Spotlight On... Guardians of Ga’Hoole

--by Hanje Richards

The Guardians of Ga’Hoole is an epic (15-book) fantasy series written by Kathryn Lasky for young readers (ages 9-12). The series follows the adventures of Soren and Coryn, two young Barn Owls who team up to fight the forces of evil.

Kathryn Lasky is the Newbery Honor author of over one hundred fiction and nonfiction books for children and young adults. Her books range from critically acclaimed nonfiction titles such as Beyond the Burning Time and True North to the wildly popular Guardians of Ga'hoole fantasy series about owls. She loves owls and researching their behavior and natural history. Luckily, Lasky lives quite close to Harvard University’s Department of Ornithology, where she consulted with the scientists there frequently.

Guardians of Ga’Hoole Series

Book 1: The Capture - After Soren, a young owlet, is pushed from his family's nest by his older brother, he's plucked from the forest floor by agents from a mysterious school, the St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls. When Soren arrives at St. Aggie's, he suspects there is more to the school than meets the eye. He and his new friend, the clever and scrappy Gylfie, find out that St. Aggie's is actually a training camp where the school's leader can groom young owls to help achieve her goal - to rule the entire owl kingdom.

In the first book in this series, the reader follows the adventures of Soren and Gylfie as they subvert the attempted brainwashing that takes place at St. Aggie's, learn to fly, and eventually escape from the evil school. Later they meet with two more orphaned owls, the indomitable Twilight and pensive Digger, and the four form a band as they journey to a refuge that may exist only in legend - the Great Ga'Hoole Tree.

Book 2: The Journey - In the second book, Soren, Gylfie, Twilight, and Digger travel to the Great Ga'Hoole Tree, a mythical place where an order of owls rises each night to perform noble deeds. Soren and his group are seeking help to fight the evil they discovered in the owl world (in Guardians #1). After a harrowing journey, they arrive at the Great Ga'Hoole Tree and learn they will need to stay to receive training from the Ga'Hoolian elders. During his time at the Great Ga'Hoole Tree, Soren finds (and then loses) a great mentor and is reunited with his beloved sister.
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Book 3: The Rescue - Now that Soren has been reunited with his sister, Eglantine, he must face his next challenge: making sense of the mysterious disappearance of his mentor, Ezylryb. When Soren discovers that Ezylryb is in danger, he and his friends Gylfie, Twilight, and Digger devise a plan to save their teacher. In this process, Soren fights a ferocious foe who wears a terrifying metal beak, sharpened for battle. It's not until the confrontation is over that Soren discovers the true identity of his opponent...
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Book 4: The Siege - Soren's beloved mentor, Ezylryb, is finally back at the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. But all is not well. There's a war between good and evil in the owl kingdom. On one side is a group led by Soren's fearsome brother, Kludd. On the other side are the owls of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree, who must fight to protect their legendary home from Kludd's attacks.
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Book 5: The Shattering - In the midst of war, Eglantine unwittingly becomes a spy for Kludd, leader of the Pure Ones (a group of evil owls). She is brainwashed by an owl sent by the Pure Ones to infiltrate the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. Her odd behavior eventually attracts attention, and Soren and his friends vow to find out what's wrong with Eglantine. They ultimately learn what happened and help her reverse the effects of the brainwashing. Kludd continues to battle against the Guardians of Ga'Hoole for control of their tree. In the end, Kludd and his forces are defeated. But his conflict with Soren is not yet over.
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Book 6: The Burning - Soren and his band are sent to the mysterious Northern Kingdoms to gather allies and learn the art of war in preparation for the coming cataclysmic battle against the sinister Pure Ones. Meanwhile, in the Southern Kingdoms, St. Aggie's has fallen to the Pure Ones, and they are using its resources to plan a final invasion of The Great Ga'Hoole Tree. With the future of all Owldom in the balance, the parliament of Ga'Hoole must decide whether or not to join forces with the brutal Skench and Sporn and the scattered remnants of St. Aggie's who remain faithful to them.
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Book 7: The Hatchling - Kludd is dead. Nyra, his mate, is determined that her hatchling, Nyroc, will fulfill his father's destiny: the vicious oppression of all the owl kingdoms. But Nyroc is a poor student of evil. A light grows in his heart, fed by scraps of forbidden legend and strange news of a place where goodness and nobility reign. He must summon all his courage to defy his destiny - and the embodiment of evil that is his mother.
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Book 8: The Outcast - Nyroc has exiled himself from the Pure Ones. He flies alone, feared and despised by those who know him as Kludd's son, hunted by those whose despotism he has rejected, and haunted by ghostly creatures conjured by Nyra to lure him back to the Pure Ones. He yearns for a place he only half believes in - the Great Tree - and an uncle - the near-mythic Soren - who might be a true father to him. Yet, he cannot approach the Tree while the rumor of evil clings to him. To prove his worth, Nyroc will fly to Beyond the Beyond seeking the legendary Relic and bring it, a talisman of his own.
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Book 9: The First Collier - It is a time of Legends and a time of Chaos. Warlords vie for power, and marauding outlaws roam the land. Good King Hrath and his queen, Siv - noble Spotted Owls - struggle to keep peace in their kingdom. Grank, noble Spotted Owl, friend and supporter of King Hrath, has exiled himself to Beyond the Beyond, where he has developed his firesight and learns how to work with embers and fire and how to forge metals. He is the First Collier. Deep in a volcano in the farthest reaches of Beyond the Beyond, he discovers a magical Ember but fears its awful powers will be misused and hides it again.
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Book 10: The Coming of Hoole - Grank raises the hatchling deep in a forest far from owls that would kill the royal chick named Hoole to end the kingly line. His mother comes to visit, in disguise, and departs again. Not even the chick must know his mother's identity. It would give him away as Hrath's heir. Sent by an evil warlord, a hagsfiend attempts to lure young Hoole away when he first learns to fly. Grank realizes that the same evil forces that killed Hrath are after Hoole, and know where he is. To keep him safe, Grank brings him to Beyond the Beyond, a strange land of fiery volcanoes in a barren, icy landscape.
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Book 11: To Be a King - In this final book of the Legends trilogy, Hoole reclaims the throne of his father and goes on to wage a war against the forces of chaos, greed, and oppression led by the powerful warlord-tyrants. Grank, the First Collier, uses his skills with fire and metals to forge weapons for battle. With great trepidation, Hoole uses the power of the Ember in the final, decisive battle and wins. At the dawn of a new era of peace, Hoole searches for the ideal place to establish not a kingdom but an order of free owls and finds the Great Tree. .

