Howard County Library announces a new initiative, Pass the Book. During Teen Read Week 2009, the Library will distribute copies of  The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld to teen readers throughout the community.

The Secret Hour follows Jessica Day as she arrives in Bixby, Oklahoma, only to discover she’s at the center of a strange convergence of mystical energy. Sharing "the secret hour" between midnight and 12:01 with four of her classmates, Day finds herself on the front lines of a battle for the future of humanity; primeval "slithers" and "darklings" are using the secret hour to find their way back into our reality, intent on reclaiming the planet. The Midnighters must harness the unique properties of the secret hour to fight back using their own special abilities.

The Secret Hour is a great book to share, and with Pass the Book you’ll have the chance to introduce this title to readers in Howard County and beyond. Teens receiving a specially labeled copy of The Secret Hour are encouraged to read the book, track the book (by registering their copy at hclibrary.org/passthebook) and pass the book to another teen reader. Readers can return to the web site to see where their books have traveled. Throughout the year they will have the opportunity to participate in online discussions and challenges based on events in the novel. A display in each branch features read-a-like titles and the other books in the Midnighters series — Touching Darkness and Blue Noon. A number of Midnighter-themed events are also planned in connection with this initiative, including Midnighter Lore at Central Library, Slither Repellant at Elkridge Branch, and Triskaidekamania at Savage Branch.

Copies of The Secret Hour will be available on Monday, October 19. Join us online and in-person throughout the year for quizzes, reviews, and Midnighter-themed events as we pass this exceptional teen adventure around Howard County and beyond.

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

Many of us may remember reading Edgar Allan Poe in our earlier years, perhaps for a school assignment. Who can forget that tingle down the spine at “The Telltale Heart,” or the cadence and rhythm of “The Raven” that drew us in to the mysterious, chilling poem and its cryptic “nevermore?"

Year 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Poe, whom most consider the creator of horror, mystery, thriller, and detective fiction. Try to imagine a library bookshelf without the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dashiell Hammett, Tom Clancy, Agatha Christie, or Stephen King. Can you comprehend a world devoid of the characters of Hercule Poirot, Matt Scudder, V.I. Warshawski, Brother Cadfael, Harry Bosch, Sam Spade, Jack Ryan, or even Sherlock Holmes? Without Poe, these authors could have been unknown today. On the great genealogical chart of mystery writers and characters, there is only one common ancestor: “The Master,” Edgar Allan Poe.

In the Shadow of the Master gives full versions of some of Poe’s most familiar tales and leads us to discover some of his lesser-known works. Following each of the sixteen selections are essays by twenty different authors, themselves literary descendants of Poe. Among them are editor Michael Connelly, Jeffery Deaver, Nelson DeMille, Sue Grafton, Lawrence Block, Stephen King, and Baltimore’s own Laura Lippman.

In the essays the contributors comment on Poe and his work, telling how he impacted their lives, their reading, or their writing. T. Jefferson Parker sums it up: “What they [Poe’s works] taught me was this: there is darkness in the hearts of men; there are consequences of that darkness; those consequences will crash down upon us here in this life. They taught me that words can be beautiful and mysterious and full of truth.”

The book design itself is even reminiscent of mystery and horror. Blood-red with black-edged pages, the cover has a striking silhouette of a raven. Inside are marvelously creepy illustrations by Irish artist Harry Clarke, taken from an earlier publication of Poe stories Clarke illustrated in 1919.

In the Shadow of the Master is a great read for Poe aficionados and general mystery fans alike, but as with nearly anything Poe ever wrote, when you finally put this book down you just might want to sleep with the lights on.

Jacquelynn Morris – Administration Office

What do Daphne du Maurier, the Brontë family, a museum curator, and a contemporary British doctoral student have in common? In this literary mystery, their stories intersect like clues in a crossword puzzle.

