, and samples a taste of early retirement in the quiet village of Carsely. Bored, lonely and used to getting her way, she enters a local baking contest: Surely, a blue ribbon for the best quiche will make her the toast of the town. But her recipe for social advancement sours when Judge Cummings-Browne not only snubs her entry—but falls over dead! After her quiche’s secret ingredient turns out to be poison, she must reveal the unsavory truth… Agatha has never baked a thing in her life! In fact, she bought her entry ready-made from an upper crust London quicherie. Grating on the nerves of several Carsely residents, she is soon receiving sinister notes. Has her cheating and meddling landed her in hot water, or are the threats related to the suspicious death? It may mean the difference between egg on her face and a coroner’s tag on her toe…”

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

November 2019 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday November 5, 2019. We will be reading Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart. This is the first book featuring Constance Kopp and her sisters who were the first female deputies in New Jersey. These stories are based on actual people.

The synopsis from the author’s website is “When Constance Kopp and her sisters suffer a run-in with a ruthless, powerful crook, Constance leaves her quiet country life to team up with the local sheriff and exact justice. As a war of bricks, bullets, and threats ensues, Constance realizes that this racketeer's history may be more damning than she thought, but now that she's on the case--he won't get away…”

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

October 2019 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on October 1, 2019. This month we will be reading a classic novel from the “Golden Age of Mystery”, Agatha Christie’s Mysterious Affair at Styles. This is the first Hercule Poirot novel.

The summary from the publisher’s website is “Agatha Christie’s debut novel was the first to feature Hercule Poirot, her famously eccentric Belgian detective. A refugee of the Great War, Poirot is settling in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactress, the elderly Emily Inglethorp. When Emily is poisoned and the authorities are baffled, Poirot puts his prodigious sleuthing skills to work. Suspects are plentiful, including the victim’s much younger husband, her resentful stepsons, her longtime hired companion, a young family friend working as a nurse, and a London specialist on poisons who just happens to be visiting the nearby village. All of them have secrets they are desperate to keep, but none can outwit Poirot as he navigates the ingenious red herrings and plot twists that earned Agatha Christie her well-deserved reputation as the queen of mystery.”

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

September 2019 Book Selection

Please join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday September 3, 2019. We will be discussing A June of Ordinary Murders by Conor Brady. This is the first book featuring Sergeant Joe Swallow of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. The story takes place during Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee.

The book summary from the publisher’s website is” In the 1880s the Dublin Metropolitan Police classified crime in two distinct categories. Political crimes were classed as "special," whereas theft, robbery and even murder, no matter how terrible, were known as "ordinary."

Dublin, June 1887: The city swelters in a long summer heat wave, the criminal underworld simmers, and with it, the threat of nationalist violence is growing. Meanwhile, the Castle administration hopes the celebration of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee will pass peacefully. Then, the mutilated bodies of a man and a child are discovered in Phoenix Park and Detective Sergeant Joe Swallow steps up to investigate. Cynical and tired, Swallow is a man living on past successes in need of a win. With the Land War at its height, the priority is to contain special crime, and these murders appear to be ordinary—and thus of lesser priority. But when the evidence suggests high-level involvement, and the body count increases, Swallow must navigate the treacherous waters of foolish superiors, political directives, and frayed tempers to solve the case, find the true murderer, and deliver justice.”

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

August 2019 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday August 6, 2019. We will be discussing The Hollow Men by Rob McCarthy. This is the first book featuring Dr. Harry Kent, who is an ICU doctor who also works for the London Metropolitan Police.

The synopsis from the publisher’s website is“Meet Dr. Harry Kent. Former Army medic, hospital registrar, police surgeon, drug addict and defender of anyone the world would rather brush aside. His critics say he has a weakness for lost causes.  Usually his police work means minor injuries and mental health assessments. But Solomon Idris’s case is different. Solomon Idris has taken eight people hostage in a chicken takeaway, and is demanding a lawyer and a BBC reporter. Harry is sent in to treat the clearly ill teenager…before the siege goes horribly wrong. When Solomon’s life is put in danger again from the safety of a critical care ward, it becomes clear he knows something people will kill to protect.  Determined to uncover the secret that drove the boy to such desperate action, Harry soon realises that someone in the medical world, someone he may even know, has broken the doctors’ commandment ‘do no harm’ many times over. And now only he stands in the way of them causing further hurt…”

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

July 2019 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday July 2, 2019. We will be discussing Murder at the Brightwell by Ashley Weaver. This is the first book featuring Amory Ames, a young woman stuck in a loveless marriage in 1930's Britain.

The synopsis from the publisher’s website is “Amory Ames, a wealthy young woman questioning her marriage to her notoriously charming playboy husband, Milo, is looking for a change. She accepts a request for help from her former fiancé, Gil Trent, not knowing that she’ll soon become embroiled in a murder investigation that will not only test her friendship with Gil, but also will upset the status quo with her husband.

Amory accompanies Gil to the luxurious Brightwell Hotel in an attempt to circumvent the marriage of his sister, Emmeline, to Rupert Howe a disreputable ladies man. There is more than her happiness at stake, however, when Rupert is murdered and Gil is arrested for the crime. Matters are further complicated by Milo’s unexpected arrival, and as the line between friend and foe becomes less clear, Amory must decide where her heart lies and catch the killer before she, too, becomes a victim.”

