{"id":4661,"date":"2022-12-01T06:29:21","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T14:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=4661"},"modified":"2022-12-01T06:29:21","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T14:29:21","slug":"honorable-mention-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/honorable-mention-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Honorable Mention 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

With over 500,000 books published each year (not all are mysteries, obviously), there\u2019s no way I can even read a solid sample of what\u2019s out there.\u00a0 I do gravitate toward historicals, cozies and traditional detective fiction, and out of the 80 plus books I read this past year (all but two were mysteries) these are the (additional) ones I found remarkable and worthy of a look.\u00a0 Happy reading!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Rising Tide, <\/em>Ann Cleeves (Vera Stanhope #10 ). Cleeves always provides a spectacularly thoughtful read, and this one is no different.\u00a0 Set on \u201cHoly Island\u201d, an island cut off by the tides every night, a group of high school friends have been meeting up for 50 years.\u00a0 When one of them commits suicide, Vera is sure it\u2019s murder, and of course she\u2019s right.\u00a0 As expected from Cleeves, there are complex characterizations and a spectacular setting that assumes its own part in the story.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Disinvited Guest, <\/em>Carol Goodman. Carol Goodman is one of the best at the type of stand alone suspense novel so popular at the moment.\u00a0 Her premise for this book, which is unfortunately all too believable, is that a second pandemic (this is set slightly in the future) has forced us all back into isolation and quarantine.\u00a0 She then creates a And Then There Were None<\/em> type scenario on a remote Maine island, where a group of friends have decided to quarantine together.\u00a0 Of course dead bodies ensue, featuring Goodman\u2019s trademark razor sharp characterizations and a fantastic setting (there\u2019s even a map).<\/p>\n

The Locked Room, <\/em>Elly Griffiths (Ruth Galloway #14). Elly Griffiths has also taken the pandemic into consideration, setting her novel at the beginning of the COVID lockdown a few years ago.\u00a0 There\u2019s a series of crimes set in \u2013 locked rooms \u2013 that could almost be suicides, but Judy, a stellar member of DCI Nelson\u2019s team, can\u2019t let it go.\u00a0 There is a covid death and a covid infection \u2013 Griffiths writes with her heart on her sleeve, and she often (always, speaking for myself) captures the reader\u2019s heart and emotions as well with her stories.\u00a0 And what\u2019s next for Ruth and Harry? (Find out in the penultimate novel, due in 2023).<\/p>\n

A Twist of the Knife, <\/em>Anthony Horowitz (Hawthorne & Horowitz #4).\u00a0 I would say Anthony Horowitz is simply one of the smartest mystery writers at work today.\u00a0 The brains behind Foyle\u2019s War<\/em> and Magpie Murders<\/em> as well as a far ranging scope of work that includes the YA Alex Rider books (referred to here) as well as a Sherlock series, he\u2019s one of those authors that require you to pay attention.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t include things that aren\u2019t a part of whatever genius plot he\u2019s assembling \u2013 this one, with the meta concept that Anthony Horowitz is also the hero of the book, a writer who captures the investigations of detective Hawthorne, finds Anthony trying to set Hawthorne loose.\u00a0 He\u2019s written a play, about to open in London\u2019s West End.\u00a0 When a critic who gives the play a horrible review is murdered after opening night, Anthony becomes the main suspect, and only Hawthorne can save him.\u00a0\u00a0 Fasten your reading seatbelts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Palms, Paradise, Poison, <\/em>John Keyse-Walker (Teddy Creque #3).\u00a0 Keyse-Walker\u2019s Teddy Creque series has a real Death in Paradise <\/em>feel \u2013 charming and quirky.\u00a0 Teddy is the constable on the tiny island of Anegada in the Caribbean.\u00a0 In this installment, however, Keyse-Walker really lets his freak flag fly as the island is hit with a hurricane and Teddy ends up following a lost boat all the way to Cuba.\u00a0 There he encounters a true force of nature (and evil) known as Queen Ya-Ya.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t lived through a hurricane, you\u2019ll feel like you have after reading the really incredible nature writing in this novel, and the story is a blast.<\/p>\n

