Book Club

January Book Club: Katie Tietjen

by
Katie Tietjen

As always our book club meetings are open to all.  During the winter months, we meet exclusively on zoom.  Simply message us on facebook or email me at store (at) auntagathas.com for a zoom link.  In October, we’ll meet on the 20th at 2 p.m. to discuss Michael Bennett‘s debut novel, Better the Blood, featuring a Māori detective.  This is a strong start to a new series.  In November, we are delighted to welcome author Vanessa Lillie on Sunday, November 17 at 2 p.m.  She’ll discuss her wonderful novel, Blood Sisters, which I very much hope is a series kick off.  We take December off and in January we are lucky enough to have new author Katie Tietjen join us on Sunday the 19th at 2 p.m.  Katie will discuss her first novel, Death in the Details. The book is loosely based on the work of Frances Glassner Lee who created crime scene “nutshells” (miniature rooms, basically) and revolutionized the way crime scenes are processed and investigated.  As Katie is a novelist, however, she brings the reader her own fascinating story.  This is a terrific debut novel, one of my favorites of this year. read more

November Book Club: Vanessa Lillie

by

Vanessa Lillie, author of last year’s Blood Sisters, will be joining our November book club via zoom on Sunday, November 17th at 2 p.m.  This is a wonderful first in a series novel featuring a Cherokee woman who works for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  She lives in Rhode Island but is called back to her Native Oklahoma, where she encounters ghosts of her past as well as a wall of family resentment and hostility.  She’s an archeologist, so she’s been called back to examine a skull that’s been found with her ID in it’s jaws.  This was a wonderful, textured, emotional read, one of my favorites of 2023.  My review can be found here.  All are welcome.  Copies (paperbacks available after October 1) are available on our website.  If you’d like the zoom link, message me on facebook or email me at store (at) auntagathas.com. read more

October Book Club: Better the Blood

by

For October, we’ll meet on zoom on Sunday, October 20 at 2 p.m., and we’ll be on zoom only until spring.  We’ll be reading Michael Bennett’s terrific debut, Better the Blood.  Anyone is welcome to join, just message us on facebook or email us at store (at) auntagathas.com. My review of the book:

Great debut novel introducing New Zealand detective Hana Westerman. She’s caught a series of gruesome murders which eventually become linked, and she’s caught them through her own excellent detail work at the crime scenes. Hana is a Maori, a single mother, and interestingly, an artist who likes to make drawings at crime scenes and autopsies (sometimes to the annoyance of the professionals involved). Her daughter is a rebellious 17 year old and her ex is also a police, remarried, with a new family. The author lays in this ground work of her character really nicely and without getting in the way of the story. read more

July Book Club: The Canal Murders

by

Join us for our July book club in person on Sunday, July 21, at 2 p.m. or on zoom on Wednesday, July 24 at 7 p.m. to discuss The Canal Murders by J.R. Ellis.  All are welcome – message us on facebook or email us at store(at) auntagathas.com for either the address or the zoom link.

Here’s the publisher’s description: Life moves at a slower pace on the canals. But death always comes when you least expect it. The last thing DS Stephanie Johnson and DS Andy Carter expected during their much-needed canal holiday was a murder. When retired folk musician Annie Shipton is found stabbed through the neck at the helm of her barge, the couple can’t help investigating the seemingly impossible crime. Nobody else boarded Annie’s boat—so how was she killed from behind? With the method a perplexing mystery, DCI Oldroyd is summoned from Harrogate, and it’s not long before the detectives have a long list of potential suspects with a motive to want Annie dead. There’s the young cyclist she argued with over access to the towpath, an ambitious and arrogant local developer she clashed with repeatedly, an estranged husband…and more than a few lingering issues with her former bandmates, most of whom live along the canal. When a second shocking murder sends shockwaves through the community, the locals start talking about a curse on the waterway. It seems the killer will go to any lengths to avoid detection. But can Oldroyd hunt them down before someone else becomes the next target? read more

June Book Club: The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra

by

Join us in June for a discussion of Vaseem Khan’s first book, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra. We’ll meet in person on Sunday, June 23 at 2 p.m. and on zoom on Wednesday, June 26, at 7 p.m.  Message us on facebook or email us at store (at) auntagathas.com for directions or a link.  All are welcome!  Here’s the publisher’s description: On the day he retires, Inspector Ashwin Chopra inherits two unexpected mysteries. The first is the case of a drowned boy, whose suspicious death no one seems to want solved. And the second is a baby elephant. As his search for clues takes him across the teeming city of Mumbai, from its grand high rises to its sprawling slums and deep into its murky underworld, Chopra begins to suspect that there may be a great deal more to both his last case and his new ward than he thought. And he soon learns that when the going gets tough, a determined elephant may be exactly what an honest man needs… read more

March & May Book clubs – Laurie R. King rules the month of May!

by
Laurie R. King

In March, we’ll meet on zoom on Sunday, March 17 at 2 p.m. to discuss Jesse Q. Sutanto’s Edgar nominated Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.  This meeting was moved to March so we’d have copies available, and we do!  This is such a fun, hilarious, yet sweet read.  Look forward to the discussion.

