Thursday, December 15, 2016

Best Mystery and Crime Novels of 2016

The past year saw the release of new Mystery and Crime novels by popular authors as well as newer faces in the genre. These are the best books reviewed during 2016 by this blog:

Extreme Prey by John Sandford - New entry in the series that features Minnesota state police detective Lucas Davenport. Here Lucas works to stop an assassination plot against a candidate in the Iowa presidential primary. Another superb crime thriller that moves at breakneck pace from Sandford.

Off the Grid by C.J. Box - Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett is back. Joe comes up against a terrorist cell hiding out in the remote, desolate Red Desert region of the state. Raw boned crime tale set against a rugged western landscape that makes for a great read.

Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin - A new case for Edinburgh, Scotland police inspector John Rebus. The irascible Rebus investigates a connection between the murder of a prosecutor and the attempted murder of a local mobster. A tangled crime plot along with an entertaining main character.

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware - An eerie psychological suspense puzzle set inside the claustrophobic confines of a huge luxury yacht. A passenger thinks she sees a woman thrown overboard ... or was she? Engrossing mystery that builds in paranoid intensity to a startling plot twist.

The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly - Former LAPD detective Harry Bosch returns, now working part time for a small town police force, as well as taking private cases. Bosch is pursuing a serial rapist called the Screen Cutter while he is also hired to locate a billionaire's lost heir. A vintage Bosch outing and the police procedural at its best.

Monday, December 5, 2016

WRONG SIDE OF GOODBYE a New Harry Bosch Case

Former LAPD detective Harry Bosch is back in The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly. Bosch is now retired from the LAPD and working part time for the small police force of San Fernando. He also continues to take cases as a private investigator.

This new novel finds Bosch working simultaneously on two troubling cases. As a cop, he is pursuing a serial rapist, dubbed the Screen Cutter, who has staged a chain of local attacks on women inside their homes.

Harry is also hired by aged, frail billionaire Whitney Vance to search for a possible lost heir that Vance may have, an illegitimate child from a college affair. But with control of billions at stake in the Vance estate, Bosch is opposed by those around Vance who don't want any such heir suddenly found.

As Bosch digs deeper into both cases, the Vance matter turns threatening, and the Screen Cutter case leads to a violent confrontation. The Wrong Side of Goodbye is vintage Harry Bosch and another compulsively readable crime thriller from Michael Connelly.