Payment in Blood

This evening, my husband stopped by the Austin Public Library on his way home from work. He phoned from there to tell me he forgot to bring the title of the book I wanted. I told him, "Payment in Blood." He asked the author, and I told him, "Elizabeth George." Then I hung up the phone.

A moment later, my teenaged daughter called down from upstairs, "Who was that?" "Oh, just your Dad calling from the library. He forgot to bring my book title with him."

"Whew!" my daughter said, "I thought maybe it was the new tenants moving into the rental house this weekend!"

Well, we found out who done it! The author led us astray purposely so we wouldn't guess. Some of us felt that the possibility of guessing was there; others felt that it was very minimal. A few of us almost guessed. Payment in Blood got mixed reviews. Those who love English drawing-room mysteries enjoyed it the most, and those of us who aren't crazy about mysteries probably like English drawing-room mysteries least of all mysteries, and Payment in Blood among least of all those. It was interesting to those of us who have not read this author before to learn that these detectives appear in other books.

We ended up creating a list of other mystery writers beloved of the group, ostensibly so that those of us (who, me?) who haven't yet spent hours and hours diving into mysteries only to surface after it's too late in the day to make a fresh salad or weed a flower bed or list 10 items on Ebay would be able to start. The authors I wrote down are: Faith Kellerman, Nebada Barr, Ayelet Waldman (wife of Michael Chabon), ---Van Geeson, Elmore Kelton, and Tony Hillerman.