Back in July, I told you of my four favorite
books of the year to that point. Today as the year winds to a close, I give
you more favorites. 15 books in all. Several books are series and I recommend
reading in order. One is an anthology and the second one in the series is now
out and in my eBook TBR pile.
As I said before, I remain very slow
reading wise. Everything I do now is way slower and takes a lot more effort
than it seemed to be just a few years ago when I had to juggle so much more as
a husband, caregiver, dad, etc.
I am also back editing a little bit here
and there while also working on a possible idea for an upcoming anthology that
I was invited to submit to last night. Writing anything fiction wise is
brutally hard now as I have not done any of that since the end of 2016. My mind is not working anything like it used
to so the process now, for me, is liking trying to learn to ride a bike from
scratch all over again.
Without further ado, I offer you eleven
more reads on top of the previously four suggested reads for a grand total of 15
books for the year. The list includes two anthologies. The books selected refer
my personal tastes, biases and all that jazz. I am not saying that these are the
best books. I am stating that they were my favorites during the past year.
Building off of The Good Detective
and The Evil Men Do is the third book in the series, A Good
Kill. This read by John McMahon ties up some things that have been
going on in this entire series. It begins with a school shooter in Fall Magnet
Middle School and that means a full-scale response by the police department of
Mason Falls, Georgia. P. T. Mason and his partner, Remy Morgan, arrive on
campus to find one gunman holding three students and two teachers hostage. The
hostages are being held in the art room. The read builds from there and goes
far beyond a school shooting. The rest of my review from July can be read here.
Mickey Finn Vol. 1: 21st Century
Noir,
edited by Michael Bracken, is a dark read as one would expect. After all, as
the title makes abundantly clear, this is an anthology of noir style short
stories so one does not expect sweetness and light with sunshine and flowers
with flying unicorns and rainbow kisses. That being said, some of these stories
are very dark and disturbing. The kind of tales where you finish the story and
you need to take a break for awhile before getting back to the read. The rest
of my review from July can be found here.
Darkest Corners of
Texas: An Al Quinn Novel by Russ Hall opens
with Al Quinn working on his boat at Lake Travis. He would rather be on the
water fishing, but the bilge pump had other ideas. Fergie is at the boat with
him and is the first to spot the boat coming at high-speed right to their dock
on what used to be a quiet and far less populated lake. But, urban sprawl out
of Austin means a lot more houses, a lot more people, and many more visitors
than the old days. The rest of my review from July can be read here.
It has been fifteen years since Ike
Randolph walked out of Coldwater State Penitentiary. He changed his life and
built a business. He has a good life now, but he is still a black man in
America with all that entails. Cops on the doorstep does not bode well. You can
read the rest of my August review of the incredible Razorblade Tears
by S. A. Cosby here.
A murder has happened again in the same
areas as others as The Silenced Woman: A Violent Crime Investigations
Team Mystery by Frederick Weisel begins. For Violent Crime
Investigations (VCI) leader Eddie Mahler, the body on the bench in Spring Lake
Park, Santa Rosa, California, is clearly yet another kill by a man he has been
chasing for two years now. He knows the same guy has done it again and is sure
of that fact. He could not prove it before and his marriage and his health has
suffered greatly because of that fact. You can read the rest of my review from
August here.
It is
early September 2019 as Jordan's Branch: A Willie Black Novel by
Howard Owen begins. Reporter Willie Black knew that Stick Davis has been dead
for quite a while when he sees the body. More than half a dozen times somebody
shot the man. Once someone had thoroughly through ventilated Stick David, he or
she left, and now Willie Black has found the body. You can read my August
review here.
After you
read that, you should move in to the next book in the series. It is May 2020 as
Monument: Willie Black Mystery Series by Howard Owen begins and just a few days
after the death of an unarmed black man in police custody occurred in
Minneapolis. There have been Black Lives Matter protests all across the county
and that includes Richmond, Virginia, where reporter Willie Black has been on
the story. A story that is expanding as the protests become increasingly
violent. You can read the rest of my November review here.
Mick
Hardin, an agent in the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID), is back
home in the Kentucky hills as The Killing Hills by
Chris Offutt begins. Home on leave with a family problem that is not going to
get fixed by drinking himself to sleep each night, he is at his grandfather’s
place. That makes it easy for his sister, the new sheriff, to find him. You can
read the rest of my August review here.
Painters Mill, Ohio, Police Chief Kate
Burkholder has responded to a lot of crime scenes. The one at room 9 of the
Willlowdell Motel as Fallen: A Kate Burkholder Novel by Linda
Castillo begins is one of the worst she has ever seen in her career. From the carnage,
it is clear that the woman was savagery beaten to death. It was some sort of
frenzied or overkill attack. Rachel Schwartz’s final moments were horrific. My
August review can be read here.
Former Charleston Police Officer Davis
Reed is missing a woman and much of his life due to pills, alcohol, anger and
anxiety issues. He has fled home for a change of scenery and an attempt to
focus himself. For the next six months, he is living in a cabin in Cruso, North
Carolina, with the intention of writing a book. The book is to be on the true
story of the B-25 plane crash at nearby Cold Mountain. There were no survivors
in the crash just after WWII. The fact that he has no experience writing,
beyond police reports and whatever he did for his private detective gigs, does
not deter him from the book writing plan. You can read the rest of my review of
Graveyard Fields by Steven Tingle here.
City Problems: An Ed Runyon Mystery by
Steve Goble takes several classic tropes and generates a compelling read. Ed
Runyon left the NYPD after the search for a missing teenager ended in her
brutal and savage murder. Haunted by his failure to save that girl from her
torture and death, Runyon ended up in Ohio working for the Mifflin County
Sheriff’s Department. You can read the rest of my review here.
There you have my list. I hope, if you
read them, you enjoy the books.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2021
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