November News for A Cozy Death Book Club

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November News for A Cozy Death Book Club

Dear Folks,

           We had a very competitive game of Scrabble Our Way based on our October book: Meri Allen’s Fatal Fudge Swirl: An Ice Cream Shop Mystery. We had the words Fatal Fudge Swirl down the center for each person to work off of. There were a variety of points on the board and the participant’s word acquired the points the word covered. At first the game was easy but became much more competitive as the board began to fill. The game became a hilarious mixture of talking over one another, trying to squish a word into a specific set of spaces, and becoming harder and harder to think of a word that would cover the spaces with the highest point value. We did have a winner when it was time to stop and requests to play the game for future meetings. We will, but for December.

                  This coming meeting (November 24th) we’re discussing Melanie Jackson’s Death in a Turkey Town. It’s a short cozy mystery – 83 pages -- and cute. Jackson has written several cozy mystery novellas, and we thought we’d see howwell the mystery develops in a briefer format. We’ll be playing “Pluck the Turkey.” The game consists of picking a feather with a question from the story. Red feathers will be worth one set of points, yellow feathers a different set, and so on. When the turkey is plucked (no more feathers) it will be the end of the game and the person with the most points wins.

                December’s meeting will be about Sophie Hannah’s Poirot’s Silent Night. Sophie Hannah has been approved by the Agatha Christie family to continue writing novels about Hercules Poirot. We’ve read a novel by her before, and it was well-received. We will play Scrabble again. I promised that we would, and we will!

                  I hope that you sign up and come to the meetings. You are welcome to attend whether you’ve read the book or not. If you do sign up to come I hope that you actually make an appearance. We try to accommodate for the number of people who RSVP that they are attending and look forward to spending some time with you.

Books We’re Reading

                  I just finished reading Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse O. Sutana. It is the funniest cozy and depicts a mix of Chinese and Indonesian cultures among the characters in the novel. If you’re looking for a fun weekend cozy mystery you might try this one.

      In a different room, I read Sherlock Holmes’ The Empty House, a classic story that’s famous for Sherlock Holmes’ return from seemingly having been killed in Switzerland. Watson was astounded and a bit miffed that Holmes hadn’t let him know that he wasn’t dead. Read it and then watch the adaptation on television. You can see it on You Tube, Brit Box, and Roku.

                  I reread Agatha Christie’s The Body in the Library. I’ve watched the adaptation on BritBox so often that I’d quite forgotten that the novel and the adaptation have stark differences. At first I told myself that I liked the television version best, but the more I read and the more I thought about it, the novel stands up much more cleverly than the adaptation. Read it and let me know what you think. At any rate, it’s a good excuse to have your portrait done while living in a village similar to St. Mary Mead.

As a note:  look for Kathy Manos Penn’s new book, Puzzles, Purrs & Murder: A Cozy English Animal Mystery, the 11th in her Christie and Dickens series. Amazon says: If you like well-grounded heroines, original characters, and richly plotted whodunits, then you'll love Kathy Manos Penn's bespoke investigation. She spoke to our group last year and was a hit. Everyone loved her writing. This one was only just published.

                  Also, I received Louise Penny’s The Grey Wolf. I’d forgotten that I’d preordered it months ago. How fun to get a “prezzie” in the mail. Again, Amazon says: Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Québec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning.

                  I can’t wait to read it!

Have a most marvelous Thanksgiving. We’re already discussing the stuffing recipe! Keep well and have lots of fun!

                                                                        Karin Diskin