Top Twelve Books I Read in 2023
These are my top 12 favorite reads of 2023
Thanks to all the great publishers for providing review copies!
The Pendergast family is known for their genius, but one of the most brilliant and evil on that family tree is Dr. Enoch Lang. Pendergast's ward, Constance, has gone back to 1800's New York to save her siblings from Leng's evil clutches. Pendergast must find a way to join her for he fears that even Constance is no match for Leng.
Every great investigator is at their best when matched with an adversary equal to their talents. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have created one of the most brilliant literary investigators of all time in Pendergast, and in Leng, they really put him to the test. They vividly recreate New York in the 1880s in a way that makes you feel like you are experiencing it firsthand.
Readers of The Cabinet of Curiosities will have a better understanding of Leng and having read Bloodless will explain Constance's visit to 1880's New York. I am eagerly awaiting the conclusion of this story in 2024.
There's something inherently magical about books about bookshops. When Orc Viv is injured in battle while pursuing a powerful necromancer and left in the backwater town of Murk to recover, she is restless and grumpy. While exploring the town, she stumbles upon a rundown bookshop run by a rattkin named Fern.
10. In A Hard Wind by David Housewright
Fern, as any good bookshop owner/librarian does, found a book perfectly suited to Viv. As Viv discovers the joy of reading, she decides to make herself useful by helping to spruce the store up.
Viv's peaceful recuperation is not to last, however, as soon a body turns up along with a mysterious satchel of bones. It seems the necromancer's reach may be further than anticipated. This book is filled with wonderful characters, adventure, and a good mystery. Travis Baldree reads his own work and captures the joy that is present on every page. This is a wonderful story that will leave you sighing with contentment.
Something Wicked was one of my favorite books of 2022 and David Housewright topped himself with 2023's In A Hard Wind. Retired detective McKenzie agrees to a favor for a friend of a friend to look into the case of J. C. Carrell, who is accused of killing developer Charles Sainsbury and burying him in her backyard.
J. C. and several of her neighbors have a gazebo on some land near their pricey homes known as "The Circle" where they regularly gather together. It appears that J. C.'s Alzheimer-suffering friend and neighbor, Carson Vaneps, has sold the land to Charles Sainsbury who plans to tear down the gazebo and develop the land. J. C. is an obvious suspect when Sainsbury's body is found.
McKenzie is highly intelligent and a good investigator and his instincts and diligence lead him eventually to the answer. In a delightful twist, solving this mystery only uncovers a more fascinating one. The latter half of this book is filled with a number of jaw-dropping revelations. J. C. Carrell is a strong and complicated character. Housewright creates a compelling story whose mystery proves worthy of the formidable skills of McKenzie. Truly a delight!
Lt. Alexandra Petrova pursues a serial killer who only she believes exists on Ganymede. When her investigation blows up, she is assigned what seems to be a punishment mission to check on the colonists on Paradise 1, a startup colony 100 light years away. Her companions on the trip are the pilot, Sam Parker, and a misanthropic doctor, Zhang Lei.
Their ship is attacked and nearly destroyed immediately upon arrival at Paradise 1. Fighting to keep their ship and themselves alive is their immediate concern. Temporarily succeeding in that, they consider an eerily quiet system that appears abandoned. Determining who or what is trying to kill them and figuring out what happened to the colonists is only part of the mystery.
Wellington moves the story forward with short chapters and plenty of action. Flashbacks fill in some of the gaps in the character's history. Pervading it all is a sense of dread as Wellington expertly combines science fiction with horror. Action and several surprises make this 700-page book a fast read. I can't wait to see where this story goes next!
Nobody writes more powerfully about the devastation inflicted by violent crime than Karin Slaughter. In Ater That Night, Sara Linton is on call at the ER of Grady Memorial Hospital when Dani is brought in, the victim of a brutal attack. Sara promises the girl that she will stop the man who did this to her. As Sara's fiance, Will Trent and his partner Faith investigate, they discover a link to Sara's rape 15 years earlier. If Sara is going to keep her promise to Dani, she's going to have to reopen the scars of the worst thing to ever happen to her.
