Authors You Used to Love, But No Longer Read

[Snow Apple]

I don't think Anne Rice ever got over her daughter's death which is why she's so insanely protective of her vampire books. 

Correct me I'm wrong but I never hear about her being like that about her other books. She raged about the casting of Tom Cruise as Lestat. However, I don't think she said anything about that hot mess of the Exit to Eden movie. If she did, I don't know about it.

[scarynikki12]

She ended up enjoying Cruise in Interview, and publicly apologized to him for being against his casting, so I bet she’s decided to keep her negative reactions to herself rather than have to do that again. 

[Joe]

JRR Tolkien and Terry Pratchett. I love them both to death. They're my 1 & 2 favourite authors of all time. But I burned out of them a couple of years ago, and have to take a long break.

[cherrypj]

6 hours ago, Joe said:

JRR Tolkien and Terry Pratchett. I love them both to death. They're my 1 & 2 favourite authors of all time. But I burned out of them a couple of years ago, and have to take a long break.

How do you burn out on dead people? (Serious question!) They're not exactly publishing anything new.

[proserpina65]

20 minutes ago, cherrypj said:

How do you burn out on dead people? (Serious question!) They're not exactly publishing anything new.

Tolkien's son keeps putting out previously unpublished stuff, although that has slowed way down in the last few years.

[Joe]

54 minutes ago, cherrypj said:

How do you burn out on dead people? (Serious question!) They're not exactly publishing anything new.

I reread their books over and over and over until I was sick of them.

[Black Knight]

It's not the usual way that the question gets interpreted - "author was once good but quality fell off/some other reason so I quit reading new books from him/her" - but it opens up a new avenue for discussion. I'm trying to think now if there's anyone that I've simply reread too much and so I no longer reread, but I'm not coming up with much. Of course, part of that is because I have so many books to read that I don't have much time to reread anyway.

The closest might be Agatha Christie. But even then, any new film/TV adaptation always sends me running back to reread the book in question. Or heck, even just a book coming up in conversation. I was in a conversation recently in which German measles being a danger during pregnancy came up, and I mentioned that being a motive for murder in the Christie mystery

Spoiler

The Mirror Crack'd

and now I'm about to dig that up and reread it. So, I don't reread her as often as I used to, but I still do.

Though, I was just reminded of something from my childhood. My biological mother always took me to her hair appointments, and I always brought a book to read. So one day we went, and I had one of the later Ramona Quimby books with me. I liked it just fine, but this hair appointment ran way longer than normal - hours longer - and I reread that book so many times that I could never read it again afterwards. I have never been so sick of a book in my life. Not even One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, which is boring enough to read once (I understand that that's largely the point, but it still doesn't make it any more satisfying!), but thanks to the way certain school things lined up, was assigned reading three times in two years. If book readers get special customized hells, mine will probably be a library in which that is the only book.

[nodorothyparker]

I have such a soft spot for Anne Rice even in all her weirdness because those early Vampire Chronicles books, The Feast of All Saints, and the original Witching Hour were such lifelines for me as a small town depressive angsty teenager pre-internet.  Finding them in my county library made me feel like maybe I wasn't crazy in wrestling with Big Ideas about religion and sexuality and ennui and What It All Means at a time when none of the people I knew were remotely interested in that and tended to treat my searching it out like a carnival side show.  So I've always cut her a huge amount of slack no matter how out there she got.  That hasn't made wading through her resurrection of Lestat these last few novels feel like any less of a chore.  I keep feeling like I should at least try to slog through this most recent one out of that sense of old loyalty, but I really just don't want to and probably won't.

[annzeepark914]

On 1/3/2016 at 1:18 PM, Blergh said:

John Grisham- I mean, how many times can he do the 'young idealistic lawyer finds corruption and must try to overcome it' plot?  About as one-trick pony as 'Scooby Doo' cartoons.  

Yup - That's John Grisham.  In the beginning I enjoyed reading the books but then it became like a formula.  The only book of his that wasn't quite formula but dealt with lawyers (and imprisoned judges!) was The Brethren. Loved that one.

Lilian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who series.  It starts out great, then the main character moves "upstate" (I'm thinking this is in Michigan because some of the crazy town names sound familiar to my Michigander husband).  It's still very good for quite a few books and then, after he moves into a big house, something went wrong with the writing. I think the author must've hired a ghostwriter.  Awful dialogue and setting descriptions. 

