In the past I used to post the amazon monthly Editors’ Picks for Best Mystery, Crime & Thriller Fiction. When Vanessa Cronin was there, I was very impressed by the selections and even learned about some excellent titles that has gone under my radar. But several months ago there was an apparent changing of the guard at amazon and the new crew seems to lean on their personal tastes that are certainly very different than mine or those of what I consider mainstream mystery readers. The new monthly lists include titles that are clearly horror novels (when did someone come up with the “bright” idea that they should be lumped in with mystery/thriller fiction? I thought that horror was its own subgenre. ??) I have nothing against horror fiction (even though I don’t like it) or people who like horror fiction. It’s just that I don’t consider horror fiction to be mystery fiction. Please tell me this is not a new trend.
Here is the October list. It has 10 titles in total, seven of which could be considered horror or at the very least novels with supernatural elements (also something I personally don’t care for). I personally didn’t like the John Grisham novel when I read it. But certainly the Louise Penny deserves to be on such a list and also the Jiro Akagawa cozy mystery, which I’ve heard good things about. See my annotations following some the the titles below.
Amazon Editors’ Picks for October, 2027
THE FRENCH ILLUSION, John Grisham
OFF THE RESERVATION, Stephen Graham Jones – horror
TRAD WIFE, Sarah Langan – “a slick, eerie horror outing”
OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE, Stephen King & Peter Straub –”Jack must stop a rampaging gang of infected teenagers from America-side, and the forces of the mysterious Gullet at the edge of Mid-World, before it destroys our world and all worlds.”
CARRYING, Samantha Josephs – “electrifying horror debut”
SOLACE HOUSE, Will Maclean – “touches on mystery, intrigue and fantasy, and a creepiness that slowly seeps into the reader.”
A GAME OF CAT AND KILLER, Jiro Akagawa
THE WATER HOUSE, Nneoma Ike-Njoku – creepy gothic novel with supernatural elements
MISS WOLCOTT’S GHOST, Louise Penny
LOOK WHAT THE CAT DRAGGED IN, Jason Rekulak – supernatural thriller, “creepy” “skin-crawling”
Surely amazon could have come up with a better list. Here are some titles they should have considered:
Yasmin Angoe, THE FERRY MAN’S DAUGHTER|
Peter James, DEAD IN THREE TWO ONE (Roy Grace)
Jonathan Freeman, WHERE THE ROAD ENDS (Jonathan Stride)
Matt Goldman, COLD BLADE (Nils Shapiro)
Joe R. Lansdale, PETRIFIED DREAMS (Hap & Leonard)
Tom Ryan, RETURN TO BREAKNECK ISLAND (Treasure Hunters Club)
Joanne Harris, SLEEPERS IN THE SNOW
Imran Mahmood, WHEN THE BIRDS DON’T SING
Jasper Fforde, DARK READING MATTER (Thursday Next)
Donna Andrews, JAY TO THE WORLD (Meg Langslow)
David Rosenfelt, BARK HUMBUG (Andy Carpenter)
David Liss, THE DEATH AND BIRTH OF ILIANA MAREK
Lucy Clarke, YOU LET ME IN
Lee Goldberg, SPLIT SCREEN (Eve Ronin)
Walter Mosley, HANGING & BURNING (Joe King Oliver)
Jenna Helwig, THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT’S WIFE
Vaseem Khan, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN COMPASS (Q)
Lee Child & Andrew Child, CHAIN REACTION (Jack Reacher)
Adam Plantinga, DARK COUNTRY (Kurt Argento)
Laura Joh Rowland, RESURRECTION KILL
Michael Connelly, THE HOLLOW (Harry Bosch)
S. J. Bennett, DEATH ON THE ROYAL YACHT (Her Majesty the Queen)