It has been hard to narrow
down my books of the year, as I have not read as many books this year as I
would normally have done. However, there
are some books that stuck with me over the year. They are as follows in no particular order.
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
(Harper Collins) – In Depression Era Chicago, a drifter named Harper
Curtis finds a key to a house that opens on to other times. But it comes at a cost. He has to kill the shining girls: bright
young women who burn with potential. He stalks
them through their lives across different eras until, in 1989, one of his
victims, Kirby Mazrachi, survives, and starts hunting him back. This is a novel that spans the history of
Chicago from the 1930s to 1990s. An
unusual twist on the serial killer novel.
The Double by George Pelecanos
(Orion). In this second novel featuring
Spero Lucas, a young Iraq vet working as a PI in Washington DC but with a
sideline in finding lost items - the kind of items the owners can't go to the
police about. This time Spero is trying
to find a painting belonging to a sexy young woman who was scammed out of it by
a super-smooth con artist, part of a team of ruthless thugs. Spero tracks the painting down but the woman
is brutally attacked to warn him off.
Spero goes on the attack and takes the gang out one by one in their
isolated house in the woods - prompting the question: have his experiences in
Iraq turned him into an amoral killer no better than the crooks he's up against? George
Pelecanos always has the ability to write such fascinating and lyrical novels. The
Double is no exception. Back to Spero Lucas who finds himself
investigating the loss of a painting and his own dark side. Augmented with a playlist that is as
fascinating as the novel. 
Suspect by Robert Crais (Orion) LAPD cop
Scott James is not doing so well. Eight
months ago, a shocking night time assault by unidentified men killed his
partner Stephanie, nearly killed him, and left him enraged, ashamed, and ready
to explode. He is unfit for duty—until
he meets his new partner. Maggie is not
doing so well, either. A German shepherd
who survived three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan sniffing explosives before
losing her handler to an IED, her PTSD is as bad as Scott’s. They are each other’s last chance. Shunned and shunted to the side, they set out
to investigate the one case that no one wants them to touch: the identity of
the men who murdered Stephanie. What
they begin to find is nothing like what Scott has been told, and the journey
will take them both through the darkest moments of their own personal hells. Whether they will make it out again,
no can say. In Suspect, Robert
Crais has presented readers with not only a multi-faceted and unusual new
protagonist but also a gripping and heart-rending thriller.
The Twelfth Department by William Ryan
(Mantle). Set in Moscow during 1937. Captain
Then We Take Berlin by John Lawton
(Atlantic) John Holderness, known to the women in his life as 'Wilderness',
comes of age during World War II in Stepney, East London, breaking in to houses
with his grandfather. After the war,
Wilderness is recruited as MI5's resident 'cat burglar' and finds himself in
Berlin, involved with schemes in the booming black market that put both him and
his relationships in danger. In 1963 it
is a most unusual and lucrative request that persuades Wilderness to return -
to smuggle someone under the Berlin Wall and out of East Germany. But this final scheme may prove to be one
challenge too far... Then We Take Berlin is a gripping,
meticulously researched, and richly detailed historical thriller - a moving
story of espionage and war, and people caught up in the most tumultuous events
of the twenty-first century. This is a
new historical series by an author that needs to be read featuring an East-End
Londoner turned spy at the start of the cold war. Brilliantly written.
The Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian
Rankin (Orion). Rebus is back on the
force, albeit with a demotion and a chip on his shoulder. A 30-year-old case is being reopened, and
Rebus’s team from back then is suspected of foul play. With Malcolm Fox as the investigating officer
is the past and present about to collide in a shocking and murderous
fashion? And does Rebus have anything to
hide? His colleagues back then called themselves
‘The Saints’, and swore a bond on something called ‘the Shadow Bible’. But times have changed and the crimes of the
past may not stay hidden much longer, especially with a referendum on Scottish
independence just around the corner. Who
are the saints and who the sinners? And
can the one ever become the other? As in
the best police thrillers there is a rich mixture of ingredients layered into a
very satisfying meal. Ian Rankin's
decision to bring John Rebus out of retirement to rake over the past was the
right one.
Dead Man’s Land by Robert Ryan (Simon
& Schuster) Deep in the trenches of Flanders Fields, men are dying in
their thousands every day. So one more
death shouldn't be a surprise. But then
a body turns up with bizarre injuries, and Sherlock Holmes' former sidekick Dr
John Watson - unable to fight for his country due to injury but able to serve
it through his medical expertise - finds his suspicions raised. The face has a blue-ish tinge, the jaw is
clamped shut in a terrible rictus, and the eyes are almost popping out of his
head, as if the man had seen unimaginable horror. Something is terribly wrong. But this is just the beginning. Soon more bodies appear, and Watson must
discover who is the killer in the trenches.
Who can he trust? Who is the
enemy? And can he find the perpetrator
before he kills again? Surrounded by
unimaginable carnage, amidst a conflict that's ripping the world apart, Watson
must for once step out of the shadows and into the limelight if he's to solve
the mystery behind the inexplicable deaths.
Dead Man's Land is not only a
very inventive murder plot that will be welcomed by all lovers of crime
thrillers, but it is also a brilliant and powerful depiction of wartime horror
from the point of view of Dr John Watson.
The first in what is hoped a new series.
How a Gunman Says Goodbye by Malcolm
Mackay (Pan Macmillan). How does a
gunman retire? Frank MacLeod was the
best at what he does. Thoughtful. Efficient.
Ruthless. But is he still the
best? A new job. A target.
But something is about to go horribly wrong. Someone is going to end up dead. Most gunmen say goodbye to the world with a
bang. Frank’s still here. He’s lasted longer than he should have ...
The breath taking, devastating sequel to lauded debut The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter, How a Gunman Says Goodbye plunges the reader back into the Glasgow
underworld, where criminal organisations war for prominence and those caught up
in events are tested at every turn. This
is a page-turner of a read that is brutal whilst being smoothly written.
London Falling by Paul Cornell (Tor) The
dark is rising . . . Detective Inspector James Quill is about to complete the
drugs bust of his career. Then his prize
suspect Rob Toshack is murdered in custody.
Furious, Quill pursues the investigation, co-opting intelligence analyst
Lisa Ross and undercover cops Costain and Sefton. But nothing about Toshack’s murder is normal. Toshack had struck a bargain with a
vindictive entity, whose occult powers kept Toshack one-step ahead of the law –
until his luck ran out. Now, the team
must find a 'suspect' who can bend space and time and alter memory itself. And they will kill again. As the group starts to see London’s sinister
magic for themselves, they have two choices: panic or use their new abilities. Then they must hunt a terrifying supernatural
force the only way they know how: using police methods, equipment, and tactics. But they must all learn the rules of this new
game - and quickly. More than their
lives will depend on it. London Falling is pacy, clever and delights
in London mythology. An unusual but
still unique novel.
In Screwed by Eoin Colfer (Headline) he adds and entirely new chapter to the
adventures and misadventures of Daniel McEvoy, the down-on-his-luck Irish
bouncer at a seedy New Jersey bar who, with the help of a motley crew of
unlikely characters, solved a bizarre string of murders--including the one of
the girl he loved. But people around him
continue to die mysteriously, and Daniel is called into action once
again. Colfer provides more back-story in this second novel and weaves in
information about McEvoy’s alcoholic father and doomed mother and brother as
well as McEvoy’s experiences in the Middle East. Screwed
is an equally gritty novel with a dark vein of humour that runs throughout
the book. This is shaping up to be a
brilliantly wacky series that is awesomely good to read.
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