Summer Reading

by Sandra Parshall

Sometimes I look at my list of recently read books and realize many of them made little impression on me, but this summer’s list is filled with memorable novels.

Karin Slaughter’s new book is always a highlight of summer, and I think this year’s Fallen is the best novel she’s ever written. I’ve been a happy reader since Karin brought Sara Linton and Will Trent together, and their relationship advances in Fallen, but the focus is on Faith Mitchell, Will’s partner in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and her mother, a retired cop who has been kidnapped. Old secrets surface in the course of a riveting crime story.

For something completely different, I turned to Julia Spencer-Fleming’s long-awaited new mystery, One Was a Soldier. Claire Ferguson’s return from active duty in the Middle East lands her and Police Chief Russ Van Alstine in the middle of a murder investigation and gives Julia the opportunity to explore the aftermath of war duty in the lives of veterans.

I read Chevy Stevens' first and second novels, Still Missing and Never Knowing, close together and found both absorbing in different ways. The author uses the same device to tell each story, a first person protagonist talking to her therapist, but there’s nothing similar in the plots. Still Missing is about a woman who is kidnapped and held prisoner for a year (giving birth to the kidnapper’s baby during that time) and suffers another life-altering jolt when she learns the truth behind what happened to her. Never Knowing is about a woman who was adopted as a baby and searches for her real parents as an adult, with disastrous consequences.

I “discovered” Michael Koryta with So Cold the River, and although I’m not usually a fan of supernatural elements in mysteries, I’m now hopelessly hooked on his writing. I read The Cypress House and The Ridge this summer, enjoying his larger-than-life characters and his fearless storytelling.

Again, for something totally different, I finally got around to Leonie Swann’s Three Bags Full, a marvelously droll tale of a flock of sheep solving the murder of their shepherd. The sheep were as real to me as any human characters I’ve met in novels.

These are just a few of the entertaining books on my summer list, which also includes Iron House by John Hart, Fatal Error by J.A. Jance, Misery Bay by Steve Hamilton, The Ice Princess and The Preacher by Camilla Lackberg, and the astonishing Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson. Next up, another new book by a favorite writer: Laura Lippman’s The Most Dangerous Thing.

What have you been reading this summer?


Sandra Parshall is the author of the award-winning Rachel Goddard mysteries. The fourth book in the series, Under the Dog Star, has just been published.

Sisters in Crime Book Bloggers Challenge

By Barbara Fister

Avid readers are always on the lookout for ideas about what to read next. They also like to share what they’ve been reading. So, to satisfy both urges – and to celebrate SinC’s 25th anniversary – I threw down a reading challenge.

I hope some of you will want to take it up and will post your own thoughts – on your own blogs or here at the SinC blog – about favorite mysteries by women authors. (To submit posts to the SinC blog, contact KathieFelix[at]aol.com.)

Here’s what I posted at my blog:

I am somewhat loath to issue a reading challenge, given that one of the greatest pleasures of reading is choosing books you just feel like reading without being told what to read. But this challenge includes a lot of latitude for crime fiction fans, so I hope it will let you indulge in an activity enjoyed by avid readers: that of grabbing people by the virtual elbow and saying “have you read this book? It’s sooooo good!”

Given that Sisters in Crime is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year at Bouchercon, it seems a good time to blog about women’s contributions to crime fiction.

Easy challenge: Write a blog post about a work of crime fiction by a woman author; list five more women authors who you recommend.

Moderate challenge: Write five blog posts about works of crime fiction by women authors. For each, mention another woman author who writes in a similar vein.

Expert challenge: Write 10 blog posts about works of crime fiction by women authors. For each, mention three similar women authors whose works you would recommend.

Deadline: Whenever. Another one of the joys of reading for pleasure is not having deadlines. Also, feel free to recycle previous reviews. I’m all about recycling.

If you tag your posts with “SinC25” I will compile them. And if you tweet, use the hashtag #SinC25.

You can do it!

If you aren’t familiar with Sisters in Crime, it’s a nonprofit organization with the mission to “promote the professional development and the advancement of women crime writers to achieve equality in the industry.” SinC was founded on the heels of a talk Sara Paretsky gave at the first conference on women in detective fiction held at Hunter College in March 1986. The organization now has 3,000 or so members worldwide and is welcoming to anyone who enjoys a good mystery.

