Reading the Detectives discussion

As we're getting towards the end of the year, it's time to look back!

What were your favourite books from the past year? The best crime/detective read with the group, and the best that you read on your own? The best non-crime? And any disappointments?

To answer these myself:

The best crime/detective books read with the group:
I absolutely loved White Nights by Ann Cleeves and am enjoying the Shetland series overall a lot so far. I also gave 5 stars to A Sea of Troubles by Donna Leon, best of the Brunettis so far, and to several of the titles in our Christie challenge (I posted about those on our main challenge thread, https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...)

The best crime/detective titles read on my own:
I was very impressed by A Pin to See the Peepshow by F. Tennyson Jesse, one that I've been meaning to read for years, which is a novel based on the famous Edith Thompson case. I found it fascinating and hard to put down.
I also really loved getting back to the Perveen Mistry series by Sujata Massey, which is set in India during the British Raj, after leaving it for too long - it's not so much the crime content that has me hooked on this series, more the characters and the writing style. I read The Bombay Prince this year and need to get fully caught up with the series before the next book comes out in 2026.

The best non-crime
I realise that my reading this year has been mainly crime - I must try to be a bit more varied in 2026! I was overwhelmed by ‎Crooked Cross by Sally Carson, a Persephone reprint of a novel about the rise of the Nazis as experienced by a family in a small Bavarian town, and also by the Thomas Mann classic Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family which I read with our sister group, Reading the 20th Century. I haven't read many new books, must do better on that front, but I did really like the audiobook of James by Percival Everett.

Disappointments
I have had a few disappointments but I'll just mention one, The Female Detective by Andrew Forrester, which I thought was a very poorly-written book to be chosen as a British Library Crime Classics reprint.

Anyway, hope everyone has had a good reading year in 2025, and I'm looking forward to more great reads together in 2026.

Best crime books read with the group:
Really enjoying the Shetland and Brunetti series. Looking forward to discovering Ian Rankin and re-reading Bernie Gunther.

Best crime books read outside the group:
Marble Hall Murders (Susan Ryeland #3): Anthony Horowitz
• Let the Bad Times Roll: Alice Slater
• A Deadly Inheritance (DI Caius Beauchamp #3): Charlotte Vassell
The Impossible Fortune (The Thursday Murder Club #5): Richard Osman

Best Non-Crime:
Best Fiction Reads:
• Ripeness: Sarah Moss
• One of Us: Elizabeth Day
• Clown Town (Slough House #9): Mick Herron
• Boleyn Traitor: Philippa Gregory
• Bunny: Mona Awad

Best Non-Fiction Reads:
• The Haunted Wood: Sam Leith
• Story of a Murder: Hallie Rubenhold
• John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs: Ian Leslie
• Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel: Mark Hussey
• Living with Jane Austen: Janet Todd
• Heatwave: The Summer of 1976 - Britain at Boiling Point: John L Williams
• Entitled - The Rise and Fall of the House of York: Andrew Lownie
• The Zorg: A Tale of Greed, Murder and the Abolition of Slavery: Siddharth Kara
• Saltwater Mansions: David Whitehouse
• Dark Renaissance -The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival, Christopher Marlowe : Stephen Greenblatt
• Eleanor: A 200-Mile Walk in Search of England's Lost Queen: Alice Loxton

Disappointments?
I'm really struggling with Mrs Pargeter and the Elly Griffiths Brighton series. Didn't like the George Gently series.
Think I might abandon Mrs Pargeter in 2026.

Quite a list, Susan! I really liked Marble Hall Murders too, and also liked The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading, although I thought it spent a bit too much time on potted biographies of the authors.

I really like the Elly Griffiths Brighton series but must agree with you about George Gently! I've liked some of the Mrs Pargeter ones but they have got very samey.

The best & worst crime/detective books read with the group:
I think I only read three books with this group this year. I'm actually a bit disappointed in myself how few Golden Age mysteries I have read this year, but my reading speed has really slowed down & I moderate two groups, so my priority has to be with them.

