Murder in the Afternoon Book Club to Discuss: THE SYMPATHIZER by Viet Thanh Nguyen

• Post by Director of Suspense Molly Odintz

The Murder in the Afternoon Book Club meets to discuss Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer on Monday, March 20th, at 1 PM. You can find copies of The Sympathizer on our shelves and via bookpeople.com. 

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer has left me stunned. This hybrid spy-novel-cum-literary-satire won the Edgar Award in 2015 (which is how I convinced the Murder in the Afternoon Book Club to read it) and the Pulitzer the same year, which should begin a long career of appreciation in highbrow and lowbrow circles alike.

At face value, The Sympathizer is a Vietnam War novel from the Vietnamese perspective, ostensibly the perfect place for American readers to immerse themselves in the Vietnamese experience. Yet what Nguyen does best in the novel is expose hypocrisy. Rather than gently guide his readers into unknown waters, he plunges us into confrontation with our own assumptions, our own prejudices, and our own pompous behavior. While reading it, I felt more blown away by observations about the American character than any points about Vietnamese society.

Murder in the Afternoon Book Club to Discuss: SMALLER AND SMALLER CIRCLES by F. H. Batacan

 

– Post by Director of Suspense Molly Odintz

What do Tom Rob Smith’s Child 44 (Soviet Union), Philip Kerr’s The Pale Criminal (Nazi Germany), and F. H. Batacan’s Smaller and Smaller Circles (Philippines) have in common? They are all superb examples of serial killer narratives where political agendas worm their way into an investigation, and they all  feature serial killers allowed by state authorities to run amok. This, to me is an essential quality in any plausible crime novel about serial killers, but I wanted to provide some real world examples.

Child 44 features a based-on-real-life serial  killer allowed to get away with innumerable murders because the Soviet authorities believed there could be no such thing as a serial killer in such a revolutionary utopia. The Pale Criminal showcases how scapegoating can lead an investigation off-track, as a detective seeks a serial killer while the Nazis use a series of murders for propaganda purposes.

In Smaller and Smaller Circles, set in the late 90s, two Jesuit priests, stunned by the failure of local police to solve a series of brutal murders of young boys in their community, decide to track down the killers themselves.  Unlike Child 44 or The Pale Criminal, however, Smaller and Smaller Circles has been hailed as the first Filipino crime novel, and by extension the first to use the genre for a social critique of inequality in Manila.

April is for Mystery Lovers: Tons of Upcoming Events!

As we all enjoy the brief Texas spring, come take shelter from the pollen counts and enjoy our full roster of mystery events coming up in April here at the store. On April 2nd, Philip Kerr started off our April events with a blast, speaking and signing his latest continuation of his Bernie Gunther series, The Other Side of Silence. If you missed the event, signed copies of his latest, as well as many of the previous volumes in the series, are available on our shelves and via bookpeople.com.

This past Sunday, April 10th, at 2 PM, Laurie R. King, author of the beloved Russell and Holmes series, as well as the fantastic Kate Martinelli series, joined us to speak and sign her latest installment in her Mary Russell series, The Murder of Mary Russell. While I’ve been reading the Mary Russell novels for many years, King’s newest addition to the series, delving deep into Mrs. Hudson’s backstory, might be my favorite in the series to date!

For those who missed this event, library enthusiasts will be pleased to note that in support of Austin Public Library, 5% of sales of all Laurie R. King titles sold in store on Sunday April 10th and 5 % of sales of The Murder of Mary Russell the week of April 5th (ending April 12th) will be donated to the library. Come by today or tomorrow, grab a copy of King’s latest, and support Austin Public Library. Signed copies available!

Just one day after Laurie R. King’s visit, Stuart Woods and David C. Taylor will be speaking and signing their latest novels, Family Jewels and Night Work, respectively, today, Monday, April 11th, at 7 PM. This event is a wonderful opportunity to catch up with Stuart Woods on his large oeuvre of bestselling thrillers, while getting to know David C. Taylor, an up-and-coming crime novelist who started out in the film biz.

Next up, Jessica Knoll, author of the stunning debut, Luckiest Girl Alive, comes to speak and sign this amazing novel on Saturday, April 16th, at 3 PM. Knoll has worked as senior editor at Cosmopolitan. She draws on both life and fiction for her debut, an intense look at high school trauma and its lingering effects, even for those who manage to reinvent themselves in adulthood.