The crime draws connections to Sara's circle of college friends, all wealthy doctors now. The investigators discover a "rape club", which is even more despicable than it sounds. Many of the crimes range back as much as 15 years, making evidence scant. Without better evidence, Will and Faith's investigation is done without official sanction of the GBI, since the people being investigated have the resources to make crimes like these go away.
Slaughter never shies away from describing horrible crimes in unflinching detail. She also manages to display an enormous amount of compassion, which is the real magic trick. This is another page-turner that will keep you up late at night. Slaughter is simply the best.
Brian Rhome is a former operative from an elite CIA force who is scarred by a disastrous operation that left the men he led dead. He is eventually lured back by a promise of enough cash to save his home and to get revenge on the man who masterminded his team's death.
President Angela Buchanan is on the verge of signing a sweeping international climate accord when disaster strikes. Her efforts to salvage the agreement are undermined by outside forces as well as a conspiracy deep within her own government. Rhome finds himself at the center of events trying to unveil the conspirators, save the president, and prevent global catastrophe.
The scheduled signing of the accord establishes a deadline and a race-against-the-clock element that adds to the superb action and makes the pages fly by. Rhome is a compelling hero joined by an equally compelling cast of characters that include intelligence agency officials, foreign dignitaries, and terrorists. The clever plot will keep you in the dark until the very end. This is the best political thriller of the year and will remind you of Tom Clancy. I'm very excited for more entries in this series!
The Traitor concludes one of the best fantasy series of the last 10 years, maybe the last 20. Alwyn Scribe is one of my favorite characters and one I don't think I'll ever forget.
Anthony Ryan credits David Gemmel with imparting the lesson that the hero's journey is always more tragedy than triumph. That's certainly the case with Alwyn. From bastard outlaw to knight and trusted advisor to Lady Evadine Courlain, Alwyn has shown a gift for strategy that has led Evadine to the heights of power and now threatens the entire kingdom. The war Alwyn is fighting is both internal and external as he begins to doubt Evadine's motive and cause.
Alwyn is clever, calculating, and has made himself skilled in battle. Evadine's puritanical zeal grows in proportion to her evaporating benevolence. Alwyn knows he must make a choice and he is fully conscious of the blood already on his hands and the amount of bloodshed still to come. Ryan skillfully leads Alwyn through this fantastically developed world towards a battle whose outcome remains uncertain until the very end.
This book and series highlight the best of what epic fantasy has to offer. Great world-building, a large cast of wonderfully developed characters, and a memorable, tragic hero. My only regret is that I will never experience this series for the first time again. I envy those who will.
My favorite new character from 2022, Dez Limerick, returns in 2023's Deadlock. Dez loves to play guitar and befriended a talented young singer named Raziah Swann. Raziah left L. A. for Portland, OR and when her sister, Laleh, was attacked and landed in the hospital, she calls the most capable man she knows for help. Dez Limerick. Dez isn't just a good guitarist. He has a shadowy past in covert work, he's good with locks, and he has fists like sledgehammers.
Dez arrives in Portland just in time to thwart the thugs who attacked Laleh from finishing the job. Neutralizing them draws the attention of both the U.S. Marshalls and the DEA. It also puts him in the crosshairs of a very large tech company, Clockjack.
Dez is one of the most chill characters I know, but if you threaten his friends, he is a threat to you, and Clockjack is about to find that out.
Everything I loved about the first book in the series is back here, only better. More detailed mystery, sharper humor, and most importantly, a smart adversary who proves a true match for Dez.
John Keating narrates the audiobook and is one of those perfect matches of voice to character. He captures the action and humor of the story and the confidence and heart of Dez. I hope this is a partnership that continues for a long, long time.
