Virtual Crime Book Club – Let’s Vote!

Last night the book club met and discussed Pine by Francine Toon. While there was a great sense of place, and character and grief were intimately explored, the group did not feel it was strong in the crime sense, which was what they were expecting.

A conversation ensued about what a crime novel is. The main consensus was that a crime occurred that required solving, but on searching for new books myself later, I remembered the genre is a lot wider. The psychological thriller is a vast market and has been for some time now. Novels set around the tension of whether a crime will be committed. And as a group, we have read these books. I just think that trying to pin down an answer when you’re not expecting such a question always makes you forget everything you know! 

I have decided not to post the video of this meeting. Today you only need to vote!

The theme this month is a book written by a serving or retired police officer or staff. So, it will definitely be a crime novel!

The meeting is Monday 2nd October. The time will be confirmed when the book is chosen next weekend. You have until the end of Friday, 8th to leave your vote in the comments. 

Look at the choices, read the blurbs and leave your vote. I look forward to seeing what our next read is!

Bad for Good by Graham Bartlett

How far would you go?

The murder of a promising footballer and, crucially, the son of the Brighton’s Chief Superintendent, means Detective Superintendent Jo Howe has a complicated and sensitive case on her hands. The situation becomes yet more desperate following devastating blackmail threats.

Howe can trust no one as she tracks the brutal killer in a city balanced on a knife edge of vigilante action and a police force riven with corruption.

 

The Siege by John Sutherland

Nine hostages. Ten hours. One chance to save them all.

Lee James Connor has found his purpose in to follow the teachings of far-right extremist leader, Nicholas Farmer. So when his idol is jailed, he comes up with the perfect take a local immigrant support group hostage until Farmer is released.

Grace Wheatley is no stranger to loneliness having weathered the passing of her husband, whilst being left to raise her son alone. The local support group is her only source of comfort. Until the day Lee James Connor walks in and threatens the existence of everything she’s ever known.

Superintendent Alex Lewis may be one of the most experienced hostage negotiators on the force, but there’s no such thing as a perfect record. Still haunted by his last case, can he connect with Connor – and save his nine hostages – before it’s too late?

Dead Man’s Grave by Neil Lancaster

This grave can never be opened.
The head of Scotland’s most powerful crime family is brutally murdered, his body dumped inside an ancient grave in a remote cemetery.

This murder can never be forgotten.
Detectives Max Craigie and Janie Calder arrive at the scene, a small town where everyone has secrets to hide. They soon realise this murder is part of a blood feud between two Scottish families that stretches back to the 1800s. One thing’s for certain: it might be the latest killing, but it won’t be the last…

This killer can never be caught.
As the body count rises, the investigation uncovers large-scale corruption at the heart of the Scottish Police Service. Now Max and Janie must turn against their closest colleagues – to solve a case that could cost them far more than just their lives…

Post Mortem (AKA The Tower) by Kate London

She closed her eyes and saw, as if on a loop, a repeating backdrop of square windows, blue concrete spinning and passing, passing, passing. She could not escape the horror of it: unstoppably, irretrievably until the hard concrete reaches up.

A long-serving beat cop in the Met and a teenage girl fall to their deaths from a tower block in London’s East End. Left alive on the roof are a five year old boy and rookie police officer Lizzie Griffiths. Within hours, Lizzie Griffiths has disappeared, and DPS officer Sarah Collins sets out to uncover the truth around the grisly deaths, in an investigation which takes her into the dark heart of policing in London.

Grounded in the terrifying realities of life on the force in city where the affluent middle-classes live cheek-by-jowl with the poorest immigrants, this is a complex, intelligent, thrilling crime novel by an author who has walked the beat.

The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh

At midnight, one of them is dead.
By morning, all of them are suspects.

It’s a party to end all parties, but not everyone is here to celebrate.

On New Year’s Eve, Rhys Lloyd has a house full of guests. His vacation homes on Mirror Lake are a success, and he’s generously invited the village to drink champagne with their wealthy new neighbors.

But by midnight, Rhys will be floating dead in the freezing waters of the lake.

On New Year’s Day, Ffion Morgan has a village full of suspects. The tiny community is her home, so the suspects are her neighbors, friends and family—and Ffion has her own secrets to protect.

With a lie uncovered at every turn, soon the question isn’t who wanted Rhys dead…but who finally killed him.

In a village with this many secrets, murder is just the beginning.

Definitely Dead by Kate Bendalow

Can you always trust the evidence?

Maya Barton has just embarked on her dream job as a scene of crime officer. When she attends her first death the post-mortem deems it to be non-suspicious and the case is closed. But despite the lack of evidence, she suspects a crime has been committed.

Meanwhile, the police force focus on a mission to bring a criminal gang to justice.

When Maya is called to another apparent sudden death her reservations resurface. She is convinced a killer is on the loose; a killer who has evaded suspicion until now, but Maya’s series of mistakes alienate those around her.

As she and her colleagues are drawn further into their investigations, they end up putting themselves in grave danger.

Can Maya catch a killer and escape from her troubled past, or will the skeletons from her closet come back to haunt her? Who can Maya really trust? And who will make it out alive…