On Sunday, April 17th, Scott and Molly will reprise our panel discussion on how we compiled our MysteryPeople Top 100 Crime and Suspense Novels at the first ever Pflugerville Book Pfestival, happening Saturday the 16th and Sunday the 17th at the Pflugerville Library. The festival is sponsored by KAZI Austin, 88.7 FM, and put together by Hopeton Hay, host of Kazi Book Review with Hopeton Hay. Thanks to Hopeton and KAZI for putting this festival together and bringing the MysteryPeople Top 100 list out into world.

Then on Monday, April 18th, at 1 PM, the Murder in the Afternoon Book Club will discuss The Professionals, by Owen Laukkanen, with a call-in from the author. The Hard Word Book Club, meeting Wednesday, April 27th, at 7 PM, also has a special guest calling in to the discussion – Craig Johnson, author of the Longmire series, will call in to discuss his novel As The Crow Flies. 

Finally, we’ll finish out the month with a visit from Melissa Ginsburg on Saturday, April 30th at 3 PM. Ginsburg’s Houston-set debut, Sunset City, follows a barista on the hunt for her best friend’s murderer. Sunset City is our April Pick of the Month, and we’re glad to celebrate a powerful new voice in Texas crime fiction.

Mysterypeople and Sisters in Crime Welcome Rhys Bowen to Austin

Rhys Bowen joins us here at BookPeople this Saturday, March 12th, at 3 PM, to speak and sign her latest Molly Murphy mystery, Time of Fog and Fire. 

On Sunday, March 13, Bowen will be guest speaker at the Sisters in Crime Heart of Texas Chapter meeting, beginning 2:00 p.m. at the Yarborough Branch of the Austin Public Library. 

For the Rhys Bowen enthusiast, the Murder in the Afternoon Book Club will discuss her novel City of Darkness and Light on Monday, March 15th, at 1 PM on BookPeople’s third floor. All of these events are free and open to the public. 

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  Guest Post from Kathy Waller of Sisters in Crime

Thanks to a grant from Sisters in Crime, an international organization dedicated to promoting the advancement, recognition and professional development of women crime writers, New York Times best-selling author Rhys Bowen will visit Austin March 12-13. She’ll be at BookPeople on March 12th at 3 PM, and will speak at the Sisters in Crime Chapter meeting the following day at 2PM at the Yarborough Branch of the Austin Public Library.

Bowen’s highly popular mystery series—the Evan Evans mysteries, the Molly Murphy mysteries, and the Her Royal Spyness mysteries—have garnered a string of awards including the Agatha, Reviewer’s Choice, Herodotus, Lefty (Bruce Alexander Memorial), Anthony, Freddy, Macavity, Arty, Lovey, and Audie Awards, and too many nominations to mention.

Murder in the Afternoon Book Club to Discuss: DARE ME by Megan Abbott

The Murder In The Afternoon Book Club meeting time has changed! We will now meet on the third Monday of each month at 1 pm on BookPeople’s third floor.

Join us Monday, February 15, at 1 PM on BookPeople’s third floor, for a discussion of Dare Me, by Megan Abbott, who will join us via phone call during the discussion. You can find copies of Dare Me on our shelves and via bookpeople.com. 

• Review by Bookseller Molly Odintz

Megan Abbott started off studying noir fiction, and moved over to writing her own, creating several historical crime novels so true to their period, they could have been written in the forties. Next, she took a turn to the contemporary, addressing the same themes of power, competition, sexuality, and obsession showcased by her early novels, but re-contextualizing them for today’s young women. Her last three novels – Dare Me, The End of Everything, and The Fever – have all taken on the dangerous lives of teenage girls, and gone far beyond an after-school special in tackling the real and present dangers and thrills of modern womanhood.

Rainy Day Reads: The Murder in the Afternoon Book Club takes on Tartan Noir

• Post by Molly Odintz

Please join us Tuesday, January 19th, at 2 PM as we discuss Knots and Crosses, by Ian Rankin. Ian Rankin will be speaking and signing his latest Rebus novel, Even Dogs in the Wild, on Sunday, January 31st, at 3 PM. All BookPeople events are free and open to the public. Pre-order a signed copy!

Like many novels considered noir, Ian Rankin’s first Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses, falls comfortably into the descriptive category of “starts bad, gets worse.” As the novel opens, Inspector John Rebus is divorced, ambiguously religious, living in Scotland, and still traumatized by his experiences training for special forces twenty years before.

Amidst a cloud of cigarette smoke and brooding, he works to solve a series of murders, each victim the same age and description as his own 12-year-old daughter, Samantha. Meanwhile, threatening notes arrive at the inspector’s door, referencing a betrayal clouded by Rebus’ significant memory gaps. As he fights to find the serial killer, John begins to suspect the carefully conducted crimes contain a message for Rebus himself.

