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* If you liked The Da Vinci Code, or—What to read while waiting for your copy. Thriller/Mystery Judging from the length of the hold lists at the library, many of us have discovered other books by Dan Brown besides his bestseller, The Da Vinci Code. They are well written, have good, can’t-put-it-down plots, somewhat mysterious and interesting subject matter, characters we find real yet fascinating, and they are very well researched. Many events and organizations that you think may have been fabricated for the sake of the book turn out to be real. Brown’s Angels and Demons is also about Robert Langdon, the main character in The Da Vinci Code. Brown makes references in The Da Vinci Code to events in Angels and Demons, so it is something of a sequel. Although the plot is fraught with mysterious groups and individual agendas, somehow Brown brings it together to form a satisfying whole. One of Brown’s strengths is to bring historical mysteries into a modern setting. The Da Vinci Code uses the Priory of Sion; Angels and Demons uses the Illuminati. In Deception Point, it’s current politics and NASA with an object buried deep in the Arctic ice that will prove that extraterrestrial life exists. Brown’s first novel, Digital Fortress, involves computers, the Internet and encryption technology. Those who like the fast paced aspect of The Da Vinci Code will also enjoy his other titles. If your imagination was captured by the mystery of the secret society and speculation about the historical Jesus, Dan Brown has provided a good list of factual explorations on the topic: The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince; The Woman With the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail by Margaret Starbird; The Goddess in the Gospels: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine by Margaret Starbird, and Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. (one of Brown’s characters, Leigh Teabing, is an anagram of Leigh and Baigent.) I read Holy Blood, Holy Grail over 15 years ago and still remember it as an exhaustively researched, fascinating exploration of the possible histories of Jesus and clandestine societies such as the Templars, the Masons and others. It should be noted that those who hold strongly with literal biblical interpretation would find much to argue with. Being a history buff, I enjoyed the historical aspects of The Da Vinci Code. It almost seems like an alternate history, or at least a history that didn’t get much play in any book on Western Civilization that I ever read. Other intellectual thrillers with historical underpinnings are The Name of the Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco, and A Case of Curiosities and The Grand Complication by Allen Kurzweil. Judith Merkle Riley has some interesting historical novels that often have an arcane touch: In Pursuit of the Green Lion, The Oracle Glass, The Serpent Garden, The Master of All Desires, and A Vision of Light. Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book and Lincoln’s Dreams, and Vonda McIntyre’s The Moon and the Sun, both use historical settings to tell cryptic tales. If you want to go a little farther into the realm of fantasy fiction, try The Adept series by Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner Harris; The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper; or, an oldie but a goodie, C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength). Terry Brooks has a good vs. evil series going with three titles, Running With the Demon, A Knight of the Word and Angel Fire East. In the read-alikes category, Lewis Perdue claims that The Da Vinci Code was stolen from his novel The Da Vinci Legacy but the two are very different, although similar in some ways. Although I found Perdue to be a little formulaic, both his The Da Vinci Legacy and Daughter of God have interesting plots, as does Codex by Lev Grossman. This just came out in 2004 and may have been a bid to capture some of the Dan Brown audience, but it succeeds on its own merits as well. You will also want to check out books by the authors John Case and Daniel Silva. Both are comparable in subject as well as pace. To find other read-alikes of your favorite novels, delve into the library’s online reference resources or ask at your library for suggestions. All of the titles mentioned in this article can be found at the Timberland Regional Library, many of them in audio as well as print editions. --Heather King
I’m not much of a mystery reader. Publishers and authors have discovered a way to “hook” readers like me and drag us, not necessarily kicking and screaming, into the genre. Call it cross marketing. They cater to our occupations, desired occupations, lifestyles, time periods or hobbies. Just take a quick look at the mystery section of your local library and you will find sleuths who are forest rangers, archaeologists, chefs, caterers, quilters, antique dealers, cat or dog lovers, gay men or women, monks, priests, nuns, rabbis, ancient Romans, spies for Elizabeth I, insurance adjusters and maybe even a librarian or two. Today we’re going to look at a couple of recently published mysteries. One has an American antiquarian book dealer as the sleuth. The other, by a first time mystery writer, is concerned with English gardeners and gardening. “The Sign of the Book; A Cliff Janeway Bookman Novel” by John Dunning. Scribner Publishing, 2005. This is the fourth Cliff Janeway mystery. Janeway is an ex-Denver-cop who
