Highly Recommended Reads for 2004

Here are some great mysteries and writers you may have overlooked. Most of those mentioned here are well known, but not best sellers. But if you haven't found them, I think you'll appreciate the introduction. Every one of these absolutely blew me away.

There are so many fine writers I'd like to tell you about, and I'm finding new ones all the time.

The new year calls for reflections on the old. I'd like to share with you my favorite mysteries read in 2004. It was a good year.

Hardbacks

• Tijuana Straits by Kem Nunn
• First, Do No Harm by Larry Karp
• Ice Run by Steve Hamilton
• The Last Witness by K.J. Erickson
• Choke Point by James C. Mitchell
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
• Cottonwood by Scott Phillips
• Till The Cows Come Home by Judy Clemens
• Bone Harvest by Mary Logue
• Detachment Fault by Susan Cummins Miller

(Note: Since Mary Logue and Susan Cummins Miller are good friends and we critique for each other, I'm willing to consider that I may be unduly prejudiced in their favor. So, just in case, I'll add one more this year.)

• Silver Lies by Ann Parker

(Second Note: Perhaps I should confess that I've met every writer on this list, except Kem Nunn and Mark Haddon. And Larry Karp, Judy Clemmens, and Ann Parker all write for Poisoned Pen Press. Those two factors make me more likely to read them, but no less likely to be critical. These are all very good reads.)

Paperbacks

Note: I won't rank these. In my scheme of things, these are all four-star books (four being my top rating). I suppose, if I picked a best, it would be one of the many George Pelecanos books I read this year. This was the year I discovered him and he really knocked my socks off. This was the year I discovered Steve Hamilton, too, and he's every bit as good a writer. Pelecanos, though, manages to work in more social commentary. That resonated with me. The others in the list are merely excellent. Here they are, then, in the order in which I read them:

• The Last Detective by Robert Crais
• Hell to Pay by George P. Pelecanos
• Soul Circus by George P. Pelecanos
• King Suckerman by George P. Pelecanos
• The Sweet Forever by George P. Pelecanos
• Right As Rain by George P. Pelecanos
• The Last Good Day by Peter Blauner
• Dynamite Road by Andrew Klavan
• North of Nowhere by Steve Hamilton
• Blood is the Sky by Steve Hamilton

Other Fiction & Non-Fiction

I don't just read mysteries, or fiction, for that matter. So here are four other books that are as good as I think they get.

• The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (fiction)
• Godless by Pete Hautman (National Book Award Winner for Young People's Fiction)
• Sweetblood by Pete Hautman (young adult fiction)
• The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands (non-fiction)

Note: If you think you're too advanced for young adult fiction, give Hautman a try anyway. As he explains it, the main difference between his adult mysteries and his fiction for young people is that the latter is darker. Maybe more challenging, as well..

Forthcoming

I get to read ARCs (advanced reading copies) and manuscripts from time to time. Two of these three will soon be in print. The third is only going to a publisher about now, but I'm confident it will eventually be coming your way.

• Darkness on the Edge of Town by J. Carson Black (thriller, due in January 2005)
• Cool in Tucson by Elizabeth Gunn (police procedural)
• A Treasure to Die For by Radine Trees Nehring (cozy, due in March 2005)