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Book 12: The Golden Tree - Coryn, Soren, and the Band preside over a new Golden Age of the Great Tree under the subtle influence of the Ember. All seems well, but beneath the prosperity of peace, Coryn is tortured by the suspicion that his evil mother, Nyra, is a hagsfiend and that his own blood carries the haggish taint. He wanders afar searching for the truth from hagsfiends themselves, putting the Great Tree in danger. Soren and the Band follow their new king to strange parts to guard him from the consequences of his obsession.

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Book 13: The River of Wind - Coryn and the Band have returned to the Great Ga'Hoole Tree and have restored order. With the Ember safely hidden away, the Tree shakes off its gaudy golden glow and recovers its natural majesty.

Meanwhile, deep in the Palace of Mists, Bess finds an ancient map fragment that reveals that there are not five owl kingdoms - as has been thought since time immemorial - but six. Coryn and the Chaw of Chaws set off to find this unknown land. In a landscape of perpetual winter, they discover a monastery of serene, learned owls, the likes of which no one has ever seen before.
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Book 14: Exile - The Striga, former dragon owl from the Middle Kingdom beyond the Unnamed Sea, has come to stay at the Great Tree. He has earned the trust of all by saving Bell, Soren's owlet, from Nyra, and he grows daily closer to the young king Coryn, with whom he seems to share a strange bond. The Striga senses the power of the Ember hidden in Bubo's forge and draws it closer. As his power waxes, he accuses the Band of treason and produces flimsy evidence to support his abominable claim. And so the Band is exiled, strengthening the Striga's hold over Coryn.

The Band seeks refuge in distant forests and enlists the help of old friends, but every action they take is construed as further treason, and agents of the Striga - former Guardians - hunt them mercilessly, until for safety's sake the band itself must separate. They devise as system of messages and alarms and so communicate despite their isolation. Old friends, loyal family, and allies help devise a plan to shake the hold the Striga has on Coryn and to free the young king and the Tree from this new, insidious tyranny. It will take courage, daring and wisdom, but the Band will meet the new challenge - for the sake of the king, and the Great Ga'Hoole Tree.
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Book 15: The War of the Ember - The strange, maniacal blue owl known as the Striga has been rousted from the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. Nyra, leader of the vicious Pure Ones, is either dead or laying low in some distant land, leaving the Tree finally at peace. As if fed by an invisible spring, learning and the lively arts flourish at the Great Tree and spread throughout the owl kingdoms.

But, unbeknownst to the Guardians, in a long-empty cave deep in the Northern Kingdoms, two ruthless villains join forces to conjure an ancient evil - an evil that will do their bidding and wreak havoc on the world.

When word of this growing malevolence reaches Coryn, Soren, and the Band, the young king knows he must do two things: First, he must return the Ember to the Sacred Volcanoes, for the same subtle emanation from the Ember of Hoole that stimulates the quest for knowledge and invention at the Great Tree, also magnifies the powers of those who seek to destroy it and all for which it stands. Second, he must gather allies. Two armies grow. Gadfeathers, bears, dire wolves, and greenowls join with the Guardians, while on the other side ancient evil takes to the sky.

Guardians Guide to the Great Tree - "Studious by nature, fortunate to have been present at the most glorious moments in the Tree's recent history, and above all honored to count as friends its most ardent champions, I, Otulissa, have decided to write a compendium, a catchall - a guide, in short - to the history, life, and spirit of the Tree. Pause a moment before the next adventure begins to read of its natural history, its origin, and yearly changes. Read of its lesser-known heroes: of Joss, brave messenger of legends; of the brothers Ifghar and Ezylryb and the treachery that bound them; of Theo, the peaceful warrior. Learn of Gylfie, Digger, and Twilight's lives before they came to the Tree. Read tales of Strix Struma, Uglamore, Trader Mags, and others. Many are the adventures still unsung! And many the brave deeds unheralded! Read of ages lost and dark; of strange ailments infecting the Tree itself. Learn the feasts and holidays celebrated under moon and sun. Scan the maps, study the drawings, sample the recipes! Dear reader, though you be distant from the Great Tree, lift this tome to your eyes and learn what it is to be a Guardian!"

