My Five Best Books Featuring Monsters and/or Ghoulies and Things That Go Bump In the Night

5 Best Books is a Weekly Meme hosted by Cassandra at her blog, INDIEREADERHOUSTON.

First things first: Define monster. I'm using a broad definition of the word.

In truth, almost every mystery and/or thriller I read has some sort of monster in it. A murderer, by definition, is usually a monster. He doesn't necessarily have to have claws or horns or fangs or be covered in fur or scales or whatnot. A monster doesn't always have to be repulsive either. There can be wonderful monsters. (As in my first book choice.) Are we agreed?

I've left off the more obvious monster-type books because I'm saving those for a Halloween post.

Okay, then let's get to my variations on a theme:

1) JURASSIC PARK by Michael Crichton

I've only read three of Crichton's books - but these three I really enjoyed because the subject matter appealed to me. Besides JURASSIC PARK, I've read THE LOST WORLD and TIMELINE.

In JURASSIC PARK, the 'monsters' are wondrous - dinosaurs brought into the modern age. A 'monstrous' idea that almost immediately goes wrong.  Dinosaurs have already had their time on earth, they don't belong here. But now that they are here, you can hardly blame them if they behave according to their genetic instructions. They intrude. We intrude. It's a clash destined for a bad end.

2) KRAKEN by China Mieville

A religion that worships giant squids is only one of the 'monstrous' ideas put forth by the sharply inventive mind of China Mieville. His style is commonly defined as  'the new wierd'. But I just call it monstrously inventive.

The Kraken of the title is a desiccated Giant Squid being exhibited in London's Natural History Museum where Billy Harrow is the mollusks curator. When the the squid and the tank full of chemicals in which his intact monstrousness floats, is somehow whisked from the museum practically under the noses of Billy and the staff, it is the beginning of an apocalyptic adventure the likes of which very few of us have ever encountered.

Though somewhat confusing in scope, especially near the end, this remains a terrific dystopian read full of stunningly vibrant ideas, visuals and thoroughly vile and icky villains.

One of my favorites ideas posited by the author: that somehow the ocean comes visiting on dry land. Staying - intact - at a house in London. How this can happen - who knows? You have to read it.

3) THE HARRY POTTER BOOKS by J.K. Rowling

Though I enjoyed the series as a whole, my favorites  (besides THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN)
are the last two massive tomes which I consumed in one great orgy of reading.

And I ask you - who is a bigger or fiercer monster than he who must not be named?  Well, what the heck, I'll go ahead and name him anyway: Voldemort.

4) RELIC by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

A monstrous killer on the loose in NYC's American Museum of Natural History. The police are baffled. It appears the killings are the work of some half man/half lizard relic brought back from the Amazon - part of the new Amazonian exhibit about to open at the Museum.

Very few do eerie in the dead of night better than Preston and Child. Their books are not great literature, just terrific thrilling tales usually involving a deranged killer with an inventive (and often incredible) modus operandi encased inside a labyrinth of outrageous clues and fantastic plot twists.

I love a dark tale that takes place in a museum. I always imagine that a museum in the dead of night would not be the cheeriest place to be. I read RELIC ages ago and as usual, most of it exists in a fuzzy haze in my brain, but I think this is the oh-so-eccentric FBI agent Pendergast's debut.

5) KEEPING THE DEAD by Tess Gerritsen (I read this when it had another and better title, THE KEEPSAKE.)

Another murder in a museum thriller, perfect for an October night. This time it's Boston's Crispin Museum where, in a dusty corner, a forgotten mummy is found. But the contents turn out to be most emphatically NOT two thousand years old. Instead, they are the remains of a modern day murder victim.

When another 'mummy' victim turns up in another dark corner of the museum, who will stop the Archeology Killer? Boston's crime fighting duo, forensic pathologist Maura Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli are called in to solve this strangest of cases.

5 Best Books: Ghost Stories

5 Best Books is the weekly meme hosted by Cassandra at INDIE READER HOUSTON. Each week there's a different topic. Each week there's a new list of favorites. Don't forget to check in at IRH to see what books other bloggers are listing this week.

This week the theme is GHOSTS.

