WWW.WEDNESDAY

WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here. 

PS I no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up

1. What are you currently reading? The Last Coincidence by Robert Goldsborough. Much as I enjoy mystery series, I don't tend to read them back to back. I like to mix it up a bit. I'm making an exception this week to spend more time with the gang in Nero Wolfe's brownstone. I just didn't feel ready to move on after I finished Silver Spire (below).

 

This Wolfe mystery begins without much Wolfe, at least not at first. His assistant, Archie Goodwin, takes on a project all his own. Archie's long-time lover, Lily Rowan, tells Archie that her favorite niece is involved with, and has been abused by, a Manhattan party boy named Sparky. Archie decides to get to the bottom of this as a favor to Lily, and because he believes there's a way gentlemen should behave and Sparky's been a scumbag. Anyway, things go south fast and I predict that soon, very soon, genius investigator Wolfe will have involve himself.

2. What did you recently finish reading? Silver Spire by Robert Goldsborough. This mystery is set in the late 1980s. A new super church on Staten Island is all the rage because it's one of the first to nationally televise its services. It receives a lot of attention, not all of it positive. Some crank is slipping threatening letters into the collection sack (a plate isn't big enough for the money that rolls in). As the origin of those letters is investigated, someone gets dead. Both Nero Wolfe and his assistant, Archie Goodwin, believe the letters and the murder are an inside job, committed by a church employee. The folks at the church object to this strongly.

Part of why I enjoyed this is that the faith community is treated with such respect. Neither Archie nor Wolfe belong to a church and both are skeptical about marketing and monetizing religion. But there is no condescension when it comes to the Silver Spire employees, and Archie especially views them with compassion as they wrestle with the aftermath of the murder.

3. What will you read next?  Non-fiction. My shrink has recommended The Happiness Trap.