SCAM artist alert

Apparently there is someone calling themself "Luigi Calloway" out there who is claiming to be associated with the Mount TBR Reading Challenge. He is contacting authors and telling them if they pay him, then their books will be used for the challenge. It's possible he's also telling people they must pay to participate in any way. Please know that there is absolutely no charge associated in any way with this reading challenge and that this person does not represent me or anything associated with my blog. There will NEVER be a reason for anyone to have to pay for participation in any way for any of my challenges. If only people who exert this much time and effort on scamming people would put it into something worthwhile....like reading their own books!

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Best of Crime Fiction 2012 (So Far)

During 2012 Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise has been collecting readers' Picks of the Month for our best mystery read each month but, as she points out, these lists don't always include all our best reads.  She's now calling for a mid-year Top Ten list....Our ten favorite mystery reads so far in 2012.  Here we go:

1. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the only 5-star winner so far) [1889]
2. A Spark of Death by Bernadette Pajer [2011]
3. Champagne for One by Rex Stout [1958]
4. The So Blue Marble by Dorothy B Hughes [1940]
5. A Good Death by Elizabeth Ironside [2000]
6. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett [1930]
7. The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart [1932]
8. The Morning After Death by Nicholas Blake [1966]
9. Such Friends Are Dangerous by Walter Tyrer [1954]
10. Something to Kill For by Susan Holtzer [1994]

All but Hound are 4-star winners, as are my honorable mentions (below).  When making distinctions for top ten versus honorable mention, I made sure to list all of the 4-star winners which were by authors new to me.  For authors who were old friends....well, that was arbitrary.  Any of those listed below could easily be a top ten pick.

Honorable mention:
The Problem of the Green Capsule by John Dickson Carr [1939]
The Yellow Room by Mary Roberts Rinehart [1945]
Murder at the Stork Club by Vera Caspary [1945/6--date unclear]
Swan Song by Edmund Crispin [1947]
So Many Steps to Death by Agatha Christie [1954]


2 comments:

Marce said...

Another Agatha Christie, good stuff Bev.

I haven't had a great year, I put 4 choices directly in the post.

Kerrie said...

Thanks for participating Bev. Can I get you to add the year of first publication?