Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet (1993) St. Martin’s, 199 pages, $17.95 hardcover ISBN 0‑312‑09242‑3 Agatha Raisin arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport with a tan outside and a blush of shame inside. She felt an utter fool as she pushed her load of luggage towards the exit. She had just spent two weeks in the […]
“Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet ” by M.C. Beaton Read More »
Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death (1992). St. Martin’s, 201 pages, $17.95 hardcover ISBN 0‑312‑08153‑7 When we first meet Agatha Raisin, she’s 53 years old and about to retire from her public relations job in London to a cottage in the Cotswolds: “The Cotswolds in the Midlands are surely one of the few man‑made
“Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death” by M.C. Beaton Read More »
Death of a Gossip (1985) Warner Books, 179 pages, $6.50 paperback ISBN 0‑446‑60713‑4 Every week during salmon-fishing season a new class arrives at the fishing school in Lochdubh run by John and Heather Cartwright. But town constable Hamish Macbeth has a bad feeling about this particular class…. Macbeth is the lone police officer in Lochdubh,
“Death of a Gossip” by M.C. Beaton Read More »
Sandford, John. Certain Prey (1999) G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 339 pages, $24.95 hardcover ISBN 0 399 14496 X In his latest Lucas Davenport thriller John Sandford does something different: he focuses on the villain as much as on the hero. And what a villain it is: Clara Rinker, the best hit woman (or hit
“Certain Prey” by John Sandford Read More »
Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls Random House, 1997Hardcover, 267 pagesISBN 0-679-40297-7 Joan Jacobs Brumberg teaches in the fields of history, human development, and women’s studies at Cornell University. In this cultural and historical study, she describes how growing up female has changed over the last century and how, in
“The Body Project” by Joan Jacobs Brumberg Read More »
Woods, Stuart. Orchid Beach (1998)HarperCollins, 325 pages, $25.00 hardcover ISBN 0-06-019181-3 Finally, a new book by Stuart Woods that doesn’t feature philandering superhero Stone Barrington. In fact, the protagonist of Woods’s latest novel is a woman, 37-year-old Holly Barker. After 20 years in the army, Barker retires when a male superior whom she and another
“Orchid Beach” by Stuart Woods Read More »
Winchester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman HarperCollins, 1998Hardcover, 242 pagesISBN 0-06-017596-6 Recommended Compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), begun in 1857, required more than 70 years and the help of hundreds of volunteers who submitted examples of the usage of individual words. The editor of the project was Professor James Murray, a scholarly former
“The Professor and the Madman” by Simon Winchester Read More »
Stark, Richard. The Hunter (1962); rpt. as Point Blank Allison & Busby, 154 pages, $13.95 hardcover ISBN 0 85031 591 3 {Richard Stark is a pseudonym Donald E. Westlake used for a series of stark noir thrillers featuring the character Parker.} As Parker walks across the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan at the
“The Hunter” by Richard Stark Read More »
O’Connell, Carol. Shell Game (1999)G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 374 pages, $24.95 hardcover ISBN 0 399 14495-1 After a break for Judas Child, Carol O’Connell returns to her series character, NYPD detective Kathleen Mallory, in Shell Game. When an elderly magician dies horribly in what appears to be a botched magic act, only Mallory suspects murder.
“Shell Game” by Carol O’Connell Read More »
Cheever, Susan. Note Found in a Bottle: My Life as a Drinker Simon & Schuster, 1999Hardcover, 192 pagesISBN 0-684-80432-8 Recommended My grandmother Cheever taught me how to embroider, how to say the Lord’s Prayer, and how to make a perfect dry martini. She showed me how to tilt the gin bottle into the tumbler with the
“Note Found in a Bottle” by Susan Cheever Read More »
