That time of year again

One of our favorite pastimes in warm weather is to take a book and a glass of whatever beverage makes us happy out to the front porch to read. I took this picture of my husband last week when a pleasant little rain was pattering down on the streets and sidewalks of our neighborhood - he was so engrossed in his book, he didn't even know I was standing there with the camera.

He's recently taken to reading the novels of C.S. Harris, who has written a very nice mystery/suspense series set in England's Regency period, featuring a protagonist named Sebastian St. Cyr. There are five books in the series; he's on the third and said to me recently with a note of desperation in his voice, "I don't know what I'm going to do when I finish that last book."

I suggested that he take up quilting, or collecting match book covers, but he scorned both of those activities in favor of having me write to Ms. Harris and demand that she keep on writing mystery novels about Sebastian until her eyes fall out her head and she no longer has the strength to lift her weary hands to the keyboard, so goaded is she by her fan base's constant whining for more Sebastian.

"Agatha Christie grew to hate Hercule Poirot," I said reflectively. "And he came to a bit of a bad end in Curtain. You don't want that to happen to Sebastian, do you?"

He sighed. "You need to find me a new author."

I think I have. I discovered some mystery stories set in ancient Rome by the author Steven Saylor, the Roma Sub Rosa series. There are quite a few novels in the series, but of course our local library is missing the first two books, so it looks like a little jaunt over to Amazon.com is in order. Maybe for Father's Day? He likes getting books.