Great Mystery Guide!

Vernon Area Public Library District great mystery guide!

Nice Read-Alikes Wiki!/Young Adult Titles

Click here for some great read-alikes

These read-alikes have a young adult theme, but there are some that will appeal to adults as well such as Janet Evanovich...

Looking For A Mystery....great site to explore all kinds of mysteries

Click here

Great Cozy Mystery Site

Looking for all mysteries cozy?  Look no further!

Click here!

Bloodstained Booklshelf

Go to the bloodstained bookshelf for a list of upcoming mystery titles in the U.S.  Fabulous mystery Reader's Advisory tool!

Here is the link!

RUSA/division of ALA nice readalike lists!

Look at this great Reading List from the Reference and Users Services Association

Click here for the Reading List

Reader's Advisory Link Farm! Give this a look!

Give this Reader's Advisory Link Farm a Try!  You'll be Glad you did! 

Here's the link!

Similar Sites to stopyourekillingme.com nice list

Click here for a nice list of similar sites to stopyourekillingme.com

We're Reading Historical Mysteries next!

Click here for some great suggestions!

Be sure to also check the links cited on the web site for more titles!

It's A Mystery To Me! Panel Discussion at the Waltham Public Library

Laura Bernheim, Head Reference Librarian, introduces It's a Mystery To Me!

 program

Angela Gerst, Susan Conant, Gary Goshgarian

Panelists enlightening us about their writing process

Susan Conant, a prolific writer who loves to set mysteries in Cambridge, MA

Angela Gerst, whose book A Crack In Everything takes place in Waltham, MA

Gary Goshgarian who introduced the very successful science fiction course at Northeastern University where he is a professor

taking questions from the audience, autographing books

On Tuesday, May 14th at 7:00PM we had a lovely program made possible with federal funds provided by the Institute of Museum of Library Services for the Library Services and Technology Act and administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.  Whew!  That was a mouthful.

Partnering  with Sisters In Crime, we at the WPL hosted Susan Conant, Gary Goshgarian whose pen name is Gary Braver, and Angela Gerst.    Here are some of their answers to the questions asked by Laura Bernheim, the Head of Reference at the Waltham Public Library, and the audience.
I have not included all of the questions as I think the answers will make it clear what they are talking about.  Please feel free to use the links to help you learn more about these fabulous authors!

Angela Gerst, author of A Crack In Everything featuring amateur sleuth Susan Callisto writes "all over the house".  She is not the sort of writer who always knows everything that will happen in the book.  She uses an outline, writes the book and then checks the facts.  Writing short stories has moved her into a totally different direction.  Angela Gerst has a writing group of four writers that she finds necessary for her writing process.

Susan Conant's first contract was for four books.  She got into the habit of doing outlines.  She is planning to self-publish her 20th dog mystery.

Gary's first novel had eighty seven pages of outline.  Now he will write 1 sentence for each chapter to say this is what will happen in this chapter and so on.  He writes quasi-scientific thrillers.  He likes the Frankenstein model of watch out what you wish for.  Read more about the Frankenstein model in this interview with Gary.

His book Tunnel Vision explores the question of whether or not there is an afterlife.  He is able to fact check with other professionals at Northeaster.  Fay Weldon has had a near death experience.

His book, Skin Deep, explores plastic surgery.  Plastic surgeons earn a lot of money..

Angela Gerst likes the escape aspect of mystery.  The villian is always more interesting than the goody two shoes!  Here's an interview with Angela.

Susan Conant--"Blackie Lanagan".  She says, "If Whitey Bulger had read my book the Dogfather,  he would have had a good disguise and he would be around now!"

Gary--Thriller vs. mystery....thrillers:  Power, money, sex, voyeuristic  Mystery:  Whodunnit?
Agatha Christie:  Mysteries such as Murder On The Orient Express a puzzle that needs to be solved.

Gary was jogging around the track with his friend Robert Parker.  There was very little mystery in Parker's books.  Spencer is the archetypal white knight.  Talking with Robert inspired Gary to write!

Susan Conant--the puzzles (a la Agatha Christie) have gone out of style.  Forensic science has replaced that.  It's easier to find things out now than it used to be.  You can use google and your cell phone so the mystery novel has changed.

Question to Susan Conant:  Why are you self-publishing?
She hates deadlines.  Has published 27 books.  Amazon pays 70% royalites.  Publishers say that they will promote your book.  However, her daughter, Jessica Conant Park, had such a good experience with self-publishing.  The publisher said that her main character at 18 was too old for a young adult novel.  Her daughter's essay How Amazon Saved My Life was picked up by the Huffington Post.

Angela lives in Newton.  She saw a famous building on Moody Street in Waltham that was owned by Rex Trailer.  Angela said "that's where my main character's office is".

Susan likes eccentricities so she set a lot of books in Cambridge.  She loves the Waltham Ocean State Job Lot and Russos.  She has some scenes set in Waltham.  She wanted to use a "gritty" section of the river.  She has created a couple of characters who "belong there".

