ALEXANDRIA BRANCH AAUW YEAR 2022 – 2023
End of Year Report for the Mystery Book Discussion Group

The Mystery Book Discussion Group has met for over 24 years during which members enjoyed a wide variety of mystery novels.  Just to be safe in this time of waxing and waning COVID, we continued to meet via Zoom.  The group has read Australian authors like Jane Harper (The Survivors) and Sulari Gentill (The Woman in the Library).  Mysteries might be set in India (Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March) or Venice, Italy (Give Unto Others by Donna Leon).  In Slow Horses by Mark Herron, the author suggested that British spies considered to no longer have what it takes might be just the ones to solve the case. Ordinary Grace by William Kent Kruegar is a mystery with a bit a spirituality. Naomi Hirahara’s mystery Clark and Division provided insight into the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II.  Brendan Slocumb’s The Violin Conspiracy captured a young black man’s love of music and the challenges of being a black classical musician in a world that often assumes that a black man does not have what it takes to play classical music or own a Stradivarius violin.  On the lighter side, there was Libby Klein’s Restaurant Weeks are Murder — with a bit of satire on cooking shows.  Our Alexandria AAUW and mystery group’s own mystery author, Lane Stone, brought us insight into her thriller (protagonist with two husbands) about the complexities of the art world and the search for art stolen by the Nazis – The Collector (looking forward to the sequal.)  The best mysteries, even cozies, stimulate our thinking and provide the basis for lively discussion.   HAPPY READING.