Comments on: Double Features, or Books in Tandem

By: Meredith Phillips

Meredith Phillips — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 18:39:00 +0000

Ruth Downie’s MEDICUS and Kelli Stanley’s NOX DORMIENDA are both about Roman doctors in first-century Britannia.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:57:49 +0000

Ruth Downie’s ‘Medicus’ and
Lawrence Goldstone’s ‘The Anatomy of Deception’

Both are historicals heavily involved with the medical profession of their
respective times: the former in Roman Britain and the latter 1889 Philadelphia.
Both feature a hero with high medical morals struggling to protect the
lesser elements of his society in the face of indifference and outright
obstruction from the people (men) who pay his wages and control his
advancement. Both novels involve women being taken advantage of by
unscrupulous men, and include some secondary female characters whose
strength and determination sets them apart from the run of their
contemporaries

By: Cathy Jackson

Cathy Jackson — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:36:49 +0000

An addition to the drowned town theme: THE CHRISTENING DAY MURDER, by Lee Harris. Guess that would be a triple feature on drowned towns.

By: Jennifer Wendel

Jennifer Wendel — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:42:24 +0000

Another drowned town book is Under the Lake, by Stuart Woods. It’s pretty old but I checked with Amazon and it is still in print. Also one of my favorite ghost stories.

By: Elizabeth Zelvin

Elizabeth Zelvin — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:23:27 +0000

Here’s a double double feature on drowned towns: Reginald Hill’s On Beulah Height and Donald Westlake’s Drowned Hopes (an odd couple indeed); Jane Langton’s Emily Dickinson Is Dead and Peter Robinson’s In A Dry Season.

By: Lesa Holstine

Lesa Holstine — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:09:47 +0000

I just read The Sour Cherry Surprise by David Handler, with a character, Mitch Berger, who is a film critic. I followed it up with Jeffrey Cohen’s It Happened One Knife about Elliot Freed, the owner of an all-comedy movie theater, who hosts a legendary comedy duo, shows their movie, and finds out his heroes were involved in a Hollywood death. Perfect follow-up!

By: Joyce Burbank

Joyce Burbank — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:23:38 +0000

Robert Parker and William Tapply set their books in Boston. In both series, Spencer, a PI, and Brady Coyne, a lawyer, are involved in physical action. Both authors describe clothing worn by the characters, talk about food, and describe routes traveled around Boston and vicinity. Both characters have a police connection, both have a steady girl, and in Tapply’s later books, both have a dog. If you like one, the other will be enjoyable also.

By: Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:19:35 +0000

Good question. How about Towards Zero by Agatha Christie and Tragedy at Law by Cyril Hare? In both, the murder occurs almost at the end, rather than near the beginning of the book.