Thirty: Second Grave on the Left....Plus, Some Grave (pun intended) Realizations

Second Grave on the Left, by Darynda Jones, 2011.

                                               

TTR: One day. Again, I say MUAHAHA.

Comments:

I feel like this book was written in a hurry, because there are quite a few places where I noticed continuity and/or typo issues.

That said, I DEVOURED this book so fast my eyes are still a little spinny. I love the world Darynda Jones creates, I love her characters, and I love her obsession with coffee.

I also love that the books are set in Albuquerque, NM, which is part of my beautiful home state.

Moreover, and this may attest to my love of the series, I've decided to hold out on reading #3 until I've finished the current draft of my novel. That's right, Third Grave Dead Ahead just became the proverbial carrot at the end of the stick.


SEGUE.


I've come to the somewhat depressing realization that, on this, the thirtieth week of the year (unless my math is wrong, which it could very well be) I have only read thirty books. That's right. I'm averaging JUST ONE BOOK A WEEK. I blame my newly minted attention span. I also blame my schedule. Not to worry, I will still prevail.

*maniacal laughter*

Twenty-Eight: A IS FOR ALIBI

A is for Alibi, by Sue Grafton, 1982.

       

TTR: one day! MUAHAHAHHAHAHA

Comments:

As you might remember from some of my earlier posts, I have an unhealthy fascination with  an ongoing academic and creative writerly interest in female detectives. I wrote my Master's Thesis on them, for heaven's sake. I'm also writing a mystery and a couple of Urban Fantasy novels featuring female leads who solve conundrums of varying severity.

Somehow, despite all of that, I had never read a Sue Grafton novel (or really any semi-modern female detective novels, for that matter). This was a problem I needed to remedy, stat.

So I picked up a used, three novel omnibus of Grafton's work at the local Hastings and started setting things right.

I love Kinsey Millhone. Despite the fact that her character is old enough to be my mother, she is also a relevant and realistic (for the 80s/90s) female P.I. She is tough but still concerned with the things an actual forty-year-old woman might be concerned with. She cares but she also has had enough life experience not to be too touchy-feely or invested in other's lives.

I'm in the middle of reading B is for Burglar right now.

Book Fifteen: THE LADY INVESTIGATES

The Lady Investigates: Women Detectives & Spies in Fiction, by Patricia Craig and Mary Cadogan, 1981.



 


TTR: As with the last book, it is difficult to say how much time I took to read this. But approximately two weeks.

Comments: Although this book has the same goals as, say, The Woman Detective, it was much more focused on American Female detectives and was very useful to me while I wrote the second chapter of my thesis. As I quickly learned while writing my thesis, a book with a good bibliography is doubly invaluable. This one has both good content and a good bibliography.

Book Fourteen: THE WOMAN DETECTIVE: GENDER AND GENRE

The Woman Detective: Gender and Genre, by Kathleen Gregory Klein, published by University of Illinois Press, 1988.


TTR: it is difficult to say how long this took me to read as I read through it as needed while writing my prospectus and thesis.

Comments: if you are interested in the history of the female detective (both British and American), this is an excellent place to start. I'd also suggest Michelle B. Slung's Crime on Her Mind, Joseph Kestner's Sherlock's Sisters, and Craig and Cadogan's The Lady Investigates.