Egg on My Face

Good grief - it's been months since I posted anything. And I woke up this morning realizing that I'd missed the boat. I could be sharing with you the wonderful authors I'm reading.

I discontinued my radio show Mystery Matters after the one-year contract expired. It had always been a one-year deal in my mind, and I found that when the last show aired at the end of December, I had LOADS of extra time on my hands. Naturally, I spent a lot of it reading and writing.

So now, I'd like to share with you the fine writers whose work I'm exploring. Even though I'm not interviewing them (for now), at least I can pass on the word. I hope you'll check them out.

For today, I'll mention Joanne Harris. If you already know her work - and you just might - good for you. If not, here's my take on one of her books:

I frequently re-read books, but there's usually a span of four or five years between readings. Late last night, though, I finished GENTLEMEN AND PLAYERS by Joanne Harris and turned right back to page one.

Now, on the second reading, I'm seeing that the clues are there - some of them are rather blatant in hindsight - but I missed them the first time around and was completely astonished by the twists and turns at the end. You know me, I'm generous with praise when I like a book. With GENTLEMEN AND PLAYERS, though, I wonder if I can find the words to praise it enough, so I'm not even going to try except to say that on a scale from one to ten, this book is an eleven.

Joanne Harris, according to her website, lives in England. Thankfully, she keep s her references to cricket at a minimum; like most Americans I doubt I'll ever understand that game.

The only objection I have to anything in the text would be the two mentions of the height of the St. Oswald's roof (200 feet? 300 feet?) but I'm willing to believe that was the natural exaggeration of the child who was narrating at that point.

If you read the book - let me know what you think of it.

Friday the 13th and Biscuit McKee mysteries

I'm not a superstitious person. In fact, Friday the 13th has never posed a problem for me. Until this morning. My mystery author guest each week is supposed to call the station at five minutes before show time. Well - that didn't happen this morning, and I was left having to "wing it."


It's live radio, and I suppose I've known that something like this might happen at some point. I just wasn't expecting it quite this soon. This was only the 11th show, after all. In the two minutes I had to think about it - and then the half-minute of commercial intro, I decided to read from my own books and call the show "The Evolution of a Mystery Series." I figured I could answer a lot of the questions I get asked when I speak at book clubs and writers groups. How did you get the idea for Biscuit the librarian? and Where did Marmalade the orange library cat come from?


Luckily two listeners emailed questions -- they're both going on my gratitude list tonight! I made it through the show. Listen to it on the archive for February 13th http://www.tinyurl.com/a2f3s6 and let me know how nervous you think I sounded on a scale of one to ten.