MC Beaton's Agatha Raisin and Hamish MacBeth series were fun at the beginning.  Then something similar to The Cat Who series happened.  Awful writing.  Not sufficient descriptions of where the characters were when they were speaking.

Sue Grafton's alphabet series was good in the beginning but after a man shot at Kinsie while she was hiding in a garbage can, I couldn't take it any more.

Whoops - forgot Dick Francis.  I loved his books in the beginning (especially the one where that jockey had to fly a 747) but they became tired formula stories after a while and I quit. Plus, it was obvious someone else was writing the books in Mr. Francis's later years.

Edited February 24, 2019 by annzeepark914

[Hanahope]

On 2/23/2019 at 11:57 PM, annzeepark914 said:

Plus, it was obvious someone else was writing the books in Mr. Francis's later years.

That was is son, Felix, who took over the writing.  Felix is still writing "Dick Francis" type books (mystery somehow related to horse racing in Britain).  They're ok, but agree that its not quite the same as his father.

[bybrandy]

I quit the Scarpetta novels years and years ago before apparently Marino became a rapist?   REALLY!?!?!?!?!    WHat?  Yeah, not going back to find out what all of that was about.  

I quit Grisham for years and years but every so often I'll get just really really bogged down and I'll toss something on audio.  They're just so easy to get through when you're doing other things.  Obviously that's not a compliment, but it is sometimes what I need.

Harlan Coben is somebody I still read again his books are super easy to keep turning the page.  But he frustrates me because of the tropes he returns to again and again and again.  I think he has like 5 different books (the Myron Bolitar series and 4 other stand alones) where the main character has a long lost teen kid.   Or in the Bolitar series EVERYBODY has a long lost teen kid.  I mean seriously EVERYBODY!!!!   He's like Oprah with the long lost teen kids.

I think Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels had long lost twins but that has been years and years and years and since I've picked up one of those.   

And the Reacher series I stopped when Lee Child defended the casting of Tom Cruise.   If you care more about the buck than the integrity of your character?   More power to you but I don't have to read you.  

[GaT]

10 hours ago, bybrandy said:

Harlan Coben is somebody I still read again his books are super easy to keep turning the page.  But he frustrates me because of the tropes he returns to again and again and again.  I think he has like 5 different books (the Myron Bolitar series and 4 other stand alones) where the main character has a long lost teen kid.   Or in the Bolitar series EVERYBODY has a long lost teen kid.  I mean seriously EVERYBODY!!!!   He's like Oprah with the long lost teen kids.

If there's another Myron Bolitar book I'll read it (LOVED Home), but I've stopped reading the stand alones because they're all the same "fish out of water" plot.

[partofme]

2 hours ago, GaT said:

If there's another Myron Bolitar book I'll read it (LOVED Home), but I've stopped reading the stand alones because they're all the same "fish out of water" plot.

That's funny to me because I hate the Myron Bolitar books but his stand alone books are what made me a huge fan of Cobens back around 2010 when I read them all in a short period of time.   I also liked his books because I was familiar with a lot of the towns in NJ and NY that he mentions in them from my childhood.  Granted his current books haven't been as good(esp the last) or maybe I've outgrown them?  But I always look forward to the stand alones.

13 hours ago, bybrandy said:

Harlan Coben is somebody I still read again his books are super easy to keep turning the page.  But he frustrates me because of the tropes he returns to again and again and again.  I think he has like 5 different books (the Myron Bolitar series and 4 other stand alones) where the main character has a long lost teen kid.   Or in the Bolitar series EVERYBODY has a long lost teen kid.  I mean seriously EVERYBODY!!!!   He's like Oprah with the long lost teen kids.

I never really noticed this but I know a lot of them feature people who have family members returning from the dead.

[GaT]

1 hour ago, partofme said:

I also liked his books because I was familiar with a lot of the towns in NJ and NY that he mentions in them from my childhood. 

I grew up in Livingston 🙂

[bybrandy]

5 hours ago, partofme said:

I never really noticed this but I know a lot of them feature people who have family members returning from the dead.

No, seriously.  I almost mentioned this.   So may returns from the dead, SO MANY.  

[andromeda331]

Nora Roberts I used to love her books and count down to the release of each one. I loved her trilogy, In Death, and most of her standalone. Then it got to the point where I didn't like any of them. I didn't like the main characters, the storylines no longer made any sense and plotholes way to big. Its too bad since I haven't been able to find writer to replace it.

