What Do You Want To Read For November's Crime Book Club?

With a great second month meeting online, through Google+ Hangouts and the probability that this is likely to grow into a healthy attendance group with a passion for the books they read, behind us, I think we now need to look at what we want to read for November. This gives us a little over three weeks to vote and the vote to close by the next meeting in October and everyone to know what book it is we’re reading next. The meeting is Wednesday 16th October. 8 P.M. GMT.

White Heat by M. J. McGrath

Half Inuit, half outsider, Edie Kiglatuk is the best guide in her corner of the Arctic, but as a woman she gets only grudging respect from the elders of her isolated community on Ellesmere Island. When a man is shot and killed while on an ”authentic” Arctic adventure under her watch, the murder attracts police sergeant Derek Palliser’s attention. As Edie sets out to discover what those tourists were really after, she’s shocked by the suicide of someone close to her. The events seem unrelated, but Edie’s Inuit hunter sensibility tells her otherwise. With or without Derek’s help, she’s determined to find the connection–a search that takes her beyond her village and into the far reaches of the tundra.”White Heat” is a stunning debut novel set in an utterly foreign culture amid an unforgiving landscape of ice and rock, of spirit ancestors and never-rotting bones. ‘White Heat’ is a stunning debut novel, a suspense-filled adventure story that will captivate fans of Henning Mankell.

THE NOVEMBER CHOICES ARE;

Alex by Pierre LeMaitre

(This was suggested as I tweeted as I recently read this)

In kidnapping cases, the first few hours are crucial. After that, the chances of being found alive go from slim to nearly none. Alex Prévost – beautiful, resourceful, tough – may be no ordinary victim, but her time is running out.

Commandant Camille Verhoeven and his detectives have nothing to go on: no suspect, no lead, rapidly diminishing hope. All they know is that a girl was snatched off the streets of Paris and bundled into a white van.

The enigma that is the fate of Alex will keep Verhoeven guessing until the bitter, bitter end. And before long, saving her life will be the least of his worries.

Chasing the Dead by Tim Weaver

One year ago, Alex Towne’s body was found. One month ago, his mother saw him on the street. One week ago, David Raker agreed to look for him. Now he wishes he hadn’t. Mary Towne’s son, Alex, went missing six years ago. Five years later he finally turned up – as a corpse in a car wreck. Missing persons investigator David Raker doesn’t want the work: it’s clearly a sad but hopeless case of mistaken identity brought to him by a woman unable to let go of her son. But haunted by a loss of his own, Raker reluctantly agrees. Big mistake. For as he digs deeper, he discovers that Alex’s life was not the innocent one his mother believed. Buried in his past are secrets that were never meant to be found – and dark, dangerous men willing to kill to protect them. Soon Raker will discover that there are things far worse than death . . .

or

Just What Kind of Mother are You by Paula Daly

A searing and sinister thriller for readers who liked Gone Girl.

What if your best friend’s child disappears? And it was all your fault.

A searing and sinister thriller for readers who liked Gone Girl.What if your best friend’s child disappears? And it was all your fault. This is exactly what happens to Lisa Kallisto, overwhelmed working mother of three, one freezing December in the English Lake District. She takes her eye off the ball for just a moment and her whole world descends into the stuff of nightmares. Because, not only is thirteen-year-old Lucinda missing, and not only is it all Lisa’s fault, but she’s the second teenage girl to disappear within this small tightknit community over two weeks. The first girl turned up stripped bare, dumped on a busy high street, after suffering from a terrifying ordeal.

Wracked with guilt over her mistake and after being publicly blamed by Lucinda’s family, Lisa sets out to right the wrong. But as she begins peeling away the layers surrounding Lucinda’s disappearance, Lisa learns that the small, posh, quiet town she lives in isn’t what she thought it was, and her friends may not be who they appear, either.

All the above books have had strong reviews by readers I follow on Twitter. I’d be interested in our book group dynamics and how as a group we think these books work. Please vote by commenting here, on Twitter using the #crimebookclub hashtag or leaving a comment on the Facebook page. Done’t forget, you can also sign up to the book club newsletter so you never forget anything, Here.