Camille Minichino

Camille Minichino is a retired physicist and math teacher and the author of numerous mysteries as well as short stories and articles. She’s also Margaret Grace, author of the Miniature Mysteries, and Ada Madison, author of the Professor Sophie Knowles Series.

The latest Sophie Knowles mystery is The Quotient of Murder.

Last month I asked Minichino about what she was reading. Her reply:

I usually read only dark, unless a book club, class presentation, or the threat of a lost friendship requires me to read light. Dexter (the Jeff Lindsay books) is my friend. Send me to bed with a serial killer or a hit man and I'm in reading heaven.

Imagine my surprise that a light book, The California Roll, by John Vorhaus, has captured my attention. The endorsements alone should have turned me off: "hilarious," "entertaining," "very funny." But Vorhaus's humor is not cheesy, not just there for a laugh. He plays with words, laughs at them, makes them up, all for the sake of his wonderful character, bafflegabber (see what I mean) Radar Hoverlander, con-artist supreme. I loved spending time with Radar, known by many other names, and practitioner of cons, one more interesting than the other.

The great game of the book is to get to know all the characters and figure out who's conning whom. Highly recommended!

Visit Camille Minichino's website.

--Marshal Zeringue