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]
Another Agatha Christie, good stuff Bev.
ReplyDeleteI haven't had a great year, I put 4 choices directly in the post.
Thanks for participating Bev. Can I get you to add the year of first publication?
ReplyDelete