T-Minus 3 Days! Mother's Day MYSTERIES

[For the 4th day post, click here]
[For the 5th day post, click here]

You know what's best for ma.

For instance, my mother prefers her mysteries to include a British lord (preferably monocled, preferably played by Edward Petherbridge in the Masterpiece Mystery! adaptation), and an independent intelligent woman who will solve or help solve the crimes. For her, I'd pick The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, or Louise Penny, P.D. James, Elizabeth George or (if she hadn't already read all of them), Dorothy Sayers.

But that isn't to say your mom is my mom (unless you're my sister: and if you are I say "I want my bicycle back"). Instead, I'm going to offer up some new titles of the mystery genre. Something might spark.

After all, Mother's Day is now just 3 DAYS AWAY.





1. Gone Girl is now in paperback!

The runaway book of 2012, most of us have probably digested this dark thriller of a young married couple gone completely off the rails. It is wonderful, but caricatured. The antagonists (there are no protagonists) are dark larger-than-life adaptations of American married stereotypes: think Grant Wood's "American Gothic" but they're both holding the pitchfork.

After two years of soaking up the profits of the hardcover, the publishers have released Gone Girl in paperback, which some of customers have been waiting and waiting for. We have new paperback copies; we also have used hardcovers for only $12.95. Cheaper than the new paperbacks!

For a more realistic thriller of a marriage falling apart, check out my #fridayreads review of "The Silent Wife," by A.S.A. Harrison, coming out later today.

2. The Cuckoo's Calling is now in paperback!

Robert Galbraith you might have heard of: he's the pen name of author J.K. Rowling, who took the world by storm when we learned that he was the pen name of . . . J.K. Rowling.

Many of our customers have enjoyed this book more than Rowling's "A Casual Vacancy" (also in paperback): customers who are looking for the same adventurous thrill that they got with the Harry Potter series.

With that caveat, among my customers I have only noticed lukewarm receptions to it. This, it seems, would be the book for the mother who devours books: who will read every James Michener novel in a few short months and promptly move on to Anne River Siddons.

Read Maureen Corrigan's review on NPR Books to get a better sense of what I mean.

3. Louise Penny & Jacqueline Winspear


Two authors you have hopefully heard about are taking over the mystery genre. Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series is in its 9th book, How The Light Gets In, still in hardcover. Begin this series with a mass market copy of Still Life, the very fist book, which we keep in stock because we rarely see it used.



Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, of which Leaving Everything Most Loved is the 10th and came out in paperback this April, features Maisie as an independent private detective in post-World War I London. This series is enjoyed by many for its historical features (see my previous post about Downton Abbey fans), as well as a careful detective story. This would be the book I would get for my mother, as it is closest to P.D. James and Dorothy Sayers.

4. Read my Review About "The Silent Wife"

Lastly, to push a new author who sadly passed away, I want to promote "The Silent Wife," which is reviewed in this week's Friday Reads.

If this doesn't give you something to begin with for the mystery-loving mother, stop by and we'll talk more about what we can do for you!

~ James Maynard, May 2014