But, since I rarely read ghost stories, I've just barely come up with five.

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1) ODD THOMAS by Dean Koontz

Not strictly a ghost story as most of us think of ghost stories, but certainly ghosts show up here and there to make Odd Thomas (one of the great character names in literary history), the story of a self-effacing, short order cook who sees dead people, memorable. This is  a gripping and very affecting story. Heartbreaking, really. Koontz's masterpiece.

2) BROTHER ODD by Dean Koontz

My favorite of the Odd sequels as the former short order cook seeks refuge in a monastery, still plagued by the spirits of the dead still unable to avoid the machinations of evil lurking in the shadows.

3) NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEED by E. J. Copperman

The first Haunted Guesthouse Mystery. A fun story of a pair of ghosts (one's a murdered detective) who haunt a New Jersey guest house. The place is newly purchased and being renovated by Alison Kirby who's moved in with her ten year old daughter and lots of plans that don't, necessarily, include two intrusive ghosts.

The second book in the series is now available, by the way, AN UNINVITED GHOST.

4) THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Not a ghost story per se, since the ghostly presence turns out to be very human - BUT, a story with all the spookiness and strange doings in a big old house in the country that make for a great and very satisfying ghostly story.

When Rachel Innes rents a huge mansion by the sea, offered at a suspiciously low price, she doesn't expect murder and things that go bump in the night to be part of the summer perks.

5) A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens

A haunting story of redemption that begins with a ghost and ends with the Merriest of Christmases. What more could you want?

Five Best Books: This Week - The Banned and the Challenged

Since it's Banned Book Week, the subject matter at Cassandra's 5 Best Books weekly meme at INDIE READER HOUSTON is, appropriately enough: 5 Best Banned or Challenged Books. Check out Cassandra's wonderful post re: banned books and her own 5 Best.

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My List of 5 Best Banned Books

1) THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY

My own favorite personal dictionary. I've used it for years. I double-check words in it almost every day. I prefer a book dictionary to the online sort. The book has a handy place of honor at my right near my computer. To my knowledge, no one has ever been harmed by using a dictionary. Unless they've dropped it on a toe.

2) TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee

A book about doing the right thing while under enormous pressure to do otherwise. Also a book about honor, friendship, the rigors of childhood and the importance of truth.

) THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL by Anne Frank - non-fiction

The hopes and fears and day to day thoughts of a young Jewish girl as she hides in an attic with her family, 1942 - 1944. It is Occupied Holland and the Nazis are rounding up all Jews to send to the concentration camps. Hitler's Final Solution and it's tragic personal effect on the life of one girl and her family.

4) LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding

A plane full of young boys crashes on an isolated island. All the adults are dead. With no one to supervise, the boys run wild and eventually revert to cruel pack behavior. Sort of like boarding school but with killing. In this grim and powerful book, author William Golding does not sugar-coat the more unpleasant aspects of childhood.

5) MAURICE by E.M. Forster

Forster, a homosexual himself, held back this manuscript to be published after his death, knowing the furor it would cause if published in his lifetime. It is the very moving, romantically written love story of two men who cannot reconcile their love and of a third man, a working class man, who can. Some readers did mind the happy, if somewhat ambiguous, ending, but I didn't. I wanted Maurice to be happy.

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Where they have burned books, they will eventually burn human beings.

Herinrich Heine.

5 Best Books: Aspects of Tragedy

5 Best Books is the weekly meme hosted by Cassandra at her blog INDIE READER HOUSTON. Each week there's a new topic about which to post 5 Best Books.

This week it's tragedy's turn. A topic fitting this week's date and grim anniversary.

I must say I don't, normally, read tragedies or tragic stories with uplifting endings. (Did enough of that in school.) For whatever reason these are not the sorts of books that interest me. But I did manage to find a few that might fit the bill for this week's topic.

1) THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeannette Walls - Non-Fiction.

A harrowing account of growing up in a family where the 'adults' were totally unprepared and unfit to be parents. It is amazing to me that the Jeanette and her three siblings grew up at all. This is not the kind of book I will generally read, but I'd heard so much about it and read such favorable press that I took the plunge. I finished the book full of admiration for the resilience of the author and her siblings.

