Book List

2011 Best of Fiction: Mysteries

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

NOW YOU SEE ME

by S.J. Bolton

Bolton (Blood Harvest, 2010, etc.) provides excruciating tension and much else. Romantics can drool over Jonesbury’s... Full review >

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THRILLER & SUSPENSE

BACK OF BEYOND

by C.J. Box

Once again, Box provides the complete suspense package: unobtrusively slick detection, buckets of surprises and mounting... Full review >

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MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

MISTERIOSO

by Arne Dahl & translated by Tiina Nunnally

Thoughtfully haunting and sometimes beautifully written, the first of Hjelm’s cases to be translated into English is likely... Full review >

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FICTION

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

by Donna Leon

As languid in its movement as a gondola ride. Yet none of Brunetti’s earlier cases (About Face, 2009, etc.) is as... Full review >

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MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

RIZZO'S FIRE

by Lou Manfredo

Bar none, Joe Rizzo is the most authentic cop in contemporary crime fiction. Full review >

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MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

STEALING MONA LISA

by Carson Morton

Like La Joconde, Carson’s debut novel is set in an elegant frame—a newspaper reporter wrests the amazing story from a dying... Full review >

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FICTION

ECHOES OF THE DEAD

by Sally Spencer

Shifting seamlessly between past and present versions of the case, Spencer produces a tour de force readers won’t quickly... Full review >

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FICTION

LUCIFER'S TEARS

by James Thompson

Nazi collaboration, government cover-ups, kinky sex, a baby daughter waiting impatiently to be born and a vigilante-minded... Full review >

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MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

THE KING OF DIAMONDS

by Simon Tolkien

A thick web of family tensions and psychological dysfunction with a whodunit chaser, Tolkien's third novel (The Inheritance,... Full review >

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FICTION

THE ROCK HOLE

by Reavis Z. Wortham

Not just scary but funny too, as Wortham nails time and place in a sure-handed, captivating way. There’s a lot of good stuff... Full review >

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