Sunday, October 09, 2016

What is Frances Brody reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Frances Brody, author of Death of an Avid Reader.

Her entry begins:
What I'm reading links to where I am presently staying: New Orleans, Louisiana. I came here for Bouchercon, a huge crime writing convention that takes place over a long weekend. The novels I chose were Attica Locke's The Cutting Season and James Lee Burke's The Tin Roof Blowdown.

Attica Locke's title refers to the cutting season for sugar cane. Her story is set in a grand mansion once occupied by a plantation owning family who have now moved out and run the place as a visitor attraction under the management of Caren, a smart, attractive African American woman with a young daughter. Caren's late mother was...[read on]
About Death of an Avid Reader, from the publisher:
The Search for a Daughter
Lady Coulton gave up the baby that would have ruined her marriage, born when Lord Coulton was abroad. Now that her husband is dying, she asks Kate to find Sophia.

A Haunted Library
It is forty years since the ghost of a dead librarian haunted the old library, yet the stories have begun again. Kate does not believe in ghosts but obligingly takes part in a ceremony to expel the restless spirit. Shockingly, there is a body in the basement, strangled, and covered in dusty volumes from a fallen bookcase. It is Dr. Potter, a mathematician.

A Killer on the Loose
Dr. Potter’s body is taken away. The police find a sick man sheltering in the basement. He is an Italian, Umberto, an organ grinder and owner of a lively Capuchin monkey. Umberto becomes the prime suspect and will be charged with murder. Kate goes with Umberto to the infirmary. But he is too weak to be a suspect. And now Kate must set out to find the real culprit...
Learn more about the book and author at Frances Brody's website.

The Page 69 Test: Dying in the Wool.

The Page 69 Test: A Woman Unknown.

The Page 69 Test: Murder on a Summer's Day.

Writers Read: Frances Brody.

--Marshal Zeringue