It has begun. Just as "holiday creep" sees Halloween decor in stores the day after the Fourth of July and Christmas trimmings appear, well, year 'round now, so have the Best Books of the Year lists started coming out even before the year has even ended. Three entities named their such lists this week, USA BookNews, Amazon, and Publishers Weekly.
The USA BookNews list named Blood Harvest by Brant Randall as the winner in the Mystery/Suspense category, with other finalists including
- Anatomy Lesson by Raymond Obstfeld
- Blood Island by H. Terrell Griffin
- Eyes of the World by Rob Palmer
- Island Life by Michael W. Sherer
- Sonnets: A Novel by Robert K Brown
- Spa Deadly: An Allie Armington Mystery by Louise Gaylord
- Stuff Dreams Are Made Of by Don Bruns
and in their Thriller/Adventure category, the winner was Stealing Trinity by Ward Larsen, with finalists as follows:
- Lightland: A Supernatural Thriller by Kenny Kemp
- Pacific Rebound by Jay Lillie
- Rabbit in the Moon by Deborah & Joel Shlian
- Tengu: The Mountain Goblin - A Connor Burke Martial Arts Thriller by John Donohue
- The Crocodile and The Crane by Arthur Rosenfeld
- The Deal by Adam Gittlin
- The Identity Factor by James Houston Turner
Amazon didn't break their 100 Best list into genres or even split into fiction and nonfiction, but they did include a few mysteries and thrillers. The highest-ranking was The Likeness by Tana French with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson at #12.
Publishers Weekly has three relevant categories of Best Books of the Year—General Fiction, Mass Market, and Mystery. Under General Fiction, they included:
- When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
- Hold Tight by Harlan Coben
- The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly
- Master of the Delta by Thomas H. Cook
- The Likeness by Tana French
- Ritual by Mo Hayder
- The Given Day by Dennis Lehane
- Flesh House by Stuart MacBride
The Mass Market category inclued:
- No One Heard Her Scream by Jordan Dane
- Deadly Deceptions by Linda Lael Miller
and in the Mystery category, the finalists were:
- Wild Inferno by Sandi Ault
- Lie Down with the Devil by Linda Barnes
- Ghost at Work by Carolyn Hart
- The Private Patient by P.D. James
- The Messengers of Death: A Mystery in Provence by Pierre Magnan, trans. from the French by Patricia Clancy
- Death's Half Acre by Margaret Maron
- Salt River by James Sallis
- Fear of Landing by David Waltner-Toews
- The Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe
Pity the poor releases in November and December. Maybe we should have a special award just for them?