The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group discussion

With the last month of 2017 at the midway point, what have been your favorite Mystery/Crime/Thriller books of this year?

Among my favorites this year were: Fool's River by Tim Hallinan, A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee and The Coroner's Daughter by Andrew Hughes.

My favorites have been:



Missing, Presumed, by Susie Steiner
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
U Is for Undertow by Sue Grafton
Iron Lake by William Kent Kruger
The Bones of You by Debbie Howell,
The Heavens May Fall by Allen Eskens
Night Passage and Trouble In Paradise by Robert B. Parker
Black Water Lilies by Michel Bussi
The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill
and Suspicion by Joseph Finder.

Sleeping Beauties
Camino Island

Coyote Waits
Winter Garden
The Chilbury Ladies' Choir
Beautiful Hero: How We Survived the Khmer Rouge
Wayne and Ford: The Films, the Friendship, and the Forging of an American Hero

This year most of my favourites were either German (unfortunately and unbelievably not translated in to English) or Scandinavian.

Verletzung
Todesurteil
The Disappeared
But there was one British book in a series I had nearly forgotten about, which I really loved.
Backlash

Just finished what might be my favorite of the whole year: Second Chance by Jonathan Valin. It's even set right around Christmas, as I do love my holiday reading.

A close second would be Claire McGowan's The Silent Dead, which I am still thinking about.

I didn't have that many favorites, so I would say one of the more recent ones that I've read, A Very Long Engagement, which earned, for me, a very rare 5 stars.

This is my Top 10 list bearing in mind that I still hope to read, The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie and The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill before the end of the year. I had 5 X 5-star reads in the mystery genre in 2017, so I'm fleshing out the list with 5 X 4-star reads...

1. Kittyhawk Down by Garry Disher
2. Cop Hater by Ed McBain
3. The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout
4. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
5. A Dedicated Man by Peter Robinson
6. The Archer Files: The Complete Short Stories of Lew Archer, Private Investigator by Ross Macdonald
7. Maigret Meets a Milord by Georges Simenon
8. The Man With a Load of Mischief by Martha Grimes
9. The Judas Pair by Jonathan Gash
10. A Comedian Dies by Simon Brett

Looking back these aren't necessarily my top rated on Goodreads ( not a fan of rating out of 5) but these have all been interesting reads and new to me. Quite a few are thanks to this group, as is the increase in the size of my 'to read' shelf!
Part way through the year I started reading both the James Bond series, and Agatha Christies work in published order - many of those are re reads so I've only included one from each of those series that I was reading for the first time.

From Russia With Love Ian Fleming
The Man in the Brown Suit Agatha
Christie
Rivers of London Ben Aaronovitch
The Cuckoo's Calling Robert Galbraith
Black Water Lilies Michel Bussi
My Sister and Other LiarsRuth Dugdall
The Mermaids Singing Val McDermid
The Skull Beneath the Skin P.D. James
Roseanna Maj Sjöwall
The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare G.K. Chesterton

I've also just started reading Faceless Killers Henning Mankell and so far so good

Bill wrote: "This is my Top 10 list bearing in mind that I still hope to read, The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie and The Various Haunts of Men by [author:..."

Hope you manage to read the Man in the Brown Suit, Bill, I'd be inteteerested in reading your review as I really enjoyed it.i thought I'd already read it (I've read most of Christies work) but was one I'd missed and turned out to be one of my favourite non Poirots.

Carolyn wrote: "Bill wrote: "This is my Top 10 list bearing in mind that I still hope to read, The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie and [book:The Various Haunts of Men|1541330..."

I'll keep you posted. You have a nice mix of selections in your Top Ten.. I've read and enjoyed a couple of them; The Man who was Thursday, Roseanna, From Russia with Love. I plan to read The Cuckoo's Calling.

Some oldies but goldies in the mix:
Fever by Robin Cook
Every Dead Thing
Iron Lake
A Grave Talent
The Last Kashmiri Rose
Child 44
]The Funeral of Figaro
The Death of a Joyce Scholar

The Sleeping Beauty Murders by Mary Higgins Clark.

And So It Began by Owen Mullen

Chris wrote: "Some oldies but goldies in the mix:
Fever by Robin Cook
Every Dead Thing
Iron Lake
A Grave Talent
The Last Kashmiri Rose
[book:..."

The Joe Sandilands series gets better and better. I also enjoyed Child 44...

Good to know, the next two are somewhere in my big pile!!

I read some good books this year:
The Dry
The Freedom Broker
Behind Her Eyes
The Snowman
The Ex
Stillhouse Lake
He Said/She Said
Distress Signals

With the exception of The Ex and The Snowman, these are all 2017 releases.

I am still reading Killman Creek (follow-up to Stillhouse Lake) and The Marsh King's Daughter which I hope to finish before year end.

I read a lot of great books in 2017 (few new releases though).

I really enjoyed Allen Eskens' book The Life We Bury

My favorite discovery of the year was a great series by Louise Penny, beginning with Still Life. The lead character is very much in tune with emotions and the underlying causes of murders. This series has some poetry in it and literary touches that are often absent in mystery books.

I also finished the Clifton Chronicles series by Jeffrey Archer.

Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer was fairly interesting.Among the Dick Francis books,I particularly liked Smokescreen,Forfeit,Trial Run and Even Money.

Read quite a few good books this year: 4* or 5*
1. The Crossing, Michael Connolly
2.The Trapped Girl, Robert Dugoni
3.The Guilty, David Baldacci
4. The Black Widow, Daniel Silva
5. Lethal, Sandra Brown
And my favorite

It was the best-constructed crime book I've ever read.
In many fictions, the killer is usually smarter. But what if they are both smarter than each other in this fiction?

Imagine a detective looking for evidence even in a tree. A murderer who became a District Attorney to increase his authority? No matter what I write, there will be spoilers. Just buy this book and read it. You can thank me later.

"We live in an age of indifference,” he said, “an age where people no longer care about other people. We watch television and pretend to be social on the Internet."