Tag Archives: mysteries

Give a Book, Inspire a Life

Late Last Night Books

12-17-2017 Give a Book, Inspire a Life

Gift-giving season is here, which always makes me consider the perfect gift, a gift that is not only thoughtful but sets the imagination afire. Not like handkerchiefs or ties or socks or shirts that nail you to the ground and don’t produce even a spark of an idea.

Books. That’s the ticket. Books have changed my life, and I’m sure they’ve changed yours. Books are my favorite gift to give and to receive. The two gifts I remember most from my childhood, other than my bike, were the first series book I read, Cherry Ames, Student Nurse, which I couldn’t put down, and a nonfiction book called Lost Treasure Trails by Thomas Penfield.

Review – Golden Age of Murder

Late Last Night Books

4/17/2016 – Review: The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards

Here’s an excellent read for mystery buffs written by Martin Edwards, author of the Lake District mysteries and a commentator on detective fiction. The Golden Age of Murder is a history of an elite club of outstanding mystery writers from the 30s and 40s.

This delightful book is full of interesting tidbits about the lives and personalities of the club members and guests. It opens with Ngaio Marsh’s impressions of a meeting in 1937. She was a guest for the evening, which began with a banquet in an opulent dining room. The meal ended, everyone rose and the party adjourned to another room, where the ritual began. With lights out, a door opens and the Orator enters holding a taper.

Memories of Summertime Reading

Late Last Night Books

6/17/2015 – Memories of Summertime Reading

When I was a kid, summer days meant a blissful release from school, hours spent at the beach, and more hours under a tree, feeling the warm breezes and reading. I read everything that presented itself, often from the adult fiction shelves at our local library, but what I enjoyed most back then were the Nancy Drew mysteries.

Growing up in a time when women were admired for beauty rather than brains and limited to subservient roles, I felt pleased when the villain in a book or movie was a woman. Roles like that gave her power, made her interesting.

What Makes a Liar?

Late Last Night Books

4/17/2015 – What Makes a Liar?

I attend monthly meetings of the local chapter, Mystery Writers of America. The conversation is stimulating and the speaker usually offers technical expertise I can use in my mystery novels. This month’s meeting was no exception. Guest speaker was Stan Burke, a retired FBI special agent and an expert in statement analysis. He is now president of Precision Intelligence Consulting, which specializes in training its clients in innovative investigative techniques.

Is the supposed victim lying? Did he really see a gun or is he making that up? Was he really kidnapped on Friday afternoon

Mystery Loves Company

Late Last Night Books

11/17/13 MYSTERY LOVES COMPANY

Would you like to go where they really know your name? Better yet, if you read mysteries, they know what you want to read?

Try your local independent mystery bookstore. I drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge last week to the quiet shores of Oxford, Maryland, to drop in on Kathy Harig and the Mystery Loves Company Bookstore. An energetic woman with short white hair wearing a blue turtleneck and corduroy slacks, Harig greeted me with a smile as she waved good-bye to a woman bemoaning the fate of two handsome oak trees in town. The store is on the main street in a building dating from 1900—it’s on the Historic Register–and used as a bank and then a post office for 30 years each.