Last Night at the Martha Washington Library

7/24/2008

Last night's signing/reading for the Chesapeake Crimes 3 anthology drew a large crowd, despite the (true) predictions of torrential rain. Returned home to find a huge old tree down in our street.

Thanks from all the authors to Mystery Loves Company (Baltimore) for providing books for the signing, to the Friends of the Fairfax County Public Library system for being such marvelous hosts, and to Donna Andrews for moderating.

In the photo at left, from L-R: Mariah Crawford, me, Mary Ellen Hughes, Marcia Talley.

(The anthology authors are Mary Ann Corrigan, Carla Coupe, Meriah Crawford, Barb Goffman, Sasscer Hill, Mary Ellen Hughes, K. B. Inglee, Peggy Jaegly, Clyde Linsley, C. Ellett Logan, G. M. Malliet, Carolyn Mulford, Jayne Ormerod, Shelley Shearer, and Marcia Talley. The anthology was edited by Donna Andrews and Marcia Talley.)

Marianne Urban

8/26/2008 04:30:50 am

A friend attended this event and mentioned to you that i was enjoying your book. You gave her a card (which I lost) and invited comments.......if humor is the best medicine I shall only have to reread this book to stay well forever. Loved the eccentric characters and the *cozy* type mystery which I rarely read anymore

I have only 3 specific comments..ponce is used 4 times and I had no clue what the word meant outside of the quilting world. It is not in my dictionary. At first I thought it meant gay or homosexual..but then the character got involved with the author's daughter so that did not seem to be an accurate meaning. I shall have to ask my formerly Brit friend when she is in town next month ! This frequently happens with British books as slang varies from country to country.

I felt the ending hung together. Everything was in character so I found no flights of fancy in trying to wrap up the murder...but....altho I reread it I still feel that it was implied that the secretary, Jeffrey, was gay yet he went off into the sunset with the author's daughter
...very confusing!

The only real criitcism of the book..and perhaps it is more a desire not a criticism..is that all the characters are well developed except for Inspector Just. We learned a physical description immediately. Other than his thought processes as a policeman we learn nothing more until about page 200 when we learn that he went to Oxford and is well educated. I do not seem to remember more about him and I hope that will change as the series progresses.

I also hope that darling Emma continues to program her dad's cell phone to express herself..alas and aleck this situation was all too familiar to me as a non tech type

Thank you for th elovely read!
Marianne Urban

G.M. Malliet

8/26/2008 07:15:03 am

Thanks so much for the lovely comments, Marianne, and for taking the time to write.

Yes, there is a *whole* lot more about St. Just in the second book, Death and the Lit Chick.

And Emma will be around more in the third book. Which I had better get back to writing now... ;-)

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Last Night at the Martha Washington Library

G.M. Malliet

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