Four children living under dreadful conditions, dragged from place to place across the country as their dysfunctional mother and father took odd jobs (when they worked at all) and left the kids - literally - to take care of themselves. When we first meet Jeanette, she is three or four years old and boiling hot dogs because her mother has forgotten to feed her. The water topples over and Jeanette is burned terribly and must be rushed to the hospital where later her father grabs her, sure that the doctors are up to no good, and races out of the hospital before anyone thinks to stop him.

One of the things I found most disturbing about this book is how no one in authority intervened to remove these children from these mentally disturbed parents. It was left up to the kids to survive on their own. How Jeanette Walls manages to grow up, marry and carve a career for herself AND to forgive her parents is an incredible testament to the human spirit.

2) THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK by Anne Frank - Non-Fiction

I wonder if this book is required reading anymore. I hope it is. Another testament to the human spirit living day-to-day under the most adverse conditions. Though the story ended in tragedy, the diary - one of the most widely read documents to come out of WWII - is itself a hopeful and 'ordinary' accounting of a sensitive Jewish girl on the threshold of young womanhood. It is 1942 and the Nazis have occupied the Netherlands. Anne and her family are forced to live in an attic - hidden by the people downstairs while outside, the Nazis seize most of Europe. A deserving classic of its kind.

3) THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak

A remarkable tale which if I didn't know better would make me think that the narrator - Death - was trying to make himself and his grim task understood. Set in a village outside Munich, Germany during WWII, this is also the story of Leisel Meminger, a girl barely eking out an existence while Death keeps a close eye on her. Leisel is a reader and not above appropriating a book here and there - hence the title. THE BOOK THIEF is also about the ability of books to feed the human soul even during a time of terrible darkness. It is also about the necessary accommodations humans make in order to co-exist with evil.

4) CLOSING TIME by Jim Fusilli

This is the first in a deeply affecting NYC noir trilogy (actually there are four books so far in the series, but I'm calling it a trilogy because the first three books make for a very moving and incredibly heartbreaking story which MUST be read in sequence) - the second book is A WELL KEPT SECRET and the third is TRIBECA BLUES.

This is the story of NYC private detective Terry Orr and his precocious adolescent daughter Bella. It is the story of a man struggling under a horrible burden: his wife and infant son murdered by a madman - thrown under the wheels of a subway train - and of not having had even a glimmer of so-called closure; the killer is still at large two years after the crime. The suspect is a Raymond Montgomery Weisz and so far he has managed to elude the police. Obsessed and impatient with the official investigation, Terry Orr himself has procured a private detective license so he can search for the killer.

The first two books take us on a journey through Terry's current cases as he earns a living for himself and his daughter though his wife - a famous artist - had left them quite comfortably off. Still, NYC is an expensive town to live in. Terry's daughter Bella is as strong a creation as he is, perhaps even stronger because Terry, despite his attempts at normal fathering, wears his obsessive grief like a shield. It took a while for me to learn to like him - he is not an instantly agreeable character. And as  we read through the first two books there's just something about the story of his wife's death that seems a little odd.

But it's not until the third book that we begin to see the whole picture develop. We learn little by little, what actually happened that awful day in the subway. And the truth of the story is even more bizarre and heartbreaking than we at first imagined. This is a powerhouse of a story. Jim Fusilli, a music critic in real life, writes with compelling grace and clarity, giving us an unique picture of a New York City (and its inhabitants) he knows very, very well.

5) DOOMSDAY BOOK by Connie Willis

Kivrin, a 21st century student historian (Oxford in 2048) is caught  - by a glitch in the time travel proceedings - in 14th  century England, in an area ravaged by the Black Death. As the plague wipes out half of Europe and eventually reaches the small community living on a secluded estate in the countryside, one by one, the characters - some of whom she's become quite fond of - die off.

Kivrin views her own doom as she does her best to deal with the encroaching tragedy. In the meantime, the historians back in the 21st century squabble as time begins to run out.

5 Best Books: Academia

5 Best Books is the weekly meme hosted by Cassandra at INDIE READER HOUSTON. Each week there's a new topic and 5 book picks to talk about. This week it's books set in, around or having anything to do with Academia. Okay, here we go.

