Crime, Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

"But this twelve year old had in on her necklace. I wonder why."

(It was tipped with a four-pronged razor...)
broadhead - making it the kind of arrow that a hunter with a serious bow can propel through a deer. As he studied the deadly projectile...

Jenni wrote: "Might I guess this exerpt to be from The Hunger Games?"

Great guess! However, I was reading Let the Devil Sleep by John Verdon. It was a real page-turner :-o

Are we going to keep this thread going? I like the idea of trying to guess what book others are reading (as long as we stay away from Google!)

"Holmes said it was most likely a hybrid, crossed with Shetland ponies brought in during the war in an attempt to breed animals suited for the Welsh mines. This particular beast did not seem well pleased..."

Sandy wrote: ""Holmes said it was most likely a hybrid, crossed with Shetland ponies brought in during the war in an attempt to breed animals suited for the Welsh mines. This particular beast did not seem well p..."

Hmmmmm....this is a good one. I can't even guess at a specific Holmes story that this line might have come from. But, throwing a wild guess out there, could the line come from a Mary Russell novel by Laurie R. King?

I think I found the answer.

It's not by Doyle. Right?

VickiLee wrote: "Sandy wrote: ""Holmes said it was most likely a hybrid, crossed with Shetland ponies brought in during the war in an attempt to breed animals suited for the Welsh mines. This particular beast did n..."


Great thinking... Yes, VickiLee... right author! I especially liked the first book in that series!

Sandy wrote: "VickiLee wrote: "Sandy wrote: ""Holmes said it was most likely a hybrid, crossed with Shetland ponies brought in during the war in an attempt to breed animals suited for the Welsh mines. This parti..."

Laurie King is a fine writer. May I ask which novel this line came from?

"The Moor"... I do enjoy the Mary Russell (Sherlock Holmes series) - Well done!

Jenni wrote: "Wait, I'm confused. So Mary Russell has a Sherlock Holmes series too? Is it based on the original Sir Arthur Connan Doyle books?"

Mary Russell is a character created by Laurie R. King. In the novels, this young woman is `intimately' familiar with an older Sherlock Holmes. Laurie King also wrote a few books outside of this series which were bleak but fabulous.

Got it.


The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.

My memory is TERRIBLE. I looked it up. :-)

I do that too. Usually, if I thumb through a book, I will remember if I read it or not. thankfully

I'm reading an ARC, so no one would be able to guess. It's also not mystery/thriller.I do read other books, too.

I almost always remember whether I've ever read a book by its title and author. But I could never review a book a month after I read it, although I wouldn't forget it entirely.

Jenni wrote: Do list the first two sentenses and two from page 50. We should like..."

By now I've finished that book and read another, which I finished last night. I haven't decided what I'm going to read next. I have several piles of books to read. But when I start the new book, I'll list them.

Not twenty minutes has passed since you left me here in the cafe', since I said No to your request, that I would never write out for you the story of my mortal life, how I became a vampire-how I came upon Marius only years after he had lost his human life. Now here I am with your notebook open, using one of the sharp pointed eternal ink pens you left me, delighted at the sensuous press of the black ink into the expensive and flawless white paper. (the first two sentences of the book)
From page 50:
She laughed and gave her best, whole hearted kisses,
They'd shake the three pronged bolt from Jove's hand.
Torture to think that fellow got such good ones!
I wish they hadn't been of the same brand!

Jenni wrote: "If there's a vampire in it I wouldn't know. :^)"

I was just going to say that. My only vampire guess is "Dracula."

Jenni wrote: "Mike saw it happen. There were two doors next to one another.

pg. 50:

There were two or three people like Mike himself -genuine collectors who could afford pretty well anything that might come u..."

I'm not going to answer because it wouldn't be fair; you already said the book you're reading elsewhere.

Same as Beth.

First two sentences of book I'm readinig now:

"My sweater was new, stinging red and ugly. It was May 12 but the temperature had dipped to the forties, and after four days shivering in my shirtsleeves, I grabbed cover at a tag sale rather than dig through my boxed-up winter clothes."

Tenth and eleventh sentences on page 50:

"A child's voice at the open window. I walked over, and through the dust of the screen could see a thin boy with dark curls and gaping eyes."

Jenni wrote: "I know this one from having browsed through the Kindle versions on Amazon..."

Then guess it.

Jenni wrote: "If there's a vampire in it I wouldn't know. :^)"

The book I am currently reading is Pandora,which is written by Anne Rice and part of the Vampire Chronicles.

Jenni wrote: "Dark Places?"

No, but you're on the right track. Should I say, or should I wait for more guesses? Here's a clue: right author; wrong book

Page 50 of my book:
11 and 12: The death of your baby started to penetrate, a little way. I'm sorry that it was taking so long.

It's a debut book from an English author, published in 2010. Was a NYT Bestseller. She released a second book in 2012 (I'm fairly certain of the year).

Jenni wrote: "Okay, then it is Sharp Objects. It's one of the two."

You are correct: SHARP OBJECTS.

Jamie wrote: "Page 50 of my book:
11 and 12: The death of your baby started to penetrate, a little way. I'm sorry that it was taking so long.

