Whodunit Book Club - August 25, 2015

After a two month break (there was no meeting in July), 13 members attended the August meeting of the Whodunit Mystery Book Club.

This month we discussed the novel "The Drop Zone" by Bob Kroll.

 

Opinions about the novel were varied.  A positive for us because the discussion is always livelier and more interesting when that is the case.  As is our usual practice, the members each rated the novel out of a possible 10 points stating whether or not they would read another book by the author.  With thirteen votes the average rating was  

6 1/4 points with six members saying they would read another title by Bob Kroll.

“The Drop Zone” introduces T. J. Peterson.  A police detective in an unnamed urban municipality in Eastern Canada.  Peterson has lost his wife, his daughter, his faith in God and his fellow man – and quite possibly… his job.    His wife he lost to a traffic accident while she was with another man.  His daughter is a teenage runaway who torments him with silent video calls of a derelict room furnished with an unmade bed and empty syringes.

Peterson, burnt out and hungover, is tasked with solving the brutal murder of a Catholic priest.  His investigations lead him to the dark and depraved world of teenage prostitution and sex trafficking.

The subject matter was dark and most considered it to be a 'noir' novel.

Although some thought it a fast-paced and interesting novel with a likable protagonist, others thought less of it.  The members who gave it low marks seemed to find that the protagonist was too flawed - a cliche who wallowed in his misery.

While some thought the ending clear and 'tied up', others didn't understand the ending and found it obscure. 

Although the setting was unnamed, and the fact that artistic license was taken by the author, we acknowledged that the novel was loosely set in our home city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The author's vivid descriptions ensured that there remained a frisson of recognition for certain places described.

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The lucky winners of book giveaways:

1. Marilyn

2. Nancy

3. Carmella

4. Carolyn

5. Cathy

Members will meet again on September 29th when we will discuss "Blue Monday" by Nicci French.

Whodunit Book Club - June 30, 2015

Ten members of Whodunit attended the June meeting.  We discussed the historical novel "The last Dickens" by Matthew Pearl.

As is our usual custom we each gave the book a rating out of a possible 10 points.  "The last Dickens" garnered an average score of  5.66 with only two members saying they would read another title by this author.

Plot summary from Wikipedia:
The novel is set in the US, England, and India in 1867 and 1870. When news of Charles Dickens’s untimely death reaches the office of his struggling American publisher, Fields & Osgood, partner James R. Osgood sends his trusted clerk Daniel Sand to await Dickens’s unfinished last novel – The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
But when Daniel’s body is discovered by the docks and the manuscript is nowhere to be found, Osgood must embark on a transatlantic quest to unearth the novel that will save his venerable business and reveal Daniel’s killer. Danger and intrigue abound on the journey, for which Osgood has chosen Rebecca Sand, Daniel’s older sister, to help clear her brother’s name and achieve their singular mission. As they attempt to uncover Dickens’s final mystery, Osgood and Rebecca find themselves racing the clock through a dangerous web of literary lions and drug dealers, sadistic thugs and blue bloods, and competing members of the inner circle. They soon realize that understanding Dickens’s lost ending is a matter of life and death, and the hidden key to stopping a murderous mastermind.
The novel also includes interspersed sections about Charles Dickens's 1867 reading tour of the United States

Positive comments:

The novel was well researched and had a lot of potential.
The cover was attractive.
Members enjoyed finding out about the remarkable and fascinating Charles Dickens.
It was interesting to read about the social conditions of the 1870s.

Negative comments:

It was hard to connect with the myriad characters, thus it was hard to connect with the novel.
The novel was verbose and over-long, with a subplot set in India which seemed unnecessary.
Amazingly researched, but poor execution of the fictional rendition.
The novel didn't live up to its potential.

The novel was described as an historical thriller.  The Whodunit members could not find anything 'thrilling' about it.
Some suggested that this author, with his talents for historical research would be more suited to writing narrative non-fiction.

There will be NO July meeting of the Whodunit Book Club.  Our next meeting will be held on August 25th when we will discuss "The Drop Zone" by Bob Kroll.

The lucky winners of free books this month were:
1. Jane
2. Heather
3. Marilyn
4. Cathy

BritCrime Festival Giveaway

To celebrate the launch of BritCrime’s first free online crime fiction festival, 11-13 July, I have teamed up with BritCrime authors to give away one fabulous prize.
You could win a gift bundle of ten print books, including new releases by Colette McBeth and Sarah Hilary, and MJ McGrath’s Gold Dagger longlisted White Heat. This giveaway is open internationally. One lucky winner will win all ten books.

Please complete the entries in the Rafflecopter before midnight 10th July for a chance to win.
To learn more about the BritCrime festival, please visit http//britcrime.com and sign up to the newsletter. There will be giveaways and live Q&As with bestselling British crime fiction authors hosted on BritCrime’s Facebook page 11 & 12 July.
The Magpies + What You Wish For by Mark Edwards
No Other Darkness by Sarah Hilary
The Life I Left Behind + Precious Thing by Colette McBeth
White Heat by M J McGrath
Beyond the Rage by Michael J Malone
Follow the Leader + Watching Over You by Mel Sherratt
The Harbour Master by Daniel Pembrey

Visit my other blog Fictionophile to enter to win!

Whodunit Book Club - May 26, 2015

A dozen loyal Whodunit members attended the May meeting.  The novel under discussion this month was "The devotion of Suspect X" by Keigo Higashino.  This is the first novel we've discussed as a group that was set in Japan.