1) STRAIGHT MAN by Richard Russo

I can't do any better than the description used on Russo's fantastic fiction website page, so here it is:

During one tortuous week, Hank Devereaux, head of the English department at the state university in Railton, Pennsylvania, has his nose slashed by a feminist poet, finds his secretary is a better writer than he is, suspects his wife is having an affair, threatens wild fowl, and confronts his father.

A funny book. I am a major fan of Richard Russo. STRAIGHT MAN is one of the reasons why.

2)  QUIETER THAN SLEEP A Modern Mystery of Emily Dickinson by Joanne Dobson

The first entry in a mystery series set at a small private college in New England. Assistant English professor Karen Pellietier confronts academic mayhem when the dead body of a another professor falls out of a closet and into her arms. This is certainly no way to earn tenure. Somehow she is soon caught up in helping the police when the poetry of Emily Dickinson appears to have something to do with the murder. A terrific series which makes the most of academic chicanery. Check this link to see the list of other books in the Karen Pelletier series.

3)  THE GRASSHOPPER KING by Jordan Ellenberg

Yes, I know, I talk about this book every chance I get. But here, I have no choice but to bring it up again since most of the book takes place at or near Chandler State University a center for mediocre intellectualism. Chandler's one claim to fame is its Department of Gravinics dedicated to the study of the language, mythology and history of a small all but forgotten country set in the Carpathian foothills. That country's claim to fame is a dead (?) English expatriate poet named Henderson. Professor Stanley Higgs who heads the Department of Gravinics, is a world renown expert on Hendersons obscure poetry since he'd discovered a stash of Henderson's work (in the garbage) while traveling in Berlin.

Unfortunately, academic super star Higgs hasn't spoken in 13 years, which makes his lectures somewhat difficult. When Samuel Grapearbor joins Chandler's Ph.D. program, he is put in charge of Progessor Higgs. Samuel, while working on the difficult translations of Henderson's poetry,  must check in at the Higgs house every day and spend hours observing, waiting for the checker-playing Professor to make any kind of utterance. To that end Higg's entire house is rigged with tape recorders - just in case.

For my money, THE GRASSHOPPER KING is a brilliant satire of academia, marriage, the rewards of eccentricity, bad poetry and the general quirkiness of life.. The book is chock full of wry observation and absurd situations (often deadpan hilarious) as well as some pretty gorgeous writing.

4)  CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS by Agatha Christie

Maybe the first murder at Meadowbanks, the prestigious and very exclusive boarding school for girls from the finest families in Europe, doesn't mean the end of the school, but the second and third murders certainly do. Or do they? Can the resourceful Meadowbank staff save the day? Will Hercule Poirot catch a ruthless killer in time? What do you think? One of my very favorite Christie books.

5) VILLAGE SCHOOL by Miss Read

A gentle, affecting story - the first in a series (sort of, they can each be read as separate books also), set in the English country village of Fairacre. This is perfect reading anytime, but especially for when life has frazzled you. Written in the 1950's, Miss Read has the ability to make the most mundane things seem interesting. I guarantee that the day to day existence of this charming village and its small school will take you away to a time when life seemed very much simpler and people lived very different lives.

5 Best Books: 5 Best Books Based On A True Story

For whatever reason, I don't normally seem to read fiction books that are based on true stories. But checking through my various lists, I've managed to come up with five. To my surprise, there are actually a couple more but I've spoken about those recently under other headings. At the risk of repeating myself, don't wan't to keep repeating myself. You know how it goes.

5 Best Books is a weekly meme hosted by Cassandra at INDIE READER HOUSTON Don't forget to check in this week to see what 5 Bests other bloggers are talking about.

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1) THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR by Josephine Tey

A story by the wonderful Golden Age writer, updated but based on the notorious 18th century case of Elizabeth Canning, a maid who claimed to have been abducted and held against her will by two women. (Read about the Canning case here.)

Robert Blair, a small town English solicitor is called upon to help Marion Sharpe and her mother when a maid, Betty Kane, accuses them of holding her prisoner in their country home known as The Franchise.

