Mystery Month Wrap Up!

Dear Friends,

It's time to wrap up July!  I'm sorry we've been kind of quiet this month.  Lots of craziness these days on all fronts.  More craziness to come, but the Ladies in Waiting will be back in full force over the next few months. It's not how often you get knocked down, but how often you can stand back up, right?

If you've been reading a mystery along with us, it's time to rate your story and tell us what you did and didn't like about it.  :o)  In the spirit of Romance month where we rated our books with brassieres, we're rating our books this month with revolvers.  Appropriate, right?

So, on a scale of 1 to 5 revolovers, how would you rate your mystery?

What did you like best or least about your book?  Would you recommend it to others?

Mystery Movie: Murder By Death

Murder By Death is probably most appreciated by lovers of classic mystery novels. The characters include:

• Inspector Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers) who is supposed to be Charlie Chang.
• Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith) who are Nick and Nora Charles from the Thin Man series I previously shared. They take the Charles' quips and risks of each other a few extra steps.
• Milo Perrier (James Coco) who plays the ever-hungry Christie character, Hercule Poirot.
• Sam Diamond (Peter Falk) who plays the gruff, sexist, Bogart character Sam Spade.
• Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester) is the seemingly simple character of Christie's creation, Miss Marple.

The classically necessary other characters include the Butler, played by Alec Guiness (who is blind), and the Maid, played by Nancy Walker (who is mute and deaf), and of course, the man who invites them all to dinner at his spooky mansion: Lionel Twain played by the master author Truman Capote with his distinctively creepy feminine falsetto.

The mystery itself is less interesting as just watching the characters interact and play off their previously established roles and stereotypes. By the end, they are each "calling" each other on the random or contrived methods of deduction and for anyone familiar with the characters, this is a hoot! The way the main detectives treat their sidekicks is hilarious too.

I hope that, especially after reading your mystery story this month, you can pick up this movie for a view.

I love watching it time and again. And my favorite part is that you really don't need to pay attention to the details because pretty much everything is a red herring. :) So sit back, relax, and...

Enjoy!

Mystery Month: Discussion Question #3

I'm reading the book The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.  The main character of my story is an eleven year old sleuth named Flavia de Luce.  She is smart and dark minded, with a fascination for poisons and other dark matters.  She is also goofy and childlike - naming her bike Gladys and giving in to her impulsive nature.  She reminds me of a Pippi Longstocking or an Anne of Green Gables, except replace Anne's love for literature with a mind of chemistry and invention and Pippi's imagination with real life adventures.  I love her!  Her sassy nature DOES remind me of someone I know (Rachel, I'm looking at you!).

Do the characters in your book seem real and believable? Can you relate to their predicaments? To what extent do they remind you of yourself or someone you know?

Women of Crime - Ann Cleeves

Anne Cleeves was born in 1954 and in 2006, she won the Duncan Lawrie Dagger award for best author for her book Raven Black (which I've read). She has been likened to Agatha Christie in her writing style. The reason why I instantly loved her stories was because all of them being from the Shetland Islands, everyone knits. And knitting is an integral part of the story as a definition of the value or love the knitter has for those she knits for. I am obviously a knitter so I appreciated that essence throughout the story as the characters became more developed. She tries to make her killers "ordinary people" and tries to discover "what drives them to commit murder." She used to be a probation officer so she's seen real murderers and describes most of them as "pathetic and inadequate little men."

Mystery Month: Discussion Question #2

So....as you're still reading, who do YOU think did it?  Is there someone to whom the author seems to be directing you?  Explain!

Summer Sizzlin' Recipe: Mr. Shuffler's Secret Salsa

Sshhh....don't tell my dad I'm giving away his super secret recipe! ;)  He's pretty proud of this salsa recipe that he came up with many years ago.  We LOVE spicy foods in my family and this is my dad's specialty here. 

Ingredients:
1 Onion
1 Pablano Pepper
2-3 large tomatoes
1-2 Jalapenos
Cilantro bunch

You can do this 2 ways:
1. Blend up all ingredients in a food processor to create a soupier salsa, or,
2. Cut everything finely by hand for a chunkier salsa- this is definitely how I prefer it!

Add salt and a little lemon juice for some extra flavor. 

Yum!!  :-)

Mystery Movie Showcase: Clue!

