Initial Attractions

Book lists are so popular, it’s no wonder that we have already seen two curated collections of the “best crime, mystery, and thriller books of 2023 … so far.” The first came from Amazon, the second from Goodreads. And now the excellent Web site CrimeReads presents its own choices, 10 of them, mostly well-known:

• Sing Her Down, by Ivy Pochoda (MCD)
• Age of Vice, by Deepti Kapoor (Riverhead)
• Symphony of Secrets, by Brendan Slocumb (Anchor)
• Everybody Knows, by Jordan Harper (Mulholland)
• Confidence, by Rafael Frumkin (Simon & Schuster)
• Beware the Woman, by Megan Abbott (Putnam)
• All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)
• I Have Some Questions for You, by Rebecca Makkai (Viking)
• Hope You Are Satisfied, by Tania Malik (Unnamed Press)
• Ozark Dogs, by Eli Cranor (Soho Crime)

I haven’t tackled all of these, and probably will not be able to before year’s end. However, a number of books featured on CrimeReads’ secondary list of “notable” 2023 releases are beckoning to me from my to-be-read pile, including Chris Offutt’s Code of the Hills (Grove Press), Joyce Carol Oates’ 48 Clues into the Disappearance of My Sister (Mysterious Press), Dennis Lehane’s Small Mercies (Harper), and Samantha Jayne Allen’s Hard Rain (Minotaur). There are surely enough good choices here to keep me busy for a long while, yet hundreds more titles are due for publication over the next six months—enough to defeat even the speediest reader.

FOLLOW-UP: Reviewer and blogger Lesa Holstine has posted her own early favorites for 2023. Click here to read about them.