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

For the spring semester, Carole Shmurak will be leading a five part series on the theme After Grafton: The Rise of the Female Detective. After Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone and Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski made their sensational debuts in 1982, publishers – and readers – eagerly sought out female detectives. These women are judges, lawyers, teachers, housekeepers, and taxi-drivers  — and for better or worse, they have lovers, nieces and nephews, mothers and fathers, sisters and lots of brothers, all of whom complicate their lives

For the month of May, we will be reading The Bluest Blood by Gillian Roberts.

The ultra-elegant fund-raiser in a fabled Main Line mansion benefits Philly Prep's Library, and gives Amanda a chance to play Cinderella for a night. The first clue that all might not go well is the host's figure hanging in effigy outside the estate, put there by the Moral Ecologists who have a long list of classic books that "pollute the mind." When murder follows, Amanda becomes enmeshed in old secrets and young lives.

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