I’ve always loved books; however, I think it took having all that time in lockdown to really get me back into embracing books wholeheartedly. Even then I started primarily by embracing audio books, as I’ve always loved podcasts, since the pre-Apple era of podcasts on iTunes, and so to listen to a story as I multi-task for hours on end fit perfectly with my lifestyle. (Likewise I remember long car trips with Audiobooks picked up from Cracker Barrel. Great times!)
Here is a list of the books I read this year, nearly all of which I at least liked (if not loved), with a brief blurb about the book as well as my thoughts. You can see I was particularly into mysteries this year, so if that’s your bag maybe you’ll find some you will enjoy. Also note not all of these books came out in 2023, as I had some catch-up, but many did.
(Books listed in the order in which I read them.)
Nine Liars (2022) by Maureen Johnson
Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson
Nine Liars is the fifth in a series by Maureen Johnson (starting with the ‘Truly Devious’ trilogy’, which follows a young lady named Stevie Bell who is a passionate fan of crime (the solving, not the committing), and has time and again proved to solve some of the toughest crimes to date. She does this alongside her friends who wittingly, or sometimes not, become wrapped up in the mystery. Now two titles removed from her school, where Stevie proved her salt, she’s been tasked with solving a crime that took place in 1995 at Cambridge University. Fortunately for Stevie cold cases are kind of her speciality, and so gradually she sets out to solve yet another challenging crime.
I fell in love with this YA series that is honestly rather on the dark side quite early with the intriguing premise of the ‘Truly Devious’ mystery. Even as the series moved on from this mystery, I was still such a fan of the characters I knew I wanted to continue to live in their world and see Stevie continue to solve further crimes. I honestly didn’t react well to the first title post-Truly Devious – ‘The Box in the Woods’, which for me was both perhaps too wicked for my taste, but also a bit of a stretch – so I was a bit reticent when starting Nine Liars. Fortunately I needn’t have worried, as Johnson again won me over both with what I thought was a better mystery, but also of course thanks to how wonderfully she writes all of the characters at play. Stevie is now a favorite sleuth of mine, and certainly one that feels so full realized it’s easy to imagine her. Her friends are no different, and overtime they’ve provided me comfort, even as the mysteries do ramp up in various ways in intensity. This was a fantastic first book for me to start off the year, and I’m already waitaing the next in the series whenever it hopefully comes out.
Too Mulch to Handle (2022) by H.Y. Hanna
Too Mulch to Handle by H.Y. Hanna
If you asked my friends one thing they know I love puns are likely to come up. I’ve always been a fan of puns and word play, and so when I began to delve into the ‘cozy mysteries’ of H.Y. Hanna, of which she has a lot, the puns are what struck me first. (I know this is a common trope of cozy mysteries, but seriously Hanna’s one of the best pun makers in the game.) My favorite series of hers focuses on a young British woman named Poppy Lancaster, who has taken over her grandmother’s country garden estate. In each of Hanna’s punny mysteries, including ‘Silent Bud Deadly’ and ‘Trowel and Error’, Poppy tries to build anew her inherited English cottage garden, establish herself in the community, through her burgeoning friendship with her often eccentric neighbors including esteemed crime writer Nick Forest, and of course she inevitably stumbles into a murder which she then solves.
In ‘Too Mulch to Handle’, Poppy is readying her garden for a grand open house, but she’s encountered a pest issue which has her stressed. Fortunately she’s gone down to the local garden center where she finds a company whose salesmen promises their solution will solve all her problems. Poppy ends up not only considering the chemical solution but also a date. Unfortunately her date winds up dead and again Poppy is presented with another murder to solve. I have loved each and every title in this series, and to me this continues to be a strong entry in the series. Few cozy muder mysteries ever live up to that genre descriptor; however, Hanna’s worlds always just invite me in, hand me a cuppa, and let me relax for a spell. I cannot wait for the next one, but thankfully Hanna is so prolific I know not only will I not have a long wait but she has many other delightful series as well I can explore in the meantime.
