If you enjoy humor with your mystery, like Tim Cockey’s or Janet Evanovich’s stories, you might try Mischief in Maggody by Joan Hess,Carl Hiaasen's Powder Burn, Biggie and the Poisoned Politician by Nancy Bell, Sanibel Flats by Randy Wayne White, Bubbles Unbound by Sarah Strohmeyer, Murder Grins and Bears It: a Yooper Mys

The general reading public seldom gets a chance to vote for their favorite book and/or author but here's your opportunity to do so. The Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel awards in July at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England.  Laura Lippman, Mark Billingsham, Val McDermid, and Simon Kernick are among the 14 contenders. 

David Suchet is filming 4 new Poirot mysteries for PBS.  Hercule Poirot is Agatha Christie's famous Belgian detective.  Mr. Suchet has portrayed Poirot for 21 years on public television's Mystery! series in over 60 episodes.

Ian Rankin, author of the Rebus series, has a new series which will debut in England this Fall.  He spoke about this and his venture into music recently on Scotland on Television (stv.tv).

If you like the humor found in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, may we suggest:

• Murder Grins and Bears It: A Yooper Mystery by Deb Baker
• Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
• Bubbles Unbound by Sarah Strohmeyer
• Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen
• The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

I realize this is a blog about a blog, but if you are a reader of mysteries/crime fiction check out The Rap Sheet. It's a blog with reviews of new and forthcoming books,  interviews with authors, and crime-fiction-related Web sites. (Photo: Raymond Chandler/AP Images)

This month I will be attending a high school reunion.  I started thinking about the expectations, the memories, and just why do people go to these events?  Six mystery writers thought class reunions can stir up a great deal of feeling, perhaps even murderous thoughts...  Mrs. Murphy saves the day for postmistress, Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen, in Pawing Through the Past by Rita Mae Brown and Jo Dereske's Miss Zukas finds more than she's looking for at her 20th.

One of my favorite mystery writers, Barbara Parker, died after a long illness recently. Most of her novels were in her "Suspicion" series about Miami lawyers Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana. If you haven't read Ms. Parker's books, you'll find a strong, independent, female character in Gail Connor, a Miami attorney. Anthony Quintana was a Cuban-American, born in Cuba, whose family escaped to America in the 50s. This played a large part in the Connor-Quintana mysteries. Ms. Parker's first novel, "Suspicion of Innocence" was nominated for an Edgar Award and became a made-for-TV movie, "Sisters and Other Strangers". Ms.

TheMystery Writers of America announced the  2009 Edgar Awards on Thursday, April 30.  C. J.

Indiana author Michael Koryta last night won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the Mystery/Thriller category for his 2008 novel, ENVY THE NIGHT.

Implausible as it seems, 2 acclaimed authors have simultaneously penned mysteries about Charles Dickens' last, unfinished novel. 

If you enjoy mysteries set in another time and place and featuring a strong woman character, try Shirley Tallman's Sarah Wolcott series.  Sarah is a 27 years old, single, lawyer living in Victorian San Francisco in the late 1890s. Against her family’s wishes, she has opened her own San Francisco law firm, only to find that clients---paying clients, that is---are wary of allowing a woman to manage their legal affairs. With the assistance of her friend Robert Campbell, an attorney she met while briefly employed at a prestigious law firm and her brother, Samuel Wolcott, Sarah always solves the case.

So why not check out a historical mystery series featuring a strong female character? One of my favorites is Miriam Grace Monfredo's Glynis Tyron, an advocate for women and slave rights living in Seneca Falls, NY where the first women's rights'convention was held in 1848.  In Seneca Falls Inheritance, Glynis Tryon, the town's librarian, agrees to help organize the Women's Rights Convention of 1848 expecting controversy and opposition, but not murder!

If the winter weather is getting you down and your next vacation is months away, you may want to join with others who are "warming up" cruising on the high seas via a series of mystery books written by Stella Whitelaw.  You will be guided by her dancer turned sleuth "cruise director" Casey Jones while she deals with disappearing passengers, over the hill performers, and -oh yes, a gorgeous ship doctor while visiting exotic ports of call.

Cross, Gillian. Tightrope. When she begins receiving bizarre threatening messages from someone who seems to know her every move, teenage Ashley, after seeking help from the neighborhood tough guy, comes to realize that she alone can end the stalker's reign of terror.

I wait impatiently for these authors'  next release

Recommended by Joyce, an adult reference librarian at the Canton Public Library.

Check our other Fave Five lists, too!

Michael Connelly