For writers in particular, both published and not yet published, it offers some terrific opportunities for friendship and professional development. (Full disclosure: I’ve been a member for many years and am currently serving on the board.)

By the way, this image is based on the famous “We Can Do It/Rosie the Riveter” poster in the National Archives. Feel free to reuse my Rosie the Reader variation.

Guess I’ll dive into the deep end and sign up for the Expert Challenge. Stay tuned …



Barbara Fister is the author of the Anni Koskinen mysteries. The most recent title in the series is Through the Cracks. She is an academic librarian and serves on the SinC board as Secretary.

Shaken: Stories for Japan

By Jeri Westerson


Early in June, Amazon will feature a new Kindle book that may be the first major e-book charitable fundraiser.

Prompted by the disaster in northern Japan, Shaken: Stories for Japan, is a collection of original, exclusive, Japan-themed short stories by some remarkable writers: Gar Anthony Haywood, Naomi Hirahara, Ken Kuhlken, Cara Black, Dianne Emley, Dale Furutani, Jeri Westerson, Gary Phillips, Kelli Stanley, Brett Battles, Robert Gregory Brown, Jeffrey Siger, IJ Parker, Wendy Hornsby, Vicki Doudera, Adrian McKinty, Debbi Mack, Meredith Cole, Rosemary Harris, CJ West, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Hong Kong film historian Stefan Hammond and Edgar-nominated author Tim Hallinan, who is editing the collection.

One hundred percent of all writer royalties for this book will be paid directly into the bank account of Japan America Society of Southern California, which has already raised more than $1 million for the relief effort.

I think this is the first time anyone has taken advantage of the rapid turnaround time possible on the Kindle and the monthly direct-deposit of royalty payments to raise money for a major charitable enterprise. This actually probably wouldn't have been possible before the advent of the ebook. (We're exclusive to Amazon only because of their payment policies, which are prompt and automatic, freeing up money as it's needed, not at the end of various bookkeeping quarters.)

When Tim Hallinan approached me about this project in late April, it was really a no-brainer. First off, I live in southern California and am intimately acquainted with earthquakes to the point where I can guess the Richter scale size of it just by the feel. That’s too intimate!

Most of the quakes that roll in from time to time are minor or come from far away (a big rolling feeling means it comes from afar, and you can hear those coming, too. A hard, building jolt means that the epicenter is quite close, a few miles or so.). But it’s like living on a precipice: Get too complacent and bad things can happen.

We don’t know when an earthquake of devastating proportion will strike and we don’t know what will happen to us and our community when it does. I live pretty far inland, so a chance at a tsunami is zero, but you don’t need a wall of water to destroy life as you knew it. The earth moving can take care of that.

I would have to say that empathy was the biggest factor that encouraged my participation in this project. But getting a chance to have a story alongside this talented array of authors was certainly another big factor. I haven’t read any of the other stories and am just as excited to get the book as anyone else. It’s a great chance to do some good and get a great collection at the same time. That seems like an easy decision for mystery readers.


Jeri Westerson, the president of the Orange County chapter of Sisters in Crime, is the author of the Crispin Guest medieval mysteries. The newest title in the series, The Demon's Parchment, was nominated for the Reviewer's Choice Award for Historical Mystery from Romantic Times magazine and the Bruce Alexander Award for Best Historical Mystery. For more information, see www.JeriWesterson.com.

Spring Reading

By Cathy Pickens

It’s springtime, and a mystery reader’s fancy turns to good books. Okay, no requirement that it be springtime for that to happen. A hard-core reader doesn’t need much of an excuse.

Which leads me to my question: What books have you bought from an independent bookstore lately? We began a focus on independent bookstores in the late fall, following the lead of SinC member Dana Stabenow. Inquiring minds would like to know what you’ve added to your reading list—and where your favorite independent bookstores are!

For my list, I recently had a wonderful visit with the Friends of the Library in Clemson-Central, South Carolina, a real old-home week for me. Tricia Lightweis of Booksmith in Seneca took care of book sales. Her staff members are great friends of local writers and great sources for good reads.

