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.

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.

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.

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.

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.