Tey's book has been turned into a film and several television adaptations followed. THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR was picked as one of the 100 Best Mysteries by the UK Crime Writers Association.

2) ELEVEN DAYS by Donald Harstad

Author Harstad was once a cop out in the Midwest himself and this story is based on a shocking real event. Written in a taut business-like manner (which I happen to like very much for this sort of story), this is a police procedural set in the fictional town of Maitland, Iowa and featuring a likable cast of characters, most especially the lead cop, Carl Houseman.

A distress call comes into the police station from a local farm. When the police arrive, they find a horrible scene, a dead family and no clues to the whereabouts of the killer or killers. But this is only the beginning of the violence. The laconic sheriff, Carl Houseman is baffled and though the story may at first appear to be a 'Fargo meets Dragnet' sort of thing, be assured the story soon takes off, resulting in a rock 'em sock 'em ending which will leave you breathless.

This is one of my all time favorite books, a debut by a guy who knew what he was doing and went on to write several more highly recommended books featuring Houseman and his stalwart cop crew.

An aside: This would make a great movie. It surprises me that no one's thought of it.

3) WHITE SHADOW by Ace Atkins

A gritty and violent re-telling/re-imagining of the famous Florida murder of mob boss Charlie Wall. The author is a former award winning reporter turned writer of extraordinary crime books. (As well as the brilliant Nick Travers series.) He takes great care to create fictional characters who will integrate smoothly with his meticulously researched facts. Few writers do this as well as Atkins.

Tampa, Florida in the 1950's was a hotbed of criminal activity -  Sicilian and Cuban mobsters had a strangle-hold on the town. It was an unseemly mix of smoky nightclubs, cigar factories , brothels and gangsters left to practice their various nefarious trades unchecked. So, when a mob boss is bludgeoned to death, the truth is the least of anyone's worries.

4) THE DAUGHTER OF TIME by Josephine Tey

Another Tey book which would easily go on my  own list of 100 Best Books. When Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant is hospitalized with a broken leg, he has enough time on his hands to seek out the truth behind the assumed guilt of Richard the III, the hunch-backed monster of a king who supposedly murdered his two nephews to usurp the British throne. The two young boys were tucked up in the Tower (for their protection) and never seen again.

While lying in his hospital bed, Grant solves 'the case' to Tey's satisfaction (and mine). This is a brilliant story told in 'modern day' detective fashion as Grant uses reason and research material brought to him by a friend, to ferret out the historical truth.

If you haven't read this, I urge you to do so, especially if you have any interest whatsoever in English history and vintage mysteries.

5) THE TOMB OF THE GOLDEN BIRD by Elizabeth Peters

Fictional characters Amelia Peabody and her irascible husband, Radcliffe (known simply as Emerson) and their intrepid family, are back in Egypt and on the verge of making the greatest archaeological discovery in history - the tomb of Tutankhamun. Unfortunately their reputation for trouble precedes them and they have been forbidden from digging anywhere in The Valley of the Kings.

Convinced the discovery of the tomb is imminent, the Emersons try to get Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter (the real-life discoverers of King Tut's tomb in 1922) to relinquish their digging rights but to no avail.

Forced to watch on the sidelines as the greatest archaeological treasure in history is uncovered, the Emersons still manage to find themselves embroiled in another mystery - "...every summer another murder." Eventually they have the satisfaction of knowing they were right in originally figuring that Tut's tomb lay waiting in The Valley of the Kings.

Read about the real life discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb here.

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Couple of other books I've recently recommended that were based on true stories:

THE PERSIAN BOY by Mary Renault

DEVIL'S GARDEN by Ace Atkins

5 Best Books: 5 Best Genre Reads

5 Best Books is a weekly meme hosted by Cassandra at her blog, INDIEREADERHOUSTON Each week we're handed a new topic - this week, 5 Best Genre Reads.

Well, it's no big secret around here that my favorite genre is Mystery/Thrillers.

