Highly Recommended Reads for 2006

These were my picks for best mysteries read in 2006.

They weren't all published last year, that's just when I got around to them.  But they're all excellent (at least in my opinion) and it's never too late to discover a great read. 

By author and in alphabetical order, they are:

• The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly (2005)
  Connelly continues to demonstrate that he's one of the genre's top writers. Micky Haller is a criminal defense attorney whose client list leaves him with the fear he may someday have to defend an innocent person. At first glimpse, this book appears to be a stand alone or the beginning of a fresh series, only it seems Haller is actually Harry Bosch's half-brother and... .
• A Stolen Season by Steve Hamilton (2006)
  It's a cold and miserable July on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, but the weather is cheerful in comparison to Alex McKnight's life. You know you're in trouble when the victims you save after a boating accident come back to threaten your life instead of thank you. And that's the least of McKnight's troubles in Hamilton's darkest entry in this compelling series.
• The Prop by Pete Hautman (2006)
  Peeky Cane is a prop (someone hired to keep poker games going) at a reservation casino near Tucson. Since she's good, she usually wins a little, too, and that makes for a nice career for a woman who is addicted to the game. Or it does until clown-masked gunmen leave the casino millions poorer and with enough bodies to be bad for business. Especially since Peeky recognized one of the gunmen. Hautman, who won the National Book Award for his YA novel, Godless (2004), proves he plays just as well with adults.
• The Ragtime Kid by Larry Karp (2006)
  Karp not only writes good mysteries, he does good historical research. In this case, he's woven the adventures of teenage piano genius, Brun Campbell, into the real life adventures of Scott Joplin in 1899 Sedalia, Missouri. This is one young man's coming of age story, set amidst the coming of age of an American art form and our country's long, slow battle against racism.
• Pomona Queen by Kem Nunn (1992)
  I missed this one the first time around. Several of Nunn's books would rank among my all-time favorites. This dark, funny thriller will fit in nicely. Door to door vacuum-cleaner salesman, Earl Dean should have passed on the hot lead that takes him to psychopathic biker Dan Brown's house, especially since Brown's brother has just been knifed to death and Brown plans to include Dean in the funeral-and the revenge killings.
• Silent Joe by T. Jefferson Parker (2002)
  Parker's Deserved Edgar winner tells the story of Joe Trona, scarred by an abusive father who poured battery acid on his face. Trona grew up to be a police officer, and his politician, adopted father's bodyguard. When his second father is murdered, Trona begins moving heaven and earth to find the killer. Along the way he'll have to face who his second father really was, and who Joe Trona is, as well.
• The Night Gardener by George P. Pelecanos (2006)
  In my opinion, Pelecanos is the current master of American mystery writers. His novels are set in the third world reality of our nation's capitol as it exists only blocks from the seat of power. They remind us how what America is differs from what it claims to be. A serial killer known as the night gardener terrorized Washington twenty years ago. Now, he may be back. The cops who worked the case then haven't forgotten, and current homicide detective Gus Ramone is taking it personally because his son was all too close to a recent victim.
• The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard (2006)
  A high school boy discovers the body of a beautiful, young, naked woman as he searches snowy pastures for newborn calves. Seventeen years later he returns home, finally ready to face the lies that tore apart his life and separated him from the girl he loved. Kansas author Pickard brings her skills back home.
• Body Scissors by Michael Simon (2005)
  The children of a would-be city councilor and racial activist are gunned down before her eyes. Austin, Texas' only Jewish homicide detective, Dan Reles, is on the case, as is the only black detective on the force. Simon's dark but humorous cynicism turns this gritty thriller into something rare and precious.
• Sleep Toward Heaven by Amanda Eyre Ward (2003)
  

My Other Four-Star Reads of 2006

• The Callings (2002) and Blood Kin (2004) by Henry Chappell
• Rash by Pete Hautman (2006)
• Fiasco by Thomas E. Ricks (2006)
• Digging to America by Anne Tyler (2006)
• Girls of Tender Age by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith (2005)
• The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea (2005)

Chappell is a real discovery. Some may classify his books as westerns, but I just see them as brilliant accounts of the people (Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and Indians) who contended for the southern plains and the wilds of Texas in the early 19th century. Wonderful stuff, so you may have trouble finding them. Hautman continues his YA career with a wry account of America's future. Ricks explains, with solid military theory and careful reasoning, how terribly bungled were the early years of America's war in Iraq. Tyler proves you can be both a brilliant storyteller and a success. Smith's memoir is as suspenseful and compelling as her mysteries. And Urrea beautifully reconstructs the tale of his great aunt, Teressa Urrea, a folk saint who became caught up in the Mexican Revolution.