My 2023 Good Reads

A YEAR OF MEMORABLE reading has come to a close. Most of my leisure reading this year—surprise, surprise—were works of crime fiction. With a few exceptions, however, such as Bobbi French’s The Good Women of Safe Harbour. Writing with wit and compassion, French tells the story of Frances Delaney, a Newfoundland house cleaner, who compiles a bucket list for her final days.

Another enjoyable non-mystery was The Paris Mistress by former journalist Bruce Gates. A fun, racy read, Gates’s debut novel is set in Paris in the Jazz Age.

My favourite read of the year, of course, was Standing in the Shadows, the late Peter Robinson’s 28th and final Inspector Alan Banks mystery. In was released this past April, six months after its author’s death. Reading Standing in the Shadows was a bittersweet farewell to old and dear friends: Robinson, the author, and Inspector Banks.

I encountered a few new-to-me crime writers in 2023, including Angela Marsons. This prolific British crime writer has released no less than 20 mysteries in her Detective Kim Stone series since 2015. Many thanks to Sleuth of Baker Street bookstore’s Marian Misters for introducing me to her books with Silent Scream.

Anthony Bidulka is an established Canadian mystery writer, probably best known for his eight-book Russell Quant series. This year he released Livingsky, the first installment in his new Merry Bell series, featuring a transgendered woman sleuth. Livingsky was a fun read, and I’m looking forward to Merry’s next adventure.

Gail Bowen’s The Legacy is an important 2023 release that I didn’t read this year. Bowen’s 22nd Joanne Kilbourn mystery came out in late October, and in the mad scramble leading up to Christmas, I didn’t have time to even purchase it. The Legacy tops my to-do reading for January. And Gail tells me that the 23rd Joanne installment will be out soon!

Here are my enjoyable reads for 2023—in alphabetical order of their authors’ surnames. Many are new releases, some are fairly recent, and a few, such as The Question of Max by Amanda Cross (the late Carolyn Heilbrun), go all the way back to 1976.

·         Kate Atkinson, Big Sky

·         Kate Atkinson, Started Early, Took My Dog

·         Kate Atkinson, When Will There Be Good News?

·         Linwood Barclay, Look Both Ways

·         Belinda Bauer, The Beautiful Dead

·         Belinda Bauer, The Facts of Life and Death

·         Anthony Bidulka, Livingsky

·         M.H. Callway, Snake Oil and Other Tales

·         Brenda Chapman, Blind Date

·         Brenda Chapman, When Last Seen

·         H&A Christensen, Stealing John Hancock

·         Ann Cleeves, The Raging Storm

·         M.C. Craven, The Botanist

·         Amanda Cross, The Question of Max

·         Joy Fielding, The Bad Daughter

·         Barbara Fradkin, Wreck Bay

·         S.M. Freedman, The Day She Died

·         Bobbi French, The Good Women of Safe Harbour

·         Bruce Gates, The Paris Mistress

·         Daphne Greer, Finding Grace

·         Maureen Jennings, Cold Snap

·         Angela Marsons, Silent Scream

·         Kate Morton, Homecoming

·         Peter Robinson, Standing in the Shadows

·         S.J. Rozan, In This Rain

·         S. J. Rozan, Paper Son

·         Minette Walters, Disordered Minds

·         Ruth Ware, The Death of Mrs. Westaway

·         Ruth Ware, The It Girl

·         Ruth Ware, Zero Days

·         Danee Wilson, Murder at San Miguel

·         Iona Whishaw, A Killer in King’s Cove

·         Iona Whishaw, Death in a Darkening Mist

·         Iona Whishaw, An Old, Cold Grave

Looking forward to many more good reads in 2024!

Killing It With Style!

Looking forward to moderating Crime Writers of Canada’s Killing It With Style panel on Tuesday Dec. 12. I’ll be joined by four fellow crime fiction writers at Toronto Reference Library, who will share their insights on crafting their criminous tales:

• Jass Aujla is the author of Next of Twin, which was released this year. Jass’s protagonist, Riah Arora, is a con artist who makes her living robbing marks. When she finds the identical twin sister she was separated from at birth, she plans one last, lucrative con.

• T. Lawrence Davis's first crime novel, The Pale Horse, features an amateur sleuth who strives to clear a friend's name in a murder investigation, while his wife, the detective leading the police investigation, tries to build a case against her. The Pale Horse was a finalist in Crime Writers of Canada’s Best Crime First Novel competition this year.

• Madeleine Harris-Callway is a veteran crime writer who frequently walks on the dark side. She’s the author of numerous works of short crime fiction, many of them noir tales. Three of the stories in her new collection, Snake Oil and Other Tales, were finalists for CWC’s awards of excellence.

• Kris Purdy’s debut crime novel Paradise Pending was released this year. When its protagonist Jo Gasperi is invited to speak at a conference in Spain, she and her partner Dani look forward to a much-needed vacation abroad. But when Jo is taken to a hospital with chest pains, their dream vacation turns into a nightmare.

Hoping to see a great turnout of crime fiction fans and writers on Dec. 12! Toronto Reference Library is at 789 Yonge Street, a short walk from the Bloor-Yonge subway station. Our show begins at 6:30 p.m.

My 3 favourite reads of the year!

A few weeks ago, Ben Fox, a book lover with a mission to help authors meet more readers, asked me to post my three favourite reads of the year on his website, www.shepherd.com. Given that were still 12 weeks of good reading left in 2023 at the time, I came up with three books by three outstanding Canadian crime fiction writers: the late Peter Robinson, Maureen Jennings and Anthony Bidulka. All released this year.

Check out what I said about Standing in the Shadows, Cold Snap and Livingsky in my Shepherd post, which was published today.

Thank you, Ben, for all your efforts in bringing books to the attention of readers around the world!