Friday, May 20, 2016

10 for 10

To help commemorate The Rap Sheet’s fast-approaching 10th anniversary, I’m going to engage in what I hope will be a bit of educational fun—and I would like you to join me. The assignment here is to choose 10 of your favorite crime, mystery, or thriller novels, all of them originally published during the last 10 years, from January 1, 2006, until now. (No paperback reprints, please.) There aren’t any perfect answers. The works needn’t be famous, nor must they demonstrate your literary taste or fondness for the esoteric. It’s only necessary that you enjoyed the books you select.

OK, I’ll go first:

The Pale Blue Eye, by Louis Bayard (2006)
A Quiet Flame, by Philip Kerr (2008)
Bury Me Deep, by Megan Abbott (2009)
City of Dragons, by Kelli Stanley (2010)
Peeler, by Kevin McCarthy (2010)
The Keeper of Lost Causes, by Jussi Adler-Olsen (2011)
The Blackhouse, by Peter May (2012)
Little Green, by Walter Mosley (2013)
Norwegian by Night, by Derek B. Miller (2013)
Darkness, Darkness, by John Harvey (2014)

This isn’t an easy task, I’ll grant you; my initial roll of possible titles ran to 33. I had to brutally cast away many books I have said nice things about over the last decade, including J. Robert Janes’ Bellringer (2012), David Morrell’s Inspector of the Dead (2015), and Laura Lippman’s After I’m Gone (2014), in order to make the 10-count. But the rules are what they are, and I had to follow them.

Now it’s your turn. In the Comments section at the end of this post, please feel free to submit your own list of 10 choice crime novels published between 2006 and 2016. Or submit five titles, or even just one or two. The point is that, while much is made of this genre’s classic novels, modern works can often have just as much influence on our memories and our fondness for this field of literature.

So, any suggestions?

6 comments:

Steve Oerkfitz said...

Really a difficult task but here it goes:
I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
The Thicket by Joe R. Lansdale
Ostland by David Thomas
A Quiet Flame by Phillip Kerr
Little Elvises by Tim Hallinan
The Devil All the Time by Daniel Ray Pollock
The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow
The Cartel by Don Winslow
Before the Poison by Peter Robinson
The Tourist by Olen Steinhauser

P. D. Davis said...

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke
Light of the World by James Lee Burke
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
The Ranger by Ace Atkins
Another Man's Moccasins by Craig Johnson
Star Island by Carl Hiaasen
A Troubled Man by Henning Mankell
Worth Dying For by Lee Child

Gary said...

My first list included a number of the novels listed above. I agree that this is difficult. I have restricted it to books I have read and were published in the United States between 2006-2016. My list includes the first of a trilogy, one Australian book later published in US in 2006, one written in the 1960s but published in the last ten years, and one Mexican translated work that is outside the usual mystery field but is ultimately about violence and death. In no particular order:

Slow Horses by Mick Herron (2010)
The Blackhouse by Peter May (2012)
In the Woods by Tana French (2007)
Fallen Angel by Chuck Logan (2014)
Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2006)
Memory by Donald E. Westlake (2011)
Buried Strangers: A Chief Inspector Mario Silva Investigation by Leighton Gage (2009)
2666 by Roberto Bolano (2008)
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (2010)
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (2010)

TracyK said...

I thought I would have a hard time coming up with ten because I read more older books than new but, I ended up having to cull some off the list.

The Last Policeman by Ben Winters
An Empty Death by Laura Wilson
A Lily of the Field by John Lawton
A Quiet Flame by Philip Kerr
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
A Night of Long Knives by Rebecca Cantrell
Blood of the Wicked by Leighton Gage
The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer
Slow Horses by Mick Herron
Lock In by John Scalzi

Kent Morgan said...

Breaking Point - C.J. Box
The Bone Orchard - Paul Doiron
Starvation Lake - Bryan Gruley
Northwest Angle - William Kent Krueger
Kill Fee - Owen Laukkanen
The Book of Souls - James Oswald
Old City Hall - Robert Rotenberg
Mr. Clarinet - Nick Stone
Truth - Peter Temple
Deep Shadow - Randy Wayne White

dandwmoney@rogers.com said...

It was hard to leave out some favourites.
2006 Echo Park (Connelly)
2007 The unquiet (Connolly)
2008 The bodies left behind (Deaver)
2009 Execution dock (Perry)
2010 61 Hours (Child)
2011 The troubled man (Mankell)
2012 Garment of shadows (King)
2013 Nemesis (Pronzini)
2014 Runner (Lee)
2015 A dangerous place (Winspear)
2015 The murderer's daughter (Kellerman)
2016 I am your judge (Neuhaus)