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

Author Talk Tonight

Tonight at 7:00 pm, Clare Mary Sweeney will be talking to the North Providence Mystery Book Club about her mystery series set in South Kingstown. It will be held in the Community Room on the first floor of the library. It will be open to all.

June 2019 Book Selection

Please join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday June 4, 2019, as we listen to author Claremary P. Sweeney discuss her mystery series set in South County, and other books. Her first book in this series is Last Train to Kingston. As the title suggests, this story begins at the Kingston Train Station where a body is discovered, and the subsequent investigation around the village of Kingston.

The description from the author’s website is “On a chill November night, Dorothea Lorimar arrives from New York City to the village of Kingston, Rhode Island.  She patiently waits for someone to meet her, unaware it will be her killer.  What has brought her here? Who is waiting for her alone in the cold darkness? And why would anyone want to murder this gentle recluse?  South Kingstown’s Detective Lieutenant Kara Langley and her team must find the answers and catch the person responsible for this disquieting death in the village once affectionately known as Little Rest.”

We will be meeting in the Community Room at 7:00 PM. Please join us in welcoming Claremary P. Sweeney, and learn how a writer develops plots and characters. All are welcome.

May 2019 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday May 7, 2019. We will be discussing The Cold Light of Mourning by Elizabeth J. Duncan. This is the first book featuring Penny Brannigan, a Canadian expatriate, who years earlier while hiking through the Welsh countryside, fell in love with the area and stayed. The book begins with her mourning the death of her closest friend. She then provides manicures for members of a wedding party. When the bride goes missing and Penny notices something odd at her friend’s funeral, she gets involved with the investigation.

The description from the author’s website is “The picturesque North Wales market town of Llanelen is shocked when Meg Wynne Thompson, a self-made beauty who has turned out to be something of an unpopular bride, goes missing on her wedding day—and turns up dead.

The last person believed to have seen Meg alive is local manicurist Penny Brannigan, who vows to find the killer. Seems that several people—including those on the guest list—had reasons to wish Meg dead. But when the trail leads Penny to the groom, a red-hot secret threatens to shake the small town to its very core…”

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

April 2019 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday April 2, 2019. We will be discussing, The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg. This is the first book featuring writer Erica Falck and police officer Patrik Hedstrom taking place in Fjallbacka, Sweden.

The synopsis from the publisher’s website is “Returning to her hometown of Fjallbacka after the funeral of her parents, writer Erica Falck finds a community on the brink of tragedy. The death of her childhood friend, Alex, is just the beginning. Her wrists slashed, her body frozen in an ice-cold bath, it seems that she has taken her own life.

Erica conceives a book about the beautiful but remote Alex, one that will answer questions about their own shared past. While her interest grows into an obsession, local detective Patrik Hedstrom is following his own suspicions about the case. But it is only when they start working together that the truth begins to emerge about a small town with a deeply disturbing past.”

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

March 2019 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday March 5, 2019. We will be discussing Homicide in Hardcover by Kate Carlisle. This is the first book in the Bibliophile Mystery series featuring Brooklyn Wainwright, a book restorer who works to solve the murder of her mentor.

The synopsis from the author’s website is “Brooklyn Wainwright is a skilled surgeon. Sure, her patients might smell like mold and have spines made of leather, but no ailing book is going to die on her watch. The same can't be said of Abraham Karastovsky, Brooklyn's friend and former employer.

On the eve of a celebration for his latest book restoration, Brooklyn finds her mentor lying in a pool of his own blood. With his final breath, Abraham leaves Brooklyn with a cryptic message, "Remember the Devil," and gives her a priceless—and supposedly cursed—copy of Goethe's Faust for safekeeping.

Brooklyn suddenly finds herself accused of murder and theft, thanks to Derek Stone, the humorless—and annoyingly attractive—British security agent who found her kneeling over the body. Now she has to read the clues left behind by her mentor if she is going to restore justice and save her own life...”

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

February 2019 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday February 5, 2019. We will be discussing The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith. This is the first book featuring Isabel Dalhousie, and is set in Scotland. Alexander McCall Smith is also the author of the No. 1 Women’s Detective Agency series.
The summary from the publisher’s website is “Isabel Dalhousie is fond of problems, and sometimes she becomes interested in problems that are, quite frankly, none of her business. A highly intelligent single woman who edits a philosophy journal, she is also a person of irrepressible curiosity. So when she witnesses a young man fall to his death from the balcony of Edinburgh’s main concert hall, she sets out to discover whether he was pushed or whether, as the police have concluded, he fell. Despite the advice of her housekeeper, Grace, who has been raised in the values of traditional Edinburgh, and her niece, Cat, who, if you ask Isabel, is dating the wrong man, Isabel is determined to find the truth—if indeed there is one—behind the man’s death. Her investigation, pursued in an informal fashion, leads her into the realm of secret deals and private greed among a few members of Edinburgh’s investment-banking community. While she pursues information about the likely suspects, Isabel engages in delightfully thorny debates, with herself and others, about the possible outcomes of moral choices along the way.”
We will be meeting in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 pm.