Mystery Book Club: After Grafton - The Rise of the Female Detective

For the fall semester, Carole Shmurak will be leading a three part series on the theme An Inspector Calls. An Inspector Calls, a play written by English dramatist J.B. Priestley and first performed in 1946 in the UK, is considered to be one of the classics of mid-20th-century English theatre. Priestley’s inspector had a supernatural, socialist agenda, but our three inspectors — Wexford, Jury, and Morse — have no agendas other than discovering the truth, bringing the criminal to justice, and entertaining the reader.

For the month of October, we will be reading Help the Poor Struggler by Martha Grimes. 

Around bleak Dartmoor, where the Hound of the Baskervilles once bayed, three children have been brutally murdered. Now Richard Jury of Scotland Yard joins forces with a hot-tempered local constable named Brian Macalvie to track down the killer.

Carole B. Shmurak, Professor Emerita at Central Connecticut State University, is the author of eleven books, including four mysteries featuring professor/sleuth Susan Lombardi: Deadmistress, Death by Committee, Death at Hilliard High, and Most Likely to Murder. As Carroll Thomas, she co-authored the Matty Trescott novels, one of which (Ring Out Wild Bells) was nominated for the Agatha Award for Best Young Adult Mystery. Carole leads monthly mystery groups at the Simsbury, Southington, and Wallingford libraries. Visit her website carole-books.com