Last night the book club met to discuss Little Deaths by Emma Flint. The theme this month was a book inspired by true events. Little Deaths provided the group with a lot of talking points. You can watch the meeting in the video below. Be aware it contains detailed spoilers. Also, apologies, the video is (more than) a little blurry. I’ve been having some issues with my laptop over the last few days and it appears to have had an effect on the recording quality, even after closing everything else I had open. The sound quality is good though.
The next meeting is at 8 p.m. Monday 27th November and the theme for the month is cold cases. Please read the blurbs below and vote on your choice by leaving a comment. Voting closes at the end of Friday – 3rd November.
If you haven’t yet joined the book club, you can find details HERE. Please don’t worry if you don’t think you can attend every month, we have members who join in as and when it’s possible. It’s a different book each month so this is fine. The book club can be here to suit your life timetable.
The Hanging Wood by Martin Edwards
Twenty years after her brother Callum mysteriously vanished, Orla Payne is still haunted by his disappearance. The case was closed after her uncle’s suicide – the police believed he killed himself in the Hanging Wood out of guilt over murdering the boy, even though no body was ever found.
Daniel Kind recommends Orla contact DCI Hannah Scarlett, Head of the Lake District Cold Case Review Team, to see if she can discover the truth about what really happened all those years ago. Hannah doubts there is anything to be done on such a long-dead case, But when Orla is found dead, she reconsiders. Soon DCI Scarlett discovers that investigating the past can throw up some very dangerous truths indeed.
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
Case one: A little girl goes missing in the night.
Case two: A beautiful young office worker falls victim to a maniac’s apparently random attack.
Case three: A new mother finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making – with a very needy baby and a very demanding husband – until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.
Thirty years after the first incident, as private investigator Jackson Brodie begins investigating all three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge . . .
Out of Bounds by Val McDermid
When a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car and ends up in a coma, a routine DNA test reveals a connection to an unsolved murder from twenty-two years before. Finding the answer to the cold case should be straightforward. But it’s as twisted as the DNA helix itself.
Meanwhile, Karen finds herself irresistibly drawn to another mystery that she has no business investigating, a mystery that has its roots in a terrorist bombing two decades ago. And again, she finds that nothing is as it seems.
The Cipher by Isabella Maldonado
To a cunning serial killer, she was the one that got away. Until now…
FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera escaped a serial killer’s trap at sixteen. Years later, when she’s jumped in a Virginia park, a video of the attack goes viral. Legions of new fans are not the only ones impressed with her fighting skills. The man who abducted her eleven years ago is watching. Determined to reclaim his lost prize, he commits a grisly murder designed to pull her into the investigation…but his games are just beginning. And he’s using the internet to invite the public to play along.
His coded riddles may have made him a depraved social media superstar—an enigmatic cyber-ghost dubbed “the Cipher”—but to Nina he’s a monster who preys on the vulnerable. Partnered with the FBI’s preeminent mind hunter, Dr. Jeffrey Wade, who is haunted by his own past, Nina tracks the predator across the country. Clue by clue, victim by victim, Nina races to stop a deadly killer while the world watches.
The Killing Song by Lesley McEvoy
IF YOU HEAR THE MUSIC, YOU’RE OUT OF TIME . . .
On a busy train station platform, a man pulls a knife and viciously attacks another passenger before fleeing – apparently unaware of what he has just done.
To the police, it looks like a terrorist attack. But Forensic Psychologist Dr Jo McCready has seen this bizarre behaviour before, in controversial psychological experiments. She knows this is no random killing spree.
When a botched cold case resurfaces, and the mistress of a controversial billionaire philanthropist is found dead, Jo discovers all these crimes are tangled up in the same web of deadly local secrets. Secrets that some will kill to protect . . .
Jenny says
The Killing Song sounds good.
Marina Sofia says
I’ll vote for the Martin Edwards because I haven’t read that series of his at all yet and I’d like to (love his Golden Age research stuff and he’s such a nice guy). Otherwise, if there is a tie, my second vote goes to Val McDermid’s Karen Pirie series.
Margot Kinberg says
Thanks, as always, Rebecca, for doing this, and sorry again that I had to leave the meeting early. My vote’s for The Hanging Wood
Craig says
My vote is for Case Histories.
Thanks for the meeting last night.
Dawn E says
I vote for Out of Bounds by Val McDermid. It sounds more complex with the DNA issues and will make me 🤔 think!
Clark says
Case Histories
Janet - LovesBooksReadsBooks says
Hi Rebecca
My vote is for Case Histories (if there’s a ties then Out of Bounds would be my next choice).
Vera Luz says
Hi Rebecca,
Thanks for this week’s meeting (I already watched the video of the part i missed😉).
I do love Kate Atkinson and have read all her books, but i would be happy to re read Case histories.
Chris says
Case histories for me please, really hopeful that I will be available again on the 27th.
Andrea Reid says
Case Histories
Karen Selwood says
The hanging wood but they all sound good
Hope to make the next meeting
Dawn Davies says
Oh dear I love cold cases which made voting difficult I want to read them all.
I vote for Out of Bounds by Val McDermid
Ellen says
Martin Edwards – Hanging Woods
I have read most of these and look forward to the discussion