Latest is a novel As Husbands Go by Susan Isaacs, a mystery about the death of a Manhattan plastic surgeon. This book, like many of Issac's, features a smart-alecky woman protagenist, so I enjoyed it. My favorite of her books has to be Shining Through, where a smart-alecky and brave Brooklyn secretary out-spies the Nazis, with a side dish of cookery. (But that story, alas, was made into a truly terrible movie; watch her Compromising Positions with Susan Sarandon and Raul Julia instead.)
Reading a good mystery has to be one of the kindest inventions ever for biding time - whether you're waiting on a dentist, a train journey, or healing. Enough plot and puzzle to distract the surface of the mind happily, while not demanding serious concentration the situation does not allow. A good a mystery provides amusement and charm and even, sometimes, enough human truth not to waste the time spent. And a really well written mystery becomes comfort brain-food... You can revisit a favorite sleuth's adventures - Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple - even though you know how the puzzle will be solved.
That it will be solved satisfactorily is one of this genre's charms.
Sherlock Holmes public domain image messed with.
Favorites?
Josephine Tey's Bratt Farrar, Miss Pym Disposes, and The Franchise Affair (Earlier POST) (Squidoo page I found HERE)
Dorothy Sayer's Lord Peter Whimsey series, especially Murder Must Advertise and Busman's Honeymoon (Earlier POST quoting her on writing)
Lindsey Davis' Falco series, starting with Silver Pigs
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