Reading time was hard to come by this year but I still managed to find a few hours here and there every week. November and December were much quieter and I raced through more than two dozen books, all of them good to very good. I will be reviewing some of them in January.

Following are the books that stand out to me for some reason from the year’s reading list.

Deadlock by James Byrne (2023) – The second in The Gatekeeper series. I liked the first one and this one is even better. Desmond Aloysius Limerick is a fine addition to the pantheon of contemporary thriller heroes. Byrne has a winner here.

Witness 8 by Steven Cavanaugh (UK 2024, US 2025) –The eighth Eddie Flynn title. Cavanaugh is as reliably unpredictable as ever in this surprising legal thriller with not one but two fine plot twists near the end.

Think Twice by Harlan Coben (2024)—It is so good to see Myron Bolitar back in action after eight years. He and Win are still an unbeatable duo, and the supporting characters from the previous books are in fine fettle.

Blind to Midnight by Reed Farrel Coleman (2024)—The second in the series about Nick Ryan, a New York super cop. Nick deftly juggles his assignment from his handler and a case in which he has a personal interest in this action-packed story.

Death Has Deep Roots by Michael Gilbert (1951)—Gilbert combines elements of a police procedural, a private investigator plot, and a legal thriller into an unusual post-war mystery.

Malibu Burning by Lee Goldberg (2023)—The first in the Sharpe and Walker arson investigations series. Set during the southern California wildfires, the designated bad guy had my sympathy. The information about prison firefighter teams is intriguing.

Perfect Opportunity by Steven Havill (2024)—The 26^th in the consistently wonderful Posadas County series set deep in New Mexico, where former sheriff Bill Gastner and his protégé Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman tackle a double murder among the locals.

Keep It Quiet by Richard Hull (1935)—This satirical look at the classic private gentlemen’s clubs of London is also a fine Golden Age murder mystery with an unexpectedly grim ending.

Deus X by Stephen Mack Jones (2023)—The fourth book about ex-cop August Snow who settles in his boyhood Detroit home and ends up tackling political corruption and economic decay while protecting his neighborhood from encroaching criminal influence. One of my favorite new heroes.

Part for a Poisoner by E. C. R. Lorac (1948)—The 31^st book about Inspector Robert Macdonald has some of the best planted clues and reader misdirection I have seen for awhile. A classic in the Golden Age style from a once-popular author who is enjoying a resurgence thanks to the British Library Crime Classics series.

The Murder at the White Palace by Allison Montclair (2024)—The sixth Sparks and Bainbridge has the unlikely pair planning a New Year’s Eve bash for their marriage bureau clients and incidentally solving an old murder along the way. Montclair has done a brilliant job at re-creating post-war London.

The Wealth of Shadows by Graham Moore (2024)—A fictionalized account of real-life happenings during the early days of World War II. President Roosevelt tasked the Treasury Department with finding a way to undermine the German economy, intending to force a financial stop to the fighting. Extensive documentation at the end shows just how much of the story is true (most of it.)

Mr. Campion’s Christmas by Mike Ripley (2024)—The 12^th book in Ripley’s very good continuation of Margery Allingham’s series finds the Campions celebrating Christmas at home in the country. A sudden blizzard and a group of strangers seeking shelter fill the house. All they need is murder to set up a classic Christmas mystery.

The Accidental Joe: The Top-Secret Life of a Celebrity Chef by Tom Straw (2024)—A fun mash-up of the classic egomaniac television celebrity who runs headlong into a James Bond plot. From the first pages the tantrum-throwing gourmet is brought up short by spies practicing their craft by turning his filming sets into chaos. Published as a stand-alone but definite series potential.