At Park Road Books in Charlotte this week, I bought Murder in Italy (about the Amanda Knox case) by Seattle writer Candace Dempsey and The Brain That Changes Itself, featured on PBS’s The Brain Fitness Program. [Store owner Sally Brewster and I agreed that we needed to know how to be kind to our brains, to make up for past abuses.]

So where have you been? What have you bought? Let us in on some good secrets!

Cathy Pickens, the national president of Sisters in Crime, is the author of the award-winning Southern Fried mystery series featuring South Carolina attorney Avery Andrews. The most recent title in the series is Can’t Never Tell.

A Writer/Reader Considers the Mystery Series

By Elizabeth Zelvin

[Originally published online at www.PoesDeadlyDaughters.blogspot.com]

Most mystery readers of a certain age first discovered the genre through series, whether they cut their eyeteeth on Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie, Nancy Drew or Erle Stanley Gardner. In these early series, the protagonist never changed: Holmes always smoked his pipe and played his violin, Poirot applied his little gray cells to every problem, Miss Marple found a parallel to every evil in the world in the village life of St. Mary Mead. When Nancy got into trouble, she always had the perfect tools for the emergency about her person. Perry Mason always stood up in court to object and grandstanded a confession out of the true villain. (I’ve heard that counsel used to say, “I object!” during a trial and that “Objection!” originated with Perry Mason. Anyone know if it’s true?)

Then, in the Golden Age of mysteries, when the airtight, fair-play puzzle was at its height, Dorothy L. Sayers changed the rules by developing Lord Peter Wimsey from a Bertie Wooster-like flat character into a complex and very human being over the course of the series. And mystery reading got a lot more interesting to readers like me, who want to fall in love with their characters, root for them in adversity, and cheer when they triumph, not only by solving the murder but by resolving some genuine personal dilemma. My favorite characters feel real to me. I’ve said before that I’d like to play my guitar and sing with Judge Deborah Knott’s family and have dinner with the Vorkosigans.

What we read has changed precisely because the fashion in what we write has changed. For example, Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver, who appeared in dozens of mysteries in the 1940s and 1950s, was always described in exactly the same words, as was her home. Encountering the familiar phrases was part of the pleasure of reading the series, which is still on my list of comfort reads. Now we wouldn’t dare repeat even the most clever way of describing a protagonist that we’ve already used. Today’s writers are exhorted to kill our darlings, not repeat them in book after book.

No longer does every mystery series, even a successful and popular one, go on ad infinitum. Part of this is due to the changing face — and economics — of publishing. In the paperback cozy world, an author may get a three-book contract. She brings her protagonist and setting to life, thousands of readers eagerly anticipate Book Four—and the publisher decides it's not satisfied with sales and drops the series, perhaps inviting the author to start a new series under a pseudonym.

In the world of hardcover mysteries, a debut author is typically offered a contract for one book or two — and the publisher’s decision not to let the series go on may be based on sales before publication of the first or second book, or as little as a month after the book comes out. It is notoriously hard to get another publisher to pick up a dropped series — again, for business reasons — so readers who have become attached to a series protagonist and his or her world are left disappointed and dissatisfied.

Perhaps as a result of the precarious nature of series today, many mystery writers have adopted a pattern in which, once the series gets going, they try their hand at a standalone. Until recently, I would have said that I never liked an author’s standalones as much as her series, because my love of and loyalty to the series was based on the development of the series protagonist and the family, friends and colleagues who had sprung to life around her.

Writers with successful series have written some fine standalones — and maybe I’m also getting used to the new fashion. Some standalones by accomplished series writers that I’ve loved in the past few years include Nancy Pickard’s The Virgin of Small Plains and The Scent of Rain and Lightning, Earlene Fowler’s The Saddlemaker’s Wife, the late Ariana Franklin’s City of Shadows and Laurie R. King's Touchstone.

