Favourite Books of 2023
With 2024 now nearly a week old, I thought I'd compile a list of my top ten books of 2023. Unfortunately I've not been able to whittle it down to just ten so I tried to make it my favourite ten authors.
Once again I failed as there are so many great books I didn't want to leave out. Even so I've had to be harsh and leave out many that would've made last years list (what do you mean I didn't publish a list last year? Yeah, I know, I was too busy reading and writing reviews and I completely forgot)
My list is composed of 15 authors and contains 42 books from a variety of genres (it could easily have been 60 books from the 400 I read last year (ok, some of those were quite short and I've not got much else to do)
Lets get on with it I hear you yell, so without further ado and in no particular order, these were my favourite reads of 2023
Scratch that. I'm going to list them in alphabetical order by author surname so no further favouritism can be gleaned from the list
Other ways of labeling the list are available but I'm going to stick to numbers
You can find out more details about each book as well as my original review by clicking on the titles
1. Murray Bailey
Murray has 4 books in the list, split between his Blackjack & Egypt series' plus his new novel Wolfe's Gambit
Blackjack is a dark detective thriller series set in post war Israel and the Egypt series is an Indiana Jones style adventure thriller set in modern times with flashes back to the time of the Pharaohs. Wolfe's Gambit is a spin off from the Ash Carter Near East thriller series
Blackjack
Second to Sin
A Third is Darkness
Egypt
Map of the Dead
Bill Wolfe
2. Kevin G. Chapman
Kevin writes great detective novels and this year I read the excellent stand-alone thriller "The Other Murder" about a double killing that throws together a Newspaper and a TV News journalist who risk their lives to get to the truth
3. Luis Falcao de Magalhaes
Yep, I didn't know where Luis fits alphabetically so I put him under D - The only conclusion you can draw from this is my lack of knowledge in classifying non English surnames
The Daughter of the Ice
Blades of the Ice
The Champion of the Ice
The Assassin of the Ice
Luis has been quite prolific in 2023 and his fantasy series 'Age of Rekindling' has great world building and fully formed characters that grab your attention. These kept me up late into the evening to finish each new offering
4. Gabriel Farago
Gabriel has an interesting style. His main protagonist is an author as well as an adventurer and makes references to previous books in the series as if they were titles that he wrote based on his own adventures. Farago blends his plots into real historic events which adds an extra dimension to the tales
Set in Australia, the Ghan is a train that connects various places in the outback from Uluru to the Opal mines in Coober Pedy.
5. Maddox Grey
I've been avidly following the adventures of Nemain, the feline shapeshifter, and her friends as they negotiate their travels between the Human and Fae realms. I don't read a huge amount of this genre but these have been a compelling read
A Shift in Fortune
A Shift in Ashes
A Shift in Wings
6. Liz Hedgecock & Paula S Harmon
I've read a few of Liz's cozy mysteries and also one of Paula's historical suffragette related murder mysteries and both are great in their own right. They've collaboratively written an excellent series of cozy mysteries starring Booker & Fitch set in a small English village in the present day.
Murder for Beginners
Murder at Midnight
Death on the Towpath
7. Will Heron
Will is the author of the extremely funny Fruit, a ridiculous gangster related thriller set in the world of greengrocery ( I know it sounds odd, but give it a try as it is very entertaining)
8. Jo A. Hiestand
Jo writes the most amazing slow burning thrillers set in the north of England. Michael McLaren is the former police detective who, disillusioned by the force, left his job to take up dry-stone wall repairs. In his travels he gets roped into investigations that the local constabulary are unable, or unwilling, to solve.
A special mention here for Callum Hale who narrates the audio book versions. His ability with local accents and distinct voices make these a delight to listen to.
An Unwilling Suspect
Arrested Flight
Black Moon
Hide and Seek
9. John Kennedy
DI Will Ashcroft is the star of John's crime thrillers that follow the trials and tribulations of Will, who is battling PTSD and WPC Samira Byrne as they seek to solve cases despite battling police corruption and prejudice in the 1980's
The Kill Chain
The Blood Promise
10. Will Patching
Will writes twisty, stand-alone, thrillers that are well plotted and deliver some great shocks along the way. I've particularly enjoyed the audio versions of Will's books
11. Dani Simms
I'll freely admit that I've read more than my fair share of books covered by the Cozy Mystery genre over the last 12 months and one of my favourites has been the Read Between the Wines series by Dani Simms. You'd be amazed at how many crimes are committed in the small town where amateur sleuth and winery owner Avery Parker lives
Murder at the Chocolatier
Murder at the Grape Stomp
Murder at the Barrel Room
Murder at the Festival
12. Victoria Tait
More Cozy Mysteries (I know, it's been one of those years where I read a lot of comfort books and cozies fill a need from time to time) Victoria has been responsible for two series that I've found myself returning to over the year.
The Dotty Sayers novels have followed Dotty's adventures as she has traveled from job to job after leaving the antiques business. The Waterwheel Cafe mysteries continue WPC Keya Varma's story in a spin-off from Dotty's early books
Darjeeling and a Deadly Disappearance
Vanilla Chai and a Vanishing Victim
Deadly Performance
Holly, Baubles and Murder
13. Fiona Tarr
Before I discovered this delightful mystery series I'd never heard of Coober Pedy, or it's opal mines. When it cropped up in a book by Gabriel Farago (See # 4 above) I discovered that it is, in fact, a real place. Constable Jenny Williams gets a job in Coober in order to try tracking down a couple of missing relatives but a series of murders slow down the investigation. This is a great series that has an interesting story arc that runs through the series but features stand-alone murder mysteries in each book
Opal Fields Series
Her Broken Bones
Her Hidden Bones
Her Scorched Bones
Her Lonely Bones
14. Phil M. Williams
Enthralling thrillers with shocks and surprises are Phil's stock in trade. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems in these nicely crafted stand-alone novels. Phil also runs a highly recommended podcast called The Thriller Vault with author Luke Richardson that you can find wherever you get your podcasts
No Good Deed
Cesspool
What Happened at the Lake
Rumors
I promised you 15 authors and indeed there are 15 listed above (16 if you count Luke Richardson) as Paula Harmon is included in the entry for Liz Hedgecock as the books are a collaboration.
But for those of you who feel in some way cheated then I'll use this space to give a shout out to a particular favourite author of mine that writes laugh-out-loud lunacy disguised as mostly Sci-Fi novels.
I wouldn't recommend reading any of Simon Carr's books in a public space as you're sure to get some strange looks as you try to stifle the chortles and guffaws that will inevitably ensue.
You can find out more about Simon Carr on his Goodreads page here
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