Reading Groups

Crime Travel with Frankie Bailey

4 Monthly Sessions Wednesdays, 7:00 pm EDT - 8:30 pm EDT June 29 to September 21, 2022

Online via Zoom

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The ‘With Books’ option includes all titles required for this reading group at a 10% discount.

Meeting Dates:
Wednesdays, 6/29, 7/27, 8/24, 9/21
7-8:30pm ET via Zoom

This book discussion group will focus on international crime fiction. These four novels may inspire wanderlust and leave you longing to pack your bags and head off to explore. The books range from Mr. Jelly’s Business (1937/2017), the classic police procedural series by Arthur W. Upfield, set in Australia and featuring Inspector Napoleon “Bony” Bonaparte. The series began in 1929 and is currently being reissued. The three other books the group will be reading are of more recent vintage. Dangerous Crossing (2017) by Rachel Rhys is set in 1939 aboard an ocean liner crossing from England to Australia with stops in Naples, Cairo, and Ceylon. Tangerine (2018) by Christine Mangan is set in North Africa in the 1950s. Two old friends reunite, and a husband goes missing. Murder in Chianti (2020) by Camilla Trinchieri is set in Tuscan wine country and introduces a former NYPD detective who moves to his late wife’s hometown in Italy only to find himself drawn into a murder investigation.

Session I: Dangerous Crossing by Rachel Rhys
Session II: Tangerine by Christine Mangan
Session III: Murder in Chianti by Camilla Trinchieri
Session IV: Mr. Jelly’s Business by Arthur Upfield

Led by

Frankie Y. Bailey

Frankie Y. Bailey

Frankie Y. Bailey is a professor in the School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany (SUNY). Her areas of research are crime history, crime and mass media, popular culture, and material culture. Her books include Out of the Woodpile: Black Characters in Crime and Detective Fiction and African American Mystery Writers. She is a Macavity award-winner and Edgar, Agatha, Anthony nominee for non-fiction. She is also the recipient of a George N. Dove award for contributions to the study of crime fiction. Her own mysteries feature Southern criminal justice professor/crime historian Lizzie Stuart, Albany police detective Hannah McCabe, and former World War II Army nurse Jo Radcliffe. Her short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and in recent anthologies (Down to the River, Midnight Hour, and Monkey Business). She is working on a non-fiction book about dress, appearance, and perception bias in American crime and justice, a historical thriller set in 1939, and the 6th Lizzie Stuart mystery. Frankie is a past executive vice president of Mystery Writers of America and a past president of Sister of Crime National. Her housemates include Fergus, a rambunctious but lovable Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and Penelope, a tolerant, trilling Maine Coon rescue.

About this series

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