Based on the popular board game, Clue came into theaters in 1985. The cast is all-star, including an amazing performance by Tim Curry as the butler. Madeline Khan plays an amazing Mrs White (in all black). There are certain key elements from the game that you will see in the movie. Some subtle, some obvious. I personally loved the endings. Yes, plural endings because there are at least three different endings. So even if you are dissatisfied with one version, you have a few others to choose from. :) I definitely recommend it for a light, fun, slightly risque (in a mild Benny Hill, nothing overt way), comedic mystery. Watch each character closely and you can watch this movie again and again and notice new "clues". Enjoy!

Women of Crime: Mary Roberts Rinehart

Several months ago I stumbled upon Amazon's free Kindle downloads and went a little berzerk.  I began downloading more than I'll ever read, but in the midst of my frenzy, I discovered Mary Roberts Rinehart.  I read The Circular Staircase in two days.  As I was reading, I thought, "wow!  This woman is the American Agatha Christie!"  (Turns out I'm not as clever as I thought as I've now seen on several websites that she's already been dubbed as such! :-)

Mary Roberts Rinehart was born in 1876 in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania.  She married a physician she met while in nursing school.  In 1903, she and her husband lost all their savings in the stock market and she began to write as a way to earn money.  She began with short stories and moved on to mystery novels.  She won many awards and even started her own publishing company with her sons.  She died in 1958 at the age of 82.

MRR was a few years ahead of Agatha Christie, but doesn't have the lasting fame that Agatha Christie has.  MRR often uses a female narrator who tells the story of a mystery that happened to them.  Her writing style is a little more wordy and descriptive than Agatha Christie, but she's very engaging and weaves an intriguing story that you won't be able to put down.  Like AC, there is usually a big, exciting finish that you probably didn't expect.  If you enjoy the classic British detective novels, like I do, then you should definitely give the American, Mary Roberts Rinehart, a try!

List of MRR books

Mystery Month: Discussion Question #1

Have you begun your book yet?!  Typically the mystery novel starts off with a murder or other scandalous crime.  What crime has been committed and needs solving in your book?  What were the circumstances surrounding the crime? 

Mystery Movies - The Thin Man

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett was made into a movie of the same name starring William Powell and Myrna Loy. Powell and Hammett look so very much alike and the both were tall, thin men, that everyone assumed that the "Nick Charles" character created by Hammett and played by Powell *was* the "Thin Man". In truth, in this novel, the "thin man" is the murder vicitm. And we really don't learn of the murder itself until near the end of the novel. The movie ties it together much faster, in my opinion.

The witty rappor of Nick and Nora Charles will have you in shock and then admiration for their sweet, ever-trusting love.

Summer Sizzlin' Recipe: Pineapple Hamburgers

My husband's favorite food is a hamburger.  He is always experimenting and making different types of burgers, but he's been making this one since before we were married and it's my favorite!  They are sweet and spicy and so delicious!  Added bonus: Pineapple!!  Eat one during your 2 week wait! ;-)

Ingredients:
2 lbs ground beef
1 can crushed pineapple
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp diced jalapenos
1 1/2 tbsp salt
1 egg
1/4 c bread crumbs

First, drain your pineapple really well.  You don't want it to be too juicy or the burgers will fall apart.  We put ours in a strainer over a bowl and let it sit and sift for a few minutes making sure all extra juice seeps out. 

Next, combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  When everything is mixed together, form patties.  This recipe will make 8 burgers.  Grill burgers until cooked through.  After burgers are mostly cooked, you can drizzle the pineapple juice from before on top of the burgers for a little added flavor. 

Yummm!  We had these yesterday at my parent's house while our dogs played in the pool.  Almost everyone ate TWO burgers!  There were none left for the dogs! 

Enjoy!

Real Mystery: Lost Dutchman's Mine, Arizona

The Lost Dutchman's Mine is a story set in the Superstition Mountains, just east of downtown Phoenix, Arizona. The land is very hazardous in the summer months and hikers are often rescued from injury or dehydration. I grew up hearing this story and there are many variations. But the basic outline of the story goes like this: Sometime in the late 1800s, German immigrant Jacob Waltz located a very rich gold mine in the Superstition Mountains. He is attacked by local Apaches (or a jealous partner) and stumbles into town where he tells the local doctor about the mine and cryptically describes how to find it just before he dies. Based on local newspaper articles, however, Waltz died of pneumonia and on his deathbed, he told a woman, Julia Thomas, about the treasure and even drew her a map. She initiated a vast search but shortly thereafter, began selling maps for $7 each. Either version has sparked many serious efforts to locate this gold mine. Most of them have resulted in the explorers dying in unnatural ways (most are gunshot to the head). These fatal explorations date from the early 1900s even up until last year, 2010, when three Utah explorers hunting the treasure were missing. It wasn't until January 2011 that they found the three bodies, presumably dead from the summer heat. Weaver's Needle (above) is a critical landmark towards locating the hidden mine. It can be seen easily from miles around.

