Post Time

Perhaps the best part of delaying my own declaration of which crime, mystery, and thriller novels I especially relished in 2022 is to see, in the meantime, what other reliable critics have to say on the matter. The chances of their influencing me are slim, as I can’t expect to consume a horde of additional novels at this late hour in the process. But learning about their favorites does have some impact on my future reading, as it provokes me to add authors to my watch list whose work I have not previously sampled.

The Washington Post, which issued its “12 best thriller and mystery novels of 2022” rundown this morning, leaves me with regret for having passed over a couple of titles (Knock Off the Hat, for instance). I hope to get to them in coming weeks.

Here are the novels that won the Post’s seal of approval:

• Bad Actors, by Mick Herron (Soho Crime)
• The Bullet That Missed, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman/Viking)
• The Christie Affair, by Nina de Gramont (St. Martin’s Press)
• Insomnia, by Sarah Pinborough (Morrow)
• On Java Road, by Lawrence Osborne (Hogarth)
• Knock Off the Hat, by Richard Stevenson (Amble Press)
• The Love of My Life, by Rosie Walsh (Pamela Dorman)
• The Maid, by Nita Prose (Ballantine)
• One-Shot Harry, by Gary Phillips (Soho Crime)
• The Violin Conspiracy, by Brendan Slocumb (Anchor)
• The Verifiers, by Jane Pek (Knopf Doubleday)
• A World of Curiosities, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Sadly, none of these dozen tales also appears on the newspaper’s most-anticipated “10 Best Books of the Year” roll.

(Hat tip to Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine.)