January 2022 Book Selection

 Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday January 4, 2022. We will be discussing Open and Shut by David Rosenfelt. This is the first book featuring defense lawyer Andy Carpenter.

The book description from the author’s website is,” Attorney Andy Carpenter’s legal maneuvers are legion in and out of the courtrooms of Paterson, New Jersey. A talented lawyer who knows how to play all the cards, he is torn between mending a marriage that no longer works and growing attached to a beautiful, no-nonsense private investigator. Besides his love for sports, Andy also adores Tara, a golden retriever clearly smarter than half the lawyers who clog the courts of Passaic County.

Then one day the fun stops.

It all begins when Andy’s father, venerated ex-district attorney Nelson Carpenter, asks him to take the appeals case of Willie Miller, a young black man on death row for the murder of a white woman. Nelson himself had prosecuted Miller but refuses to disclose why he wants Andy to represent the convicted man. A few days later, Nelson drops dead in front of his son at a game in Yankee Stadium.

Suddenly Andy finds himself the inheritor of a staggering fortune he never knew his father had. The astonished advocate soon unearths a mysterious old photograph of a much younger Nelson, a picture that may have a sinister connection to the Willie Miller case. But before he can sort out the truth behind his father’s life and death, Andy receives an anonymous threat — delivered in a most terrifying fashion.

Now the quick witted Andy, with his client’s life hanging in the balance, must uncover a decades-old secret, one so shocking and unthinkable as to threaten everything he believes in and everyone he has ever loved. Caught in an explosive endgame, he will face the heat of a deadly political firestorm…where the wrong move will close out his case for good.”

We will be meeting in the Second Floor Meeting Room and on Zoom at 6:30 pm. For more information, and the Zoom link, see Sara at the Reference Desk.

December 2021 Book Selection

 

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday December 7, 2021. We will be discussing The Dry by Jane Harper. This is the first book featuring Aaron Falk, a federal agent in Australia.

 The synopsis from the author’s website is, “Luke Hadler turns a gun on his wife and child, then himself. The farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily. If one of their own broke under the strain, well…

When Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk returns to Kiewarra for the funerals, he is loath to confront the people who rejected him twenty years earlier. But when his investigative skills are called on, the facts of the Hadler case start to make him doubt this murder-suicide charge.

And as Falk probes deeper into the killings, old wounds start bleeding into fresh ones. For Falk and his childhood friend Luke shared a secret… A secret Falk thought long-buried… A secret which Luke’s death starts to bring to the surface...”

We will meet in the Community Room at 6:30 pm and on Zoom. For more information, and the link, contact Sara at the Reference Desk.

November 2021 Book Selection

 

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday November 2, 2021. We will be reading Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten. This is the first book featuring Irene Huss, a police detective in Gothenburg, Sweden.

 The book description from the publisher’s website is, “One of the most prominent citizens of Goteborg, Sweden, plunges to his death off an apartment balcony, but what appears to be a “society suicide” soon reveals itself to be a carefully plotted murder. Irene Huss finds herself embroiled in a complex and high-stakes investigation. As Huss and her team begin to uncover the victim’s hidden past, they are dragged into Sweden’s seamy underworld of street gangs, struggling immigrants, and neo-Nazis in order to catch the killer.”

 We will be meeting in the Community Room at 6:30 pm, and also by Zoom. For more information, see Sara at the Reference Desk.

October 2021 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday October 5, 2021. We will be discussing The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan. This is the first book featuring detectives Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty, who investigate cases in Canada.

The summary from the publisher’s website is, “Despite their many differences, Detective Rachel Getty trusts her boss, Esa Khattak, implicitly. But she's still uneasy at Khattak's tight-lipped secrecy when he asks her to look into Christopher Drayton's death. Drayton's apparently accidental fall from a cliff doesn't seem to warrant a police investigation, particularly not from Rachel and Khattak's team, which handles minority-sensitive cases. But when she learns that Drayton may have been living under an assumed name, Rachel begins to understand why Khattak is tip-toeing around this case. It soon comes to light that Drayton may have been a war criminal with ties to the Srebrenica massacre of 1995.  If that's true, any number of people might have had reason to help Drayton to his death, and a murder investigation could have far-reaching ripples throughout the community. But as Rachel and Khattak dig deeper into the life and death of Christopher Drayton, every question seems to lead only to more questions, with no easy answers. Had the specters of Srebrenica returned to haunt Drayton at the end, or had he been keeping secrets of an entirely different nature? Or, after all, did a man just fall to his death from the Bluffs?”