 We always rate the novel we are discussing out of a possible 10 points.  "The devotion of Suspect X" garnered a score of 7.75 with 8 out of 12 members stating they would read another book by this author.
 

Curiously it was the members with little or no expectations that rated the book the highest.  Most members stated that the plot was ingenious and that they were surprised and amazed by the ending.   This was not a 'Whodunit' per say.  It was a howdunit. A multi-layered puzzle created by the very clever author.

The novel contained one after another brilliant and unforeseen twists that appealed to many.  It was commented that there was little character development and a rather choppy flow to the narrative - but we speculated that this might have been caused by the translation from Japanese to English.
The protagonist Ishigami was a mathematician and his character was dispassionate about most things with his heart entirely taken up with mathematics and his obsession, his beautiful neighbour, Yasuko. 
Ishigami was a solitary man who had little if any social life.  His genius set him apart from society.  As Oscar Lavent said, “There's a fine line between genius and insanity".

Some members said that they were disappointed that the novel did not give a more detailed description of Japanese society.  One member said that the novel portrayed an interesting snapshot of society.  Perhaps that was to show that no matter where we live some things remain constant.  Love, hate, abuse, despair, loneliness, homelessness, poverty etc.

This novel is highly regarded in the author's native Japan garnering numerous awards, including the 134th Naoki Prize, which is a highly regarded award. The novel also won the 6th Honkaku Mystery Grand Prize, which is one of the most prestigious awards in the mystery novels category in Japan. 2006 Honkaku Mystery Best 10 and Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! 2006, annual mystery fiction guide books published in Japan, ranked the novel as the number one!
The English translation was nominated for the 2012 Edgar Award for Best Novel and the 2012 Barry Award for Best First Novel.

Read my personal review on my blog: Fictionophile

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Congratulations go out to the winners of this month's book giveaways:
1. Marilyn
2. Gaye
3. Heather
4. Marlene

The next Whodunit Book Club meeting will be held on June 30th - when we will discuss the stand-alone historical novel "The last Dickens" by Matthew Pearl.
There will be NO meeting in July.

Read by the Sea - Saturday July 11, 2015

Come to this year's Read by the Sea in beautiful River John, Nova Scotia.
This year's illustrious group of authors include: Maureen Jennings, Giles Blunt, Linden MacIntyre and Isabel Huggan. 

What better way to spend a Saturday?

Whodunit Book Club - April 28, 2015

Eleven members gathered this evening to discuss Jamie Mason's debut novel "Three Graves Full".

We were all over the map in our rating of this novel.  Some high scores of 9/10 and some low scores or 2/10 and 3/10.   This disparity of views always makes for lively discussion.  The average score tallied 6/10 with half of the members saying they would read another novel by this author.

Written with wit - some of the Whodunit members found the humor to their taste while others did not.  We discussed that how you approached this novel greatly influenced the level of enjoyment.  If you looked upon it as a serious mystery - it came across as farcical.   If you approached it as a humorous novel, then your enjoyment was increased.

Many agreed that the author employed great descriptions (though some thought there were too many of those).  Some thought that there were too many disturbingly gory scenes, while others viewed those scenes as being a tool the author used to relay black humor.

The protagonist was a sympathetic character - even though he was a murderer.  Favorite characters were the entire Ford family with many readers really liking the Ford's dog, Tess.  Some loved the parts that were written from Tess's point of view, while others expressed that this was way too farfetched.   One astute reader cited that the novel was a good study of human nature.  The characters seemed to take no responsibility for their own actions - claiming that other people or factors were at fault.

We learned that Jamie Mason had "great kindling" for this novel.  She based it upon a headline she read "Landscaper finds skull in mulch bed".

I personally read this novel back in 2012 and reviewed it on my blog: Fictionophile.  As you'll see by my review, I enjoyed it tremendously.

Jamie Mason now has a second novel published "Monday's Lie".

 

Tonight's lucky winners of book giveaways were:

1. Marilyn

2. Nancy

3. Cathy

4. Brenda

5. Carmella

The next meeting of the Whodunit Book Club will be held on May 26, 2015 when we will discuss the novel "The devotion of Suspect X" by Keigo Higashino

"Whodunit Book Club" March 31, 2015

There was animated and lively discussion tonight at Whodunit.  As usual, not all of the discussion was on topic - but enjoyable all the same.
Fourteen members attended to discuss the novel "Walt" by Canadian author Russell Wangersky.

When we went around the circle and voted out of a possible ten points, there was little agreement.  Three members voted an even 5/10 while the others voted either very low or very high.  The result was a score of 6/10.  Only six members stated they would read another work by Russell Wangersky and some expressed an interest in reading his short stories.

Some of the negative comments were: slow, disjointed, dry, different, ambiguous.
Positive comments included: well-written, creepy, descriptive, understated, memorable.
Readers wondered why Alisha, one of Walt's stalking victims, did not have her locks changed, or why the police did not advise her to do so.

"Walt" was advertised as a psychological thriller.   Some readers greatly disagreed with this assessment, while others thought it was 'spot on'.  Set in St. John's, Newfoundland the novel is the story of Walt, a grocery store janitor, who has deep insight into his fellow man through the grocery lists they abandon.  A solitary individual who has creepily disturbing habits...

My personal opinion of the novel was favourable.  It was simple but deceptively deep.  My review can be found on my blog: Fictionophile.

The lucky winners of the book giveaways this month were:

1. Brian

2. Gaye

3. Kim

4. Heather

5. Nancy

 

 Next month's Whodunit selection is: "Three graves full" by Jamie Mason.  We meet again on Tuesday, April 28th at 7:00 p.m.