Our next meeting will be January 28, 2022. Denise will provide some food, Rachel will bring book selections, and Lisa will facilitate our discussion of this month's book,
The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne, by Elsa Hart. The Contra Costa County Library (ccclib.org) had an interesting summary of the author's life:
Elsa Hart is the author of several acclaimed mystery novels set in eighteenth-century China, including City of Ink , one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2018. She was born in Rome, but her earliest memories are of Moscow, where her family lived until 1991. Since then she has lived in the Czech Republic, the U.S.A., and China. She earned a B.A. from Swarthmore College and a J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law.
A plot summary of the book:
London, 1703. In a time when the old approaches to science coexist with the new, one elite community attempts to understand the world by collecting its wonders. Sir Barnaby Mayne, the most formidable of these collectors, has devoted his life to filling his cabinets. While the curious-minded vie for invitations to study the rare stones, bones, books, and artifacts he has amassed, some visitors come with a darker purpose. For Cecily Kay, it is a passion for plants that brings her to the Mayne house. The only puzzle she expects to encounter is how to locate the specimens she needs within Sir Barnaby's crowded cabinets. But when her host is stabbed to death, Cecily finds the confession of the supposed killer unconvincing.
