Help us select the book that the MobileRead Book Club will read for February, 2016.
The nominations will run through midnight EST January 26 or until 10 books have made the list. The poll will then be posted and will remain open for five days.
Book selection category for February is:
Mystery
In order for a book to be included in the poll it needs THREE NOMINATIONS (original nomination, a second and a third).
How Does This Work?
The Mobile Read Book Club (MRBC) is an informal club that requires nothing of you. Each month a book is selected by polling. On the last week of that month a discussion thread is started for the book. If you want to participate feel free. There is no need to "join" or sign up. All are welcome.
How Does a Book Get Selected?
Each book that is nominated will be listed in a poll at the end of the nomination period. The book that polls the most votes will be the official selection.
How Many Nominations Can I Make?
Each participant has 3 nominations. You can nominate a new book for consideration or nominate (second, third) one that has already been nominated by another person.
How Do I Nominate a Book?
Please just post a message with your nomination. If you are the FIRST to nominate a book, please try to provide an abstract to the book so others may consider their level of interest.
How Do I Know What Has Been Nominated?
Just follow the thread. This message will be updated with the status of the nominations as often as I can. If one is missed, please just post a message with a multi-quote of the 3 nominations and it will be added to the list ASAP.
When is the Poll?
The poll thread will open at the end of the nomination period, or once there have been 10 books with 3 nominations each. At that time a link to the initial poll thread will be posted here and this thread will be closed.
The floor is open to nominations.
Please comment if you discover a nomination is not available as an ebook in your area.
Official choices with three nominations each:
(1) The Case of the Velvet Claws by Erle Stanley Gardner [WT Sharpe, issybird, GA Russell]
Goodreads /
Amazon Au /
Amazon Ca /
Amazon UK /
Amazon US
Spoiler:
From Goodreads:
California lawyer Perry Mason takes client Eva, hated as "all velvet and claws" by his secretary Della Street. Her husband George Belter is behind tabloid editor Locke, blackmail of Congressman Harrison Burke at bungled robbery with Eva, and takes bullet to the heart after bath. Forged will benefits nephew Carl, engaged to secretive housekeeper Veitch's daughter.
From Wikipedia:
The influence of the television series has given the general public the impression that Mason is highly ethical. In the earliest novels, however, Mason was not above skulduggery to win a case. In
The Case of the Counterfeit Eye (1935) he breaks the law several times, including manufacturing false evidence (glass eyes). Mason manipulates evidence and witnesses, resulting in the acquittal of the murderer in
The Case of the Howling Dog (1934).
The Case of the Curious Bride (1934) is
Quote:
… a good Perry Mason except for one great flaw, which the author would scarcely have been guilty of later on: he tampers with the evidence, by having a friend move into an apartment and testify to the state of the doorbells. … One is left with the uncomfortable idea that maybe the murder did not take place as Mason reconstructs it.
— Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime
|
In the later novels, the only crime which he can be seen to commit might be illegal entry, when he and Paul Drake are searching for evidence. And even then, he would expect to put up a strong and effective defense leading to an acquittal. Hamilton Burger is constantly under the impression that Mason has done something illegal, but is never able to prove it.
(2) Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne [issybird, bfisher, DrChiper]
Amazon /
Kobo /
OverDrive
(3) The Blackhouse by Peter May [JSWolf, bfisher, treadlightly]
Amazon UK /
Amazon US /
ebooks.com /
Google /
Kobo UK /
Overdrive /
Overdrive /
Overdrive
(4) Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippmann [obs20, Dazrin, JSWolf]
Amazon US
(5) Midnight Riot(US)/Rivers of London(UK) by Ben Aaronovitch [CRussel, bfisher, issybird]
Goodreads |
Amazon UK /
Amazon US /
Audible /
Kobo
Spoiler:
From Amazon US:
Review
“Fresh, original and a wonderful read. I loved it.”—Charlaine Harris
“Midnight Riot is what would happen if Harry Potter grew up and joined the Fuzz. It is a hilarious, keenly imagined caper.”—Diana Gabaldon
“Filled with detail and imagination . . . Aaronovitch is a name to watch.”—Peter F. Hamilton
“The perfect blend of CSI and Harry Potter.” --io9.com
“Aaronovitch has created a fun and funny character in Grant, who displays wit more than snark (a welcome attitude) and shows he can think on his feet. . . . It's a great start to what will hopefully be a long series of adventures.”--SFrevu.com
From AmazonUK:
My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (and as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - we do paperwork so real coppers don't have to - and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluable, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England.
Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden ... and there's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair.
The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos - or die trying.
From GoodReads:
Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London's Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he'll face is a paper cut. But Peter's prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter's ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.
(6) Deadly Appearances by Gail Bowen [HomeInMyShoes, CRussel, WT Sharpe]
Goodreads
(7) Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey [BenG, CRussel, Mims]
Amazon US /
Audible /
Faded Page /
Online PD
(8) The Apothecary Rose by Candace Robb [DrChiper, WT Sharpe, sufue]
Goodreads
(9) Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler [BenG, Mims, Dazrin]
Amazon UK /
Amazon US /
Kobo
Spoiler:
This mystery features the impending retirement of a Scotland Yard detective and the death of another. When Arthur Bryant is apparently blown up, his erstwhile partner, John May, begins reflecting on their first case together more than 60 years earlier. May, a raw recruit of 19, and Bryant, a 23-year-old detective, became the core of the Peculiar Crimes Unit, created to handle cases that were too important to ignore, yet that somehow seemed disproportionately insignificant in the face of the hundreds of civilians killed each night during the Blitz. Both men had been hurried through training and were suddenly faced with the strange case of the Palace Phantom, a killer victimizing the cast in an elaborate production of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld. May was both intrigued by and dismayed at Bryant's methods and seeming flights of fancy. He used everything from crime-scene forensics to spiritualists to help him build his case. Fowler skillfully shifts the action between 1940 and the 21st century, building suspense and growing awareness as each case comes to its respective climax. Not surprisingly, they are connected. The details of wartime London and the destruction and deprivation of daily life are vividly conveyed. Today's teens will identify with the young lives so drastically affected by the war while following the clues, and red herrings, to a satisfactory conclusion.
(10) Ovid by David Wishart [sufue, Dazrin, BenG]
Goodreads |
Amazon UK /
Amazon US /
Kobo UK
Nominations for February are now closed.