Lost Tales of Ga'Hoole - Guided by the Knower, Otulissa has studied long in the libraries of the Others; she has probed the ancient lore of the strange and powerful dire wolves of the Beyond. And at the Great Ga'Hoole Tree itself she has uncovered secret histories of Guardians she thought she knew well!

Attention Dear Reader! Great mysteries will be revealed to the attuned mind in these last Lost Tales of the Great Tree!

Otulissa embarks on a journey to revitalize academic vigor and historical interest at the Great Tree. Lost Tales of Ga'Hoole is the result of her labor. In finding and compiling these tales - previously lost to the annals of Ga'Hoolian history - she composes her magnum opus. Otulissa tells the never-before-known tales of minor and invented characters in the world of Ga'Hoole. They contain new information about the owls, dire wolves, and other creatures of Ga'Hoole but always refer back to the world and overarching storyline that readers of the series have come to love.

Lost Tales of Ga'Hoole will also serve as a last hurrah for the series - a loving and elegiac look back.

Mystery Monday: Minette Walters

--by Hanje Richards

Because I am a huge fan of mysteries, "Mystery Monday" was born. Because I like to read mysteries in order, I'm going to list and talk about them in chronological, rather than alphabetical, order.

If an author has written more than one series (and many authors have), I'll talk about different series in different posts to keep things as clear as possible. For those interested in reading some of the featured titles, I've noted at the end of each book's summary whether it's available at the Copper Queen Library (CQL) or at another library in Cochise County through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Minette Walters (born September 26, 1949) is an English crime writer. Walters’ themes include isolation, family dysfunction, rejection, marginalization, justice, and revenge. Her novels are often set against real backgrounds and real events to draw her readers into the “reality” of what she is writing about. With no series character tying her to particular people, places, or times, she moves freely around settings – a sink estate, a Dorset village, a suburb of London – although every setting is "claustrophobic" to encourage the characters "to turn on each other."

Walters describes herself as an exploratory writer who never uses a plot scheme, begins with simple premises, has no idea "whodunit" until half-way through a story, but who remains excited about each novel because she, along with her reader, wants to know what happens next.

Scold’s Bridle (1994) - Dr. Sarah Blakeney is one of very few mourners when her grumpy old patient, Mathilda Gillespie, dies at home in the bathtub, apparently of suicide. The old woman has taken barbiturates, slit her wrists, and bound her head in a rusted contraption called a scold's bridle, a cage with tongue clamps used to torture women in the Middle Ages. The police start to suspect homicide right around the time they learn that Sarah has been generously included in the dead woman's will. When she becomes the prime suspect in the murder, it's up to Sarah to delve into the bizarre details of Mathilda's private life, a history of greed, abuse, and depravity, and uncover the real killer. (available at CQL)

Dark Room (1996) - In this acclaimed psychological mystery, Jinx Kingsley, a prominent photographer and millionaire’s daughter, wakes up in an exclusive hospital suffering from amnesia. Not only can she not remember the car accident that caused her memory loss, but she doesn’t remember that her impending wedding has been called off or that her former fiancé and his girlfriend have been brutally murdered in the same way her first husband had been ten years before. Now, she must try to piece together her memories in order to determine her innocence. With deft psychological explorations and shocking twists, Walters brings the story to an awe-inspiring conclusion. (available at CQL)

The Echo (1997) - In this hypnotic novel of psychological suspense, a homeless man is found starved to death in the garage of a ritzy London home. The police chalk it up to an unfortunate accident, but a journalist, Michael Deacon, is intrigued. Amanda Powell, a socialite whose wealthy husband vanished five years ago after being accused of embezzlement, is just as interested as Michael in finding out who died in her garage. They have no idea that this simple story will unveil a web of deceit that is an appalling as the people behind it. (available at CQL)

The Breaker (1998) - The nude body of a 31-year-old woman washes up in a secluded cove on the Dorset coast; at the same time, her 3-year-old daughter is found wandering alone in the streets of a nearby town. The woman, Kate Sumner, was raped and choked before being thrown into the water, and traces of Rohypnol, the so-called date-rape drug, are found in her bloodstream. There are just three suspects in the crime: Kate's husband, William Sumner, a tortured and sexually frustrated man; a handsome, charming but also very disturbed young actor named Steven Harding; and Tony Bridges, a teacher whose friendship with Harding is complicated by jealousy and anger. (available at CQL)

The Shape of Snakes (2001) – November, 1978. The winter of discontent. Britain is on strike. The dead lie unburied, garbage piles in the streets – and somewhere in West London, a black woman dies in a rain-filled gutter. Known as "Mad Annie," she was despised by her neighbors.

