Marian Librarian

09/14/2026

Squeeze Me: a Skink Novel
Carl Hiaasen
Available to borrow @ LA County Library

Buwa ha ha ha ha ha ha: 🤣🤣🤣Definitely one of his best: a parody of 47, his 3rd wife, & Casa Bellicosa. I will most likely add a copy to my personal library.

I just don't know where to begin: A group of filthy-rich so**ed old women called the POTUS Pu***es are at an upscale right-wing charity event at Lipid Mansion, when one of them meanders outside for a tryst and disappears.

Enter the python with a human sized bulge inside... Imagine the snake w/ the partially digested body disappearing, then reappearing in the middle of the road after being ejected from the trunk of a stolen Malibu that slams over railroad tracks.... and the body being ejected as the snake's remains split open, in front of 3rd wife's motorcade....

Hang-on, that's the tip of the iceberg & you're in for a rollicking, fun, wild ride of a tale.

From Amazon: "At the height of Palm Beach’s charity ball season, Kiki Pew Fitzsimmons, a prominent member of geriatric high society, suddenly vanishes during a swank gala. Kiki Pew was a founding member of the Potussies, a group of women dedicated to supporting the President, who spends half the year at the “Winter White House” just down the road.

Meanwhile, Angie Armstrong, wildlife wrangler extraordinaire, is called to the island to deal with a monster-sized Burmese python that has taken residency in a tree.

But the President is focused on the disappearance of Kiki Pew. Never one to miss an opportunity to play to his base, he immediately declares her a victim of rampaging immigrant hordes. This, it turns out, is far from the truth, which now lies in the middle of the road, where a bizarre discovery brings the First Lady’s motorcade to a grinding halt. Irreverent, ingenious, and uproariously entertaining, Squeeze Me perfectly captures the absurdity of our times."

09/13/2026

09/12/2026

Murder at the Spirit Lounge
Jess Kidd
Available to borrow LA County Library

I found this to be very interesting & rather spooky, as in unsettling: I like the main characters, but I find it odd that Nora Breen, former Carmelite nun, is not particularly pious.

I did figure out who the murderer was quite early on, but there was a twist to their identity, as in a... well, that would be a Spoiler.

From Amazon: "When Dolores Chimes, a famous medium, arrives in Gore-on-Sea, even surly Detective Inspector Rideout is lured in by her promises of messages for the afterlife.

But after a reading goes disastrously wrong, Dolores loses her life—and the six sitters at the séance with her fall victim to supernatural deaths themselves in the days following the nightmare of a reading.

Determined to unveil the truth, Nora finds herself chasing a ghostly serial killer she believes to be responsible, before the sixth victim—Detective Rideout himself—perishes along with the others."

I'll be reading the first in the series...

09/09/2026

Death at the Orange Locks
Anja de Jager

Purchased @ Westlake FOL

The mystery was interesting, the characters were not particularly likeable, in fact, her mother, ex-husband, his new wife, & her father (the victim) were all very selfish people. The murderer was made obvious toward the end of the book when his story came to light.

I'll read another if the LA County Library has them available for hold.

From Amazon: "After her painful divorce four years ago, Lotte Meerman has kept well away from Arjen, her ex-husband, and his new wife Nadia. So when they both visit her at central Amsterdam's police station to report Nadia's father missing, Lotte is shocked - but hides it well.

Then two days later a dog walker reports the discovery of a body near the Orange Locks, built to keep the sea out of Amsterdam, and the missing man is identified as Nadia's father. Lotte wants to stay away from the investigation but his widow, Margreet, keeps searching her out as she has no idea it was her daughter who was pivotal in the marriage break-up. She wrongly identifies Lotte as a friend and tells her that Patrick had been a great husband and father, and a successful businessman. But when Lotte digs into Patrick's past, she discovers instead a failing company and a man with a history of making unwanted sexual advances to his female employees.

Margreet is unaware of any of this. And the more Lotte investigates the dead man's past, the more she finds to suggest that her ex-husband is somehow involved in his death..."

09/05/2026

I do not watch much television. I do watch t.v. mystery series:

Some of my favorites I've borrowed from the LA County Library as well as streamed: Miss Marple, Poirot, Phryne Fisher, Campion, Rosemary & Thyme, and Lord Peter Wimsey.

Lately I've been watching via Brit Box:
All of the Agatha Christie offerings ♥
Sister Boniface (🥱)
Father Brown (🥱)
The Death Paradise series ♥ w/ the exception of Beyond Paradise & Season 15
Wycliffe: which started off good, but got so dark & convoluted that I stopped
Rosemary & Thyme 👍
Vera: I'm still undecided
An Inspector Calls-Spooky & Unsettlling
Cadfael, I liked it better the first time I watched
Maigret w/ M Gambon ♥ with R. Atkinson 🤷‍♀️
Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (🥱)
Inspector Lynley (🥱)
Murder in Provence ♥
Murder on the Blackpool Express 👎👎
Quirke: another dark series
Rumpole of the Bailey 🤷‍♀️
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher
Harry Wilde

Currently: The Good Ship Murder

https://www.britbox.com/us/genre/mystery

There are a few oth

BritBox - British TV.