Mystery Playground Recommends: Carolyn Hart

In our latest installment of the Mystery Playground Recommends series, where a member of our Mystery Playground team chooses an author whose work they would recommend as a body of work, Kerry Hammond is here to tell us how much she loves to read Carolyn Hart.

Carolyn Hart is the author of 58 novels. She writes traditional mysteries for readers who prefer a whodunit without all of the violence and gore. In addition to several standalone novels, Hart has written three very difference series. Her Henrie O books feature a 70 something retired news reporter and in her Bailey Ruth Raeburn series her protagonist is the ghost of woman who returns to earth as an emissary from Heaven’s Department of Good Intentions.  

The third and by far my favorite is Hart’s Death on Demand series, which follows Annie Laurance Darling, owner of Death on Demand book store on the island of Broward’s Rock, South Carolina. Annie and her husband Max (spoiler alert, they’re not yet married in the first book) find more than their fair share of murders to solve in their small island community. The books are great reads, the characters are well written and interesting, and the mysteries are always a great puzzle to try and solve. The first book in the series was written in 1987 and is called Death on Demand.

There are 27 books in this series, more than enough to keep any reader busy for the foreseeable future. The series is still going strong and the latest book, Walking on My Grave was just published in 2017. As an added bonus, true mystery fans will also get a kick out of the fact that Hart mentions other mystery authors in her series. Customers are always approaching Annie at Death on Demand to get recommendations, and Hart gives a shout out to lots of great mysteries and authors in her books. It’s a good idea to have a pen and paper handy to jot down titles to add to your TBR pile.

Mystery Playground Recommends: Elizabeth George

Every month we pick one of our favorite writers to highlight considering their entire body of work and the November pick for "Mystery Playground Recommends" is Elizabeth George. Many people know the Inspector Lynley series from the PBS Mystery! shows, but the books are so good, they are worth diving into even if you have seen the series. 

All of George's books feature the same main four character - Inspector Thomas Lynley, who's also the Earl of Asherton; Barbara Havers, who never met an Earl before she met Lynley, Simon St. James, a forensic scientist with physical disabilities and Deborah, their friend. There's enough interest between the four of them to sustain many many books, and without giving away spoilers for anyone who hasn't read even one, here are some of the reasons why I love the books:

• Barbara Havers is a real (fictional) person. She gets crumbs on her shirt. Sometimes her shoes don’t match. On occasion, she cares too much, but all the best people do. She is really patient under extreme circumstances. So even though she is fictional, she’s real to me.
  

• Havers and Lynley are friends. They have evolved to be more than work colleagues, and it is still just friendship between a man and a woman, which some people say isn’t possible. They have almost nothing in common, except for the really important things, like values and loyalty.
   
• I get to go to England. I love England.  Reading about England in beautiful detail is the next best thing to being there. If I read one of George’s books, I don’t have to worry about jet lag or a ride to the airport.  And let’s face it, hardback books are expensive, but compared to a single night in a London hotel, it’s darn cheap.
   
• The characters change. Life changes. These characters change. Bad things happen. Bad things happen to all of us too.  I have laughed and cried while reading these books. I know there are some people (you know who you are, and we must respectfully disagree on this point) who never like characters to change.  That gets a little tedious for me. George takes risks and I keep reading.
   
• The relationships are complicated. The main characters have history. It plays into every book in new ways.  In case you haven’t read the books, or seen Mystery!, I won’t go into details here. You should just trust me and get a hold of a copy of A Great Deliverance now.
   
• Every book is different. The same four orbital characters are always there – Barbara, Thomas, Deborah and Simon, but different characters are featured and the story always varies. Many series have “jumped the shark,” went on too long and declined in quality, after ten or eleven books. Elizabeth George is still going strong after sixteen.

Elizabeth George is one of my favorite authors, and I heartily recommend all of her books. 

- Deborah Lacy