[annzeepark914]

I forgot to add the Scottolini books.  The early books in the women's law firm series were really great, especially the scenes of Mary's parents and neighborhood.  The last book I read featured Bennie meeting a state trooper up in the Scranton area. That's when I decided no more Scottolini for me.  Why don't these authors create new amateur sleuths after their main characters solve about 10 mysteries?  I mean, after solving 10 mysteries, you'd think the police dept would hire them.

[DearEvette]

Ed Mcbain.  I loved his early 87th precinct novels.  They were a great blend of police procedure and soap opera.  They had great long running characters and character arcs and cases.

But then as time went on it felt like his own personal politics started to infiltrate the books.  Long screeds against PC culture began to appear.  He started to use his minority characters as mouthpieces to argue against ideas that typically minority people are solidly for.  And the final straw was that he made one of his most racist, bigoted, awful creatures a main character and gave him a black informant that spoke in rap.  Rap!  all the time.  Ugh.  Talk about souring a legacy.  I can't even go back and remember the early books fondly anymore because of how the series devolved.

[annzeepark914]

1 hour ago, DearEvette said:

Ed Mcbain.  I loved his early 87th precinct novels.  They were a great blend of police procedure and soap opera.  They had great long running characters and character arcs and cases.

But then as time went on it felt like his own personal politics started to infiltrate the books.  Long screeds against PC culture began to appear.  He started to use his minority characters as mouthpieces to argue against ideas that typically minority people are solidly for.  And the final straw was that he made one of his most racist, bigoted, awful creatures a main character and gave him a black informant that spoke in rap.  Rap!  all the time.  Ugh.  Talk about souring a legacy.  I can't even go back and remember the early books fondly anymore because of how the series devolved.

That's awful.  I've never heard of such a thing (but now I have).  What a creep to inject his warped politics into his stories in such an evil way.

[LBS]

6 hours ago, DearEvette said:

But then as time went on it felt like his own personal politics started to infiltrate the books.  Long screeds against PC culture began to appear.  He started to use his minority characters as mouthpieces to argue against ideas that typically minority people are solidly for.  And the final straw was that he made one of his most racist, bigoted, awful creatures a main character and gave him a black informant that spoke in rap.  Rap!  all the time.  Ugh.  Talk about souring a legacy.  I can't even go back and remember the early books fondly anymore because of how the series devolved.

That sounds a lot like the Robert K. Tanenbaum Butch Karp series.   The last three books were just bizarrely political like he shoehorned his characters in situations so he could just yell about how horrible unions are, etc.  It made me miss the days when Lucy had hallucinations and followed weird men into subway tunnels.  

[peacheslatour]

I used to read a lot of John Stanford because I fell in love with Lucas Davenport. And then I didn't love him any more. Sad, really.

[HazelEyes4325]

When I was a younger adult, I read a lot, and I mean a lot, of Maeve Binchy.  And then I just stopped.  I really don't remember why.  

I was thinking about this as I made an attempt to konmari the crap out of my TBR bookcase.  The first book I picked up was something by Maeve Binchy I hadn't read.  I looked at it, remember that I liked her way back when and that she is now dead, and put it back on the shelf.  That was also the end of my attempt to konmari my TBR's (which overflow from that bookcase (yes, bookCASE).

Now, whether I'll go back and actually read that book remains to be seen.

[proserpina65]

On ‎02‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 10:44 AM, Hanahope said:

That was is son, Felix, who took over the writing.  Felix is still writing "Dick Francis" type books (mystery somehow related to horse racing in Britain).  They're ok, but agree that its not quite the same as his father.

I think they started to go downhill after his wife died.  She did so much of the research into topics with which Dick Francis was less familiar (the non-racing, non-reporting, non-flying stuff); it really added to the quality of the writing that so many of the details were correct.

[blackwing]

On 2/28/2019 at 1:11 AM, bybrandy said:

I think Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels had long lost twins but that has been years and years and years and since I've picked up one of those.   