Ross Macdonald Turns 100

This weekend marked the 100th birthday of Ross Macdonald. Often referred to as the third father of the private eye novel, along with Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, he is the lesser known of this triumvirate. There are authors that may not have read one of his books, yet borrow from him just the same.

“I love to be with him in mid-century California,” says author Ace Atkins. “He picks up when Chandler left us and continues to be the moral compass in shifting times. But beyond what we expected of a crime book, he showed us how violence, turmoil and greed can effect family. The greatest at character study.”

Of the three, he was the most prolific; Macdonald wrote over twenty novels, stretching from The Dark Tunnel, originally released in 1944 under his real name Kenneth Millar, to The Blue Hammer, Macdonald’s last novel, published in 1976. Most featured his laconic private detective, Lew Archer.

Murder in the Afternoon Book Club Celebrates Ross Macdonald’s 100th

• Post by Scott Montgomery

On Tuesday, December 15th, at 2 PM, our Murder In the Afternoon Book Club will belatedly (by two days) celebrate the 100th birthday of one of private eye fiction’s greatest. Ross Macdonald gave the genre both a psychological edge and social resonance with his aware, loner detective Lew Archer. The book we’ll be discussing, The Underground Man, is the epitome of MacDonald.

Archer’s neighbor hires him to find her son, kidnapped by his father and his father’s mistress. They head toward her mother-in-law’s home, near an area plagued by a huge forest fire. Soon, Archer finds the husband dead, but the mistress and boy are still missing. In his search for the boy, Archer follows a labyrinth trail of Macdonald tropes, family secrets, losers looking for their shot, blackmail, and dangerous love.

The Underground Man will provide a great discussion – about the novel, and equally about its creator. We will be meeting at BookPeople’s cafe at 2PM on Tuesday, December 15th. The book is 10% off at the registers for those who attend. You can find copies of The Underground Man on our shelves and via bookpeople.com. 

Hard Word Book Club to Discuss: THE BARBAROUS COAST by Ross MacDonald

On October 28th, the Hard Word Book Club celebrates the 100th anniversary of Ross MacDonald’s birth. MacDonald is considered one of the pioneers of the American private eye novel. We will be reading one of his earlier novels, The Barbarous Coast.

The novel puts his series detective, Lew Archer, in the company of Malibu’s rich and famous. Hired to find a missing swim champ turned starlet, Lew follows a trail that involves her boxer husband, some old-school mobsters, a decade-old murder and several new ones. It was written during what some refer to as MacDonald’s “Chandler Period” where he was still utilizing many of the classic PI tropes, but what he did with them were one of a kind.

We’ll be talking about both the book and MacDonald himself. The meeting will start at 7PM, on Wednesday, October 28th, up on BookPeople’s third floor. On December 15th at 2PM, our Murder In The Afternoon Book Club tackles The Underground Man, a book from MacDonald’s later years.

The Hard Word Book Club meets the last Wednesday of each month to discuss noir and hard-boiled genre literature. Book clubs are free and open to the public, and book club selections are 10% off when purchased in-store. You can find copies of The Barbarous Coast on our shelves and via bookpeople.com. 

Murder In The Afternoon Book Club to Discuss: THE PRICE OF SALT by Patricia Highsmith

The Murder in the Afternoon Book Club meets the third Tuesday of each month at 2 PM on BookPeople’s third floor. Please join us Tuesday, October 20, at 2 PM as we discuss The Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith. 

• Post by Molly

From time to time, my attention focuses in on a novel that may or may not be a mystery novel, but can arguably fall under the category of noir. I then assign these novels to my mystery book clubs, wherein my book club members scoff at how little violence actually occurs in the book. Well, scoff away, for The Price of Salt, while it may be shelved in the mystery section, is not a mystery novel at all. It is a love story, written by an author known for her mystery novels.

After her first novel, Strangers on a Train, forever labeled Highsmith as a “suspense writer,” Highsmith wrote The Price of Salt under a different pen name, so as not to be newly labeled by the publishing industry as a lesbian writer. Renewed interest in Highsmith in the 1980s led to the reissue of The Price of Salt under her own name, and the novel is now being adapted to the screen, with a projected release date of later this fall.

Rather than a dark exploration of the worst aspects of the human psyche, Patricia Highsmith, in The Price of Salt, tells the story of two women, drawn together by a chance meeting at a crowded department store, who are initially convinced their attraction is as dark and forbidden as any other action by a Highsmith character. As they spend more time together, and leave their past commitments behind in favor of their growing attachment, they (uniquely for Highsmith characters) leave their ill-health and obsessions behind in favor of growing happiness and fulfillment.