Goodreads Mystery Summer Reading
(Posted by Cybil)
May
MAGPIE, Elizabeth Day
THE MURDER RULE, Dervla McTiernan
TWO NIGHTS IN LISBON, Chris Pavone
THE MURDER OF MR. WICKHAM, Claudia Gray
BREATHLESS, Amy McCulloch
THE FAVOR, Nora Murphy
THE ISLAND, Adrian McKinty
MY SUMMER DARLINGS, May Cobb
MY WIFE IS MISSING, D. J. Palmer
June
THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY, Sulari Gentill
THE HOUSE ACROSS THE LAKE, Riley Sager
MORE THAN YOU’LL EVER KNOW, Katie Gutierrez
THE BOTANIST’S GUIDE TO PARTIES AND POISONS, Kate Khavari
LAST CALL AT THE NIGHTINGALE, Katharine Schellman
THE GIRL WHO SURVIVED, Lisa Jackson
COUNTERFEIT, Kirsten Chen
CAN’T LOOK AWAY, Carola Lovering
THE LIES I TELL, Julie Clark
July
THE IT GIRL, Ruth Ware
THE LAST TO VANISH, Megan Miranda
THINGS WE DO IN THE DARK, Jennifer Hillier
THE FAMILY REMAINS, Lisa Jewell
THE NEW NEIGHBOR, Karen Cleveland
THE RETREAT, Sarah Pearse
REPUTATION, Sarah Vaughan
WE LIE HERE, Rachel Howzell Hall
THE PERFECT NEIGHBORHOOD, Liz Alterman
August
DAISY PARKER, Alice Feeney
STAY AWAKE, Megan Goldin
THE LOST KINGS, Tyrell Johnson
PLEASE JOIN US, Catherine McKenzie
THE LAST HOUSEWIFE, Ashley Winstead
WHEN WE WERE BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL, Jillian Medoff
DIE AROUND SUNDOWN, Mark Pryor
YOU’RE INVITED, Amanda Jayatissa
WHAT SHE FOUND, Robert Dugoni
Editor’s Commentary
36 titles. 6 by male authors. 30 by female authors. Balanced? Quite heavy on domestic/psychological suspense in my opinion.
My biases. I read more male mystery writers than female, but that shouldn’t be surprising considering that I don’t read cozies and just a very few of the tidal wave of domestic/psychological suspense, which are predominantly written by women. And I love action thrillers which are written mostly by male writers. It isn’t that I have a bias against female writers. Put a new Val McDermid or Jane Harper novel in front of me and I’ll begin to salivate. It’s just that over the years, as my reading tastes developed, I found that I just naturally read more male authors than female authors. It wasn’t the sex of the author — it was what the author was writing about and the author’s talent.
Other male Deadly Pleasures reviewers make up for my not reading many female authors – particularly Larry Gandle and Kristopher Zgorski.
With that said, I have read one of the books by a female author on the above list – Dervla McTiernan’s THE MURDER RULE. It was o.k., but not as good as some of her previous novels. And I’m reading THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY by Sulari Gentill right now. I also hope to give THE LIES I TELL by Julie Clark (her THE LAST FLIGHT was marvelous) and THE NEW NEIGHBOR by Karen Cleveland a try. Larry Gandle quite liked THINGS WE DO IN THE DARK by Jennifer Hillier. Mike Dillman (on our Barry Award nominating committee) is a big fan of Megan Goldin and her STAY AWAKE.
But these lists are missing some of the best books of the year – in my opinion – all by male writers and published from May to July, 2022.
THE DARK FLOOD, Deon Meyer (Atlantic Monthly, $27.00, May)
BAD ACTORS, Mick Herron (Soho Crime, $27.95, May)
EVEN THE DARKEST NIGHT by Javier Cercas, translated by Anne McLean
(Knopf, $30.00, June 21 in U.S.;in U.K., MacLehose Press, £16.99, February 22)
SHIFTY’S BOYS by Chris Offutt (Grove Press, $27.00, June)
WINTER WORK by Dan Fesperman (Knopf, $28.00, July)
TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY by Linwood Barclay (Morrow, $27.99, May)
IN THE BLOOD by Jack Carr (Atria/Emily Bester, $28.99, May)
If these novels were on the Goodreads list, I would consider it a great, balanced list.
DP subscriber Tom Sleete comments: “All I can say about your analysis of the Goodreads list is, ‘Amen!'”