{"id":4722,"date":"2022-11-29T07:18:43","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T15:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=4722"},"modified":"2022-11-29T07:18:43","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T15:18:43","slug":"reviewers-and-readers-faves-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/reviewers-and-readers-faves-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviewers and Readers faves 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we had an open store, I often got recommendations from customers or even authors that guided my reading – Libby Hellman, for example, recommended Elly Griffiths to me very early on.\u00a0 I spent my first winter catching up on Elizabeth George, thanks to a good tip from a reader. Now that I have three wonderful reviewers writing for the website and a book club full of intelligent and discerning readers, I can still, happily, pick up some recommendations.\u00a0 This is a varied list, but there are a few commonalities – Elly Griffiths, Louise Penny, S.A. Cosby, Naomi Hirahara, and Mia P. Manasala.\u00a0 Some are on my own lists – Tasha Alexander, SJ Bennett, Harini Negendra, Elly Griffiths, Mia P. Manasala, Gigi Pandian, Sarah Stewart Taylor and Louise Penny.\u00a0 Vicki’s, Margaret’s and Carla’s reviews of many of these titles can be found on the website.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Vicki Kondelik, <\/strong><\/em>reviewer, Ann Arbor:<\/em><\/p>\n

Secrets of the Nile, <\/em>Tasha Alexander.<\/div>\n
The Midnight Hour,<\/em> Elly Griffiths.<\/div>\n
Magpie Murders,<\/em> Anthony Horowitz.<\/div>\n
A Fatal Overture,\u00a0<\/em>Kathleen Marple Kalb.<\/div>\n
A Rogue’s Company,<\/em> Allison Montclair.<\/div>\n
Danger on the Atlantic, <\/em>Erica Ruth Neubauer.<\/div>\n
Murder at the Serpentine Bridge, <\/em>Andrea Penrose.<\/div>\n
A World of Curiosities, <\/em>Louise Penny.<\/div>\n
Death at the Falls, <\/em>Rosemary Simpson.<\/div>\n
The Drowning Sea, <\/em>Sarah Stewart Taylor.<\/em><\/div>\n

Margaret Agnew,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>reviewer, St. Louis, MO:\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>A World of Curiosities,\u00a0<\/em>Louise Penny.\u00a0 I read a lot of books that went back and forth between past and present events this year, but this is the one that nailed it.\u00a0 Penny is on that bestseller list for a reason, and if you haven’t read her books yet, you definitely should.<\/p>\n

The Match,\u00a0<\/em>Harlan Coben.\u00a0 While I probably like the first one in this particular series best (The Boy from the Woods<\/em>), this was a good thriller that gave us more about the protaganist, Wilde.\u00a0 He is mysterious and interesting, and I hope Coben writes more in this series. Read Margaret’s review in Mystery Scene here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Blood will Tell,\u00a0<\/em>Heather Chavez.\u00a0 This one may be personal preference!\u00a0 I related hard to the main character, and I even ended up buying it for my library.\u00a0 This is a fun thriller with good family drama and just a strong mystery at the center. Read Margaret’s review in Mystery Scene here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

When the Corn is Waist High,\u00a0<\/em>Jeremy Scott.\u00a0 This book is absolutely wild.\u00a0 While I didn’t love every minute, the prose is good and the twist was totally unexpected.\u00a0 What at first seems like a pretty average procedural turns out to be…not that at all.\u00a0 Read Margaret’s review in Mystery Scene here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Carla Schantz,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>reviewer, St. Louis, MO:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Steeped in Secrets,\u00a0<\/em>Lauren Elliott<\/p>\n

State of the Onion,\u00a0<\/em>Julie Hyzy<\/p>\n

Murder with Lemon Tea Cakes,\u00a0<\/em>Karen Rose Smith<\/p>\n

Secrets in Death,\u00a0<\/em>J.D. Robb<\/p>\n

A Room Full of Bones,\u00a0<\/em>Elly Griffiths<\/p>\n

The Accidental Alchemist,\u00a0<\/em>Gigi Pandian<\/p>\n

Lisa Arnsdorf,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Germany:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ghost 19,\u00a0<\/em>Simone St. James: it was especially fun as an audiobook because the reader has that old Hollywood dramatic actress voice.\u00a0 It almost sounds like an old made-for-radio production.\u00a0 It’s a lot of fun!<\/p>\n

Sun Down Motel,\u00a0<\/em>Simone St. James: terrifying and SO GOOD!<\/p>\n

The Windsor Knot,\u00a0<\/em>SJ Bennett: Such a gem! I wonder how this series will develop now that we’ve lost Elizabeth II?<\/p>\n

Singapore Sapphire,\u00a0<\/em>AM Stuart:\u00a0Great mystery with a body on the first page (which I love!).\u00a0 Stuart is so adept at writing the setting that you can feel the steamy heat and lush jungle while you’re reading. I can’t wait to read more in this series.<\/p>\n

