10 for 2011

Kirkus Reviews asked me recently to list my 10 favorite crime, mystery, and thriller novels of 2011. Keep in mind, the task was not to pick the 10 “best” such works published over the last year; that would’ve been impossible to do, as I didn’t read every book in the category. But I felt comfortable drawing up an idiosyncratic selection of 10 works--all published in the States, and arranged in no particular order--that I found memorable for one reason or another:

• The Cut, by George Pelecanos

• White Heat, by M.J. McGrath

• Stealing Mona Lisa, by Carson Morton

• The End of Everything, by Megan Abbott

• The Keeper of Lost Causes, by Jussi Adler-Olsen

• Stolen Lives, by Jassy Mackenzie

• Field Gray, by Philip Kerr

• City of Secrets, by Kelli Stanley

• A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion, by Ron Hansen

• The House of Silk, by Anthony Horowitz

You can read my short remarks about each of these books, plus a short list of “honorable mentions,” here.

Please feel free to mention your own favorite crime novels of 2011 in the Comments section at the bottom of that page.