Sadly, you aren't missing much.  And yes, Dirk Pitt discovered his long lost now-adult children who were supposedly the product of one night with one of the love interests in one of the very first books.  I want to say this was right at the time Cussler started "co-authoring" with his son Dirk Cussler.  The son is a terrible writer.  I never thought Cussler was that great of a writer to begin with, but at least the Dirk Pitt novels were entertaining and creative.  Cussler is nearly 90.  It's pretty obvious that he no longer writes any of the many series that he co-authors.  Much like James Patterson, "the most popular author in the world", they just put their name on the books to make them sell.  I'm sure Patterson takes a hefty chunk of profits but to an author who would otherwise probably not be successful, it's worth it.

I do think that Dirk Cussler has improved slightly since his first outing but not by much.  I'm sure after Clive passes, they will just continue the series like what has been done with Tom Clancy, Dick Francis and Vince Flynn novels.  I want to quit the Dirk Pitt books but I just have too much residual affection for the characters.

David Baldacci.  Used to really enjoy his books.  Then I realised that every book more or less has the same theme.  There's a big conspiracy by the government / evil corporation / megalomaniac / authority and it's up to one brave man/woman/kid to be the unlikely hero to uncover it all and bring truth to the world.  My favourite series of his was the King & Maxwell series but we haven't seen one of those in years.  I also really liked the Will Robie books.  But lately he seems to be concentrating on the Amos Decker series and a new one featuring this new character Atlee Pine.  I just read his latest book, "Long Road to Mercy", which featured her and I thought it was boring as hell.  Nothing new that we have never seen before, boring characters, boring plot.  Really hope we get another Will Robie book before a Decker or Pine book or I might be done.

[threebluestars]

Patricia Cornwell X100

Her first 9 books in the Kay Scarpetta series were good, but after Point of Origin she started going off the rails and just massacred her characters. I gave away all my copies of her books because I couldn't handle the retconning and the misery anymore. And they were so good in the beginning.

[Bunty]

If fans of Dick Francis ever want to revisit his early work, which were indeed his best, audio is a great way to go especially anything read by Simon Prebble.

[AngelKitty]

I used to love Dean Koontz, but then it seemed like he got carried away with himself and became too annoying for me.

[Black Knight]

On 3/5/2019 at 12:30 PM, HazelEyes4325 said:

That was also the end of my attempt to konmari my TBR's (which overflow from that bookcase (yes, bookCASE).

Oh thank goodness, there's someone else like me out there. I also have a TBR bookcase - with every shelf having two rows of books and sometimes books stacked on top of the rows - and overflow spilling into a smaller media case that's really supposed to be for DVDs and such.

[Lovecat]

On 3/6/2019 at 5:24 PM, threebluestars said:

Patricia Cornwell X100

Her first 9 books in the Kay Scarpetta series were good, but after Point of Origin she started going off the rails and just massacred her characters. I gave away all my copies of her books because I couldn't handle the retconning and the misery anymore. And they were so good in the beginning.

I like to say she took a left turn into Crazytown!  Someday I’m going to go back and read her early ones, which were so good.

[Homily]

On 1/15/2015 at 5:32 PM, CherryAmes said:

Pamela Morsi.  I loved her historical romantic comedies.  Then she decided to write contemporary fiction.  They just don't work for me at all.

I feel the same way.  I won't read them but I guess I can't blame an author for trying to write for a different audience.  Although I suppose they hope their fans will follow them on to something new.  With Morsi though it just didn't work for me either.

With regard to other authors I won't read it's more the genre - I'm kinda done with cozy mysteries.  I've been following a bunch of different authors for years now - with heroines from housekeepers to store owners to bed and breakfast runners to minor nobility to librarians to suburban moms and every variation on the theme - and I've reached my limit.  

Edited March 23, 2019 by Homily

[peacheslatour]

On 3/7/2019 at 5:08 AM, AngelKitty said:

I used to love Dean Koontz, but then it seemed like he got carried away with himself and became too annoying for me.

Well, considering he has a dog or two in every one of his books, I can see why a kitty would not enjoy Koontz. 😾

[dubbel zout]

I find that if I read more than, say, two books by the same author consecutively, I have to take a decent break because I start to see the tics and crutches the author uses and it annoys me. 

[cherrypj]

2 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

I find that if I read more than, say, two books by the same author consecutively, I have to take a decent break because I start to see the tics and crutches the author uses and it annoys me. 

Yes. Even my beloved, Anne Tyler, I limit myself to two books a year. (I've still got a ways to get through her backlist.)

