Hail the Unexpected

Salon’s choice of its 10 favorite books of 2008 include two of interest to crime-fiction enthusiasts: The Likeness, by Tana French (“The hypnotic prose and eerie atmosphere conspire to make this ostensible mystery novel much, much more than it appears to be”), and The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective, by Kate Summerscale (“Part true-crime narrative, part cultural history, Summerscale’s exploration of a notorious case of child-murder in 1860 is above all an inquiry into our lasting fascination with detectives and detective stories.”). Click here for all of Salon’s selections.