Crime, Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

Hello fellow Crime, Mystery & Thriller Readers,


Nominations for our May 2021 General Group Read are now open. To ensure your nomination will be included in our poll, please make sure it conforms to the following guidelines:

✔️ You may nominate only one (1) book.

✔️By entering a nomination you are agreeing to act as our Discussion Leader for the month-long Group Read should your nomination win.

Don't worry it is neither difficult nor time-consuming. The moderators are here to help in the event that you need assistance. Please refrain from nominating a book if you are not prepared to lead the discussion.

✔️ Your nomination can be any Crime, Mystery, or Thriller.

✔️Your nomination should not have been read by the group in the past 24 months.

✔️A book is only eligible if it is available in both paperback and digital formats.

Please understand we are trying to give all our members the opportunity to participate in our book discussions. We don't want to exclude a significant portion of our members because they do not have access to the selection.

✔️If the book is in a series, you may only nominate the first book in a series.

The 2nd and subsequent books in a series may be nominated only after the group has read all the prior books in that series.

✔️Post your nomination as a comment below.

DO NOT notify the moderators of your selection by way of a private message, if you do you run the risk of your nomination being excluded from the poll.

✔️To ensure your nomination is included in our poll correctly, do include the name of both the book and the author. You would be surprised at how many books have the same title. You are welcome to use the "add book/author" tool, which is located above the right upper corner of the comment window when making your nomination.

📌AUTHORS please note: We DO NOT accept nominations of your own work. You are welcome to participate in the nomination (of another author's work), polling, and book discussions in general.

If you have any questions, you can leave a comment in this discussion or message Gem directly.

The nomination period will close on Sunday, March 7 at approximately 7:30 pm MST (UTC/GMT -7).

Polling will begin on Wednesday, March 10.

Thank you and happy reading!

I nominate A Caller's Game by J.D. Barker

"I'm going to offer you a choice."

Controversial satellite radio talk show host, Jordan Briggs, has clawed her way to the top of the broadcast world. She doesn’t hold back, doesn’t spare feelings, and has no trouble sharing what's on her mind. Her rigorous pursuit of success has come at a price, though. Her marriage is in ruins, she hasn’t spoken to her mother in years, and she's distanced herself from all those close to her. If not for her young daughter, Charlotte, her personal life would be in complete shambles.

When a subdued man calls into the show and asks to play a game, she sees it as nothing more than a way to kick-start the morning, breathe life into the beginnings of drive-time for her listeners. Against her producer's advice, she agrees, and unwittingly opens a door to the past.

Live on the air with an audience of millions, what starts out as a game quickly turns deadly—events long thought buried resurface and Jordan Briggs is forced to reconcile with one simple fact—All decisions have consequences.

DIE HARD meets TALK RADIO in this heart-pounding, relentlessly fast-paced thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Fourth Monkey—master of suspense, J.D. Barker.

I nominate The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard.

I've just learned that a movie by Scott Cooper with Christian Bale as Augustus Landor, the detective, will be filmed at the end of this year. So read it before before it comes out.

From the critically acclaimed author of Mr. Timothy comes an ingenious tale of murder and revenge, featuring a retired New York City detective and a young cadet named Edgar Allan Poe.

At West Point Academy in 1830, the calm of an October evening is shattered by the discovery of a young cadet's body swinging from a rope just off the parade grounds. An apparent suicide is not unheard of in a harsh regimen like West Point's, but the next morning, an even greater horror comes to light. Someone has stolen into the room where the body lay and removed the heart.

At a loss for answers and desperate to avoid any negative publicity, the Academy calls on the services of a local civilian, Augustus Landor, a former police detective who acquired some renown during his years in New York City before retiring to the Hudson Highlands for his health. Now a widower, and restless in his seclusion, Landor agrees to take on the case. As he questions the dead man's acquaintances, he finds an eager assistant in a moody, intriguing young cadet with a penchant for drink, two volumes of poetry to his name, and a murky past that changes from telling to telling. The cadet's name? Edgar Allan Poe.

Impressed with Poe's astute powers of observation, Landor is convinced that the poet may prove useful—if he can stay sober long enough to put his keen reasoning skills to the task. Working in close contact, the two men—separated by years but alike in intelligence—develop a surprisingly deep rapport as their investigation takes them into a hidden world of secret societies, ritual sacrifices, and more bodies. Soon, however, the macabre murders and Landor's own buried secrets threaten to tear the two men and their newly formed friendship apart.

A rich tapestry of fine prose and intricately detailed characters, The Pale Blue Eye transports readers into a labyrinth of the unknown that will leave them guessing until the very end.

I nominate A Grave Talent by Laurie R. King.



This gripping debut of the Kate Martinelli mystery series won the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery, generating wide critical acclaim and moving Laurie R. King into the upper tier of the genre. As "A Grave Talent" begins, the unthinkable has happened in a small community outside of San Francisco. A string of shocking murders has occurred, each victim an innocent child. For Detective Kate Martinelli, just promoted to Homicide and paired with a seasoned cop who's less than thrilled to be handed a green partner, it's going to be a difficult case. Then the detectives receive what appears to be a case-breaking lead: it seems that one of the residents of this odd, close-knit colony is Vaun Adams, arguably the century's greatest painter of women, a man, as it turns out, with a sinister secret. For behind the brushes and canvases also stands a notorious felon once convicted of strangling a little girl. What really happened on that day of savage violence eighteen years ago? To bring a murderer to justice, Kate must delve into the artist's dark past -- even if she knows it means losing everything she holds dear.

Great book ... I've read it at least 3 times!