OLLI International Mysteries

International Mysteries
With Michelle Bennett, OLLI at ISU Program Administrator

Date/Time: Tuesdays, January 12, 19, 26 & February 2, 2016
from 2 - 4 PM
Place: ISU, University Hall Room 313
Cost: $20 Special Offer Class call 812-237-2345

Do you love a good mystery? We will be reading four mystery novels by authors and from locations around the world. We will start our international mystery journey in Canada with Still Life by Louise Penny. Then we will move to Northern Ireland with The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty. Our next stop will be Russia with The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin. Our final destination will be Japan with The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino. Come enjoy the mystery and travel without ever leaving Terre Haute.

Still Life: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel - Louise Penny
Jane Neal, well-loved in her community-does not appear to be a woman anyone would want to harm, let alone murder. But when she turns up dead, with an arrow wound to her chest, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache can't help but think that Jane died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless hunter. Now it's up to Gamache to find a killer who's on the loose. . .and on his trail.

The Cold Cold Ground - Adrian McKinty
Spring 1981. Northern Ireland. Belfast is on the verge of outright civil war. The Thatcher government has flooded the area with soldiers, but nightly there are riots, bombings, and sectarian attacks. In the midst of the chaos, Sean Duffy, a young, witty, Catholic detective in the almost entirely Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary, is trying to track down a serial killer who is targeting gay men. As a Catholic policeman, Duffy is suspected by both sides and there are layers of complications. For one thing, homosexuality is illegal in Northern Ireland in 1981. Then he discovers that one of the victims was involved in the IRA, but was last seen discussing business with someone from the Protestant UVF.

The Winter Queen - Boris Akunin
Erast Fandorin is a gentleman sleuth who solves murders and mysteries in tsarist Russia. A 23-year-old law student commits suicide in broad daylight in Moscow's Alexander Gardens. Fandorin is put on the case to find out what drove him to it, a case that deepens as he discovers that the young man was the son of a rich and influential factory owner. The story is enhanced by its authentic backdrop of nineteenth-century Russia.

The Devotion of Suspect X: A Detective Galileo Novel - Keigo Higashino
Yasuko Hanaoka is a divorced, single mother who thought she had finally escaped her abusive ex-husband Togashi. When he shows up one day to extort money from her, threatening both her and her teenaged daughter Misato, the situation quickly escalates into violence and Togashi ends up dead on her apartment floor. Overhearing the commotion, Yasuko’s next door neighbor, middle-aged high school mathematics teacher Ishigami, offers his help, disposing not only of the body but plotting the cover-up step-by-step. When the body turns up and is identified, Detective Kusanagi draws the case and Yasuko comes under suspicion. After meeting up with him again, Yukawa is convinced that Ishigami had something to do with the murder. What ensues is a high level battle of wits, as Ishigami tries to protect Yasuko by outmaneuvering and outthinking Yukawa, who faces his most clever and determined opponent yet.