We’re skipping April and meeting twice in May.  Join us May  5 at 2 p.m. on zoom to discuss Laurie R. King’s classic, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice.  And, wonderful news – Laurie will be joining us!  This is the 30th anniversary of the first Mary Russell novel, where Mary meets the elderly Sherlock Holmes.  From Kirkus, in 1994: “Nothing in King’s brooding debut A Grave Talent (1993) could have prepared you for this uncommonly rich Sherlockian pastiche, in which the great detective is brought out of retirement among the bees of Sussex by a new amanuensis, budding theologian Mary Russell. Meeting the great man at the awkward age of 15, Russell (as he calls her) proves herself his intellectual equal even before their first case- -mysterious bouts of illness that befall their victims only in clear weather. After investigating a robbery and a kidnapping with Holmes, Mary goes to Oxford, and just when you’ve resigned yourself to more unrelated adventures, the story takes off with a series of bombings that put both Holmes and Mary in danger, and call forth both their sharpest mental efforts and their deepest feelings.” read more

February & March Book Clubs

by

We’ve had a rearrangement of our book club schedule.  In February, we’ll be reading Val McDermid’s Karen Pirie novel, Broken Ground.  As before, we’ll meet on Sunday, February 18 at 2 p.m. on zoom.  Please message me for a link at store (at) auntagathas.com.  Here’s a description from the publisher: Alice Somerville’s inheritance lies six feet under in a Highland peat bog – a pair of valuable vintage motorbikes buried by her grandfather at the end of World War II. But when Alice finally organises their recovery, she finds an unwelcome surprise -a body with a pair of bullet holes . . . and Nike trainers. DCI Karen Pirie of Police Scotland’s Historic Cases Unit is called in to unravel a case where nothing is quite as it seems. read more

February Book Club: Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

by

Join us via zoom for our February book club at 2 p.m. Sunday, February 18.  Please message me at store (at) auntagathas.com for a zoom link.  If you’ve joined us in the past, it’s the same link.  We’ll be reading a top 10 pick of mine for 2023, Jesse Q. Sutanto’s Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.  This charming, funny, clever book has also been nominated for and Edgar Award in the Best Paperback Original category.  You can read my review here, and below is the publisher’s description.  You can also read my Mystery Scene interview with Ms. Sutanto here. See you in February! read more

January Book Club: The Appeal

by

Join us on Sunday, January 14 at 2 p.m. on zoom for our book club discussion of Janice Hallett’s The Appeal.  Email us at store (at) auntagathas.com or message us on facebook for a zoom link.  Anyone is welcome.  Publisher’s description:  The Fairway Players, a local theatre group, is in the midst of rehearsals when tragedy strikes the family of director Martin Hayward and his wife Helen, the play’s star. Their young granddaughter has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and with an experimental treatment costing a tremendous sum, their castmates rally to raise the money to give her a chance at survival. But not everybody is convinced of the experimental treatment’s efficacy—or of the good intentions of those involved. As tension grows within the community, things come to a shocking head at the explosive dress rehearsal. The next day, a dead body is found, and soon, an arrest is made. In the run-up to the trial, two young lawyers sift through the material—emails, messages, letters—with a growing suspicion that the killer may be hiding in plain sight. The evidence is all there, between the lines, waiting to be uncovered. read more

September Book Club: A is for Alibi

by

We’ve been reading classics for book club lately, recently checking out Robert B. Parker’s The Godwulf Manuscript and Tony Hillerman’s Dance Hall of the Dead.  On Sunday, September 17 at 2 p.m. we’ll meet in person, and on Wednesday, September 20 at 7 p.m. we’ll meet on zoom.  Message us on facebook or twitter for a zoom link, or email us at store (at) auntagathas.com.  We’ll be reading Sue Grafton’s groundbreaking and beloved classic, A is for Alibi, published in 1982.  Contemporary review from Kirkus: read more