Reading right now:

            “The Player” by Brad Parks. Parks’ books are funny, easy to read, and suspenseful. This is the fifth book in the series which started with the award-winning “Faces of the Gone.” Investigative reporter Carter Ross gets a tip that residents of a Newark neighborhood are getting ill and one even died. When he goes to talk to the residents who are experiencing the mystery illness, he too becomes ill and starts tracking down the source. Sometimes the people that populate Parks’ novels seem a little over the top (especially the women), but they do make me smile since I seem to know plenty of over the top people in real life. I really got involved with the story and enjoyed the way a reporter’s sources can lead to the truth.

On hold right now:

            “Ghost of a Gamble” by Sue Ann Jaffarian. This is the fourth Ghost of Granny Apples mystery series. Emma Whitecastle is Granny Apples’ great-who-knows-how-many-greats-granddaughter who sees ghosts and solves mysteries. This time the two are headed to Las Vegas to help a former showgirl stay safe from the mob. I can’t wait to read this one since these books are always hilarious fun.

I could be a player, but too busy reading.

Other Mysterious Things Available:

There are some very famous mystery authors who started out as journalists and quite a few mystery sleuths are journalists. Some of the authors who use a reporter as the center of their mystery novels include:

Canadian author Linwood Barclay is a journalist in real life and has written a four book series with Zack Walker feature writer at their center. NPR’s Day to Day correspondent Karen Grigsby Bates has written two books with reporter Alex Powell whose curiosity gets her into a world of trouble. Even though Lilian Jackson Braun died in 2011 her Jim Qwilleran “cat who” series is still a terrific read. There are 29 books available in the series all featuring reporter Jim Qwilleran. Jan Brogan’s three part mystery series stars reporter Hallie Ahern. Edna Buchanan’s crime reporter Britt Montero is featured in a nine part series. “Contents Under Pressure” was the first in the series which came out in 1992, the ninth book was “Love Kills” in 2007, and the latest buzz is that the tenth book is coming out in 2015 and called “Dead Man’s Daughter.” One of my favorite fictional reporters is Jan Burke’s Irene Kelly which started in 1993 with “Goodnight, Irene” and the 11^th book was “Disturbance” in 2011. Two of Margaret Coel’s books are about reporter Catherine McLeod (see “Blood Memory” and “The Perfect Suspect”). Colin Cotterill’s three book series with Thailand reporter Jimm Juree is a great series (“Killed at the Whim of  a Hat” was the first in the series).

There are so many wonderful authors to mention in this list that I will continue next week!