(See my previous postings regarding my personal “reading challenge.” Well, the half-a-dozen list has certainly grown into more than 33 weeks of reading. All of these titles force the question: What is a crime novel? I look foward to even more suggestions.)

The Reading Challenge List — effective 12/8/10

1.

I have some interesting additions to my list of a half-dozen crimes-and-punishments novels for 2011. (See my previous posting where I explain that the list of a half-dozen serves as the foundation upon which other authors and titles will be added.)

Fred, someone I enjoy hearing from because he knows quite a bit about good literature, offers the following short list:

Fyodor Dostoevsky – The Brothers Karamazov; Eliot Pattison — Skull Mantra; Arthur Conan Doyle — The Hound of the Baskervilles; Michael Gregorio — Critique of Criminal Reason; Agatha Christie — Nemesis; and P.

The God of the Hive

Laurie R. King

Bantam

April 27, 2010

$25.00 / Hardcover / 352 pages / 978-0-553-80554-3

Following in the impressive wake of The Language of the Bees, Laurie King’s latest Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell adventure has plenty of excitement for fans of King’s impressive series.

In the very first Sherlock Holmes story that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” the reader is confronted by one of the most engaging opening paragraphs in all of detective fiction:

“To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman.

Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters

By Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower, and Charles Foley

The Penguin Press / November 6, 2007

ISBN 978-1-59420-135-6

Hardcover

Arthur Conan Doyle, the brilliant creator of Sherlock Holmes, “the world’s most famous man who never was,” has been the subject of numerous biographical studies throughout the years.