Her passing would have gone unmourned and unnoticed but for the young woman who finds her and who believes – apparently against reason – that Annie was murdered.

But whatever the truth about Annie – whether she was as mad as her neighbors claimed, whether she lived in squalor as the police said, whether she cruelly mistreated the cats found starving in her house – something passed between her and Mrs. Ranelagh in the moment of death that binds this one woman to her cause for the next twenty years.But why is Mrs. Ranelagh so convinced it was murder, when, by her own account, Annie died without speaking? Why does the subject make her husband so angry that he refuses to talk about what happened that night? And why would any woman spend twenty painstaking years uncovering the truth – unless her reasons are personal? (available through ILL)

Acid Row (2002) - Acid Row. The name the beleaguered inhabitants give to their 'sink' estate. A no-man's land of single mothers and fatherless children – where angry, alienated youth control the streets. Into this battleground comes Sophie Morrison, a young doctor visiting a patient in Acid Row. Little does she know that she is entering the home of a known pedophile... and with reports circulating that a tormented child called Amy has disappeared, the vigilantes are out in force. Soon Sophie is trapped at the center of a terrifying siege, with a man she has come to despise. Whipped to a frenzy by unsubstaniated rumor, the mob unleashes its hatred. Against authority... against the Law... against the "pervert." "Protecting Amy" becomes the catch-all defense for the terrible events that follow. And if murder is part of it, then so be it... But, is Amy really missing? (available at CQL)

Fox Evil (2003) - When elderly Ailsa Lockyer-Fox is found dead in her garden, dressed only in night clothes and with blood stains on the ground near her body, the finger of suspicion points at her wealthy, landowning husband, Colonel James Lockyer-Fox. A coroner's inquest gives a verdict of "natural causes," but the gossip surrounding him refuses to go away.

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Why? Because he's guilty? Or because resentful women in the isolated Dorset village where he lives rule the roost? Shenstead is a place of too few people and too many secrets. Why have James and Ailsa cut their children out of their wills? What happened in the past to create such animosity within the family? And why is James so desperate to find his illegitimate grandchild? Friendless and alone, his reclusive behavior begins to alarm his London-based solicitor, Mark Ankerton, whose concern deepens when he discovers that James has become the victim of a relentless campaign which accuses him of far worse than the death of his wife. Allegations which he refuses to challenge... Why? Because they're a motive for murder? (available at CQL)

Disordered Minds (2005) - In 1970, 20-year-old Howard Stamp is convicted of brutally killing his 57-year-old grandmother with a carving knife; three years later, he commits suicide in prison. In 2002, London anthropologist Jonathan Hughes includes the Stamp case in his book, Disordered Minds, which examines infamous miscarriages of justice. The mentally slow Stamp may have been coerced into confessing to the murder. George (Georgina) Gardener, an elderly attorney living in Stamp's hometown of Bournemouth, has come to believe in Stamp's innocence herself and asks Jonathan for help in clearing the young man's name. The two get off to a rocky start, but they form an uneasy alliance that gradually grows into a deep friendship. (available at CQL)

The Devil’s Feather (2006) - In 2002, five women are discovered barbarously murdered in Sierra Leone. Reuters Africa correspondent Connie Burns suspects a British mercenary: a man who seems to turn up in every war-torn corner of Africa, whose reputation for violence and brutality is well-founded and widely known. Connie’s suspicions that he’s using the chaos of war to act out sadistic, misogynistic fantasies fall on deaf ears – but she’s determined to expose him and his secret.Connie encounters the man again in Baghdad, but almost immediately she’s taken hostage. Released after three desperate days, terrified and traumatized by the experience – fearing that she will never again be the person she once was – Connie retreats to England. She is bent on protecting herself by withholding information about her abduction. But secluded in a remote rented house – where the jealously guarded history of her landlady’s family seems to mirror her own fears – she knows that it is only a matter of time before her nightmares become real. (available through ILL)

The Chameleon’s Shadow (2008) - Somewhere in the endless, deadly desert between Basra and Baghdad, Lieutenant Charles Acland's convoy was attacked. Recovering in the hospital, Charles is crippled by migraines and suspicious of his doctors. He grows uncharacteristically aggressive, particularly against women. Rejecting cosmetic surgery, he moves to London. There he sinks into a quagmire of guilt and paranoia – until an outburst of irrational, vicious anger brings him to the attention of the local police, who are investigating three recent murders. Now under suspicion, Charles is forced to confront his issues before it's too late, but the shadowy forces working against him – or in him – could be more than he can overcome. (available through ILL)

National Novel Writing Month: Dispatches From My Living Room #7

--by Hanje Richards

I have completed what I set out to do. I have written a 50,055 word “novel” in a month. I have been talking about writing a novel for as long as I can remember, and I am estimating that this is the closest I have gotten, by at least 48,000 words. I have never written anything anywhere near this long. I have never written anything anywhere near this difficult, and I have never written anything anywhere near this intense.

I did this with the full support of my employer and my family. I did this with the support of friends, some of whom jumped on the bandwagon as I progressed. I did this with the support of other NaNoWriMo writers who were having their own struggles and successes.

