First Out of the Gates

Every 12 months, it seems, the “books of the year” lists start appearing earlier and earlier. Sort of like the Christmas decorations at my local Starbucks. This week, for instance, brings us Publishers Weekly’s top choices for 2007. I’m pleased (or perhaps “relieved” is the word) to say that I have read more than 50 percent of the titles listed under Mystery:

• Songs of Innocence, by Richard Aleas (Hard Case)
• The Cloud of Unknowing, by Thomas Cook (Harcourt/Penzler)
• American Detective, by Loren D. Estleman (Forge)
• The Commission, by Michael Norman (Poisoned Pen)
• The Collaborator of Bethlehem, by Matt Benyon Rees (Soho Crime)
• The Water’s Lovely, by Ruth Rendell (Crown)
• The Snow Empress, by Laura Joh Rowland (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
• Person of Interest, by Theresa Schwegel (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
• Kept, by D.J. Taylor (HarperCollins)

Readers might be somewhat bewildered by two of these choices--Schwegel’s and Rowland’s--since the former has only just come out, and the latter isn’t due in bookstores till the end of this month. However, the single surprise for me is Norman’s The Commission. Am I the last person to catch wind of this story about the execution-style shooting of Levi Vogue, chairman of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, in Salt Lake City, and the investigation of prison system corruption that follows? (PW called Norman’s novel “alternately gripping and repellent crime novel.”)

Four other novels that belong in the crime/mystery/thriller category have unnecessarily been “promoted” to PW’s best fiction category:

• The Tin Roof Blowdown, by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)
• The Chicago Way, by Michael Harvey (Knopf)
• What the Dead Know, by Laura Lippman (Morrow)
• The Secret Servant, by Daniel Silva (Putnam)

We won’t be publishing our own and January Magazine’s best crime fiction choices for a few weeks yet, in order to make sure that no late releases are neglected. But we’re hoping in the meantime to note here other prominent “bests” lists. If you spot one we’ve missed, please do send a note us a note at jpwrites@sprynet.com.