July 2016 Book Selection

The North Providence Mystery Book Club will meet on Tuesday, July 5, 2016. The book that will be discussed is, Dying in the Wool by Frances Brody. This is the first Kate Shackleton mystery.

The summary from the large print edition is: “Bridgestead is a peaceful spot: a babbling brook, rolling hills and a working mill at its heart. Pretty and remote, nothing exceptional happening… until the day the Master of the Mill Joshua Braithwaite goes missing in dramatic circumstances. Now Joshua’s daughter is getting married and wants to make one last attempt at finding her father --- and amateur sleuth Kate Shackleton has always love solving puzzles. But as she taps into the lives of the townsfolk, Kate opens a crack that some would kill to keep closed.” Join us the day after Independence Day in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 pm.

June 2016 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday June 7, 2016 when we will discuss, A Question of Guilt by Frances Fyfield. This is the first book in the Helen West series. Helen West is a prosecutor in Britain's Crown Prosecution Service, who works closely with Detective Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey.
From the book's dust jacket: "Eileen Cartwright is not just another rich, middle-aged widow. Cunning and evil, poisoned by a lifetime of love withheld, she has an unrivaled passion for revenge. When she falls in love with Michael Bernard, her solicitor, she cold-bloodily arranges for the murder of his wife. It is a crime that will claim many victims...Helen West is a Crown Prosecutor assigned to this disturbing, twisted case. In a system where polite antagonism between policemen and lawyers is the norm, she finds an unexpected ally in Detective Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey, a kindred soul immediately at home in the organized chaos of her office."
We will be meeting at 7:00 pm in the Second Floor Meeting Room.

May 2016 Book Selection

The North Providence Mystery Book Club will meet on Tuesday May 3, 2016 at 7:00 PM. We will be discussing, The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman. This is the first book in the Mrs. Pollifax series, in which, Emily Pollifax is an older CIA operative.
The book summary is: "Mrs. Virgil (Emily) Pollifax of Brunswick, New Jersey, was a widow with grown married children. She was tired of attending her Garden Club meetings. She wanted to do something good for her country. So, naturally, she became a CIA agent. She takes on a "job" in Mexico City. The assignment doesn't sound dangerous at first, but then, as often happens, soemthing goes wrong. Now our dear Mrs. Pollifax finds herself embroiled in a quite a hot Cold War-- and her country's enemies find themselves entangled with one feisty lady."
Join us in the 2nd Floor Meeting Room on the 3rd.

April 2016 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday, April 5, 2016 when we will discuss Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen. This is the first book in the Department Q series featuring Inspector Carl Morck, a police detective in Copenhagen, Denmark. Department Q is the cold case squad.
The description from the publisher's website: "Carl Morck used be one of Copenhagen's best homicide detectives. Then a hail of bullets destroyed the lives of two fellow cops, and Carl--who didn't draw his weapon-- blames himself. So a promotion is the last thing he expects. But Department Q is a department of one, and Carl's only got a stack of Copenhagen's coldest cases for company. His colleagues snicker, but Carl may have the last laugh, because one file keeps nagging at him: a liberal politician vanished five years earlier and is presumed dead. But she isn't dead...yet."
Join us on April 5th.

March 2016 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday March 1, 2016 when we will discuss Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia Macneal. This is the first book featuring Maggie Hope, a young intelligent woman who was born in England, but raised by her aunt in Boston after her parents were killed in an automobile accident. She returns to London in 1940 to sell her grandmother's house, and gets caught up in the war, securing a job as secretary to none other than Winston Churchill.
The synopsis from the author's website is: "May 1940. As England stands alone against imminent Nazi invasion, betrayal and treachery threaten to bring her down from within. Maggie Hope, a young American in London, finds work as a secretary to the newly appointed Prime Minister Winston Churchill. When the P.M. is threatened by assassination, Maggie is thrown into the worlds of spies, secret agents, code-breaking and betrayal. As she searches for her missing father, she finds herself in the center of a conspiracy to murder the Prime Minister and destroy England. Racing from the damp streets of London to the hallowed halls of Trinity College to the code-breaker's huts of Bletchley Park, Maggie struggles with the brute realities of a world at war. She penetrates the heart of an undercover spy ring, and despite revelations of the most horrific kind, carries out one of the war's most deadly missions."
Please join us in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 7:00 PM.

February 2016 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery  Book Club on Tuesday February 2, 2016 as we will be discussing Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell. This is the first book in the Kurt Wallander series based in Sweden, and the basis for the BBC program starring Kenneth Branagh.
The synopsis from the author's website is: "One frozen January morning at 5 am, Inspector Wallander responds to what he believes is a routine call out. When he reaches the isolated farmhouse he discovers a bloodbath. An old man has been tortured and beaten to  death, his wife lies barely alive beside his shattered body, both victims of a violence beyond reason. The woman supplies Wallander with his only clue: the perpetrators may have been foreign. When this is leaked to the press, it unleashes racial hatred." This is the first of 11 Wallander stories written by Mankell, who died this past October.

January 2016 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday January 5, 2016. We will be discussing, Dog on it by Spencer Quinn. Spencer Quinn is a penname for Peter Abrahams. This is the first book in the Chet and Bernie series. Chet is private investigator Bernie’s dog, and the story is told from his perspective.

The book summary is: Meet Chet, the wise and lovable canine narrator of Dog on It, who works alongside Bernie, a down-on-his-luck private investigator. Chet might have flunked out of police school ("I'd been the best leaper in K-9 class, which had led to all the trouble in a way I couldn't remember exactly, although blood was involved"), but he's a detective through and through. In this, their first adventure, Chet and Bernie investigate the disappearance of Madison, a teenage girl who may or may not have been kidnapped, but who has definitely gotten mixed up with some very unsavory characters. Their search for clues takes them into the desert to biker bars and other exotic locals, with Chet's highly trained nose leading the way. Both Chet and Bernie bring their own special skills to the hunt, one that puts each of them in peril. But even as the bad guys try to turn the tables, this duo is nothing if not resourceful, and the result is an uncommonly satisfying adventure. With his doggy ways and his endearingly hardboiled voice, Chet is full of heart and occasionally prone to mischief. He is intensely loyal to Bernie, who, though distracted by issues that Chet has difficulty understanding -- like divorce, child custody, and other peculiar human concerns -- is enormously likable himself, in his flawed, all-too-human way.

            Have a happy holiday season, and join us in the New Year.