Bouchercon

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This coming week, I will be attending Bouchercon.

What is Bouchercon, you may ask.

Bouchercon is a mystery convention of authors and fans, named after the writer and critic Anthony Boucher. Bouchercon is never in the same location two years running, but moves around. I have attended the conference in New Orleans, San Diego, Long Beach, St. Petersburg, Cleveland and more. This year it is in Calgary, Canada. Next year it will be in Washington, D.C. That is a lot closer and I expect it will be cheaper; no plane ride at least.

I will be on a panel and participate in several signing opportunities as well. Since I have never been to Calgary, I think this will be fun.

Currently Reading

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This is the fifth in this wonderful series. A little girl, upon finding out that Nico is a retired homicide detective, asks him for help in proving her father’s innocence. At first, the case looks open and shut. Several people in Pitigliano heard the victim and his business partner fighting. But as Nico digs deeper, he finds that many people might have wanted Giancarlo Lenzi dead. He’d stolen from the business, yes, but he’d also seduced several wives in town, cheated a cousin out of his vineyard, and told his wife he was leaving.

Nico makes several trips to Pitigliano to investigate, resulting in a confession. But Nico isn’t satisfied.

I love this character driven series. The plotting is exceptional and the setting cannot be beat. Highly recommended.

New laptop

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I upgraded my laptop a month ago and since then have been trying to establish the accounts on it. So many passwords! It has been a nightmare! Every time I try to do something, I discover I don’t know either the user name or the password. Fortunately, I have the old laptop so I have been able to reconstruct most of them. But not all.

I hope to finish up soon, although not really optimistic.

Currently Reading

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Combustible, by David Wilson, is the first in his Sam Lawson detective series. I don’t usually read hard boiled mysteries but this one was a good one to start with.

Lawson is a burned out cop who drinks too much and annoys his fellow officers. But a case involving a burned victim in a house, and a new female pathologist that he is interested in, inspires him to actually investigate.

By all accounts, Joe Reddington, prison guard, was a mean and abusive man, loathed by everyone. (Someone, one might almost say, who deserves to die). So who actually did the deed? The angry son? The abused wife? Or one of the prisoners who Reddington abused?

But someone is actively trying to hit the investigation. One of Lawson’s witnesses is murdered and Lawson is told to drop the case. But he perserveres, discovering an almost forgotten pleasure in doing a good job.

Fast moving and plot driven. My only criticism? I wish the book were a little longer and the characters a little more fleshed out. Recommended.

Albany Book Festival

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Set up.

Had a great time at the book festival. I really enjoy meeting and talking to readers and other writers. I especially enjoy seeing my fellow Mavens in person, instead of through a computer screen, via Zoom.

The nor’easter really did not hit Albany. It rained on and off but the weather was not that bad. There were still plenty of people.

halfway through the fair

Kathryn R. Biel, my neighbor, has already sold a lot of her stock. Do you see the line she is looking at?

Currently Reading

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Homicide on the Range by Rosalie Spielman is the sixth in her hometown mysteries series. In this offering, Tessa Treslow and her significant other Nick sign up for a romantic week away. Unfortunately, 79 year old Aunt Edna and the Prunn sisters Ginny and Olive decide to join.

From the beginning, the week does not go as planned. The cook, a veteran named Orinoco, is nasty to everyone. And several of the other vets have issues of their own relating to effects from their service. To make matters worse, wildfires are beginning to threaten the ranch. And then Orinioco’s body, a knife protruding from her chest, is found in the walk-in freezer.

Aunt Edna and the Prunn sisters throw themselves into the breach, cooking for all the ranch guests. And Tessa begins her hunt for the murderer.

This series is marketed as a cozy series and it is true the murders are not graphically portrayed. The Prunn sisters with their outlandish clothing (they love their fascinators and in this book, one of them sports Woody’s tiny cowboy hat from Toy Story) but the themes around the veterans add a depth and seriousness not usually found in cozies. Highly recommended.

The Albany Book Festival

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This year, the festival is Saturday, September 26, at the University of Albany uptown campus, 10 to 5. The featured authors are Namwali Serpell, Keith McNally, and Elizabeth Kolbert. Besides the presentations, and a separate children’s area, over 60 authors tabling in the campus center ballroom. This is always a fun time and a chance to meet nonfiction authors and fiction authors from all genres.

Currently Reading

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Malice, by Keigo Higashino, was an Edgar award finalist. Written in Japan, and translated into English, it has much different pacing than a typical English language mystery.

A famous and wealthy writer is found murdered in his locked office, within a locked house, by his wife and best friend just days before he will relocate to Vancouver. Both wife and friend, Osamu Nonoguchi, have solid alibis. Nonoguchi is also a writer, although not as successful as his friend. The case is further complicated by detective Kaga’s prior connection with Nonoguchi; both were teachers many years ago.

Kara’s unraveling of the mystery is painstaking.

For me, the mystery was not much of a mystery. Also, the murderer is revealed very early in the book. From then on, the plot becomes one of discovering the motive and of uncovering the layers behind the murder.

Recommended although slow moving for an American reader.

Cows

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One of the activities we enjoyed during the reunion was visiting my cousin’s dairy farm. The photo is from the calf farm; the calves pictured are three to four months old. They were so cute and social, coming over to the fence for petting. As the calves grow older, they are moved from section to section until they go to the heifer barn. A real highlight was seeing the birth of a calf.

This is a very mechanized operation. The manure is treadmilled to openings that put the slurry in tanks. It is then processed for other uses. In the milking barn, the cows are hooked up to machines, one after another. I found this especially interesting since I remember my father teaching me to milk a cow when I was a kid.

For my father, this would be the stuff of fantasy. In the old days, and for him it wasn’t much different from the days of Will Rees, everything was by hand.

Even the feed is different. The cows still eat hay but their diets are carefully monitored for the proper protein, amino acids and such. Everything is regulated. (In the late 1800s, kids caught TB from milk or were sickened by milk adulterated with chalk or other substances.) My cousin’s farm won a prize a few years ago so they are very careful.

I eat very little beef and now plan to eat none; the calves seemed too much like pets.

Currently Reading

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https://a.co/d/04paNHAr

Death of a Dream Catcher, by Linda Norlander. is the fifth in the Cabin by the lake series. I think it is the least successful.

Jamie Forrest is a transplanted New Yorker to an inherited cabin by a lake in Minnesota. In this outing, she is engaged to Jim Monroe. He reveals that his older brother Eli, a high school athlete. went swimming with a group of friends and drowned. Now, with a high school reunion, the ghosts of that twenty year old summer have risen up again. On a camping trip to Bear Island, Jim goes off alone and when he returns he is in a dark mood. Jamie is so distracted worrying about this that she trips over a tree root and falls, breaking her arm. But Jim refuses to tell her the whole story,’for her safety.’ The reunion, which both Jamie and Jim attend, only deepens the mystery. What happened to Lucy, the sister of the housekeeper for the elderly lawyer Jamie has befriended? More concerningly, what is going on with Jim? He is acting out of character and refuses to tell Jamie anything.

The setting is, as usual, well portrayed and the mystery is interesting. But the relationship between Jim and Jamie raised a whole forest of red flags for me. He takes all his phone calls outside and behaves very secretively. He keeps warning her to stay out of it, ‘for her safety’. And after she follows him, and saves not only Jim but other characters as well, he blows up at her. I began wondering why she even wanted to marry the man.

So, a mixed review.