I Am Not A Psychic!

When I spotted Richard Belzer's book at the library, it was novel enough to pick up, but oh dear! It's written in the style of an old radio play and loaded with cornball metaphors. The story stars himself as the unwitting real life investigator into a decades old murder of a Hollywood starlet. It's a quick read and the plot is pretty overused. Sometimes it's all in the telling when a story is so overused, but other writers have done it better.

I usually find mystery books hard to read; the only mystery books I have really enjoyed are Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax series and anything from Joan Aiken. Mysteries tend to bore me, although I love the genre when it's played out on TV or radio.

Murder Imperial by Paul Doherty didn't bore me, however, and I'll have to seek out more of his books. He has a keen eye for historical detail and there were so many red herrings to ponder.

Antiques Roadkill stuck out on the library sale table because I couldn't resist the punny title. Unfortunately, it's a very poorly written book - within the first 36 pages there's so much brand name dropping that was a real turn-off. It centres around a mid-adult woman who returns from the big city to the small Southern town she grew up in. I found there were just too many painful stereotypes about Southerners to keep going.

Another mystery title I have kicking around is by a Canadian author, Louise Penny and set in Quebec. It's called The Murder Stone and I bought it to read on our trip last fall...but I found staring out into space at the airport far more interesting!