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.