Well, it got me
… the funny feeling I talked about last week laid low for awhile
then zapped me full force on Monday. Runny nose and burning eyes
were joined by a cough and fever on Tuesday.
Luckily I had a stash of murder mysteries checked out from the
library.
Well, it got me … the funny feeling I talked about last week laid low for awhile then zapped me full force on Monday. Runny nose and burning eyes were joined by a cough and fever on Tuesday.
Luckily I had a stash of murder mysteries checked out from the library.
I’ve been a mystery fan since childhood, when I plowed through the Nancy Drew series with only momentary time outs to ask my mom what a “roadster” was.
Until we moved to San Benito County, almost everything I knew about horses came from reading the Dick Francis mysteries that use horse racing in England as its focal point.
The Ellis Peters series, featuring the medieval monk Brother Cadfael, was another long-time favorite. This series is set in 12th-century Shrewsbury, in the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul. It was made into a 13-show PBS series, but the characters and atmosphere are better developed in the books.
Robert B. Parker, in the Spenser series, features a hard-boiled private eye who can recite poetry, has a psychiatrist girlfriend, and who spoils his German shorthair dog.
My choice this time was volumes “P” and “Q” in Sue Grafton’s books about fictional detective Kinsey Millhone.
These books, starting with “A is for Alibi,” have held my interest since I first started reading them. The heroine, Kinsey Millhone, is a former cop who became a private investigator to evade the bureaucracy and regulations of department work. I’d like to identify with her, but our main similarities are a fondness for peanut butter and pickle sandwiches, and a steady aim.
In choosing mystery series, I look for those where the plot involves secrets, hidden histories, mistaken identities or a misleading time sequence.
I am not as interested in plots involving maniacal serial killers, such as those by Patricia Cornwell. I admit I haven’t read one for years, but in those I read, even though the forensic details she includes were fascinating, and the action suspenseful, a story based on evading a demented killer just didn’t grab me.
What I enjoy about the mystery format is that it allows the author to develop characters over the course of several stories. The reader gets to know their history, their likes and dislikes, the names of their friends and the layout of their home.
Even ancillary characters take on three dimensions as we see them in action over several books.
The Dick Francis series doesn’t have a single protagonist, but each book includes a lot of information about the main character’s profession or hobby, so I learned a lot about photography, animal transport, and electronic surveillance, to name a few, by reading them.
Brother Cadfael is the herbalist of the Abbey, so reading those books taught me about herbal cures, medieval medical beliefs, and the history of the era’s civil war between King Steven and Queen Maud.
There are new series out there that I haven’t yet begun … our library has a pretty good selection, including the “honor checkout” paperbacks, books you can take home with no due date: just bring it back when you’re done.
With mysteries, of course, I’m usually done in a day or two, so overdue fines aren’t a problem.
