MobileRead March 2012 Mobile Read Book Club 1st Vote (March 2012)

[WT Sharpe]

MobileRead Book Club
Preliminary March Vote

Help us choose a book as the March 2012 eBook for the Mobile Read Book Club. The poll will be open for 4 days, followed by a 3 day run-off poll between the two* top vote getters. The vote this month will be hidden.

We will start the discussion thread for this book on March 20th. Select from the following Official Choices with three nominations each::

The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

Harry Hole, drunkard, loner and brilliant detective is reassigned to surveillance after a high profile mistake. He's bored by his new job until a report of a rare and unusual gun being fired sparks his interest because of its possible links to Neo Nazi activity. Then a former soldier is found with his throat cut. Next Harry's former partner is murdered. Why had she been trying to reach Harry on the night her head was smashed in? The investigation leads Harry to suspect that the crimes have their roots in the battlefields of Eastern Front during WWII. In a quest that takes him to South Africa and Vienna, Harry finds himself perpetually one step behind the killer. He will be both winner and loser by the novel's nail-biting conclusion. The Redbreast. He's your judge, jury and executioner. And he must be stopped. (From Kobo.)

The Day Of The Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

One of the most celebrated thrillers ever written, The Day of the Jackal is the electrifying story of the struggle to catch a killer before it's too late.

It is 1963 and an anonymous Englishman has been hired by the Operations Chief of the O.A.S. to murder General de Galle. A failed attempt in the previous year means the target will be nearly impossible to get to. But this latest plot involves a lethal weapon: an assassin of legendary talent.

Known only as The Jackal this remorseless and deadly killer must be stopped, but how do you track a man who exists in name alone?

Along came a spider by James Patterson
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

A missing little girl named Maggie Rose. A family of three brutally murdered in the projects of Washington, D.C. The thrill-killing of a beautiful elementary school teacher. A psychopathic serial kidnapper/murderer who calls himself the Son of Lindbergh. He is so terrifying that the FBI, the Secret Service, and the police cannot outsmart him-even after he's been captured.Gary Soneji is a mild-mannered mathematics teacher at a Washington, D.C., private school for the children of the political and social elite. He's so popular that the kids all call him "Mr. Chips." And he's very, very smart. Growing up, he always knew he was smarter than the rest of them-he knew that the Great Ones always fooled everybody. He kidnaps Maggie Rose, the golden-haired daughter of a famous movie actress, and her best friend, Shrimpie Goldberg, the son of the secretary of the treasury, right out from under the noses of their two Secret Service agents. But Gary Soneji is not surprised at his skill. He's done it before. Hundreds of times before.Alex Cross must face the ultimate test as a psychologist: how do you outmaneuver a brilliant psychopath? Especially one who appears to have a split personality-one who won't let the other half remember those horrific acts?Soneji has outsmarted the FBI, the Secret Service, and the police. Who will be his next victim?

The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
Inkmesh search, LibriVox (Audiobook)

Spoiler:

The Secret Agent is Conrad’s dark, and darkly comic story of a band of spies, anarchists, agents-provocateurs plotting and counter-plotting in the back streets of London in the early 20th Century. The novel centers on Verloc, a shop-owner, phony-anarchist and double-agent, who becomes embroiled in an ambitious terrorist plan to bomb the Greenwich Observatory.

The Secret Agent was ranked the 46th best novel of the 20th century by Modern Library

In The Woods by Tana French
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Rob Ryan and his partner, Cassie Maddox, land the first big murder case of their police careers: a 12-year-old girl has been murdered in the woods adjacent to a Dublin suburb. Twenty years before, two children disappeared in the same woods, and Ryan was found clinging to a tree trunk, his sneakers filled with blood, unable to tell police anything about what happened to his friends. Ryan, although scarred by his experience, employs all his skills in the search for the killer and in hopes that the investigation will also reveal what happened to his childhood friends. In the Woods is a superior novel about cops, murder, memory, relationships, and modern Ireland. The characters of Ryan and Maddox, as well as a handful of others, are vividly developed in this intelligent and beautifully written first novel, and author French relentlessly builds the psychological pressure on Ryan as the investigation lurches onward under the glare of the tabloid media. Equally striking is the picture of contemporary Ireland, booming economically and fixated on the shabbiest aspects of American popular culture. An outstanding debut.

The Looking Glass War by John Le Carre
Inkmesh search (ebook unavailable in U.S.?)

Spoiler:

The Department has faded since the war, effectively mothballed, without agents or resources. But now, with intelligence of a possible missile threat, it again has a mission. This is a chance to prove its influence to those at the Circus, like George Smiley, who think the Department's time has passed. The opportunity to reclaim former glory cannot be missed - even though it means putting men's lives in desperate risk, on foreign soil.

The Looking Glass War is a gripping story of the amorality of espionage - unflinching in its depiction of spying and the men involved, who are as much full of vanity and fear as of selflessness and courage.

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

In an article entitled "The Best Thrillers of All Time", Reader's Digest says: "Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (2003), will not only scare you silly but fool you as well. Just try to guess the ending."

From the Amazon Hardcover edition:

Summer, 1954.

