Choices, Choices Everywhere

Due to other distractions, personal as well as professional, I’ve fallen behind in my efforts to highlight “best crime fiction of 2018” assessments as they appear all over the Web. But I haven’t neglected to bookmark those I have found. So here are many more that might be of interest to you: Three contributors to the British site Crime Fiction Lover sound off on their favorite genre releases from the last 12 months—here, here, and here; Criminal Element’s “Best Books of 2018” rundown includes works by Lou Berney, Karin Slaughter, and Alex Segura; both that site and Murder & Mayhem laud nine works apiece, but the latter’s list diverges significantly in its selections, praising books by Megan Abbott, Stephen King, Simone St. Janes, and others; for BuzzFeed News, critic-author Sarah Weinman commends novels by the likes of William Boyle, Oyinkan Braithwaite, and Tara Isabella Burton; and the blog For Winter Nights renders its favorable judgment on 10 books, mostly mysteries but not all.

Meanwhile, some of the employees at MysteryPeople, a store-within-a-store at Austin, Texas-based BookPeople, have found it necessary to express their own opinions as to the most commendable crime, mystery, and thriller fiction issued in 2018. Click on these links to consider the choices of Scott Butki and the evidently single-monikered Meike; and click here to see which 2018 debut novels crime-fiction coordinator Scott Montgomery thought rose above the rest. CrimeReads posted a plethora of picks in this, the first holiday season of its existence, but four in particular stood out: “The Best Noir Fiction of 2018,” “The Best Historical Crime Novels of 2018,” “The 10 Best Crime Anthologies of 2018,” and “The Best International Crime Fiction of 2018.” The blog still maintained by Portland, Oregon’s old bookstore, Murder by the Book, offers a wide-ranging list of 18 titles worthy of our mutual appreciation. In the Mysterious Book Report, blogger John Dwaine McKenna applauds a baker’s dozen of yarns that made their initial appearances this year. Beneath the Stains of Time writer “TomCat” features vintage-only works in his (or her?) “Best and Worst of 2018” inventory. Finally, Dead Good asked 19 authors—among them Lee Child, Jo Jakeman, Lizzy Barber, and Tim Weaver—to identify what they most enjoyed reading over the last twelvemonth.

Also worth mentioning here, even though it doesn’t focus at all on books, is Killing Times’ collection of what its critics have determined are the “Top 20 Crime Dramas of the Year.” It looks as if this is a four-part feature; Part I is here, Part II is here, and you’ll have to keep watching the site for the concluding two posts.

I noted earlier this month that several blogs specializing in vintage crime and mystery fiction have banded together to choose their favorite reprints of the year. The four-stage process, explained here, includes an online survey open to public involvement. To find the poll, with its 20 nominees, simply click here. Books by Dorothy B. Hughes, E.C.R. Lorac, Margaret Millar, and Patrick Quentin are all vying to be tapped as Reprint of the Year. Vote now, if you’d like to take part, because the winner is due to be declared tomorrow!

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One more thing: Many of us received books, even stacks of books, over the holidays. Unlike yours truly, not everyone holds onto all of the works they read and enjoy. If you’re looking to let go of some hardcover or paperback gifts, please consider donating them to your local libraries. I’ve been doing this for years, knowing that what Seattle libraries themselves can’t use will be sold to raise money for the whole local system. A worthy cause, indeed.