[Black Knight]

On 3/23/2019 at 12:39 PM, peacheslatour said:

Well, considering he has a dog or two in every one of his books, I can see why a kitty would not enjoy Koontz. 😾

He does have a cat in at least one book, The Mask. Of course, the kitty goes psycho and tries to kill his owner, so...

[Black Knight]

On 3/23/2019 at 12:34 PM, Homily said:

With regard to other authors I won't read it's more the genre - I'm kinda done with cozy mysteries.  I've been following a bunch of different authors for years now - with heroines from housekeepers to store owners to bed and breakfast runners to minor nobility to librarians to suburban moms and every variation on the theme - and I've reached my limit.  

Understandable! It made me think of this truly classic post from earlier in the thread (page 2 for anyone interested in leaving a like, as I'm not sure how to link directly to it):

On 1/28/2016 at 10:36 AM, blackwing said:

I do agree that all of the cozies seem to follow the same formula.  Especially if it is a new series.  They are fairly interchangeable.  Here is my take on a typical cozy:

"Claire Weston (Amanda Harrington, Chelsea Landers, or any other "All American Girl" sounding name) had it all.  At 29 (30, 28, whatever age denotes beyond the barhopping age but not toooo old that she's a spinster) she had a successful budding career as a journalist (lawyer, advertising executive, or any other "office" type white collar job) in Chicago (New York, San Francisco, "big city").  Only one thing was missing.  Her mom constantly pressed her about when she was going to get married to her long-time boyfriend Buddy (Mac, Jake, "manly" name), who worked as a bartender (waiter, shoe salesman, "obviously less successful than her" job).  They had been sweethearts since freshman year of high school (kindergarten, 8th grade, "long time").  But then one day Claire received the shock of her life when she found Buddy in bed with the floozy next door (got a phone call that Buddy died, saw on the news that Buddy was arrested for drug dealing, learned he was actually a woman, "terribly shocking news").

Disheartened and dejected, Claire fled home to her hometown of Sandy Shores, Wisconsin (Tamarack New York, Davenbridge Virginia, "quaint small town "), on the shores of Lake Michigan (Lake Ontario, banks of the Shenandoah, some place next to water), population 2000 (200, 50, "very quaint").  She loved Sandy Shores and all the memories and people she knows.  Her parents are divorced (naturally) but still friends.  Her mother (grandmother, grandfather, father, "immediate family member") is the mayor of Sandy Shores, whom everyone knows and loves.  Her younger brother is a very handsome man who has dated every single girl in town, if you want to call it dating.  He is otherwise a loser as he is unemployed.  (Alternatively, replace brother with best friend who is beautiful and thin and works in her shop or owns the shop next door.)  Once home, Claire buys the old used book store (donut shop, high end children's clothing boutique, "small store that she can do what she really loves") and it is an instant success.  The whole village stops by on a daily basis. One day, a handsome stranger walks into her store.  Scott Montgomery (Ethan Jones, Aidan Summers, "rugged" name) is the new doctor (winemaker, coffee shop owner, "intriguing occupation").  Life is good for Claire.  She quickly readjusts to her old small village life.  Everyone loves her.  Everyone that is, except for the old widow Mrs. Tolliver (high school rival Kelsey Saunders, creepy Mr. Barnes, "mean person") who for some reason constantly harrasses her.  One cold night, Mrs. Tolliver is discovered dead in the alley behind Claire's shop.  Things become worse when her mother (grandmother, friend, someone close to her) is accused of the murder.  As if that wasn't enough to handle, things get even more complicated when Buddy returns home, begging forgiveness and wanting to resume his life with her.  It's up to Claire, with the occasional help from her brother (best friend, "sidekick") to prove her mother's innocence, while trying to develop her romance with Scott and avoid Buddy!

[BookWoman56]

I think I'm pretty much done with cozy mysteries as well, largely because all too many of them are very focused on the romantic life of the main character, and the "mystery" as such is nothing but a plot device to get the two characters to hook up. Even worse are the series where the main character has two different love interests, and there's the formulaic cliffhanger on the romance issue: in one book, it will look as if romantic interest ABC is the person the main character is leaning toward, and then in the next book there will be some BS reason why that relationship is now on hold and the main character is now leaning toward romantic interest DEF. This overused way of stringing out a series far past the expiry date it should have has resulted in me falling back on classic mysteries, such as Agatha Christie and Rex Stout. Yes, they are dated and reflect societal attitudes of the period during which they were written. But the focus is the mystery, the characters are generally interesting, and the plots themselves make sense in the context of the specific situation. Nor do I have to cringe every few pages at some usage error; when a character in an Agatha Christie mystery talks about a "roll," he/she is talking about a bread item, not about the part he/she is going to be performing in a play. 

