Deadly Pleasures is a magazine for crime fiction fans, providing tons of mystery and thriller book reviews four times a year since 1992. There is a team of regular reviewers headed by editor and founder of the publication, George Easter. [Easter pictured at right.]
Every year, scores of bloggers, newspapers, and magazine writers will post a list of what they consider “The Best Mysteries of the Year.” This month, Easter did an interesting analysis of many of these lists for books published during 2022. He described his process for coming up with the best of the best crime fiction list in a Deadly Pleasures blogpost on January 2, 2022, as follows:
I found 84 best mystery, crime fiction and thriller lists this year (mostly from the U.S., but some from the U.K., Ireland, Canada, Australia and India). From those I tallied the number of times certain titles were mentioned on those lists. This is an attempt to find some consensus on what exactly are the best mysteries, crime novels and thrillers of the year 2022. The following is the result of my efforts – the Best of the Best 2022. There was no clear “best” book like there has been in the last two years (BLACKTOP WASTELANDby S. A. Cosby in 2020 and RAZORBLADE TEARS by S. A. Cosby in 2021). There are 60 titles listed below. … — George Easter
From: “Critics Top Picks,” Deadly Pleasures, January 2, 2022.
Wow! He located 84 lists and methodically analyzed all of the books on the 84 lists to see where there was common agreement, where a book appeared on multiple critics’ lists. If you want to see all of the books that were mentioned on 5 lists or more (60 titles in all), go and read his post.
Two Reasons I am Glad for the Analysis that Easter Did
Every year our Mystery Book Club goes through a process to select 12 books for the coming year (September – August). The process has varied over the years from a list provided entirely by the librarian (early years) to a process that includes member participation – including nominating books for consideration and/or voting on a final list of books to read. In addition, as a leader, I have looked for potential books using a variety of resources in different years, including using a list of 100 best books of all time compiled by the Mystery Writers of America to a similar list from Goodreads. Along with other resources and methods.
But the 60 books identified by the process Easter used, gives the club a lot of ideas for us to use later this spring as we develop a process and a list of books. So, first of all, I’m glad for the help the list provides reading groups like ours to identify “good reads.”
Another reason I enjoyed looking at Easter’s research, was the fact that Michael Connelly’s 2022 book Desert Star was the book that appeared on the third highest number of mentions. Specifically the three books most often mentioned on the 84 lists of best crime fiction books were:
- 1 – CITY ON FIRE by Don Winslow (on 22 of the 84 lists)
- 2 – THE MAID by Nita Prose (on 20 of the lists)
- 3 – DESERT STAR by Michael Connelly (on 19 of the lists)
So, further to my rant about Connelly’s Grandmaster Award paired with Joanne Fluke’s Award, I notice that:
- Joanne Fluke is not on any of the lists (or IF mentioned, it is rare).
- Other popular best-selling authors did not make the lists either like David Baldacci, James Lee Burke, Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, Patricia Cornwell, James Patterson, John Sanford, and Stuart Woods.
- Yet Connelly’s 2022 book was mentioned on 19 lists, which supports why he is an outstanding author and he alone is worthy of the 2023 MWA Grandmaster title.
Cautions
As useful as Easter’s work making a best of the “best crime fiction list” is to us, it is not without pitfalls. For example, every list maker of best crime fiction has their preferred sub-genres. I notice that Larry Gandle (Associate Editor and one of many regular reviewers), for example, does not care for stories about PIs; he states (in the summer 2019 issue) that PI books are often boring. He castigates Sara Paretsky’s books which I happen to like, for example. So some books that I know would be on my list in past years would not be on his list.
You can see each of the 84 lists in detail as they are printed in the Winter issue of the Deadly Pleasures magazine. So that much is quite transparent. The lists come from major media such as the Washington Post and less known mystery book reviewers on blogs. What we do not know are the particular biases of the individual compilers of the lists. Millions of people love cozy mysteries, but how many of the 84 list-makers also love cozies? And so on.
Still, I commend Easter for investing the time and effort to locate, read, and analyze the opinions of 84 other crime fiction reviewers/fans/critics. Because, while a book with an “A” review on any list of best books is useful, a book rated an “A” on multiple lists of best books probably should not be ignored!
Also note: You can subscribe to four hefty online issues of crime fiction reviews and articles in Deadly Pleasures for just $10 (one year). Subscribe here.
CORRECTION [on 1/31/23]: Previously, the first paragraph under “Cautions” stated that George Easter did not care for PI fiction. That was an error. There are many reviewers in each issue of Deadly Pleasures. The article I was reading was written by Larry Gandle. I have corrected the above paragraph accordingly. George assured me that he does like PI stories.
