Well, you are on this list. (For some reason I haven't read a lot of crime fiction published in 2015, but these 4--two of which are not actually fiction--are at the top of the list, and the only 2015 pubs in the "crime" area I have read and would recommend.)
EJ Copperman and Jeff Cohen, The Question of the Unfamiliar Husband Bill Crider, Between the Living and the Dead Martin Edwards, The Golden Age of Murder (criticism/history_ Lawrence Block, The Crime of Our Lives (memoir, mostly)
I can't believe GIRL ON A TRAIN is so popular. I didn't care for it at all. Firstly, very few writers can pull off a mystery-suspense story when only three plausible suspects are introduced (I guessed--rightly--the culprit's identity halfway through the book). Then, the way alcoholism is used as a convenient plot device is astonishingly sloppy: one minute the narrator is black- out drunk , the next minute she's barely tipsy. It makes no sense. The best (new) mystery I read this year was Peter Swanson's THE KIND WORTH KILLING: unpredictable twists and credible characters and motivations; plus a neat little O. Henry-esque moment in the last paragraph. Margaret Millar's THE FIEND was my favorite old book read this year.
I stopped reading it before I started. "The next GONE GIRL" was not a recommendation for me.
Some books I'd pick include:
Adrian McKinty's Sean Duffy series set in 1980's Belfast Craig Johnson, DRY BONES (Walt Longmire) Wallace Stroby, THE DEVIL'S SHARE (Crissa Stone) Patricia Abbott, CONCRETE ANGEL Bill Crider, BETWEEN THE LIVING AND THE DEAD William Kent Krueger, ORDINARY GRACE Allen Eskens, THE GUISE OF ANOTHER Michael Connelly, THE CROSSING
I thought the Lee Child was overrated and overlong.
Jeff, I've thought Lee Child was over-rated since his first book...which I barely finished...and his second, which I got about 25 pages into. Seems like a nice person, though, based on seeing him at mystery conventions and on TV.
7 comments:
Well, you are on this list. (For some reason I haven't read a lot of crime fiction published in 2015, but these 4--two of which are not actually fiction--are at the top of the list, and the only 2015 pubs in the "crime" area I have read and would recommend.)
EJ Copperman and Jeff Cohen, The Question of the Unfamiliar Husband
Bill Crider, Between the Living and the Dead
Martin Edwards, The Golden Age of Murder (criticism/history_
Lawrence Block, The Crime of Our Lives (memoir, mostly)
Thanks, Don. That's a good list. I saw it on DL and was happy to be there.
I can't believe GIRL ON A TRAIN is so popular. I didn't care for it at all. Firstly, very few writers can pull off a mystery-suspense story when only three plausible suspects are introduced (I guessed--rightly--the culprit's identity halfway through the book). Then, the way alcoholism is used as a convenient plot device is astonishingly sloppy: one minute the narrator is black- out drunk , the next minute she's barely tipsy. It makes no sense. The best (new) mystery I read this year was Peter Swanson's THE KIND WORTH KILLING: unpredictable twists and credible characters and motivations; plus a neat little O. Henry-esque moment in the last paragraph. Margaret Millar's THE FIEND was my favorite old book read this year.
The Girl on the Train was like Gone Girl for me. I just stopped reading after 50 pages or so and didn't pick it up again.
I stopped reading it before I started. "The next GONE GIRL" was not a recommendation for me.
Some books I'd pick include:
Adrian McKinty's Sean Duffy series set in 1980's Belfast
Craig Johnson, DRY BONES (Walt Longmire)
Wallace Stroby, THE DEVIL'S SHARE (Crissa Stone)
Patricia Abbott, CONCRETE ANGEL
Bill Crider, BETWEEN THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
William Kent Krueger, ORDINARY GRACE
Allen Eskens, THE GUISE OF ANOTHER
Michael Connelly, THE CROSSING
I thought the Lee Child was overrated and overlong.
I'd rather be on your list, Jeff.
Jeff, I've thought Lee Child was over-rated since his first book...which I barely finished...and his second, which I got about 25 pages into. Seems like a nice person, though, based on seeing him at mystery conventions and on TV.
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