Learning Strategies

David Handler, best known for this Stewart Hoag series and other novels, has also written six books (so far) in his Berger and Mitry series:

• The Cold Blue Blood (2001)
• The Hot Pink Farmhouse (2002)
• The Bright Silver Star (2003)
• The Burnt Orange Sunrise (2004)
• The Sweet Golden Parachute (2006)
• The Sour Cherry Surprise (2008)

If you’re exceptionally observant, you’ll notice a certain pattern to those titles.

Anyway, I’ve recently read the first four novels in the list above, and I highly recommend them, both individually and as a series. Reading them in chronological order would make sense, as the characters develop satisfactorily from one book to the next.

The premise behind the series is a simple one. Handler delivers on it. In the small town of Dorset, Connecticut, two unlikely detectives have come together both professionally and romantically: Mitch Berger, a Jewish film critic who writes for the New York Times, and Desiree Mitry, an African-American cop who has become the “resident trooper” for Dorset (a thinly veiled version of Old Saybrook). That’s it. But out of this premise Handler weaves a series of truly entertaining mysteries with appealing characters, interesting plots, and a great sense of place. Do read them!

Labels: books