What’s on Your Nightstand?

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By Lois Winston

I’m an extremely eclectic reader. There are a few genres I don’t read because they turn me off. My apologies to the vampire and werewolf fans out there, but I just don’t get the allure of falling for someone who wants to drain me of my blood or sup on my entire body.

I used to read a wide range of science fiction and fantasy, everything from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy to Arthur C. Clark’s Space Odyssey series to the Harry Potter books. At one point in my life, I devoured books by Leon Uris and James Mitchener, then Michael Crichton.

These days, though, besides reading books by other cozy authors, I find myself drawn to novels featuring historical people, women’s fiction, literary fiction, and books that cross genres. For my post today, I thought I’d tell you about some of my recent reads, all in different genres, and what I enjoyed about them.

The Unexpected Mrs. Polifax by Dorothy Gilman

I don’t know how I didn’t know about this series of books, but I’m so happy I stumbled upon them. Mrs. Polifax is a New Jersey widow who walks into the CIA one day and offers her services as a spy. Surprisingly, they take her up on it! And that’s the start of a very entertaining book featuring an extremely endearing character. The author wrote fourteen books in the Mrs. Polifax series before her death at the age of eighty-eight in 2012. I’ve already started the second one.

 

 

 

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

If a book doesn’t draw me in by the third chapter, I won’t waste any more time on it. There are too many books to read and not enough leisure hours in my day. Even so, there are books I finish but soon forget. Then there’s The Dutch House. I first picked this book up because it takes place in a town where I went to college and later lived for several decades. But I kept reading because the author is so adept at crafting both characters and plot.

 

 

 

11/22/63 by Stephen King

I bought this book several years ago but just got around to reading it this summer. At 880 pages, it’s quite intimidating and requires a huge commitment of time. Because I don’t care for horror stories, I’d never read anything by King other than his book on writing. However, I’m old enough to remember the day Kennedy was shot, and the concept about a man who goes back in time to prevent the assassination fascinated me. I flew through it, unable to put the book down until my eyelids grew heavy each night.

 

 

The Colony Club by Shelley Noble

Disclaimer: the author is a dear friend, and I was lucky enough to read this book prior to publication. Daisy Harriman, one of the main characters in the book, was a real person. When she requested a room for the night at the Waldorf Hotel, she was turned away because she wasn’t accompanied by her husband. Appalled by her treatment, she set out to change history, creating The Colony Club, the first woman’s club of its kind in not only New York but the world. The novel also incorporates other historical people of the Gilded Age, including Stanford White, who designed the building, and actress-turned-interior designer Elsie de Wolfe, who decorated the Colony Club’s rooms. The author is a meticulous historian who creates a richly accurate depiction of the times, especially in the treated of women, making the book extremely au courant for today’s readers.

What’s on your nightstand? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free download of any one of the first ten audiobooks in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series.

~*~

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter and follow her on various social media sites.

Setting Matching by Saralyn Richard

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Setting Matching

By Saralyn Richard

 

Should your reading setting match the setting of your current book? Not really. Otherwise, how could you enjoy historical or sci fi fiction? But some interesting things have occurred to me in the past when I read a book that matched the situation I was in at the time.

The first time I noticed this phenomenon was when I was sick with the flu. The rather unfortunate choice of books on my nightstand included Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. As I coughed and battled high fevers, I read about the English plague of 1666, and I shuddered all the more with the tension of the book.

I read Suzanne Morris’ Galveston while sitting on the beach, only a few blocks from the Victorian homes described in that book. The sights, sounds, and smells of Galveston surrounded me in real life, as I read Morris’ descriptions of them.

I read Emilya Naymark’s Hide in Place during a cold snap. I could feel the biting wind and hear the crunch of the snow as I read. The chills of the book became actual chills for me.

Not exactly serendipity, after visiting the National Aeronautics & Space Museum (NASA), I decided to read Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff. I had a greater appreciation for the astronauts’ personal journeys as described by Mr. Wolfe, because I had sat in one of the space vehicles mentioned in the book.

Of course, it’s not a requirement to select a book based on its location, time in history, or season’s matching the one you are currently in, but there’s an extra surge of fun when the match-up occurs.

If you’re looking for a sizzling summer mystery, Bad Blood Sisters might be up your alley. All the tension begins on the Fourth of July. And Quinn’s family, who owns a mortuary and sometimes jokes about death, decides that this summer death stops being funny.

Whatever you’re reading this summer, I hope you’re having a great time. Can you think of examples of setting matching that you’ve experienced?

 

 

Saralyn Richard writes award-winning humor- and romance-tinged mysteries that pull back the curtain on people in settings as diverse as elite country manor houses and disadvantaged urban high schools. Her works include the Detective Parrott mystery series, BAD BLOOD SISTERS, A MURDER OF PRINCIPAL, NAUGHTY NANA, and various short stories published in anthologies. She also edited the nonfiction book, BURN SURVIVORS. An active member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America, Saralyn teaches creative writing and literature. Her favorite thing about being an author is interacting with readers like you. Visit Saralyn here, on her Amazon page here, or on Facebook here.