Gary's book Tunnel Vision is set in Arlington and Boston.  Skin Deep the last scene takes place in Flora which is the favorite restaurant of his wife and himself.  Gary's book Elixir was optioned for film for two years by Ridley Scott!

Regarding the future of publishing, all three writers are concerned about maintaining the quality of books.  Writing vs. authors.  Editors and copy editors can be so important for fact checking, looking for accuracy, grammar, consistency and maintaining integrity and quality.

Gary Braver's favorite books One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Of Mice and Men.  These authors inspired him to write.

Susan Conant loves Barbara Pym and Nancy Drew.  Pym has the cozy piece and Nancy Drew has the mystery piece!  Susan pointed out that there is a Barbara Pym Society!

This program was truly delightful.  I am currently reading Skin Deep by Gary Braver and loving it!  Next up will be A Crack In Everything by Angela Gerst.  Ater that?  Creature Discomforts by
Susan Conant!

This article originally appeared in the Waltham Patch

Louise Goldstein
Head of Circulation
Waltham Public Library

Chic Lit, Female Fiction and Novel Ideas....trashionista!

Trashionista!

follow WPL on pinterest!

We're just getting started!  Take a look!

Click here!

we're reading diversity mysteries!

Here's the diversity index from stopyou'rekillingme.com

Sisters In Crime comes to WPL

Read all about it here!

Save the date!  Tuesday May 14th!

bookish.com

Like Book Psychic, GoodReads and LibraryThing....

bookish.com  will help you find other titles based on your reading taste.

Give it a try!

interesting poirot trivia

Look here!

Murder On The Orient Express--Read Alikes

From NoveList Plus


Night Over Water by Ken Follett
An English aristocrat, a German scientist, a murderer, a thief, and a beautiful woman are among the desperate passengers who board the most luxurious airliner ever built to escape from England two days after the declaration of war against Germany in 1939.

Death of a perfect mother by Robert Barnard
When vulgar, flamboyant Lill Hodsden is strangled, Chief Inspector Dominic McHale uncovers more suspects than he can handle, including Lill's humiliated husband, browbeaten teenaged daughter, and two "devoted" sons.

Burglars Can't Be Choosers by Lawrence Block
Hired to perform a seemingly simple break-in, Bernie Rhodenbarr is horrified when he takes the fall for a murder rap and is forced to flee, and stationed in an out-of-town apartment, he tries to discover why he was set up.

 Blood Work by Michael Connelly
Eight weeks after a heart transplant saves his life, former FBI agent Terry McCaleb discovers that his new heart came from a murder victim, leading Terry to become involved in tracking down the killer.

The Black Box by Michael Connelly
Harry Bosch investigates after a bullet from a recent killing is a match for one used in the unsolved murder of a photographer in 1992.

 Love You More by Lisa Gardner
 Brian Darby lies dead on the kitchen floor. His wife, state police trooper Tessa Leoni, claims to have shot him in self-defense, and bears the bruises to back up her tale. For veteran detective D. D. Warren, it should be an open-and-shut case. But where is their six-year-old daughter? As the homicide investigation ratchets into a frantic statewide search for a missing child, D. D. Warren must partner with former lover Bobby Dodge to break the case.


View Alikes from IMDB 

Read Alikes from LibraryThing

Read Alikes from Goodreads 

Mystery File--Two lists of Mysteries set on trains

Using Gnooks to find Agatha Christie Read Alikes

Agatha Christie Read Alikes from the Seattle Public Library

Authors similar to Agatha Christie

If you like Agatha Christie from BHPL Book Blog

Go On a Murder Mystery Lunch....Orient Express UK!

Popular Humorous Mysteries From Goodreads

Favorite Twist Ending Mysteries from LibraryThing

Life After Life--two new books 2013

An alert Circ person who orders large print materials for our library has pointed out that there are two 2013 titles with the same title.  One is Life After Life by Jill McCorkle and the other is Life After Life by Kate Atkinson.  Two entirely different books, both by top notch writers.

Therefore, if you are reserving this title for someone, be sure you have the right author.  It is also possible that library patrons may get on the wrong list by mistake.

Thank goodness for our alert staff members!

Paige Eaton posted these Reader's Advisory Websites

Reader's Advisory Websites

You need to have a user name and password for the Staff Information Page to view these.

A very nice list!

NDEs popular topic

We've all heard the stories.  The person is in a motorcycle accident, or rushed to the ER, or they have an unexplained medical condition.  There are lots of books about Near Death Experiences. 

Lately, there have been some titles that have received a great deal of attention.

Proof of Heaven 

Dying To Be Me

Heaven Is For Real

Personally, my favorite of the three is Dying to Be Me.  The writing is very good and there is something that feels believable about the story.  Still, if you are interested in this subject they are all worth a go.

You don't want to miss out on some of Elisabeth Kubler Ross's writing.  Her works are classics, well written and fascinating.

Here is a listing of popular Near Death Experience titles from Goodreads.

Here is a listing of popular Near Death Experience titles from Barnes and Noble.

Here is a lovely list of popular Near Death Experience titles from LibraryThing