left the profession under a bit of a cloud to become an antiquarian book
dealer. The author is a well known antiquarian book dealer so the background
occupation of our sleuth has a nice authentic feel. This mystery is a real page-turner that kept me up well past my bedtime. Call it the “one-more-chapter!, one-more-chapter!” syndrome. “The Blue Rose; An English Garden Mystery” by Anthony Eglin. St. Martin’s Press, 2004 What inspired me to pick up this mystery and give it a whirl? Well, the blue rose, of course. A true blue rose doesn’t exist in nature no matter the claims of all those nurseries that crank out an endless supply of gray or mauve roses claiming to be blue. Due to the inherent chemistry of the rose, simple cross breeding probably won’t do the trick. It will probably need some DNA fiddling. The idea of a blue rose has for hundreds of years caught the imagination of humanity. Blue roses abound in fairy tales, architecture and painting. Back in the ’70s when we all did silly things, I actually had a blue rose tattooed on my hide. A replica of Mondrian’s blue rose. This is Anthony Eglin’s first mystery. Born in England, he co-produces garden videos and in 1995 was awarded Garden Design magazine’s Gold Trowel Award for Best Rose Garden. The author knows his roses but can he write a good mystery? Architect Alex Sheppard and Kate, his antique dealer wife, buy their dream home, a 19th century parsonage with a badly overgrown walled garden. In an out of the way corner they discover a bush full of blooming blue roses. As news of their find spreads, their peaceful life comes to an end in a nightmare of “…coded journals, genetic experiments, cold-blooded greed, and, ultimately, murder.” If that isn’t interesting enough, Kate and the rose are kidnapped by different interested parties along the way. This is a wonderful first effort by Mr. Eglin. The characterizations of Alec, Kate and their eccentric sidekick Professor Kingston are deft enough so that you really begin to care about them. The story has enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing the outcome to the end while never losing momentum or clarity. The setting of the English countryside of cottages, gardens and villages is lovingly described. This reader is looking forward to another effort by Mr. Eglin in my mystery genre. --L. Hamburg * Selected Mysteries: Murder Deep and Devious. Mystery There is a particular genre of murder mystery that seems to float above the common or garden variety of murder mysteries, in much the same way as "trade fiction" floats above the usual "mass market" novels. I suppose they could be referred to as "literary mysteries." They take as their forbearers the "noir" fiction of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Eric Ambler - having more than a little merit in their crafting. Indeed, they may hold their heads up with the best of the fiction novels – and could theoretically be in the running for such prizes as the National Book Award, or the Booker Prize – for the depth with which their characters are crafted, the layers of plot interwoven, and the language as exquisitely polished as that of any of those winners. If I have piqued your interest with this description, let me recommend some authors and titles in this excellent line of writing that may bring you out to your local library or mystery bookstore in search of what they have to offer. Start out, by all means, with the masters: Hammett’s The Dain Curse, The Maltese Falcon, and The Glass Key. Then spend a leisurely time with Chandler’s The High Window, Farewell, My Lovely, The Big Sleep, and The Long Goodbye. If you haven’t by now become hooked and are reading everything else they’ve ever written, move on to Ambler’s A Coffin for Dimitrios, and Journey Into Fear. Once you’ve gotten your feet wet with the masters, dip into these contemporary writers, who are more than living up to the high standards set for them: James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia is a classic novel based upon real events. The characters and setting are so richly evoked, and so finely drawn, that you will be wrestling with the same question that haunts this case to this day: who killed "The Black Dahlia?" Follow up with L.A. Confidential - a hair-raising tale that can hold a candle to Raymond Chandler any day! Robert Wilson will knock your socks off with his latest, The Blind Man of Seville. This novel keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire way through, as you follow the investigations of Inspector Javier Falcón as he struggles to understand a gruesome murder – and his own personal connection to all that he uncovers. In the process, he must face and overcome his own demons. The Sixth Lamentation, by William Brodrick, is