Dear Great Book Guru,

With temperatures in the 60’s, it certainly doesn’t feel like December, but the coming weeks will certainly be filled with winter fun, beginning with the Tree Lighting on Sunday, December 7 at 5pm on the Village Green. Last week I read a mystery you recommended – somehow winter nights cry out for a good mystery- and I would love to read another – something short but heavy into character. Any thoughts?  Mystery Maven

Dear Mystery Maven, One of the most revered mystery writers of the last fifty years, P.D. James died this week so I think it fitting to recommend one of her classic works: AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN, featuring the indomitable Cordelia Gray. Gray, a young English woman, has  inherited a struggling detective agency  in a rather seedy part of London.   Her first case involves the death of a young Cambridge student Mark Callendar, son of a wealthy, aristocratic scientist. As in all James’s novels, it is the descriptions of place and character- not the plot or crime- that capture the reader’s attention. Gray’s struggles with class obsessed witnesses and sexist colleagues make this 264 page book so much more than a quick read, while  the intrigues of university life and village politics elegantly trump the details of the actual murder.  Recommended!