Publisher Weekly Best Books of the Year 2008: Mystery

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“May you live in interesting times” is a quote commonly attributed to Confucius, probably erroneously, but Robert F. Kennedy did use it in a speech in 1966, adding a rueful twist: “Like it or not, we live in interesting times....” Regardless of your thinking on these current times, they are certainly anything but boring, and we feel the same about the books published this year.

Once again, we take the opportunity near year's end to review the year in books, highlighting the very best of what American publishing had to offer in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, comics, religion, lifestyle and children's. There were the authors we expected to deliver, and they did: Louise Erdrich with The Plague of Doves, Richard Price with Lush Life, Jhumpa Lahiri with Unaccustomed Earth, Lydia Millet with How the Dead Dream. A breakthrough surprise about cricket, Netherland by Joseph O'Neill, delighted us, while Tim Winton's Breath took ours away. We listened to our elders in How to Live: A Search for Wisdom from Old People; thought about our planet with The Soul of the Rhino; examined our history in The Hemingses of Monticello and Abraham Lincoln: A Life; and, thanks to Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, we even considered Jesus for President.

1. Wild Inferno By Sandi Ault
   
   
   (mystery and thrillers)
   
   "Ault smoothly blends a murder mystery plot with Native American lore in this impressive sequel to her debut, Wild Indigo. "
   
   


2. Lie Down With The Devil By Linda Barnes
   
   
   (mystery and thrillers)
   
   "Boston PI Carlotta Carlyle suspects her mob-associated fiancé of infidelity after he disappears in this utterly compelling 12th outing. "
   
   


3. Ghost At Work By Carolyn Hart
   
   
   (mystery and thrillers)
   
   "A ghost turns sleuth in this intriguing first in a new series by veteran Hart, who's won Agatha, Anthony and Macavity awards."
   
   


4. The Private Patient By P.d. James
   
   
   (mystery and thrillers)
   
   "Adam Dalgliesh, the charismatic police commander, investigates a private plastic surgery clinic after the murder of a patient in what fans will hope is not his last case."
   
   


5. The Messengers Of Death: A Mystery In Provence Pierre Magnan, Trans. From The French By Patricia Clancy
   
   
   (mystery and thrillers)
   
   "French author Magnan blends elegant clue-laying and deft characterizations that strike to the core of human frailties in his second mystery set in Provence."
   
   


6. Death's Half Acre By Margaret Maron
   
   
   (literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers)
   
   "Corruption and murder stalk rural Colleton County, N.C., in Maron's outstanding 14th mystery to feature Judge Deborah Knott and her extended family."
   
   


7. Salt River By James Sallis
   
   
   (literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers)
   
   "Poetic prose and the richly described rural Southern backdrop lift Sallis's sublime third novel to feature philosophical sheriff John Turner."
   
   


8. Fear Of Landing By David Waltner-toews
   
   
   (literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers)
   
   "Set in the repressive Indonesia of the early 1980s, this compelling debut introduces an unlikely detective, a Canadian veterinarian."
   
   


9. The Calling By Inger Ash Wolfe
   
   
   (mystery and thrillers)
   
   "In this bracingly original mystery set in rural Ontario, a middle-aged female police inspector investigates the murder of an elderly cancer patient."
   
   


Source:
http://www.publishersweekly.com

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