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Mysteries Archive

Bear Pond’s Mystery Club first met in February 2008. Here's a list of what we've read and/or discussed [I think we all know we haven't all read all of them] over these past years.

I put an asterisk [*] by the ones we, at least as I recall, particularly liked. Feel free to correct or amend me.



2008

March

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Mistress of the Art of Death* by Ariana Franklin

April

The Janissary Tree* by Jason Goodwin

Whose Body by Dorothy L. Sayers

May

The Collaborator of Bethlehem by Matt Beynon Rees

A Man's Head by Georges Simenon

June

A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George

Edwin of the Iron Shoes by Marcia Muller

July

White Sky, Black Ice* by Stan Jones

The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey

August

A Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly

Devil in a Blue Dress* by Walter Mosley

September

The Deep Blue Good-By by John D. MacDonald

Bootlegger's Daughter* by Margaret Maron

October

Open Season by Archer Mayor

Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout

November

The Rainaldi Quartet by Paul Adam

Death at La Fenice* by Donna Leon

2009

January


The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Moor by Laurie R. King

February

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Curtain [also] by Agatha Christie

March

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Early Autumn by Robert B. Parker

April

The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais

"A" is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

May

All That I Have* by Castle Freeman

Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer McMahon

June

Cover Her Face by P.D. James

Still Life* by Louise Penny

July

The Talented Mr. Ripley* by Patricia Highsmith

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

August

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Roseanna* by Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo

September

Bleak House by Charles Dickens [yep, just one. but it's long.]

October

Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell

Quieter Than Sleep by Joanne Dobson

November

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Black Mass: The Irish Mob, the FBI, and a Devil's Deal by Dick Lehr & Gerard O'Neill

2010

February


Coyote Wind by Peter Bowen [or any other of his books]

March

Bangkok 8* by John Burdett

The Salaryman's Wife by Sujata Massey

April

Double Negative* by David Carkeet

The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman

May

Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason

The Tricking of Freya* by Christina Sunley

June

Garnethill* by Denise Mina

The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith

July

Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra [again, only one, but it was delicious]

August

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

The Case of the One-Eyed Witness by Erle Stanley Gardner

September

Berlin Noir* by Philip Kerr

Farthing* by Jo Walton

October

The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin

Murder With Peacocks by Donna Andrews [or]

Silent in the Grave* by Deanna Raybourn

November

In the Lake of the Woods* by Tim O'Brien

A Test of Wills by Charles Todd

2011

January


Heron Island* by R.A. (Robbie) Harold

February

The Coroner's Lunch* by Colin Cotterill

Summer of the Big Bachi by Naomi Hirahara

March/April

Father Brown: The Essential Tales by G.K. Chesterton

In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming

May

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Already Dead by Charlie Huston

June

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Wingshooters* by Nina Revoyr

July

Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr

Dead Cert by Dick Francis

August

Ice Station Zebra by Alistair MacLean

Gorky Park* by Martin Cruz Smith

September

Death of a Red Heroine* by Qiu Xiaolong

The Chinese Bell Murders by Robert Van Gulik

October

Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams

Dog On It* by Spencer Quinn

November

The Bone Rattler by Eliot Pattison

The Skull Mantra [also] by Eliot Pattison

2012

January


Ratking by Michael Dibdin and

The Shape of Water Andrea Camilleri or

The Dogs of Rome* by Conor Fitzgerald or

Season for the Dead by David Hewson

February

The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle [also, "The Final Problem" in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes]

Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles by Kim Newman

March

Murder in the Marais by Cara Black

The Omnibus Crime by Fortune du Boisgobey [from 1881!]

April

A Corpse in the Koryo* by James Church

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea* by Barbara Demick

May

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

The Dead Kid Detective Agency by Evan Munday

June

The Untouchable by John Banville

The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming

July

The Cold Dish* by Craig Johnson

Borden Chantry by Louis L'Amour

August

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn and

The Scent of Rain and Lightning* or

The Virgin of Small Plains, both by Nancy Pickard

September

The Sins of the Fathers or

A Drop of the Hard Stuff, both by Lawrence Block

Tabloid City by Pete Hamill

October

My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

The Kiss Murder by Mehmet Murat Somer

November

Catering to Nobody by Diane Mott Davidson

State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy

2013

January

Gone by Mo Hayder

The Silence of Murder by Dandi Daley Mackall

February

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King

March

Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs

Daughters of Juarez by Teresa Rodriguez, Diana Montane, & Lisa Pulitzer

April

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor by Stephanie Barron

May

The Beggar’s Opera by Peggy Blair

Havana Fever by Leonardo Padura

June

The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears

The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva

July

Dead Connection by Alafair Burke

Heaven’s Prisoners by James Lee Burke

August

A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

2014

January

Live by Night by Dennis Lehane and

Expats by Chris Pavone or

Code Name Verity* by Elizabeth Wein

February

The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin

Dust and Shadow by Lyndsay Faye

March

Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers

April

Open Season by C.J. Box

The Blessing Way* by Tony Hillerman

May

The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov

Jack Glass* by Adam Roberts

June

Bones and Silence* by Reginald Hill

Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh

July

Anatomy of a Murder* by Robert Traver

August

The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin and

Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley or

Murder in the Supreme Court by Margaret Truman [kind of]

September

Murder in the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman

October

The Saturday Morning Murder by Batya Gur

The Missing Files by D.A. Mishani

November

Murdered Sleep* by R.A. [Robbie] Harold

2015

 

January

Ordinary Grace* by William Kent Krueger

Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews

 

February

A Right to Die by Rex Stout

Too Many Cooks [also] by Rex Stout

 

March

Innocent Blood* by P.D. James

Talking About Detective Fiction* [also] by P.D. James

 

April

Blackhouse* by Peter May

Knots & Crosses by Ian Rankin

 

May

The Chill* by Ross Macdonald or

The Galton Case* [also] by Ross Macdonald

Critical Mass by Sara Paretsky

 

June

Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris

The Attack by Yasmina Khadra

 

July

All the King's Men* by Robert Penn Warren

 

August

The Summer of Dead Toys by Antonio Hill

Death of a Nationalist* by Rebecca Pawel

 

September

The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron

Bloodstream by Tess Gerritsen

 

October

A Time to Kill by John Grisham

Just Mercy* by Bryan Stevenson

 

November

1] Deceptive Cadence - The "Virtuosic Spy" series, all written by Kathryn Guare

2] The Secret Chord

3] City of a Thousand Spies