The Hunting Party (2018) by Lucy Foley
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
I was first recommended Lucy Foley by proxy of my sister’s friends, a group that includes mystery devotees and an author as well. They recommended me Foley’s 2020 title ‘The Guest List’ (her latest at the time), which was enjoyable enough though I found the ending at least for me to be quite unusual at the time. (I in part blame my own expectations and newness to revisiting the genre, but also the marketing of some of these titles often does a disservice, especially with the over use of ‘Agatha Christie like.” Fortunately I had decided to check out Foley’s next title ‘The Paris Apartment’, which I devoured enthusiastically and ensured to me that I should keep reading more of Foley’s titles.
As such I decided to go backwards this time to read Foley’s ‘The Hunting Party’ from 2019, which follows a group of friends from Oxford who are spending their New Years together in a remote location in Scotland. Tensions arise that threaten the group harmony pretty early on, but its a murder of one of the group members that then turns the nearly idyllic vacation into chaos. Gradually all is revealed, and through it all Foley keeps the audience on their toes just eager to read the next page. Foley’s work has often been compared to Ruth Ware’s novels – for me both apt, and a compliment – and this is perhaps the most directly comparable. Both authors have a way of really setting up characters that are compelling (even if sometimes its through your distaste of them) and likewise they set up mysteries that just beg to be solved, but are just too clever for anything as easy as that, at least for this reader. I was on edge in the last chapters in particular, but also delighted in such so much I remembered why I now count Foley as one of my favorites. I’m eager to continue exploring her bibliography, while also excited for whatever she writes next.
Zero Days (2023) by Ruth Ware
Zero Days by Ruth Ware
Fortunately right after I completed Foley’s ‘The Hunting Party’, I realized Ruth Ware’s latest ‘Zero Days’ would be arriving in the States. Ware’s best known for her mysteries In a Dark, Dark Wood (2015), The Death of Mrs Westaway (2018), and One by One (2020), The IT Girl (2022), each of which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, with The Death of Mrs Westaway (2018) now amongst my favorite mystery titles to date. As such as I was incredible excited to read ‘Zero Days’ her latest title, which begins creatively with a husband and wife duo whose jobs are unorthodox to say the least. That’s because they are part of a duo that are paid to break-in and hack companies security systems to stress test them. Unfortunately when Jack returns home after their latest job, she discovers her husband Gabe is dead, and the police believe she’s the criminal. In a style a la The Fugitive, Jack then has to run while also hoping to solve her husband’s murdered, a task that seems increasingly daunting with every page.
Ware’s books can vary incredibly, which is certainly to her credit, but at the core of her novels there’s always a solid mystery that compels you further. Likewise her characters, both likeable and those you like to hate (and sometimes that’s the point), really get under your skin in the best of ways. There’s a lot of fascinating twists and turns that specifically relate to Jack and Gabes’ jobs as security penatrators, which is a world I loved being introduced to. This helped this story that, in lesser hands might feel like a Fugitive knock-off, feel like a truly original mystery. I know for me as with every Ware title that’s why I enjoyed it so much, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
Nothing More to Tell (2022) by Karen M. McManus
Nothing More to Tell by Karen M. McManus
This year has been an incredible year for me with authors I follow and love releasing books nearly every month. At last however I finally caught up to a break in between titles, and so I ventured forth to find a new series to read by an author I wasn’t yet familiar with. That title I chose was Nothing More to Tell by Karen M. McManus. McManus is best known for her ‘One of Us Lying’ trilogy, but I realized I’d read her first in the compilation ‘Marple: Twelve New Stories’. I pretty much enjoyed every story in that collection, so I knew that was a strong start. Even more compelling for me was the pitch for McManus 2022 title ‘Nothing More to Tell’, which reminded me of Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious series.
In ‘Nothing More to Tell’, McManus introduces Brynn a young high school age true crime aficionado who is returning to her former school Saint Ambrose School. Shortly after she left four years prior, one of her favorite teachers was murdered, and now she’s hoping to pitch this case to the true-crime show where she’s now interning to shed some light on this unsolved mystery. Brynn is in an incredibly compelling character from the jump, and though I’m not a fan of true crime in the least, it’s hard not to get swept up in her passion to try to find what happened to her favorite teacher. Of course while she hopes to perhaps solve the crime, she has to navigate school which provides plenty of stress as is. In this way, by blending an unsolved crime, and a challenging day-to-day adjustment back, McManus has presented a mystery that keeps you page turning and a character who is easy to emphathise with. I’m hoping that McManus will continue with future stories of Brynn, as I cannot wait personally to read more stories of her trying to solve more and more mysteries.
