A Final Reckoning

After compiling the results from “108 best mystery, crime fiction and thriller lists this year (mostly from the U.S., but some from the U.K., Ireland, Canada, Australia and India),” Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine editor George Easter has tallied up the titles that received the most favorable mentions. “This is an attempt,” he writes, “to find some consensus on what exactly are the best mysteries, crime novels and thrillers of the year 2024.”

By Easter’s computations, The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore (Riverhead), received the most nominations—37. The count is tied for second place, with Chris Whitaker’s All the Colors of the Dark (Crown) and Richard Osman’s We Solve Murders (Pamela Dorman) both scoring 35 mentions. Here are the other books filling out his top 10:

3. The Hunter, by Tana French (Viking)
4. Listen for the Lie, by Amy Tintera (Celadon)
5. Guide Me Home, by Attica Locke (Mulholland)
6. First Lie Wins, by Ashley Elston (Pamela Dorman)
7. The Waiting, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
8. The Return of Ellie Black, by Emiko Jean (Simon & Schuster)
9. Tie — Smoke Kings, by Jahmal Mayfield (Melville House); and The Sequel, by Jean Hanff Korelitz (Celadon)
10: The Midnight Feast, by Lucy Foley (Morrow)

I’ve read most, though not all, of these works. And I enjoyed a number of the other releases among those 74 titles in Easter’s “bests” catalogue, including Stuart Turton’s The Last Murder at the End of the World (Sourcebooks Landmark), C.B. Bernard’s wonderful Ordinary Bear (Blackstone), Francis Spufford’s Cahokia Jazz (‎Scribner), and Nilanjana Roy’s Black River (‎Pushkin Vertigo). A few more I still have to tackle in the coming weeks, before I feel pressured to turn away from 2024 titles and focus mostly on those due out in this new year.

Click here to see Easter’s complete record.