Second Time, Second Thoughts

Well, this is confusing. Less than two weeks ago, the London Times published protracted lists of the “Best Crime Books of 2023,” by reviewer Joan Smith, and the “Best Thriller Books of 2023,” by John Dugdale. Yet that British daily and its sister tabloid, The Sunday Times, are now out with two new, not altogether overlapping, and much-abbreviated inventories of what their critics say is the “best” fiction released in this genre over the last 11 months.

First up, we have the Times’ choices of the “14 Best Crime Books of 2023,” as selected by Joan Smith and her fellow reviewer, Mark Sanderson, featuring two top choices.

The Times Crime Book
of the Year:
Dead Man’s Creek, by Chris Hammer (Wildfire)

The Sunday Times Best Crime Book of the Year:
The Running Grave, by Robert Galbraith (Sphere)

• Squeaky Clean, by Callum Mcsorley (Pushkin Vertigo)
• The Broken Afternoon, by Simon Mason (Riverrun)
• The Close, by Jane Casey (HarperCollins)
• Everybody Knows, by Jordan Harper (Faber and Faber)
• The Lock-Up, by John Banville (Faber and Faber)
• Thirty Days of Darkness, by Jenny Lund Madsen (Orenda)
• The Prey, by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Killing Moon, by Jo Nesbø (Harvill Secker)
• Black River, by Nilanjana Roy (Pushkin Press)
• The Detective, by Ajay Chowdhury (Harvill Secker)
• A Line in the Sand, by Kevin Powers (Sceptre)
• The Mystery of Yew Tree House, by Lesley Thomson
(Head of Zeus/Aries)

Next we have the Times’ new picks of the “12 Best Thriller Books of 2023,” as determined by John Dugdale and James Owen.

The Times Thriller of the Year:
Damascus Station, by David McCloskey (Swift Press)

The Sunday Times Thriller of the Year:
The Scarlet Papers, by Matthew Richardson (Michael Joseph)

• Cut Adrift, by Jane Jesmond (Verve)
• The Beaver Theory, by Antti Tuomainen (Orenda)
• The Translator, by Harriet Crawley (Bitter Lemon Press)
• Small Mercies, by Dennis Lehane (Abacus)
• The Trap, by Catherine Ryan Howard (Bantam)
• The End of the Game, by Holly Watt (Raven)
• Holly, by Stephen King (‎Hodder & Stoughton)
• White Riot, by Joe Thomas (Arcadia)
• The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron (Baskerville)
• The Year of the Locust, by Terry Hayes (Bantam)

I’m quite confident there’s some sort of internal logic to the production of these second Times catalogues of must-read books for 2023. Unfortunately, it’s not at all clear to those of us outside of the papers’ newsrooms what that logic might be. Regardless, I am pleased to see these shorter directories to top crime and thriller novels appear, as the previous dozens of picks weren’t particularly helpful to holiday gift-buyers hoping to narrow down their options for fans of crime, mystery, and thriller fiction.

READ MORE: “The Telegraph’s 50 Best Books 2023,” “OverDrive Best 100 Books of 2023,” and “Listener Magazine (New Zealand) 10 Best Crime Fiction Novels of 2023,” by George Easter (Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine).