Plaudits from the Post

As someone who strives to read the finest, most interesting crime, mystery, and thriller fiction in any given year—partly in anticipation of recommending books around the holiday season—it’s a frustration, indeed, to realize that you’ve neglected any that rank highly with other readers. A case in point: Elizabeth Heider’s May the Wolf Die, which was published this last July. Kirkus Reviews called that story of murders in Naples, Italy, “offbeat and entertaining,” and “a lively procedural with a high-powered heroine.” Criminal Element described it as “a thriller infused with insider knowledge—of complicated quasi-governmental machinations that underlay the plot as well as detailed descriptions of Naples.” Yet I never quite got around to adding Heider’s debut novel to my teetering bedside pile.

And now, wouldn’t you know it? May the Wolf Die has scored a spot on The Washington Post’s “10 best mystery novels of 2024” list. Sigh … I can only hope to find time for that work in the near future, and will watch for the sequel Heider says she’s penning.

Meanwhile, here are all 10 of critic Karen MacPherson’s Post picks:

• Circle in the Water, by Marcia Muller (Grand Central)
• Echo, by Tracy Clark (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Grey Wolf, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• May the Wolf Die, by Elizabeth Heider (Penguin)
• The Princess of Las Vegas, by Chris Bohjalian (Doubleday)
• A Refiner’s Fire, by Donna Leon (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• We Solve Murders, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman)
• The Rivals, by Jane Pek (Vintage)
• What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust, by Alan Bradley (Bantam)
• Where They Last Saw Her, by Marcie R. Rendon (Bantam)

Two other novels that also belong in this category instead figure into Post reviewer Carol Memmott’s list of “the 10 best works of historical fiction in 2024”: The Comfort of Ghosts, by Jacqueline Winspear (Soho Crime); and Precipice, by Robert Harris (Harper).

At the insistence of its owner, Jeff Bezos, The Washington Post may have chickened out from endorsing Kamala Harris for president over convicted felon and adjudicated rapist Donald Trump earlier this month. But I’m pleased to see that paper still allows its literary critics freedom to voice their opinions of what deserves reading.