Today, it’s my pleasure to welcome Kim Hays to the blog to talk about her favorite books read in 2024. Since Kim’s own series has been mentioned here several times, and the fourth in the Linzer and Donatelli series, Splintered Justice, is due out in April, I’ll talk about Kim before turning the blog over to her.
Kim Hays is a dual citizen (Swiss/US) who has made her home in Bern since she married a Swiss. Before that, she lived in San Juan, Vancouver, and Stockholm, as well as the US South, the East Coast, and California. She has worked in a wide variety of jobs, from factory forewoman to director of a small nonprofit, and, in Switzerland, from university lecturer in sociology to cross-cultural trainer at several multinational firms. She has a BA from Harvard and a PhD from University of California-Berkeley. Kim began writing mysteries when her son left for college. PESTICIDE, the first book in the Linzer and Donatelli series, was shortlisted for the 2020 Debut Dagger award by the Crime Writers’ Association.
Kim’s books, in order, are Pesticide, Sons & Brothers, A Fondness for Truth, and the forthcoming Splintered Justice.
Thank you, Kim, for taking time to list your favorite books read in 2024.
Mysteries
I try new mystery writers often; I also have about thirty favorite authors whose books I read
or listen to as they come out. I have followed some of these writers for decades. Many of my
favorite writers have died over my years of reading crime fiction: for example, Margaret
Maron, Reginald Hill, and Ellis Peters. I have mourned them and continue to miss their
books, but I find new writers to take their places.
Last year, I discovered four series that have existed for years, and I invested a lot of 2024
in reading or listening to one book after another with the same characters. I’ve mentioned
many of their titles on Thursday’s “What Are You Reading?” They are:
Ann Cleeves’s Vera Stanhope series (1999-ongoing)
I have read Cleeves’s other series but never got into these books until last year. They
are well-written and exciting, and Vera, a detective chief inspector in
Northumberland, is a fascinating character. I recommend beginning with the second
book, Telling Tales; the first is not as good as the others.
Peter Grainger’s DC Smith series (2016-ongoing)
Set in a small English city in Norfolk, these books feature a police team led by a
brilliant sergeant. The first is An Accidental Death.
Val McDermid’s Karen Pirie series (2007-ongoing)
Karen Pirie works cold cases. She appears in The Distant Echo but first takes a central
role in the series’ second book, A Darker Domain.
Mick Herron’s Slough House series (2010-ongoing)
Unlike the other three, these are not police procedurals, my favorite sort of mystery
(and the type I write myself), but novels about a group of discredited British spies
who still manage to solve domestic terrorism cases and survive the politics of MI5.
The first is Slow Horses.
Other genres
Katherine Addison (pen name of Sarah Monette), The Goblin Emperor (2014)
As a child, I liked books with magic, and I’ve never grown out of them, so I often try
fantasy novels. Although this book is set in a world of elves and goblins, it contains very little
magic. It’s mainly about the complications of learning to lead a country when most of the
court is hostile to you.
Emily Henry, Funny Story (2024)
Henry writes contemporary romances with likable men and women facing realistic
problems and getting happy endings! This is my favorite of the four I’ve read.
Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered (2018)
This novel is set in New Jersey in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. Like
many of Kingsolver’s books, it addresses complicated family relationships while conveying
the wonder and power of nature and the need to respect it. It was moving and thought-
provoking, with satisfying characters.
Liz Moore, The God of the Woods (2024)
This is a mystery in the sense that it’s about a policewoman trying to solve the
disappearance of two children from the same family, fourteen years apart. But it’s about much
more than that, including the corrupting power of wealth. Not only is the book exciting and
emotionally powerful, but its magnificent setting in the Adirondacks is as vital as any of the
characters.
Jojo Moyes, One Plus One (2014)
I find this English novelist’s books uneven and have left several unfinished. But this
one delighted me. I’m fascinated by the complications of social class differences, and this
story brings together a wealthy single man whose life allows him to be self-centered until he
gets himself into a crisis and a working-class mother with two challenging kids, a slew of
problems, and no money to address them.
Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful (2023)
This excellent novel, set mainly in Chicago, tells the story of four sisters from
adolescence to middle age and the man they love in different ways. It deserves all the praise it
received. If you want to know more about it, here’s my review:
https://kimhaysbern.com/2024/07/24/four-sisters/
Natasha Pulley, The Mars House (2024)
This book is about a colony on Mars trying to cope with its despised refugees from
Earth. It has a very appealing main character, a former principal dancer from the London
ballet who is struggling to survive on Mars. Its presentation of the new social order on Mars
is fascinating. My review is at the end of this post on novels that present alternate worlds:
https://kimhaysbern.com/2024/11/20/out-of-this-world/
Jo Walton, Lent (2020)
Jo Walton is Welsh and Canadian, and her books have won many awards. She likes to
play with time and create alternate realities. Lent is about Girolamo Savonarola, an important
historical figure in fifteenth-century Florence, and many of his real-life contemporaries. In
Lent, history and fantasy are woven together brilliantly.
Thank you, Kim!
Great list!
I think I’m most interested in Lent.
Thanks, Glen. Jo Walton’s most famous book is Among Others, which won both a Hugo and a Nebula in 2012, but it’s not my favorite.
All books I haven’t read, but several I’ve heard good things about from others. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Mark. I suggest you might try the first DC Smith book by Peter Grainger, AN ACCIDENTAL DEATH
I enjoyed your list of series that you discovered this year. Except for Peter Grainger’s DC Smith series, I have read and enjoyed books from all of those series.
In your list of favorites for this year, The Mars House and Lent especially appeal to me, and I will check out Hello, Beautiful also. It is a very varied list.
I’m glad it’s helpful, Tracy! Fun that we like the same mystery series.
Thanks for an interesting list Kim.
I’m ashamed to say that although I’ve watched numerous Vera episodes on television, and have several of the novels on my shelves, I’ve never read any of them.
Similarly, I recently tore through all four series of Slow Horses (to fit them all into my one month free Apple subscription) and have some of them in paperback, I’ve yet to read any.
Your descriptions have inspired me to get on and try these this year.
I’ve never read any of Peter Grainger’s books either, but I’ll look out for them now.
There are several more I’d like to read here too.
Thank you for your list Kim. I read and enjoy so many of the same series. I hope more people discover Peter Grainger, his books are so well written and the audio editions equally good. I have yet to read The God of the Woods or Hello Beautiful but have added them to my TBR along with Lent.
Thanks for reminding me of JoJo Moyes One Plus One. It was the first book I read by her many years ago and I really enjoyed it, sadly I have not liked any other book by her nearly as much but I have a few friends who would enjoy One Plus One so I can recommend.
Hi Susan. It’s interesting that you also think the Jojo Moyes books are a very mixed bag. I also like a recent one, SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOES, although not as much as ONE PLUS ONE.
Thanks for this list, Kim. I’m a big Barbara Kingsolver fan but haven’t read the book you mentioned, so I’ll have to check it out.
Another one I love of hers that you probably have read is ANIMAL DREAMS. Very moving and very funny, too.
Great list, Kim. I know what you mean about favorite authors/series. Margaret Maron (who I knew for years) was on my list too. I’ve been meaning to try the Peter Grainger series since you first mentioned it. One of these days.
Agree totally on THE GOD OF THE WOODS, also on my list.
I haven’t read LENT, but I am a big Jo Walton fan, especially her “alternate history” Small Change trilogy, about a world where (as Trump clearly would have done) the U.S. didn’t help Britain in 1940, and hence they made peace with Nazi Germany. In 1949, when the trilogy starts, the War still continues, basically between Germany and Russia. I also loved Walton’s non-fiction book about SF, WHAT MAKES THIS BOOK SO GREAT.
“I’m fascinated by the consequences of social class differences” rang a bell – I see that in your own books!
Jackie is reading her first Emily Henry book (BOOK LOVERS) and agrees with your assessment.
Oh, I am also a very big fan of the Karen Pirie series.
Hi Jeff. I’m glad you enjoyed the list. I’ve also read the Small Change series, which isn’t exactly cheerful (Fascist England!) but very well done. Are you saying you knew Margaret Maron personally? I’d love to have met her.
You’re right–I guess I do talk about social class differences in my books, especially SONS AND BROTHERS. Europe may have its aristocrats, but the US has its social class differences, too, although perhaps easier to deny.
I liked BOOK LOVERS, too–please tell Jackie!
Margaret Maron came to Malice Domestic for years. I used to sell books there. (I used to buy books in England, ship them home, then sell them by mail order. I also sold at Malice.) Also, I was a big fan of her Deborah Knott series and we talked about that. Plus, before moving back to North Carolina, she had lived in Brooklyn for several years, so we had that in common.
