MARGARET TRUMAN1, 2, PRESIDENT HARRY S TRUMAN’s only child is one of my favorite authors. She wrote a number of mysteries based on Washington and its denizens. She wrote many more books than I have read so I expect I have much more enjoyable reading ahead.
My reading is rather eclectic. I’m also a fan for Colin Cotttrell’s mysteries set far, far from Foggy Bottom.
Unlike many readers of mystery novels, I don’t try to figure out “Who done it” before the author’s denouement of the scoundrel.
Truman-Daniels works send her characters around the country and around the globe. The book currently before me is Murder in Foggy Bottom . while the title would suggest all the action would take place inside the beltway (the I-495 rush hour parking lot), she has included Moscow as a major player in the plot.
She authored 24 Murder in ... mysteries, as well as non-mystery works.
- I get my books from my Local Lending Library; if my nearby branch lacks a title, neighboring libraries are checked. The search does not stop at either the county line or the state line. Wonderful, the library network.)
This exercise is NOT a book review. It is not intended to be a book review. It is to make anyone who enjoys mysteries aware of the late author.
It also is a chance to introduce Colin Cotterill3 and his works.
Cotterill, currently writing from Thailand, has his characters living in Laos and Thailand. (Different characters for each country, but regulars in his novels.)
Most of his works are set in the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos. (“Laos” I learned has a “silent ‘s’.”) A lesser number of works are set in capitalist Thailand.
An acquaintance who lives in Singapore – the Internet is a marvelous thing – commended Cotterill and my Local Lending Library has managed to locate many of this 30 or so titles. Most of the books are “day books”; that is, if you can devote the time, the books can be read “cover-to-cover” in a day.
Similar to Tolstoy, Pushkin, or Dostoyevsky, some of the characters’ names in Cotterill’s works are a hard to pronounce. Cotterill will, if asked politely, send an *.mp3 file with a softly-spoken woman pronouncing the names of the major characters and places. Perhaps he, too, has a problem with pronunciation?
There is no comparison between the Murder in ... novels and Cotterill’s works. Both are, in my not-at-all-humble opinion, worth a trip to the Local Lending Library for a sampling.
Of course if mystery is not your “thing,” the Local Lending Library most assuredly will have something for you. If not a book, then perhaps a CD or DVD.
I’ve had a library card since first grade – yes, Virginia, books were being printed in those long-ago years – it just keeps getting better. You may as well take advantage of these tax supported facilities; even renters help fund them so use them.
ABOUT “CAN SHE SING?”
Then reference in the head about “can she sign” refers to an unkind critic’s review of then Miss Truman’s operatic singing abilities and her father’s retort. That exchange can be found on several sites, including https://www.trumanlibrary.org/trivia/letter.htm
Sources
1. https://www.trumanlibrary.org/mtd-bio.htm
2, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Truman
3. http://www.colincotterill.com/
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
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