But I don't want to repeat myself and keep naming and talking about the same books over and over. We all know that my favorite mysteries list would begin with THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE and O JERUSALEM, both by Laurie R. King. (And probably THE MOOR, also by King.) The next would be THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES followed by any of the assorted favorites I normally talk about or list here at blog central - Agatha Christie or Rex Stout or Ngaio Marsh, or Robert Crais, the usual suspects.

So, to avoid constantly haranguing you with the same titles and just to keep things fresh, I'm going to go out on a limb and pick 5 entirely different titles -  favorite books I've hardly ever talked about before.

1) RIVER OF DARKNESS by Rennie Airth.

While England recovers from the insanity of WWI, a horrible crime is discovered in a small Surrey village - an entire household butchered. The police, baffled, assume the gruesome scene is the result of a botched robbery. But war veteran and Scotland Yard Inspector, John Madden thinks otherwise. Still grieving the death of his own wife and child, the soulful Madden suspects a madman may be on the loose.

With the help of a country doctor (who happens to be a woman), he learns about the new science of criminal psychology. RIVER OF DARKNESS has the somber feel of another book with a similar theme, THE ALIENIST by Caleb Carr, but I think, Airth's book is a slight cut above. (Though I am a big fan of THE ALIENIST as well and would name it on any 100 Best List.)

2) THE EAGLE HAS LANDED by Jack Higgins.

'Eagle' is the code name the Nazis have given Winston Churchill. The British Prime Minister is the intended target of an ace group of German commandos who have been ordered by Hitler to either kidnap or kill Churchill. (A desperate attempt to reverse the direction of the war.) Now we all know that Churchill was never kidnapped or killed by anyone, but that doesn't lessen the intrigue and suspense as Jack Higgins unfolds this very clever story. One of my all time favorite WWII thrillers.

3) BOOKED TO DIE by John Dunning.

Tough guy Denver cop and rare book collector, Cliff Janeway debuts in the first novel - published in 1992 - of a series which I read as much for the book lore and collecting tidbits as I do for the mystery.

When a local book 'scout' (a person who has a talent for 'scouting' out the odd rare or collectible title among the dross then passing it on to dealers - a kind of middle man) is murdered, Janeway is sure he knows who the killer is. But 'knowing' and proving are two different things. When the frustrated cop goes too far in his attempts to hook a slippery local hood for the crime, he is summarily kicked off the force.

With his book expertise, what else is Janeway to do but open a bookstore and continue hunting for the killer? Makes sense to me. Especially when books from a famed and coveted collection begin popping up, not to mention more dead bodies.

This is a terrific series filled with all sorts of book tips and collecting info which, I find fascinating.

4) ORCHESTRATED DEATH by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles.

The book that introduced the stalwart and intrepid London police inspector, Bill Slider. This series is many books along, but since it's one of the best police procedurals out there (with a great cast of recurring characters), I suggest going back to the very beginning (1991) and just dive in. I've read every book except, I think, the very latest and can vouch for how plainly terrific they are. Harrrod-Eagles is a historical novelist, but some part of her, obviously, knows and loves gritty police work.

When murder upends the world of classical music in the form of a local symphony orchestra, Slider and his men and women are brought in to set things to rights and ferret out a killer. The laconic Slider has no clue that this is the case which will completely alter his life.

5) THE BOOK OF Q by Jonathan Rabb.

I always say that this is the book that the DAVINCI CODE should have been. Or, at least, if Jonathan Rabb had written the DAVINCI book, think how fabulous it would have been. Rabb is the writer Dan Brown isn't. Simple as that.

In THE BOOK OF Q, published in 2001, Rabb has fashioned a quixotic thriller which lures you into the secrets of the Catholic Church as a priest working at the Vatican must discover the truth about a recently found ancient scroll.  The Manichaeans, an early Catholic sect of zealots who advocated the supremacy of 'one pure church' were thought to be extinct, but apparently are not. Fearing that the sect has been revived and is seeking to infiltrate and take over the Church, troubled priest Ian Pearse works to solve the dangerous puzzle. Pursued by an assailant, he races against time traveling to the Balkans to find the answer even as the Vatican comes under a deadly attack.

5 Best Rereads

5 Best Books is the weekly meme hosted by Cassandra at INDIEREADERHOUSTON. Each week, it's the best five books on any given topic. This week it's Best 5 Rereads.

