Crime Directives

British legal commentator Marcel Berlins, whose writing usually appears in The Guardian, makes a showing this week in the London Times, rounding up what he insists are the best crime books of 2006. His choices:

• The Broken Shore, by Peter Temple (Quercus)
• Christine Falls, by Benjamin Black (Macmillan)
• Piece of My Heart, by Peter Robinson (Hodder & Stoughton)
• A Walk in the Dark, by Gianrico Carofiglio (Bitter Lemon Press)
• Voices, by Arnaldur Indridason, translated by Bernard Scudder (Harvill)
• The Night Gardener, by George Pelecanos (Orion)
• The Best British Mysteries IV, by Maxim Jakubowski (Allison & Busby)

Meanwhile, in the same newspaper, critic Peter Millar picks his favorites among the last year’s crop of thrillers:

• The Swarm, by Frank Schätzing (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Priest of Evil, by Matti Yrjänä Joensuu (Arcadia)
• The Passenger, by Chris Petit (Simon & Schuster)
• The Chemistry of Death, by Simon Beckett (Bantam)
• Medicus and the Disappearing Dancing Girls, by R.S. Downie (Michael Joseph)
• Relentless, by Simon Kernick (Bantam)
• The Ruins, by Scott Smith (Bantam)

The Times also makes scores of book recommendations in other categories. Click here.