The best I read with this group was The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by the wonderful Ms Sayers. Awesome worldbuilding.

The worst was Black Coffee by Charles Osborne, based on a play by Agatha Christie. I couldn't finish that one, didn't even care enough to flip to the end to find out whodunnit.

The best & worst crime/detective titles read on my own or in other groups:
& my best detective of the year & my best reread detective was After the Funeral
A special shoutout to this Noir mistresspiece Ride the Pink Horse I think a lot of you would enjoy Hughes.

I didn't have a bad crime novel per se but I found Rivers of London patchy & disappointing.

Others
I've had a good reading year, so I wont go through everything but can I recommend British book The Secret Painter Almost a detective story where Joe Tucker is trying to piece together the life of his wonderfully talented uncle after his uncle's death.
& had 2 five star NZ non fiction books The Chthonic Cycle Una Cruikshank's magpie mind works a lot like my mind - & she is so curious about so many things!
& Edith Collier: Early New Zealand Modernist Collier isn't even that well known in NZ & she lived & worked in the UK for a very long time. But so talented & almost all of her work is in the art gallery in her home town of Whanganui. She sold very little in her life time.

My favorite series being read by the group is Donna Leon's Brunetti books (as well as Falco but I had read them earlier). The Anne Cleeves series is a close second, but we aren't too far in yet (I haven't started this month's book).

Two lesser knnown series that I am pursuing on my own that I have enjoyed are Mamur Zapt (his position not his name) by Michael Pearce and Andrew Bassett by E X Ferrars. Both of these are winding up.

Two series that I have followed but don't plan to read the new entries are Cormoran Strike and Louise Penny Three Pines. So maybe they count as disappointments.

For a non-mystery, one that has stayed with me is Memorial Days, the author is dealing with the sudden death of her husband and fellow author,Tony Horwitz. They were almost local, so I had heard them both speak, often supporting one another.

Plans for 2026: continue with Christopher Fowler series. I have read the first book twice now.

The best/worst crime/detective books read with the group:

Anything Christie or Sayers! Except for Postern of Fate, the last Tommy & Tuppence mystery; I thought it was a hot mess, skipped to the end. Also, Black Coffee, which wasn’t horrible, but read very much like the stage play it originally was written to be. Those were disappointing.

As for our Buddy reads, I’m grateful the group got me reading the Didius Falco series; they’ve been uneven as to holding my interest throughout, but almost always entertaining, and really sparked my interest in Ancient Rome, I’ve been watching Mary Beard documentaries. I’ve also mostly enjoyed the Bradecote & Catchpoll mysteries, and Sloan & Crosby - as with any series, some are weaker books. Gently was definitely a disappointment. Mrs. Pargeter definitely got samey, but the last one was fun, so I’ll keep at it for at least another book. I like Brunetti, but can’t always get the books - same with our other series-so I skipped a few books. I definitely prefer lighter mysteries, nothing too dark or bloody…well, I have really enjoyed the Airth series, so I guess it depends. Nothing modern and gory, I guess!

The best crime/detective titles read on my own:
Modern day setting: Fever Beach by Carl Hiaasen, The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman and Kills Well with Others by Deanna Raybourn.

Historical setting:Call for the Dead by John le Carré;Death in Kashmir by M.M. Kaye; Who Will Remember byC.S. Harris; Murder at Traitors' Gate by Irina Shapiro; Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

The best non-crime:
NONFICTION: Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife by Bart D. Ehrman; Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan; A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman; So Very Small: How Humans Discovered the Microcosmos, Defeated Germs—and May Still Lose the War Against Infectious Disease by Thomas Levenson; The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century, The Time Traveler's Guide to Restoration Britain: A Handbook for Visitors to the Seventeenth Century: 1660-1699, The Time Traveller's Guide to Regency Britain: The Immersive and Brilliant Historical Guide to Regency Britain, all by Ian Mortimer

FICTION: I’ve been enjoying the Thrush Green series by Miss Read in another group, and rereading Wodehouse, among other humorous and cozy authors, to try and elevate my spirits (if you follow news out of the U.S., you’ll likely understand why…)

Plans for 2026: continue with my personal reading project of the last several years of trying to read one nonfiction title a month, and continue reading the Victorians and classics I missed in school.

