WICE’s Murder, They Read group offers members the chance to explore the mystery form—from classic sleuths and gritty detectives to unconventional investigators and amateur gumshoes.

A compelling mystery will be selected for each month's reading and discussion, with an eye toward strong writing, memorable characters, and inventive plotting. From contemporary noir to historical mysteries, the group’s selections will span subgenres, eras, locales and cultures, offering something for longtime mystery lovers and curious newcomers alike.

Discussions—to be held in English—will delve into themes, character development, setting, and of course, the crime itself. The goal is not just to guess the culprit, but, through the eyes of the sleuth, to benefit from a literary immersion into another time, place, and/or culture;  to appreciate how the author constructs the mystery and what the story reveals about the world it portrays.   And of course  to enjoy time spent with others who love the mystery genre.

Selections are chosen with these criteria in mind:

  • Available in English (paper or ebook)

  • Standalone/can be read on it’s own, or first in a series

  • Rich in atmosphere, character, or setting

  • Offers an unexpected perspective




Representative titles include:

  1. A Clubbable Woman – Reginald Hill

  2. The Blessing Way – Tony Hillerman

  3. The Silver Pigs – Lindsey Davis

  4. Death at La Fenice – Donna Leon

  5. Maisie Dobbs – Jacqueline Winspear

  6. The Chalk Circle Man – Fred Vargas

Whether you’re drawn to the streets of Venice, the mesas of New Mexico, or a shadowy corner of 1920s London, Murder, They Read invites you to join the investigation.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

  • LO031 Murder, They Read: "The Chalk Circle Man," by Fred Vargas

    • 03 Oct 2025
    • 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
    • To be announced
    • 0
    Join waitlist

    Note: The registration limit for this event has been reached. Please put your name on the waitlist and you will be notified if a space opens.

    In Paris, a string of enigmatic chalk circles begins appearing overnight on sidewalks, each neatly drawn in blue and enclosing odd detritus: a broken shoelace, a pigeon wing, a doll’s head. The public chuckles, the newspapers speculate, and the police shrug at what seems no more than eccentric street art. But Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, newly arrived in the capital, takes the circles seriously—sensing, with his trademark intuition, a lurking menace others dismiss.

    When a murdered woman is discovered within one of the circles, Adamsberg’s unease proves justified. Patient, dreamy, and quietly obstinate, he pieces together fragments others overlook, while his skeptical lieutenant, Danglard, provides a foil of logic and doubt. As the circles multiply, so do the suspects: the lonely, the unstable, the overlooked of Paris life.

    Blending whimsy with dread, Vargas transforms an apparently trivial curiosity into a chilling puzzle. Through Adamsberg’s unorthodox gaze, the novel explores how society notices—or fails to notice—signs of danger hidden in plain sight. The Chalk Circle Man not only introduces Vargas’s singular detective but also inaugurates a series where intuition and strangeness often prove more revealing than methodical deduction.


    Registration for the October meeting will open on Saturday, 06 September. People on the September wait list have first priority for registration.

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  • LN071 Murder, They Read: "The Cold, Cold Ground," by Adrian McGinty

    • 07 Nov 2025
    • 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
    • To be announced
    • 11

    Northern Ireland, 1981. The hunger strikes rage, the streets seethe with violence, and trust is scarce on either side of the sectarian divide. Amid this turmoil, Detective Sean Duffy—Catholic in a predominantly Protestant force—stumbles upon a murder staged to look like a lover’s quarrel. The victim’s hand is severed, and a cassette tape left nearby hints at something darker than a domestic dispute.

    Duffy is sharp, cynical, and more than a little reckless, but he also knows when things don’t add up. As more bodies appear, whispers of a serial killer surface—an unlikely notion in a land where political killings dominate. Navigating corrupt colleagues, hostile neighbors, and the ever-present threat of roadside bombs, Duffy digs where others would prefer to look away.

    McKinty’s novel inaugurates the Sean Duffy series with grit and wry humor, anchoring classic noir tropes in the combustible landscape of the Troubles. The Cold, Cold Ground captures a society where ordinary crime becomes entangled with extraordinary politics, and where one dogged detective risks alienation—and his life—for the sake of truth.

    Registration opens on Saturday, 04 October.

    Two spaces are reserved for new WICE members. If no new WICE members have registered before 01 November, those two spaces will become available to the general WICE membership.


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  • LD051 Murder, They Read: "A Cold Day for Murder," by Dana Stabenow

    • 05 Dec 2025
    • 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
    • La Grande Colette, 10 Rue Saint-Martin, 75004
    • 11

    In the stark interior of Alaska’s Park lands, a young ranger vanishes without trace. His disappearance might be shrugged off as misadventure in unforgiving country—until a second man, the son of a powerful Washington insider, goes missing while searching for him. The FBI descends, but with little sense of the land or its people, they turn to a local guide: Kate Shugak, an Aleut investigator recently resigned from the District Attorney’s office.

    Kate is reluctant, scarred both literally and emotionally from a case gone wrong, but her knowledge of the terrain—and the tight-lipped communities who live on it—makes her indispensable. As she tracks the trail of the missing men across snowbound villages and treacherous mountains, she uncovers layers of silence, loyalty, and old resentments.

    Stabenow’s novel launches her long-running series with a blend of rugged landscape and equally rugged characters. Through Kate’s eyes, Alaska is not a picturesque backdrop but a crucible where survival, justice, and belonging intertwine. A Cold Day for Murder introduces a heroine whose resilience is matched only by the unforgiving beauty of the land she calls home.

    Registration opens on Saturday, 08 November.

    Two spaces are reserved for new WICE members. If no new WICE members have registered before 29 November, those two spaces will become available to the general WICE membership.


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