I feel very hesitant at this point to celebrate… to say I have completed something, because I feel this was very much a beginning for me.

After I take a break for a couple of days, I have every intention of reworking the whole book and rewriting and editing and cutting and embellishing. In other words, what I feel like I did was write a first draft of something I hope very much will eventually become more than that.
So, for people, like my husband, who are going to tell me I did a great thing, and I should be happy, I feel like I started something, that I worked very hard on it, that it was emotionally wrenching and that it is a first draft. I want to work with it until it becomes something that I would feel comfortable sharing with other people, and I look forward to having some time in the early part of 2011 to do just that.

Thank you for reading my blog, thank you for cheering me on, thank you for your support as I tackle this project and others.

Friday Fiction: Carl Hiaasen

--by Hanje Richards

Carl Hiaasen (born March 12, 1953) is an American journalist, columnist and novelist. He was a reporter for (Cocoa, Florida) for two years beginning in 1974, then was hired by the Miami Herald in 1976, where he still Cocoa Today works. In 1979, he switched to investigative journalism, initially focusing on property development and the construction industry, exposing schemes to despoil the natural beauty of Florida for profit; several of his novels have plots based on such themes. He began writing a regular column in 1985 – initially three times a week, but after the success of his novels, he cut back to weekly.

Hiaasen's fiction mirrors his concerns as a journalist and Floridian. His novels have been classified as "environmental thrillers" and are usually found on the mystery shelves in bookshops, although they can just as well be read as mainstream reflections of contemporary life.

He said this about Florida: "The Sunshine State is a paradise of scandals teeming with drifters, deadbeats, and misfits drawn here by some dark primordial calling like demented trout. And you'd be surprised how many of them decide to run for public office."

Hiaasen's Florida is a hive of greedy businessmen, corrupt politicians, dumb blondes, apathetic retirees, intellectually challenged tourists, hard-luck redneck cooters, and militant ecoteurs. It is the same Florida of John D. MacDonald and Travis McGee, but aged another 20 years and viewed with a more satiric or sardonic eye.

Basket Case - Once a hotshot investigative reporter, Jack Tagger now bangs out obituaries for a South Florida daily, "plotting to resurrect my career by yoking my byline to some famous stiff." Jimmy Stoma, the infamous front man for Jimmy and the Slut Puppies, dead in a fishy-smelling scuba "accident" may be just the stiff Jack needs – if only he can figure out what happened. Standing in the way are (among others) an editor who wants Jack to "break her cherry," Stoma's ambitious pop-singer widow, and the soulless, profit-hungry newspaper owner Jack once publicly humiliated. As clues from Stoma's music give Jack Tagger the chance to trade obits for a story that could hit the front page, murder gives his career a new lease on life.

Flush - A mystery adventure for young readers, set in the Florida Keys: Noah's dad has a little problem with anger control. He tried to stop the Coral Queen casino boat's illegal dumping... by sinking the boat. But his bold protest fizzles: within days, the casino is back in business, and Noah's dad is behind bars and out of action.Now, Noah is determined to succeed where his father failed. But even though pumping raw sewage into the waters of the Florida Keys is both gross and against the law, it turns out that it's near impossible to catch the flusher – especially when he's already bamboozled the prosecutors, the local press, and even the Coast Guard.

Hoot - A book for young readers: It involves new kids, bullies, alligators, eco-warriors, pancakes, and pint-sized owls. Unfortunately, Roy's first acquaintance in Florida is Dana Matherson, a well-known bully. Then again, if Dana hadn't been sinking his thumbs into Roy's temples and mashing his face against the school-bus window, Roy might never have spotted the running boy. And the running boy is intriguing: he was running away from the school bus, carried no books, and – here's the odd part – wore no shoes. Sensing a mystery, Roy sets himself on the boy's trail. The chase introduces him to potty-trained alligators, a fake-fart champion, some burrowing owls, a renegade eco-avenger, and several extremely poisonous snakes with unnaturally sparkling tails.

Lucky You - JoLayne Lucks lives in a town infamous for its suspicious miracles, but she's still elated when her lottery numbers finally pay off big – $28 million, to be exact. And she has great plans for her fortune: to save a rare piece of Florida paradise from the bulldozers. Only one problem: There's another winning Lotto ticket, and the people who've got it just never learned how to share. When the two militia wannabes swipe JoLayne's ticket, she enlists an off-the-rails newspaperman to help her track down the trigger-happy creeps and their bewildered hostage, a Hooters waitress. Getting rich quick is never easy...

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Native Tongue - When the precious clue-tongued mango voles at the Amazing Kingdom of Thrills on North Key Largo are stolen by heartless, ruthless thugs, Joe Winder wants to uncover why, and find the voles. Joe is lately a PR man for the Amazing Kingdom theme park, but now that the voles are gone, he's dragged along in their wake through a series of weird and lethal events that begin with the sleazy real-estate agent/villain Francis X. Kingsbury and can end only one way....