A Dark and Twisted Tale,\u00a0<\/em>Sharon Bolton: This is the 4th Lacey Flint book.\u00a0 Bolton released a new book in this series this year, the first book in 8 years! I had to read the 4th book before moving on to the 5th,\u00a0The Dark<\/em> (still in my TBR pile).\u00a0 Even though it’s been awhile, it was easy to jump right back in and catch up with Lacey and Mark Joesbury and their complicated relationship. The continued development of Lacey’s (currently former, but soon to be current again) boss, Dana Tulloch, is really great too.\u00a0 And this mystery is timely and interesting and also incredibly odd.\u00a0 And full of Bolton’s signature dark and creepy atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Strange Practice,\u00a0<\/em>Vivian Shaw: Shaw’s main character is Greta Helsing, a descendant of Dr. Van Helsing (the “Van” was dropped during WWII) and a doctor to London’s monster population of vampires, werewolves, ghouls, witches, etc. The monsters are being attacked by a strange religious cult and Greta is doing her best to save and protect her patients whilt dealing with the very normal problems of running her own primary care practice and trying to make her lack of resources stretch.\u00a0 It was a fun mystery!<\/p>\n

The Locked Room,\u00a0<\/em>Elly Griffiths.<\/p>\n

Clark and Division,\u00a0<\/em>Naomi Hirahara.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Roxie Weaver,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Michigan:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The Cartographers,\u00a0<\/em>Peng Shepherd.<\/p>\n

Two Nights in Lisbon,\u00a0<\/em>Chris Pavone.<\/p>\n

The River,\u00a0<\/em>Peter Heller.<\/p>\n

Insomnia,\u00a0<\/em>Sarah Pinborough.<\/p>\n

The Thursday Murder Club,\u00a0<\/em>Richard Osman.<\/p>\n

Diane Gross,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>California:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As for this year’s reading, my local book club opted to keep things light. We started with Helen of Pasadena<\/em> by Lian Dolan, a satire that we all loved. We read through most of the Fiona Davis titles; I’m done with her! I loved Mia P. Manansala’s series (thank you\u00a0for the introduction). The title that has stayed with me was The Plot<\/em> by Jean Hanff Korelitz, which has a mystery but a little too much editorializing about writing and reading.<\/div>\n
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Rob Weaver,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Michigan:<\/em><\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/a>A Gentleman in Moscow, <\/em>Amor Towles – Not a mystery but my favorite of 2022, too classy a novel to leave off my list.<\/div>\n
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Hour of the Witch, <\/em>Chris Bohjalian – not a mystery either, depressing because MAGA Christian Nationalists could recreate the kind of world described in this book. I liked the ending, it breaks the depression.<\/div>\n
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The Postscript Murders, <\/em>Elly Griffiths – Memorable Characters<\/div>\n
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Leave the World Behind, <\/em>Rumaan Alam – NY City slicker family has vacation ruined in bizarre ways. Kind of science fiction, kind of not, because this could happen.<\/div>\n
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Twisted, <\/em>Steve Cavanagh – A fictional treatise on twists.<\/div>\n
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Two Nights in Lisbon, <\/em>Chris Pavone – All this guy\u2019s stuff is good<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/a>Joyce Simowski,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Michigan:<\/em><\/div>\n
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To Kill a Troubadour,\u00a0<\/em>Martin Walker.\u00a0 I like Bruno and his calmness; the mystery is secondary to Bruno, he’s more concerned with keeping everyone fed.<\/div>\n
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The Bangalore Detectives Club,\u00a0<\/em>Harini Negendra.\u00a0 Set in India, an intelligent amateur detective – she’s a mathematician no less.\u00a0 Looking forward to more.<\/div>\n
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Cold Snap, <\/em>Marc Cameron.\u00a0 Gritty. Alaska cold. Good story.<\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Tori Booker, <\/strong><\/em>Ann Arbor:<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
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A Solitude of Wolverines,\u00a0<\/em>Alice Henderson.<\/div>\n
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Arsenic and Adobo,\u00a0<\/em>Mia P. Manasala.<\/div>\n
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Suicide Squeeze, <\/em>Steve Hagood. Written by my brother in law, but still \ud83d\ude42<\/div>\n
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Razorblade Tears,\u00a0<\/em>S.A. Cosby.\u00a0 Hard to read at times, but really well written.<\/div>\n
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Jan Burgess,\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Ann Arbor:\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
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The Miracles of the Namiya General Store, <\/em>\u00a0Keigo Higashino<\/div>\n
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Robert Agnew,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Ann Arbor:<\/em><\/div>\n
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Razorblade Tears,\u00a0<\/em>S.A. Cosby<\/div>\n
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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we had an open store, I often got recommendations from customers or even authors that guided my reading – Libby Hellman, for example, recommended Elly Griffiths to me very early on.\u00a0 I spent my first winter catching up on Elizabeth George, thanks to a good tip from a reader. Now that I have three … 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":[80,800,1012,184,711,1021,1022,356,275],"class_list":["post-4722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of","tag-elly-griffiths","tag-gigi-pandian","tag-harini-negendra","tag-louise-penny","tag-mia-p-manansala","tag-readers-faves","tag-reviewers-faves","tag-sarah-stewart-taylor","tag-tasha-alexander"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4722","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=4722"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4746,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4722\/revisions\/4746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}