You Really Thought We Were Done?

Happy New Year, all! Despite the calendar having flipped, it seems I’m still not done collecting “best crime fiction of 2023” lists.

The first of three very late entries in this game comes from Jackie Farrant, creator of the British blog Raven Crime Reads. In addition to making selections from among historical non-fiction works and mainstream novels, she gives her stamp of approval to the following dozen crime, mystery, and thriller releases:

• All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby (Headline)
• Ozark Dogs, by Eli Cranor (Headline)
• A Bird in Winter, by Louise Doughty (Faber and Faber)
• Every Hidden Thing, by Ted Flanagan (Bedford Square)
• The Moonshine Messiah, by Russell W. Johnson (Shotgun Honey)
• The Opposite of Lonely, by Doug Johnstone (Orenda)
• Death of a Lesser God, by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Viper’s Dream, by Jake Lamar (Bedford Square)
• A Time for Dying, by Bryce Main (Northodox Press)
• To Die in June, by Alan Parks (Canongate)
• Salvage This World, by Michael Farris Smith (Bedford Square)
• Dry Cleaning, by Trevor Mark Thomas (Salt)

Also weighing in with her favorites is Kat Hall, from Mrs. Peabody Investigates. Her top choices—not all of which were first published in 2023—range from María Angélica Bosco’s Death Going Down (Pushkin Vertigo) and Jane Harper’s Exiles (Pan Macmillan) to Petra Rautiainen’s Land of Snow and Ashes (Pushkin Press) and Ben Macintyre’s 2015 non-fiction work, A Spy Among Friends (Bloomsbury).

Last but certainly not least, we hear from Canadian lawyer Bill Selnes, who writes Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan. He gives his thumbs-up to four crime novels, only the last of which originally saw print during the last 12 months:

• The Discourtesy of Death, by William Brodrick (Overlook Press)
• A Quiet Flame, by Philip Kerr (Putnam)
• A World of Curiosities, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• Sunset and Jericho, by Sam Wiebe (Harbour)

* * *

In a similar but slightly different vein … Back in mid-December, Kate Jackson, aka Armchair Reviewer, posted a poll in her blog, Cross-Examining Crime, that asked readers to cast ballots for their favorite 2023 reprints of vintage crime and mystery novels. There were 23 nominees, all of which you can see here.

The poll closed on December 29, with the top vote-getter being He Who Whispers, by John Dickson Carr, originally published in 1946 but reissued last year as part of the British Library Crime Classics series. As I have never read that Carr yarn, I promptly ordered a copy!

READ MORE: “Best Reads of 2023” (Vintage Pop Fictions).