It's a Mystery

I loved my Nancy Drew books when I was a young girl. I don't remember how many I had, but I read them again and again. (I even tuned in when Pamela Sue Martin occasionally teamed up with Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson during episodes of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries series in the 70s.) My grandmother was a huge fan of Agatha Christie novels. When she was through with one, she'd crack open another. She had worn paperbacks all over the house just waiting for her to pick them up and help solve the crimes. Even my dad is getting in on the fun. He's quite taken with a mystery author who lives in the same seaside Florida town he lives in. It must be in the blood.

As I got older, I turned my teenage affections towards the love story. What teenage girl doesn't. And being the hopeless romantic that I am, I still need a good love story fix now and again. These days I'm reading a lot of realistic fiction (gotta love these labels). Stories of women, mostly, dealing with one thing or another, sometimes there's a love story mixed in, sometimes a little mystery, but it's mostly about the struggles they face and the relationships they try to foster.

I've come full circle and now I'm ready to dive into a juicy mystery once again. I've read some Laura Lippman, I got through the first book in the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson (and I have the second one on my bookshelf when I'm brave enough to read it), I've ready several books by Lisa Scottoline, I'm due to pick up another Lisa Gardner, and it only gets more intense from there—Harlan Coben, Dean Koontz. (I'll save my Denis Lehane story for another day.)

What's Next?

Photo: NancyDrewSleuth.com