Red Room Where the Writers Are

I received a call from the library the other day.  Some of the books that I requested through ClevNET had arrived and so I went to pick them up.  It's always a mystery (pun intended) which ones have arrived and which ones haven't.  This time I requested several (I don't even recall how many actually) and of those that I picked up, I received a first and a last of a series, but different series by the same author.

Both are by author Les Roberts.  The first is An Infinite Number of Monkeys, which is Roberts' first novel, a Saxon mystery; the last is King of the Holly Hop, the last of his Milan Jacovich mysteries (and, I believe, his last novel that has been published, too). I will admit that I am one of those readers who tends to read nearly every book by an author if I find I like the style/story telling of the author. For example, I know I have read all of Sue Grafton's ABC... mysteries although, originally, not in order (of course, now I do as each is published as I recently heard U is for... will be out in December 2009!) and all of David Baldacci's novels, and perhaps a few others, but I digress.

I started reading Les Roberts purely by accident.  At the time I was using the local library's computer access to meet with and help senior citizens pick out Medicare Part D plans.  As a volunteer in my community's senior program, I made appointments with those persons whose names I had been given and then met with them.  Most arrived early and waited for me to finish with the previous person, but once in a while, a person with whom I had an appointment was late or just didn't show.

Because I had never formally met my appointees, I had to watch for them to arrive through either of two doors.  I took a vantage point where I not only could see all comings and goings, but had books available to read.  During this six months of appointments, there was a display of Les Roberts mysteries, and I naturally picked one up, determined the order,  and started reading the first in the series (I had learned from my mistake of reading E is for Evidence, followed by B is for Burglar, followed by whichever I could lay my hands on next, etc....to read them in the order written).  Every week I would get a few pages in, and by then, decided to borrow them.  It was only after reading a few that I realized that there were a previous series, the Saxon mysteries.  To read or not to read...that was the question.

Well, this summer I decided to finish all of those, too.  But, out of order, of course.  Now, ironically, I have Roberts' first and his last novels.  I think it is going to be interesting to see how his writing has evolved over time.  How his writing has become polished.  I also have one of his others, The Chinese Fire Drill.  I'm not sure exactly where it fits in because it doesn't appear to be either a Saxon or Milan Jacovich mystery.

Add to that that I received a book, The Godfather Returns by Mark Winegardner, for reading my required number of books for the summer book read.  It's a new novel based on the characters of the Corleone family originally created by Mario Puzo.  Combining that book to the others I have stacked on my reading table and I think I'll be busy for a good while.  Right now, I have eight books on that stack and am actively reading two, have the three Roberts' novels due in two weeks (without fines), and three that I haven't even started.  

Oh yeah, the phone just rang...it was the library!  I have a book waiting for me.