A Bad Day for Sorry: a crime novel by Sophie Littlefield

A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield Find this book in our catalog

Stella Hardesty lives in rural Missouri, has issues with her chunky, fifty-something figure and an unusual attitude to life. Having married young, and given birth to a delightful daughter, she spent years pretending that her husband did not verbally abuse her in public and regularly physically abuse her at home, blacking her eyes and bruising her ribs but never actually sending her to the emergency room. Then, just shy of her fiftieth birthday, she surprised herself by dispatching her abuser with a wrench.

The community turned a blind eye, and now Stella has a fearsome reputation, not only as an unrepentant murderess but as an inexorable avenger of abused women throughout Missouri - even as far as Branson. Stella runs a side business helping battered women who come to her and pay her what they can. She barely has time to run the sewing machine repair and quilting notions shop she inherited from her deceased husband. She works outside the law persuading errant husbands and boyfriends to change their behaviour with a little old-fashioned intimidation and torture. When Chrissy Shaw asks Stella for help, it seems like a straightforward case: Chrissy's husband, Roy Dean disappears with her two-year-old son and Stella is asked to find and recover the boy.

However, Stella is soon confirmed in her suspicions that things are not as straightforward as they seem. Roy Dean has already had to be corrected once for abusing the ditsy and passive Chrissy, and once again for his overbearing treatment of his new girlfriend, with whom he was seen at the drag strip. It looks like he is a thoroughly despicable shred of humanity and may well have kidnapped Chrissy's child for reasons more dire than simply gaining custody in a marital split. Will Stella be able to prevail against the Kansas City mobsters with whom Roy Dean is involved in some way? And will Chrissy be able to pull herself together enough to help her?

This book seemed to me to be a good one to recommend to fans of Janet Evanovich, particularly if they enjoy her dark humor. For both authors evil is just as banal and yet rears its head everywhere. Their characters are captivating, complex and very flawed and are struggling to make a living in some of the seemier parts of city or country. The humor comes from the characters and their distressingly human frailties. To me, the Janet Evanovich novels have become more violent over the years. A Bad Day for Sorry is also violent. The characters also don't seem to have any compunction in using bad language, often as a form of aggression. Still, we admire Stephanie Plum as we admire Stella: each is vulnerable in some way and yet each faces challenges that no one should be forced to face.

If you like the rural backwater setting of A Bad Day for Sorry, you might like the Maggody mystery series by Joan Hess featuring female Arkansas sheriff, Arly Hanks. This series has a conflicted but ultimately strong female lead, downhome, sometimes comic characters and darkish humor.

If you like the revenge element, partnered again with definitely dark humor, you might like the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay, now made into a TV series.

Forensic Crime Novels

I just learned something really fascinating from Shelf Awareness, the e-mail newsletter I have mentioned before. The issue for Friday, June 26 asked Ridley Pearson, the author of more than 25 crime fiction novels (as well as a half dozen books for young readers), about the books that have influenced him and about what he is reading at the moment.

Because of my own interest in crime fiction, the part of the news article that really caught my attention was the short description of Pearson's work in this genre. I knew that his crime novels are known for their detailed forensics. What I was not aware of was that research conducted for his novel Undercurrents (Find this book in our catalog) has helped investigators solve three real life homicides! According to Shelf Awarenes, at the request of authorities, Pearson also contributed to the task force attempting to catch the Washington, D.C., sniper.

In 1990, Pearson was the first American to be awarded the Raymond Chandler Fulbright Fellowship in Crime Fiction. He is currently a visiting professor at the College of International Language and Literature at Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

Pearson's latest work, is due out shortly. Find this book in our catalog.

For fans of forensic crime novels this looks like the ideal summer read!

Kurt Wallender mysteries on PBS

PBS's Masterpiece will air three episodes based on Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander mystery series beginning this coming Sunday, May 10.
Kenneth Branagh stars as the Swedish sleuth who fights crime in the seaside town of Ystad.

The first episode is based on Sidetracked (We have the digital downloadable book and the paperback is on order).

The second, based on Firewall (Find this book in our catalog) airs Sunday, May 17.

The third, based on One Step Behind (Find this book in our catalog), airs Sunday, May 31.

