Last week I was running an errand that happened to be just down the street from a mystery bookstore (she also sells needlework supplies--dangerous--my two favorite hobbies in one small shop), so I had to stop by and see what goodies she had on her shelves. My main reason for stopping was to pick up the 2010 Ornament issue of Just Cross Stitch Magazine. If I can find it locally I can avoid having to use my credit card as otherwise I would have to order it online. I couldn't write a check for one lone magazine, surely? I was pretty good and only bought three books, but two were impulse buys and I hope I like them when I finally get around to reading them.
I've actually been eyeing Michael Genelin's books for a while now. He writes a detective series set in Slovakia, which sounds really interesting. The detective is a woman, Commander Jana Matinova, and this is the second book (the only one she had on her shelves), Dark Dreams. The other two are both unknown authors and series. Matthew Head's The Devil in the Bush was written in 1945 and the sleuth, Dr. Mary Finney is supposed t be a cross between Agatha Christie and Alexander McCall Smith's heroines (with a dash of Anton Chekhov!). The books are set during WWII in the Belgian Congo. M.J. Zellnik's Murder at the Portland Variety's appeal was the setting--1890s Portland, Oregon. I have this idea that someday I just might move to Oregon, so I liked the sound of this story. Libby Seale, a seamstress from New York City, gets caught up in a murder investigation. It looks as though the author (actually a brother sister team) seems to have only written two books.
Lately I seem to mainly be reading mysteries as they are just about all I can concentrate on, so I tend to snap them up whenever I see something that appeals. The library where I work has a "sale table" which is made up of donated books that are not added to the collection. Paperbacks are a mere 50¢. Somebody is a fan of British mysteries, so I was happy to give their recycled books a new home. All are by Edward Marsten who writes a number of different mystery stories. I've read some of his Domesday books, but now I'll have a chance to try one set in Restoration England, The Painted Lady, as well as three Victorian murder mysteries--The Railway Detective, Railway Viaduct, and The Excursion Train.
To round things off I received a couple of titles in the mail from Persea Books unexpectedly. Both are by Australian author Elizabeth Jolley. Persea is bringing her work back into print, and she does sound like an interesting author, having won all sorts of awards. I've got a copy of Foxybaby, of which Angela Carter wrote, "Delicious and sustaining...shines and shines...and shines like a good deed in a naughty world." As well they sent The Sugar Mother, which has been called "wickedly amusing and wonderfully engrossing." I wonder if one of these just might be the non-mystery sort of book that can hold my attention?