U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels has come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Along with his partner, Chuck Aule, he sets out to find an escaped patient, a murderess named Rachel Solando, as a hurricane bears down upon them.

But nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems.

And neither is Teddy Daniels.

Is he there to find a missing patient? Or has he been sent to look into rumors of Ashecliffe’s radical approach to psychiatry? An approach that may include drug experimentation, hideous surgical trials, and lethal countermoves in the shadow war against Soviet brainwashing. . . .

Or is there another, more personal reason why he has come there?

As the investigation deepens, the questions only mount:

How has a barefoot woman escaped the island from a locked room?

Who is leaving clues in the form of cryptic codes?

Why is there no record of a patient committed there just one year before?

What really goes on in Ward C?

Why is an empty lighthouse surrounded by an electrified fence and armed guards?

The closer Teddy and Chuck get to the truth, the more elusive it becomes, and the more they begin to believe that they may never leave Shutter Island. Because someone is trying to drive them insane. . . .

The Snowman by Joe Nesbo
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

The Snowman, Norwegian author Jo Nesbø's thriller, should please even the most die-hard Stieg Larsson fans. On the first day of snow, a child wakes up to find his mother has disappeared during the night. Outside, a snowman has appeared out of nowhere, the calling card of one of the most terrifying serial killers in recent fiction. A letter from the perpetrator draws Detective Hole further and further into the case, and together with his new partner, Katrine Bratt, he hunts the Snowman through twists and turns that become increasingly personal and may drive Hole to the brink of insanity. Brilliantly crafted, this credible and dark page-turner fully fleshes out the characters, especially Hole, a hardened detective with sharp instincts and real heart. What is the link between the victims? Is the Snowman a suspicious doctor, a notorious playboy, or one of Hole's peers on the force? The police keep thinking they've caught the criminal, but Hole's astute observations may steer him around the red herrings and right into the hands of the cold-as-ice killer. (From Amazon.)

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris, is even better than the successful movie. Like his earlier Red Dragon, the book takes us inside the world of professional criminal investigation. All the elements of a well-executed thriller are working here--driving suspense, compelling characters, inside information, publicity-hungry bureaucrats thwarting the search, and the clock ticking relentlessly down toward the death of another young woman. What enriches this well-told tale is the opportunity to live inside the minds of both the crime fighters and the criminals as each struggles in a prison of pain and seeks, sometimes violently, relief. Clarice Starling, a precociously self-disciplined FBI trainee, is dispatched by her boss, Section Chief Jack Crawford, the FBI's most successful tracker of serial killers, to see whether she can learn anything useful from Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Lecter's a gifted psychopath whose nickname is "The Cannibal" because he likes to eat parts of his victims. Isolated by his crimes from all physical contact with the human race, he plays an enigmatic game of "Clue" with Starling, providing her with snippets of data that, if she is smart enough, will lead her to the criminal. Undaunted, she goes where the data takes her. As the tension mounts and the bureaucracy thwarts Starling at every turn, Crawford tells her, "Keep the information and freeze the feelings." Insulted, betrayed, and humiliated, Starling struggles to focus. If she can understand Lecter's final, ambiguous scrawl, she can find the killer. But can she figure it out in time? --Barbara Schlieper In this thrillingly effective follow-up to Harris's masterful 1981 suspense novel Red Dragon, the heroine is new, but the villain isn't: Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the evil genius who played a small but crucial role in the earlier novel, returns, to mesmerizing effect. When a serial killer known as Buffalo Bill (he kidnaps, slays and skins young women) begins a crosscountry rampage, FBI trainee Clarice Starling tries to interview Lecter, a psychiatrist whose brilliant insights into the criminally insane are matched only by his bloodlusthe's currently imprisoned for nine murders, and would like nothing more than the chance to kill again. Lecter, a vicious gamesman, will offer clues to the murderer's pattern only in exchange for information about Clarice, analyzing her with horrible accuracy from the barest details. When Bill strikes again, the agent begins to realize that Lecter may know much more, and races against time and two twisted minds. Harris understands the crafting of literary terror as very few writers do; readers who put themselves in his good, coldblooded hands will lose sleep, and demand a sequel. 200,000 first printing; $200,000 ad/promo; BOMC main selection. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. (from Amazon.com)

The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

An autumn evening in 1937. A German engineer arrives at the Warsaw railway station. Tonight, he will be with his Polish mistress; tomorrow, at a workers’ bar in the city’s factory district, he will meet with the military attaché from the French embassy. Information will be exchanged for money. So begins The Spies of Warsaw , the brilliant new novel by Alan Furst, lauded by The New York Times as “America’s preeminent spy novelist.” War is coming to Europe. French and German intelligence operatives are locked in a life-and-death struggle on the espionage battlefield. At the French embassy, the new military attaché, Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier, a decorated hero of the 1914 war, is drawn into a world of abduction, betrayal, and intrigue in the diplomatic salons and back alleys of Warsaw. At the same time, the handsome aristocrat finds himself in a passionate love affair with a Parisian woman of Polish heritage, a lawyer for the League of Nations. Colonel Mercier must work in the shadows, amid an extraordinary cast of venal and dangerous characters–Colonel Anton Vyborg of Polish military intelligence; the mysterious and sophisticated Dr. Lapp, senior German Abwehr officer in Warsaw; Malka and Viktor Rozen, at work for the Russian secret service; and Mercier’s brutal and vindictive opponent, Major August Voss of SS counterintelligence. And there are many more, some known to Mercier as spies, some never to be revealed. The Houston Chronicle has described Furst as “the greatest living writer of espionage fiction.” The Spies of Warsaw is his finest novel to date–the history precise, the writing evocative and powerful, more a novel about spies than a spy novel, exciting, atmospheric, erotic, and impossible to put down. “As close to heaven as popular fiction can get.” – Los Angeles Times , about The Foreign Correspondent “What gleams on the surface in Furst’s books is his vivid, precise evocation of mood, time, place, a letter-perfect re-creation of the quotidian details of World War II Europe that wraps around us like the rich fug of a wartime railway station.” –Time “A rich, deeply moving novel of suspense that is equal parts espionage thriller, European history and love story.” –Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times , about Dark Star “Some books you read. Others you live. They seep into your dreams and haunt your waking hours until eventually they seem the stuff of memory and experience. Such are the novels of Alan Furst, who uses the shadowy world of espionage to illuminate history and politics with immediacy.” –Nancy Pate, Orlando Sentinel From the Hardcover edition. (from eBooks.com)

The fine print:
*Should the first vote produce a 3-way or more tie for first place, or 2-way or more tie for second, the second poll will have more than two choices.

[The Terminator]

Too bad The Looking Glass War isn't available in eBook in the states. Or so it seems.

I'm not saying that that is what I voted for though.

[sun surfer]

I'm going for In The Woods.

[issybird]

Shame this isn't a month with open voting. Four of the choices are equally appealing. So which one has the best chance of making it into the top two?

[GA Russell]

I'm very interested in three, and I have to think that at least one of them will make it to the second round.

I read Day of the Jackal decades ago, and am not interested in reading it again, but I wouldn't blame anyone who voted for it. It has you on the edge of your seat even though you know how it ends!

[Asawi]

A couple of titles I'm likely to read whether they win or not. I couple I won't...
I've read some James Patterson that I liked a lot, some that I didn't like at all. I think that's where my vote goes anyway.

[WT Sharpe]

Win or lose, Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane is on my TBR list.

[odiakkoh]

Shutter island has been on my wishlist for over a year now so I would love to have an excuse to buy it. I have the day of the jackal (unread) so that would give me a reason to finally read it

[orlok]

I've read half of these already, so have voted by one I haven't - Jo Nesbo (The Snowman), of whom I've read one of his other books (The Redeemer) and wouldn't mind trying another.

Just a quick question - when did the nominations for these take place? I completely missed it. It would be really useful if the nominations threads were advertised in one of the popular threads like Dr. Drib's "Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?"

[John F]

A great list. I'll probably read whatever wins, and vote for whatever I can get from the library.

Having seen the movie Shutter Island, I'd be interested in what the book is like.

... Just a quick question - when did the nominations for these take place? I completely missed it. ...

How about subscribing to the Books Club forum? It doesn't get too much traffic, so you won't get inundated with emails.

Or maybe it is time to take WT Sharpe off your ignore list?

[HomeInMyShoes]

@orlok. The nominations were super quick.

I have no idea what to vote for. So many interesting options in a category I don't read.

I've got four options to choose from. It might be time to consult the magic 8-ball or maybe I'll abstain and see what comes out.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by John F

Or maybe it is time to take WT Sharpe off your ignore list?

Ah. There's the issue .

I'll look into subscribing to the Book Clubs Forum, thanks. I was just a bit disappointed as this is my main reading genre.

This is not really a category that I usually select books from. I have already read two of these years ago (The Day Of The Jackal and The Silence of the Lambs) and read The Spies of Warsaw when it was nominated in this category last year. I am not interested in reading any of these again. It is interesting that two books by Jo Nesbø made it into the vote, but researching these it would seem that one is book 3 and the other book 7 in a series. I would pick The Looking Glass War because I have not read it and like John le Carré, not to mention that it is the shortest book of all. But even though I don't care at all about the format I know enough people demand ebook availability that my vote would likely be wasted. Believe I will go with The Secret Agent then.

[The Terminator]

Originally Posted by orlok

I've read half of these already, so have voted by one I haven't - Jo Nesbo (The Snowman), of whom I've read one of his other books (The Redeemer) and wouldn't mind trying another.

Just a quick question - when did the nominations for these take place? I completely missed it. It would be really useful if the nominations threads were advertised in one of the popular threads like Dr. Drib's "Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?"

The Nominations thread was "Advertised" on the front page of MR. Nominations only took one day I think, so you can't be blamed for missing it.

Thriller must be a popular Genre.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by The Terminator

The Nominations thread was "Advertised" on the front page of MR. Nominations only took one day I think so you can't be blamed for missing it, Thriller must be a popular Genre.

Thanks. I very rarely visit the front page, as I go straight to User CP to look at subscribed threads. My own fault.