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Nature Girl - The engaging and diverse screwball cast includes Boyd Shreave, a semi-competent telemarketer; Shreave's mistress and co-worker, Eugenie Fonda; Honey Santana, a mercurial gadfly who ends up on the other end of one of Shreave's pitches for Florida real estate; and Sammy Tigertail, half Seminole, who at novel's start must figure out what to do with the body of a tourist who dies of a heart attack on Sammy's airboat after being struck by a harmless water snake. When Santana cooks up an elaborate scheme to punish Shreave for nasty comments he made during his solicitation call, she ends up involving her 12-year-old son, Fry, and her ex-husband in a frantic chase that enmeshes Tigertail and the young co-ed Sammy accidentally has taken hostage.

Paradise Screwed: Selected Columns of Carl Hiaasen - The columns take you on a wide-ranging safari, observing south Florida's wildlife in its natural habitat – from fat-cat politicians to migrating mobsters, drowning dolphins to stray chads. This collection of Miami Herald columns – written with a satiric wit and biting humor – will give Hiaasen fans a glimpse of the facts that inspire his frenetic fiction.

Harking back to the muckraking journalists of old, Hiaasen lets readers in on the comings and goings of corrupt local politicos, misguided tourist bureaus, and flailing sports franchises. He tackles such current events as the Elian Gonzalez imbroglio and the 2000 presidential election recount.

Scat - Mystery for kids set in Florida's Everglades: Bunny Starch, the most feared biology teacher ever, is missing. She disappeared after a school field trip to Black Vine Swamp. And, to be honest, the kids in her class are relieved... But when the principal tries to tell the students that Mrs. Starch has been called away on a "family emergency," Nick and Marta just don't buy it. No, they figure the class delinquent, Smoke, has something to do with her disappearance.

And he does! But not in the way they think. There's a lot more going on in Black Vine Swamp than any one player in this twisted tale can see. And Nick and Marta will have to reckon with an eccentric eco-avenger, a stuffed rat named Chelsea, a wannabe Texas oilman, a singing substitute teacher, and a ticked-off Florida panther before they really begin to see the big picture.

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Sick Puppy - Independently wealthy eco-terrorist Twilly Spree teaches a flagrant litterbug a lesson – and leaves the offender's precious Range Rover swarming with hungry dung beetles. When he discovers the litterer is one of the most powerful political fixers in Florida, the real Hiaasen-style fun begins.

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Skin Tight - In his attempt to lead a quiet life, ex-investigator Mick Stranahan doesn't expect to have a Mafia hit-man come knocking on his door. He disposes of him promptly with a stuffed marlin head. On closer inspection, he notices that the man has recently undergone plastic surgery...

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Skinny Dip - Marine biologist Chaz Perrone can't tell a sea horse from a sawhorse. And when he throws his beautiful wife, Joey, off a cruise liner, he really should know better. An expert swimmer, Joey makes her way to a floating bale of Jamaican pot – and then to an island inhabited by an ex-cop named Mick Stranahan, whose ex-wives include five waitresses and a TV producer. Now, Joey wants to get revenge on Chaz, and Mick's happy to help her. But in swampy South Florida, separating lies from truths and stupidity from brilliance isn't easy. Especially when you're after a guy like Chaz – who's bad at murder, great at fraud, and just terrible at getting caught...

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Star Island - Meet 22-year-old Cherry Pye (née Cheryl Bunterman), a pop star since she was fourteen – and about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster. Now, meet Cherry again: in the person of her “undercover stunt double,” Ann DeLusia. Ann portrays Cherry whenever the singer is too “indisposed” – meaning wasted – to go out in public. And it is Ann-mistaken-for-Cherry who is kidnapped from a South Beach hotel by obsessed paparazzo Bang Abbott.

Now the challenge for Cherry’s handlers (über stage mother; horndog record producer; nipped, tucked, and Botoxed twin publicists; weed whacker-wielding bodyguard) is to rescue Ann while keeping her existence a secret from Cherry’s public – and from Cherry herself. The situation is more complicated than they know. Ann has had a bewitching encounter with Skink – the unhinged former governor of Florida living wild in a mangrove swamp – and now he’s heading for Miami to find her... Will Bang Abbott achieve his fantasy of a lucrative private photo session with Cherry Pye? Will Cherry sober up in time to lip-synch her way through her concert tour? Will Skink track down Ann DeLusia before Cherry’s motley posse does?

Stormy Weather - When a ferocious hurricane rips through Southern Florida, the con artists and carpetbaggers waste no time swarming over the disaster area. Among the predators are Edie Marsh, an entrepreneurial young woman whose scheme to sleep with a Palm Beach Kennedy has fizzled, freeing her to concoct a colossal insurance rip-off; Lester Maddox Parsons, a murderous ex-con whose violent encounter with a game warden has left him with the fitting nickname of "Snapper;" and Avila, a crooked building inspector-turned-roofer, who dabbles somewhat unsuccessfully in the occult.

Caught in the middle are Max and Bonnie Lamb, newlyweds torn in wildly different directions by the storm. It is Max's fateful decision to abort their Disney World honeymoon and race to Dade County to see the terrible devastation. Armed with a video camera, the ambitious young advertising executive can't wait to show his hurricane tapes to his buddies back in New York. Over Bonnie's objections, Max eagerly sets out through the rubble, debris, and mayhem – and promptly vanishes. The only clue to his whereabouts: a runaway monkey. But there's also a man called Skink who has devoted his very strange existence to saving Florida from the kinds of people blown in by the hurricane. It is he, crazed and determined, who prowls the swath of the storm and forever changes the lives of Max, Bonnie, Edie, and the others.