[peacheslatour]

12 hours ago, BookWoman56 said:

I think I'm pretty much done with cozy mysteries as well, largely because all too many of them are very focused on the romantic life of the main character, and the "mystery" as such is nothing but a plot device to get the two characters to hook up. Even worse are the series where the main character has two different love interests, and there's the formulaic cliffhanger on the romance issue: in one book, it will look as if romantic interest ABC is the person the main character is leaning toward, and then in the next book there will be some BS reason why that relationship is now on hold and the main character is now leaning toward romantic interest DEF. This overused way of stringing out a series far past the expiry date it should have has resulted in me falling back on classic mysteries, such as Agatha Christie and Rex Stout. Yes, they are dated and reflect societal attitudes of the period during which they were written. But the focus is the mystery, the characters are generally interesting, and the plots themselves make sense in the context of the specific situation. Nor do I have to cringe every few pages at some usage error; when a character in an Agatha Christie mystery talks about a "roll," he/she is talking about a bread item, not about the part he/she is going to be performing in a play. 

Have you read anything by Mary Roberts Rinehart? She is very much in that vein. Also my great, great aunt (tee hee.)

[BookWoman56]

@peacheslatour, I haven't read anything by Mary Roberts Rinehart, but thanks for the recommendation. I'll download one of her books from Kindle; there seems to be a fairly good selection of titles available. 

[BookWoman56]

On 2/23/2019 at 10:57 PM, annzeepark914 said:

Lilian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who series.  It starts out great, then the main character moves "upstate" (I'm thinking this is in Michigan because some of the crazy town names sound familiar to my Michigander husband).  It's still very good for quite a few books and then, after he moves into a big house, something went wrong with the writing. I think the author must've hired a ghostwriter.  Awful dialogue and setting descriptions

It's been at least a couple of decades since I read any of those, although I remember reading maybe 6-7 of them in a row at one point. Then there came the one (can't remember the title or anything about the plot) where halfway through it, I realized that nobody had done any editing whatsoever of the text. It wasn't just the grammar/usage mistakes; there were major continuity errors, the sort of thing where character A has dark hair and green eyes in chapter 3 but blonde hair and blue eyes in chapter 5. I thought perhaps this one book was just off for whatever reason, but the next one that I skimmed through had similar problems and I quit for good. 

I still read Dick Francis and am okay with the ones by Felix Francis. The ones by Felix are not as good as Dick Francis at his prime, but they're generally entertaining at least and don't leave me wanting to throw things. It's odd, but in a way I am okay with his books being fairly predictable. It's my equivalent of ordering a club sandwich when traveling and having to go to a restaurant (on the road, that is, not at my destination) that I know nothing about. It's not going to be great cuisine, but it's hard to fuck up a club sandwich. With Felix, I know I'm going to get something okay but not great, and there are times when I've tried to slog through horrible writing that I'll take "okay" in a heartbeat. I do wonder if Felix will go through the same arc of author improvement that Dick did. There's a definite progression in writing skills from the first few novels that Dick wrote to the ones a bit later. I do agree, though, that after Mary died, the books weren't quite as appealing. My favorite is probably Banker, largely because I love the part where the cartoon artist calls the main character to ask about expanding, and then there's a part later in the book that almost always brings tears. 

[annzeepark914]

9 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

Have you read anything by Mary Roberts Rinehart? She is very much in that vein. Also my great, great aunt (tee hee.)

Really? Did you read The Mystery of the Yellow Room? I loved that book. Then, years later, I learned that she had a home in Bar Harbor (that I think was lost in the great fire of 1947). After we vacationed in Bar Harbor, I reread the book & enjoyed it even more.

