HAVE YOU READ? HISTORY/MYSTERY/COMEDY

Marge Hallissy via Zoom Sept. 13: Jane Smiley, A Dangerous Business. ISBN 978-0525436089It’s 1851, and the setting is a brothel in California. Eliza Ripple is not your typical lady of the evening; she is a reader, a fan of the detective fiction of Edgar Allan Poe, especially “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Her literary interests help her solve a mystery: why are prostitutes disappearing on a regular basis? They are involved in a “dangerous business,” but still . . . . so many? The Booklist reviewer calls this novel a “nuanced exploration of women’s roles in nineteenth-century American life,” and perhaps it will also encourage a rereading of Poe’s story.  Oct. 18: Daniel Mason, North Woods. ISBN 978-0593597040It’s colonial Massachusetts, and the setting is a single house, through which the entire history of the United States is narrated. This house, of course, is haunted. The Library Journal reviewer tells the reader to expect “an array of literary styles and genres, including indigeno