I am happy to announce that the Virtual Mystery Book Club will be spending our fall sessions reading books on the theme of Political Murders. Also starting this fall, the book group will be available as a hybrid – if you love Zooming in with us, that continues, but people may also join us in the Bay Room if they prefer to be present in person for the discussion.
Mark your calendars and start reading! Murder on K Street already has print copies waiting at the Reference Desk.
Murder on K Street, by Margaret Truman, on Wednesday September 13, 4:30-5:30pm. Register. In CLAMS.
Margaret Truman (1924-2008) was the only child of President Harry Truman, so she came by her understanding of the machinations of Washington, D.C. honestly. She began her long-running Capitol Crimes series in 1981 with Death in the White House. Murder on K Street (2007) is the 23rd in the series, and taken as a whole they demonstrate that whatever we think of today’s political environment, the past wasn’t any better either.
Description: Arriving home from a fund-raising dinner, senior Illinois senator Lyle Simmons discovers his wife’s brutally bludgeoned body. And like any savvy politician with presidential aspirations, his first move is to phone his attorney. In this case, it’s his old friend and college roommate, former DA Philip Rotondi, who gamely agrees to step out of quiet retirement and into the thick of a D.C.-style political, criminal, and public relations maelstrom from which no one will escape unscathed.
The Death of a Red Heroine, by Qiu Xiaolong, on Wednesday October 11, 4:30-5:30pm. Register. In CLAMS.
Qiu Xiaolong (1953- ) was born in Shanghai and his family was considered counter-revolutionary during the Cultural Revolution. He studied English literature in China and was a professor at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences before a job took him to St. Louis, where he stayed out of concern for his future following the Tiananmen Square protests. He has written poetry, translated English-language poetry into Chinese, and written scholarly works. He began his series of detective novels featuring Chen Cao and set in his native county in 2001, with Death of a Red Heroine.
Description: A young “national model worker,” renowned for her adherence to the principles of the Communist Party, turns up dead in a Shanghai canal. As Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Special Cases Bureau struggles to trace the hidden threads of her past, he finds himself challenging the very political forces that have guided his life since birth. Chen must tiptoe around his superiors if he wants to get to the bottom of this crime, and risk his career—perhaps even his life—to see justice done.
When Gods Die, by C. S. Harris, Wednesday November 8, 4:30-5:30pm. Register. In CLAMS.
Candice Proctor (1954- ) received a B.A. in Classics and an M.A. and Ph.D in European history. She taught history at the college level, worked as an archaeologist, and spent many years as a partner in an international business consulting firm. She has written the Sebastian St. Cyr series of mystery novels set in the British Regency period under the name C. S. Harris since 2005; When Gods Die is the second book of the series.
Description: The young wife of an aging marquis is found murdered in the arms of the Prince Regent. Around her neck lies a necklace said to have been worn by Druid priestesses – that is, until it was lost at sea with its last owner, Sebastian St. Cyr’s mother. Now Sebastian is lured into a dangerous investigation of the marchioness’s death – and his mother’s uncertain fate. As he edges closer to the truth – and one murder follows another – he confronts a conspiracy that imperils those nearest him and threatens to bring down the monarchy.