My name is Carol Dickinson. I'm a fiftyish, fuddy-duddy in real life. I'm 60 percent old fashioned girl. I think others would consider me a conservative. Currently I take care of the house, and garden and care for my disabled husband and a variety of Airedales. Our son is grown and out of the house. I have a degree in Home Economics. I have contributed to several published genealogy works, and occasionally I provide light hearted essays for genealogy publications and for the benefit of Airedale Rescue. Most of my writing has by force of circumstances been in the area of advocacy papers for presentation to local government bodies.

My taste in books is rather narrow. While I used to read mostly British mysteries, about a decade ago I switched to American authors and now I read them almost exclusively. I prefer mostly female authors and read only a few males.

I am fond of needlework, gardening and the like, and I'm a homemaker. I like to read mysteries that include these type of people and include subjects that interest me in my real life. Also mysteries that include obscure subjects and historical subjects.

I don't care for hardboiled, soft-boiled or noir genre. I don't care for PI's. I don't read cops, lawyers, forensic doctors, and most anthropologists. I also don't find spouse abuse, child abuse, animal abuse etc. fit material for entertainment and I quit reading when I trip over these issues. I read mysteries for entertainment, escapism and relaxation before sleeping. I have so much of this in my real life I avoid it in books.

I live in Alaska and I enjoy rural/suburban life. My preferences include suspense and some adventure but I like a hint of mystery with them. I tend to avoid most big city settings unless the writer is fabulous. I also don't care for political lectures in my entertainment reading or blatant east coast liberal agenda.

I prefer cozies, and more than just the definition I've recently concluded I like only those cozies which make me feel cozy when reading them. I don't require tea parties and cats. I do expect to like recurring characters. When I read a series, its like making a friend you invite into your home again and again. If I don't invite alcoholics, etc. into my home in real life, I see no reason to invite them into bed with me for an enjoyable read.

I can tolerate light romance. Dorothy Cannell, Mary Stewart or Nora Roberts is as far as I would go in that direction. I'm not really into the ripped bodice genre or Harlequin romances. I don't like the writer to drag me into the bedroom and put me in bed with the characters. But I do enjoy books that include tasteful bedroom scenes or refer to romantic encounters such as those written by Sister Carol Anne O'Marie, Ann George or Valerie Wolzien as examples.

And I'm equally irritated with sleuths who have a love hate soap opera type relationship going on and on for 5 or 6 books because they can't commit. I just want to smack them. So I especially enjoy happily married sleuths.

In general I do not care to find gays in my entertainment reading because usually I find them to be there not as real people but to be the wink wink nudge nudge Monty Python cartoon version, to be the victim, the motive (usually more stupid and unreal than average) or the murderer. Almost always when a character is revealed to be gay I know the resolution to the mystery before the murder has even occurred. In other words I have minimal experience with authors using a gay character subtly especially in first books, although there are two exceptions I have found. And the last reason gays seem to be in the books I've tripped over is for the author to show how "sophisticated" s/he is. Its like throwing in brand names and designer labels "Calvin Klein" instead of generic jeans when it doesn't contribute to the plot or character. writers who throw label around merely to be trendy irritate the heck out of me.

And my last pet peeve is writers who first book was published before 1990. Way too many first books revolved around drugs. So I am always pleased to find first endeavors that don't include these pet peeve gimmicks.

Things I especially like in mysteries are out of the ordinary details , that says to me this author thinks about the pictures she's painting for the reader. And I enjoy humor in mysteries. I like light fluffy funny mysteries and I like intricate plots in which the author throws out all the clues as well as red herrings, gives me a fair chance to un-puzzle the mystery and yet at the end I smack my forehead and say "I should have known".

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