Nominations for the third BGO Book Group read of 2011

[tagesmann]

The theme of this read is crime fiction.

As usual you can nominate a book you have read and think we might enjoy or a book that you haven't read but have always wanted to read, or... Well the reason for your nomination doesn't matter but do tell us a bit about the book.

And remember for a book to go forward to the vote it needs to be be seconded.

:)

[chuntzy]

Tom Rob Smith's Child 44 is my nomination.

Synopsis from Amazon:-

'Leo Demidov is, basically, an instrument of the state -- by no means a villain, but one who tries to look not too closely into the repressive work he does. His superiors remind him that there is no crime in Soviet Union, and he is somehow able to maintain its fiction in his mind even as he tracks down and punishes the miscreants. The body of a young boy is found on railway tracks in Moscow, and Demidov is quickly informed that there is nothing to the case. He quickly realises that something unpleasant is being covered over here, but is forced to obey his orders. However, things begin to quickly unravel, and this ex-hero of state suddenly finds himself in disgrace, exiled with his wife Raisa to a town in the Ural Mountains. And things will get worse for him -- not only the murder of another child, but even the life and safety of his wife.

Tom Rob Smith’s beleaguered hero is a protagonist who we know will (at some point) have to rebel against the totalitarian state he works for. But it is the suspense of waiting for this moment as much as the exigencies of the thriller plot that makes this such a compelling novel.'

Really good page-turner.

[Grammath]

I'm reading an extremely fine crime book at the moment if anyone else would like to join me. It is Benjamin Black's (aka John Banville's) Christine Falls, the first novel to feature the pathologist Quirke. Set in a very atmospheric 1950s Dublin with interludes in Boston, Massachusetts.

From the book jacket:Quirke’s pathology department, set deep beneath the city, is his own gloomy realm: always quiet, always night, and always under his control. Until late one evening after a party he stumbles across a body that should not be there – and his brother-in-law falsifying the corpse’s cause of death. This is the first time Quirke has encountered Christine Falls, but the investigation he decides to lead into the way she lived and died uncovers a dark secret at the heart of Dublin’s high Catholic network; one with the power to shake his own family and everything he holds dear. For Kindle owners, as I write a copy of this currently costs £1.99.

[momac]

I'm reading an extremely fine crime book at the moment if anyone else would like to join me. It is Benjamin Black's (aka John Banville's) Christine Falls, the first novel to feature the pathologist Quirke. Set in a very atmospheric 1950s Dublin with interludes in Boston, Massachusetts.

From the book jacket:For Kindle owners, as I write a copy of this currently costs £1.99.

Hi Grammath: I could second that, haven't read it or any of Black's books but it sounds like my kind of read.

[lunababymoonchild]

I'd like to nominate Point Blank by Richard Stark.

From Amazon : The hunted becomes the hunter. Meet Parker, the ultimate professional. Parker is a master thief, and a man with a heart of steel. He believes in the oldest law of all - a life for a life. His one-time partner, Mal, tried to pull a fast one, making off with Parker's share of the takings after a successful heist, as well as his Parker's wife, Lynn. Big mistake. They thought they had left him for dead, but Parker survived their bullets and now he's out for revenge and prepared to do whatever it takes. The prey has become the hunter, and now Parker is stalking them, leaving a trail of carnage in his wake. Haunting and brutal, "Point Blank" was made into the cult classic movie starring Lee Marvin, and remains one of the most distinctive crime thrillers ever written.

I thoroughly enjoyed the sparse prose and it's not as violent as that blurb makes it sound.

[Barblue]

I love the sound of Child44 by Tom Rob Smith and second that nomination.

[bobblington]

I like crime fiction but I don't seem to have an offer of a book to nominate. I happen to like more of the detective side of things and I suppose I am reticent to nominate one as it's not really about the crime and more about the detective.

I look forward to joining in reading the winner though. So far they all sound interesting to me.

[tagesmann]

I like crime fiction but I don't seem to have an offer of a book to nominate. I happen to like more of the detective side of things and I suppose I am reticent to nominate one as it's not really about the crime and more about the detective.Aren't they all though? I thought that was half the point. All the best known books in this genre are known by the detective's name.

Perhaps people could nominate the best example of their favourite detective...

[Colinj]

I would suggest this author he is fantastic.

[bobblington]

I'll put forward an old school nomination. It's Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr which is considered Carr's masterpiece, it was selected in 1981 as the best locked-room mystery of all time by a panel of 17 mystery authors and reviewers

One wintry night in London, two murders are committed in quick succession. In both cases, the murderer has seemingly vanished into thin air.

In the first case, he has disappeared from Professor Grimaud's study after shooting the professor—without leaving a trace, with the only door to the room locked from the inside, and with people present in the hall outside the room. Both the ground below the window and the roof above it are covered with unbroken snow.

In the second case, a man walking in the middle of a deserted cul-de-sac at about the same time is evidently shot at close range, with the same revolver that killed Grimaud and only minutes afterward, but there is no one else near the man; this is witnessed from some distance by three passersby—two tourists and a police constable—who happen to be walking on the pavement. It takes Dr Gideon Fell, scholar and "a pompous pain in the neck," who keeps hinting at the solution without giving it away, some 200 pages to finally condescend and minutely reconstruct the two crimes and thus solve the mystery.

[lunababymoonchild]

I like the sound of that, Bobblington but it's not easy to get.

[tagesmann]

I like the sound of that, Bobblington but it's not easy to get.Yes Luna that might be a problem. There are 17 second hand copies available on Amazon plus a couple under the US title of The Three Coffins. But they aren't that cheap. And this one isn't available on Kindle yet, either.

[bobblington]

Perhaps we could consider just reading a Dr Gideon Fell by John Dickson Carr - there are a few listed on Abebooks - but Hollow man is a bit hard to get hold of - sorry.

[tagesmann]

I'll give this until the end of this week and then put the vote thread on.

[lunababymoonchild]

- but Hollow man is a bit hard to get hold of.Don't want to derail the thread but I've just been to a (Scottish) branch of Waterstones who managed to order me a copy from England, saying that one or two of their English branches have one - just in case anybody's interested.

[momac]

Don't want to derail the thread but I've just been to a (Scottish) branch of Waterstones who managed to order me a copy from England, saying that one or two of their English branches have one - just in case anybody's interested.
It does sounds interesting but would I be able to get it here in Canada? I know that sometimes I've requested a book from Amazon and they always take the order but quite often do not actually have the book. This happened with The Windchill Factor which was out of print and they said it would be here at such and such a time and then kept putting the date back. Turns out they never had a line on it so I'm a bit skeptical about ordering from them. I might be able to get it through our independent book store who tend to be more reliable - that's if it's chosen as the bmo.

[lunababymoonchild]

It does sounds interesting but would I be able to get it here in Canada? I know that sometimes I've requested a book from Amazon and they always take the order but quite often do not actually have the book. This happened with The Windchill Factor which was out of print and they said it would be here at such and such a time and then kept putting the date back. Turns out they never had a line on it so I'm a bit skeptical about ordering from them. I might be able to get it through our independent book store who tend to be more reliable - that's if it's chosen as the bmo.I don't know, Momac. The book has been out of print here in the UK since 2007 but I have no idea whether that's the case in Canada.

[lunababymoonchild]

I'll second Dr Gideon Fell, John Dickson Carr, whichever one anybody can get a hold of.