Plea of Insanity by Jilliane Hoffman confirms legal thriller author "at the peak of her powers"

Plea of Insanity by Jilliane Hoffman, released on April 14, is garnering a lot of press and publicity. Find this book in our catalog

Here's what it says about the book in our catalog: "The prosecutor—Julia Valenciano. Young and ambitious, and facing a case that could launch her career. The defendant—David Marquette. A successful Miami surgeon and devoted family man. The victims—Marquette’s own wife and three small children. The plea—Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity. The perfect father and model husband, David Marquette seemingly just snapped. His experienced defense team claims paranoid delusions caused by schizophrenia drove him to slaughter his entire family.But the state suspects Marquette’s insanity defense is being fabricated to disguise murders that were cold blooded and calculated. Worse, Julia believes Marquette could be responsible for a string of unsolved, brutal homicides. Could he be one of the most prolific and elusive serial killers in the country’s history? To bring him to justice, Julia must embark on a terrifying personal journey back into her own past—something she has struggled to forget for fifteen years. And this will lead her to confront a future so chilling, she’s not sure she will ever be able to face it...Plea of Insanity confirms Jilliane Hoffman as a major thriller writer at the peak of her powers."

If you like this, you may also like:
The Interview Room by Roderick Anscombe

McFaul Center Book Group found Lace Reader too convoluted

The McFaul Center book group read The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry (Find this book in our catalog) for the month of April. This is what the group facilitator reported about their discussion:

"Not many of us liked it and several didn't even finish it. Just as lace can do, I found that the book completely unraveled at the end and left loose threads that made me feel that it wasn't worth the time that I spent reading it. Instead of being mysterious, I found it convoluted. I have no idea how the author managed a 2 million dollar sale of this book (along with book 2 whatever it may be). All of us were just shaking our head."

Check the Harford County Public Library catalog entry for this book to see a couple of magazine reviews. Why not check out the book and see what you think?

More Readers' Reviews from the Winter Reading Program

Silks by Dick Francis and Felix Francis Find this book in our catalog

Reader's review: "Dick Francis has been around for a long time and the way he works his story around courtrooms and race tracks is most entertaining. His son and he work well together."

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

For November the Abingdon Book Group read this charming novel about a lady detective living in Gaborone, Botswana. Unlike many other mysteries, Mma Ramotswe solves a number of small mysteries rather than focusing on one larger one. Except for the matter of a lost boy, the mysteries tend to be rather tame. This is not a blood & guts book, but rather a gentle delving into the lives of various chracters living in her area. McCall Smith's descriptions of Africa are wonderful & his love of the country shines through. Despite its gentle nature, the novel faces up to the hardships of workers in the diamond mines, the problems with droughts, & the abuse of women by their husbands. The Abingdon Group shared rooibos tea to get into the spirit of the book. This is Mma Ramotswe's favorite drink & seems to be common throughout Africa. If you want to try some, many supermarkets now sell it & it is available with added flavors such as vanilla. The tea comes from a rooibos or Red Bush plant grown in South Africa & has many claims to health giving properties. This site has more information. http://www.red-tea-rooibos.com/

If you like this novel, this is the first in a series and there are many others to try. See the author's website at http://www.alexandermccallsmith.co.uk/

Here are some Discussion Questions for other Book Groups & Readers.

1. Unlike in most other mysteries, in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Mma Ramotswe solves a number of small crimes, rather than a single major one. How does this affect the narrative pacing of the novel? What other unique features distinguish The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency from the conventional mystery novel?

2. What makes Precious Ramotswe such a charming protagonist? What kind of woman is she? How is she different from the usual detective? Why does she feel "called" to help her fellow Africans "solve the mysteries of their lives" [p. 4]?

3. What is surprising about the nature of the cases Mma Ramotswe is hired to solve? By what means does Alexander McCall Smith sustain the reader's interest, in the absence of the kind of tension, violence, and suspense that drive most mysteries?

4. Mma Ramotswe's first client, Happy Bapetsi, is worried that the man who claims to be her father is a fraud taking advantage of her generosity. "All he does," she says, "is sit in his chair outside the front door and tell me what to do for him next." To which Mma Ramotswe replies, "Many men are like that" [p. 10]. What is Mma Ramotswe's view of men generally? How do men behave in the novel?