As Daphne — set in 1957 — begins, the popular acclaim for the novel Rebecca has lessened and Daphne is coping with a depressed, withdrawn husband who may or may not be having an affair. She’s also anxious to revitalize her waning career by writing a biography of Branwell Brontë, the ne’er-do-well brother of the Brontë sisters. In pursuit of original documents, she corresponds with the curmudgeonly curator of the Brontë Museum, Mr Symington, whose cover-ups and conniving have misled generations of researchers.

The novel’s point of view eventually shifts. Decades later, a young London-based Ph.D. student, herself in a shaky second marriage, discovers the exchange of letters between du Maurier and Mr. Symington, as she attempts a biography of her favorite author Daphne du Maurier.

Justine Picardie has cooked up a spicy mixture of mystery and psychological intrigue. If you loved du Maurier’s Rebecca or remember Hitchcock’s film version with Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, you’ll be entertained by this tale of literary forgeries; wives lonely and betrayed; and a frustrated, bumbling curator hoping to profit from his illicit bargaining.

Ginny Leslie – Miller Branch

In 1985 Malcolm Forbes paid $156,000 for a bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite once owned by Thomas Jefferson. Too bad it was a complete fake.

 In The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine, Benjamin Wallace reveals this true story of wine snobbery, history, bacchanal competition, fraud, and science. He moves the story along, peppering the narrative with just enough wine trivia to help you sound like you know what you’re talking about at your next party. You’ll learn about “ullage,” the difference between horizontal and vertical tastings, and how measuring cesium-137 can date wine.

The key player in this mystery is Hardy Rodenstock, a German with a mysterious knack for locating very rare wines (and who put up the Jefferson Lafite for auction).  A robust assortment of wine collectors, auctioneers, scientists, and historians flesh out the rest of the story. Malcolm Forbes enjoyed opening a bottle of expensive wine to complement his Big Mac and fries. After breaking an 1874 Lafite, one oenophile (trivia again!) and his wife lapped it from the floor. There is fierce competition among tasters as to who can best describe a wine. From a Russian emigre: “Tasting old wine is like making love to an old lady. It is possible. It can even be enjoyable. But it requires a leetle bit of imagination.”

Although red flags about the “Jefferson bottle” flew stiffly in the breeze, it took more than two decades for details to unfurl. Along the way, Wallace delves into the history and science of wine, the middle school-like bullying and competition among wine enthusiasts, and describes the slow realization among the elite cluster of wine tasters that they’d been duped by a wine hack. Informative, entertaining, and reading like a mystery novel – you’ll savor this story.

Karen Marks – Elkridge Branch

Are you still mourning the demise of the stellar TV series Homicide, or perhaps missing your weekly view of Baltimore via HBO’s The Wire? If so, you might want to pick up Another Thing to Fall by Laura Lippman, former Baltimore Sun reporter and wife of David Simon.

While rowing along the Patapsco River at dawn, private investigator Tess Monaghan is thrown into the thick of a drama, Hollywood-style. It seems Tess has chosen to get her exercise at the same time and place that Mann of Steel, a new series set in Baltimore, is being filmed. Unfortunately the time travel show touted as the comeback vehicle for former heartthrob Johnny Tampa has been plagued by a series of troubling events and bad press. Learning of Tess’ occupation, the film bigwigs hire her on the spot to act as a bodyguard for the show’s female lead, incandescently beautiful, but self-centered Selene Waites.

Tess momentarily hesitates, but the money is too good to pass up. Almost immediately Selene gives Tess the slip by doctoring her drink with a mickey. As if losing track of her charge isn’t bad enough, the disturbing pranks have taken a grim twist. The assistant to the director is found beaten to death on the set.

With many possible suspects – a jealous fiance, a blocked scriptwriter, a terminated employee, disgruntled actors – Tess traverses Baltimore looking for answers. As she passes by Little Italy, the Senator Theater, and Greenmount Cemetery (final resting place of Enoch Pratt, John Wilkes Booth, and A. Aubrey Bodine), to mention just a few noteworthy landmarks, take heart – Charm City is alive and well in the mystery novels of Laura Lippman.

Fritzi Newton – Miller Branch