Another consequence of how things have changed is that writers may now conceive their series as having a limited story arc, rather than going on indefinitely. Charlaine Harris’s Harper Connelly series comes to mind. When the unresolved personal dilemma that underlies all Harper’s professional dilemmas gets resolved in Book Five, the series comes to a satisfying conclusion. With two other series behind her and the Sookie Stackhouse series going on and on, thanks to the success of the TV adaptation, "True Blood," it makes sense for Charlaine to move on. And now it seems that Harper Connelly is coming to TV, so her story may continue after all.



Elizabeth Zelvin, a psychotherapist in New York City, is the author of a three-book mystery series featuring Bruce Kohler, a recovering alcoholic. The newest title in the series, Death Will Extend Your Vacation, will be available in 2012. Her short story, “The Green Cross,” (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, August 2010) a current Agatha Award nominee, marks her third Agatha nomination.

A Salute to Veterans

Two real-life American heroes: Serena and Michael Bowen, on Michael’s first night at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. While working as a medic in Iraq, Michael was severely injured by an unknown chemical. He now works as a nurse in Leesburg, Va., where he was named Inova Nurse of the Year. Despite the honors and accolades, Michael and Serena still deal daily with the medical consequences of Michael’s war-related injury. Photo courtesy of the Bowen family.

A Salute to Veterans

By Kathie Felix

We can read -- and write -- in peace, quiet and freedom, thanks to the countless sacrifices made by the members of our military and their loved ones. Today’s Veterans Day observance provides the perfect opportunity to thank the veterans in our communities – and their families and caregivers. The day also offers a good reason to celebrate the key role of war veterans in our favorite genre.

Many of us may have encountered our first veteran-related mystery in “Cherry Ames: Veterans’ Nurse,” by Helen Wells, now reissued and available in ebook editions for devices such as the Kindle and Nook.

Those early reading days also most likely brought John H. Watson, M.D. into our world view. Dr. Watson, the first-person narrator of nearly all of the Sherlock Holmes stories, was an Army surgeon and veteran of military campaigns in India and Afghanistan.

And, of course, many of us soon encountered Hercule Poirot’s associate, Captain Arthur Hastings, a veteran World War I British Army officer, as we explored Agatha Christie’s work.

Turning toward more recent escapades in reading, any list of veteran-related mystery and crime fiction might include:

The Joe Sandilands series by Barbara Cleverly, featuring World War I veteran Joe Sandilands.

The Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear, featuring Maisie Dobbs, who enlists for overseas nursing duties in World War I and works as an investigator in the post-war world.

The Bulldog Drummond series by Sapper/H.C. McNeile, featuring Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond, a World War I veteran.

The Jack Haldean series by Dolores Gordon-Smith featuring mystery writer and former World War I Royal Flying Corps pilot Jack Haldean.

The Easy Rawlins series by Walter Mosley featuring World War II veteran Easy Rawlins.

The Mike Hammer series by Mickey Spillane featuring WWII veteran Mike Hammer. The television series starring Stacy Keach “updated” Mike to a Vietnam veteran.

The Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald featuring Korean War veteran Travis McGee.

The John Marshall Tanner series by Stephen Greenleaf featuring John Marshall Tanner, originally a Korean War veteran, who was “updated” to become a Vietnam veteran.

The Dave Robicheaux series by James Lee Burke featuring Vietnam veteran Dave Robicheaux.

The Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly featuring Vietnam veteran Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch.

The Sam Blackman series by Mark de Castrique, featuring Sam Blackman, a veteran of the current war in Iraq.

Among the recent single-title veteran-related releases:

“All Things Undying,” by Marcia Talley, the latest entry in the Hannah Ives series, finds Hannah lending a hand to locate the grave of a World War II serviceman.

“Murder to Mil-Spec,” edited by Tony Burton, a 12-story anthology with a focus on veterans or those still in the service. The publisher, Wolfmont Press, is donating all profits to Homes for our Troops, a nonprofit organization that retrofits existing homes or builds new homes for disabled veterans.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of veteran-related mystery and crime fiction. What’s on your Veterans Day reading list?

The contributors to this list include David E. Autry, Deputy National Director of Communications, Disabled American Veterans; Kathie Felix, SinC BlogSister and C. Ellett Logan, SinC/Chesapeake Chapter President.