J.D. Robb discussion

Nominations are now being accepted for our March 2020 Book of the Month. Please review the Guidelines below prior to making your nomination.

Nominations open Feb. 15-20
Poll open Feb. 21-26

Please note: You may nominate any book from the Mystery/Suspense/Thriller genre or from any one of the many sub genres, with the exception of books by J.D. Robb and Nora Roberts. We explore Robb's In Death series in Buddy Reads & other discussions in this group. And we read & discuss Nora Roberts books with our sister group, Nora Roberts Groupies. We encourage you to join the discussions any time.

Monthly Book Nomination Guidelines:

1-Each member may nominate 2 books per month. Please include a link to the book that you nominate.

2-We respectfully ask that you only nominate books that you are planning to read and discuss with this group.

3-Nominated books must be from the Mystery/Suspense/Thriller genres or one of the many sub genres.

4-Nominated books must be the first book in a series unless the Robb group has previously read the preceding books.

5-If your nomination wins the poll, we would love for you to consider leading the Book of the Month discussion for that month.

6-J.D. Robb and Nora Robert books are not eligible for nomination. We invite you to join us as we explore the In Death series books in our In Death Buddy Reads and enjoy discussing the Nora Roberts titles in our sister group, Nora Roberts Groupies.

7-If an issue arises in which the winning book is disqualified, the book having received the 2nd most votes in our poll will become our Book of the Month.

I nominate:

Drop Dead Gorgeous by Donald Churchwell

After a disastrous mission in Columbia, Alexandra Jane (A.J.) Moring is forced to choose a new career. She’s asked to leave the Marine Corps. She decides to take the path that is the most logical choice; she becomes a contract assassin for the DEA.

In A.J.’s case, the choice is obvious because she is a beautiful, hyper-intelligent bombshell born with the inability to feel emotions or empathy. She has a brother who’s a computer whiz with the NSA, a father with a mysterious past that included being an assassin, and a mother that is a highly regarded investigative reporter.

A.J. and a covert group of DEA and CIA members take on ruthless heads of the drug cartels in an all-out war of mayhem and death south of the border.

Drop Dead Gorgeous is the first in a new series of alternate history thrillers.

_______________________

One Green Bottle by Curtis Bausse

A private detective catches dodgy salesmen and adulterers, right?
Wrong.
Magali Rousseau’s first case, and it’s murder. Then comes another. And another. Until she finds herself trapped with a killer whose only aim is to make her his tenth – and final – victim.
Set in France (Provence), One Green Bottle is not just about the hunt for a serial killer. It’s also the story of a woman in search of a new life. But in a man’s world, she can only succeed by defeating her own doubts.
Magali Rousseau. Private investigator. A clever, French, feisty, female sleuth. And a woman worth getting to know.

Two Girls Down by Luisa Luna

When two young sisters disappear from a strip mall parking lot in a small Pennsylvania town, their devastated mother hires an enigmatic bounty hunter, Alice Vega, to help find the girls. Immediately shut out by a local police department already stretched thin by budget cuts and the growing OxyContin and meth epidemic, Vega enlists the help of a disgraced former cop, Max Caplan. Cap is a man trying to put the scandal of his past behind him and move on, but Vega needs his help to find the girls, and she will not be denied.

With little to go on, Vega and Cap will go to extraordinary lengths to untangle a dangerous web of lies, false leads, and complex relationships to find the girls before time runs out, and they are gone forever.

Unspeakable Things by Jess Lourey

Inspired by a terrifying true story from the author’s hometown, a heart-pounding novel of suspense about a small Minnesota community where nothing is as quiet—or as safe—as it seems.

Cassie McDowell’s life in 1980s Minnesota seems perfectly wholesome. She lives on a farm, loves school, and has a crush on the nicest boy in class. Yes, there are her parents’ strange parties and their parade of deviant guests, but she’s grown accustomed to them.

All that changes when someone comes hunting in Lilydale.

One by one, local boys go missing. One by one, they return changed—violent, moody, and withdrawn. What happened to them becomes the stuff of shocking rumors. The accusations of who’s responsible grow just as wild, and dangerous town secrets start to surface. Then Cassie’s own sister undergoes the dark change. If she is to survive, Cassie must find her way in an adult world where every sin is justified, and only the truth is unforgivable.

These all look enticing. I've not read any of the authors, so maybe I'll get into another series!!

Lost Angel by Ben Cheetham book 1 of the Lost series

Boy these look great

I nominate

Packed with the electrifying pacing and pulse-pounding suspense of Harlan Coben and Lisa Gardner, a thrilling debut about a mother desperate to find the connections between her missing husband and a deadly stalker who knows too much about her own dark family history.

Driving home one rainy night, Cassie Larkin sees a man and woman fighting on the side of the road. After calling 911, the veterinarian makes a split-second decision that will throw her sedate suburban life into chaos. Against all reason and advice, she gets out of her minivan and chases after the violent man, trying to help his victim. When Cassie physically tries to stop him, he suddenly turns on her and spits out an ominous threat: “Let her die, and I’ll let you live.”

A veterinarian trained to heal, Cassie can’t let the woman die. But while she’s examining the unconscious victim, the attacker steals her car. Now he has her name. Her address. And he knows about her children. Though they warn her to be careful, the police assure her that the perpetrator—a criminal named Carver Sweet—won’t get near her. Cassie isn’t so sure.

The next day—Halloween—her husband disappears while trick-or-treating with their six-year-old daughter. Are these disturbing events a coincidence or the beginning of a horrifying nightmare? Her husband has been growing distant—is it possible he’s become involved with another woman? Is Cassie’s confrontation with the road-side attacker connected to her husband’s disappearance? With all these questions swirling in her mind Cassie can trust no one, maybe not even herself. The only thing she knows for sure is that she can’t sit back while the people she loves are in danger.

As she desperately searches for answers, Cassie discovers that nothing is as random as it seems, and that she is more than willing to fight—to go the most terrifying extremes—to save her family and her marriage.

I also nominate:

It was summer in the mountains when five small children vanished from their nursery school picnic. The heat was stifling that day, the tinkle of an ice-cream van in the air.

Three and a half years later, in the dead of winter, the children are returned by their abductor... one by one.

All except for Ivy - the granddaughter of homicide detective Kate Wakeland. The other four children say Ivy is dead.

Speculation grows that the kidnappings were revenge for an offender that Detective Wakeland put in jail years before.

She engages in a battle of wits between herself, the kidnapper and the cold, vast expanse of mountains in between.

Sandra ~ ♥ Cross My Heart ♥ wrote: "I also nominate:

It was summer in the mountains when five small children vanished from their nursery school picnic. The heat was stifling that day, the tinkle o..."

I just bought this one!

Oh my! These all sound so good

How can we possibly vote for just one?

I agree Charlene.

I nominate
Rachel Stone’s world was destroyed by a stalker, Alan Griffin. After he went to prison, she rebuilt her life.

Now she has a three-year-old daughter and is in a new relationship. But someone is stalking her again. Her phone, her emails and her social media are hacked.

Rachel believes it’s Griffin, out of prison and looking for revenge. She needs to find him and make him leave her alone. But as Rachel is drawn into a hunt, she realises that something even more horrific is happening - something that will make her confront the childhood that has lingered inside her like a ghost, and will force her to face the truth about her new life.

Is Griffin the one ruining her life? Or is someone far more dangerous responsible?