Join us in the Community Room at 6:30 pm, or contact Sara at the Reference Desk for the Zoom link.

September 2021 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday September 7, 2021. We will be discussing A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch. This is the first book featuring Charles Lenox, a Victorian Era gentleman who solves crimes.

The description from the publisher’s website is, “Charles Lenox, Victorian gentleman and armchair explorer, likes nothing more than to relax in his private study with a cup of tea, a roaring fire and a good book. But when his lifelong friend Lady Jane asks for his help, Lenox cannot resist the chance to unravel a mystery. Prudence Smith, one of Jane's former servants, is dead of an apparent suicide. But Lenox suspects something far more sinister: murder, by a rare and deadly poison. The grand house where the girl worked is full of suspects, and though Prue had dabbled with the hearts of more than a few men, Lenox is baffled by the motive for the girl's death. When another body turns up during the London season's most fashionable ball, Lenox must untangle a web of loyalties and animosities. Was it jealousy that killed Prudence Smith? Or was it something else entirely? And can Lenox find the answer before the killer strikes again—this time, disturbingly close to home?”

We will be meeting at 6:30 pm in the Community Room, and also using Zoom. For more information, call Sara at the Reference Desk, 353-5600, ext. 809.

 

August 2021 Book Selection

 

Join the Mystery Book Club on Tuesday August 3, 2021. We will be discussing Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly. This is the first in the County Cork Mysteries which, as the series title suggests, takes place in a small village in County Cork, Ireland.

The book description from the author’s website is, “Honoring the wish of her late grandmother, Maura Donovan visits the small Irish village where Gran was born—never expecting to get bogged down in a murder mystery. Nor had she planned to take a job in one of the local pubs, but she finds herself excited to get to know the people who knew her Gran.

In the pub, she's swamped with drink orders as everyone in town gathers to talk about the recent discovery of an almost 100-year-old body in a nearby bog. When Maura realizes she may know something about the dead man—and that the body is connected to another, more recent, death—she fears she's about to become mired in a homicide investigation. Maura has a sinking feeling she may really be getting in over her head...”

We will be meeting at 6:30 pm using the Zoom app. For more information, and the link, call Sara at the Reference Desk, 353-5600. Ext. 809.

July 2021 Book Selection

 

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday July 6, 2021. We will be reading The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino. This story takes place in Japan, and is the first featuring Manabu Yukawa, known as “Professor Galileo”.

The book description from the publisher’s website is “Yasuko Hanaoka is a divorced, single mother who thought she had finally escaped her abusive ex-husband Togashi. When he shows up one day to extort money from her, threatening both her and her teenaged daughter Misato, the situation quickly escalates into violence and Togashi ends up dead on her apartment floor. Overhearing the commotion, Yasuko's next door neighbor, middle-aged high school mathematics teacher Ishigami, offers his help, disposing not only of the body but plotting the cover-up step-by-step. When the body turns up and is identified, Detective Kusanagi draws the case and Yasuko comes under suspicion. Kusanagi is unable to find any obvious holes in Yasuko's manufactured alibi and yet is still sure that there's something wrong. Kusanagi brings in Dr. Manabu Yukawa, a physicist and college friend who frequently consults with the police. Yukawa, known to the police by the nickname Professor Galileo, went to college with Ishigami. After meeting up with him again, Yukawa is convinced that Ishigami had something to do with the murder. What ensues is a high level battle of wits, as Ishigami tries to protect Yasuko by outmaneuvering and outthinking Yukawa, who faces his most clever and determined opponent yet.”

We will be meeting at 6:30 pm using the Zoom App. Contact Sara at the reference desk for more information, and the link.

June 2021 Book Selection

 

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday June 1, 2021. We will be discussing, In the Woods by Tana French. This is the first book in the Dublin Murder Squad series. This book focuses on detectives Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox. Subsequent books in the series focus on different detectives on the squad. 

The summary from the author’s website is “As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours. Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox—his partner and closest friend—find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.”  

We will be meeting at 6:30 using the Zoom App. For more information and the link, contact Sara at the Reference Desk.

