New Leaf Run-off Poll for November • If Books Could Kill, Thrilling Stories

[CRussel]

This is the runoff poll to select the book we'll read and discuss in November, 2020.

Note: I won't be voting in this poll unless there is another tie, at which point I'll cast the tiebreaking vote.

.
This is NOT a multiple-choice poll. Choose one, and only one.
.
Questions? FAQs | Guidelines Or just ask!

Choices:

• Still Life by Louise Penny
  Spoiler:

  Originally Posted by Goodreads

  As the early morning mist clears on Thanksgiving Sunday, the homes of Three Pines come to life - all except one…
  
  To locals, the village is a safe haven. So they are bewildered when a well-loved member of the community is found lying dead in the maple woods. Surely it was an accident - a hunter's arrow gone astray. Who could want Jane Neal dead?
  
  In a long and distinguished career with the Sûreté du Quebec, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has learned to look for snakes in Eden. Gamache knows something dark is lurking behind the white picket fences, and if he watches closely enough, Three Pines will begin to give up its secrets…

  (Canada, 2005, 321 pp.)
  
• Casino Royale, by Ian Fleming
  Spoiler:

  Originally Posted by wikipedia

  The story concerns the British secret agent James Bond, gambling at the casino in Royale-les-Eaux to bankrupt Le Chiffre, the treasurer of a French union and a member of the Russian secret service. Bond is supported in his endeavours by Vesper Lynd, a member of his own service, as well as Felix Leiter of the CIA and René Mathis of the French Deuxième Bureau. Fleming used his wartime experiences as a member of the Naval Intelligence Division, and the people he met during his work, to provide plot elements; the character of Bond also reflected many of Fleming's personal tastes. Fleming wrote the draft in early 1952 at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica while awaiting his marriage. He was initially unsure whether the work was suitable for publication, but was assured by his friend, the novelist William Plomer, that the novel had promise.
  
  Within the spy storyline, Casino Royale deals with themes of Britain's position in the world, particularly the relationship with the US in light of the defections to the Soviet Union of the British agents Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean. The book was given broadly positive reviews by critics at the time and sold out in less than a month after its UK release on 13 April 1953...

  (GB, 1953, 220 pp.)

NOTE: This will be my last month leading the New Leaf Book Club. And, I suspect, the last month of its existence, certainly in its current form. So, let's make it a good one!

[CRussel]

And the best seller and multiple award winner, Still Life, by the Canadian author Louise Penny, is the winner. An excellent choice.