Wild Prey, <\/em>Brian Klingborg (Inspector Lu Fei #2). Lu Fei is a policeman in Harbin, China \u2013 he hasn\u2019t quite made the big time, but he\u2019s happy where he is.\u00a0 The first book, Thief of Souls, <\/em>was a favorite of mine, with it\u2019s deep dive into a small Chinese police department.\u00a0 This book goes wider, taking Lu Fei undercover to Myanmar where he\u2019s trying to find who’s behind a ring of wild animal smugglers.\u00a0 He\u2019s also trying to help a young girl who shows up at the police station every day demanding he find her sister.\u00a0 Klingborg is wonderful at characterization \u2013 Lu Fei is a wonderful creation \u2013 but Klingborg sometimes lets his plots get the upper hand.\u00a0 He’s still an interesting writer with a grounding in his subject matter that adds real heft to the books.\u00a0 There\u2019s a third installment scheduled in 2023.<\/p>\n

Fox Creek, <\/em>William Kent Krueger (Cork O\u2019Connor #19).\u00a0 The 19th<\/sup> Cork O\u2019Connor installment is a chase novel focused on the extremely elderly Henry Meloux (he\u2019s 100) and Cork\u2019s wife, Rainy, who have fled deep into the Boundary Waters area of Northern Minnesota.\u00a0 They are pursued not only by Cork but by a tracker named LaLoup, a character Krueger obviously had some fun fleshing out.\u00a0 This is a wonderful pure chase novel, steeped in the beauty and danger of the Minnesota woods.\u00a0 Kruger makes you care about every character he creates, and this novel is no different.\u00a0 I was as interested in LaLoup as I was in whether Henry and Rainy would make it home.\u00a0 Another great read in one of the greatest of all contemporary series, by a writer chased by writers like C.J. Box, Craig Johnson, and Paul Doiron, but who, to me, is still is the best of the best.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A Death in Cornwall, <\/em>G.M. Malliet (St. Just #4). There are really very few practitioners of the traditional British detective novel working at the moment, and Malliet is one of the best.\u00a0 Her novels are very much golden age in pattern, with a series detective, a fast paced and tidy narrative, and in this case, a setting to die for \u2013 the Cornish coast. Her series hero, St. Just, is on vacation with his fianc\u00e9e (the wittily named Portia De\u2019Ath – I hope she keeps her maiden name!). This is a well plotted and assembled mystery, and St. Just, calm and kind, is there to set everything to rights when Lord Bodwally is discovered dead in his library.\u00a0 A delight in every way.<\/p>\n

Peril at the Exposition, <\/em>Nev March (Captain Jim and Lady Diana #2). I was a huge fan of March\u2019s first novel, Murder in Old Bombay, <\/em>where she combined adventure, romance and a smart detective novel. In this one we have the same elements, though Jim and Diana are now married and living in Boston instead of Bombay.\u00a0 I missed India!\u00a0 However, March sets her novel at the 1893 Chicago World\u2019s Fair, where Jim has disappeared, and that\u2019s almost<\/em> as exciting as Bombay.\u00a0 This is very much Diana\u2019s book, as the first one was Jim\u2019s, and it\u2019s also very much the story of an immigrant finding her way in a new country. \u00a0Luckily, Diana is fierce, fearless and smart and it takes all her smarts (and Jim\u2019s) to crack the complicated mystery presented to them by March.\u00a0 This is an outstanding new series.<\/p>\n

