Earning Nolan’s Seal of Approval

Here’s yet another “best books of the year” list, this one from Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal’s longtime crime-fiction critic:

• Birnam Wood, by Eleanor Catton (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Fixit, by Joe Ide (Mulholland)
• I Have Some Questions for You, by Rebecca Makkai (Viking)
• The Kind Worth Saving, by Peter Swanson (Morrow)
• The Last Devil to Die, by Richard Osman (Viking)
• The Late Mrs. Willoughby, by Claudia Gray (Vintage)
• The Lock-Up, by John Banville (Hanover Square Press)
• My Men, by Victoria Kielland (Astra House)
• Prom Mom, by Laura Lippman (Morrow)
• Small Mercies, by Dennis Lehane (Harper)

I’m a big fan of Nolan’s work—both his reviews and his books—and frequently find my reading tastes to be in accordance with his. There are a few novels here that I have not yet sampled (notably My Men, which I first heard of from Sarah Weinman), but which I shall now have to add onto my Christmas wishlist.