MobileRead August 2016 Book Club Vote

[WT Sharpe]

August 2016 MobileRead Book Club Vote

Help us choose a book as the August 2016 eBook for the MobileRead Book Club. The poll will be open for 5 days. There will be no runoff vote unless the voting results a tie, in which case there will be a 3 day run-off poll. This is a visible poll: others can see how you voted. It is You may cast a vote for each book that appeals to you.

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

• All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda
Goodreads | Amazon US / Kobo US / Overdrive / Overdrive Audio
Print Length: 384 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

Like the spellbinding psychological suspense in The Girl on the Train and Luckiest Girl Alive, Megan Miranda’s novel is a nail-biting, breathtaking story about the disappearances of two young women — a decade apart — told in reverse.

It’s been ten years since Nicolette Farrell left her rural hometown after her best friend, Corinne, disappeared from Cooley Ridge without a trace. Back again to tie up loose ends and care for her ailing father, Nic is soon plunged into a shocking drama that reawakens Corinne’s case and breaks open old wounds long since stitched.

The decade-old investigation focused on Nic, her brother Daniel, boyfriend Tyler, and Corinne’s boyfriend Jackson. Since then, only Nic has left Cooley Ridge. Daniel and his wife, Laura, are expecting a baby; Jackson works at the town bar; and Tyler is dating Annaleise Carter, Nic’s younger neighbor and the group’s alibi the night Corinne disappeared. Then, within days of Nic’s return, Annaleise goes missing.

Told backwards — Day 15 to Day 1 — from the time Annaleise goes missing, Nic works to unravel the truth about her younger neighbor’s disappearance, revealing shocking truths about her friends, her family, and what really happened to Corinne that night ten years ago.

Like nothing you’ve ever read before, All the Missing Girls delivers in all the right ways. With twists and turns that lead down dark alleys and dead ends, you may think you’re walking a familiar path, but then Megan Miranda turns it all upside down and inside out and leaves us wondering just how far we would be willing to go to protect those we love.

• Carved in Bone (Body Farm Book 1) by Jefferson Bass
Goodreads | Amazon UK / Amazon US / Kobo US / Overdrive
Print Length: 416 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

On the campus of the University of Tennessee lies a patch of ground unlike any in the world. The "Body Farm" is a place where human corpses are left to the elements, and every manner of decay is fully explored -- for the sake of science and the cause of justice. The scientist who created the Body Farm has broken cold cases and revolutionized forensics, and now, in this heart-stopping novel, he spins an astonishing tale inspired by his own experiences.

A woman's corpse lies hidden in a cave in the mountains of East Tennessee. Undiscovered for thirty years, her body has been transformed by the cave's chemistry into a near-perfect mummy -- one that discloses an explosive secret to renowned anthropologist Bill Brockton. Dr. Brockton has spent his career surrounded by death and decay at the Body Farm, but even he is baffled by this case unfolding in a unique environment where nothing is quite what it seems.

The surreal setting is Cooke County, a remote mountain community that's clannish, insular, and distrustful of outsiders. The heartbreaking discovery of the young woman's corpse reopens old wounds and rekindles feuds dating back decades. The county's powerful and uncooperative sheriff and his inept deputy threaten to derail Brockton's investigation altogether. So do Brockton's other nemeses: his lingering guilt over the death of his wife, and the fury of a medical examiner whom Brockton dares to oppose in court.

Carved in Bone is a richly atmospheric, superbly suspenseful, and magnificently rendered trip into the world of forensic science, the heart of the Appalachian Mountains, and the dark passageways of the human psyche. Full of vivid characters and startling twists and turns, this thrilling novel heralds the debut of a major new voice in crime fiction -- and an unforgettable work from the hand of a scientific legend.

• The Boy In The Suitcase (Nina Borg #1) by Lene Kaaberbøl, Agnete Friis
Goodreads | Amazon Au / Amazon Ca / Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo US / Overdrive
Print Length: 321 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is a compulsive do-gooder who can't say no when someone asks for help—even when she knows better. When her estranged friend Karin leaves her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train station, Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous project yet. Inside the locker is a suitcase, and inside the suitcase is a three-year-old boy: naked and drugged, but alive.

Is the boy a victim of child trafficking? Can he be turned over to authorities, or will they only return him to whoever sold him? When Karin is discovered brutally murdered, Nina realizes that her life and the boy's are in jeopardy, too. In an increasingly desperate trek across Denmark, Nina tries to figure out who the boy is, where he belongs, and who exactly is trying to hunt him down.

• Fast One by Paul Cain
Goodreads | Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo US
Print Length: 211 pages

Spoiler:

This was Cain's only novel. He is considered by some to be the most hard-boiled of writers.

"In the matter of grim hardness Dashiell [Hammett] paused on the threshold. Paul [Cain] went all the way." —Captain Joe Shaw, editor of Black Mask during its golden era

"[Fast One represents] some kind of high point in the ultra hard-boiled manner." —Raymond Chandler, author, The Big Sleep

I]From Goodreads:[/I]

Billed as "the most hard-boiled novel of the 1930s" and featuring one of the most brutal finales in crime fiction history, some say this lost 1933 masterpiece took hard-boiled crime writing too far. In the last days of Prohibition and the first days of the Depression, East Coast crime bosses are vying for control of Los Angeles. Caught in the middle of the intrigue is Gerry Kells, a former New York enforcer now living a life of ease on the West coast. As the fiercely independent Kells rejects the appeals of various crime bosses who want to make use of his talents, powerful forces align against him. Being framed for a murder turns out to be the least of his troubles and as the stakes get higher, and the odds get longer, it's only Kells' nerve and toughness that keep him one step ahead of the law—and the reaper.

• Open Season by C.J. Box
Goodreads | Amazon UK / Amazon US
Print Length: 316 pages

Spoiler:

From Publishers Weekly:

Enthusiastic blurbs even from luminaries such as Tony Hillerman, Les Standiford and Loren Estleman can sometimes leave readers feeling as if they must have read a different book altogether. Not this time. Box's superb debut, the first in a series introducing Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett, should immediately make him a contender for best first novel or even best novel awards. Young Joe is struggling to fill the shoes of his mentor, legendary Vern Dunnegan, as warden of Twelve Sleep County, and trying to support his wife and growing family on the meager salary he makes. The hours are long, the work hard but satisfying, and Joe's honesty and integrity would pay off if he could avoid "bonehead moves" like ticketing the governor of the state for fishing without a license, for instance, or allowing a poacher to grab Joe's firearm from him. When that very same poacher turns up dead and bloodied in Joe's woodpile with only a cooler containing unidentified animal scat, his life, livelihood and family will never be the same. Upping the excitement are a couple of murders, local political and bureaucratic intrigue, a high-stakes pipeline scheme and an endangered species that Joe's eldest daughter "discovers." No one has done a better job of portraying the odd combination of hardy and foolhardy folk that make their homes in Wyoming's wilderness areas, or of describing the dichotomy between those who want to develop the area and those who want to preserve it. Without resorting to simplistic blacks and whites, Box fuses ecological themes, vibrant descriptions of Wyoming's wonders and peculiarities, and fully fleshed characters into a debut of riveting tensions. Meet Joe Pickett: he's going to be a mystery star.

• Final Jeopardy by Linda Fairstein
Goodreads | Amazon UK / Amazon US / Kobo US / Overdrive / Overdrive Audio
Print Length: 336 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

This critically acclaimed, explosive thriller is a book only prosecutor Linda Fairstein could write. Patricia Cornwall knows the morgue; John Grisham knows the courtroom; but no one knows the inner workings of the D.A.'s office like Linda Fairstein, renowned for two decades as head of Manhattan Sex Crimes Unit. Now that world comes vividly to life in a brilliant debut novel of shocking realism, powerful insight, and searing suspense.

Alexandra Cooper, Manhattan's top sex crimes prosecutor, awakens one morning to shocking news: a tabloid headline announcing her own brutal murder. But the actual victim was Isabella Lascar, the Hollywood film star who sought refuge at Alex's Martha's Vineyard retreat. Was Isabella targeted by a stalker or -- mistaken for Alex -- was she in the wrong place at the wrong time? In an investigation that twists from the back alleys of lower Manhattan to the chic salons of the Upper East Side. Alex knows she's in final jeopardy...and time is running out. She has to get into the killer's head before the killer gets to her.

• The Day Of The Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
Goodreads | Amazon UK / Kobo UK/ Overdrive v1 / Overdrive v2 / Overdrive Audio v1 / Overdrive Audio v2
Print Length: 415 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

The Jackal. A tall, blond Englishman with opaque, grey eyes. A killer at the top of his profession. A man unknown to any secret service in the world. An assassin with a contract to kill the world's most heavily guarded man.

One man with a rifle who can change the course of history. One man whose mission is so secretive not even his employers know his name. And as the minutes count down to the final act of execution, it seems that there is no power on earth that can stop the Jackal.

• They Don't Dance Much by James Ross
Goodreads | Amazon UK / Kobo US
Print Length: 304 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

In this classic country noir, featuring a new introduction by Daniel Woodrell, a small town farmer takes a job at a roadhouse, where unbridled greed leads to a brutal murder

Jack McDonald is barely a farmer. Boll weevils have devoured his cotton crop, his chickens have stopped laying eggs, and everything he owns is mortgaged — even his cow. He has no money, no prospects, and nothing to do but hang around filling stations, wondering where his next drink will come from. As far as hooch goes, there's no place like Smut Milligan's, where Breath of Spring moonshine sells for a dollar a pint.

A bootlegger with an entrepreneurial spirit, Milligan has plans to open a roadhouse, and he asks Jack to run the till. The music will be hot, the liquor cheap, and the clientele rough. But the only thing stronger than Milligan's hooch is his greed, and Jack is slowly drawn into the middle of Smut's dalliances with a married woman, the machinations of corrupt town officials — and a savage act of murder.

[WT Sharpe]

I voted for All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda. It's a bit more than I want to spend, and it's not in my local library, but it was the only one screaming, "Read me!" Tales told in reverse chronological order, where the object isn't to find out how things end, but rather how they began, fascinate me. Remember that free cup of coffee scene in the movie 'Momento'? Or the scene where the woman is telling the fellow how she was beat up by someone she fears? Aw, that's a classic film! If All the Missing Girls captures a fragment of that film's inventiveness it will be worth it.

[din155]

I have voted for The Day of the Jackal and Final Jeopardy.

Last I tried to read The Girl on the Train by Megan Miranda I lost interest in every character midway and abandoned the book. I don't want to burn again so soon if possible

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I voted for All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda. It's a bit more than I want to spend, and it's not in my local library, but it was the only one screaming, "Read me!" Tales told in reverse chronological order, where the object isn't to find out how things end, but rather how they began, fascinate me. Remember that free cup of coffee scene in the movie 'Momento'? Or the scene where the woman is telling the fellow how she was beat up by someone she fears? Aw, that's a classic film! If All the Missing Girls captures a fragment of that film's inventiveness it will be worth it.

It wasn't in my library either, but I requested it, and it already came in. So I'll likely give it a vote. Though din155's comment gives me pause...

Originally Posted by din155

I have voted for The Day of the Jackal and Final Jeopardy.

Last I tried to read The Girl on the Train by Megan Miranda I lost interest in every character midway and abandoned the book. I don't want to burn again so soon if possible

Hmmm. Was going to vote for both of these, but am re-thinking the Megan Miranda book. More research required...

[din155]

Originally Posted by CRussel

It wasn't in my library either, but I requested it, and it already came in. So I'll likely give it a vote. Though din155's comment gives me pause...


Hmmm. Was going to vote for both of these, but am re-thinking the Megan Miranda book. More research required...

Sorry Charlie. Maybe it's just me. Everyone else around had very nice things to say about it. I am hoping All the Missing Girls is better than the debut novel of the author.

[treadlightly]

I just finished The Day of the Jackal an hour ago! I didn't realize it was up for vote. All the Missing Girls sounds intriguing, I liked Girl on the Train (by Paula Hawkins).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by din155

Last I tried to read The Girl on the Train by Megan Miranda I lost interest in every character midway and abandoned the book. I don't want to burn again so soon if possible

Megan Miranda did not write The Girl on the Train. It was written by Paula Hawkins. So if you did not vote for All the Missing Girls because of that, then you didn't vote due to a mistake.

[din155]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Megan Miranda did not write The Girl on the Train. It was written by Paula Hawkins. So if you did not vote for All the Missing Girls because of that, then you didn't vote due to a mistake.

Oh, I didn't realise they are by different authors. Thanks John. But even with this information I am not too excited by a book that is compared to The Girl in the Train.

Sorry everyone for derailing the thread.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by din155

Oh, I didn't realise they are by different authors. Thanks Jon. But even with this information I am not too excited by a book that is compared to The Girl in the Train.

I don't usually go by comparisons. I go by the description and sometimes recommendations.

[GA Russell]

I'm surprised that CJ Box isn't doing better. In the past year, I've seen a number of nice things said about him.

[CRussel]

Yeah, I'm a bit surprised too, even though it's not my first choice. (I've already got a copy of The Day of the Jackal checked out from the BCLibaries Download site, and am next in line for an MP3 version of it.)

[JKenP]

CJ Box was one of my favorite series. He does well rounded characters. It is a series that is one of the few I can say holds quality throughout. If you like a good mystery, he should be at least sampled.

[Dazrin]

A little less than a day left and The Day of the Jackal has a commanding lead. I am a little surprised at that give how long it has been out and how popular it is. Are a lot of people voting for it just to check it off their "I should read that someday" lists?

It's not too late for one of the runner's up to have a good run though.

[WT Sharpe]

The Chesapeake Public Library doesn't have have the Jackal book, and I don't know my PIN — if I ever had one — for the Portsmouth Public Library, so tomorrow (or when everyone else gets back with the car from wherever they've gone), I'll have to sign up for the Virginia Beach and Norfolk public libraries, and get a pin number from the Portsmouth Public Library. A shame; I used to have a card for the Norfolk Public Library

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

A little less than a day left and The Day of the Jackal has a commanding lead. I am a little surprised at that give how long it has been out and how popular it is. Are a lot of people voting for it just to check it off their "I should read that someday" lists?

Well, that's certainly one reason I voted for it. I might even have read it 40 years ago, but if so, I completely don't remember it. And at that point in my life, I read even more than I do today, and with a good deal less discrimination. But this looks like a book I'll enjoy, it's only moderately long, it was readily available in my library so it won't cost me anything, and there's even a good audio version. All important boxes to tick for me. Plus we'll be able to discuss how well it's stood the test of time.