a "Book Sense 76 Pick" (Independent Bookseller Recommendations)– and rightfully so. Broderick plumbs the depth of human morality as he exquisitely unfolds the story of extraordinary evil, extraordinary courage, and the power of both to shape the lives of ordinary people. This is a first novel of stunning depth and mastery not usual with new authors. Alan Furst will captivate you with his uncanny ability to evoke the psychological tension and emotional feel of his characters, roaming the dark underworld of the Second World War, embroiled in the murky web of espionage in places all across war-torn Europe. Kingdom of Shadows, Red Gold, and The Polish Officer will be enough to get you started on this writer’s works. For a step back a bit further in time, try Sarah Smith’s trilogy: The Vanished Child, The Knowledge of Water, and the brilliant finish, A Citizen of the Country. This fascinating plot spins itself out in the three books like Ariadne’s thread. Beginning in America and moving to Paris and the great flood of 1910, it is a beguiling, brilliantly pointillist portrait of life in fin de siècle Paris. A reviewer in the periodical Mostly Murder wrote: "Mystery is the heartbeat of the story, but the puzzles here are not mostly about killings. They are the realms of difference between art and forgery, between one’s self-knowledge and one’s public image, between how people see and what they either do not or will not see…" I hope you will find, as I have, a solid bed of rich reading in this genre, and gain as well a better appreciation of the craft exhibited by these talented authors. They deserve our attention for the heart and soul they have poured into these works! --Patricia Chupa What to Read Next? Library Offers Online Help for Curious Readers. TRL Online Book & Author Information
"I've read all of Tony Hillerman's books. Who else writes mysteries set in the Southwest and featuring Navajo Indians?"
"My book group is discussing Cry, the Beloved Country. Where can I find information about the author?"
"I read a wonderful book 20 years ago, but I can't remember the author or the title. Can you help me find it?"
Yes! At Timberland Regional Library we can help you find all this and more. Better still, you can help yourself to a wealth of information online anytime. Just go to www.trlib.org and click on "Reference Resources" to get started.
Timberland subscribes to three databases designed especially for readers. These are available on computers at all 27 libraries, but you can also use them at home, at work or wherever you have Internet access and a library card.
The most versatile of these databases is called NoveList. When you click on the Start button, you'll see a number of ways to search. For the Tony Hillerman question, you can choose the first link, "Find a Favorite Author."
A search for Tony Hillerman results in 18 titles. Clicking on the first one, The Blessing Way, you'll see a button at the top of the page that says "Find Similar Books." Clicking there, you'll get a list of subject headings.
If you select the subjects "Mystery stories, American"; "Navajo Indians"; and "New Mexico," the NoveList search engine returns a list of hundreds of titles. High on the list are books by Aimee and David Thurlo, featuring Ella Clah, a detective with the Navajo Police.
Another way to find similar authors on NoveList is to look at the "Author Read-alikes." This link from the main search page brings up dozens of articles, listed alphabetically by author. Each article describes the author's books and suggests similar writers.
NoveList is also a great resource for finding those elusive titles of books read long ago. Using the "Describe a Plot" search, you can enter a series of words describing what you remember about the book. Narrow your search, if desired, by limiting it to certain age levels, publication years or even the number of pages.
Recently a woman called the library looking for a book she remembered about a magician who was a serial killer. In NoveList I entered the plot words "magician serial killer."
The first book that came up was The Vanished Man by Jeff Deaver, and that was indeed the book she wanted to reread. I never would have found it in the library catalog, because the word "magician" doesn't appear anywhere in the record for that book.
Another database for finding books is called What Do I Read Next? Though similar to NoveList in the type of information offered, searching it is quite different and can even be somewhat tricky. The key is to search as broadly as possible, avoiding the temptation to search for an exact time period or type of character.
One advantage of What Do I Read Next? Over NoveList is the inclusion of nonfiction titles. This is a big help if you don't remember whether a book was a true story, or if you want to explore a topic in both fact and fiction.
Both databases include lists of recommended and award-wining books. What Do I Read Next? has a category called Librarian Favorites that includes hundreds of book lists. There's even a list called Sled Dog Bibliography that includes fiction and nonfiction for all ages on the subject of sled dogs.