The Bullet That Missed (2023) by Richard Osman
The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
I’ve long been a fan of British TV, including the many panel and game shows they air, and that’s how I first became introduced to Richard Osman. I’ve always enjoyed his appearances, and so I was particularly excited when I learned he’d be writing a new mystery book titled ‘The Thursday Murder Club’, which I took to be a riff on Agatha Christie’s The Tuesday Club Murders. Osman’s book took a new angle compared to most mysteries by bringing together not just one senior a la Miss Marple, but a community of seniors who as a part of this club help to solve murders. Osman’s writing is often dense, as he weaves together many character’s stories and POVs, but its likewise engaging too.
The Bullet That Missed is his latest, coming out in 2023, and its become one of the highlights of the series for me. It features ex-spies, trouble making hooligans, along with the usual gang’s antics. Especially as I’ve become enamored with ‘Slow Horses’, the TV series featuring aloof MI5 agents, as well as ‘New Tricks’, I find this book melded together much of what I love of those. As always Osman’s characters are rich and delightful to spend time with, and I cannot wait to enjoy time with Ron, Ibrahim, Joyce, and Elizabeth again soon.
The Maidens (2021) by Alex Michaelides
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
The Maidens follows Mariana, a bereaved widow, as she looks into a mysterious death on Cambridge University her alma mater. This death is odd on its own, but its made all the more strange with its connection to ‘The Maidens’, a group of young women who follow around a beloved professor who they fawn over. Mariana’s neice Zoe knew the victim, and she helps introduce Mariana to the community of Cambridge as it is now, which is both familiar and strange as its been years since she was here. As she investigates the murder she grapples with feelings of loss over her deceased husband.
I first was introduced to Michaelides work through an interview I heard, probably on NPR, for his book ‘The Silent Patient’. Though I found the interview engaging, the premise didn’t hook me in. However once I saw Michaelides had a book with a premise that intrigued me, I thought I’d give this title a shot. Alas though I think Michaelides’ writing style, and characters, were largely engaging, the core mystery lost me and the reveal (which I won’t spoil) left me cold to the book. To me, there was simply too few clues for too big of a twist. Especially since this didn’t for me at least match any of the emotional beats from the characters leading up to it. Likewise there is a big premise at the onset that if you buy it perhaps works, but alas I saw through the gimmick a bit too early. This may be for others, and perhaps I’ll enjoy more of his titles, but for me this wasn’t working alas.
Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night (2023) by Sophie Hannah
I was never old enough alas to be around for a true Christie for Christmas; however, I was delighted to see that Sophie Hannah’s latest in her Poirot continuation series was not only coming out in time for Christmas but also would be Christmas related. Of course I had to pick it up, and I read it through and it’s now one of my favorites of these new Poirot titles.
Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night continues with Hannah’s pair of Poirot and policeman Edward Catchpool as they prepare to celebrate Christmas together. Their plans are averted when they are set to solve what may or may not be a mysteriously murder. If you’re looking for a Christie-like title this is certainly going to live up to your expectations, as it’s a well developed, twisty murder mystery. If you’re looking for a Christmas mystery there’s plenty to love there as well as I did. I’m always a fan of Hannah’s books, both her own and this continuation series, and it’s exciting to see she’s kept these novels going strong with each release.
The Golden Spoon (2023) by Jessa Maxwell
The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell
My last title for the year was another new author for me, as I was looking for a fun title to wrap up the year. Thanks to several recommendations I checked out ‘The Golden Spoon’ by Jessa Maxwell. I learned this is Maxwell’s second novel, following I Need You to Read This, and I found it to be quite enjoyable and a perfect final book for the year.
In ‘The Golden Spoon’, Maxwell has taken the concept of the British Bake Show and moved it to a remote spot in Vermont. There the host Betsy Martin, a famous and beloved chef, welcomes contestants to her family estate where they film for a few weeks each year to give the best baker the Golden Spoon. This year however things go awry as a body is discovered, along with many other secrets between the guests that make the competition perhaps more cutthroat than usual. Though that sounds dark this is on the border with cozy mysteries (though how cozy are murder mysteries ever), and it’ll likely be enjoyed by both casual mystery fans and more hardcore mystery fans. I don’t know if there could be, or should be a sequel; however, it’s definitely made me very excited to check out Maxwell’s other titles past and future.
