If you’re making a resolution to read more good crime books in the new year, but are not too sure where to start, I may be able to help.
The end of every year is filled with newspaper, magazine and digital critics offering their selections of the best of the year. Since they rarely agree among the themselves, you can easily be swamped by a bewildering array of different titles being recommended. So I’ve been compiling a list, totting up which books got the most recommendations from critics across the UK and the US.
Well, I’ve had a lot of spare time during lockdown.
You can find the detailed findings on The Rap Sheet blogspot.
If you just want the highlights, the top three were Blacktop Wasteland by SA Cosby, The Searcher by Tana French and The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman.
My own favourite of the year, We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker, didn’t make the chart largely because it has yet to be issued in the States.
There’s a new Messiah on Earth. This one’s female and her followers are stockpiling weapons for armed insurgency in her name…
