During the Nov/Dec 2009 hiatus between meetings of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, we encourage regular attendees to participate as a group in a virtual way. While we may not have an actual meeting scheduled during these two months, we want to use this blog to keep everyone active with their mystery reading and discussions.
We encourage Just Desserts participants to read a book by Leslie Charteris (the creator of Simon Templar, "The Saint", as well as many other novels) at some point in November or December 2009, then come back here and leave a comment about whichever Charteris book they read, as a comment post in response to this message.
As a bit of background, here are some links to Leslie Charteris information:
- The Official Leslie Charteris homepage
- Leslie Charteris entry at Wikipedia
- The Saintly Bible: A Guide to the Immortal Works of Leslie Charteris and the Saint Saga
We look forward to seeing your comments here over the course of the next two months!
Scott C. - Just Desserts coordinator







We finished off our year of mystery fiction discussions in October 2009 by discussing the late Donald Westlake's 2009 Dortmunder novel Get Real; not true "mystery" novels, the Dortmunder books are more amusing thrillers or "caper" novels, featuring a bumbling group of master thieves whose grand schemes for the next big score inevitably collide with Murphy's Law.
During our September 2009 meeting, we discussed Michael Mcgarrity's 2006 Santa Fe-set mystery/thriller novel Under the Color of Law; part of his Kevin Kerney series. This particular featured newly appointed Police Chief Kerney settling into his job when the murder of a socialite brings an intelligence taskforce to town and stinks of cover-up.
During our August 2009 meeting, we discussed Margaret Truman's Washington D.C.-set 1999 mystery novel Murder at the Library of Congress; part of her popular Capital Crimes series. This particular mystery features recurring characters Annabel and Mac, with Annabel doing research in the venerated halls of the Library of Congress when a murder takes place there...at the desk next to hers.