Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Crime Writers Caught Recommending Crime - Day 16

Today's recommendation comes from Beth Groundwater who is known for her Claire Hanover gift basket mystery series. And in 2011 she's adding to her bibliography with the beginning her new series, DEADLY CURRENTS. Beth really knows how to enjoy her reading time, as you can tell from her photo below.

Beth is recommending Nancy Pickard's novel, THE SCENT OF RAIN AND LIGHTNING. Here's why Beth thinks this book would make a great holiday gift:

"I absolutely loved Nancy Pickard's The Virgin of Small Plains, but The Scent of Rain and Lightning is even better. Nancy is a magician at making you feel what her characters are feeling and at weaving enough suspense into her writing that you just know something dreadful is going to happen on the next page, and you have to get to it to find out what. Nancy's mysteries transcends their genre into mainstream, almost literary, fiction because of the beautiful prose, the spot-on descriptions of the Kansas cowboy country setting and life, the complexity and depth of the characters, and the masterful way they're plotted."


Who can argue with that? I happen to know that Beth is off on a photo safari - I'm very jealous - so it was great of her to make time to send in a recommendation. And obviously, this is a recommendation that comes from the heart! Many thanks Beth! Hope you're getting fabulous photos!

Today my recommendation is an amazing debut. John Verdon knocked it out of the park with THINK OF A NUMBER. The suspense, the plot concept, the characters. This was an incredible book and he'll have a challenge to raise the bar on this book! I gave this book to my dad a couple months ago and he's just now getting to it in his TBR pile but he said to me this morning, "I just started THINK OF A NUMBER and it is really good." So you have votes from the both of us on this one!

Hope your holiday shopping is going off relatively painlessly. I've finished my gift for the blogger exchange and am ready to get it in the mail. Hope my Secret Santee likes it!

Happy Reading!

3 comments:

Anonymous November 30, 2010 at 3:31 PM  

How nice to see Beth here! I follow her blog. I love mysteries and crime fiction. These titles sound intriguing. I'm also happy to meet you, Jen! (This is the name of my disabled daughter that I take care of!!!)
Ann

Sara Hoklotubbe November 30, 2010 at 6:20 PM  

What a great picture of Beth! And I applaud her choice of books. I, too, loved The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard, a wonderfully written mystery.

Beth Groundwater December 14, 2010 at 5:22 PM  

Thanks, Ann and Sara, for your compliments. The photo was taken in the hot tub at my second home in Breckenridge, Colorado, which I hope to make my primary and only home soon.

Jen mentioned my photo safari. I just returned today after spending 2.5 weeks photographing ancient Buddhist and Hindu temples in Myanmar and Cambodia. We also got lots of great photos of markets, people in their farming/fishing villages, monks and nuns in monasteries, and other shots of everyday life in these two fascinating countries.

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