Women of Crime: Agatha Christie

When I was 15 years old, I randomly bought And Then There Were None in a book store and read the entire book that day.  Since then, I have devoured every Agatha Christie book including the romances she wrote under a pseudonym and her autobiography.  She is truly the Queen of Crime and is my favorite author of all time. 

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay, England in 1890.  She married Archer Christie when she was 24 years old.  During World War II she became a nurse at a Red Cross hospital .  She has said it was her work in the dispensary of the hospital that led to her knowledge of poisons and drugs, which are often her character's weapons.  During this time, she wrote her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles which was published in 1920.  Later, Christie divorced and married Max Mallowan, an archaeologist.  With him, she spent a lot of time in the Middle East, where many of her later novels are set. 

Agatha Christie wrote over 70 books in her lifetime (of which, I only need 7 to complete my collection at home!), including some non-fiction about her time with her archeologist husband and a book of poems.  She died in 1976. 

What makes Agatha Christie special is how the reader can never predict the end.  You can keep notes on every clue and a case file on every shady character and still never guess the ending!  All of her books end with a fantastic bang- a touch dramatic and flamboyant, but in the exact style that she perfected and others try so hard to mimic.  Her most famous recurring characters are Hercule Poirot, a retired Belgian detective, and Miss Marple, a busybody spinster.  Witty detectives coupled with butlers, parlor maids, the English countryside and a locked-room-style murder makes every Agatha Christie book well worth the read again and again!

Official Agatha Christie Website

List of Agatha Christie Novels

July Roll Call: Who's Reading a Mystery With Us?

We want to know who has chosen a mystery novel to read along with us!  Post below and tell us:

1. Your name.

2. Name and author of the book you have chosen.

3. Do you read a lot of mystery novels?  If so, what is the favorite mystery novel you've read?

and just for fun...

4. What is your favorite summer vacation location and why? :-)

Masterpiece Theater: Mystery

Detective Hercule Poirot

If you love mysteries, you are going to love this post!

Summer fun on PBS's Masterpiece theater features a mystery theme! This season includes 90 minute episodes beginning with two of Agatha Christie's renowned detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple! Later in July and August, there are episodes featuring Detective Aurelio Zen, an Italian a modern day thriller. Then in September and the first week of October, Inspector Lewis takes the stage! If you love a good mystery be sure to tune in and check out the Masterpiece Mystery schedule.

If you happen to miss an episode, you can always catch them on line but don't wait too long as they are only available for a short time! Right now, you can catch Hercule Poirot in The Clocks or Three Act Tragedy.

July's Book Theme: Mystery (Reader's Choice)

We enjoyed Romance Month so much that we decided to do another "reader's choice" month.  For July, we're reading mysteries! 

From Agatha Christie to Janet Evanovich, there's a lot to choose from in the mystery genre! Go find a new book or pull out an old favorite and join us for Mystery Month.  We'll start a roll call and discussion questions next week!

Summer Sizzlin' Recipe: Surprise 4th of July Cake

This cake is the perfect addition to any 4th of July celebration and your guests will be left with the "mystery" of how it was made. What you will need: 2 box cake mixes *Red food coloring *Blue food coloring 2 cans of frosting *to get the really deep colors, use the gel coloring rather than the drops. First make the batter and separate into three bowls. Color one batter red, one blue, and leave one white. Bake in three round pans. Once cool, cut the red and white layers in half.(hint: the next time I do this I may make two really short layers of each red and white) Next, stack a red and white layer and cover with frosting. Then stack the remaining red and white layers on the blue layer and cut out a circle (a cereal bowl works well as a guide). Separate the pieces keeping the outer circle of the blue layer and the inner circles of the red and white layers. Put the blue layer on top of the layers already frosted and frost around the interior circle (this will hold in your red and white layers). Place the red and white layers inside the hole in the blue layer. Frost the entire cake on the outside in white, hiding your patriotic secret. When you cut into the cake, a flag will appear! Mystery solved!!! *Please excuse the less than wonderful pictures, they are from 4 days post lap surgery last year and my photography was not at its best.