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The best
crime fiction offers equal parts entertainment and
social commentary — stories that we remember long
after the final chapter.
Of the
120 or so novels I read during 2011, these are my
favorites.
(1)
“Iron House” by John Hart. St. Martin’s Press: Two
orphaned boys’ lives take vastly different routes in
this forceful tale about family bonds and the legacy of
violence set in Manhattan and North Carolina. This is
Hart’s fourth novel, having already earned three Edgar
Award nominations, resulting in two back-to-back wins.
(2)
“Trick of the Dark” by Val McDermid. Bywater Books:
A professionally disgraced psychiatrist returns to
Oxford, England, to look into a murder. McDermid’s
24th novel works as an academic mystery and a tale about
rebuilding one’s life. Spending time with these
appealing characters, many of whom are lesbians, is like
hanging out with the smartest people in the room.
(3)
“The Drop” by Michael Connelly. Little, Brown: With
retirement looming and fatherhood constantly on his
mind, LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch handles two
diverse cases that show how politics seep into police
work, tainting investigations, crime scenes and
friendships.
(4)
“The Ranger” by Ace Atkins. Putnam: Fresh from a
tour of duty in Afghanistan, an U.S. Ranger plunges into
a morass of violence and corruption that has overwhelmed
his rural Mississippi hometown. This action-packed
thriller melds the old-fashioned western with
contemporary concerns of war veterans.
(5)
“The Most Dangerous Thing” by Laura Lippman. Morrow:
In 1979 Baltimore, five children on the cusp of becoming
teenagers forge an unshakable friendship for one summer
until something happens in the woods that both bonds
them and drives them apart.
(6)
“City of Secrets” by Kelli Stanley. Minotaur: San
Francisco’s history, politics and culture during 1940
make a rich background as a private detective looks into
the death of a nude model who was marked with an
anti-Semitic slur.
(7)
“Northwest Angle” by William Kent Krueger. Atria
Books: The 11th entry in this masterful series shows the
power of families, faith and Native American culture.
Lost on a remote island, Cork O’Connor and his
daughter Jenny find an abandoned baby and his murdered
teenage mother.
(8)
“Damage Control” by Denise Hamilton. Scribner:
Maggie Silver’s job for a high-powered public
relations firm puts her back in the orbit of a
presidential candidate, who was her best friend’s
father, in this taut tale of unbridled ambition,
friendship and betrayal.
(9)
“The Accident” by Linwood Barclay. Bantam:
Counterfeit merchandise escalates into neighborhood
violence, illustrating the angst of those whose
self-esteem is wrapped up in money.
(10)
“Ghost Hero” by S.J. Rozan. Minotaur: Art dealers,
gangs, academics and even the Chinese government have an
agenda as private detectives Lydia Chin and Bill Smith
investigate rumors about missing paintings by an artist
killed during the Tiananmen Square uprising.
(11)
“The Burning” by Jane Casey. Minotaur: An exciting
British police procedural about the hunt for a serial
killer coupled with a perspective on three women at a
crossroads of their lives, each dealing with identity
and self-esteem issues.
(12)
“The Keeper of Lost Causes” by Jussi Adler-Olsen.
Dutton: A cantankerous Copenhagen police detective
banished to a basement office finds redemption in a
five-year-old cold case.
(13)
“Gone With a Handsomer Man” by Michael Lee West.
Minotaur: An unemployed pastry chef’s arrest for her
fiancé’s murder jumpstarts this amusing Southern
mystery set in Charleston, S.C., in which recipes are
actual plot devices.
(14)
“The Complaints” by Ian Rankin. Little, Brown: With
Rankin’s long-time Edinburgh detective Rebus firmly in
retirement, enter the equally complicated Malcolm Fox
who investigates corrupt cops in the Scottish version of
Internal Affairs.
(15)
“One Was a Soldier” by Julia Spencer-Fleming.
Minotaur: Clare Fergusson, an Episcopalian priest and a
newly deployed pilot who served in Iraq, finds solace
leading a support group for returning soldiers,
illustrating how flawed person of faith maneuvers in
contemporary society.
———
DEBUTS
(in alphabetical order)
“Before
I Go to Sleep” by S.J. Watson. Harper: Recovering her
memory may be more frightening than a woman imagines as
clues to her past and present lead to a shocking finale.
The result of a writing workshop in Britain, this was a
best-seller in Europe last year but made its U.S. debut
this year.
“Bent
Road” by Lori Roy. Dutton: Set in rural Kansas during
the 1960s, a family’s return coincides with a
child’s disappearance, echoing a 20-year-old crime.
There’s little violence and even less profanity, but
the family’s interaction is just as tense and the
stakes even higher.
“The
Stranger You Seek” by Amanda Kyle Williams. Bantam: A
former FBI profiler helps an Atlanta detective’s
investigation in this character-rich tale of
self-discovery wrapped in the tenets of the serial
killer subgenre.
“The
Territory” by Tricia Fields. Minotaur: This 2010 Tony
Hillerman Prize winner delivers an action-packed yet
personal story about the infiltration of Mexican drug
cartels in a small Texas town. Chief of Police Josie
Gray is a fully realized character who fights the good
fight against all odds.
“Triple
Crossing” by Sebastian Rotella. Mulholland Books: This
unflinching view of the immigration issue at the
California-Mexican border looks at the political, social
and emotional aspects. A rookie Border Patrol agent goes
into deep undercover to infiltrate a powerful Mexican
crime family.
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