#blog12daysxmas Day 8 #librarytwittermysteryamonth

On Day 8 we were all faffing around looking for new challenges for the New Year. Would it be a daily image of oneself on Flickr as @sirexkat was touting? Or would it be the #2011PAD on Flickr? I had really enjoyed looking at other people's PADs on Flickr last year so decided on that one rather than the image of me. We did a similar thing for a month at @restructuregirl's behest in 2010 and it made me really think every day about what photo I wanted to post. It also made me realize (grumble, grumble) that the Flickr i-Phone app doesn't do groups. Ah well, I shall survive using a proper PC or other work arounds. I am particularly happy to be doing PAD as there are very few of my friends on it so it means I will be getting to know a whole of new people! Yay! Of course, it will also be great if you all join as well. The more the merrier and many of you post images every day already!


And what might all of this have to do with a reading blog, you may be asking? Well, late in the day @Tara_moss posted a link to an online mystery book club where she would be recommending a mystery a month. She is starting with Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express for January. That seemed right up my alley! By this morning a group of us library people on Twitter had decided to go with it as #librarytwittermysteryamonth! We decided we would start with Tara's suggestion for January but were finding the website it was posted on a bit problematic. There is info there about Agatha and the book but there doesn't seem to be anywhere to post comments. So we will go with the book and perhaps work out some other way to communicate about our reading. We look forward to having lots of you joining in our #librarytwittermysteryamonth! Here's a link to the Wikipedia article as well to get you going! You can let me know either by Twitter @polyxena or by posting a comment below if you want to participate.

Book 12: Split

My latest book was the final Tara Moss that I had not previously read. It is the second in the Makedde Vanderwall series and filled in a few gaps for me that were referred to in later books. This books takes Mak back to Vancouver where she is still doing a bit of modelling and photo shots but essentially using the work to pay for her Ph.D. studies in forensic psychology. Needless to say she comes in contact with a psychopath again - though it is not what you first think!

It took me a while to get into this title and think that maybe it is not her best and a bit pedestrian in places. However, once I got into it the tension built and I found the need not to put it down until I finished! So I look forward to her next one which she says is finished!

Book 7: Hit

Hit, the fourth in Tara Moss' Makedde Vanderwell series sees Mak back in Sydney again with her Ph.D. and living with her cop boyfriend, Andy. Mak has given up modelling and is trying to set up her forensic psychology practice but she needs cash to do that. So she starts working for a Sydney woman P.I. The case which, of course, intersects with police interests starts when Makedde is given a case to investigate the murder of a young PA Meaghan and takes her around Sydney but also gives some great vignettes of Melbourne including Leo's Spaghetti Bar in St Kilda where a scene is set. Melbourne Sisters in Crime will recognize it as the scene of many SinC events over the years, especially as special reference is made to the back room ;>) I found this another page turner and highly recommend it.

Book 5: Covet

Covet is the third book in Tara Moss' Makedde Vanderwall series. I haven't read the second, Split, yet but it's on my to read list. It is probably better to read these in chronological order but I started with the fifth one and survived! I got hooked in fact. Of course, it provides me with the opportunity to get back and read them all again in sequence.

You will remember from the previous post that a sadistic Stiletto murder has been loose in Sydney. This book has as its scenario the return of Mak to Sydney for the trial of the killer. All should be going fine (apart from the lovelife). But the murderer makes a daring escape from the high security prison where he is held! Makedde is still his Fetish so she's on the run.

Book 4: Fetish

Well, I am certainly having a go at my blogging mojo after months of not doing much! I am also trying to finish writing about the books I read in January before the end of January. As well as the Agatha Christies, I stayed in that genre (or a slightly related one) and read a number of Tara Moss books.

Tara Moss is a Canadian now living in Australia and today celebrating eight years of Australian citizenship she says on Facebook. Congratulations, Tara! We love to call you our own :>). I hadn't read any of Tara Moss' books until late 2009 when I heard her speak at a Sisters in Crime event and bought a book that night. That one was Siren and you can see it pictured with Polyxena in the side panel. I had, of course, heard of Tara Moss as she had won the Sisters in Crime Scarlet Stiletto award in 1998.

Anyway, once started I couldn't put the book down and I was hooked! Fetish is Tara's first novel and introduces her street-smart glamorous detective Mak, the daughter of a cop, who is working as a model while she studies forensic psychology. The book starts when she travels to Sydney for a job and finds the friend she is meant to be staying with has been murdered. This crime is part of the "Stiletto Murders". I am sure that some of them were scarlet.

I won't say more as I don't want to do a spoiler! You will all just have to get her books and read them!