 

History Speaks to Us

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I was not a big fan of history in my teens and twenties. No history class ever made the factoids we had to memorize feel real or relevant to the world I lived in.

The History Buff

Then I married a big fan of history, and through his eyes, his love for that old stuff began to come alive for me, too.

Mont-Saint-Michel

In 1999, we traveled to Normandy together. I’d spent my junior year in college in France, and I remembered Normandy mostly for the delicious crepes and hard apple cider the region is known for. And of course, for the wondrous sight of Mont-Saint-Michel rising from a sea of tidal sands.

But I had never toured the D-Day beaches there, where the tide of World War II began to turn. Of course, my history-buff husband very much wanted to see them.

No Hollywood Movie

Most people have experienced film versions of the war, including depictions of D-Day. But no matter how “real” the filmmakers tried to make the movie, nothing—not the enormous scope of the effort, the danger involved, the bravery of thousands of young soldiers—nothing ever hit me in the gut, until I saw what those intrepid souls were up against on that day, and all the days after.

Already under fire from the German guns positioned atop the cliffs that loomed above the beach, they somehow mustered the fortitude to leap out of their landing boats, race for their lives across the vast beach past their dead and dying comrades, and scramble up the sheer, vertical cliffs. And if they succeeded, what then?

How did they do it?

Knowing that they faced more guns and possibly hand-to-hand combat if they were “lucky” enough to make it all the way up, how did they push on? It gives me chills to think about it.

As he does every year, last weekend my husband took a sealed jar of sand from the shelf and set it out on a table to commemorate those long-gone soldiers and their unimaginable courage. It’s the sand we had gathered from the beach in Normandy. It still looks as it did in 1999.

We enjoyed the whole of our trip to France that year. But the memory that lingers is of the site of that fateful day in 1944.  And I will never think of history the same again.

Has history ever come alive for you? How?

Please share your experience below.

Gay Yellen is the author of the multi-award-winning SamanthaNewman Mysteries include The Body Business, The Body Next Door, and The Body in the News!

Contact her at GayYellen.com

 

 

 

Detective Parrott Mystery Series by Saralyn Richard

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My introduction to Brandywine Valley, Pennsylvania, was at a weekend retreat in one of the country mansions there. I was invited to a birthday party for one of the elite one-percenters who owned a gentleman’s farm. The thirteen guests were treated to three days of luxurious meals and accommodations, fit for royalty. That Saturday night we enjoyed a gourmet nine-course meal with wine pairings for each course. It was over the top, but tasteful at the same time. The conversation was intelligent and witty, and everyone had a wonderful time, especially the birthday celebrant, who beamed at his friends and family members the entire time.

After the elaborate dinner on Saturday night, our bellies and spirits equally full, we sat around near the fireplace in the den and talked about many things. The gathering reminded me of an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, where someone died, and the rest of the guests were suspects. I was struck by the idea that this would be the last place you’d expect a murder to occur. I turned to the person next to me and said, “This would be the perfect setting for a murder mystery.”

From that moment on, I wanted to write about these rich and powerful people, this setting, and the elements of social class that distinguish the ultra-wealthy from those who serve them. That was the beginning of MURDER IN THE ONE PERCENT.

Since that time, I’ve traveled all over the country, talking about Brandywine Valley. The Detective Parrott mystery series has become popular, and it’s grown from a single mystery to four, the latest of which is being released January 5, 2024, MURDER OUTSIDE THE BOX. In each of the books, Detective Parrott learns and grows, while his cases intertwine with his real life.

The series, along with two standalone novels set in less opulent environments, has won numerous awards, favorable reviews, and loyal fans. I’ve conducted extensive research on various aspects of the Brandywine community, and I’ve acquired many first-hand sources who are happy to fill me in on details about the topography, history, architecture, artistry, equestrian activities, artistic endeavors, gardens, museums, shopping areas, bank barns, funeral customs, wildlife conservancy, and other aspects of the community.

The area has turned out to be a second home for me and a favorite escape for my readers. I love the less posh settings of my other books, too, but that long-ago birthday celebration in Brandywine Valley has turned out to be a seminal event in my writing life, and my fascination with the Brandywine culture continues to grow.

Do you have a favorite setting, either fictional or real, that holds you with its magic? Tell me about it!

 

 

IT’S A MATTER OF BIRTH AND DEATH.

The serene Brandywine Valley wakes up to an intoxicating double shock: a baby abandoned on the porch of a caretaker’s cottage, and a young post-partum woman lying dead on the estate of a billionaire scotch whiskey magnate. Detective Parrott’s instincts tell him the two crimes are connected, but the evidence points him in directions that are both baffling and personal. Parrott searches for answers in high and low places, including his own office.  As he races to find the truth about the baby’s origin and best placement, he untangles chilling murder clues that implicate people who harbor secrets that even their positions of power and trust can’t protect. Once again, Parrott may have to risk his reputation—and even his life—to uncover the real story.

A compulsive and compelling police procedural with relatable characters who remain in your heart. If you like detectives from Louisa Scarr, Clare Mackintosh, and Michael Connelly, you’ll love Detective Oliver Parrott. Purchase at your favorite bookstore or here.