[annzeepark914]

On 1/28/2016 at 1:36 PM, blackwing said:

Here is my take on a typical cozy:

"Claire Weston (Amanda Harrington, Chelsea Landers, or any other "All American Girl" sounding name) had it all.  At 29 (30, 28, whatever age denotes beyond the barhopping age but not toooo old that she's a spinster) she had a successful budding career as a journalist (lawyer, advertising executive, or any other "office" type white collar job) in Chicago (New York, San Francisco, "big city").  Only one thing was missing.  Her mom constantly pressed her about when she was going to get married to her long-time boyfriend Buddy (Mac, Jake, "manly" name), who worked as a bartender (waiter, shoe salesman, "obviously less successful than her" job).  They had been sweethearts since freshman year of high school (kindergarten, 8th grade, "long time").  But then one day Claire received the shock of her life when she found Buddy in bed with the floozy next door (got a phone call that Buddy died, saw on the news that Buddy was arrested for drug dealing, learned he was actually a woman, "terribly shocking news").

Disheartened and dejected, Claire fled home to her hometown of Sandy Shores, Wisconsin (Tamarack New York, Davenbridge Virginia, "quaint small town "), on the shores of Lake Michigan (Lake Ontario, banks of the Shenandoah, some place next to water), population 2000 (200, 50, "very quaint").  She loved Sandy Shores and all the memories and people she knows.  Her parents are divorced (naturally) but still friends.  Her mother (grandmother, grandfather, father, "immediate family member") is the mayor of Sandy Shores, whom everyone knows and loves.  Her younger brother is a very handsome man who has dated every single girl in town, if you want to call it dating.  He is otherwise a loser as he is unemployed.  (Alternatively, replace brother with best friend who is beautiful and thin and works in her shop or owns the shop next door.)  Once home, Claire buys the old used book store (donut shop, high end children's clothing boutique, "small store that she can do what she really loves") and it is an instant success.  The whole village stops by on a daily basis. One day, a handsome stranger walks into her store.  Scott Montgomery (Ethan Jones, Aidan Summers, "rugged" name) is the new doctor (winemaker, coffee shop owner, "intriguing occupation").  Life is good for Claire.  She quickly readjusts to her old small village life.  Everyone loves her.  Everyone that is, except for the old widow Mrs. Tolliver (high school rival Kelsey Saunders, creepy Mr. Barnes, "mean person") who for some reason constantly harrasses her.  One cold night, Mrs. Tolliver is discovered dead in the alley behind Claire's shop.  Things become worse when her mother (grandmother, friend, someone close to her) is accused of the murder.  As if that wasn't enough to handle, things get even more complicated when Buddy returns home, begging forgiveness and wanting to resume his life with her.  It's up to Claire, with the occasional help from her brother (best friend, "sidekick") to prove her mother's innocence, while trying to develop her romance with Scott and avoid Buddy!

I kept waiting for Blackwing to mention the fact that Claire is incredibly wealthy, but you'd never know it. I no longer read books about wealthy, gorgeous (but down to Earth) young women. 

[DearEvette]

I love amateur sleuth books (for instance I really enjoy the Sebastian St. Cyr series, the Lady Darby series, and the Berger and Mitry series for example) but I just can't get into cozy mysteries and it probably has a lot to do with the covers.  What is with the cartoon cats and yarn?  I mean, I am over tired at the ripped abs/man titty covers on romance novels because they are overdone and really one six pack ab looks like another.  But the cats (sometimes there might be a dog) and especially the yarn just turns me off.

[Homily]

On 3/26/2019 at 11:24 PM, BookWoman56 said:

This overused way of stringing out a series far past the expiry date it should have has resulted in me falling back on classic mysteries, such as Agatha Christie and Rex Stout. Yes, they are dated and reflect societal attitudes of the period during which they were written. But the focus is the mystery, the characters are generally interesting, and the plots themselves make sense in the context of the specific situation. Nor do I have to cringe every few pages at some usage error; when a character in an Agatha Christie mystery talks about a "roll," he/she is talking about a bread item, not about the part he/she is going to be performing in a play. 

So true!  Christie sets the bar high. Rex Stout is an author who can sometimes drive this feminist right around the bend but dammit he could write!  And his books are classics of their genre.  Three other classic mystery writers I go back to time and again are Ngaio Marsh, Marian Babson and Charlotte Macleod.  Macleod could be accused of writing "cozies" I suppose but she wrote them very, very well!  Marian Babson can be a bit uneven but when she gets it right she really gets it right!