Susan in NC wrote: "The best/worst crime/detective books read with the group:

Anything Christie or Sayers! Except for Postern of Fate, the last Tommy & Tuppence mystery; I thought it was a hot mess, ski..."

I am a big fan of Agatha Christie too. However, I'm here to thank you for your post on the Bart D. Ehrman book. I've read sections of it recently; but I wish I'd had that book available when I was young. I was a child victim of the religious Luthern propaganda and threats of hell. About 20 years ago I listened to his lecture class The Historical Jesus and it changed my life forever. His methodology for that was absolutely brilliant.

Klowey wrote: "Susan in NC wrote: "The best/worst crime/detective books read with the group:

Anything Christie or Sayers! Except for Postern of Fate, the last Tommy & Tuppence mystery; I thought it..."

Yes! Catholic school kid here - I never really bought the threat of hell, common sense told me compared to a murderer or blackmailer I’d probably be ok, but unfortunately my son did - and it tortures him to this day as an adult. I agree, the professor’s rational approach is refreshing and reassuring (to me, anyway). I’ve got a few more of his books on my nonfiction TBR, and luckily he’s on the faculty of my state’s flagship university, so his books are readily available in our local library.

Christmas Carol ꧁꧂ wrote: "The best & worst crime/detective books read with the group:
I think I only read three books with this group this year. I'm actually a bit disappointed in myself how few Golden Age mysteries I have ..."

I know what you mean about Black Coffee. I did finish it but it was only through gritted teeth

I went to a convent school. There was a lot of religion, obviously, but they didn't particularly concentrate on the threat of hell, in terms of fire and brimstone.

I remember though, that they taught us in geography all about India and then, in the next lesson, said that everyone who wasn't a Christian would go to hell. I was about 8 and I was horrified, having just been told all about this wonderful country - most of whom were Hindu. I said, 'but everyone in India can't go to hell, just because they are born there!' The sister said that everyone has a choice and I replied, 'you don't have a choice. If you are born in India you will probably be a Hindu. If you are born in the Middle East, you will probably be a muslim. Half the planet can't just go to hell because of where they are born?' I got badly told off but I fell out of Catholicism at that moment. It just seemed so random and unfair and nonsensical.

When I, a non-Catholic, was helping a friend memorize her catechism, we came the part where I was going to hell. She assured me no one really thought that. Phew.

Catholic convent school, me too.

I was lucky to have come across "heretical" thinking quite early. Reading Jesus in bad company did the rest. The author, Adolf Holl, was a compatriot, so I got the ecclesiastical hullabaloo first hand. It was liberating.

Susan in NC wrote: "Klowey wrote: "Susan in NC wrote: "The best/worst crime/detective books read with the group:

Anything Christie or Sayers! Except for Postern of Fate, the last Tommy & Tuppence myster..."

Thank you for your reply.
Has your son considered reading either of those Bart Erhman books?

Susan wrote: "I went to a convent school. There was a lot of religion, obviously, but they didn't particularly concentrate on the threat of hell, in terms of fire and brimstone.

I remember though, that they tau..."

That's interesting because my partner is of Italian heritage and was brought up Catholic (he's now an atheist) and we compared notes and he said they never stressed 'hell' the way my Lutheran church did. So he had a much easier time getting over it.

Sandy wrote: "When I, a non-Catholic, was helping a friend memorize her catechism, we came the part where I was going to hell. She assured me no one really thought that. Phew."

:-)
That's what my partner who was brought up Catholic said. And my friend who was brought up Methodist. I think the Lutheran church I went to really focused on it, like every week it seemed.

Thanks for all your replies. It makes me feel supported and calmer.