I read all the Deborah Knott books!
Thank you, Kim! I have to try The God of the Woods, since I hear about it everywhere. I enjoy Jojo Moyes books, including One Plus One, Hello Beautiful was a favorite, and I thought Funny Story was the best of Emily Henry’s books to date. However, I’m excited that I’m number one on the hold list for her next book.
It’s fun that we like many of the same books. I haven’t preordered the Emily Henry that’s coming out in April, GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL LIFE. I’m hoping maybe the Bern library, which does order some English-language books, will get it.
I’ve read and enjoyed several of the books you recommend. I have read a number of Jojo Moyes earlier books, but haven’t read many since she became so popular. I need to see about One Plus One.
I was curious if you were going to recommend any Swiss authors for us.
Hi MM. There are many Swiss currently writing mysteries, but I’m not aware that any have been translated into English. One French-Swiss writer whose work I’ve read in English is Joël Dicker. I’ve read his best-known novel, The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, and I enjoyed it, but I don’t think I’d put it on a favorites list. But you’ve given me something to think about. Maybe I can come up with something to recommend.
I’ve actually read a couple books by Dicker, the one you mentioned and The Enigma of Room 622. I enjoy a complicated (or as some may say, convoluted) plot. I think I have another on hold. Please share if you come up with any others. Thanks
I have entered on GoodReads to win several of the books that you discussed. No luck yet but hoping, Thank you for this post, Kim!
You’re welcome, Carol. I hope you win at least one of them!
I very much enjoyed learning a little more about you in addition to your fabulous list.
What a nice thing for you to say, Kaye. My family moved a lot when I was growing up, and then I continued to travel to and live in different places as a young adult, like Stockholm for a year. I know that made it much easier for me to adapt to spending almost four decades in Switzerland after I got married. I met my Swiss husband by sitting down on the same park bench with him (it was a big bench–I wasn’t trying to pick him up; not then, anyway!) when we were both traveling in the South of France in our early twenties.
I like your list, Kim.
You’ve mention Peter Grainger before I believe, so now I’m determined to see if I can find ‘An Accidental Death’ somewhere.
I’m also intrigued by The Goblin Emperor but I don’t know if it’s just the title and cover that are drawing me to it. I should take a chance on it since I like to read fantasy once in a while.
And I agree with you about books by JoJo Moyes being uneven. I haven’t read One Plus One though, so have added it my want list as well. Thank you for making said list at least three books longer today. Good work!
Oh, and I loved the story of how you met your husband! Must have been fate.
Hi Lindy. I’m glad I’ve added some books to your TBR list, although I know that’s a burden as well as a pleasure sometimes! Re: Goblin Emperor: The author, like Jojo Moyes, can be uneven. I tried a Sherlock Holmes-based book she wrote recently with angels and werewolves in it, and it was terrible. But I don’t think I’m the only person who believed Goblin Emperor was one of her best!
My park bench story is a good one. But we didn’t manage to see each other after that France trip for another FOUR years. Long-distance relationships are complicated. But eventually, we worked it out!
An Accidental Death.
No bookstores in Vancouver or surrounding area have this book, neither new or used.
Not available at any library.
I can order one from Abe Books but it will cost (in CDN dollars) $119.50 for the book and another $39.00 for shipping! Can you imagine.
That’s crazy! It’s a good book but not THAT good!
Enjoyed your list, Kim. Thanks for sharing! Have been trying to find a physical copy of An Accidental Death since you first mentioned the series. so far, no luck. The Goblin Emperor also sounds good.
I’m surprised that An Accidental Death isn’t available. Maybe his books are easy for me to get because I’m in Europe. I’ll see if I can find anything out.
Very interesting about Peter Grainger. I just went on the Brooklyn Public Library website (my home library), and they seem to have all of his books, but only in Audiobook format, which seems a little odd. Palm Beach County Library system has nothing by him.
So I checked Amazon, and discovered this about An Accidental Death:
“You purchased this edition on September 27, 2024.”
Who knew? I guess I forgot. The rest of the series seems to be selling for $5,99 each for the Kindle editions.
I had the same luck when I looked for the book. Only audio books, Kindle books or exorbitantly priced used copies.
Thanks for this list! I loved the Goblin Emperor and am looking forward to the 3rd Thara Celehar book later this month. I also loved Hello, Beautiful and had it on my best of 2023 list. The Mars book sounds intriguing, I enjoy thinking about what makes social structures work.