Book Beginning: Worthy Brown's Daughter by Phillip Margolin

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

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MR. LINKY



MY BOOK BEGINNING

The river was insane.  It boiled and surged between its banks, panicking the horses, terrifying the women and children, and forcing the men to hide their fear, which was considerable.

-- Worthy Brown's Daughter by Phillip Margolin, available now for pre-order; released January 21.

Margolin writes fast-paced contemporary thrillers like his hugely popular Gone, But Not Forgotten and the recent best seller,  Capitol Murder.

Worthy Brown's Daughter is a departure for Margolin -- it's a historical drama set in 19th-Century Oregon involving a freed slave trying to rescue his 15-year-old daughter.  There is still a murder, a complicated plot, and all the exciting twists and turns readers expect from a Margolin thriller.

It sure starts off in the middle of the adventure.

2014 Challenge: The Vintage Mystery Challenge

COMPLETED!

Every year I sign up for the Vintage Mystery Challenge hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block.  I haven't had much success over the years, always falling a book or two (or four) short of finishing.  But I've always had fun and the challenge introduces me to authors I haven't read before (Ngaio Marsh and Micheal Innes, for example) and inspires me to read the old mysteries I love but never seem to get around to (Agatha Christie and Rex Stout, for example).

The idea of the challenge is to read mysteries from the Golden Age of mystery writing, meaning those published prior to 1960.  Bev added a "Silver" level this year for mysteries published between 1960 and 1989, but I am singing up only for the Gold category.

There is a BINGO theme this year, which mixes it up a bit.  You complete the challenge by filling in six in a row or the four corners and any other two.  You can use one Free Space as a wild card to complete the bingo.

UPDATE: As of November 28, I have completed the challenge by filling in the diagonal row above using one freebie.

 BOOKS FINISHED

The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie (counts as a book with a COLOR in the title)

What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw (aka 4:50 from Paddington) by Agatha Christie (book with a NUMBER in the title)

Death in the Air (aka Death in the Clouds) by Agatha Christie (book with an AMATEUR detective)

A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh (book with a PROFESSIONAL detective)

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (book set in ENGLAND)

Enter a Murder by Ngaio Marsh (FREEBIE: book set in the ENTERTAINMENT world)

BOOK POSSIBILITIES FOR 2015

I'm not sure what book I'll read for the challenge, but they will all come from my TBR shelves.  Some possibilities, in no particular order, include:

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

North from Rome by Helen McInnes

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

An Oxford Tragedy by J. C. Masterman

Vintage Murder by Ngaio Marsh

Appelby on Ararat by Michael Innes


UPDATED: November 29, 2014