Here are a few more of the mysteries I enjoy so much.

I first mentioned Arianna Franklin in the March 3, 2015 post. Many times it will take an author a year or more to write another book in a series. I don't know about you, but I can forget a lot in that time and always thought a short synopsis would be an excellent idea. Franklin, at least in the Mistress of the Art of Death series would give readers an idea of what had already happened by including bits and pieces of that past in her narrative. It worked! Just nice little nudges as to why the characters were where they were, how they related to each other and so on. She did this beautifully and seamlessly once again in A Murderous Procession. (Sadly, there will be no more as she died in 2011). I see where an unfinished manuscript (not part of the series) was completed by one of her daughters and was published in 2014.

The first book in Colin Cotterill's series about Doctor Siri was an unexpected find for me. I am now a fan and have, or will, read all of them (a new one is just out)! Start with The Coroner's Lunch. Snatched out of retirement and given the fancy, but useless, title of Chief Coroner, an out of date lab, and a staff consisting of a retarded technician and an ugly nurse, they become a team that does not do what The Party wants. Wonderful characters, great writing. (I'm sure, in one of them, all the necessary clues were there for me to figure out the 'who dun it', but what was going on with the characters had me so focused on them, I wasn't paying proper attention to anything else).

It all started with a squeaky floor! Intrigued by a floor that was designed to keep the warlord safe from assassins by singing whenever anyone stepped on it, I picked up Across the Nightingale Floor, by Lian Hearn (Tales of the Otori, Book One). Set in a mythical, ancient Japan, it is a tale a young boy, kidnapped from his peaceful home and brought up by The Tribe and taught a variety of extraordinary skills (My favorite is invisibility). For the most part I found the book magical and captivating. There are three books in the series.

The main character in Sara Hoskins Frommer's mysteries is a viola player! How could I resist? (My good friend, California Reader, plays viola and we were in a symphony together for a while). Murder In C Major is the first in the series. Joan Spencer has returned to her home town and is playing in the local orchestra when the oboist (not well liked) (!) keels over. To the visiting Japanese musician it looks like a fugu poisoning. Was it? The author plays viola in an orchestra so her descriptions of musicians, rehearsals, etc. are dead on! (sorry) ;-) I just discovered that, after a gap of many years, there is a new title out ... I plan on reading it soon.

Dive Deep and Deadly, by Glynn Marsh Alam, is set in the swamps around Tallahassee and is the first in the Luanne Fogerty mysteries. Fogerty is a professor, but also a diver skilled in the dangerous local waters (mostly swamps). She is rebuilding the 'swamp house' she lives in when not investigating murders. It's hot, and muggy, and buggy. There can be various critters living under the house, not to mention they could show up on any of her dives. The descriptions are enough to make me sticky, as if I've worked up a sweat just by sitting in a chair!

And, of course, any of the delightful mysteries by Louise Penny!

Reading Hermit With Dog