Declan’s Declaration

Despite a paywall preventing non-subscriber access to Dublin’s Irish Times, we were able last week to bring you author-critic Declan Hughes’ nominations in that newspaper for the “Best Crime Fiction of 2021.” Now, thanks once more to George Easter, the editor of Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine, we can share Declan Burke’s top 11 selections, which featured in that same Times piece:

• Slough House, by Mick Herron (John Murray)
• The Favour, by Sarah Vaughan (Corvus)
• Watch Her Fall, by Erin Kelly (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Untraceable, by Sergei Lebedev (Apollo)
• The Cut, by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown)
• The Last Taxi Driver, by Lee Durkee (No Exit Press)
• The Nameless Ones, by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Good Neighbours, by Sarah Langan (Titan)
• The Therapist, by Helene Flood (MacLehose Press)
• A Narrow Door, by Joanne Harris (Orion)
• The Killing Hills, by Chris Offut (No Exit Press)

Overall, a very sound list, with The Favour, The Last Taxi Driver, and The Good Neighbours being surprises—at least to me.