14 hours ago, BookWoman56 said:

's been at least a couple of decades since I read any of those, although I remember reading maybe 6-7 of them in a row at one point. Then there came the one (can't remember the title or anything about the plot) where halfway through it, I realized that nobody had done any editing whatsoever of the text. It wasn't just the grammar/usage mistakes; there were major continuity errors, the sort of thing where character A has dark hair and green eyes in chapter 3 but blonde hair and blue eyes in chapter 5. I thought perhaps this one book was just off for whatever reason, but the next one that I skimmed through had similar problems and I quit for good. 

I think the problem with the Cat  Who books isn't that another writer took them over but that Braun was churning them out and was getting older and older.  As the series progressed I think what we're seeing is someone who not only wasn't benefiting from a good editor but who was clearly past the age where she could write a decent mystery.  She resorted to killing off long established characters we'd  grown to like (I hate when authors do that) and if any of the later books was the least bit suspenseful I clearly didn't read that one!

[peacheslatour]

Quote

I think the problem with the Cat  Who books isn't that another writer took them over but that Braun was churning them out and was getting older and older.  As the series progressed I think what we're seeing is someone who not only wasn't benefiting from a good editor but who was clearly past the age where she could write a decent mystery.  She resorted to killing off long established characters we'd  grown to like (I hate when authors do that) and if any of the later books was the least bit suspenseful I clearly didn't read that one!

I remember the first book I read by her was The Cat Who Could Read Backwards. I got it at a used book sale in the mid eighties. The book had been published in 1966 and her picture on the back cover looked like she was 100 tears old back then.

[proserpina65]

On ‎03‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 11:50 AM, peacheslatour said:

Have you read anything by Mary Roberts Rinehart? She is very much in that vein. Also my great, great aunt (tee hee.)

Wow, that's cool!  I love her books.

[proserpina65]

On ‎03‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 9:04 PM, BookWoman56 said:

My favorite is probably Banker, largely because I love the part where the cartoon artist calls the main character to ask about expanding, and then there's a part later in the book that almost always brings tears. 

I love Banker, partly because some of the events are so heartbreaking.  The characters in that book are so well-written, it was really easy to care about them.  Hell, even the villain was charismatic.

[Anduin]

Richard K Morgan. I read his Takeshi Kovacs trilogy. Yeah, they were all right. I'm not big on grimdark anyway. Then the first book in his fantasy trilogy. Again it was all right, though not stellar. But then he chose to promote himself in a particularly obnoxious way, by claiming that Tolkien was bad and he was better. No, you idiot, you really aren't. You don't get to take cheap shots at the master. You don't get to claim you're better than the best. I saw no need to give him any more time.

[Mabinogia]

1 minute ago, Anduin said:

But then he chose to promote himself in a particularly obnoxious way, by claiming that Tolkien was bad and he was better. No, you idiot, you really aren't.

Yikes! Even if he felt that way, hell, even if it were actually true (It is highly unlikely to be true, though it is highly likely that someone stupid enough to say it does actually think it's true), you just don't say shit like that. It is going to alienate a LOT of people. 

I am not a huge LotR fan but having read the books I am in awe of Tolkien's writing. I strive to become a writer even half as good as him. If by some miracle I were to achieve that dream, I would say that his work inspired me to be the best writer I can, not that I'm better than him. He defines a genre. Very few writers ever reach that level. 

That kind of hubris, the kind Morgan is exhibiting, is just sad. 

[Katy M]

3 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

Yikes! Even if he felt that way, hell, even if it were actually true (It is highly unlikely to be true, though it is highly likely that someone stupid enough to say it does actually think it's true), you just don't say shit like that. It is going to alienate a LOT of people. 

I think it's just common sense that you never come right out and say that you are a better anything than somebody else.  It just makes you look like a complete jerk even if it's obviously true.  For instance, if Tom Brady was having a press conference and for whatever reason threw out the statement "I'm a better quarterback than Tim Tebow was" it would just sound like a meanspirted thing to say, eve though, most would probably agree with that.  If he were to say he was a better quarterback than Payton Manning, then not only is it a more controversial statement, it just makes him look arrogant.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, if it's true, you look like an ungracious jerk.  If it's not true, you look like an arrogant poser.  If you're pretty even, you look like you have no respect for someone in your league.  And in this case for someone who paved the way for you.

[Anduin]

The original article has vanished from the net, but I found a mirror. It's the bit at the end that enrages me. I can normally cope with shameless self-publicity, but you don't need to tear down other people to do it.