For book clubs, NoveList has a large selection of discussion guides for both adult and teen books. Each guide includes discussion questions and a biography of the author.
For more in-depth author research, try Literature Resource Center. You can search by author and title for biographical information and literary criticism, or find authors based on such criteria as nationality, genre and time period.
Literature is just one of the many topics you can explore online in the library's Reference Resources. You'll also find authoritative, reliable databases for business and investment research, genealogy, car repair procedures and much more.
To learn more about these resources or to get help with searching them, you can call the library's Central Reference department at 704-4636 (in the Olympian calling area, including Shelton) or 1-800-562-6022 (everywhere else). --Susan M. Colowick Black, Cara. Aimee Leduc series (1999 to 2003). Mystery If you are looking for something savvy, sophisticated, and cosmopolitan for your next mystery read, I recommend the engaging series written by Cara Black. The gritty, atmospheric Murder in the Marais; Murder in Belleville; Murder in the Sentier; and Murder in the Bastille are each set in their respective districts in contemporary Paris, and so vividly described you are right there on the streets with the main character, almost smelling the exhaust and hearing the sounds. In the first novel, you become acquainted with the detective Aimee Leduc – described by writer Marcia Muller as "…a prime example of the next generation of female private eyes--hip, technologically resourceful, and very, very independent." Her history is revealed through the next three books as she struggles to understand the dark mystery that has deprived her of her parents. Cara Black’s homepage is at www.carablack.com. -- Pat Chupa Dunning, John. The Bookman’s Promise: a Cliff Janeway novel (2004). Mystery In these times, to get a mystery published, “ya gotta have a gimmick.” That quote came from a Broadway musical involving exotic dancers. In fact, there are mysteries out there that have been solved by strippers, between the intermission and the grand finale. Publishers like the idea of having a guaranteed niche market of people just waiting for a mystery that will speak directly to them. So, we have detectives who are nuns, park rangers, quilters, caterers, bed and breakfast proprietors and chefs. The list goes on and on. The quality varies from abysmal to pretty darned good. John Dunning’s new mystery falls under the pretty darned good category. Bookman’s Promise is his third Cliff Janeway mystery. The books are set in the late 1980s to early 1990s and don’t need to be read in any particular order. Each mystery, while using some of the same characters, stands on it’s own. Janeway is an ex Denver cop who has become a rare book dealer. (Dunning and his wife owned a brick and mortar antiquarian bookstore in Denver until 1994 and still sell books from his web site at www.oldalgonquin.com.) This particular mystery concerns a lost journal of the famous English explorer, Sir Richard Burton. Burton visited the United States in 1860 and promptly disappeared somewhere into the South for two months. Was he a spy? Did he somehow influence the beginning of the Civil War? Rumor surfaces that the journal still exists and bodies begin dropping left and right. Who might Dunning’s book appeal to? Book lovers everywhere. Anyone who appreciates a well-constructed mystery. Maybe someone who is contemplating making the jump from a job you do just to keep a roof over your head, to something you really enjoy. Janeway is a hard-boiled cop, so the language gets a little rough in spots. There are some adult situations, but they are handled with tact and discretion. - Lew HamburgGarcia, Eric. Casual Rex (2001). Detective/Mystery/Humor What if the dinosaurs didn't all die hundreds of years ago? Garcia has come up with the idea that they are walking around amongst us and the mammals (as dinos prefer to call people) are totally unaware of the fact. The first book of this mystery series, Anonymous Rex, explains how dino scales, feathers, tails, beaks, and snouts are concealed by wearing latex guises with buckles and belts to control their non-human body parts. In Casual Rex, likable PI Vince Rubio and his partner are investigating a huge dino cult called Progress. Mammals, if they only knew about it, would have a different name for the group -- Regress, maybe. Rubio is a velociraptor who's very interested in, and attractive to, the opposite sex of his species. Some of the scenes are laugh out loud funny, but there's some violence and the eating habits of dinos who have "Progressed" are not for the squeamish. --Thirza Krohn Pattison, Eliot. The Skull Mantra (1999), Water Touching Stone (2001), and Bone Mountain (2002). Mystery Those of you who had the good fortune to experience the Mystical Arts of Tibet show at the Performing Arts Center in October may be searching for a great read