What’s more fun than having one crime-fiction critic choose his or her favorite books of 2024? Well, having six of them do so at once!
In late November, the Web site Crime Time gathered together half a dozen of Britain’s foremost crime, mystery, and thriller reviewers—Maxim Jakubowski, Jake Kerridge, Ayo Onatade, Victoria Selman, Paul Burke, and Barry Forshaw—for an hour-long “debate” about which novel, published in this genre over the last 12 months, was the most enjoyable. They agreed that Best of the Year accolades belong to The Peacock and the Sparrow (No Exit Press), by ex-CIA operations officer I.S. Berry—an espionage novel that was released in the States in 2023 (and went on to win the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author), but which debuted this year in the UK.
Going beyond that, though, they each identified other personal favorites from 2024. Most members of the group have already offered their picks elsewhere (look for Kerridge’s here, for instance, and Ayo’s here). But Barry Forshaw provided a quite abbreviated list in the Financial Times; he’s produced a longer version in association with the Crime Time debate. Here are his top-10 choices:
• Hunted, by Abir Mukherjee (Vintage)
• The Peacock and the Sparrow, by I.S. Berry (No Exit Press)
• The Waiting, by Michael Connelly (Orion)
• Guide Me Home, by Attica Locke (Profile)
• The first two novels in Simon Mason’s Finder series, Missing Person: Alice and The Case of the Lonely Accountant (Riverrun)
• The Bells of Westminster, by Leonora Nattrass (Viper)
• White City, by Dominic Nolan (Headline)
• The Last Days of Johnny Nunn, by Nick Triplow (No Exit Press)
• Day One, by Abigail Dean (Hemlock Press)
• Bay of Thieves, by Megan Davis (Zaffre)
Click here to listen to the entirety of these critics’ discussion.
While we’re on the subject of “bests,” I think I forgot to highlight this mystery and thriller list from U.S. bookseller Barnes & Noble:In late November, the Web site Crime Time gathered together half a dozen of Britain’s foremost crime, mystery, and thriller reviewers—Maxim Jakubowski, Jake Kerridge, Ayo Onatade, Victoria Selman, Paul Burke, and Barry Forshaw—for an hour-long “debate” about which novel, published in this genre over the last 12 months, was the most enjoyable. They agreed that Best of the Year accolades belong to The Peacock and the Sparrow (No Exit Press), by ex-CIA operations officer I.S. Berry—an espionage novel that was released in the States in 2023 (and went on to win the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author), but which debuted this year in the UK.
Going beyond that, though, they each identified other personal favorites from 2024. Most members of the group have already offered their picks elsewhere (look for Kerridge’s here, for instance, and Ayo’s here). But Barry Forshaw provided a quite abbreviated list in the Financial Times; he’s produced a longer version in association with the Crime Time debate. Here are his top-10 choices:
• Hunted, by Abir Mukherjee (Vintage)
• The Peacock and the Sparrow, by I.S. Berry (No Exit Press)
• The Waiting, by Michael Connelly (Orion)
• Guide Me Home, by Attica Locke (Profile)
• The first two novels in Simon Mason’s Finder series, Missing Person: Alice and The Case of the Lonely Accountant (Riverrun)
• The Bells of Westminster, by Leonora Nattrass (Viper)
• White City, by Dominic Nolan (Headline)
• The Last Days of Johnny Nunn, by Nick Triplow (No Exit Press)
• Day One, by Abigail Dean (Hemlock Press)
• Bay of Thieves, by Megan Davis (Zaffre)
Click here to listen to the entirety of these critics’ discussion.
* * *'
• The Grey Wolf, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• All the Colors of the Dark, by Chris Whitaker (Crown)
• The Blue Hour, by Paula Hawkins (Mariner)
• We Solve Murders, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman)
• This Is Why We Lied, by Karin Slaughter (Morrow)
• The Truth About the Devlins, by Lisa Scottoline (Putnam)
• The Hunter, by Tana French (Viking)
• The Last One at the Wedding, by Jason Rekulak (Flatiron)
• Southern Man, by Greg Iles (Morrow)
• Spirit Crossing, by William Kent Krueger (Atria)
• Middle of the Night, by Riley Sager (Dutton)
• One Perfect Couple, by Ruth Ware (Gallery/Scout Press)
• The Butcher Game, by Alaina Urquhart (Zando)
• The Last Murder at the End of the World, by Stuart Turton (Sourcebooks Landmark)
• Karla’s Choice, by Nick Harkaway (Viking)
• Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect, by Benjamin Stevenson (Mariner)
• Home Is Where the Bodies Are, by Jeneva Rose (Blackstone)
• The Fury, by Alex Michaelides (Celadon)
• The Sequel, by Jean Hanff Korelitz (Celadon)
• The Seventh Floor, by David McCloskey (Norton)
• Exposure, by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime)
Barnest & Noble being a sales-oriented enterprise, its recommendations must be taken with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, the books I have read from this roster are good ones, so perhaps the whole thing deserves a modicum of trust.
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