Strip Tease - Congressman David Dilbeck has a bad problem. "I should never," he says, "be around naked women." And late one night, at a gaudy Fort Lauderdale strip joint, Dilbeck loses control. He leaps onto the stage with the performers and proceeds to demonstrate his affections in a most unconventional way. The congressman barely escapes the scene, but not before being recognized by an odd little customer known as Mr. Peepers – an unlikely blackmailer, but (it turns out) a cunning one. From the staid corridors of Congress to the sweltering cane fields of Lake Okeechobee, from a topless wrestling pit to a sunken Guatemalan banana boat...

Mystery Monday: Henning Mankell

--by Hanje Richards

Because I am a huge mystery fan, "Mystery Monday" was born. Because I like to read mysteries in order, I'm going to list and talk about them in chronological, rather than alphabetical, order.

If an author has written more than one series (and many authors have), I'll talk about different series in different posts to keep things as clear as possible. For those interested in reading some of the featured titles, I've noted at the end of each book's summary whether it's available at the Copper Queen Library or at another library in Cochise County through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Henning Mankell (born February 3, 1948) is a renowned Swedish crime writer, occasional children's author and dramatist, best known for a series of mystery novels starring his most iconic creation, Inspector Kurt Wallander.

Mankell was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and grew up in Sveg (Härjedalen) and Borås (Västergötland). Mankell's father, Ivar, was a judge and his grandfather, also called Henning Mankell (1868–1930), was a composer. At the age of 20, he started a career as author and assistant director at the Riks Theater in Stockholm. In the following years, he collaborated with several theaters in Sweden.

In his youth, Mankell was a left-wing political activist and a strong opponent of the Vietnam War, South African apartheid, and Portugal's colonial war in Mozambique. In the 1970s, Mankell moved from Sweden to Norway and lived with a Norwegian woman who was a member of the Maoist Communist Labor Party of Norway. Mankell took part in the party's activities but never himself joined the party.

After living in Zambia and other African countries, Mankell was invited to become the artistic director of Teatro Avenida in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. He now spends at least half the year in Maputo working with the theater and writing.

Recently, he built up his own publishing house (Leopard Förlag) in order to support young talents from Africa and Sweden.

He is married to Eva Bergman, daughter of Ingmar Bergman. On June 12, 2008 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

The Kurt Wallander, Linda Wallander and Stefan Lindman Series are intertwined.

Kurt Wallander is a fictional police inspector living and working in Ystad, Sweden. In the novels, he solves shocking murders with his colleagues. The novels have an underlying question: "What went wrong with Swedish society?" The series has won many awards, including the German Crime Prize and the British 2001 CWA Gold Dagger for Sidetracked. The ninth book, The Pyramid, is a collection of short stories about Wallander's past.

The English traslations are not being published in order. This list is in the order in which they occur in the timeline of the series. (Information from http://www.inspector-wallander.org/)
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The Pyramid - Revealing a side of Wallander that we have never seen, the long stories collected in The Pyramid are vintage Mankell. Here, we see Wallander on his homicide first case as a twenty-one-year-old patrolman, as a young father facing unexpected danger on Christmas Eve, as a middle-aged detective with his marriage on the brink, as a newly separated investigator solving the brutal murder of a local photographer, and finally as a veteran detective, with his signature methodical and instinctive work style, discovering unexpected connections between a downed plane and the assassination of a pair of spinster sisters. In these five riveting tales, we watch Kurt Wallander come into his own not only as a detective but as a human being. (available through ILL)

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Faceless Killers - It was a senselessly violent crime: on a cold night in a remote Swedish farmhouse an elderly farmer is bludgeoned to death, and his wife is left to die with a noose around her neck. And as if this didn’t present enough problems for the Inspector Kurt Wallander, the dying woman’s last word is foreign, leaving the police the one tangible clue they have – and in the process, the match that could inflame Sweden’s already smoldering anti-immigrant sentiments.

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Unlike the situation with his ex-wife, his estranged daughter, or the beautiful but married young prosecutor who has piqued his interest, in this case, Wallander finds a problem he can handle. He quickly becomes obsessed with solving the crime before the already-tense situation explodes, but soon comes to realize that it will require all his reserves of energy and dedication to solve. (available at CQL)
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The Dogs of Riga - Set against the chaotic backdrop of eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the provincial Swedish detective takes on a probably fruitless task: investigating the murders of two unidentified men washed up on the Swedish coast in an inflatable dinghy. The only clues: their dental work suggests they're from an Eastern Bloc country; the raft is Yugoslavian. But their deaths mushroom into an international incident that takes Wallander to Riga, Latvia, and enmeshes him in an incredibly dangerous and emotionally draining situation, battling forces far larger than the "bloodless burglaries and frauds" he typically pursues in Sweden. In Riga, Wallander must deal with widespread governmental corruption, which opens his eyes to the chilling reality of life in the totalitarian Eastern Bloc. (available at CQL)

