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AB Reading group - June Book of the Month suggestions please
29 Answers
I am arbitrarily choosing "Crime Fiction" as the genre for this month (it was at least mentioned a couple of times in the previous thread) - interpret this as loosely as you wish :+)
Please add your suggestions for specific books to this thread - give a bit of detail about each book (or a link to a synopsis on eg Amazon).
Feel free to endorse other people's ideas - I'll pick a few books for a selection poll at the end of next week & then we can get reading.
dave xx
Please add your suggestions for specific books to this thread - give a bit of detail about each book (or a link to a synopsis on eg Amazon).
Feel free to endorse other people's ideas - I'll pick a few books for a selection poll at the end of next week & then we can get reading.
dave xx
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Here are some suggestions, in no particular order:
"A Kiss Before Dying", Ira Levin
"A Place of Execution", Val McDermid
"Last Seen Wearing", Hillary Waugh
"A Kiss Before Dying" is Ira Levin's first book, and despite the success of some of his others - "Rosemary's Baby", "The Stepford Wives", "The Boys from Brazil" - it's my opinion that this is his best. It's a real cracker of a book, beautifully plotted, and is well-nigh unique in the absolute bombshell that drops about a third of the way through. Guaranteed to make you sit up in your seat and gasp with surprise.
Val McDermid successfully evokes an atmosphere both of time and place. The plot is very complex, but beautifully handled, and the suspense is maintained at a high level throughout. It'll take a most astute and experienced reader to foresee the outcome. Extremely well-researched, and not easy to write, as she admits, it's her best novel in my opinion.
"Last Seen Wearing" is a pioneer in the police procedural type of novel, but the action takes place in a small college town rather than a big bad city. A student disappears, and the police chief investigates. Her diary is found and provides clues, suspects are found and discarded, until one is left. The ending is satisfying.
A few more favourites:
"The Daughter of Time", Josephine Tey - a masterpiece
"The 39 Steps, John Buchan
"The Day of the Jackal" - the complete thriller
"The Godfather", Mario Puzo
"A Kiss Before Dying", Ira Levin
"A Place of Execution", Val McDermid
"Last Seen Wearing", Hillary Waugh
"A Kiss Before Dying" is Ira Levin's first book, and despite the success of some of his others - "Rosemary's Baby", "The Stepford Wives", "The Boys from Brazil" - it's my opinion that this is his best. It's a real cracker of a book, beautifully plotted, and is well-nigh unique in the absolute bombshell that drops about a third of the way through. Guaranteed to make you sit up in your seat and gasp with surprise.
Val McDermid successfully evokes an atmosphere both of time and place. The plot is very complex, but beautifully handled, and the suspense is maintained at a high level throughout. It'll take a most astute and experienced reader to foresee the outcome. Extremely well-researched, and not easy to write, as she admits, it's her best novel in my opinion.
"Last Seen Wearing" is a pioneer in the police procedural type of novel, but the action takes place in a small college town rather than a big bad city. A student disappears, and the police chief investigates. Her diary is found and provides clues, suspects are found and discarded, until one is left. The ending is satisfying.
A few more favourites:
"The Daughter of Time", Josephine Tey - a masterpiece
"The 39 Steps, John Buchan
"The Day of the Jackal" - the complete thriller
"The Godfather", Mario Puzo
I read so much crime fiction I hestitate to recommend something really .
Quirky but brilliant and "laugh out loud "in parts
The Bryant and May novels by Christopher Fowler .It's a series but starts with ...Full Dark House.
"If you were to take one Agatha Christie crime novel, a couple of episodes of the X-Files and the two crabbit auld geezers from "The Fast Show" and whizz them in a blender, the result would be very similar to this book".
Failing that Purple Cane Road ..the first in James Lee Burkes Robicheaux series .You will be hooked .
Quirky but brilliant and "laugh out loud "in parts
The Bryant and May novels by Christopher Fowler .It's a series but starts with ...Full Dark House.
"If you were to take one Agatha Christie crime novel, a couple of episodes of the X-Files and the two crabbit auld geezers from "The Fast Show" and whizz them in a blender, the result would be very similar to this book".
Failing that Purple Cane Road ..the first in James Lee Burkes Robicheaux series .You will be hooked .
I'd possibly go with Tess Gerritsen too the Surgeon is pretty nasty...
In her most masterful novel of medical suspense, New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen creates a villain of unforgettable evil--and the one woman who can catch him before he kills again.
He slips into their homes at night and walks silently into bedrooms where women lie sleeping, unaware of the horrors they soon will endure. The precision of the killer's methods suggests he is a deranged man of medicine, propelling the Boston newspapers and the frightened public to name him "The Surgeon."
.
From the Hardcover edition.More »
What people are saying - Write a review
User ratings
5 stars 184
4 stars 261
3 stars 150
2 stars 40
1 star 11
Well written, has a great plot. - Goodreads I read this years ago, so the plot is very vague to me. - Goodreads Twisted, but super amazing writing style. - Goodreads Really gruesome, but the pace was great. - Goodreads Excellent page turner. - Goodreads I think she is a great writer. - Goodreads
Review: The Surgeon (Rizzoli & Isles #1)
User Review - Sam - Goodreads
Make no mistakes, 'The Surgeon' is an excellent specimen of the crime genre. Were this an exclusively crime-based site I would have little hesitation in giving it one more star. The trouble is, either ... Read full review
Review: The Surgeon (Rizzoli & Isles #1)
User Review - Nancy - Goodreads
There was a great deal about the Surgeon that reminded me of James Patterson's Women's Murder Mystery Series. I do not know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but I can tell you that this book ... Read full review
Editorial Review - Cahners Business Information (c) 2001
A creepy cerebral serial killer vaguely reminiscent of Hannibal Lecter pursues a charismatic female doctor in this thoroughly satisfying if somewhat derivative thriller. Skillfully drawn surgical backdrops sizzling with ER intensity balance out the obligatory romantic intrigue and familiar plucky police professionals, attesting to Gerritsen's authentic medical expertise as a former physician. Dr. Catherine Cordell, the main character in this chilling tale, thought she had shot and killed her rapist and would-be murderer two years earlier in steamy Savannah, where he was a surgery intern at her hospital. Now, in Boston, as another hot summer begins, he appears to have miraculously returned and embarked once again on his grisly mission: he rapes women, then surgically removes their wombs. As two intrepid detectives Thomas Moore and Jane Rizzoli investigate, Cordell begins to doubt her own memories (or lack of) and discovers that not even her OR is safe. Gliding as smoothly as a scalpel in a confident surgeon's hand, this tale proves that Gerritsen (Harvest; Life Support; Bloodstream; Gravity), originally a romance writer, has morphed into a dependable suspense novelist whose growing popularity is keeping pace with her ever-finer writing skills. (Sept.) Forecast: National print advertising in People, the New York Times and USA Today, plus a major promotion campaign, will ratchet Gerritsen's sales up yet another notch.
Another good one for those who like their crime fiction warped is Chelsea Cain's Heartsick from the Beauty Killer series really good characters you get involved with
[i]Det. Archie Sheridan led the Beauty Killer Task Force for ten years, before the Beauty Killer (Gretchen Lowell) caught him, tortured him for ten days and then mysteriously let him go and turned herself in. Now it’s two years later and Archie, addicted to pain pills and still obsessed with Gretchen, is called off medical leave to hunt a second serial killer. Pink-haired girl journalist Susan Ward is assigned to profile Archie. She knows he’s hiding something. But what? (It’s bigger than a breadbox.)[i]
In her most masterful novel of medical suspense, New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen creates a villain of unforgettable evil--and the one woman who can catch him before he kills again.
He slips into their homes at night and walks silently into bedrooms where women lie sleeping, unaware of the horrors they soon will endure. The precision of the killer's methods suggests he is a deranged man of medicine, propelling the Boston newspapers and the frightened public to name him "The Surgeon."
.
