Still More Reading Guidance

We’re approaching not only the end of 2023, but also a cessation of the recent flood of “best crime and mystery fiction of the year” lists.

The British books blog Crime Fiction Lover presents two additional sets of nominations from its resident critics. Vicki Weisfeld’s “top five books of 2023” include one that passed me by, James McCrone’s Bastard Verdict (‎Faithless Elector), along with James Wolff’s The Man in the Corduroy Suit (Bitter Lemon Press). Meanwhile, Mike Parker (aka Rough Justice) touts Chris Offutt’s Code of the Hills (Grove Press) and Margaret Douaihy’s Scorched Grace (Pushkin Vertigo), as well as three other works. Click here to find all of CFL’s 2023 picks.

Librarian Marlene Harris, who writes the blog Reading Reality, has posted her own favorites from the last 12 months. Most of them don’t belong in the crime/mystery/thriller category, and two of those that do (penned by Will Thomas) did not first appear in 2023. However, she does feature on her list Stephen Spotswood’s Murder Crossed Her Mind (Doubleday) and Tracy Clark’s Fall (Thomas & Mercer), both of which came the way of crime-fiction fans earlier this month.

Finally, Vick Mickunas, a contributor to Ohio’s Dayton Daily News and host of the long-running Book Nook radio show, has selected half a dozen novels from 2023 that he is convinced other enthusiastic followers of this genre would benefit from reading:

• Dark Ride, by Lou Berney (Morrow)
• All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)
• Prom Mom, by Laura Lippman (Morrow)
• The Detective Up Late, by Adrian McKinty (Blackstone)
• Flags on the Bayou, by James Lee Burke (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder, by Lawrence Block
(LB Productions)

You can read Mickunas’ comments about each title here.