I really became interested in mysteries when I was in grade school. In fourth grade one of my friends had the complete Nancy Drew set. I can tell you that I really lusted after it. I asked my mother for the complete set but the only ones I ever owned were the first three. I was lucky though, because my fifth grade teacher encouraged reading and had the full set in our classroom and I read all that had been written by 1966. I am working on finally competing my set.
In junior high I discovered Phyllis Whitney's mysteries for young people and when I had finished all of those I started on her adult gothics and mysteries. She is still one of my favorite authors and I wish that she would write some more of the gothics.
In junior high my passion for reading really blossomed. Although in school I consistantly tested as not comprehending what I read it was really because I didn't enjoy the things they gave me to read. I really didn't care about fire ants marching across Africa. At home, though, I would read myself to sleep with a flashlight under the covers.
When we moved into a house where I had my own room, I didn't have to use a flashlight. To this day I cannot go to sleep without reading, which after 16 years of marriage, my husband has finally gotten used to dealing with.
Through high school and into my young adulthood I really did not have a specific preference for any type fiction. Whatever looked interesting at the book store was fine with me. I must tell you though that the only book I have ever read, which when I was finished, I didn't care if I ever read another word of, was not a mystery. It was Testimony of Two Men by Taylor Cauldwell and I read it in 1977.
Sara Paretski writes a series about a hard-boiled female PI named V.I. Warshawski. A movie was made starring Kathleen Turner about called V.I. Warshawski. It was not a big box office success, but I liked it. Sometime later I went to the bookstore to find a book in the series. I couldn't remember the name of the author and neither could the clerks and so I ended up purchasing the book that would begin my collection and my collecting. It was called A Little Class on Murder by Carolyn G. Hart.
