Marilyn's Mystery Reads

The summer is almost over, and that means it’s time for another term at BOLLI (Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute).  This will be my fifteenth semester leading a course featuring mystery novels.  Each course goes under the title WHODUNIT?, and then the specific title of the term’s course follows.  For Fall 2024 it’s WHODUNIT?:  MURDER IN ETHNIC COMMUNITIES.

We will read eight mysteries during the ten-week course, with time during the first and the last meetings to think about mysteries in general, what draws readers to them, and what types of protagonists we prefer.  I’ve included amateur sleuths, private investigators, and police detectives in this semester’s mix, and although all the novels take place in the United States, the communities are all different.

This is the list of the mysteries we’ll be reading:  The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman (an Orthodox Jewish community in Los Angeles); Invisible City by Julia Dahl (an Orthodox Jewish community in New York City); The Bishop’s Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison (a Mormon community in Utah); No Witness but the Moon by Suzanne Chazin (a Hispanic community bordering New York City); Among the Wicked by Linda Castillo (an Amish community in upstate New York); Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman (two Native American reservations in New Mexico); August Snow by Stephen Mack Jones (a Black/Hispanic neighborhood in Detroit); and Family Business by S. J. Rozan (a Chinese-American community in New York City).

Although no two of the novels’ sites are the same, ranging from the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and New York City to the small towns of Utah and New York, there are many commonalities between these groups.  In our class discussions we’ll find and discuss both the differences between these places and their similarities.

I hope you’ll join us as we criss-cross the country and learn more about the people and locations that make up these ethnic communities.

Marilyn