May 2021 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday May 4, 2021. We will be reading, Bangkok 8 by John Burdett. This is the first book featuring the detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, who lives and works in the Southeast Asian city of Bangkok, Thailand. His character stands out because he is one of the only policemen who is not corrupt.

 The book description from the publisher’s website is, “Witnessed by a throng of gaping spectators, a charismatic Marine sergeant is murdered under a Bangkok bridge inside a bolted-shut Mercedes Benz. Among the witnesses are the only two cops in the city not on the take, but within moments one is murdered and his partner, Sonchai Jitpleecheep—a devout Buddhist and the son of a Thai bar girl and a long-gone Vietnam War G.I.—is hell-bent on wreaking revenge. On a vigilante mission to capture his partner’s murderer, Sonchai is begrudgingly paired with a beautiful FBI agent named Jones and captures her heart in the process. In a city fueled by illicit drugs and infinite corruption, prostitution and priceless art, Sonchai’s quest for vengeance takes him into a world much more sinister than he could have ever imagined.”

We will meet using the Zoom app at 6:30 pm. For more information and link, call Sara at the Reference Desk. 353-5600 ext. 809.

April 2021 Book Selection

 

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday April 6, 2021. We will be discussing The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz. This is the first book featuring Horowitz himself and detective Daniel Hawthorne. Anthony Horowitz has written the Alex Rider series for young adults, and also created, and wrote the television series, Foyle’s War.

 The book description from the publisher’s website is, “Anthony Horowitz has yet again brilliantly reinvented the classic crime novel, this time writing a fictional version of himself as the Watson to a modern-day Holmes. One bright spring morning in London, Diana Cowper – the wealthy mother of a famous actor - enters a funeral parlor. She is there to plan her own service. Six hours later she is found dead, strangled with a curtain cord in her own home. Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric investigator who’s as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. Hawthorne needs a ghost writer to document his life; a Watson to his Holmes. He chooses Anthony Horowitz. Drawn in against his will, Horowitz soon finds himself at the center of a story he cannot control. Hawthorne is brusque, temperamental and annoying but even so his latest case with its many twists and turns proves irresistible. The writer and the detective form an unusual partnership. At the same time, it soon becomes clear that Hawthorne is hiding some dark secrets of his own.”

The meeting will be held at 6:30 pm using the Zoom App. For more information ask Sara at the Reference Desk.

March 2021 Book Selection

 

Join the Mystery Book Club on Tuesday March 2, 2021. We will be reading Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin. This is the first book featuring Inspector John Rebus. Rebus is a detective based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

From the publisher’s website, “Inspector John Rebus: His city is being terrorized by a baffling series of murders...and he's tied to a maniac by an invisible knot of blood. Once John Rebus served in Britain's elite SAS. Now he's an Edinburgh cop who hides from his memories, misses promotions and ignores a series of crank letters. But as the ghoulish killings mount and the tabloid headlines scream, Rebus cannot stop the feverish shrieks from within his own mind. Because he isn't just one cop trying to catch a killer, he's the man who's got all the pieces to the puzzle....”

We will be meeting using Zoom at 6:30 pm. For more information, ask for Sara at the Reference Desk.

February 2021 Book Selection

 Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday February 2, 2021. We will be discussing, The Good Detective by John McMahon. This is the first book featuring detective P.T. Marsh, who lives in works in a small town in Georgia.

The book description from the publisher’s website is, “Detective P.T. Marsh was a rising star on the police force of Mason Falls, Georgia–until his wife and young son died in an accident. Since that night, he’s lost the ability to see the line between smart moves and disastrous decisions. Such as when he agrees to help out a woman by confronting her abusive boyfriend. When the next morning he gets called to the scene of his newest murder case, he is stunned to arrive at the house of the very man he beat up the night before. He could swear the guy was alive when he left, but can he be sure? What’s certain is that his fingerprints are all over the crime scene.The trouble is only beginning. When the dead body of a black teenager is found in a burned-out field with a portion of a blackened rope around his neck, P.T. realizes he might have killed the number-one suspect of this horrific crime. Amid rising racial tension and media scrutiny, P.T. uncovers something sinister at the heart of the boy’s murder–a conspiracy leading all the way back to the time of the Civil War. Risking everything to unravel the puzzle even as he fights his own personal demons, P.T. races headlong toward an incendiary and life-altering showdown.”

We meet using Zoom at 6:30 pm. For more information, ask for Sara at the Reference Desk.