I reread books all the time so this is going to be an especially hard category to narrow down to five. I mean, I wouldn't reread a book if I didn't love it to begin with. Know what I mean? For me, a reread is like visiting an old friend. There's just something comforting about the whole idea.

The five books I reread most often:

1) THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE by Laurie R. King

The first book in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series is more a book of short connected stories or incidents that establish the meeting and then the growing relationship between Russell and Holmes.

She is a fifteen year old prodigy, as brilliant in her own way as Holmes. He is in early retirement - living in Sussex -though he still does take the occasional case. About a third of the way into the book, when both are threatened by a deadly enemy (for me the most suspenseful and enthralling chapters) with a surprising connection to Holmes' past, then the book coalesces into a novel once again.

 Somehow King makes it all work.

2) O JERUSALEM by Laurie R. King

I've forgotten how many times I've read this. I even own the audio and occasionally listen to it as well. This is the book that explains the side trip that Holmes and Russell must take - on the run from a ruthless enemy - near the end of THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE - a trip whose details are not explained in the first book. However O JERUSALEM is not the second book in the series. It was published later, after A MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN, A LETTER OF MARY and THE MOOR. But the story harkens back to the beginning though it works entirely on its own.

I think of this as almost a stand alone novel - Holmes and Russell go to Jerusalem in 1918, to evade an enemy, but also to run an espionage errand at the behest of Sherlock Holmes' secretive older brother Mycroft who works for the British government. While in Palestine (before the Brits left and the country became Israel) they meet up with their contacts, two 'Arab' men with their own secrets - two of King's most memorable characters - who are at first suspicious then outraged when it is explained to them that Russell must pass as a boy, a deception punishable by immediate arrest or worse.

How this suspicion and mistrust is overcome and all four characters grow to depend on one another while while on the hunt for a clever spy master fomenting trouble with the Jews and plotting a major assassination, is a brilliantly told story. You can feel Russell's awe when they enter Jerusalem (she is Jewish), feel the oppressive tension, the inherent troubles of the British occupation of Palestine. King captures the desert setting of the ancient city, you can practically feel the sand between your toes and the dust in your lungs. Of all the books in the series, this one reads the most like an action adventure than anything else.

I love this book.

3) CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS by Agatha Christie

There are three or four Christies I reread all the time - this is one of them. What makes this book intriguing is the fact that Hercule Poirot does not enter the story until the last third of the book. He is summoned then by a young school girl who has discovered a treasure hidden at the exclusive Meadowbank private school she attends - a treasure which had led to several murders. A most intriguing book with a wonderful setting: an upper class English school peopled with some of Christie's most unforgettable characters.

It also has one of Christie's more satisfying endings.

4) THE DOORBELL RANG by Rex Stout

I reread almost all the Wolfe books every now and then, but this is the one, I think, I reread most.

This is the book in which Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin do the unthinkable, they take on the FBI. Then they do the unbelievable, they win. (This is also the book which probably led to the FBI keeping a file on its outspoken author, Rex Stout.)

When a wealthy woman who is being harrassed by the FBI hires Wolfe and Archie to stop the harrassment, he demurs. But when she tells him money is no object, he weakens. A retainer of $100,000 and the promise of more is too much for Wolfe to resist. Despite Archie's protestations, he takes the case.

How the two with help from the gang: Saul, Fred and Orrie and Inspector Cramer, manage the seemingly impossible, is a joy to read. This story just never gets old.

5)  CROCODILE ON THE SANDBANK by Elizabeth Peters

The first in the Amelia Peabody series and one of several Amelia books I reread occasionally.  When a Victorian spinster of definite opinions travels to Egypt looking for adventure, she shouldn't be too surprised when she finds it in the ominous shape of a mummy run amok.

Just a great first book in one of my very favorite series written as a kind of Victorian melodrama in the style of H. Rider Haggard. You will grow to love Amelia and her 'take-charge' attitude. What doesn't she set to rights?

The book is a lot of fun besides, especially when Amelia meets the irascible and slightly demented archeologist Radcliffe Emerson - the man destined to be her husband.