No End of Opinions

They never cease, do they? There are now three more “best crime fiction of 2021” lists to add to our ever-expanding collection.

National Public Radio is out with its 40 “Mysteries & Thrillers” selections, which include Alexandra Andrews’ Who Is Maude Dixon? (Little, Brown), Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Shuffle (Doubleday), Amanda Jayatissa’s My Sweet Girl (Berkley), Lee Mandelo’s Summer Sons (Tor), and Paula Hawkins’ A Slow Fire Burning (Riverhead).

The British magazine Woman & Home (yes, it’s new to me too) counters with picks that run from Richard Osman’s The Man Who Died Twice (Viking) and Lisa Jewell’s The Night She Disappeared (Century) to Peter Swanson’s Every Vow You Break (Faber and Faber) and Anna Bailey’s Tall Bones (Doubleday). The full inventory is here.

Finally, the weekly New Zealand Listener has issued its annual nominations of the 100 best books, described by Kiwi critic Craig Sisterson as “arguably the most prestigious year-end ‘best books’ list in our part of the world “ Although there is unfortunately no online access to the Listener’s 2021 roster, Sisterson says on Facebook that it features “a dozen crime tales,” among them Val McDermid’s 1979 (Little, Brown), Chris Hammer’s Treasure & Dirt (Allen & Unwin), and Laura Lippman’s Dream Girl (Faber and Faber).