About Me

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Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada
I am a lawyer in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada who enjoys reading, especially mysteries. Since 2000 I have been writing personal book reviews. This blog includes my reviews, information on and interviews with authors and descriptions of mystery bookstores I have visited. I strive to review all Saskatchewan mysteries. Other Canadian mysteries are listed under the Rest of Canada. As a lawyer I am always interested in legal mysteries. I have a separate page for legal mysteries. Occasionally my reviews of legal mysteries comment on the legal reality of the mystery. You can follow the progression of my favourite authors with up to 15 reviews. Each year I select my favourites in "Bill's Best of ----". As well as current reviews I am posting reviews from 2000 to 2011. Below my most recent couple of posts are the posts of Saskatchewan mysteries I have reviewed alphabetically by author. If you only want a sentence or two description of the book and my recommendation when deciding whether to read the book look at the bold portion of the review. If you would like to email me the link to my email is on the profile page.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Bill's Best of 2011

The choices reflect the year when the books were read by me. They are not always the year the book was published.

FICTION

1.) Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny (569.) – The best in the Inspector Gamache series. The haunting story was a multiple award winner.

2.) Old City Hall by Robert Rotenberg (562.) – A great debut legal mystery set in Toronto.

3.) The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen (620.) – A wonderful start to the series of Danish detective, Carl Mørck.

3.) The Sherlockian by Graham Moore (572.) – The book moves between Arthur Conan Doyle and a current Sherlockian

NON- FICTION

1.) The Cinderella Army by Terry Copp (596.) – The Canadian Army in WW II is given gritty difficult tasks after Normandy.

2.) Simon Wiesenthal by Tom Segev (563.) – A comprehensive biography of the renown Nazi hunter

3.) He Left Them Laughing when He Said Good-bye by Grant MacEwan (589.) – An intriguing look at the early Calgary lawyer, Paddy Nolan

MOST INTERESTING

1.) Prairie Hardball by Alison Gordon (588.) – My favourite Saskatchewan mystery featuring Saskatchewan women who played in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League and the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame.

2.) Cake in the Hat Box by Arthur Upfield (574.) – I have come to enjoy the mysteries of Napoleon “Bony” Bonaparte in rural Australia from the 1930’s through the 1960’s. This is the first book I read in the series. Over the year I read two more Bony mysteries.

3.) The Judas Window by John Dickson Carr writing as Dickson Carter (629.) – A superb locked room mystery with a precisely logical solution.

3.) The Mystery of the Moonlight Murder by Roderick Benns (615.) – Future Canadian Prime Minister, John G. Diefenbaker, at 12 years of age solving a rural Saskatchewan mystery in 1908. I would have loved to have had this book when I was 12 years old.

6 comments:

  1. Bill - I think you've made some really excellent choices here! You mention some authors (such as Penny, Upfield, and Carr) whom I already know and really like and of course Adler-Olsen whom I just met this past year and hope to get to know better. I'm glad you found a really wide diversity of books to like.

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  2. Teena: Thanks for the comment. I look forward to further comments about any of the books you end up reading.

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  3. Margot: Thanks for the flattering comment. It was a very good year of reading for me.

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  4. A good list, Bill. I've read the Louise Penny books and like them very much. I've also read John Dickson Carr in the past. In fact, I'm rereading some of his books for the Vintage Mysteries Reading Challenge this year.

    I don't seem to have read much non-fiction this year and from what I read only ENSLAVED BY DUCKS made the cut-off.

    Though Susan Hill's HOWARD'S END IS ON THE LANDING is an excellent book. As is THE POISONER'S HANDBOOK.

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  5. Yvette: Thanks for the comment and the references to non-fiction. I will check them out.

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