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The White Lioness - The execution-style murder of a Swedish housewife looks like a simple case even though there is no obvious suspect. But then Wallander learns of a determined stalker, and soon enough, the cops catch up with him. But when his alibi turns out to be airtight, they realize that what seemed a simple crime of passion is actually far more complex – and dangerous. The search for the truth behind the killing eventually uncovers an assassination plot, and Wallander soon finds himself in a tangle with both the secret police and a ruthless foreign agent. Lioness combines compelling insights into the sinister side of modern life with a riveting tale of international intrigue. (available at CQL)

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The Man Who Smiled - A lawyer driving home at night stops to investigate an effigy sitting in a chair in the middle of the highway. The lawyer is hit over the head and dies. Within a week, the lawyer’s son is also killed. These deeply puzzling mysteries compel Wallander to remain on the force. The prime suspect is a powerful corporate mogul with a gleaming smile that Wallander believes hides the evil glee of a killer. Joined by Ann-Britt Hoglund, Wallander begins to uncover the truth, but the same merciless individuals responsible for the murders are now closing in on him. (available at CQL)

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.Sidetracked - Kurt Wallander is called to a nearby rapeseed field where a teenage girl has been loitering all day long. He arrives just in time to watch her douse herself in gasoline and set herself aflame. The next day, he is called to a beach where Sweden’s former Minister of Justice has been axed to death and scalped. The murder has the obvious markings of a demented serial killer, and Wallander is frantic to find him before he strikes again. But his investigation is beset with a handful of obstacles – a department distracted by the threat of impending cutbacks and the frivolity of World Cup soccer, a tenuous long-distance relationship with a murdered policeman’s widow, and the unshakably haunting preoccupation with the young girl who set herself on fire. (available at CQL)

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The Fifth Woman - Ystad is not a mean-streets sort of town, so when three murders materialize in a space of time unsettlingly short, the first thing Swedish police inspector Kurt Wallander must figure out is whether the cases are connected. It doesn't take him long to decide that they are and that, moreover, there's nothing really subtle about the link. Brutality unites them, he tells his veteran corps of homicide specialists. With an m.o. of sorts established, Wallander launches his manhunt, and then to his surprise – and considerable dismay – realizes that it is, in fact, a womanhunt. In Sweden? A female serial killer? Difficult for him to come to terms with, and yet as bits and pieces of evidence accrue – intangible, yet compelling – that conclusion becomes hard to evade. (available at CQL)

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One Step Behind - On Midsummer’s Eve, three role-playing teens dressed in eighteenth-century garb are shot in a secluded Swedish meadow. When one of Inspector Kurt Wallander’s most trusted colleagues – someone on whose help he hoped to rely to solve the crime – also turns up dead, Wallander knows the murders are related. But with his only clue a picture of a woman no one in Sweden seems to know, he can’t begin to imagine how. Reeling from his own father’s death and facing his own deteriorating health, Wallander tracks the lethal progress of the killer. Locked in a desperate effort to catch him before he strikes again, Wallander always seems to be just one step behind. (available at CQL)

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Firewall - In the small town of Ystad, a pair of seemingly random events take place within a matter of days: two teenage girls with no apparent motive brutally beat and stab a taxi driver to death, and a remarkably healthy man checks his bank balance at an ATM and then collapses dead on the sidewalk. After two more odd murders, Wallander becomes convinced that the incidents are all connected. The recurring clues demonstrating the vulnerability of society in the electronic age remain just outside of the Luddite inspector's understanding. But once he detects a conspiracy to collapse the world's financial infrastructure on a specific date, Wallander, whose position at work is already imperiled, ignores office politics and protocol to stop the would-be revolutionary. (available at CQL)

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Return of the Dancing Master - When retired policeman Herbert Molin is found brutally slaughtered on his remote farm in the northern forests of Sweden, police find strange tracks in the snow – as if someone had been practicing the tango. Stefan Lindman, a young police officer recently diagnosed with mouth cancer, decides to investigate the murder of his former colleague but is soon enmeshed in a mystifying case with no witnesses and no apparent motives. Terrified of the disease that could take his life, Lindman becomes more and more reckless as he unearths the chilling links between Molin’s death and an underground neo-Nazi network that runs further and deeper than he could ever have imagined. (available at CQL)
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Before the Frost - In this latest atmospheric thriller, Kurt Wallander and his daughter, Linda, join forces to search for a religious fanatic on a murder spree. Just graduated from the police academy, Linda Wallander returns to Skane to join the police force, and she already shows all the hallmarks of her father – the maverick approach, the flaring temper. Before she even starts work, she becomes embroiled in the case of her childhood friend Anna, who has inexplicably disappeared. As the case her father is working on dovetails with her own, something far more dangerous than either could have imagined begins to emerge. They soon find themselves forced to confront a group of extremists bent on punishing the world's sinners. (available at CQL)

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The final book in the series is The Troubled Man (or The Worried Man), with an expected publication date of 2011). Look for it at the Copper Queen Library!