Murder mystery, plague, masked heroes and a parallel universe

In our March Book club we forsook the joys of spring with something far more earthy and sinister. It wasn’t a case of life imitating art, more a case of art imitating death and destruction.

The over-riding theme was a mixture of plague, murder and mystery. If this sounds depressing, it wasn’t. Our participants were as entertaining and descriptive as ever with their inspired book choices. We were also joined for the discussion by an author, but more about that next month…

Barbara began by pointing out that The Scarlet Pimpernel, from 1905, marked the beginning of the masked avenger genre, inspiring future superheroes such as Zorro and Batman. Maggie took us into a parallel universe with Matt Haig’s best seller The Midnight Library published in 2020 and at Number One on the Amazon book charts.

Diane continued with the further adventures of Police Commander and Poet Adam Dalgliesh in a remote Cornish Lighthouse. Murder mystery specialist PD James started her career working for the National Health Service and The Lighthouse written in 2005, has an eerie, early warning of the dangers of a pandemic, as it makes reference to the SARS virus.

Finally Ann painted a vivid picture of 14th Century life in her description of The Crooked Spire, Chris Nickson’s story of a carpenter orphaned by the Black Death in Chesterfield. This tale of murder and mystery had a distinctly post-apocalyptic feel, drawing numerous parallels with modern day life and attitudes.