From the Hardcover edition.More »
What people are saying - Write a review
User ratings
5 stars 184
4 stars 261
3 stars 150
2 stars 40
1 star 11
Well written, has a great plot. - Goodreads I read this years ago, so the plot is very vague to me. - Goodreads Twisted, but super amazing writing style. - Goodreads Really gruesome, but the pace was great. - Goodreads Excellent page turner. - Goodreads I think she is a great writer. - Goodreads
Review: The Surgeon (Rizzoli & Isles #1)
User Review - Sam - Goodreads
Make no mistakes, 'The Surgeon' is an excellent specimen of the crime genre. Were this an exclusively crime-based site I would have little hesitation in giving it one more star. The trouble is, either ... Read full review
Review: The Surgeon (Rizzoli & Isles #1)
User Review - Nancy - Goodreads
There was a great deal about the Surgeon that reminded me of James Patterson's Women's Murder Mystery Series. I do not know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but I can tell you that this book ... Read full review
Editorial Review - Cahners Business Information (c) 2001
A creepy cerebral serial killer vaguely reminiscent of Hannibal Lecter pursues a charismatic female doctor in this thoroughly satisfying if somewhat derivative thriller. Skillfully drawn surgical backdrops sizzling with ER intensity balance out the obligatory romantic intrigue and familiar plucky police professionals, attesting to Gerritsen's authentic medical expertise as a former physician. Dr. Catherine Cordell, the main character in this chilling tale, thought she had shot and killed her rapist and would-be murderer two years earlier in steamy Savannah, where he was a surgery intern at her hospital. Now, in Boston, as another hot summer begins, he appears to have miraculously returned and embarked once again on his grisly mission: he rapes women, then surgically removes their wombs. As two intrepid detectives Thomas Moore and Jane Rizzoli investigate, Cordell begins to doubt her own memories (or lack of) and discovers that not even her OR is safe. Gliding as smoothly as a scalpel in a confident surgeon's hand, this tale proves that Gerritsen (Harvest; Life Support; Bloodstream; Gravity), originally a romance writer, has morphed into a dependable suspense novelist whose growing popularity is keeping pace with her ever-finer writing skills. (Sept.) Forecast: National print advertising in People, the New York Times and USA Today, plus a major promotion campaign, will ratchet Gerritsen's sales up yet another notch.
Another good one for those who like their crime fiction warped is Chelsea Cain's Heartsick from the Beauty Killer series really good characters you get involved with
[i]Det. Archie Sheridan led the Beauty Killer Task Force for ten years, before the Beauty Killer (Gretchen Lowell) caught him, tortured him for ten days and then mysteriously let him go and turned herself in. Now it’s two years later and Archie, addicted to pain pills and still obsessed with Gretchen, is called off medical leave to hunt a second serial killer. Pink-haired girl journalist Susan Ward is assigned to profile Archie. She knows he’s hiding something. But what? (It’s bigger than a breadbox.)[i]
Sorry - forgot link:
http://www.mohayder.net/books.html
http://www.mohayder.net/books.html
Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders
through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without
remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be a great man, a Napoleon:
acting for a higher purpose beyond conventional moral law. But as he
embarks on a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a suspicious police
investigator, Raskolnikov is pursued by the growing voice of his conscience
and finds the noose of his own guilt tightening around his neck. Only
Sonya, a downtrodden prostitute, can offer the chance of redemption.
Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders
through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without
remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be a great man, a Napoleon:
acting for a higher purpose beyond conventional moral law. But as he
embarks on a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a suspicious police
investigator, Raskolnikov is pursued by the growing voice of his conscience
and finds the noose of his own guilt tightening around his neck. Only
Sonya, a downtrodden prostitute, can offer the chance of redemption.
I think I misunderstood this thread. I had in mind best books in the genre, rather than a book for June. Silly me. Oh well. Most of my suggestions will be hard to find, I reckon; except maybe "A Place of Execution" - that'll be in most libraries,and often in charity shops too. I've never read anything by Tess Gerritsen - American is she? I'll give her a try.
I've read a couple of Tess Gerritsen's and wasn't too impressed. I would recommend Peter James' Roy Grace series starting with the first 'Dead Simple'. His books are set in Brighton and he's a gritty DCI with a dodgy private life which doesn't intrude on the main plot of the book. I've now read all 7 of his books so far, and have the next on pre-order.
