10 for 10

I made the mistake of checking in on Facebook today, only to discover that there’s a new meme going around. The challenge, as Brian Lindenmuth of Spinetingler Magazine presented it to me, is to name your “top 10 favorite crime books from 2004-2013. Ten only. No cheating by squeezing more titles in.” I immediately went to my annual tallies of the works I’ve read and tried to cull out one per year … which immediately turned into two or three a year … which ultimately left me with 25 titles, rather than 10. I whittled away from that point, finally coming up with this imperfect list, in alphabetical order:

• The Blackhouse, by Peter May
• Bye Bye, Baby, by Max Allan Collins
• City of Dragons, by Kelli Stanley
• House of the Hunted, by Mark Mills
• Little Green, by Walter Mosley
• Peeler, by Kevin McCarthy
• A Quiet Flame, by Philip Kerr
• Rosa, by Jonathan Rabb
• The Song Is You, by Megan Abbott
• Wolves Eat Dogs, by Martin Cruz Smith

I’m not going to tag anyone with the responsibility of following me in this daunting venture. But if you wish to submit your own choices, please do so under the Comments tab below.