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| Suspense Central Selections for 2017 *2017 selections for Suspense Central are listed below by month. If you have difficulty seeing a title and/or author, all selections are listed on our Yahoo site and our meetup site. |
| Recaps, comments |
| Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist Monday, July 10, 2017 - 8p Panera, 770 Rt. 17 North, Paramus, NJ This group meets on the second Monday of each month to discuss a specific mystery, suspense or intrigue novel. Join Moderator Aurelia Long as we discuss the month's featured selection. *The full 2017 line-up of titles can be found below, after the recaps/comments. Handling the Undead Something very peculiar is happening in Stockholm. There's a heatwave on and people cannot turn their lights out or switch their appliances off. Then the terrible news breaks. In the city morgue, the dead are waking up... In Handling the Undead, John Ajvide Lindqvist, author of Let the Right One In, tells a tale of a civilization in crisis as it tries to communicate with the “reliving”—zombies risen during an intense electrical disruption that pose no violent threat to humanity, but challenge society’s philosophical notions of what it means to be alive. |
| August |
| Hounded by Kevin Hearne 4/10/17 recap Chris H Our April selection, Hounded by Kevin Hearne - the first in the Iron Druid Chronicles, fit the month's theme of When Nature Calls perfectly. Druids were recognized for their affinity with nature. The characters in Hounded used nature throughout the story. Hounded received high marks for world building, character development and pace. Atticus O'Sullivan, a 2100 year old Druid who looks 21, told the story in first person. A fun main character. His Irish wolfhound Oberon communicates telepathically. The story involves a magical sword, Fragarach, the Answerer. Atticus is the owner of Fragarach. Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants it, making for a rip roaring story. Kathleen looked up the series and saw that there are nine novels in it. I'm sure we'll be revisiting these in the future. A fun, interesting discussion for a fun, interesting book. |
| Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield and Death Match by Lincoln Child 6/12/17 recap Chris H May's Suspense Central was postponed so June was a double-discussion. We talked about both May's selection of Bellman & Black and June's selection, Death Match by Lincoln Child. May: Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield Main character, William Bellman, kills a rook by accident and pays dearly for the rest of the book. The story begins with a young William playing with his friends. They are an energetic group of 10-year-old boys. William boasts he can kill the rook sitting in the tree. He is well aware the bird it too far away and it is an impossible shot with his slingshot. When the bird is killed, William is devastated and saddened. Life goes on, but fate has something in store for William. As he becomes an adult, one by one, the people he cares for, die. Everyone felt the novel was well written and atmospheric, but had no satisfying conclusion. June: Death Match by Lincoln Child Premise: Richard Silver creates a computer named Liza for a computer dating company called Eden. Liza has been created to "match" perfect couples on a computer dating site. Liza puts together what is known as super couples. The happy couples meet the person of their dreams. Two of the six matches commit suicide. How could this happen? What went wrong? The firm, Eden, hires Christopher Lash to find out what is going on. The novel is quite interesting providing many twists and turns. The discussion about how to look for the perfect spot to bury a body (Aurelia) and how that dry cleaner plastic bag just wouldn't have done the job (Liz) was too funny. We laughed until closing. Fun talk. Grades for the two books are a 'C' for May and a 'B' for June. |