I had to double and triple check that this is a debut novel. This book starts with scorching prose and a trio of main characters that are riveting.
An elaborate cat-and-mouse revenge quest involving hacker/thief Jun Ironway and two clerics, Chono, and Esek Nightfoot. Circling the three of them is a mysterious character known as "Six". Jun has stolen a secret that threatens the empire broadly and Esek Nightfoot and her aristocratic family in particular.
Esek is tasked with tracking down Jun, but she is also on a long hunt to track down Six. Chono is assigned to assist and monitor Esek. She is the ice to Esek's fire. The action jumps from planet to planet as the chase ensues, with each character pursuing different goals. Jumps back in time fill in the backstory of both the characters and the Empire. More than simply character development, this history proves key to the plot as it continues to come together.
The action is brutal and relentless making the pages fly by. All of the characters are great, but Esek Nightfoot is a spectacular creation. I've not met a more fascinating character since Hannibel Lector.
This is easily the best debut sci-fi novel of the year and I can't wait until the next book comes out!
Jane Harper rivals Karin Slaughter in her ability to wring emotion out of a story with her deeply sympathetic characters and devastating mystery. In the third (and last?) Aaron Falk book, Aaron returns to Marralee to be the godfather to his friend Greg Raco's child. Aaron had been to Marralee, home to a popular food and wine festival, a year earlier. During that festival, 39-year-old Kim Gillespie disappeared, leaving behind her infant daughter in a stroller. In the intervening year, the only trace of Kim that has been found is her shoe in a nearby reservoir.
Falk agrees to look into the case at the behest of Kim's teenage daughter, Zara. His investigation examines the relationships of Kim and her friend group who grew up in Marralee. Old wounds are opened and new ones created as Falk pulls back the curtain on the narratives people like to tell each other and themselves.
The slow unveiling of the truth only deepens the grief and the guilt that Harper let's you feel along with her characters. Falk's own journey pulls on your emotions as well. Harper's description of the different regions of Australia are better than a travel informercial. Her painting of the landscape rivals Cornac McCarthy's. This is a powerful book that will take you on an emotional journey.
Proctor Bennett is part of the elite, at least by marriage. His job as a ferryman sees him guiding older Propserans across the water to a facility where they are reconstituted into younger bodies. When Proctor is assigned to ferry his own father, with whom he has had a difficult relationship, something goes very wrong.
Proctor finds himself on the run and his only allies are in the Annex, home to the working class which keeps this utopian society running smoothly.
The story moves steadily through the first part of the book, creating an uneasy mood and developing the strong, complicated characters, their relationship to each other and their relationship to the society they live in. Once Cronin pulls back the curtain on this society, the pace increases faster and faster as each new revelation will have your jaw dropping to the floor.
The writing is superb, the plot intricate and the characters fantastic. This book takes you on a journey that you can't possibly forsee and pays off with a memorable ending that will keep you thinking long after you finish. What an achievement this book is!
T J Newman blew everyone's socks off with her debut novel Falling. If that book was a 10, the only way to describe Drowning is to quote from Spinal Tap: "This one goes to 11."
Drowning begins with an engine exploding just after takeoff on a flight from Hawaii. Crashing into the water, survivors are faced with trying to escape through an ocean of burning jet fuel or staying on board hoping for a rescue before either their air runs out or they are crushed by the depths.
Will Kent and his 11-year-old daughter are among the passengers. Will's estranged wife Chris lives nearby and inserts herself into the rescue effort.
The damage to the plane, it's precarious position where it submerged, and challenging weather conditions on the surface all contribute to the race-against-the-clock atmosphere. Glimpses into Will and Chris's past and the tragedy that led to their divorce further heighten the emotional stakes.
Page after page your heart is in your throat as this story moves at a breakneck pace. This book is Die Hard in the water. My favorite read of the year.
What a great year for books!
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