Death on a Winter Stroll, <\/em>Francine Mathews (Merry Folger #7).\u00a0 This book, set on Nantucket at Christmas, is a blast of a read, focusing mostly on the stepson of the Secretary of State (a recovering addict) and the daughter (a recovering bulimic) of a movie star shooting a streaming TV show on the island. There\u2019s a complex and full cast of characters (give yourself a chapter or two to acclimate), but once you\u2019re drawn in, and I assure you, you will be, this book is impossible to put down.\u00a0 Certainly, don\u2019t miss meeting the reclusive wildlife photographer who trains wild birds to eat from her hand.\u00a0 This is a lovely novel of young love, personal discovery, a good police investigation, a wonderful and evocative setting, a terrific mystery and <\/em>a fun Christmas read.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A Deadly Covenant, <\/em>Michael Stanley (Detective Kubu #8). Set in Botswana, these charming novels featuring the absolutely \u2013 I\u2019ll say it \u2013 adorable Detective Kubu are always must reads.\u00a0 This novel is Kubu\u2019s \u201corigin story\u201d, as he starts his career as a police detective and makes his first, shy advances to his future wife, Joy.\u00a0 His boss sends him out to the sticks to observe the forensic pathologist, who has been called in when the skeletons of several Bushmen are found on a construction site.\u00a0 It\u2019s supposed to be a two day trip, but it\u2019s extended when more skeletons are found and two bodies turn up.\u00a0 Kubu is somewhat hamstrung by working within the department of another officer, but he keeps his boss back home updated and it\u2019s his smart deductive reasoning that saves the day.\u00a0 Classic novels of detection, these books are also saturated in setting, and grounded by the delightful Kubu, who loves his food and wine and never misses catching a murderer.\u00a0 It\u2019s fun to see the beginnings of his relationship with his wife, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Murder, <\/em>Rosalind Stopps. This standalone is a charming companion to Deanna Raybourn\u2019s Killers of a Certain Age, <\/em>but while Raybourn\u2019s killers are professionals, the older ladies in this book are anything but, as the title indicates.\u00a0\u00a0 As three friends sit in a coffee shop one day, they see a young girl come in and head to hide in the restroom.\u00a0 When a man comes in looking for her, they just don\u2019t like him, and offer misdirection instead of help.\u00a0 They then take the girl home with them.\u00a0 When she\u2019s later abducted they make it their mission, no matter their lack of expertise, to save her.\u00a0 This was both unexpectedly charming and moving, as the three women are fleshed out, find the strength of their friendship (as well as their own strengths) and learn the truly tragic story of the missing young woman.\u00a0 This is like a Donald Westlake novel, only written by a woman, and what\u2019s better than that?<\/p>\n

The Drowning Sea, <\/em>Sarah Stewart Taylor (Maggie D\u2019Arcy #3). Stewart Taylor\u2019s evocative novels set in Ireland find her character Maggie, no longer a Long Island cop, in Ireland on an extended vacation with her boyfriend and her teenage daughter.\u00a0 It\u2019s very much a novel of Maggie\u2019s personal crossroads as she works out the messy business of life, complicated by children and romance and family.\u00a0 They are staying in a little Irish village overshadowed by the manor house, which has decayed and has assumed gothic mansion status.\u00a0 When a body washes up on the beach, Maggie, very much missing police work, can\u2019t help but investigate. These books are a love letter to Ireland, and are the best kind of armchair travel, grounded with a good story and wonderful characters.\u00a0 This series is really a joy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With over 500,000 books published each year (not all are mysteries, obviously), there\u2019s no way I can even read a solid sample of what\u2019s out there.\u00a0 I do gravitate toward historicals, cozies and traditional detective fiction, and out of the 80 plus books I read this past year (all but two were mysteries) these are … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[197,264,558,330,80,962,59,739,979,448,878,356,176],"class_list":["post-4661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of","tag-ann-cleeves","tag-anthony-horowitz","tag-brian-klingborg","tag-carol-goodman","tag-elly-griffiths","tag-francine-mathews","tag-g-m-malliet","tag-john-keyse-walker","tag-michael-stanley","tag-nev-march","tag-rosalind-stopps","tag-sarah-stewart-taylor","tag-william-kent-krueger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4661"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4715,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions\/4715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}