Reading right now:

            “Ghost in the Guacamole” by Sue Ann Jaffarian. Here’s a paranormal series with down-to-earth characters that you can’t help but love. This is the fifth book in the Ghost of Granny Apples series which continues the adventures of amateur sleuth and medium Emma Whitecastle and her great-great-great grandmother the ghost of a western pioneer woman who can quote movies and TV shows with the best of them. These books are clever and funny and include a lot of California color. I really enjoy the characters, the humor, and the plots of all of these books and the current book is no exception. If you want to lighten up your mystery reading experience, you can’t go wrong with this great series.

                   

On hold right now:

            “Shark Skin Suite” by Tim Dorsey. Another mystery author who started out as a reporter, Dorsey’s darkly comic Florida noirs may not be for everyone. If you like insane oddball characters combined with grisly murders, his series may just be for you. The Serge Storms series started in 1999 with “Florida Roadkill” and continues this month with the 18^th book in this unique series. Trying to explain these books may not be possible, but just knowing that Serge Storms is a person may give you an idea that when you start reading this series you may feel that you’ve fallen down the rabbit hole. Once down there you may not want to leave so if you haven’t found these books yet start at the beginning and watch your sanity.

Other Mysterious Things:

           

            Humor is a tough recommendation. Sometimes I think something is really funny, but a friend or relative may hate it. Despite this there have been some really fun mystery movies that I have loved and maybe you might love some of them as well. “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” is a movie that I can watch over and over. I have also loved “Fletch” and all the Thin Man movies (start with “The Thin Man”), “The Last Boy Scout,” “The Trouble with Harry,”  “Arsenic and Old Lace,” and “The Truth About Charlie.” Many of Agatha Christie’s books have been made into movies, but some of the best are the ones where Margaret Rutherford played Miss Jane Marple (“Murder Ahoy,” “Murder Most Foul,” “Murder at the Gallop,” etc.). Rutherford is an hilarious Miss Marple. The six “Thin Man” movies and TV show were based on the book by Dashiell Hammett and no couple has ever been funnier than Nick and Nora Charles.

            Once you start listing them you might find that there are lots of mystery authors writing with a humorous twist. A few of these great authors include: Janet Evanovich, Claire Chilton, Victoria Laurie, Stephanie Bond, A.R. Winters, Shirley Damsgaard, Meg Cabot, Jennifer Crusie, Alice Loweecey, Susan Wittig Albert, Jill Churchill, Donna Andrews, Lawrence Block, Rhys Bowen, Dorothy Cannell, Harlan Coben, Mary Daheim, Kinky Friedman, Carolyn Hart, Joan Hess, and David Rosenfelt.

Great authors, funny books and funny movies! Try one.