Link to our Facebook Page
Link to our Instagram Page
Link to our X Page
Link to our Youtube Page

Recommendations From Donna – Spring 2013

BookTalkBooklist

Recommendations From Donna – Spring 2013
Gere Branch, May 20, 2013 and Bethany Branch, May 31, 2013
Donna G. (Virtual Services)

book coverA Dying Fall
by Elly Griffiths [Griffiths]

This is the fifth book in the Ruth Galloway series. Ruth is a forensic anthropologist and she is head of Forensic Anthropology at the University of North Norfolk. The other books are set in Norfolk, an area of Eastern England that has been inhabited for over 600 years by Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman settlers. 

She met Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson when she asked to determine the age of bones found in The Crossing Places, the first in the series. In a later book Ruth and Nelson spend a night together and Ruth becomes pregnant. She had the baby, who is now a toddler named Kate. Nelson is married and doesn’t leave his wife to marry Ruth. 

Ruth’s friend, Cathbad, is a druid and he plays a prominent role in all of the books.

In A Dying Fall, Ruth receives a cryptic letter from her old college friend Dan Golding shortly after she learns about his death. He is teaching at Pendle University in Lancashire, asking for her help. He has found a great archaeological discovery but he is also scared for his life. Shortly after he sends the letter, Dan is killed in an arson fire at his house. Ruth then receives an official invitation to visit to Pendle and evaluate a 1500-year-old skeleton. Ruth accepts the invitation despite the threats that are texted to her.

The story unfolds in an intricate web of academic politics and special interest groups on campus.


book coverHappy Never After
by Kathy Hogan Trocheck [Trocheck]

Callahan Garrity, a former Atlanta police officer, runs a home cleaning service with her mother called House Mouse. She also does some crime investigation on the side. In this book, she is asked to find the missing member of the Velvet Teens, a singing group from the early 60’s. Vonette Hunsecker and Rita Fontaine have a chance for a comeback if they find the third member of their group Delores Carter. They haven’t heard from Delores in 20 years. Callahan agrees to look for Delores.

Their old manager, Stu HighTower, learns of their plans and serves Vonette and Rita with an injunction stopping from re-forming their group. He claims that he owned the rights to their songs and their name, The Velvet Teens. 

Stu is murdered and Rita is the prime suspect. There are some humorous scenes when Callahan tries to get into the gated community where Stu lived.

Besides this series Kathy Hogan Trocheck wrote a mystery series starring Truman Kicklighter. She also wrote a number of stand-alone romantic suspense novels. She was reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.


book coverRecipe for Murder: Frightfully Good Food Inspired by Fiction
by Estérelle Payany [641.5 Pay]

Thirty-two great hero-villains of literature lure the reader into the kitchen to sample their signature recipes. Estérelle Payany shares to-die-for recipes inspired by scoundrels from popular literature. Each chapter opens with an excerpt from the original story and quirky illustrations by Jean-François Martin featuring the criminal and his recipe. The Big Bad Wolf roasts three little pigs in their blankets while Snow White’s stepmother concocts bewitching caramel apples. The Queen of Hearts orders Alice to eat treacle tart while Long John Silver stocks the galley with sea biscuits. And although Shakespeare’s infamous Brutus can toss his Caesar salad in a mere ten minutes, Dracula’s paprika hendl is best when simmered from dusk until dawn.