Friday, December 25, 2015

Laurie Cass

Laurie Cass writes the Bookmoble Cat Mysteries, set in northwest lower Michigan. The latest volume is Pouncing on Murder, the 4th book in the series.

Recently I asked Cass about what she was reading. Her reply:
For months, I’d been resisting the recommendation of a friend of mine to read a certain book. “You’ll love it,” she kept insisting, but it was set in a post-plague world and I figured I’d read enough of those. I didn’t want to read it and get one of those post-book hangovers that left me depressed for days.

But I finally gave in. And you know what? She was right. I did love it. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. It is set in a post-plague world, and parts of it are downright depressing and even frightening, but…but I won’t say anything else other than that it was outstanding. I could never in a million years have written anything like that and I bow to St. John Mandel’s amazing powers.

While I’m on the treadmill, I listen to books on CD, and I just finished Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune. This is a biography by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bill Dedman and it’s flat out fascinating.

I’m also in the middle of An Imperfect Spy, by Amanda Cross. This mystery series features Kate Fansler, an English professor who likes to thumb her nose at the Establishment in very elegant and erudite ways. Amanda Cross was the pen name of Carolyn Gold Heilbrun, who was also an English professor. Write what you know.

Plus I’m reading The Promise by Robert Crais, the latest in the Elvis Cole private detective series. Crais started his writing career as a scriptwriters for TV; Quincy, Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, all shows I enjoyed watching, so it’s no surprise that I enjoy his books, too.
Visit the official Laurie Cass website.

The Page 69 Test: Pouncing on Murder.

--Marshal Zeringue