5. Why does Mma Ramotswe feel it is so important to include her father's life story in the novel? What does Obed Ramotswe's life reveal about the history of Africa and of South Africa? What does it reveal about the nature and cost of working in the mines in South Africa? 6. Mma Ramotswe purchases a manual on how to be a detective. It advises one to pay attention to hunches. "Hunches are another form of knowledge" [p. 79]. How does intuition help Mma Ramotswe solve her cases?

7. When Mma Ramotswe decides to start a detective agency, a lawyer tells her "It's easy to lose money in business, especially when you don't know anything about what you're doing. . . . And anyway, can women be detectives?" To which Mma Ramotswe answers, "Women are the ones who know what's going on. They are the ones with eyes. Have you not read Agatha Christie?" [p. 61]. Is she right in suggesting women are more perceptive than men? Where in the novel do we see Mma Ramotswe's own extraordinary powers of observation? How does she comically undercut the lawyer's arrogance in this scene?

8. As Mma Ramotswe wonders if Mma Malatsi was somehow involved in her husband's death and whether wanting someone dead made one a murderer in God's eyes, she thinks to herself: "It was time to take the pumpkin out of the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, that was what solved these big problems of life. You could think and think and get nowhere, but you still had to eat your pumpkin. That brought you down to earth. That gave you a reason for going on. Pumpkin" [p. 85]. What philosophy of life is Mma Ramotswe articulating here? Why do the ongoing daily events of life give her this sense of peace and stability?

9. Why does Mma Ramotswe marry Note? Why does this act seem so out of character for her? In what ways does her love for an attractive and physically abusive man make her a deeper and more complicated character? How does her marriage to Note change her?

10. Mma Ramotswe imagines retiring back in Mochudi, buying some land with her cousins, growing melons, and living life in such a way that "every morning she could sit in front of her house and sniff at the wood-smoke and look forward to spending the day talking with her friends. How sorry she felt for white people, who couldn't do any of this, and who were always dashing around and worrying themselves over things that were going to happen anyway. What use was it having all that money if you could never sit still or just watch your cattle eating grass? None, in her view; none at all" [p. 162]. Is Mma Ramotswe's critique of white people on the mark or is she stereotyping? What makes her sense of what is important, and what brings happiness, so refreshing? What other differences between black and white cultures does the novel make apparent?

11. Mma Ramotswe does not want Africa to change, to become thoroughly modern: "She did not want her people to become like everybody else, soulless, selfish, forgetful of what it means to be an African, or, worse still, ashamed of Africa" [p. 215]. But what aspects of traditional African culture trouble her? How does she regard the traditional African attitude toward women, marriage, family duty, and witchcraft? Is there a contradiction in her relationship to "old" Africa?

12. How surprising is Mme Ramotswe's response to Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's marriage proposal? How appropriate is the ending of the novel?

13. Alexander McCall Smith has both taught and written about criminal law. In what ways does in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency draw upon this knowledge? How are lawyers and the police characterized in the novel?

14. Is in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency a feminist novel? Does the fact that its author is a man complicate such a reading? How well does Alexander McCall Smith represent a woman's character and consciousness in Mma Ramotswe?

15. Alexander McCall Smith's Precious Ramotswe books have been praised for their combination of apparent simplicity with a high degree of sophistication. In what ways does in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency have the appeal of simple storytelling? In what ways is it sophisticated? What does it suggest about the larger issues of how to live one's life, how to behave in society, how to be happy?

Joppa Evening Book Discussion Group Welcomes Members

Joppa Evening Book Discussion Group had two great meetings in the last two months. In the month of February, we had a total of nine people. We discussed Anita Shreve's Light on Snow in January and Sue Grafton's A is for Alibi in February. Although these books are extremely different, the group was able to find many distinguishing things about the books. Although, one member who has a love of literature, did not like A is for Alibi overall, she was able to find things she did like. The February meeting was not only a discussion of that month's book, but other books members had recently read or want to read. The book discussion leader and members hope people will come to Joppatowne for our next Joppa Evening on March 22 at 6:30 p.m. We will be discussing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling.

Joppa Discussion Leader

BlogaBook Points of Discussion

Some members of the Joppa group found Light On Snow to be more literary than A is for Alibi. Both books have a mystery, but each book has a different purpose. What would you consider it takes to make a literary mystery?

A is for Alibi is the first in a series of very successful private eye mysteries. The success of a mystery series often depends on the character of the private detective, in this case Kinsey Millhone. What do you think there is about Kinsey that has ensured reader loyalty?