Mystery Conference
Lee Harris was next in the alphabetical line up. I was privileged to have met Lee a year and a half ago. She is delightful lady. Harris wrote main stream fiction in the '70s under her own name, but changed to a pseudonym to write her mysteries. Her sleuth is a young ex-nun who spent fifteen years in the convent. Christine Bennet, now a wife and mother of a young son, has the unique qualities of genuine kindness, shrewd investigative skills and naivete all wrapped up into one and it makes her a wonderful person to read about. One savors with anticipation her next adventure.
All of Harris' books have a holiday theme. The most recent release was The Labor Day Murders. Early next year we can expect to see The Father's Day Murders. Harris herself is not an ex-nun, but has a dear friend who is and whom she has pumped for information over the years.
Dennis LeHane was next on the agenda. He explained to us that he writes books because he does not want to get a real job and has spent as much of his life as he could going to school with the express purpose of avoiding work. LeHane writes hard-boiled PI novels. The action takes place in Boston with PI Patrick Kenzie and his partner, Angie Gennaro. LeHane showed a wicked sense of humor in person and I asked him if he had translated this into his books, but he thought that he hadn't. I would love to see him write in the style of Donald Westlake and let that sense of humor run rampant, but as you already know, my very favorite mysteries are the laugh-out-loud ones.
Donna Huston Murray writes stand-alone mysteries. This is the bookish term for not writing a series. They say that you can't tell a book by its cover, but if titles have anything to do with it, Murray's books sound great. They are Final Arrangements, The Main Line is Murder, No Bones About It and School of Hard Knocks. I have not read any of her books but the titles sound really great to me and I can't wait to get to the bookstore.
George Pelicanos, the next-to-last contestant, writes in the hard-boiled style. He has several recurring characters: Marcus Clay, Dmitri Karras, two Nick Stefanos, grandfather and grandson, and Randolph. Pelecanos takes us on a rollercoaster ride through the
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