How Many of These Have You Read?

George Easter, the founding editor of Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine, is an absolute fiend about tracking “best books of the year” rolls. I try to keep up, and find some selections that pass him by, but it’s not easy to do. In any case, he’s just out with four new lists of interest to Rap Sheet readers.

I needn’t spend time repeating them all, but the following good choices, from the Web site Stop, You’re Killing Me, are of “favorite debut mysteries” (though Easter observes that The Gatekeeper is “not a debut. The author is Conrad Haynes, a veteran mystery and thriller writer, using a pseudonym”).

• Deep Water, by Emma Bamford (Gallery/Scout Press)
• A Killing in Costumes, by Zac Bissonette (Crooked Lane)
• The Gatekeeper, by James Byrne (Minotaur)
• Hot Time, by W.H. Flint (Arcade Crimewise)
• The Appeal, by Janice Hallett (Atria)
• Death and the Conjuror, by Tom Mead (Mysterious Press)
• The Bangalore Detectives Club, by Harini Nagendra (Pegasus Crime)
• Devil’s Chew Toy, by Rob Osler (Crooked Lane)
• The Verifiers, by Jane Pek (Vintage)
• The Maid, by Nita Prose (Ballantine)
• Blood Sugar, by Sascha Rothchild (Putnam)
• Real Easy, by Marie Rutkoski (Henry Holt)
• Geiger, by Gustaf Skördeman (Grand Central)

I’ve read a handful of these novels, and one is already on my own “favorite books of 2022” list. Another work sits in my to-be-read pile, and I hope to get to it before I must make my final picks.

In addition to SYKM’s selections, Easter offers Mystery & Suspense magazine’s “Best Mystery, Thriller, Crime and Suspense” nominees, British bookseller Waterstones four-part inventory of “Best Crime and Thrillers” preferences, and votes from The Book Girls’ Guide Web site of this year’s “Best Psychological Thriller Books.”