April 2017 Run-Off Vote
 

April 2017 Mobile Read Book Club Special Run-Off Vote

I will not vote in this poll unless my vote is needed to break a tie. This poll will be open for 3 days, and all MobileRead members are invited to participate. This is a visible poll.

We will start the discussion thread for this book on April 20th. Please select from the following two Choices:

• A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow
Goodreads | Amazon US / Author's Website / Audible / Kobo US
Print Length: 173 pages


• The Light of Day by Eric Ambler
Goodreads | Amazon US / Audible
Print Length: 224 pages

OK, I voted. The poll can be closed and we can get to reading.

Not quite that simple, Jon. :)

I voted, ultimately, for the book that is absolutely free, _and_ the start of a superb series. By reading A Cold Day for Murder, you'll get introduced not just to a single book, but months of reading pleasure. And, I might add, in this series you'll learn a good deal about the US's 49th state, the parks system in it, the First Nations who live there, and the industries that are the economic drivers (and risks) there. (The seventh book in the series, Breakup, is also one of the funniest books I've read in recent years.)

An interesting race - two quite different books.

I've had the Ambler book on my TBR for some time, so I started to dip into it anyway - if the Stabenow book wins the runoff, I will read that too.

The only other book I can think of where a petty criminal is the "hero" is The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V Higgins.

I am assuming that the Stabenow book is a straightforward police proceedural.

No, not at all a police procedural. In fact, the police really don't directly enter into it at all, though Kate Shugak, the protagonist, does get her assignment from the DA's office.

Just finishing the Ambler novel; then heading on to the Stabenow. It's possible that I may have both of them read before the runoff poll closes - then I will be covered in any case :)

Boston Blackie comes to mind. Although his creator Jack Boyle wrote only one book about the fictional jewel thief with a heart of gold, there was a long running radio series, several movies, and a tv show based on his character.

And then, of course, there's Aladdin.

There was Raffles, but Raffles was a gent; neither Eddie Coyle nor Arthur Simpson could be called that, although Arthur has pretensions.

In some ways, Arthur seems proto-Flashman.

I'm now all set to soon start The Light of Day.

I just finished reading both of them, so I'm in the catbird seat. :)

Come on, folks. One more vote for A Cold Day for Murder and we'll make Tom have to be the deciding vote. :D

I've read A Cold Day for Murderand its not going to make all that good a conversation.

I completely disagree, Jon. But then, we often disagree. :)

Two votes in the last 15 minutes. I didn't expect that.

With less than 15 minutes to go, will we have any more takers?

True, we do. I don't know if The Light of Day will make a good discussion. But I'm willing to take the risk. Also, it's supposed to be a classic.

Just wondering the same thing, Dazrin. The best part is, either one of these should be a good read. I've already gone ahead and gotten the one I didn't have, the Eric Ambler. But I'm hoping for the Dana Stabenow, if only to introduce the series to some new people.

Check out her blog today - picture of a cabin similar to the one Kate homesteads in. Much smaller and more rustic than it's easy for a city wimp like me to quite conceive of.

Well that was close.

I like to see that there were 4 people who voted in the runner-up poll that didn't vote at all in the previous round.

And we have a loser. We don't have a winner because the book that should have won lost.

I'm just glad I didn't have to cast the deciding vote.

My library has four Dana Stabenow titles available. Two are ebooks, two are audiobook, and not one of them is A Cold Day for Murder. Curses!

On the plus side, I seem to have snagged it last month when it was a "first look" prime member freebie. Cheers!

It is free on her website too, so access this month shouldn't really be an issue.

It's free on her web site (see the link in the first post.)

As for Audio, if you have the Amazon book, it's a WhisperSync title for $1.99. Or ping me in email. :)

/cheer

I went for the free option and CRussel's description/support made A Cold Day for Murder look interesting. I look forward to discussing with y'all.

So it's your fault the wrong book won. Free does not always mean better.

While true that sometimes free isn't always better, this is a very good book and the implication that is is a "bad" book is not at all true.

Also, there is no call to blame someone for your choice not winning. Even if Kansaskyle hadn't voted for it it would have been a tie (and WT Sharpe didn't vote for the other book in the first round....)

We keep hoping to force you into that. But so far, not since I've been participating, at least. Ah, well, maybe next month.

No, but let's really try to avoid pejoratives. We're all here to read some good books, and discuss them. Free does have the virtue of not locking anyone out, though I agree it's not an indicator of quality. Expensive, however, while also not a quality metric is a barrier. Fortunately, this month none of the options was hugely overpriced.

Hear him. And especially since it could as easily have been issybird that cast the critical vote. I didn't see which one came in last.

We were fortunate this month - we had an excellent slate in the original voting (four that I was quite willing to read and discuss), and the final runoff let us choose between two promising books, both of which I've now bought the eBook and Audible books for and intend to read (or re-read). I have nothing bad to say about the Eric Ambler book - I expect it to be an excellent read. But if the read and discussion gets even one more person hooked on Dana Stabenow, then it's a win. :) (And yes, I've already pre-ordered her 21st book in this series, due out in May. So I guess I count as hooked, certainly.)

Finally, a reminder -- you'll get another chance at the Eric Ambler book in January.

Whew! I'm so glad we're not reading the Ambler this month!! I just abandoned it at 50%. Not working for me at all, even though I can see why it was a success as a movie.

I haven't tried it, but I think there's always a danger with genre fiction in particular. As it ages, does it go classic or just dated? I thought the more modern option in the run-off was a better choice for that reason alone.

The Ambler novel is not a mystery; it is a caper novel. What makes it interesting for me is how Ambler inverted it with his main character. I have not seen the movie yet - it came out in the early 60s :D

Ambler was a screenwriter as much as he was a novelist. It would be interesting to see how the screen treatment of Arthur Simpson varied from the Ambler novel - Ambler did not write the screenplay. I wonder how Peter Ustinov played Simpson.

I finished The Light of the Day yesterday. I rather enjoyed it. I know for sure is that the wrong book won. This would have made for a much better discussion.