set in Tibet. If so, seek out the wonderful mystery novels written by Eliot Pattison. The Skull Mantra, Water Touching Stone, and Bone Mountain share the same protagonist – a Chinese national, once a police inspector in China, who was imprisoned in Tibet. Escaping from prison, he gets caught up in various mysteries, learns a great deal about the Tibetan situation, and struggles with his own personal enlightenment along the way. Vividly written, the characters, plot and setting will take you right into the heart of the far-flung regions of Asia, and will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat. It is recommended that these be read in sequence, as the character development and underlying plot unfold throughout the books. --Pat Chupa Shaber, Sarah R. Simon Shaw series (1997 to 2004). Mystery
Can a short, half-Jewish, half-hillbilly, laid-back college professor find true love with a tall, ambitious attorney? Can he stay alive long enough to find out? Those are just some of the questions explored in a delightful mystery series by Sarah R. Shaber. The first book, "Simon Said,” introduces Prof. Simon Shaw, star faculty member at small Kenan College in North Carolina. A Pulitzer Prize winning historian undergoing a personal crisis following his wife's desertion, Simon is struggling to keep his job when he is asked to advise on the discovery of a skeleton found on campus. A very old skeleton with a bullet wound to the skull. Drawn into the case against his better judgment, Simon unexpectedly finds himself attracted to a beautiful lawyer working for the police. A new relationship could be just what he needs to pull himself out of his depression, but then another event occurs guaranteed to deepen it. Someone is trying to kill him and make it look like suicide. Could it be a jealous colleague on the faculty? A bitter student he gave a failing grade? Or, strange as it may seem, could it be that someone doesn't want him investigating a seventy-year-murder? If you want to find the answer, give "Simon Said" a try. Not only is it a fine mystery, but you also get a fascinating look at the cutthroat world of today's college politics, along with a view of life in the South, both past and present, that may shake a lot of preconceptions. And luckily for us readers, Simon's adventures don't stop there. "Snipe Hunt" takes him to the North Carolina coast and the investigation into the mysterious death of a WWII diver; "The Fugitive King" has him looking into a forty-year murder on behalf of an elderly prison inmate; and just published in May 2004, "The Bug Funeral" has him examining the claims of a woman who believes she murdered her infant child in a previous life. I highly recommend them, one and all, and hope Prof. Simon Shaw is around for many years to come. --Ruth Stout Additional notes: The Simon Shaw mysteries are examples of “cozy” mystery stories, described by Dorothy Broderick, contributing editor for the Mysteries and Thrillers section of NoveList, as “a quieter, less violent mystery than found in most other categories.” But, she cautions, “Over the years, American authors have introduced a sharper tone to the genre.” Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple stories are examples of traditional cozies. Cozies are for relaxing in a favorite armchair with a cup of tea. The “forensic detective” and “police procedurals” are likelier choices for those who like a nuts and bolts—or blood and guts—type of mystery. Sue Grafton and John Armistead are well-known authors of the police procedural. They and authors Sarah Lovett and Jim Mortimore and their detectives will appeal to those who like to read their mysteries from the edge of their seats. A conversation with your local librarian or mystery bookstore proprietor will unearth thousands of titles in dozens of mystery subgenres. --Leanne Ingle Westlake, Donald. Money for Nothing (2003). Fiction/Thriller/Humor Money for doing absolutely nothing -- dream come true, or nightmare? For seven years Josh Redmont received monthly checks for $1,000 in the mail. Like many young men, he never had enough money, but he did make an effort at first to find out who was sending the checks. Unable to trace the issuer, United States Agent, he accepted his good fortune and went on with his life. He couldn't figure out how to explain the checks to his wife when he married, so he didn't. When he was contacted by a sinister man with an accent and told that he had been "activated", he had to tell her. Accepting the checks had propelled them all, including their pre-school son, into the middle of a political assassination plot. Westlake's sense of humor, edge of the seat action, and engaging characters make for great escape reading. --Thirza Krohn Revised 02/24/08 For Information or to Ask a Reference Question:
Ask A Librarian Timberland Regional Library serves Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, and Thurston counties in Western Washington State. |
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