Our Own Treasured Yarns of 2022

It’s time again to release “favorite crime fiction of the year” lists from Rap Sheet contributors. This afternoon will bring the first post, to be followed by another new one each day over the next week.

We have been happily shouldering this responsibility to weigh and winnow out annual crime, mystery, and fiction releases ever since 2014. Over that period, many authors have featured among our choices only once, while others (Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman, and Ian Rankin, for instance) have enjoyed a more frequent presence. The task of paring down our selections has never been easy. All of us find it difficult to turn our backs on books we have relished during the previous dozen months, in order to limit our lists to five main titles, plus five more we find deserving of “honorable mention” status. In the best of cases, we don’t simply duplicate selections that have been made by other periodicals and Web sites, but also champion works that were passed over, for whatever reason, by fellow critics.

You’ll have to let us know what you think about our many picks as they appear, and whether there are other 2022 releases in this genre you believe should be highlighted as well.