It's a debut book from an English author, published in 2010. Was a N..."


But what about page 1? Did I miss something?

Oops, my fault! I forgot to post the first two sentences of page one:
Dearest Tess,
I'd do anything to be with you, right now, right this moment, so I could hold your hand, look at your face, listen to your voice. How can touching and seeing and hearing- all those sensory receptors and optic nerves and vibrating eardrums- be substituted by a letter?

Well, I don't think it will give it away too much to tell you that the entire book is a very intense and drawn out story told in the form of a one-way letter from a woman to her sister.

Is the book Sister by rosamund lupton by any chance?

Chiara, you got it! I really enjoyed the book and I guess I was so caught up in guessing who did it, that I was a bit surprised by the end.

I liked it too! It took me a while to get into style but it was good.

Sandy wrote: ""The Moor"... I do enjoy the Mary Russell (Sherlock Holmes series) - Well done!"

Thank you, Sandy, for sharing. This is a new find for me, I've started reading
even as we speak.

I finished this one a few weeks ago, but the author is like an old and dear friend.
Page 50, 11 & 12:
"No, I'm making it up as I go along."
"A restaurateur?"
(Afraid that's not much to work with!)
First two lines of Chapter 1:
Everything comes to an end. A good bottle of wine, a summer's day, a long-running sitcom, one's life, and eventually our species.
(I didn't count the epigram. This author uses a lot of those.)

Just finished Monument to Murder by Margaret Truman and it was a good story however the ending was lack luster. Now starting a Jack Reacher book, Gone Tomorrow.

Mike wrote: "Sandy wrote: "" This is a new find for me, I've started reading
The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Mary Russell, #1) even as we speak. ..."

That was an "Everyone's Reading" choice a couple years ago for the libraries in my part of Michigan.

This is a slight hijack (sorry, I tend to do that!), but what's the word on Jasper Fforde? I've never read him, never even really read about him or his books, BUT I see his name in passing regularly. What is the consensus on his books- are they cheesy? quick reads? intense emotional outpourings? genre? I can't think of any other author that I've heard of as much as I've heard of him that I haven't already formed some opinion of.

Jenni wrote: "Shelah wrote: "Just finished Monument to Murder by Margaret Truman and it was a good story however the ending was lack luster. Now starting a Jack Reacher book, Gone Tomorrow."

The game is you tel..."

oops! sorry about that :-)

Jenni, you're right! :)
and to Jamie (to answer a hijack with a hijack) Jasper Fforde is sort of an acquired taste. He writes three types of novels, as far as I can see: his nursery tales (example: The Big Over Easy), his Thursday Next books (his latest was "The Woman Who Died A Lot"), and two (so far) Shades of Grey novels: The Road to High Saffron, and soon to be released Painting by Numbers. He also has some YA novels; I'm reading The Last Dragonslayer right now.
He's funny and punny and witty and sardonic and he dearly loves all his characters. He reads widely and includes everything. There are alternate realities galore, very evil and intriguing bad guys, minor characters who steal the show, time travel, social commentary, odd pets, plot twists, and romance. The layers of his writing appear shallow, but they're like a 17-layer cake: the more you read the deeper you go, and I love deep.

"Her sari was hot pink printed with gold swirls and loops. I'd seen it before."

This happens to be an ARC so it could be difficult to guess, especially from these two sentences.

Beth wrote: "First two sentences of book I'm readinig now:

"My sweater was new, stinging red and ugly. It was May 12 but the temperature had dipped to the forties, and after four days shivering in my shirtslee..."

Is it Gone Girl?

Wendy wrote: "Is it Gone Girl?.."

Jenni already guessed it several messages back. You have the correct author but wrong book.

This is Gillian Flynn's SHARP OBJECTS.

GONE GIRL begins with the husband seeing the wife in the kitchen, remember?

"Gunnery Sargent Morgan Phillips and
his men drove toward his target Al-Quaida number three".

Or it could also be THE WATCH.

Could we have the first TWO sentences in the book plus the first two sentences on page 50?

These are long ones!


"The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years-if it ever did end-began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.

The boat bobbed, listed, righted itself again, dived bravely through treacherous whirlpools, and continued on its way down Witcham Street toward the traffic light which marked the intersection of Witcham and Jackson."


Page 50, Sentences 10 and 11:

"Maybe they had both suspected that something was coming long before that phone call, something that didn't fit with the nice house that sat tastefully back behind the low hew hedges, something so much a given that it really didn't need much of an acknowledgement... that one sharp instant of fright, like the stab of a quickly withdrawn ice pick, was enough.

'Is it mom?' she mouthed at him in that instant, thinking that perhaps her father, twenty pounds overweight and prone to what he called 'the bellyache' since his early forties, had had a heart attack."

I know this one! Stephen King's IT?

I have not read that. I saw the tv movie when I was younger and it scared me. I hate clowns.


I have not read a lot of Stephan King. I have read Rose Madder , which I really enjoyed.

Stephen king is the reason i hate clowns too, damn him! Even i hate dolls, they just scare the hell out of me!

I'm reading The Prey by Allison Brennan. This is my first book by this author and it's a good one.