MobileRead September 2010 Book Club Nominations

[DixieGal]

I 3rd Killing Floor

[nimblem]

I vote for Crime and Punishment... although most grown adults have already it, it never gets old

[edbro]

I nominate The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke.

From Amazon:

The pain, dismay and anger brought on by the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina explodes from the pages of this new Dave Robicheaux novel. For nearly a quarter of a century, Burke has used this series, despite their dark subject matter, to show his obvious love of the land, the people and the cultures of the South and specifically New Orleans. There is a mystery for … more »Robicheaux to solve, but it's the destruction of Burke's beloved New Orleans that resonates like thunder throughout the book. Will Patton, who has come to embody the heart and soul of Burke's weary, Southern knight, matches the author's prose in all its intensity and pain. Adept as he is at portraying the eccentric, the evil and the endearing characters found in Burke's books, it is the actor's reading of Burke's descriptive passages, whether it be a storm forming off the Louisiana coast or the shock of blood escaping from a gunshot wound, that creates a fully realized world for the listener. Patton's insightful interpretation of Burke's darkly expressive imagery makes for a rich literary experience rarely achieved in crime fiction today. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Ever since Hurricane Katrina ravaged southern Louisiana in August 2005, James Lee Burke's fans have been waiting for this book, and Burke does not disappoint. Outraged and eloquent, the two-time Edgar Award-winner delivers a gut-wrenching portrayal of the storm's ferocity and devastating aftermath, venting through Robicheaux his frustration at the human incompetence and greed that magnified nature's destructive fury. His evocative, heartfelt prose, sympathetic characters, and intricately interwoven plotlines grip the reader from the first page. Burke's admirers will savor this latest installment, while those not yet acquainted with Robicheaux can start here, thanks to the comprehensive background information Burke provides in what critics call his best book yet.

[bjones6416]

I'd like to read something significantly different from the August selection, just for variety, so I nominate Skinwalkers by Tony Hillerman:

Link

From Inkmesh:

Description: Vibrant with the spirit of the Navajo people of the Southwest, Hillerman's new story is a spellbinder, like his Edgar Winner Dance Hall of the Dead and other praised novels. Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee of the tribal police work together here, trying to solve crimes that resist logic. There are no clues to three homicides or to the attempted murder of Chee. Leaphorn thinks a "skinwalker," or witch, could have attacked the victims, all adherents of shamanism, as they are otherwise unrelated. The skinwalkers represent a schism between witchcraft and the traditional Navajo Way. A second attempt on Chee bolsters Leaphorn's suspicion since Chee is an aspiring shaman. The story gathers momentum and tension as the partners get closer to the moment when the murderer comes into the open, and the tragic reason for the crimes becomes painfully clear.

[Poppa1956]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

We've already had that as the book for September 2009.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55305

I'm a late bloomer. So sue me.

[DixieGal]

I 2nd Skinwalkers

[Poppa1956]

Originally Posted by nimblem

I vote for Crime and Punishment... although most grown adults have already it, it never gets old

I will second Crime and Punishment

[lila55]

I nominate "Echoes from the Dead" by Johan Theorin.

Review from Amazon:

"Twenty years ago Julia Davidsson's 5-year-old son Jens disappeared into the fog on the remote Swedish island of Öland and was never found. Everyone except Julia believes Jens wandered down to the shore and drowned. Unable to accept that her son is dead, Julia withdraws from her family and stumbles through life using alcohol and medication to deaden the pain of not knowing. Then, after all these years, her father Gerlof calls to tell her that someone has sent him one of Jens's sandals in the mail; so Julia returns to Öland to try, once again, to find her son.

Johan Theorin's "Echoes from the Dead" is an absorbing mystery that works on several levels: as a classic whodunit that keeps the reader guessing up to the last few pages, as a horror story with scenes that slowly pull the reader reluctantly forward, and as a family story that examines how tragedy cuts at the ties that bind and leaves them hanging by fragile threads. It is a story that unfolds across and between time periods starting with the day Jens disppears, then flowing back and forth between present and past: from Gerlof at the nursing home holding Jens sandal in his hand to before World War II where we pick up the life of Nils Kant, who supposedly died and was buried long before Jens disappeared but who Gerlof suspects is somehow involved in his grandson's disappearance. Above all, the novel is the story of a landscape, the island of Öland, that Theorin presents as a central character with a life and history of its own--a landscape that interacts with all its human inhabitants and drives their behaviors. "

[lila55]

Originally Posted by edbro

I nominate The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke.

I second this.

[Sparrow]

7th August:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm about 1/2 into Killing Floor ...

21st August:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I will second Killing Floor. I'm a bit over 1/2 done with it...

Will you finish it this year?

[HarryT]

I'm going to nominate "Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman", by E.W. Horning.

Just in case anyone isn't familiar with it, Raffles is a "gentleman thief", who commits daring robberies (mainly jewel robberies) in upper-class Victorian society, while at the same time maintaining his outward persona as a respectable gentleman and England cricketer. He is accompanied in his adventures by his faithful sidekick Harry "Bunny" Manders.

Hornung was Arthur Conan Doyle's brother-in-law (and the book is dedicated "To A.C.D.") and Raffles was deliberately created as a mirror image to Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.

The book contains eight separate short stories, but they form an on-going story and should be read in order.

Hornung died in 1921, and the book is in the public domain everywhere. It can be downloaded here at MR, eg as the first book in my "Raffles Omnibus" (which contains all of the "Raffles" stories: three books of short stories and a novel).

[Ea]

I second 'Raffles'

[WT Sharpe]

I just read the first three very enjoyable chapters of Boston Blackie, and they would do well as a stand-alone short story, so I imagine the remaining chapters follow the same pattern. I've put it aside again temporarily, as the fiction in current rotation with my other reading is It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. Boston Blackie will be next, unless the voting occurs before I finish the Lewis novel. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of BB. Those tales are a gas.

For the record, the first three chapters take place during his days on the other side of the law when he was a jewel thief with a heart of gold.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Hampshire Nanny

I'll place the third for Boston Blackie. For those who can't purchase the Kindle edition from Amazon, the 1919 version is available at Google Books. The ePub has quite a number of defects having to do with the usual scan-to-text conversions. The most notable faults are due to the drop-caps which start each chapter.

And it can be read online or downloaded in a PDF or ePub file from Google Books. Sweet!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

And it can be read online or downloaded in a PDF or ePub file from Google Books. Sweet!

... IF you happen to be in the US. No access otherwise.