Monday Murder Mystery

Here are a couple of who done its to tickle your fancy....

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Crawlspace: / by Sarah Graves.
Six years after the alleged death of murderer Randy Dodd, true-crime writer Jake Tiptree and her assistant journey to the city of Eastport to investigate suspicions that Dodd faked his death, an effort that is challenged by sinister threats and the abduction of Jake's son.

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The Man from Beijing / by Henning Mankell
From the internationally acclaimed author of the Kurt Wallander mysteries comes an extraordinary stand-alone novel - both a mystery and a sweeping drama - that traces the legacy of the nineteenth-century slave trade between China and America.

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City of Dragons / by Kelli Stanley.
Discovering a murdered body during San Francisco's 1940 Chinese New Year celebration, private investigator Miranda Corbie ignores a precinct edict to cover up the case and pursues leads in Chinatown tenements, a Little Osaka tailor shop and a high-class bordello.

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The Fourth Assassin / by Matt Beynon Rees.
Arriving to visit his son in a heavily Palestinian area of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Omar Yussef discovers the beheaded body of one of the boy's roommates and when his son is arrested as a suspect, Omar must prove his innocence.

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Cemetery Road / Gar Anthony
When Errol 'Handy' White returns to his native Los Angeles to attend the funeral of his old friend R. J. Burrow, who has been brutally murdered, a terrible secret threatens to reveal itself.


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Murder in the Palais Royal /by Cara Black.
Accused of shooting her partner, Aimée Leduc must also contend with the fact that someone is impersonating her, a taxman is investigating her firm, and two murders may have a connection to the youth Aimée sent to prison.

Nathalie Cooke dishes about Great Canadian Food

Great Canadian food may sound like a paradox to some. I must confess mea culpa. The dish that first came to my mind was poutine - not necessarily haute cuisine but a pretty good guilty pleasure once every blue moon.

If there is anyone who might know about great Canadian food, it would surely be Professor Nathalie Cooke from McGill University. Cooke (whose last name is so perfect for someone who researched and discusses the culture and history of cuisine) will be at our library this Thursday February 11th at 6:30 p.m. to unravel the rich culture, history and practices of Canadian cuisine in her lecture Great Canadian Food and Food Stories.

Cooke recently penned the book What’s to Eat? Entrées in Canadian Food History which takes an introspective approach to Canada’s food history and culture explaining how present day practices such as the slow food movement and buying locally are invariably linked to the past. As Cooke explains, the book primarily centres itself with: “what Canadians eat, did eat and what our meals tell us about ourselves”. She is also the Editor in Chief of Cuizine: The (e) journal of Canadian Food Cultures.

In her lecture, Cooke will share her zest for iconically Canadian cuisine and explain its origins taking her audience on a gastronomic, cultural and historical journey throughout the country.

Tickets are three dollars for this event and can be purchased either at the Main Circulation Desk or at the door the night of the lecture.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Book of the month - Mistress of Nothing

Imagine immersing yourself in nineteenth century England, where you are the lady’s maid of an aristocratic figure in society. Life in England is only difficult because the Lady you are serving is someone who is struggling with a debilitating illness---tuberculosis. The only relief your Lady gets from the sickness is when she is in a relatively hot climate, for living in damp and chilly England is not a solution. This is where we are introduced to Sally and her Lady, Lucie Duff Gordon.

Gordon plans to spend a year or two in Egypt, to see if this will bring some kind of temporary cure for her condition. The story of their travel down to the country of pyramids and tombs is told through Sally’s voice and is seen through her eyes. Even though Sally is Gordon’s maid, we get a sense of an old friendship between the two women as they share the sights and sounds of Alexandria, Luxor and the Nile.

They hire Omar as a personal guide for their Egyptian tour, while they learn the Arabic language, undo their suffocating Victorian stays and clothe themselves in the free flowing fabrics of the exotic Middle East.

The novel takes us to a wonderful foreign place of sand storms and Arabian culture, political unrest and conflicts within Sally herself. As a single woman in her late twenties/early thirties, Sally is not only considered a lady’s maid, but an “Old Maid”. She has devoted herself to serve Lady Duff Gordon till the end, which indicates that she has accepted her fate of living in celibacy. Her frame of mind slowly starts to change once they set foot in Egypt. When Sally finds she has feelings for Omar, she betrays Lady Duff Gordon in ways that are unthinkable to the dying woman and she must face the harsh consequences of her actions.

I loved the vocabulary in the book and trying to figure out if Sally’s ties to Omar and her Lady will ever be reconciled. I did not want to put the book down because I always wanted to know where they would go next and how the story would unfold, especially when there is a severe break in communication between the two women. The novel begs you to ask if keeping secrets from those close to you will only damage the relationship or save it. If you love Victorian Literature then this is the book for you. I thought this novel was enjoyable and a fast read!