August 2020 Book Selection

The North Providence Mystery Book Club will meet on Tuesday August 4, 2020 at 7:00 pm. The book we will be discussing is Black Irish by Stephan Talty. This is the first book featuring the detective “Abbie” Kearney.

The synopsis from the publisher’s website is “Absalom “Abbie” Kearney grew up an outsider in her own hometown. Even being the adopted daughter of a revered cop couldn’t keep Abbie’s troubled past from making her a misfit in the working-class Irish American enclave of South Buffalo. And now, despite a Harvard degree and a police detective’s badge, she still struggles to earn the respect and trust of those she’s sworn to protect. But all that may change, once the killing starts. When Jimmy Ryan’s mangled corpse is found in a local church basement, this sadistic sacrilege sends a bone-deep chill through the winter-whipped city. It also seems to send a message—one that Abbie believes only the fiercely secretive citizens of the neighborhood known as “the County” understand. But in a town ruled by an old-world code of silence and secrecy, her search for answers is stonewalled at every turn, even by fellow cops. Only when Abbie finds a lead at the Gaelic Club, where war stories, gossip, and confidences flow as freely as the drink, do tongues begin to wag—with desperate warnings and dire threats. And when the killer’s mysterious calling card appears on her own doorstep, the hunt takes a shocking twist into her own family’s past. As the grisly murders and grim revelations multiply, Abbie wages a chilling battle of wits with a maniac who sees into her soul, and she swears to expose the County’s hidden history—one bloody body at a time.”

Since the library may be closed to meetings, we will be using the Zoom app.

July 2002 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday July 7, 2020. We will be discussing Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham. This is the first book featuring Fiona Griffiths, a young detective constable in Wales.

The description of the book from the author’s website is, “Fiona Griffiths is the youngest, most junior detective on the South Wales Major Crimes unit. And when a young mother and her six-year-old daughter are found dead in a squalid Cardiff squat, Fiona is given a minor-seeming task to perform. She performs that task – sometimes following the rules, sometimes not so much – and starts to uncover a much wider and more brutal crime. That crime is finally solved, in blood, on a remote Pembrokeshire coast. And the reader learns just who this detective is . . . and quite why she’s so interested in corpses”

If the library is not open on this date, we will meet using the Zoom App.

May 2020 Meeting

Well, we tried to embrace technology by using Zoom to meet and discuss The Mangle Street Murders by M.R.C. Kasasian. If anyone can get their hands on Time of Death by Lucy Kerr, we will discuss that at the June meeting. Hopefully it can be in person.

April 2020 Meeting.

It looks unlikely that the library will be open in time for the April meeting of the North Providence Mystery Book Club. So, we will be reading Mangle Street Murders for the May meeting. Stay safe and practice social distancing.

April 2020 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday April 7, 2020. The book we will be reading is The Mangle Street Murders by M.R.C. Kasasian. This is the first book in The Gower Street Detective series, featuring March Middleton and her guardian, detective Sidney Grice.

The description from the large print edition is, “After her father dies, March Middleton moves to London to live with her guardian, the famous private detective Sidney Grice. In 1882, London is at its murkiest yet most vibrant, wealthiest yet most poverty-stricken. Then a young woman is brutally murdered, and her husband is the only suspect. The victim’s mother is convinced of her son-in-law’s innocence, and March is so touched she offers to cover Sidney’s fee herself. The investigation leads to the dark alleys of the East End; every twist leads Sidney to think his client is guilty.”

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

March 2020 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday March 3, 2020 when we will be discussing, Birdman by Mo Hayder. This is the first book featuring Detective Inspector Jack Caffery who works on an elite murder squad in London.

The synopsis from the book is, “In his first case as lead investigator with London’s crack murder squad, Detective Jack Caffery is called on to investigate the murder of a young woman whose body has been discovered near the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, southeast London. Brutalized and mutilated beyond recognition, the victim is soon joined by four others discovered in the same area, all female and all ritualistically murdered. And, when the postmortem examination reveals a gruesome signature connecting the victims, Caffery realizes exactly what he is dealing with – a dangerous serial killer.”

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

February 2020 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday February 4, 2020. We will be discussing Thirteenth Night by Alan Gordon. This book is the first in the Fool’s Guild series, and uses Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night as the basis for the story.

The description from the book jacket is “In late December 1200 A.D a merchant arrives at a tavern near the Guildhall of the Fool’s Guild with a message for one of the jesters. The message is brief: “Orsino is dead.” Fifteen years before, the jester, using the name of Feste, secretly interceded on the Guild’s behalf in a dynastic crisis in the Duchy of Orsino, thus spoiling the plans of Saladin’s agent, Malvolio. These events, recorded centuries later somewhat differently in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, led to Malvolio’s humiliation and his oath of revenge. Now, with the unexpected death of the Duke of Orsino, Feste suspects murder and sees the hand of Malvolio behind it.

With the backing of the Guild, Feste secretly returns to Orsino disguised as a merchant, to find out what really happened to the Duke and ferret out Malvolio. But, fifteen years is a long time and Malvolio could be disguised as anyone. Only one thing is certain: Feste must uncover and foil the plot before he is found out by Malvolio, who has been planning his revenge for a very long time.”

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