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Posted by on 4 Jan, 2023 in Australian Crime Fiction, Bestseller, British Crime, British Thrillers, Crime, Spy Fiction, Thriller | 3 comments

THE BEST OF THE 2022 BEST CRIME FICTION LISTS!

THE BEST OF THE 2022 BEST CRIME FICTION LISTS!

Each year George Easter from Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine does a mammoth job in collating various best mystery, crime fiction and thriller lists from around the world and seeing what they tell us about the year’s best books.

In 2022 he found 84 ‘best lists’. There is a strong American flavour to the lists, but it also includes some from Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and India.

After gathering all the lists, George checked to see which books were the most popular (ie got the most mentions) across the various lists. There was no strong winner, like S. A. Cosby had been in 2020 and 2021, but there was certainly a top group of 13 books, which appeared in eleven or more lists. In total, 59 titles appeared on five or more lists.

The most popular book was Don Winslow’s City on Fire (22 mentions) followed by Nita Prose’s The Maid (20 mentions), Michael Connelly’s Desert Star (18 mentions) and Richard Osman’s highly entertaining The Bullet That Missed (16). For the full list see George’s article at: http://new.deadlypleasures.com/2023/01/02/critics-top-picks-from-the-best-lists-of-2022/

I read 21 of the 59 titles listed, including six from the top thirteen. Three of my favourite books of 2022 appeared in the top thirteen (Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin and Steve Cavanagh) and another nine of my favourites were scattered throughout the 59. I was surprised that a couple of books I struggled to enjoy appeared in so many lists, while others, such as John Connolly’s The Furies and Tom Bradby’s Yesterday’s Spy, did not appear at all. Some very good Australian crime fiction titles were also missing, but this is mainly a reflection of when and how the books are released overseas.

On a positive note it was good to see so many Australian authors on the consolidated list, including Shelley Burr (7 mentions), Sulari Gentill (6), Hayley Scrivenor (6), Michael Robotham (6), Adrian McKinty (6) and Benjamin Stevenson (5).

Many thanks to George for his great efforts in pulling this together.

Here are links to my favourite books of 2022:

https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/the-years-best-my-favourite-thrillers-and-crime-novels-of-2022/ https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/best-debut-crime-novels-and-thrillers-of-2022/ https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/under-the-radar-eight-good-books-you-may-have-missed-in-2022/

3 Comments

  1. Mystery/thriller is my favorite genre but I must admit that I have read many books this year and not all that many were mystery. I need to get back to reading more of my favorites

    • Well there are certainly some good ones on the various lists to try! 🙂

  2. I have only read 7of the books in the list of 59. There are a few in my reading list. I agree: it is terrific to see a number of Australian authors in this list. Thanks for sharing.

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