Various Whodunnits

[alias_sqbr]

I've been on a bit of a murder mystery bender recently.

Books:
"Grave Sight" and "Dead Until Dark" by Charlaine Harris: Good character study and drama, painfully predictable cliched mystery. Both centre on a young woman with a psychic gift which causes more trouble than good and are nicely understated and realistic given their fantastical elements. "Dead Until Dark" is also a vampire romance and this aspect was done pretty well, I liked that the fact that he's older and more old fashioned was dealt with sensibly rather than being totally fetishised (he gives a talk at the Civil War society meeting. How awesome is that?) The basis for the "True Blood" tv show.

Sex, Murder, and a Double Latte by Kyra Davis: Fairly straight forward but not entirely shallow chick lit mystery. Engaging, funny, and a good mystery. Much less interesting characters and premise than the Charlaine Harris books though.

TV

Psych: A good natured layabout has fantastic Holmes-esque observational abilities, but any time he tries to solve a mystery he gets suspected for "knowing too much". So he starts a psychic detective agency with his (much more sensible) best friend. Very silly, and the mysteries are pretty crap, but light and fluffy and funny.

Bones: More police procedural than mystery, but I love it anyway.

Comments

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

If you take out the word "mystery" and end the entry at the end of the first sentence it becomes much more interesting. And mysterious :-)

Have you read Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon for Swancon homework yet? One of my favourite murder mysteries.

[alias_sqbr]

Not the sort of thing I'd put in an unlocked post though ;)

I bought a copy of Altered Carbon and mean to read it, but have this HUGE pile of library books to get through.

[greteldragon.livejournal.com]

BONES!

[alias_sqbr]

:D

Glad you (sort of) enjoyed it ; )

[(Anonymous)]

I'm particularly glad you enjoyed the mystery portion of the story since it was my first. My guess is that if you pick up Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss (the fourth book in the Sophie series that will be out in June) you'll be more intrigued by both the characters and the premise.

--Kyra Daivs

Re: Glad you (sort of) enjoyed it ; )

[alias_sqbr]

I'm hard pressed to think of many other authors who manage to create a good mystery without turning their characters into total plot-robots so am definitely planning on checking out the rest of the series. Also I want to know what happens next!

Oh yes: and great choice of protagonist name :D