Hello Out There!

Cops and robbers. Murderers and victims. PIs and clients. Lawyers and defendants. Judges and juries. Mystery characters are opponents, opposites and approximates.  

And that brings us to us. We're the bloggers and you're the blogged. (Blogged? Ouch, sorry.) We'd like to blur the distinction between us. We're not the only ones with the skinny about good crime fiction. Nothing gives us more pleasure than suggesting books (except reading, of course), but our noses are always to the ground, sniffing out new info. So come on, be our confidential informants. Who are your favorite authors? Books? Characters? Mystery subgenre? Disagree with someone's opinion about a book? How do you store your books? Where do you read? How much do you read before giving up? How much in a week? Do you peek at the ending? 

I want to let you in on a secret. You don't see everything involving our blog. Our blog program doesn't diplay your URL but you appear to us as pageviews by country. Because we don't know which country will appear next, this naturally leads us to make predictions. And predictions lead us to making bets on the visitors to Read Me Deadly. 

I bet you didn't know we were betting on you (and all without cheating!): Next European. Least expected country. First Central American. Georgette lost points because her Italy sauntered in after my France. (Merci de mon ami!) My New Zealander loitered (And I was begging you to hurry!), but The Philippines sprinted and made up for it. China's arrival scored big points for Periphera. We all cheered for Nepal, Barbados, Colombia, South Korea, Romania and Belgium. Ireland, Russia, Australia, Germany, Croatia, The Netherlands and Switzerland. Sister Mary is still waiting for Monaco (Someone hand that poor woman a book to read while she waits), and Maltese Falcon for Singapore. I'm told my long-shot country will not appear. (And I'll never tell what it is.)

We wonder if Brazil, Thailand and Greece are our writer friends. (If so, we're lucky to have you; if not, we're happy to meet you.) We love seeing our Mexican and Canadian neighbors and, of course, our fellow Americans.

If we haven't acknowledged you, we're sorry. (Some of the countries have disappeared from our screens.) No matter where you're from we're delighted you're here with us on Read Me Deadly.

Now, here in comments or on the 3rd Degree page, we'd love to hear about the great books you've been reading. Or what you're looking forward to or saving for a special occasion. Are you having trouble deciding what to read next? Tomorrow Georgette will advise you to turn book selection over to fate.

P.S.  Hong Kong! Yeeeeessss! Thank you, I score points!  Georgette