Booklist Mystery Month 2018, Our Agatha Award Winner & #ThrillerThursday Picks

First, a HUGE congratulations to Louise Penny’s GLASS HOUSES, which won the 2017 Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel!

It’s Mystery Month over at Booklist, and Bill Ott named 3 of our books “The Year’s Best Crime Novels: 2018” (for books reviewed between May 1, 2017, and April 15, 2018):

Top 10 Crime Novels

HELLBENT by Gregg Hurwitz
The latest in Hurwitz’s Evan Smoak series may be the best yet. The former Orphan X has cut his ties with the deep-cover Orphan Program and has reinvented himself as the Nowhere Man, helping those with nowhere else to turn. Now, though, he’s out to avenge the death of his former mentor, but can he do so without putting at risk a young woman he rescued from the program? The story moves as fast as a bullet train, and we’ve never seen Smoak as emotionally exposed as he is here. As the character of Smoak becomes steadily more complex, the humanity at the core of the man emerges forcefully.

Best Debuts

THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK by Kristen Lepionka
PI Roxane Weary is a lot like her dead father, Frank, who was also a cop: she looks like him and drinks like him, and she’s taken to sleeping with his former partner. So she turns to Frank’s notebooks when she attempts to solve several murders in her small Ohio town. Roxane is a wonderfully rich character, deeply flawed but absolutely dogged in her pursuit of the truth. Sensitive character development and a heart-stopping denouement.

OUR LITTLE SECRET by Roz Nay
Angela Petitjean realizes that she’s a suspect in the disappearance of her first love’s wife during a prolonged interrogation by Detective J. Novak, whom she agrees to tell what she knows but only on her terms. Quickly, the narrative becomes a psychological duel. Is Angela a calculating killer or a woman scorned? A sneaky-smart, charismatic debut.

If you missed last week’s Booklist “Crime Fiction for Mystery Month” webinar, here are the titles Anne discussed.

Here’s the rap sheet for new mysteries out this week:

WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE by Kristen Lepionka
Private investigator Roxane Weary is hired by a man who thinks his fiancé is having an affair, but the case takes on a new twist when the woman is found murdered. “With this successor to her highly praised debut, THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK, Lepionka is setting a high standard for crime fiction with the complex Roxane Weary at its heart.” — Booklist, starred review

DRESSED FOR DEATH IN BURGUNDY by Susan C. Shea
In the sequel to LOVE & DEATH IN BURGUNDY, Katherine Goff is at it again when a body is found in place of a mannequin at the local museum. “This leisurely paced cozy is rich in local color and art, and it includes well-drawn characters framed by Katherine’s life as an expat in a provincial French village.” — Booklist

THE FENS by Pamela Wechsler
When the catcher for the Boston Red Sox goes missing and another player turns up dead, chief of homicide district attorney Abby Endicott takes the case. “Abby’s compelling personal story and the challenging cases she’s investigating make this a series with strong appeal for fans of Alafair Burke, Lisa Gardner, and Tess Gerritsen.” — Booklist