This year, the editors chose the following 20 picks as the Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Books of the Year:
- All the Sinners Bleed, S.A.. Cosby
- Small Mercies, Dennis Lehane
- Symphony of Secrets, Brendan Slocumb
- Sisters of the Lost Nation, Nick Medina
- Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, Jesse q. Sutanto
- Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide, Rupert Holmes
- Better the Blood, Michael Bennett
- The White Lady, Jacqueline Winspear
- The Maid’s Diary, Loreth Anne White
- A Disappearance in Fiji, Nilima Rao
- Bad Summer People, Emma Rosenblum
- Murder Book, Thomas Perry
- No Life for a Lady, Hannah Dolby
- Central Park West, James Comey
- Those Empty Eyes, Charlie Donlea
- A House With Good Bones, T. Kingfisher
- The Bandit Queens, Parini Shroff
- All the Dangerous Things, Stacy Willingham
- Age of Vice, Deepti Kapoor
- Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421 (A Novel), T.J. Newman
I’ve read six of these titles and am reading another couple at the moment. In my opinion, SMALL MERCIES by Dennis Lehane is the best crime novel of the year so far. I liked Sean Cosby’s ALL THE SINNER BLEED but it didn’t have the emotional impact on me that his previous two novels had. BETTER THE BLOOD by Michael Bennett is an excellent first novel as is THE BANDIT QUEENS by Parini Shroff. I was a little disappointed in MURDER BOOK by Thomas Perry (not as good as some of his recent thrillers) and THE WHITE LADY by Jacqueline Winspear (my expectation was for more action scenes and I was disappointed in their absence. Fine writing though.) I’ve been hearing a lot of positive buzz about the debut A DISAPPEARANCE IN FIJI so I’ll have to give that one a shot. DROWNING by T. J. Newman will be on the cover of the next issue of Deadly Pleasures and by all accounts is one of the best thrillers of the year. Larry Gandle liked James Comey’s CENTRAL PARK WEST, but I’ve seen some negative reviews about it also. I suspect that with some readers and reviewers the politics of day affects their views.
If it were me, I would have included LYING BESIDE YOU by Michael Robotham and RED QUEEN by Juan Gomez-Jurado in the list instead of some of the others. But then again I have not read all of these entries.
I’m glad that amazon.com comes out with a list like this every year. Good food for thought.