Thank you, Jeff, for taking time to put together your list of Favorite Books read in 2024 before you took off for Florida. I always look forward to your list.

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I’m starting with non-fiction, which has several of my favorites.  Each list is chronological by when I read them.

Non-Fiction:

Laura Flam & Emily Sieu Liebowitz, But Will You Love Me Tomorrow?: An Oral History of the 1960s Girl Groups. 

The title tells it all.  They interviewed the singers, the songwriters, the musicians and the producers.  For those of us who lived through the era and can identify a Ronette from a Crystal, this is a must-read.

Dwight Garner, The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, and Eating While Reading.

One of my very favorites of the year. Garner is the NY Times’s main book critic and his knowledge is encyclopedic. I also love a book that leads me to other books and authors, as this one does, including the next on the list.

Tommy Tomlinson, The Elephant In the Room: One Fat Man’s Quest To Get Smaller In a Growing America.

The sometimes sad, but touching and often inspiring memoir by a well known journalist, who found himself approaching 50, weighing over 450 pounds. Garner was so right about this one, a wonderful book.

Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.

Morris, who also wrote a biography of Ronald Reagan, here chronicles the amazing life of the 26th President, from his birth in a wealthy New York family in 1858 to his ascension to the Presidency in 1901. Teddy was a tremendous character – the man read OVER 500 BOOKS in one year WHILE HE WAS PRESIDENT! – who changed American life tremendously. I need to get back to the second volume, which covers the White House years.

James Patterson & Matt Eversmann, The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: Their Stories Are Better Than the Bestsellers.

 I really enjoyed this one, though what some librarians have gone through from book banners is a national disgrace.

Fiction:  As usual, most of my reading is in the mystery and/or short story fields.  Again, this is chronological.

Stephen Spotswood, Murder Crossed Her Mind.

The 4th book about post-WWII era PI Lilian Pentecost and her assistant (& the narrator), Willojean “Will” Parker. This one deals with the world of books, mostly.

Jeffrey Siger, At Any Cost.

The 13th Ch. Insp. Andreas Kaldis book is set mostly on the island of Syros, where a series of forest fires might have a more sinister origin. The usual crew investigates.  I really enjoy this series.

Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge.

I know it’s been a while, but I finally caught up to this highly praised, award-winning novel, which can be read as a series of interconnected short stories and the prickly Olive and her friends and neighbors.  I’ve gone on to read a few more of her books.

Nick Petrie, The Price You Pay.

The 8th Peter Ash book centers on his friend Lewis, a former criminal who has helped Peter countless times in the past, who now needs him to return the favor and help stop his life from being ruined.  Petrie writes a great action series, but I’d recommend starting with book one.

Amy Pease, Northwoods.

Eli North is back from Afghanistan and his life – and marriage – is in tatters. He is barely hanging on to his job as a Deputy in the North Woods of Wisconsin, only because his mother is the Sheriff. But when murder happens, Eli has to pull himself together to help the small force (and an FBI agent) solve the case. Very good debut.

Stephen King, You Like It Darker.

As a long time fan who has read all of King’s previous short story and novella collections, there was no way I was going to miss this one, and I definitely recommend it.

Craig Johnson, First Frost.

In the previous book, Sheriff Walt Longmire as his Deputy, Victoria (Vic) Moretti, to move in with him, and that plays out here, along with a flashback book to when Walt and his best friend, Henry Standing Bear, were about to report for military service, which took Walt to Vietnam.  I liked this one a lot.

Kim Hays, Sons & Brothers. 

When Kim talked here about her police procedural series, set in Bern, Switzerland, I had to try one, and I liked the first enough to read the other two, of which this is book two. Her main cops are Giuliana Linder and Renzo Donatelli, and it was absolutely fascinating to me to see the differences in a Swiss police series than the British or American ones I’m used to reading. Good job, Kim.

Cara Hunter, In the Dark and No Way Out.

As mentioned, Hunter was my discovery of the year and I read her stand alone as well as all 6 of her Oxford-set DI Adam Fawley series. I could have picked out almost any one to recommend, though you really should read them in order, but these two will do. In the first, a woman is found held prisoner, near death, behind a basement wall in a house in Oxford, but nothing is as it seems, and Hunter pulls off a tremendous surprise here. In the second, two children are pulled from the smoking wreckage of their home after a fire, but where are their parents?  Great series.

Robert Greene & Douglast Adey, eds. Death Locked In: An Anthology of Locked Room Stories. 

 I know the editors well – Bob was a very close friend before his death – and they are experts on the locked room mystery.  Good collection of stories.

Curtis Sittenfeld, You Think It, I’ll Say It.

 I’ve read some of Sitenfeld’s NY Times columns, so when someone mentioned her book of short stories, I had to try it.  I liked it.

Jo Callaghan, In The Blink Of An Eye.

An outstanding start to a series. Supt. Kat Frank returns to work months after the death of her husband from cancer. She is tasked to a test program using LOCK, an AI program, to see if it can really help solve crimes.  Highly recommended, and book two will be out soon.

Kate Quinn, The Briar Club.

Just read Lesa’s summary of this one Not my usual fare, but despite the length, it kept me (and then Jackie) turning the pages.  Set in Washington, DC in the early 1950s.

James Byrne, The Gatekeeper. 

Thanks to Lesa for recommending this one so highly.  She was right.  Dez is a great character and this was a lot of fun to read.  I just got book two from the library.

Lee Goldberg, Ashes Never Lie. 

The promised crossover from his Eve Ronin and Sharpe & Walker series, with arson in L.A. again the center of the story.  The only negative I can say is, since the book centers on Eve and Walker, my favorite character, Eve’s partner Duncan, has little to do.  Still, another fast read.

Blake Crouch, Recursion. 

Another one I am years late getting to.  As an aficionado of time travel books, you’d think I’d have picked up on it sooner.  It is too complicated to explain simply here, but just check out Amazon if you want the details, but if you like time travel and don’t mind Ground Day-like do-overs, you should really check this one out.

Michael Connelly, The Waiting.

When people ask my favorite mystery writer, I can’t give a simple answer, but for current writers, Connelly is probably the one, and this is a good example of why. Renee Ballard runs the Unsolved Crimes squad, using mostly volunteers to help check out old cases. They have a hit between a current criminal and the Pillowcase Rapist of 20+ years earlier, who must have been this guy’s father.  But who is his father? Meanwhile, Ballard’s gun and badge are stolen while she was surfing, and she asks old friend Harry Bosch (now retired) to help her.  And then there is a possible blockbuster revelation about the most notorious unsolved case in L.A. history, The Black Dahlia. How Connelly brings all these strands together is masterful.  Highly recommended, of course.

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Thank you, Jeff. I like the variety of your list, something for everyone. And, it was fun to see a couple of my favorites on your list.