Books And Murder

This may come as a surprise to those acquainted with me but I enjoy being a people watcher. What may shock them even more may be when I say that I do most of my people watching in the privacy of my own home. This should not be a surprise because I love to read mysteries and fiction. So how does that work?

Here is a book I just read. This is the first in the Bibliophile Mystery Series. You see the title is Homicide in Hardcover and it is by Kate Carlisle. This was a book recommended to me by the director of my local library it was a book used by one of the book discussion groups she belonged to. Yes ... it is fiction and the characters in it are not real live people. But the characters have roots. And from my seat and I can watch them as I read the book.

In this book I encounter some "people" I would not typically meet where I live in Texas. This book takes place in California. The sleuth in this story is named Brooklyn Wainwright and it is "through her eyes" that I get to do my people watching. You see ... she was raised by her parents in a commune and this is how I learn a little about the life there.

One of the things she learned to do in her community was how to to restore books and we get a glimpse of this in the book. Her mentor / teacher is Abraham Karastowsky and he has asked her to help him restore a copy of Faust. But before they start working on this project, Brooklyn finds him dying and he gives her a warning with his last breath - Remember the devil. Unable to learn anything else before he dies, Brooklyn must learn more about this by doing some investigating on her own. Did Abraham die because of the curse of Faust? Who would want to murder Abraham and Why?

There were a lot of interesting "people" introduced through the eyes of Brooklyn and this was one of the things I liked about the book. I certainly do not have this many people "walking through my house". I was equally surprised by how one of my favorite interests - Texas - was thrown into the story. And of course one of the benefits of people watching are the things you learn like a phrase used by one of the characters - "feather buckets". It was a phrase made up by one of the characters and his brother because their parents forbade them from using curse words.

Finally, I also love the word bibliophile - someone who loves books. And if you love books (and mysteries), this is certainly one you would love to read.