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Becky Parker
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| Posted: Oct 08 2006 at 6:35am | IP Logged
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Hi!
About a month ago I was at Barnes and Noble and bought _Sherlock Holmes Greatest Works _ (or something like that) for my ds. It is a beautiful leather bound book that is about 4 inches thick. Very impressive looking. Well, he looked at it, looked at me, mumbled "thanks" and left it sit on the counter for about a week. Finally, I said, "You have to give it a try. You MUST read 50 pages by the end of this week and then tell me about it. If you don't want to read any farther, fine". Well, that was all it took. Now he's loving it. He gives us a narration every night at dinner about the current story he is reading and he is determinned to finish the book. This has sparked a whole new interest in the mystery genre for him. He's always been into fantasy books (like Redwall) and while I think that is fine, it's good to see him branch out. So, to my question, can anyone recommend good mystery authors? This is a genre I know little about and since I know I wont have a lot of time for pre-reading, I'm a little nervous about just turning him loose at the library.
Thanks!
Becky
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ALmom
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Try the Father Brown mystery stories by GK Chesterton. They are fun to compare to Sherlock Holmes - in both you get a bit of a glimpse of the world view driving them.
In both cases, make sure the particular stories have appropriate content for the age - while they are very good, both authors have stories that adults may enjoy but may be a bit much for younger readers. I cannot remember which ones now.
Janet
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Erin
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Becky
Just did a quick search for you in past posts try mystery books there are lots of great suggestions here.
My dd13 was so excited recently when I gave her her own copy of Father Brown stories, she also got into the Sherlock Holmes stories after the recommendations in the above mentioned discussion.
Mysteries are my favourite genre  Aside from history that is.
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Becky Parker
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Thanks Janet and Erin!
Becky
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Mary G
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Becky,
How old is your son? The Josephine Tey books are pretty good -- especially, The Daughter of Time which gives a whole different view of Richard III and his nephews. He might really enjoy that one.
When I was in high school, I loved the Lord Peter Wimsey books by Dorothy Sayers. You could try Lord Peter Views the Body-- which is a collection of stories or start with one of the others in the batch. Now,some of the characters don't always do "good things" (e.g., in Clouds of Witness, Peter's brother has an affair with a local woman -- but it's all dealt with in a way that it sort of glosses over the event).
Remember that some of these great old mysteries, which are usually very well written with great dialogue and side bits -- much better than anything current -- have odd ways of dealing with the "bad guys". Often, suicide is encouraged rather than standing trial or someone is let off because they had a "good reason" for doing what they did. In other words, not always very Catholic -- but you can also use these events as "talking points" to explain Catholic teaching on these events.
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Kelly
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Mary, honestly, you took the words right out of my mouth with BOTH your suggestions of Tey and Sayers! ESP!
Becky, I was at B&N tonight and saw that posh looking complete Sherlock Holmes edition you mentioned(on sale for the last day) and bought it for ds11. As we were checking out at the cash register, I pulled it from the pile and presented it to him as a surprise. "WOW! THANKS, Mom!" he exulted, "This is GREAT!" It was such heartfelt enthusiasm that the cashier-lady and I both had to chuckle. I think she thought he'd be disgusted or something, but was he ever pleased! Thank you ever so much for the suggestion. Ds is already up to his elbows in the "Study in Scarlet". Great recommendation.
Another idea: how about the Hercule Poirot books by Agatha Christie? My kids love these.
I haven't read it, but others on the board have, and recommended it, "The Westing Game". It looks interesting.
The Brother Cadfael mysteries are also good. I know a lot of families whose teens really liked those-though my dc haven't been particularly taken by them. I liked them.
"Detectives in Togas" and "The Roman Ransom Mystery" by Henry Winter (I think) are written for younger readers than are the above books, but I enjoyed them and my dc have read them over and over.
Happy Sleuthing!
Kelly in FL
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Becky Parker
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Thanks again for your replies. I am now armed with a list of titles I can give Grandma for Christmas ideas!
Becky
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4Real Forums : Living Literature
Topic: Mysteries
